News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1883-02-08
CHADSEY'S REVENGE.

JHADNEl } hEN ENUE,
When Ralph Chadsey proposed to
Helen Grantham and was refused, he
was a very angry man. He knew he
was homeIy, ignorant and awkward, that
his tastes were not refined, and that his
home circle was not one in which lady
could be happy; he also knew that Miss
Grantham was very pretty, accomplished
and the inmate of a home which every
one delighted to visit. But he was
equally certain that he was the sole
owner of a small factory that yielded
him several thousand dollars a year, and
he had been taught to believe that no
faults of birth, education or manners
would prevent a man of means marrying
into any family that had little or no
money.
Miss Granthams refusal therefore
amazed him, and as, thanks to genera
tons of mean ancestors, he recognized
no rights but his own, and had never ex-
perienced the faintest thrOb of chIval-
rous feeling, he soon came to hate Miss
Grantham as much as he had loved her,
and when the young woman soon after
ward accepted and married Frank Hatch
er, the rejected lover swore he would
have revenge on both Helen and he1
husband.
In any one but a brute the desire for
revenge would soon have been gratified
by the experiences Of Mr.. and Mrs.
Hatcher, for Frank, although one of the
charming fellows whom all women adore,
had in business but little stability and
shrewdness. He made bad debts for his
employers, spent his salary before he
earned it. and ran so heavily into debt
that his brightness and his wife's bloom
rapidly disappeared. Several acts of care
lessness caused him to lose his situation,
and he reached a degree OF desperation
that would have made almost any vim
dictive enemy pity him. Just then the
civil war broke out and Frank was lucky
enough to obtain a commission, the IN
come OF which brought comfort to hi
wife and baby. But even in the army
his careIessness got him into many mis-
fortunes, the last OF which was that he
lost his life by not exhibiting proper
vigilance at an outpost.
On hearing Ct Hatcher's death all his
creditors forgave M and rendered their
sympatLies to his wife; but Chadsey,
instead of burying his hate in the dead
soldiers grave. feLt-1Ore yindictive than
ever. 1t seemed to him that his
opportunity had escaped him, so he
added intensity to his hatred and heaped
all upon the dead mans memory. Helen
bravery endeavored to earn a living foI
herself and child, and Chadsey took q
room from which he could see her every
cold, wet morning as she hurried to the
store in which she stood all day as &
saleswoman. Now, he fully believed she
regretted having rejected him; now he
could not doubt she would gladly accept
him were he to propose. The thought
gave him the most blissful sensation o
his life, and he swore to himself that ht
would rather die a thousand deaths THAI
let her see penny of his money.
And he found, to his great delight,
new object to hate; it was the son o
Helen and Frank Hatcher. The bah,
whom Hatcher had left when he went t,
the war grew rapidly, and was as mis-
chievous as boys IN general. He had hi
fair proportion Of quarrels with othe
boys in the village, and Chadsey some
times was delighted beyond measure b.
the spectacle of little Frank bein
severely pounded by a larger boy
Chadsey was also pleased on recognizin
on the boy, from time to time, clothin
that undoubtedly had been made frol
garments that Frank Hatcher, Senio
had worn years before.
Occasionally Chadsey would hear thu
some one had proposed to the prett
widow, but without success, and MOI
than once, when wondering aloud VIII
"the pink and white fool, " as he alwa,
called her, declined suitors with none,
he was answered with:
''Perhaps she's waiting for you, Cha
sey."
This remark was always accompani
by a coarse laugh, but the object did Il
vince, for he took IN earnest what W
meant for fun. Waiting for him "
that the reason she always passed l
lodgings on her way to her work? "
it to affect him to tenderness that S
wore expressions sweet, pathetic, roma
tic, or melancholy, all of which Chads
believed were merely put on for L
out of doors? Well, she might wait
could stand it as long as she, and
would rejoice to see her grow gray W
longing.
Meanwhile, little Frank grew in CHI
acter as well as inches, and determini
one day that his mother should 1
work any longer, he secured a pOsiti
with firm in which Chadsey was
silent partner Chadsey did not lea
for fortnight of what had happen,
When he found that Mrs. Hatcher "
no longer what he called a comm
WOEhluB- NbLltLils ttlll lLi'tJ IC lllAo
was one of her sons employers, he VI
furious. and demanded that the boy
discharged but his partners outvot
him. for their new clerk, being liked
everyone, was worth far more than
cost them.
Although baffied, Chadsey was /
beaten. He felt that the boy was
some extent in his power, so he gratif
his vengeful spirit from time to time
scoIdiug the new clerk ON slight p
texts. He soon found that this coul
was not SAFE, for the boy had tongue
well rs spirit and he occasionally reto
ed in ii style that turned the laugh
the special partner.
Then Chadsey determined to disGra
him and Thus strike his mother.