Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1880-02-28
Beau answered with tone Of nearly tender

| the old veteran! He's down, old Beau is sence
! the time he owned his FLOODED PAGER and dined
sence then; but don't call the old Teller hard
names. We take It back, don't we7-we take
"There's angel somewhere said LoWndes
Cleburn, "even In a Washington hummer
which responds to little chap on crutches
with a clear voice, Whether the angel takes
the side Of the hummer or the little chap, is O
pint out Of our jurisdiction. Abe give Beau q
julep. He seems to have been demoralized by
little Crutch's last
"Take them hard words back. Bub whinad
the licensed mendicant, with either real or at
fected pain; its pint of honor I'm standin
Oh. Do, now, little MAORI"
Ike me. You're big, and you called Mr.. Rey-
bold mean. Haven't you got wife or little
girl, or nobody to work for? You ought to
work for yourself, anyhow. Oughtnt he, gen.
Reybold, who had slipped around by the little
cripple and was holding him in careSSing way
from behind, looked over to Beau and was even
worthy's expression. 1t was that of acute and
suffering sensibtlity perhaps the efferescence Of
some little remaining pride, or it might have
little boy, suspended there with the weak b ack
and the narrow chest, and that scintillant, sin
cere spirit beaming out with courage born in
the stock he belong to: Admiration, concilia-
ton, and pain were in the ruined Migrants eyes.
Rey bold felt sense OF pity. He put his hand
in his pocket and drew forth dollar.
ton. You seem to have some feeling. Don't
mind the boy ~
In an instant the coin was flying from his
hand through the air. The beggar, with a llvid
face and clinched cane, confronted the Con-
gresham like maniac.
"You blk !" he cried. You supper customer
I'll brain you had rather parted with my
shoes at a dolly shop and gone gadding the
hoof, without doss to sleep on-a town pauper
done on the vag-than to have been made
scuryy IN the sight Of that child and deserve his
He threw his head upon the table and burst
into tears
u.-HAsH.
Mrs. Tryphon1a Basil kept a boarding house
Of the usual kind on ~ street. Male clerks
there were no female clerks in the Government
In 1s54-to the number of half dozen, two old
bureau officers, an architects assistant; Rey-
bold and certain temporary visitors made up
the table. The landlady was the mistress; the
slave was Joyce.
Joyce Basil was flne-looking girl, who did
not know tia fact so astounding as to be fifty
related only in fiction. She did not know it be-
cause she had to work so hard for the boarders
and her mother. Loving her mother with the
whole OF her affection, she had suffered all the
pains and penalties of love from that repository.
She was to-day upbraided for her want of CO.
quetry and neatneSs; to. morrow, for proposing
to desert her mother and elope with person
she had never thought of. The mainstay of the
establishment, she was not aware of her useful
ness Accepting every complaint and outbreak
as II she deserved 1t, the poor girl lived at the
Capital a beautiful scullion, an unsalaried do
nestle, and daily forwarded the food to the
table, led ia the chamberwork, rose from bed
unrested and retired with all her bones aching.
But she was OF natural grace that hard work
could not make awkward; work only gave her
bodily power, Drawn, and form. Though no
more than seventeen years of age she was
a superb woman, her chest thrown forward, her
back like the torso OF Venus de Milo, her head
placed on the throat of Minerva, and the ma
ture of child moulded in the form of matron.
Joyce Basil had black hair and eyes-very long,
excessive hair, that in the mornings she tied
up with haste so imperfectly, that once Rey-
bold had seen 1t drop like a cloud around her
and nearly touch her feet, At that moment,
seeing him, She blushed. He plead for once a
Congressman's 1mpudence, and without her OBJ
lection, wound that great crown of womans
glory around her head, and, as he did so, the
perfection of her form and skin, and the over
running health and height of the Virginia girl,
struck him so thoroughly that he said:
Miss Joyce, don't wonder that Virginia Is
the mother of Presidents"
Between ReybOld and Joyce there were al
ready the delicate relations of girl who did
not know that she was woman and man
was man vigilant over himself and the pow
erty and mental estate of Joyce Basil were al
ready insuperable obstacles to marrying her,
but still he was attracted by her insensfbiltty
that he could ever have regarded her in that
light of marriage. "Who was her father the
Judge ," he used TO reflect. The Judge was
ldNOIitc UOtlC Will hIS DdSll DIT Iu6 IdDle
Mr.. Reybold," she would say, "you CONNER
cial people of the Nawth can't hunt, believe.
Jeage Basil is now on the mountains of Faw-
quear hunting the plova. His grandfather's
If, by chance, Reg bold saw a look of care on
Mrs. Basils face, he inquired for the Judge,
her husband, and found he was still shooting
on the OcceQuan,
docs he never come to Washington Mrs.
Basil?" asked Reybold one day, when his mind
was very full OF Joyce, the daughter.
Not while Congress is in session." said Mrs.
Basl. Its little too much Of the OF pollot
for the Judge. His family you may not know,
Mr.. Reybold, air of the Bastls of King George.
They married into the Tayloze OF Mount Snaff1e.
The TayloZe OF Mount Snaffie have Ingin blood
in their Viens-the blood of Pokyhuntus. They
be common through want Of Ingin blood, and
spelled it with a E. 1t used to be Taylor. but
now it's TaylOZe."
On another occasion, at sight of Joyce Basil
cooking over the fire, against whose flame her
moulded arms took momentary roses upon their
ivory, Reybold said to himself: Surely there
Is something above the common in the race of
Basil:
MADAME, how was the Judge, your husband,
at last adyiceS?"
Hunting the snlpe, Mr.. Reybold. I sup
pose. you do not have the snipe in the
north. 1t is the aristocratic fowl of the
old Dominion Don Its bl is only shorter than
fire, to perfection, unless upon silver spit.
All! when the Jedge and myself were young
before his land troubles overlook us, we went to
the springs with our own silver and carriages,
Mr.. Reybold."
Looking up at Mrs. Basil, Reybold noticed
pallor and flush alternately, and she eyaded his
eye.
once Mrs. Basil borrowed hundred dollars
from Reyb bold in advance OF board, and the table
suffered in consequence.
1.-The Judge" she had explained, sis short of
taxes on his FawQuear lands. It's a desperate
moment with him." Yet in two days the Judge
was shooting blue winged teal at the mouth of
the Accotink and his entire indifference to his
family set Reybold to thinking whether the Vir-
g1n1a husband and father was anything more
than forgetful savage. The boarders, how
ever, made very merry over the absent I'M
known. II the beefsteak was tough, threats
were made to send for 1.-THE Judge" and let him
try tooth on it; If scant, it was suggested that
the Judge might have paid cunning visit to
the premises and Inspected the larder.
The daughter of the house kept such an even
temper, and was so obliging within the limita-
lions OF the establishment, that many board
er went to his department without complaint,
though with an appetite only partly satisfied.
The boy, Uriel also was the guardsman of the
household, old-faced as If with the responsible
fty of taking care Of two women. Indeed, the
children OF the landlady were so well behaved
and progressing that, compared with Mrs.
BasiPs shabby hauteu1 and garrulity. the legend
OF the Judge seemed to require no other founda-
ton than offspring OF such good spirit and In
tonation.
Mrs. Tryphonia Basil was no respeeter of per-
sons. She kept boarders, she said, as matter
OF society, and to tighten the load of the Judge.