Omaha daily bee., 1885-08-29

- NAANA w u HtNANCIl
of his son, and we are informed that prone
legal proof as to the identity of the boy Wi
be hereafter adduced.
eve are, gentlemen,
"Your obedient servants,
"BLACKETT AND W1GGENs."
No wonder that after reading the lastpara
graph, and realizing the fact that the mai
with the terrible name meant to fight for hi
offspring, Horace CALCULATED: "The chill,
must be given upl' No wonder that Herber
in his turn echoed his brothers exclamation
Unimagiuative as they were, q dreadful pic
ture of the consequences Of resistance fxet
itself OF the mental retina of each.
But Beatrice was by far the most agitatet
of the party. Her cheek grew white; th,
hand which she mechanically held out for tb,
letter trembled. Herbert gave her the epis
tolary bombshen, and whilst she read it tn,
two brothers gazed at each other in thai
sadly calm and gravely reflective way a
times natural to men whose minds arc made
up that a particular path Of duty must at ali
cost be trodden to the end. When such O
gaze passes from man to man it strengthen.
the feet Of each to tread the stony course.
Beatrice read the letter twice. Without O
word she returned IL to Herbert; then she
walked across the room to the fireplace and
stood for some minutes tapping her foot upon
the fender. Her back being turned to the
Talberts they could not see the supreme emo.
ton shown by her contracted brow and in
every line of her set, white face. Had they
seen it they would have been more than sur.
prised-they would havo been shocked.
Strong emotion was a thing to be shown by
well-bred persons only under the most intense
provocation. In this case it was uncaIled
for.
Presently the girl turned to them. "You
have quite made up your minds to yield to
these peoples threatT' she asked. There was
a curious strained sound in her voice.
1--WE cando nothing else, !" answered Horace.
Herbert nodded a sad assent to his brothers.
view of the case.
Nothing else!' echoed Beatrice with a
touch of scorn in her voice. ''What right
can these people have to the boy7 1t is not
theirs. Uncle Horace, Uncle Herbert, YOU
can remember how he was sent here. How
beautifully dressed he was-how thoroughly
cared for. Can you, can any one for O
moment imagine him as belonging to such
persons? What are theyl Pork butchers,
you said.n
"P~urveyors," ~interpolated Horace, who
loved to be precise.
"How is it possible no can be their childg'
urged Beatrice.
people in any station of life may have
children, my dear" said Herbert, u~ttering
the truism like q ~newly-found proverb OF
Solomon.
"And," said Horace, speaking more to the
point, the broad fact remain that they
claim the child and are prepared to make
that claim good before tie magistrates"
tn most accomplished jack-of-all-trades
generally breaks down when he interprets
law-Horace was no exception. Had he
known that Messrs. Blackett and Wiggens
could only obtain possession of their clients
child by n writ of habeds corpus or some
such mysterious operation in a civil court he
might have felt more inclined to disregard
the threat Of Immediate legal action.'' As
it was, his ignorance of criminal law inter-
preted the vague threat as conveying the
awful terrors Of a magisterial summons. His
mistake shows how much better it would be
for the general public if they consulted
inevery eme~rgency-and how much
better for solicitorsl
Before the magistrates, mydear Beatrice"
echoed Herbert, dutifully accepting his
version of the law.
"Tell them to do so-tell them to prove
their right said Beatrice.
The brothers held up their long, shapely
hands in horror. 'My dear Beatrice" said
Horace, with the solemnity of a bishop re-
able-we only ask you to be reasonable. How
can wepossibly appear before the bench and
contest this claim? Fancy the talk-the ridi-
cule! You must see the utter absurdity of
your suggestion-the utter i~mpossibility Of
C11r rpmnliDuca