Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1886-10-09
4 PRODIGAL SON.

- ~ 1EN%h $500 y" 49, 49, E1A II
with his admirable elder son Joseph By his
side. The old gentleman was a good deal
shaken since that dreadful business about
his son Jack. Society talked of it for quite
three days, and my friend John Carlton
was nearly worn OFT his legs running from
club to club repeating the story. Sir Peters
kind old face frightened in return for a
friendly greeting, but there was a vast deal
more sorrow than Joy in his smile.
Says Mrs. M%ountchester to me as we
drove past and exchanged greetings, airily
whipping up her dapper gray ponies !:
Now, I really do think the old gentleman
ought to put q better face on it. He had
one son who had all the vices extant, and
the other every imaginable virtue but
why doesn't he strike q balance as they do
at his bank, and set off one against the
other"
Certainly Joseph Euston looked the in
carnation OF high-class British virtue.
People were always making him their ex-
ecutor and leaving him handsome legacies
the middle-aged folks were never happy
till he was guardian and godfather TO their
children and the young folks appointed
him trustee to any number of marriage
settlements. Now and then you saw his
name as director of some very fat
and flourishing company, and its fatness
and its flourish were generally due 10 the
value attaching to his name. When you
had secured his patronage for any under
taking you might be quite sure II would
ride on the top of the tide and ultimately
secure firm anchorage in the harbor of
HI. -sns-- 1ya-- 4lr4 H. Eaosatr-
for Christian PotbOys was on its very last
legs when he gave il his sanction; and
now .its scarcely decent to die without
leaving it q legacy in your will. Decorum,
proprietv, and responsibility had ruled his
life from the cradle upward. He was that
entirely Odious thing q we%ll-conducted boy.
l don't like decorous boys, and / didn't
like him. He never tore his clothes nor
got into debt; he could not have climbed
a tree TO save his life; and he would as
soon nave broken into a church as robbed
q henroost. No one ever was known 10
call him Joe, or chatf him, or play any
tricks on him. Al! the deviltry OF the
family centered in Jack, and left nothing
but all the domestic virtues for Joseph.
Add to his virtues an extremely courteous
manner and to his manner q soft winning
voice, and to both a well-secured income OF
10000 q year, and tell me if Hannah
More ever conceived z more noble and per
feet hero.
That very evening I was playing q rub
Der al old Lady Chelsea's. l always left
her house considerably richer in scandal
but decidedly poorer IN pocket. Between
the hands Lady C. would distribute crumbs
of the very latest gossip, and any social
chick-a-biddy might pick them up. So
says my Lady Chelsea 4 hear Joseph
Eust0n is secured at last
The dealer paused in his deal as q chorus
Of inquiries rose. Little Cecil Digby, Who
was my partner. raised his hand and said
"Ill lay ten to one | can spot the girl"
The creature is detestably slangy," says
Lady c., leaning back in her chair. y
have d great mind TO win your money, Mr..
Dighy. I think | might give the party q
guess all round and yet keep my secret"
Why, Lady Chelsea, cries Cecil, 50 all
the world knew the day before yesterday
that she beautiful Nankee heIress, Miss
DiRah 3. Chicago, had landed the prize
Lacy G. shakes her head and says: AL
the world is wrong, as usual. Guess again
/ then hazard the remark as Mrs. Wuks
Wheeler has been angling for him for her
third girl for two years (and mark you, Mrs.
w. Wheeler was the most successful prize
taker Tor the last three seasonsl, IL was
probable that this accomplished lady had at
last brought matters TO q crisis. Their
came more shakes Of my lady's head, aud
further random guesses on the part Of the
guests then an interval of silence as Lady
CheiseR's most oracular voice announced
the name Of Lady Olivia Pi%antagenet.
The rubber was suspended for several min
utes while we expressed our surprise.
And now must tell you something about
Lady Olivia, and how it all came about.
For three seasons every well-thlnk-
ing mother in B%elgraYis with any
thing in the shape of q mar
Tigce4ble daughter had spread her nets
abroad for Joseph Euston- When bis
father died be would be Sir Joseph, and in
the meanwhile he was practically the
senior partner in the famous old bank Of
Huston, Curtis & Langbam. P~hilanthropic
mothers with tendencies toward Exeter
Hall had laid desperate and insidions
siege to his heart. 1t is on record that
pretty and skittish Miss B~outhower, old
Sir Christopher's only daughter, actually
became a Deaooness and renowned the
gsyelies Of a whole London season, all N
hopes of securing Joseph. She never IN
dulged I'D q single f~riyolity that season. ex-
cept one fancy bazaar TO which Joseph was
inveigled. He attended the bazaar, bought
many of her knickknacks, but, alas did
not purchase the fair salesHoman. could
count up a dozen cases in which he was
nearly secured. and then, at the last
moment, he managed to escape the landing
net: always, l must own, in q perfectly
deeorous manner. And now to think that
Lady Olivia Piantagenet had secured him,
rather had condescsnded to secure him
for you must know that the Lady Olivia
was, as it were, q species OF gsnglion, or
gathering together, Of the bluest Of all blue
blood. She was the only daughter OF
the Duke of hartford, and, il all
conscience, his daughter ought TO be
tolerably blue-blooded, especially when I
tell YOU that her mother was the Hon.
Emilia Buchanan Denzil (the Worcester
Denzils, if you please; not the left-handed
Warwickshire bTanch). In the face OF
such facts 1t is evident that millions Of
years OF natural selection, carried out IN
Darwinian or any other principal you like,
could never have produced such q double
distilled azure as the blood that ran in the
Lady Oliyia's veins[I don't suppose it
ran. ii coursed in a stately way. Well,
Lady Olivia was very naughty and besuti-
fol. She had very little money and less
brains. ! have even heard coarse plebeian
folks whisper that she was q fool but this
was mauifestly untrue. az her conduct
throughout this tickiish matter a~bundanty
proves. Still, for all that, | must own l
never heard Lady Olivia make any remarks
except extremely stuPlu uSOolOu OheS'
Talking to her was like conversing with
something between q statue and g sheep.
The old Duke of hartford was ~drsadfully
Door for a Duke. Their place down in
Sonersetshire wgs half shut up. He sold
his game (they do say he turned an honest
penny by his grapes and pinesl, and It be-
came absolutely necessary that Lady Olivia
should marry money.
Mrs. Mountchester says she was desper-
ately in love at II, with what she called a
mere sailor-I believe he WAS the third son
of an Admiral Anyway, it came 70
nsught, and Lady Olivia froze up and had
remained frozen up ever since. She was
q, and in the full prime of her stately and
rather marmorsal beauty. when she des-
uied Joseph Euston on the far boTison.