The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1874-05-14
HARRY WARNINGS FORTUNE.

advise you to think less about
your ancestors, and more about YOU,
posterity," said old Lady Waring tc
her son Harry one bright June morn
ing.
At the moment she uttered this epi.
gram her son was busy with some an
cient records which he had recently un-
earthed in the library of the British
Museum, and which he had caused to
be copied for study at his home in the
country. Harry was bachelor; his
family was not of the richest, though
there was no more honorable or ancient
name IN the county. But he was a
younger son, and st1diously inclined,
and there seemed little prospect of his
marrying
Lady Waring had often recommend
ed him to make his addresses to some
" OF the helresses of the county. There
was Georgina Belassys, the sweetest
girl and L am sure my son, she
? would rather take you poor than the
richest suitor she has," In short, Lady
Waring was set on O match but her
son shook his head, and said, "I am
too proud to court an heiress, and too
poor to marry q pauper :" and there
the argument would stop, for Lady
.Waring we'll knew the somewhat per-
:sverse disposition of her younger son,
aud avoided urging the subject of mar
rfHge. Harry Waring had reached his
thirtieth year, and seemed further than
ever from marriage. 81 am married to
my books" he would sometimes say.
b Indeed, to see him surrounded by his
antique tones you would have thought
him welded to morocco and parchment,
true predestinate bookworm.
He had hobbies in study, each one
lasting several months or year at
time, and engrossipg him completely
while it lasted. Then he would take q
fancy to travel he would leave home
almost without saying good-by, and no
word would come from him for weeks :;
then Lady Waring would receive some
such message as this from her truant ::
"MA1TA.
cam here for fortnight, doing the
history of the knights. Will write YOU
next from the Coptic monasteries in
Abyssinia. !,
Or,
CoNsTANTINoPLE, 9Th.
BUSY with measurements of the
Hagia st. Sophia. Back on the 3Oth."
So, between his books and his travels.
this whimsical younger son of Lady
Waring led a decidedly unsettled life,
while his elder brother, Arthur who
had lately succeeded to the estate, kept
up the baronial dignity, and staid at
home like good citizen. Arthur had
charming little wife, but they were
childless and this circumstance made
old Lady Waring the more anxious that
Harry, her only other child, should sur
round himself with family of his own.
We have all heard a great deal about
the maternal instinct but what may
call the grdndnlaternaL instinct has not
been described as fully as the frequency
and importance of the passion merits.
With Lady Waring this instinct
amounted to a passion. She could not
bear the thought of dying without
leaving any grandchildren behind her.
So when she saw Harry, just home
from rummaging the libraries of the
monks on Mont Athos, content to sit
down in his own library and c0llate his
Greclan notes with his British Museum
records, Lady Waring could not refrain
from drawing long sigh as she saw,
for the hundredth time, that her son
thought much more about parchments
than about posterity.
Don't be alarmed, mother" he re-
turned, looking up from transcript of
a medieval heraldic record. "I have
told you that am not rich enough to
court an heiress, nor poor enough to
marry beggar but have had some
thoughts of my own about marriage of
i"fTi Th;s wos rsSSarkable admission for
Harry Waring to mass,,o
81 hope they are favorabts ono0' 10
tunred Lady Waring.
"Certainly they are not unfavorable,-
my dear mother" said batchelor Harry.
"Given the right conditions, and 1
shall be ready to marry-or, at least, to
go a, ACQUIRING" added he, little rue
fully.
"And do you find any help toward
the right conditions in your. study OF
the heralds' records p" asked Lady
Waring. :,
"That's my secret, mother" said
Harry. "But 1 have found enough in
them to send me over to France for
fortnight. We shall see what will come
of it. am off this very day, and as
soon as have news to tell you l will
write, or, more likely, come myself and
bring it,"
"Another trip after parchments -