The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1882-07-28


other. it is that of a lady-kiiler; but I
dared TO say to myself love, and am
beloved again Those dark and deep
gray eyes, Ellinor, had told me the Sc
cret of young and confiding heart; and
l thought myself more than happy
only too deeply blest. Oh. Ellinor! FL
linor! if had spoken then"
Her head was buried in her hands, as
she knelt by his pillow, and she was
sobbing aloud.
There was time enough. l said. This
Ellinor, was the happiest period of my
life. Do you remember our quite even
ings IN the Rue ST. Dominique, when I
left business and business cares behind
me in Verulam Buildings, and ran over
here to spend a week in my young
wards society9 Do you remember the
books we read together? Good heavens!
there is page in Lamartine's 'Odes,'
which can see before me as l speak! I
can see the lights and shadows which 1
taught you to put under the cupola of a
church in Munich, you once painted in
water-colors. lean recall every thought,
every word, every pleasure, and every
emotion of that sweet and tranquil
time in which l hoped and believed that
you, Ellinor, would be my wife"
She lifted her face. blind and blotted
by her tears, and looking at him for one
brief instant, let it fall again upon her
hands.
"Your uncle died, Ellinor, and the
fair elevation of this palace of my life,
which had built with such confidence,
was shivered to the ground. The fortune
was left to you on condition that you
married henry Dalton. Women are
ambitious. You would never surely re-
sign such a fortune. You would marry
young Dalton. This was the lawyers an
swer to the all-important question. But
those tender gray eyes, looking up from
under their veil of inky lashes, had told
sweet secret, and perhaps your
generous heart might count this fortune
a very small thing to fling away for the
sake of the man you loved. This was
the lovers answer, and hoped still,
Ellinor. to win my darling. You were
not to be made acquainted with the con-
ditions of your uncle's will until you
attained your majority. You were, at
the time of his death, barely twenty
years of age; there was, then, an entire
year in which you should remain
ignorant of the penalties attached to
this unexpected wealth. In the mean
time, 1, as sole executor (your uncle,
you see, trusted me entirely, had the
custody of the funded property John
Arden, of Arden, had left.
81 have told you, Ellinor, that l was
a Spectator. My profession threw me
in the way of speculation. Confident
in the power of my own intellect,
staked my fortune on the wonderful
hazards of 1916. doubled that fortune.
trebled. quadrupled it, and when it had
grown to be four times its original bulk,
/ staked it again. 1t was out of my
hands. but was invested in. as thought.
so safe a speculation, that it was as
secure as if it had never left my bankers.
The railway company of which l was
director was one of the richest and
most fiourishing in England. My own
fortune. as have told you, was entirely
invested, and was doubling itself
rapidly. As your uncle's trustee, as
your devoted friend, your interests
were dearer to me than my own. Why
should Inot speculate with your fortune,
double it, and then say to you: See,
Ellinor, here are two fortunes of
which you are the mistress; one
you owe to Henry Dalton, under
the conditions of your uncle S
will; the others is yours alone.
You are rich, you are free, without any
sacrifice. to marry the man you love; and
this, EIlinor, is my work?' This was
what 1 thought to have said to you at
the close of the year of speculation, 1886"
"Oh, Horace, Horace! 1 see it all.
Spare yourself, spare me! Do not tell me
any more"
"Spare myself! No, Ellinor, not one
pang, not one heart-break. I deserve
it all. You were right in what you said
in the boudoir at Sir Lioners. The
money was not my own; no sophistry,
no ingenious twisting of facts and
forcing of conclusions, could ever make
it mine. How do 1 know even now
that your interest was really my only
motive in the step l took? How do 1
know that it was not, indeed, the gam
bler's guilty madness only, which i'm
PEELED me to my crime? How do know?
How do know? Enough! the crash came;
my fortune and yours were together
ingulfed in the vast destruction; and /,
the trusted friend of your dead father.
the conscientious lawyer, whose name
had become a synonym for honor and
honesty; Horace Welmoden Margrave,
only lineal descendant of the royalist.
Captain Margrave, who persisted at
Worcester, fighting for his King and the
honor of his noble race; Ellinor, was
a cheat and swindler-a dishonest and
dishonorable man,
Dishonorable, Horace! No, no; on
ly mistaken"
Mistaken, Ellinor? Yes, that is one
of the words invented by dishonest
men, to slur over their dishonesty. The
fraudulent banker in whose ruin the fate
of thousands. who have trusted him and
believed in him, is involved, is, after
all, as his friends say, only mistaken.
The clerk, who robs his employer in the
insane hope of restoring what he has
distracted, is, as his counsel pleads to
a soft-hearted jury, with sons of their
own, only mistaken! The Spectator,
who plays the great game of CONNER
cial hazard with another man money,
he, too, dares to look at the world with