Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1881-03-30
RIGHTED AT LAST.

jacket, found on the bank where he
had laid them when he went III to
bathe-silly child-had not been
enough to convince the mother that
her missing boy was lost to her. Yet
it was close to where the river fell in
to the sea, and where the tide was
strong; how, then, could she hope |!
But this latter news, the finding OF
this half-decayed body of little boy,
which the finder had been obliged to
bury at once-this was too plain to
be denied. She must give him up.
Mrs. Beaufort closed her doors and
sat down in her splendid mansion to
mourn. Her servants came and went
about her, but she would see no one
else. Her own kindred were too far
away, across the ocean in the New
World, to come to her; and she had
known these of her husbands people
only during the year that he had been
master of Beaufort manor.
He had been separated from his
friends, a houseless wanderer, and
they had cared nothing for him, till
old Mr.. Beaufort, the bachelor lord OF
the manor, dying, had, to their as
constituent and indignation, left the
great fortune which they had conf
IDENTIFY expected would be divided be-
tween two families nearest Of kin, TO
scapegrace, wandering Bernard Beau
fort. 1t was for this, then, that they
Id AattaraH anh nntto1 fhn annanfpIe
cross old man. 1t was for this, they
had lied to him over and over, and
vowed that they expected nothing,
and came to see only him, not the
manor. They had borne his sardonic
grins, when he listened to their false
hood, only that Bernard Beaufort,
whom they hardly acknowledged for
q relation, and his American wife,
whom they had never acknowledge
ed at all, and their boy, should in
herit Beaufort manor and all the old
mans property, except the &lOO
apiece which he had mockingly be-
queathed his two cousins and their
twelve children, all told.
1t was unbearable. And all be-
cause Bernard had had the art to
name his boy Philip, after the old
man. Had not each Of his cousins a
Philip-her eldest But he said that
Philip had given him no notice of the
naming, as they had had asked no
christening present; and that he, the
old man, had heard the child's name
only by accident. Therefore, it must
have been named from some recol-
lection.
When the new heir and his wife
came home, the relations pocketed
their wrath so far as to visit them.
1t was not worth while to shut them
selves out of the place because it was
not to be theirs.
Mrs. Beaufort astonished her new
relatives. They expected to find a
common person; they found a lady
more highly bred and educated than
themselves. An elegant form, habit
mated with exquisite taste CLASH
cal face, purely pale rich, dark hair
bright, dark eyes; and admirably
self possessed-such was the new lady
whom they went to criticise and pa
tronize.
Scarcely had the bereaved mother
mourned for her son a month, when a
lawyers missive reached her; and she
woke to the fact that it was not only
her son who was lost, but the heir
of Beaufort manor. The relatives
and heirs had allowed her to stay sc
long out of regard to her feelings
and because they would rather she
had proposed to go, and they were
sorry she had obliged them to remind
her that, by the late Philip Beaufort:
will, the property was TO go to the
son Of Bernard, and, in case he. died
childess, to be divided between two
cousins, the elder having the manor
for life, the eldest son of the younger
to inherit at his death.
The childess widow rose up and
went out of the home that had beer
hers but year and half. No sym.
patty nor kindness were offered her
now. They paid her the moderate
provision that had been assured her
and said goodbye, with no invitation
to remain or to visit them. She was
no longer necessary to them, and they
could resent her past GOODNESS.
Even when her husband died, six
months after their coming to the pro.
perty. she did much seek their com
partnership, though they then re-
doubled their attention, as their hope,
increased.
Bernard had been an affectionate
but a dissipated husband; and hi
wife grieved for him, it was not as on,
without hope. Little Philip, her idol
now two years old, was left her. She
turned to him with all her heart.
And now he was gone. Three year
old, and so venturesome. How hat
he eluded servants and mother, anC
playmates He had done, in spite o
every care. The river running pas
their park had enticed him, and b,
was gone. Every effort had beer
made, search, advertisements, reward
offered, but in vain; and the finding
of that little body with the COLDER
hair In cur1s about the face had salts