The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1873-10-09
TO LET.

L should like to describe my hero as
q young and gallant cavalier of this
nineteenth century, with the beauty oJ
an Apollo and the wisdom of a sage
but truth compels me to acknowledge
that Rupert Smithson, in spite of his
line Christian appellation, was neither
one or the other. His nephew and
namesake, who was called by the bosom
OF his family Rupert the Second, said
that his Uncle Rupert was q crusty old
bachelor, and l hammer my brains in
vain for more fitting description.
a crusty old bachelor he undoubtedly
was, more than fifty years of age, with
grizzled hair, heavy gray beard, and a
rough voice and manner. It is very
true that he was always careful to keep
the crustiest side of nature on the sur
face, and had, been discovered in the
act OF committing several deeds of
charity and kindness, that belied utterly
his habitual surly tone and abrupt
manner.
Twenty years before, when the gray
hair was nut-brown and clustered in
rich curls over the broad white fore.
head, when the brown eye shown with
the fire of ambition, the clear voice was
true and tender, Rupert Smithson had
given his whole loyal heart to Katie
Carol, neighbor and friend, little sweet
heart from childhood.
Urged by love as well as by ambition,
he had left his home, in small Western
town, and gone to New York to win a
name and fortune to lay at Katie's feet.
Nhe fortune and fame as a successful
merchant came to him, but when he re-
S"rned to Katie be found she had left
her home also, to become the wife of a
wealthy pork dealer in Cincinnati.
Nobody told Rupert of treachery to
the pretty Katie, of letters suppressed,
OF ISLANDERS circulated, and parental
authority stretched to the utmost in
favor of the wealthy suitor. He had
no record of the slow despair that crept
over the loving heart, when the plead
ing letters were answered, of the dull
apathy that yielded at last, and gave
away the hand of the young girl, when
her heart seemed broken.
All that the young, ardent lover knew
was the one bitter fact that the girl he
loved faithfully and fondly was false to
her promise, the wife of another. He
spoke no word of bitterness, but re-
turned to the home he hoped was his
stepping-stone, and a life of loneli-
ness.
Ten years later, when his sister. with
her son and daughter, came to live in
New York for educational advantages.
Rupert the. First was certainly what his
saucy nephew called him, crusty old
bachelor. Yet into that sore, disap-
pointed heart Katie's desertion had SO
wounded, the bachelor uncle took with
warm love and great indulgence his
nephew and niece, bright, handsome
children of ten and twelve, who, child
like, imposed upon his good nature,
rloted over his quiet, orderly house,
his staid housekeeper declared they
were worse than a pair of monkeys,
caressed him stormily one moment, and
pouted over some refusal for monstrous
indulgence the next, and treated him
generally as bachelor uncles must ex-
pect to be treated by their sisters chill
dren.
"Rupert was SO set in his fidgety
old bachelor ways" she said, "that
it would be positive cruelty to disturb
him."
Probably young Rupert and Fannie
did not consider their bright young
faces disturbers of their uncle's tran
guilty, but it is quite certain that out
of school hours, No. 40, their uncle's
house, saw them as frequently as No.
43, where their mother resided.
With the intuitive perception of chill
dren they understood that the abrupt, !
often harsh voice, the surly words, and |
the demonstrative manner, covered a |
heart that would have made any sacri-
fce for their sakes, that loved them
with as true a love as their own dead |
father could have given them.
AS they outgrew childhood, evidences
Of affection ceased to take the form of |
lolls and drums, and cropped out in
Christmas checks, in ball dresses and
a saddle horse, and various
other delightful shapes, till Rupert
,ame of age, when he was taken from
college into his uncle's counting house
md a closer intimacy than ever was
'emented between the young life and