Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1879-07-02
OTHER PEOPLES BUSINESS.


childhood and youth. Mark Ripo
had never known such women, an
offer this fact as some palliatioI
for his want and faith in them.
He was ignorant of his parent
age; he had been found one sum
mer morning on the steps of tn,
Foundation School in Baxtergate
Ripon and as it was on the festi
val of st. Mark, he had received
the name of the saint and the nam,
OF his native city, and been adopt
ed by the institution.
Wholesome food, stout clothing
and decent trade had been giver
him by the Foundation, and in many
respects he was felt to have done
it honor, for after fifty years Of
creditable 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 ESQ.,
900.
But there is a success which the
world sees little of-that of the
heart-and in this respect Mark
Ripon was the veriest pauper.
or 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, to sleep, and to learn.
Unfortunately, when the lad fell
10 love, it was with a pretty flirt
infinitely more heartless than him.
self. But Marks love had been
cruelty deceived and Knocked, and
he had come out of his chagrin
and sorrow with the confirmed be-
lief in the general and natural un-
fsithfulness of women. Popular
maxims and jests confirmed him
every day in his idea, and, like
most Englishmen, having vowed
this as his opinion every reiteration
Of his own idea was fresh confir-
nation of il.
But he had many friends among
bis own sex. Men generally spoke
Of him as crusty old bachelor,
but otherwise well-to-do, shrewd,
and honorable fellow. Chief among
those friends was young George
Downes, the child of the only COM 8
panion his boyhood had ever known, '
and his own godson. If Mark |
Ripon loved human being, it was [
George Downes, though as the lat !
ter grew up to manhood, he gave 9
him great deal Of anxiety. For e
George preferred the society of I
women, and would not credit Marks r
positive assurances of their uni I
vcrsal falseness and unworthiness. /
One moonlight night, as Mark {
was coming home from a vestry 9
meeting, be met George in the q
close, and on his arm was b
> very beautiful girl. The old
man looked angrily and doubtfully b
1t the pretty face lifted to his a
'avorite's. The moonbeams touch b
I'd her long, fair curls, and made
The white veil around them like a a
glory. Mark remembered just a
such lovely, innocent face lifted a
10 his, and he had no doubt what "
ever that this girl would be Just as 81
'alse to George as pretty Fanny
Maltby had been to him. b
George, however, would not be b
persuaded to doubt her. Then "
Mark offered to pay his expenses
I he would go abroad for two Il
'ears; but George said "he had az
ust got a place in Butterfield's al
'ank, and preferred home" The vi
'oung man, in Marks eyes, was bent l
IN running himself, and in few al
weeks he celebrated his wedding "
With an elaborate rejoicing that IL
'oused the old mans bitterest con- y,
empt.
George fully expected that he d,
you'd now be ignored, and probably
ose forever any chances he might
ave bad Of inheriting his godfath- M
RS wealth. But Mark was unlike IN
be generality Of men in many re- IN
poets, and in none more than In W
is behavior to the young man who
ad so llagrantly disregarded all his re
dvices and entreaties. az