Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1886-07-18
CHAPTER II.
THE MILLIONAIRE.


! 'sVanity Fair" to adopt Thackery's met
aphor, than Scarborough; and its gayety
was at the highest point when ! reached 1t
on that pleasant August afternoon. The
hotelswere full, the promenade was crowded
every morning and evening, the band
played its best, the weather was perfect
during the long warm days, and every night
| there was ball ut one or other Ofthe hotels.
1t should have been impossible for a
Young man who had no private cares to
worry him, was passably well of, and who
was now emerging from the shadow OF be-
reavement, to feel dull in such place.
And yet never did | spend duller or more
miserable week than that which followed
nv arrival at the Grand hotel.
Day after day went, Immediately after
breakfast, 10 the famous Spa grounds,
haunting them till / became conscious OF
the fact that men and women alike specu-
lated as to my identity. Night after night
| was found in the same spot watching the
giddy, laughing throng Of pleasure seekers,
the Young, the old, the rich, and the poor,
the wise, the foolish, as they sauntered up
ane down listening to the mingled music OF
the band and of the sea. / even went to
some of the balls at the various hotels, and
mingled with the risky matrons, the dOwdy
country girls, and the men of doubtful an
teoedepts and qnprepossessing appearance,
who seemed to constitute the stock company
at these entertainments. | went every
where where my fellow creatures were In
the habit of cOngregating, and gave every
hour of my time that was not spent in SLEEP
to the search on which | was intent But
all was in vain.
Twas angry with myself because of the
bondage in which my fancy held me, and
again and again / thought of flying from
the scene and forgetting everything IN dis
tant travel. But whenever | was on the
point of carrying out this intention my
resolution failed ME. The picture of the
| loveliest face ! had ever seen rose before
my eyes. ! saw her once again, as had
seen her when she stood before me, her hand
resting lightly in my own, and her glance
answering mine, as she spoke the few com
monplace words which were her only fare
well. And whenever that vision presented
itself to me, the spell was thrown over mt
afresh, and admitted to myself that had
met my fate-and succumbed to it.
Yet there was nothing that was plcasur'
able in nv mood even as those moments
when l thought only of the girls beauty
and grace. l could not drive from my
recollection the memory of that other face
the face of the man who | had struck
down ut the railway station at York.
! Whenever thought of the one the features
of the other Obtruded themselves upon ME.
| rb,t 4 hn of thiS Ct 20
when she had appealed to me to drive this
man from her presence? My heart grew
! hot with anger and bitter with unavailing
! jealousy rs | reflected that at least he must
have known her far better than | did, and
that, deeply as she might hate him or fear
him, he possessed some power over her OF
which knew nothing.
What was the mystery associated with
! that beautiful face? In vain l racked my
brain for some solution of the enigma.
only knew that in some fashion, holy or
unhOly, this girl, who in brief hour OF
| time had made me more completely her slave
! than any other human being had eyer done,
was associated with the man, vicious and
vulgar, whose air of ipsolent triumph as he
greeted her could never recall without a
| WAS lub waning OlhSA
diversions in Scarborough besides those OF
which have spoken, but cared for none
of them, and, as the days passed, and my
search met with no success, | would fam
have shrunk even from the accidental ac-
quaintances had made in the hotel. 1t
was only at the dinner table, indeed, or in
the smC king room late at night, that l ever
exchanged word with fellow creature.
llr0und me, however, there was enough
and more than enough, of noisy talk to hide
my sullen and self-absOrbed silence. Nor
could shut my mind to a knowledge of
the fact that all Scarborough was just then
buzzing with excitement over new topic
of interesting gossip.
1t was one Of the society journals which
had set the story, about which all were
now talking, aaoat. The gay watering
place had, il seemed, received, among its
summer guests, one who was exceptionally
distinguished. 1t was not that he was OF
high rank or of great genius. Rank and
| genius are novelties to be found at times
even at Scarborough, but they do not ap-
pear to make any great impression upon
the ordinary frequenters of the place. That
which SET everybody talking about Mr..
Mauleverer, the gentleman whose presence
in Scarborough had been chroniCled in the
society journal in question, was his enor-
nous wealth. People talked of it, specu-
lated upon ii, gloated over it; and men and
women alike were Wild with anxiety to be
brought into close contact with one whose
riches were said to be fabulous in their
amount
Mr.. Muleverer, discovered from what |
saw in the newspapers and heard from those
round me, was millionaire of the new style
He was supposed to be some distant con-
nection of the old Lancashire family of the
same name. But though English in blood
and name, he was not English by birth or
upbringing. He was colonist, and had
been born and spent all his life in Australia
The scandal-lOving throng with whom l
mixed in the hotel or on the promenade
made light of his origin: Therewere some,
indeed, some who professed to know on the
best authority" which the tale bearer al
ways has ut his command, that he was the
son of convict, a man who had disgraced
his family in the early part of the present
century, and who had expiated his sins by
transportation. There were Others who
even limited that he himself was not free
from reproach. But upon two points there
was no doubt in the mind Of anybody
The first was, that the man was enormously
rich-rieh beyond the dreams of avariee-
and the other, that he was a bachelor of
something more chan middle age.
As TO the manner in which he had made
the five millions sterling. with the posses