Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1882-09-14
Mr.. FITZGERALB,S MARRIAGE


up and down the breakfast-room a!
Abbottscraithie, with his hands in his
trousers pockets, jingling his money
Well, he was perhaps hardly as yet &C.
customed to the sound. His young
wife--they had only been married SIX
months-sat at the table behind the tea
and coffee paraphernslia, watching him
while she very assiduously knitted a
coarse KnickerbocEer stocking.
Something had evidently produced a
twist in the skein of their hitherto I'm.
entangIed bliss; for the breakfast was
untasted, and was getting cold.
sit is the first request you nave re-
fused me; but | suppose you do not
think me good enough for your swell
acquaintance" said the lady at last
swallowing little sob.
Really, Amelia, the way you put
things is too ridiculous. Not good
enough Because | object to Lady
Constantia Verulam and her daughter
being invited to Abbottscraithie. What
can they do with you? | simply do
not want them"
"Yet they were your most intimate
friends before your marriage"
Perhaps | have qusrreled with
them"
Nonsense saw an envelope al.
dressed to you in Miss Verulam's writ
ing, only a week or two ago"
at was merely line of congratula.
ton. The Verulams were abroad when
we married"
And Mr.. Fitzgerald deep flush
mounting all over his face, sat down
opposite his wife, and began to busy
himself by uncove ing the dishes.
"Well," she persisted, "let them
come and congratulate you in person.
1t is very illnatured of you not to have
nice wife for Percy, and he is coming
for the shooting on the 10th.
"Confound Percy !" muttered Mr..
FITZGERALD behind his mustache. "Well,
do as you like, III make no further
opposition"
And flattering himself with the idea
that he had striven his utmost to do
right, he now resigned himself delight
fully to wrong doing.
Amelia Fitzgerald is the daughter of
north country manufactures, who
left her many thousands of pounds in
hard cash, with part of which Alb
botscrathe has lately been purchased.
1t is handsome stone house, III the
centre of fair Lowland estate, bonnie
with moor and forest. Riches apart.
she is a lovely little woman enough :
yet Lucius does not love her, and for
no more valid reason than that she Is
not somebody else. Then why have
married her? The question is only too
pregnant, the answer too sobvlous.
When mutual friend, match max
ing woman, had first broachcd the
subjecJ to him, he answered at once:
Can YOU ask me? If the young
lady is fool enough to marry me,
here | am, and let's waste no more
words about it."
Amelia Higgins was not long from
the school-room, and full OF sweet
scheol-roomish views of love. The
younger son of an earl five feet eleven,
handsome, and apparently charmed
with her; what more could she want
Now, Lucius was no abandoned
wretch; he was simply ayoung man
whose six or eight years of lite had
dispossessed him of about double the
number of thousands which had ever
belonged to him-Oh, a very vulgar
miracle as times go-and had latterly
that is, for the past year or two
saddled himself with Il desperate pas
sion for Bertha Nerulam, and which,
alas, she fully retained.
AS neither of these ill-starred lovers
had any money, or even a reasonable
expectation Of being left some, Lucius
felt no sort of scruple in Offering his
heart to the wiling Amelia. Calmly
considered by an impartial, the trans
action might look very much like sell
ing an estate with heavy undeclared
mortgage upon it. TO the Honorable
yet impecunious, Fitzgerald, however
itappeared but in the light of that time
honored cc;irse. 'The only thing to dc
by Jove"
All, and he would do his duty like 8
man, he would. No more flirting now
OF course, if they met much, 1t would
be wkward-deuced dangerous with
another "by Jovel''l Well, they musn't
meet, that's all.
You see Luciusa thought himself
quite a good man. don't want to say
q word against him, only he Is one,
then there are plenty ofgood men about
that is all So much the better that
they should be, of course.
His young wife, though hardly o.
what you would call strong character
inherited from the late Higgins large
share Of that pertinacity which he had
turned to such good account; and she
pours out the coffee this morning with
an air of innocent triumph III her blue
eyes at having carried her point,
"And so Mrs, Fitzgerald insists
on Lady Verulam and her daughter be
ing invited, unused her husband. "ThC
VeruIams of all people in the world
For Percy, too! As if Brdy Nerulan
las she was called, her real name being
Bertha) would marry Percy
Percy is Amelia's brother, older thar
she is by four or five years. Rich, o
course. Higgins senior eft his ttous
ands equally divided. Rut the son haC
not acquired any of that gentleness and
GOOD hreedinc which seems to hav,