The New Bloomfield, Pa. times. (New Bloomfield, Pa.) 1877-188?, 1878-04-02
THE COLoNEL'S HEIR.
ooNcLuDED.

Ito place you In n situation which you
certainly do not seem intended to fill. 1t
Is chiefly however, the constraint and SER
vitude of the position-which l cannot
alter-that regret for you. My horses,
SIR" said the courtly old gentleman,
with courtly old bow, ''are gentlemen,
too; think you will find them so. /
have not myself considered 1t degrading
to be much among them, and spend
much time and care on them, nor has
any of my-my family. am sure they
viii not be the worse for having gen.
tIeman to wait on them instead of
mere mercenary clown; and though It
certainly seems an anomaly, trust that
Che same reason will influence our mu-
tual relations"
The anomaly, who had listened re-
spectfully to this disclosure, hat in hand
now took his departure, and had the
honor Of being escorted by the colonel
himself to the scene of his future labors.
The stables, which he we'll remember
ed, were handsome and roomy, and fill
ed with fine horses; for Col. Hudson's
stock was celebrated and he had In his
younger days been fond of racing, and
of betting on races-foibles which he
quite forgot when banishing his nephew
for similar crimes. An old Arabian,
rather small in size, but of beautiful
shape, and spirit unbroken by increasing
years, had the best and warmest stall
assigned him, and was fed and tended
with peculiar care. He had been i'm
ported expressly for Hugh in the days
when his uncle was proud of him and
his horsemanship; but the heiress own
ed him now, and, as the stableman said,
visited him every day, and fed and ca
ressed him with her own white hands
A chamber Immediately above, lately
vacated by some departed William or
Ben, was the coaehman's heritage-and
thither Hugh transported his trunk;
and after administering upon the effects
Of his predecessor, by throwing an old
hat and flashy cravat out of the win
dow, sat down with Susette pressing
close to his side-uneasy in her new
quarters-to breathe his native air, and
look about him, wondering at the
strangeness of the events which brought
him there. 1t was clean, comfortable
place, neat, sunny, and airy-a Paradise
NY contrast with his squalid city room;
but had it been mere hole or den, it
would have been Paradise still to the
wanderer, in being home.
His new duties were not heavy or diff
ficult to learn. The ladies usually took
on airing every day " for the babys
'eake;~ but often in q little pony car
liage, driven by themselves, or with
Col. Hudson and his favorite horses,
whose reins he had never yet relinquish-
ed to any one else. When for some
change, real or fancied, in the sweet
spring weather Annie preferred to shell
ter her idolized infant in the close coach
the young driver respectfully handed
them out or in, and mounted his box
with professional indifference Both
agreed that he did not attempt to assert
his superiority to his present position,
thereby in their minds establishing it
the more; and the wayward heiress
chose to use her gentlest words and smiles
when she addressed him, as if with
womanly kindness intending to soften
his servitude, but only succeeding in
increasing its bitterness instead, by
awakening sentiment strong enough
to have swayed a mind far more firm
and well governed than that of her gen.
tleman groom.
In his restless, rowing, robust life,
Hugh had hitherto fallen but little un-
der parlor and boudoir influence, and
never felt the power of feminine fascina-
tions. He was to learn it now. Thrown
daily into the society of beautiful wo-
man, really his relative and social equal,
and whose willful whim it was to treat
him as such, and by the graceful sweet
ness, the high-bred simplicity of her
manner, dissolved the distance he main
tanned between them; he could only
yield, and love, and suffer, by honor
kept silent and made strong. In the
promises exchanged by their dead pa
rents, which pledged them TO each other
in their infancy by bond hitherto held
sacred in their family, he had real and
tangible claim to seek to renew her ro-
mantle, childish attachment to himself
and win her from their uncle's inimical
protection to his own, to plunge her in
to poverty and ruin, and compel her to