The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1875-05-14
HOW SHE PAID HER DEBT.

| ooh, Charley, Charley, how could
you do such a thing?"
LiliaD Wayland's round cheek was
| blanched to an unwOnted whiteness, as
size stood before her brother in the
close, cramped room which constituted
her sole home.
Charley WayIand, handsome, dissi-
patedIOOkiLg youth of two or three
and-tWenty, with bold black eyes, and a
merry mouth that seemed made only
to smile, stood opposite her, looking
half-repeutant, half defiant as shespoke.
Lillian, I couldn't help If. / tell
you was hard up. A fellow must have
money. You women don't know any
thing about the temptations and neces-
sites of the world"
''But, Charley" she faltered, edo
you know how this sane world, as you
phrase it, looks at the deed you have
just committed? Oh, Charley" and
her voice grew low and tremulous, cit
is forgery"
Nonsense, Lii! It's only borrow-
iI.E a part of old GIencross' unused
riches to aid my needs. I wrote and
asked him for cash, and he, tha unman-
nerly iOUt, refused. Well, what could
he expect after this, but that I should
help MYSELF"
Lillian wrung her slender hands.
"HOw dared you, Charley? That
Wayland should come to this!" she
walled.
"DaredI' he echoed, reckIessly. "It
was but a stroke of the pen, after all;
and old Glencross would be a paltrier
miser than I take him to be, if he
makes fuss about a matter of hun
dred pounds"
''It is the right and the justice of the
thing, cried Lillian, almost frantically.
eff we could pay him in any way; but
I have sold everything that remains of
our former wealth. See," and she
looked round the miserable apartment,
''see how l live. Last night I sat up
till midnight sewing, to have a little
money to pay the rent. L have not
jewel left, not trinket.
"Oh, bother, Lii. If old Glencross
cuts up rough, it is only taking run
across the water. I know lots of ship
captains who would stow me away IN
their holds, almost any moonlight
night"
Lillian looked despairineIy at him.
Was it, then, impossible to make him
comprehend the moral Obliquity of the
deed he had just committed?
DtlG L CtA14 6bSy lOOlllB ubAGg OO-
served the young man, with a toss of
his black curls. 81 must be off about
my business. Good bye, LiII. Give US
"a kiss, nv girl. Except that you're
uncommon fond of lecturing a fellow,
you're not bad sister in the main"
After he had gone, Lillian sat down
to try and realize the new situation in
which she and her brother were placed.
All now depended upon the spirit in
which Paul GlencrOss should receive
this new encrOachment upon his purse
and patience.
Lillian had never seen this distant re-
latiOD, yet she had formed an opinion
of him in her inmost mind, as We all
are apt to do of unseen persons whom
We hear a great deal about and when
ever she thought OF Mr.. GIencrOss, the
image of a hCOk-nOsed old man, yellow
skinned and cadaverOUs, engaged in
sorting over piles of mOTtga yes, or
counting bags of gold, suggested itself
to her mental eye.
"But he must be human, at least"
thought Lillian, in the agony Of her dis
tTess. eff l go to him myself, and tell
him just what poor Charley's necessi-
ties were, and how gOod-hearted he
really IS, in spite of all his faults and
thOugh I say frankly TO
him, that 1 have no money nor Jewels
to REIN burse him, but that will stay
and work for him, as a servant girl
might work in the kitchen, until have
discharged the horrible debt, surely,
oh, surely, he cannot have the heart to
refuse. I can do q great many things
1 can sew ard embroider, and I co1Id
make good bread and cake, and poor
mamma always said I was a good house
keeper and if Mr.. Glencross is really
so miserly as Charley thinks, he would
look at the economy of the thing. at
least, it is worth trying"
So favorably did Lillian Wayland re-
gard this idea, broached II her sore ex
tremity, that IN two days from the even
ing in which she had hidden goodbye
to her handsome, reckless brother, she
stepped from the train at the Victoria
station, dressed in a sober brown suit,
that made her look like a shrinking
little mouse, with her carpet bag in her
hand.
a little inquiry suficed to bring her
to the West E0d street where Mr. Glen
cross resided TeeI lined on ei.Ecr
side with pa aces, the like of which
Lillian had never seen in the palmer
country town where she had been born