The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1879-06-26
OTHER PEOPLES BUSINESS.

There is scarcely anything more .un-
fortunate for man than the absence of
loving women around his childhood and
youth. Mark Ripon had never known
such women, and offer this fact as some
palliation for his want of faith in them
He was ignorant of his parcntage; he
! had been found one summer morning on
the steps of the Foundation School in
Baxtcrsgatc, Ripon; and as it was on the
festival of st. Mark, he had received the
name OF the saint and the name of his
native city, and been adopted by the in
institution.
Wholesome food, stout clothing, and a
decent trade has been given him bv the
Foundation, and i'll many respects he
| was felt to have done it honor, for after
fifty years of crcditable citizenship, he
| was one Of the cathedral vestry, sat in the
Common Council of the ancient city
! which had adopted him, and was said to
be worth at least 100000.
l. But there is a success which the world
| sees little of--that OF the hcart-and in
this respect Mark Ripon was the vcriest
pauper. OF the nurses and matrons who
had been around his earliest years he had
not one tender memory; none of them
had fed the hunger of his heart He had
no home, no mother, and no sister. The
school had been simply place in which
to eat and to sleep and to learn.
Unfortunately, when the lad tell in
love, it was with Il pretty tlirt infinitely
more hcartlcss than himself. But Marks
love had been cruelty deceived and
Knocked, and lie had come out ST his
chagrin and sorrow with confirmed be-
i lief in the general and natural unfaithful-
ness Of women. Popular maxims and
! tests confirmed him every day in his
idea, and like most Englishmen, having
once avowcd this as his opinion, every
rcitcration of his own idea was fresh
confirmation of it.
But he bad many friends among his
own SEX. Men generally spoke of him as
a crusty old bachelor, but otherwise Il
wcll-to-do, shrcwd, and honorable fcl-
low. Chief among these friends was
young George Downcs, the child of the
only companion his boyhood had ever
known, and his own godson. If Mark
Ripon loved any human being, it was
George Downes, though as the latter grew
| ~ :" AA"hAloou, Ho sdSc Hill Il great
deal Of anxiety. For George preferred
the society of women, and wonld not
credit Marks positive assurances of their
universal falseness and unworthiness.
One moonlight night, as Mark was
coming from a yestry meeting, he met
George in the cathedral close, and on his
arm was very beautiful girl The old
man looked angrily and doubtfully at the
pretty face lifted to his favoritc's. The
bright moonbeams touched her long fair
curls, and made the white veil around
them like Il glory. Mark remembered
Just such lovely, innocent face lifted to
his, and he had no doubt whatever that
this girl would be just as false to George
as pretty Fanny Maltby had been to
him.
! George, however, would not he per.
suaded to doubt her. Then Mark Of
fercd to pay his expenses if he would PC
abroad and trrvcl for two years; bu,
George said che had just got place in
Butterfeld's Bank, and preferred home
The young man, in Marks eyes, wa.
i, bent on running himsslf, and in few