Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1882-09-27

Mr.. Howard, - he said, shaking hands. 81
| am always glad TO see any OF Johns friends.
| They must have something good about
them, always think, II John likes them:
| A very good steady young man Is John, ana
he'll do well. They think highly Of him at
the office. His lordship, happen to know,
| has got his eye upon him. L only hope he
won't make fool of himself by marrying
| too early"
Mr.. Graham sighed rs ne said this, and
| seemed troubled at some thought which
crossed his mind. endeayored to change
the subject, which was slightly embarrass-
| ing TO myself, inasmuch as Jack was eviden-
smitten, though few knew IL as yet, by the
charms OF my eldest niece, Mary SHELTON,
who was more like a sister to me than a
niece, being only seven years my junior. An
engagement Of which his rich uncle did not
approve might be serious thing to Jack, so
i plunged into other topics. Presently,
however, my host started one OF his hob
bies.
"Pray, Mr.. Howard" he said, with great
suavlty, "may ask whether you are one Of
the Norfolk HowardsY
Was the old gentleman chatting meY /
looked up at him, but saw In his counten-
ance no reason for supposing such a thing.
"I-really, sir. / don't know much about
my fathers family. His father was a cler-
gyman somewhere in Worcestershire, L
think; but Pm not at all clear about our
pedigree"
"H'ml" he calculated; 81 expect II you
belong TO the Norfolk branch, or to the
Towards OF Efingham, you would know
radical fellows who smile at the claims of
long descent?'
"Well, Mr.. Graham, TO tell the truth, 1
don't care much what my descent may have
been.v
He frowned, and was afraid | had for
feited his good opinion altogether. But
what / 1
truth. was beginning to regret that had
been so self-denying to Jack as to take his
place.
81 hear from my nephew that you like
pictures, Mr.. Howard" said Jacks uncle,
after pause "Shall we take a turn in the
picture gallery before dinner? There is
very good light just now"
Accordingly he led the way to long cor
ridor, whose walls were covered with pic
lures. i saw at once,to my disappointment,
that the pictures were by no means OF the
class L cared for, being chiefly portraits of
ladies and gentlemen who had lived and
died long before the nineteenth century
had begun. resigned myself to the peri
patetic lecture on the Graham family which
] expected, mentally deciding, however,
that there were limits even to my powers Of
| self-sacrifce for jacks sake.
But Mr.. Graham, it appeared, did not
deem me worthy to be recipient of the
treasures OF family history which he would
doubtless have let loose on more intelligent
and sympathizing ears. He simply played
the part OF Snowman, stating names and
deeds, and here and there some military ex-
plot or political event.
At last we came to a portrait that rather
took my fancy. IL was handsome face but
terribly disfgured by the tremendous wig
which betokened the time Of James H. In
the corner / read the date of 1857.
"That," said Mr.. Graham. calmly, sis
my father-in-law, Sir Duncan Kennedy.
John will have told you about him."
His er-m-ldg! What could the old
gentleman mean? 1 remembered that Jack
had been on the point OF telling me about
Mr.. Graham's father -law,and had stop
ped him, because l had not wished to be
bored by the same unineresting story twice
over. But here was the old gentleman, still
under eighty, as had understood from my
friend, talking Of man who had presuma-
bly, been born in the middle OF the seven
kteenth century as his father-in law ! What
Could he mean
1t flashed across me that Mr.. Graham was
monomaniac, He had gone mad on the
subject Of family history. All at once came
surging up into my mind several little ex-
pressions which Jack had dropped at differ
ent times about his uncle, and which con-
firmed this theory. Jack had spoken of his
''mania," but had regarded this as q mere
figure Of speech, forgetful that my very
speech;" though, to be sure, another ''fig-
ure of speech" Of Jacks also occurred to
me. He had said that his uncle "lived In
the past" He does ''live i'm the past"
with q vengeance, thought. IL he thinks
his father-in-law lived in the Caroline
times
"John will have told you about him."
were the words which the old man had last
spoken. In my agitation muttered somc-
thing which he must have taken for assent,
for he said no more on the subject, and be-
gan talking about other portraits
L put in ayes "Indeed!' ETC., in
stinctively when addressed by him, but
was really occupied by the thought that my
companion was actually non cOmpOs meRtts,
and i was extremely angry with Jack for
not having prepared me for this, aud, in
fact, for having subjected Inc to this kind Of
thing at all.
If 1 had any lingering doubts as TO Mr..
entirely dispelled, and his insanity perfect
ly established in my mind, by the remarks
he made presently concerning two other
portraits.
"That," he said, pointing to ayoung cav
alier,"is my brOther.iR-lalo, Sir Edward In
gram, who fought at Edgehill, you know,
in 1872 He was only eighteen, then"
/ looked fiXedly at the portrait, pretend
ing to be deeply interested, as though i had
heard all about Sir Edward from Jack. But
after rapid calculation. i said to myself,
Eyes, your brother-in-l law, as you call him,
would have been only 257 il he were living
now, my poor friend. fear il is case for
the Commissioners in Lunacy."
"And that" added Mr.. Graham, referring
to another portrait Is my nephew, Lord
Creditor. lie was born i'm the same week
as the battle Of Families. Rather unu sual
isn't 1t, to have nephew nincty-one years
older than yourself!'
This is very sad. After this one might
expect anything. set myself to humor the
poor old man, and to appear TO listen most
attentively to everything he said, and to
laugh at anything intended as joke. But
it was dismal work, and my mind was en-
gagged all the time by two different ques.
tions first, what should do il the old gen.
tleman became violent and secondly, what
should say TO Jack, who had acted so un-
handsomely by me.
never enjoyed good dinner less in my
life than the excellent dishes which ap-
peared that evening. We dined tete-a-tctc,
and by superhuman efforts contriyed to
get through the meal somehow, not attend
ing in the least to the sumptuous viands Of
which partook, nor to the choice claret
which under other circumstances / could
not have failed to appreciate.
We were by no means silent, for Mr. Gra-
ham started several topics OF conversation,
such as the weather, the harvest prospects,
the Eastern question, the Pemier's removal
to the House of Lords, etc. / answered
mechanically, and tried to look as II 1
thought every remark my companion made
very striking. In point OF fact he did not
talk any nonsense. But for the breaking
out of the mania in the picture gallery
should not have known that he was insane.
Having, however, witnessed that mania, l
was, OF course, now only anxious to avoid
giving him offense until l could decently
take my leave. And meantime my observa-
tions and replies were so meager and child.
ish that caught myself thinking more than
once, "If he were not a maniac himself,
what fool he would think me !"
/ had not ventured to say anything to any
of the men.servants on the subject of their
masters mania. No doubt they imagined
that knew all about It. and was quite pre-
pared. "What fool / was,O i thought,
not to listen to jack He would have told
me, perhaps, about the mania; but no, he
could never have expected me to come here
II had known. Depend upon 1t he trusted
to my not finding out Perhaps the mania
n