Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-07-08
A SILVER WEDDING.
CHAPTER l..

W men 4 llNtu ny IAuIiSJ AAS" C'N
Gabriel pretty well. He was one OF the
knottiest men l can call to mind, man
gnarled and twisted in mind and body.
Nobody had good word for him except
the people who lay in wait for his money,
and he had good word for nobody, least
of all for them. The two who seemed to
be frat in the running for the old mans
money were his brothers sons, John Guest,
the maltster, and George Guest, the soilc'
itor and it happened, as it often does, that
these were the very two who made the
least effort. Both the maltster and the So
licitor were married, and each had one
child, son. The two boys were born
about the same time, and the whole parish
OF Thurley laughed when 1t came
out that they were to be chris
tened Gabriel. In the sequel, at
the ripe age of seventy-eight, ne got mar
RED TO woman of thirty, and openly
proclaimed HE intention to leave every
penny to his bride There, as a matter of
course, the great Guest family money hunt
was ended and determined. But It left
behind 1t the curious result already par
ticularized There were two Gabriel Guests
in the little town of Thurley, each within
a fortnight OF the other in age, and almost
as like each other as two peas out of the
same pod.
Now, Georges Gabriel grew up shy, and
while the young maltster staggered and
firted round all the girls in the parish, the
yonng notary shrank out Of notice and fell
honestly in love. And when, in course Of
time, their fathers decided to send them to
Heidelberg to be educated, the shy one left
behind the pretty Jane Hartland as his
promised wife.
CHAPTER II.
There IS, or might be, in the town of
Heidelberg, certain SNUG and snug esta-
minet and house of general refreshment,
called the Is Round of Veal" To HeideI-
bergan notions the Round of Veal" was
as pleasant resort as might be found.
To the Herr Derrick, who kept it, and was
kept by it, it was very paradise OF a
place. The Herr Derrick was man who
said mighty little about anything, and be
had sufficient reason for his reticence.
Unless he talked in his sleep he had little
chance of talking at all, for his lips were
constantly occupied during waking hours.
He kept two prodigious pipes of porcelain,
with girls heads painted on the bowls,
and while he smoked one he fondled the
other, aud polished it and filed it, and had
it in readiness to begin when number one
was finished. When he was not smoking
he was eating or drinking or sleeping or
getting ready to smoke, and with each and
all OF these conversation was Incompatible.
The student youth of Heidelberg knew
Herr Derrick and the Round of Veal,
and they were known in turn. Somebody
has said think it was Thackeray, but
kboS pirl
German family is generally named Minna.
The Frsulein Minna Derrick was Herr
Dierick's only daughter, but, if she had
sisters, they could have been no prettier
than herself without being downright mad
dening TO the student mind. Things were
bad enough as they were. The student
youth would Sit in crowds for hours to-
gether, and drink beer in the hope of see
ing her pass but once through the main
room. They bribed the servants OF the
place to give her letters. They wrote SON.
nets to her eyebrows and her eyes, to her
lips, and to her teeth when she smiled, and
even to her ankles. There were two or
three preternsturally wise and solemn pro-
fessors, who joined the student crowd at
times in the main room of the Round OF
Veal and smoked incense in pipes of por-
celain, and poured lbationsin innumerable
Firtzels and Halbas at the fair Minna's
shrine. Among these sat the great Herr
Bayer himself, savant so like the land
lord that strangers only alf.habituated to
the place mistook them for each other.
The great Herr Professor Bayer was a
bachelor. His head was too full of learn
ing to have room in it for much else but
learning leaves the heart unfinished, and
the heart of the Herr Professor was a
friendly and a tender organ, lonely as its
owner had kept it these twenty years,
since the good old mother died. The great
Herr was not wealthy, and he held no
lofty appointment anywhere, but he was
revered for his learning and loved for his
kindly simplicity by two or three student
generations, who spread his FAME over
Europe, and excited expectations concern
ing him. Those expectations babe fair to
take long time in fulfllment, for Herr
Bayer was engaged upon work lin ten
volumes) upon The Common Origin of
Languages, for which he had after fifteen
years OF labor about twentieth part OF
the desired material. 1t was necessary
to the Professors scheme to be profoundly
acquainted with every language and lit.
erature of the globe, dead and living, and
this was the modest task to which he had
bound himself.
But now not Heidelberg merely. but all
scholarly hooks and corners, stirred with
the news that Herr Bayer's first volume
was on the way, and that in year or two
its publication might be expected. The
Professor was resting from his labors, and
at present was merely engaged in writing
At this time he came almost nightly to the
Round OF VEAL" and sat by Herr Die
rick with gravity almost equaling that
good mans own. 1t came to pass that one
night, either cut Of pure freak or deter
mination to serve the great man with her
own hands, and so do herself honor, the
Fraulein Minna waited for Herr Bayer' s
advent, and, hearing his deep-toned order
for full measure, waived the Xellner
aside, and with her own rosy fingers
turned the tap and with her own plump
little hands get down the great glass tank
ard before him.
"God bless thee, child % said the mighty
scholar, looking benevolence through his
spectacles. " If thou art as good es thou
Iookest, thou art well blessed already"
With that he took great draught, and on
his outer man fell the seeming of sleep,
while his spirit lowered exultant above a
newly. discovered popularity in the forma-
ton of the irregular verbs of Kalmuck
dialect spoken on the Chinese borders.
Minna blushed with pleasure. The stu
dent crowd murmured and buzzed within
itself in reyerential applause and comment.
The Fraulein retired, and as she did so
there entered at the door two young fellows,
who looked about them like strangers, as
they were. These two strangers were
wonderfully alike in features and
in figure, and their ages were so nearly
the came that they might have been
taken land often were takenl for twin
brethren. ! hate mystery in story, and
/ confess at once that these were the two
Gabriels. One of them had reputation
for shyness, though perhaps he and a GER
tain pretty Jane in far.of Thurley knew
better than to believe that he deserved 1t.
! Il, ,4oArn Il