St. Landry democrat., 1885-04-04

iects to it-quite the contrary; but the
mere fact of his continuing to exist,
and thereby retaining possession fof his
money, which would otherwise come to
me, is an effectual bar to our happiness.
Dear Julia is a charming girl, but, like
the young lady in the song, her face is
her fortune, and it is hardly to be sup
posed that /, Benjamin Grylls, clerk
in.her Majesty's Civil Service at ESQ
year, could marry on that, even with
the additional hundred or so my uncle
allows me. Really the parallel was
wonderfully close. In some respects,
indeed, mine was the strongest case.
For Rev. Walter Dene's uncle was not
(save by the mere fact of his eXistence)
Objectionable. Mine Das! Not to men
ton his disgusting habit Of calling me
Benny, and of cracking what he was
pleased to consider jokes at my expense,
he had sundry manners and customs
which, to delicate-minded person,
were extremely offensive. He 's0oatd
wear an old serge jacket and carpet
slippers, and not unfrequently he would
come down to breakfast without collar
or necktie, and not always in the clean
est of shirts. Now if there is one thing
more than another on which | pride
myself, it is my shirts I always wear
| (Uncle Thomas pays the laundress
| billy clan shirt every day, and my
cuffs and collars are the envy of all the
fellows in our office.
Tcome down to breakfast, fiatter my
self, like gentleman. Uncle Thomas
shambles in ten minutes or a quarter OF an
hour later, with his carpet slippers, his
shirt front rumpled as if he had slept in it,
and very often so frayed out at the button
holes that the studs won t hold III them.
When / entreat him to show more self
| respect. and to buy himself half q doz-
en- OF decent shirts, the old reprobate
| actually has the coarseness to tell me
he can't afford it. ''Ah, Benny, my
boy" he often says, "you haven't an
| extrayagant nephew to keep going, as
/ have And then he laughs till he
nearly chokes himself, and [ have to
slap him on the back to bring him to,
I hate man who laughs at his own
jokes. And of an evening he drinks
two tumblers of hot gin-and-water. and
| then he throws his handkerchief (col-
ored cotton) over his head and SHORES.
| Surely If Walter Dene was excusabte IN
getting rid Of such comparatively in
| offensive uncle as his, / should be more
than justified in removing mine. And
then, again, there was nobody to regret
my uncle. Walter Dene's uncle may
have had any number of other relations;
| it is clear that he had at least one other
nephew, because Walter had brother.
My uncle had not soul in the world to
regret him but myself, and if | was pre-
pared to waive my personal feelings.
surely no one else had any right to
interfere. Of course I am not talking
of the legal aspects of the question. 1t
has always been my principle to let the
lawyers have as little as possible to do
with my affairs, and so delicate a mat
ter as the present must clearly be kept
as remote as possible from legal COM
plications. Lawyers don't recognize
that higher law, that sublimated expe
diency on which Walter Dene founded
his course of action. Walter Dene was
fully satisfied of the perfect propri-
ETY. of his conduct, but he took good
care Notwithstanding not to let the law
into his secret, and so must /
-A1sd so must I! Good Heavens! was
I actually planning the destruction of
my innocent relative, from whom I
had only that morning received a check
for EGO? Perish the thought! And yet
there was Julia. Her happiness
surely ought to be considered, and her
happiness, or very large portion of it,
depended upon her being united to me.
So that it really was not question
solely of my duty to my uncle, but of
Julia. And then, myself. surely I was
entitled to a little consideration. As
Walter Dene very neatly puts it: 'tHere
was Christmas happiness and his own
on the one hand, set in the scale against
the feeble remnant of selfish old mans
days on the other For christina
read Julia and for This own my,
own and there you are! Then, again,
every one admits in these enlightened
days that the greatest happiness of the
greatest number is the true test of mo-
rality. Julia and I were clearly the
number, for we were two to one
Really, the arguments all pointed one
way.
| tried to dismiss the matter from my
mind, but it wouldn't be dismissed. /
argued the matter seriously with my
self tried to trot up my uncle's
virtues and to see precisely what the
world would lose by losing him. He
was good-natured-I felt bound to adj
NIT that much in his favor. Secondly,
he was honest; though there wasn't
much credit in that, seeing that he had
no temptation to the contrary. Thirdly,
he was-he was No, for the life Of
me / couldn't think of any other yir-
tue that he could fairly claim credit