The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1883-09-25

she adroltly thrust stocking ana all into
his overcoat pocket.
The squire, frowning incyorably in
the farther corner of the room, did not
detect the man9uvre. She did not
mean he should-she dared not, for she
had felt the weight of his tyranny for
thirty years.
Don't forget your old mother and
Florence, darling" she whispered be-
tween her sobs. LET your poor old
mother know where You. are, and how
you are getting along
The angry flashes in Jesse's eyes
were subdued, and he bowed his head
on her shoulder, and wept for twenty
seconds.
Enough of that foolery!" roared the
squire from the corner. LET him be-
gone!"
"You shall hear from me, some time,
mother dear, and when You do, you
shall be proud of me-" he whispered
hoarsely, proud that you pillowed the
head of the little unfortunate-not in
CRATE, as he called me-upon your sacred
bosom!"
Then, turning to the irate squire,
with flashing, fearful eyes, he added
alohd, with sweeping impetuosity and
dignity that made the stern tyrant
quail:
LAS for you, mani will not own you
or honor you with the name of father
will yet live to bring you to judgment
and to a most bitter repentance of this
DAVIS workr'
His attitude at the conclusion of this
whitening sentence was that of youth
full martyr and prophet
take his farewell, but she was not in the
| room.
She had slipped out unperceived from
their midst.
For an instant he looked disappoint-
ed, and then Frightening as though a
happy thought had struck him, he
caught up his valise, and with proud
and self-reliant air strobe firmly over
the threshold, out into the great world
which lay all unknown before him,
He passed down the shortest lawn,
and on reaching Il grove of horse-chest-
| nuts which shut out the view of the
house, he found Florence anxiously
awaiting him.
Their interview WAS brief, their part
ing tender; but they were hopeful of the
future, and promised eternal fidelity to
each other.
From that hour for five long years,
the prosecutions of Guppy became con,
slant and unremitting, and the squire
/ oh cd th al . "a
entreaties.
But the heroic Florence was not to be
| moved.
When her prosecutors importuned,
| her invariable answer was:
Il shall marry jesse If he ever re-
turns. If he never returns shall never
marry and from this fixed purpose
they could not move her
Guppy and the squire, during these
years had grown to be bosom friends. -
They were both actuated by the same
selfish motives money, worldly intlu-
ence, and power-and together they
| plunged recklessly into speculation to
advance this object.
They invested everything in Won
ture in one of the luminous Wall-street
bubbles, and it burst with grand ex
plosion, and the squire and Guppy, ant
all their worldly possessions, made bu
a small fragment OF the debris
AT this time they had not heard {
word from jesse, but Florence did moi
despair, She was yet young, only 81,
and in'her hopeful nature she could fine
many an excuse for his protracted sill
ence.
The stern squire was completeBcrush
ed and broken.
| 70 stem the current he was forced tt
levy heavy mortgage on theiold home
stead that had never before suffered
from ike indigntty. 1t was terribl,
"a singing wound to his overweenin:
vanity and pride, and ill six mouths,
from the full habit OF an inllexible and
overbearing tyant, he shrank into ab.
solute leanness and Inertia, and before
the expiration of year. he had shrivel.
led up into a prematurely withercd old
man.
| 1t was now II hard struggle with the
Burleighs for subsistence and to pay
the interest on the mortgage. The
squire had lost all life and energy, and
preferred sitting in the chimney corner,
brooding dreamily over the past, tC
mixing, as of old, with the busy. strug-
Cling world.
Any one knowing him half-a-dozer
years ago, would have failed to recog-
nize him now. although almost the en-.
tire change might have been said to be
the result of a single year
Guppy had long since ceased to i'm.
perfume Florence, and for this glorious
respite the brave girl was heartily
thankful.
Guppy was intent on business. He
was comparatively young man yet
and could not hope to retire his fortunes
by marrying pauper. He therefore
quietly withdrew from the field, with
out offering to the impoverished squire
the slightest explanation of his conduct
In this way was our brave heroine re-
leased from the thraldom of double
persecution.
One day Florence returned from q
visit 10 n neighbor, triumphant with g
new-fedged purpose-a purpose char.
acteristic of her self-denying nature.
She had heard of a young woman who
had earned lot of money in year in
the new mills at Lawrence.
She announced her determination &c
go there, as soon as she could make
preparation, and earn the money with
her own hands to pay off the mortgage.
She might as well be useful, she said,
as to pine away in solitude and in
ertia.
Florence was now the master-spirit Of
the house. She guided and controlled
everything.
She procured the daughter of poor
neighbor to assist her mother, and in
four days her preparations were com.
lplete.
| On the evening preceding the day on
which she was to make her first venture
into the world, while the family were
seated in the midst of the strange 81.
lence which had fallensupon them, there
came q knock at the outer door and the
little servant admitted q stranger
through the dim twilight
n