Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1877-06-08

off on the first offense.''
'.And what will become Of him now,
Luther % asked the lady.
cit would be impossible for me to rroph-
esy. my dear, The chances, however, are
against MIN. He has come to the city,
and it has proved too much for him. He
has made a bad beginning, and will be
very likely to end in police court, and a
term at the Tombs, and that's the end of
a boy of course
'sOh, DEAR" said the lady, with a little
start and shiver, and an unconscious glance
LATHE mesh of brown, FURNISHED hair that
had nestled down on the hearth rug, "what
terrible picture, Luther!''
Mr.. Randolph followed his wife's gaze.
Perhaps he OWNED the association which
suggested itself to her mind, for his tone
was certainly modified as he answered:
'ssThat is true, and need not have pain
tedit quite so black. Perhaps Toms flu
tuge may not be so bad as my croakings.
II all events, give your pretty little head
| Mt further concern on the subject, for the
boy is unworthy of it,
II can't help wishing, Luther, that you
had given him one more trial." said the
lady, speaking more to herself than her
husband.
! The gentleman turned upon his wife,
and regarded her with one of his pleasant
smile, in which lurked just the faintest
tinge of irony.
''Mary," he said, II regard you as a
most exc mplary woman, in short, as the
very cream and flower of your sex. In all
your relations, as wife, and mother, and
mistress, l believe you to be above reproach
and unequaled. But in all business mat
ters, your Judgment and opinions wouldn't
be worth a sixpence, at least OF any sub
ject where 20 ur interest and sympathies
are enlisted. That soft little head Of yours
wo uld be certain to lead your good sense
captive and you'd be gros sly imposed upon
and de ceived on every side. All, my dear,
man who has had to fight the battle of
life as have done, and to make his own
way in the world, knows better than all
this. He may harden and tougher himself
on every side. He can't afford to turn his
store into reform school, nor himself in
to mere philanthropist. He must look
at these things in a business point of view
else he and that will be ruined y
Here spoke the hard, sagacious business
man, looking at life from standpoint of
mere self-interest; he had broader out
looks sometime, but his horizon now was
narrowed to one of money and gain.
The words grated along the finer in
stincts of Mrs. Randolph's nature. A faint
shadow crept into her face, faint sigh
from her lips. Perhaps for almost the first
time in her life, her Womanly intuitions
warned her of some latent hardness and
sel6shness in her husbands nature. She
did not, however, attempt to argue with
him, although she knew that his reasoning
was in some sense false and superficial.
Her question did not even touch his late
remarks, but went straight to the dis
charged office boy.
GLOW came Tom to fall into this bad
company, Luther ~
"The answer is easy enough, Mary. 1t
all came of that cheap boarding house, and
the folks inside of it. Boys with his sala
ry have to put their heads where they can,
and people who take them on low terms,
with provisions at these starvation prices,
can never afford to be exclusive with re-
gard to the class they take in, nor to offer
an attra ctive home to their boar ders.'
.Tom, like the rest, bolted his food, l
suppose, and had no place but the street to
pass his evenings in, and, Of course, a green
boy from tue country afforded a line chance
to his acknowledges to induot him into all
sorts Of follies and sins, and he hadn't
sense or strength to resist them"
s'Poor boy All, Luther, if he were
ours!'' and the mothers soft brown eyes
glanced again toward the white heap of
life and brightness, and bloom, which lay
on the floor.
And again the fathers eyes followed,
hers, and the hardness was melted out Of
them now, and he said, fervently:
''God forbid l would rather lay my boy
in his grave this hour than know he should
| live to be turned adrift in his youth on this
great city, with no friend to protect, and
with temptations lying in wait on every
side to devour him.
''And Tom had mother, too, and she
must have loVed him Gnee. as we do ours,
| Luther almost hope she isn't alive now,
| for l can judge by my own heart that it
! must break hers to know that her boy is
| lost.
Eyes, she is living,' Mr.. Randolph an
swered almost reluctantly. II remember
Tom told me so, and that she wasa widow
and he was her only SON. although he had
little sister beside. Foolish boy, to run
his neck straight into that trap" added
the gentleman. half angry at himself to
find that his heart was beginning to relent
! toward the culprit.
Tears brimmed the beautiful brown eyes
of..Mrs. Randolph. From the first she had
taken fancy to, an unusual interest in,
the bright-faced little Office boy, whom her
husband frequently dispatched Yp to the
house with some note or message for its
mistress.
The boys bright prompt. pleasant man
4er, his quick intelligence, the courtesy of
speech and bearing, which indicated care
full home cultivation, had all attracted the
lady.
! And now her mother heart was touched
to its center, thinking Of that other mo-
Their, lonely and widowed, whose pride and
joy and strength had ben this one boy, now
turned out on the world in shame and dis
grace. She thought how smoothly the
downward road winds along the days; she
thought how the proud young spirit stung