The Dickinson press., 1885-01-03

poor little Mabel, and these peos
pie are determined to get me married.
I'd better break my bond before it's too
late"
MI. Creighton, I would like to speak
with you for q moment, please"
Con turned with a start and encoun.
tered his lawyer, Arthur Gray. ofthe firm
Of Gray & Myers, solicitors. :
Certainly, MI. 0rayl What's the
business now?"
Rather an unpleasant business, lam
sorry to say, sir. But will you step in
my Office, where I can fully explain?"
So Con followed him in, and waited
to hear what the UNPLEASANT business
might be.
you are aware, sir, that your late
uncle, from whom you inherit your for
tune, died intestate-or, I should say,
was thought to have died intestate.
%wlereupon, you were his heir at-law.
A few days since, however, we made,
what to you must prove q painful discov-
ery-viz., the certificate of his marriage
and a half-drawn-up will, in which he
bequeathed all he possessed to his I'M
acknowledged wife, or l.er children,
should she have any. After dilligent
inquiries we have discovered that the
late Mrs. Creighton died in giving birth
to a child, but the child is still living,
so, my dear Mr.. Creighton, with deep.
sorrow, I must inform you that you
are'-
"Penniless!" finished Con, gloomily,
but with deliberation.
"Not quite, Mr.. Creighton. Your ia
Their left you $4,000, which is some
thing. though considerably less. than
100000. You. cousin arrived to-day,
I believe"
Poor Con! He didn't care very much
if she arrived; but he managed
to get into the street without disgrace
fully showing his feelings, and then,
by way of keeping up the illusion tried
to WHISTLE .@ s.sA..~ ...
But the effort was a miserable failure,
for, after all, it's no joke to find me-
self suddenly precipitated fromthe pin
nacle of millionalreship.
"Well after all, there's n comfort"
he said. returning to his %soliloquv;
EMILY Cummings won't want me now,
so | fancy I'll give her warming. Mabel
will take me. rich or poor, and I hope
I'm not such a miserable coward as to
shirk the labor of q man."
His meditations brought him up in
front of the Cummings' residence.
Five minutes, after he was sitting in
the daintiest Of boudoirs, Emily before
him in the mist recherche of French
morning robes, fragrant with the sub
tlest of French perfumes.
"You look dreadfully tired, Con.
Have you been walking very far?" she
asked, a sweet sympathy percepti-
bic in her voice, and o tender anxiety
in her luminous ewes. :.
"Not particularly far. but I have had
bad news; and, as a general thing, that
is more harassing than the mere effort
of walking"
Con had a way Of plunging right in.
to difficulties, and now he wanted to be
over with it.
why, what news have you had?
Nothing very serious, I hope"
ooh, not at all! Only that I've lost
every penny of the fortune my uncle
left mel"
He now noticed with great satisfao-
tion that her fair face grew very white,
and that she Instantly put on an indie
scribably expression of withdrawal. ,
"Lost, Ell? Oh, no! How?"
ooh, in a romantic way Of course.
It seems that my supposed bachelor I'M
Gle was in reality a Benedict, but rs his
marriage was a secret one, and the girl
was not Of his own social status, nobody
knew anything about it, so he told her,
the ceremony was false, and left her.
She died heartbroken, but left an heir
or heiress. l don't know which. This
child takes the silver spoon out of my
mouth, and I, as you see, lose G1O0 900
and am ruined. Plain and lucid. isn't
it?"
But Emily didn't answer; she was
growing over her fallen castles, musing
over her unpaid bills, and wondering
whether her father could stand this
last stroke of misfortune. 80.
"Of course, Emily, I came to you at
once to release you, if you wished, from
our engagement. Reared as you have
been, L could not expect you to marry q
poor man; and, indeed, Ifear that, in
my changed circumstances, I would be
no fit husband for you. 49,.
Then Emily Cummings showed that,
girl that she was, she was equal to the
occasion.
Standing fully before him, where the
light, fell directly on the beautiful,
naughty face and slender, graceful fig
ure, she assisted him out of his difficult
ty with an ease and grace that was al
most superb.
"Ican readily perceive, Mr.. Creigh-
ton, that it is your wish that our en-
gagement should end, and knowing this,
[ should be the last one to oppose your
in%clinations. AS regards your loss, I
sympathize with you sincerely, but I
cannot fail to rejoice that it happened
before I awoke to the fate of an IN
loved wife"
She paused for breath, and, then as
Con stood in shameful and. it must be
confessed, slightly disguised %silence,
she went OIL. "And now, Mr.. Creigh-
ton, rather than prolong our unpleas-
ant interview; had we better not say
Goodbye"
So, for the last time, Con went down
the marble stairs, saving to himself,
cat any rate, I still have two thousand
and Mabel"
He walked along the streets, feeling
his spirits considerably lighter, his
troubled conscience comparatively at
rest; but just as he reached his mothers
residence Gray onoe more encountered