Daily Republican. [volume] ([Wilmington, Del.]) 1874-1890, 1883-06-01
beggars but it can't be true-.it can't

beggars but it can't be true-.it can,
be true"
The Colonel, however, was not al
home. The parlor maid, who opened
the door, said he had heard some bad
news that seemed all at once to have
made an old man of him, and that he
had hurriedly put on his hat and gone,
Miss Ellen AZ hurriedly accompanying
him.
"They have gone to the bank to find
out if it il true" said Mrs. Fendyke
not knowing that she spoke At all
Come, my poor child. we will GO too
She was trembling like one with the
palsy, as she turned away, and little
Anna felt her hand, which she held !,
turn to ice as 1t were.
1t did not take long to reach the main
street, where the bank was, but it seemed
to Mrs. Fendyke to be years and years
of endless agony. But for the sympa-
thy and support which Anna gave her
by holding to her hand, she would have
fallen more than once but the touch Of
that hand, and its gentle pressure every
few moments, reused the motherlove in
her, and kept up. The scene that met
her eyes on reaching the bank was one
she will never forget, even if she lives
hundred years. There were crowds of
people there, many of them mere idle
spectators, but others evidently losers,
and among them conspicuous were the
Colonel aud his daughter. The old gray
haired veteran stood with his face rails
ed toward heaven, as if calling down
IimprecatiOns on the traitor who had
betrayed him, while the daughter chung
to him, sobbing.
"See, mamma, there is Colonel Wal
colt" said little Anna, for her mothers
face was buried in her handkerchief, in
an agony of tears.
Mrs. Fendyke looked up. She heard
his voice.
"To think how trusted him-how
persuaded others. Oh, just heaven,
and he escapes unpublished, and
with his spoils, leaving ruin and beg.
gary to all of us. said the Colonel.
Then, as he looked half frantically
toward the closed shutters, where the
notice of bankruptcy was put up, his
eye fell on the widow and child. He
rushed toward them.
"Oh, my dear Mrs. Fendyke,' he
cried, what shall | say--what can
do? You think me scoundrel-"
He broke down at this, warrior of
many fields as he had been, the great
tears rolling over his cheeks as if he
had been a child. His nearer, for the
thought more of his sutferings
than of her own.
My dear colonel" she said. tears
coming into her own eyes, /" know it
was not your fault. You did it for the
best
"Y"s. for the best. And now,"
againrat sing his eyes to heaven, che
goes Unpublished. Great God, is there
such thing as justice.
Mrs. Fendyke put her hand in his.
" We must be patient Vengence
is mine, saith the Lord Ellen" she
1--WE must teach your father
patience, by showing how patient we
can be ourselves. 1t is beggary, ALSO
lutte beggary for me but"
Then she broke down, too All her
even her religion, for the
was Intellectual, in face of the
wolf at the door, the starvation almost
imminent. 1t was not herself, even
hen, however, that she thought of, but
her little daughter.
Our story is done. Alas it is not an
exceptional one. Mrs. Fendyke takes
sewing now for IL living, and mise
able living it is. The Colonel has
ound an humble position, in which he
barely earns enough to keep body and
soul together. Ellen goes out as IA gov.
,rnesS.
And the author of all this evil lives
uxurlously in the distant land to which
ie has fled, and never troubles himself
o think of his victims. Even when, as
viii sometimes happen, memory forces
hem on him, he dismsses them with a
ardonic smile.
1.-The fools, he says, Especially the
ear ola Colonel. They ought to have
.nown that big interest meant big ,
er risk. did them service after all
n teaching them the lesson. -