Nebraska advertiser., 1876-09-07

} One bright, sunny morning he and
Blanche were reading there together
some love-story, never mind what,
there are so many in the world to
choose from.
"0fttines by that reading
Their eyes were drawn together and the hue
Fled from their altered cheek"
"Then he
At once her lips.
All trembling, kiss'd. The book and writer
i botn
Were loves purveycrs. In its leaves that day
They read no more
Yes; it was story of Francesca de
Rimini over again, but stripped of
its guilt; for their love was as pure
and stainless as the heaven above
them.
And so they became lovers.
"Your father must know of this"
he said. before they parted "there
must be no secret after all he has done
for me. What will he say to my dar-
ing to lift my eyes to you? Turn me
out of doors for my presumption 2"
"You do not know my father, or
you would not think so hard of him.
Seek him at once. have no fear of
the result"
And she clung to him with redoubl-
ed fordness, and looked up into his
face with proud tenderness at this
proof of a noble mind.
Before this memorable morning the
young man had comenced his duties
as secretary. These duties consisted
in making extracts from various au-
thors in French and Latin Greek he
did not understand; and when Mr..
Lewson's own library did not supply
the required works, he had to seek
them in the British Museum, in the
reading room of which he spent much
time.
The work being prepared was stu
pendous History of Democracy, an
ClChJ lAOlu It's
in Greece, until the revolutions of AS.
MFR, Lewson had already been upon
this task many years, but had not yet
advanced beyond the classical ages.
It was one of those books which are
never to be more than fragments, as
the longest life would not suffice for
their completion-a mass of materials
left behind for more expeditions man
ipulators to found an enduring fame
upon, while the very name of the Ia
borious collector is buried with him In
the grave.
Mr.. Lewson was an ardent republi-
can, not of the new, but of the classic
school, of which the Girondists have
been the only modern disciples. To
have raised the masses to equal rights
with the educated, would have appear
ed to him a monstrous theory. He
would have founded an aristocracy of
intellect, in which each man would
have been weighed by his genius and
attainments. Intellect of every kind
whether that of reason or Imagination
he worshipped with idolatrous en-
thusiasm. In his eyes, all social dis
tinctiOns should be prostrated before
that shrine.
Further acquaintance. with the |
youth had given him a high opinion
of his abilities, and a belief that he
had discovered a mind which he
could N ould into perfect congeniality
with his own. To find such an one
had been the most ardent desire of his
life; for noble and beautiful as was
the soul of Blanche, it was essen TALLY
and lacked the masculine
vigor necessary to be perfectly en-
with his own.
He had watched the growing at
tachment between the two young
people with delighted satisfaction
and when, with much incoherency
and bushes, Charley confessed his
love, and with downcast eyes and
limbs awaited his sentence,
the fathers heart leaped towards
him as he had been his own son.
With streaming eyes, he clasped him
in his arms.
MY noble boy" he said, in broken
accents. "you have passed triumph
antly through the ordeal; you have
given me the last proof I wished for
of a noble mind, 1 have seen it,
known 1t all, perhaps even before you ,,
guessed the secret of your
heart. From this hour L regard you
as my son. Love each other, and
may heaven bless your loves !"
Who could attempt to paint the .
youths grateful happiness? He
would, then and there, in the fulness
Of his heart, have poured forth the 6
whole story of his life, of his hopes, ,
md doubts, and fears, but Mr.. Lew !
'on peremptorily forbade 1T.
"What do 1 want to know of your ,
of your genealogy ?" he
'ried contemptuously. "I despise E
such things. No, no; 1 will not !
nave the sacred confidence of such an |
hour as this marred- by these paltry t
ietails of false system. What is the j
world and its opinians to me and e
Blanche? We live apart from it, i
among these'-laying his hands upon
lis books,-"the demi-gods of the t
arth. God has stamped you with
lis own seal-nobility of soul. r
What care 1 for the petty hall-marks Y
With which a sordid society distin- a
uishes the comparative excellences y
f its wretched tinsel?"
And then be called. Blanche into a.
be room.
"You are but boy and girl now," he :;
aid, "and years must elapse before II