The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1877-10-17

a much more sympathetic listener.
Jesse was so kind that Gavin went
back to his little room at Duncan Forbes
with very high hopes, and very wide
ideas, indeed, as to the respective posi-.
tion Of man anu man, though of course,
the old lawyer, not having been taking o
lesson from Miss Grief, was ill-prepared
to understand him.
"Gavin, said he, kindly" the new
minister has come. I hope you'll like
him better than you have done MIR. Stir
ling lately"
"I shall not hear him, sir, tomorrow.
I have made up my mind to fish in the
morning, and have promised to drive out
with Miss Grief in the afternoon"
"Youll nc make scandal O that kind
on the Lords day, Gavin Irwin foreby
shaming the guild old man, your father. "
elf people choose to be shamed and
scandalized where they have no call to
be that's not my fault, sir. There is no
law against fishing and driving that l
know Of"
"No, to speak O. the law O God,
Gavin, there's whiles higher law than
thestatute book-there'spublic opinion. "
"I don't care that for public opinion. "
And Gavin snapped his thumb and
finger contemptuously.
"Then you are fool, or worse, an
I'm sorry for them that are kin to you. "
Gavin kept his word, and rather osten-
tatiously SO, for he strolled slowly up
the main street, with his rod and cree,
just as the people were going to church.
He certainly had the satisfaction of
perfectly horrifying them.
His drive with Miss Grief was still
greater offence.
GA pretty, painted Frenchitied inf
dell" said Duncan Forbes, bitterly;
ga lassie wha scorns the kirk, an meas
ures cen the word O the Lord by her
ain small understanding. Gavin Irwin
is courting doll an disgrace, an nae
guild lad will sort wi him."
Everybody shared the lawyers opin-
ion, and the young men who sat at the
same table with Gavin gave the offender
but the scantiest courtesy, and quite ex-
cluded him from all their little social
plans.
While Jessie remained in Campsaile
he did not care much.
He chose to call it "iealousy" and
"envy," and paraded his friendship
with the baron of Crief's sister very Of
fensively to all his old acquaintances.
But Jessie left Campsaile with the
summer birds and flowers, and very soon
after this event Gavin's time was out
with Lawyer Forbes.
He was anxious to buy share in the
lawyers business, and his father was
now inclined to please him; but Forbes
declined all Mr.. Irwin's offers, and plain
ly told the old man that his sons un-
popularity would iniure his custom.
"Our steady folk, ye ken neighbor,
like a man who walks in the old ways ;
we are plain bodies, an hae sma' skill
of these new philosophers. The law of
God and the law of Scotland is just as
much as we can manage"
Gavin was much hurt and disappoint-
ed.
He was young and wanted friends and
company, and no one responded to his
advances.
Winter came on and it was so dreary
that Gavin took the next wrong step.
AS good people would not notice him
he fell into bad company.
Anyone knows how rapidly man may
travel on this downward road.
Gavin soon began to "take a glass, "
and then, not to Care who knew it, "bet-
ter men than he got before the wind
occasionally"
He had long ceased going to church,
and pretty Maggie Lindsey, who had
dared to smile in his face, long after her
mother and sister cut him directly, had
now ceased to notice him, and given her
smiles to Alexander Forbes, his special
aversion.
The winter passed, and in the spring
the news of Miss Crief's marriage came
to Campsaile.
1t was very bitter drop added to his
cup, for Gavin had felt sure that Jessie
would return with summer, and explain,
in some satisfactory manner, her
mysterious silence and to the loss of
this hope was added the spiteful con-
dolences or the open sarcasms of all who
knew him.
He thought his cup was quite full, but
q greater sorrow awaited him.
One evening, in the early summer,
Bailie Irwin quietly died in his chair, of
heart disease, and people did not scruple
to say that Gavin's conduct had hasten
ell his end.
No one had kind word for him ex
cept the new minister, man whom
Gavin had always avoided, partly be-
cause he was his fathers chief friend
and confidant, and partly because he dis
liked his admonitions.
Now, however, they were compelled
to come in contact, and Gavin at last did
justice to the good mans kindly nature.
But he took the ten thousand pounds
his father had left him, and left Camp
sale, as he supposed, never to return.
The minister thought not.
"He can't sell the house and the
twenty acres round it, wife, and he'll
come home again. I promised his father
would be watching for him."
1t seemed hopeless kind of watch
ing.
Year after year slipped away, and no
one heard a word from Gavin Irwin.
The rent of the house was remitted to
firm he had chosen in Liverpool, for
five years; then the tenant left, and for
three years more the Irwin place stood
empty.
In those three years the minister often
wondered where the lost lad was.
The rent of the homestead, while it
was rented, was enough for lifes
necessities, but now-what was he
doing?
He was seeing many extremes. He
had been as supercargo to the tropics,
and in a whaling ship to the Atlantic
ocean. He had been successful specu-
lator in New York, and he had been
digging for gold in Australia.
He had been gambling with princes in
Baden Baden, and fighting for his rights
with the roughs OF Nevada.
But one night, ten years after his
fathers death, when he was just reco; er-
ing from an attack of the terrible vomito
| in MatOmoras. he suddenly bethouCht