The St. Cloud journal. [volume] (St. Cloud, Minn.) 1866-1876, 1875-08-05
A GIRLS ROMANCE.
BY F. W. ROBINSON.
CHAPTER V.
THE GREAT SUCCESS.

CHAPTER V.
THE GREAT SUCCESS.
After that night there set in a run
of ill luck to Abel Wrayford's home
ill luck so persistent and heavy
that many men, with less faith in the:
future or in themselves, would have:
given way beneath it. Strange to re-:
late, it did not affect for the worse the
spirits of the chemist Of Greymoor !,
on the contrary they seemed to rise at:
every disappointment, and no one:
was more smiling or bright than be
who found the world suddenly
shutting its gates against him;
and leaving him without the
walls which kept prosperity away
The Scientific Register, paper on
which Abel Wrayford had worked
for years, died for want ofpatronage,
after being gradually extinguished
by the light of a Shower and shallow
er contemporary. Abel Wrayford
suffered with the rest, and lost much
labor which had been pleasant and
profitable to him; but he was not dis
pirited. His old publisher, sitting
complacently in the shadow of the
Bankruptcy Court, wrote to him en-
couraging letters, and talked Of start
ing afresh when he was free; and
Abel waited for the better times
along with him.
"The long lane must have turn
ing, Grace" he said, when she look
ed duller and sadder than her wont,
"You must have confidence with
me-"
Grace tried very hard to have con
fidence; but it did not bring any
ready money into the house, OF stop
running further and further into debt
at the little tradesmen's shops lying
at the hills foot. Rentrday arrived,
the bleak Lady-day quarter, and
there was Robert Trustw orth to face,
and to ask for a little delay, as times
had been bad with them. Wrayford
asked the favor, not Grace, when the
big man came for his money. He
asked for it calmly and respectfully
as beftted a tenant who was, as
Trustworth phrased it afterward
"down on his LUCK" but with a dig
nifty which told not Of any great hu
mility of spirit. Abel Wrayford
considered that he had a right to ask
this favor, he and his father having
lived in that house for half a century
at least; but, as Robert Trustworth
had only recently bought the proper
ty, he did not see the matter quite in
the same light, and said SO.
"You will understand that I cal
pay this rent by the sale Of a few
books and my chemical apparatus,
said Wrayford, "and that must b|
done if you are anxious for you1
money. I am in your hands,"
Robert Trustworth considered ths
position for a while.
"Well, I'll let it stand" he said al
last. 1T doesn't matter to me, a few
pounds. I've good income. Why,
| some shares I bought last year in thu
| Joint Stock Amalgamated Company
sent me down fourteen per cent. las
week"
II congratulate you."
"Thank'ee."
He went from the house withou
asking how Grace Edmonds was, O.
without mentioning her name; ant
he staggered home with his hands in
bis pockets, which were lacking il
their rights as to Abel Wrayford'
rent. Wrayford thought that he ha'
forgot the rejection of his suit, ant
had outlived any disappointment
like a sensible and hard-headed man
But Wrayford had formed wronI
conception of Robert Trustworth'
character. Trustworth was dogge
and secretive. He had taken q fanc
to Grace Edmonds in much the sam
way, perhaps, as a dog-fancier Nigh
take a liking for some lovely spec
men of a King Charles's spaniel, an
he was "set on her" none the less 70
the rejection of his suit. She wa
pretty, young, and to his taste. "Th
old gal," as he always called the pr
ceding Mrs. Trustworth, was ho
tempered, old, and plain, as he wa
He had spent a great deal of his lii
in knocking her about, but he vi
sure that he should pet and spoil tn
darling. He could not get her op
of his thoughts or think Of anybod
else, although there were heaps {
better matches, in pecuniary sense
He had resolved to try a differe1
tack, and go in for amicability an
general kindness to everybody; an
he was glad in his heart when I
, found that Abel Wrayford was bac
in his rent. Grace would think
! kind Of him to allow the rent to IA