Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1886-03-05

You need be under no apprehension
about the expense to which you are likely to
put me. have Unexpectedly inherited what
Is to me handsome fortune.
THE same post which brought your aunts
letter brought line from lawyer, asking
me to see him on the subject of my late
fathers affairs i waited day or two be-
fore l could summon heart enough to see
him, or to see anybody, and then l went to
his office. You have heard that my fathers
bank stop ed payment at time OF COM
mercial panic His failure was mainly at
tributed to the treachery Of a friend to whom
he had lent large sum of money, and who
paid him the yearly interest without &C
knowledging that every farthing of it had
been lost in unsuccessful speculations. Tbs
son of this man has prospered in business,
and he has honorably devoted a part Of his
wealth to the payment of his fathers credit
ors Half the sum due my father has thus
passed into my hands as his next of kin, and
the other half to follow in course OF time: II
my hopes had been fulfilled, how gladly
should have shared my prosperity with you'll
As it is, have far more than enough for my
spend in your service.
God bless and prosper you. my dear. i
shall ask you to accept a little present from
me, among the other offerings that are
made to you before the wedding day u ".
The studiouslv considerable and delicate
zone in which these lines were written had
an effect on Isabel which was exactly the
opposite of the effect intended by the writer.
She burst into a passionate fit of tears, and in
the safe solitude of her own room the despair
ing words escaped her, ~ wish / had died
before met with Alfred Hardymanl"
As the days wore on, disappointments and
difficulties seemed, by kind of fatality, to
beset the contemplated announcement OF The
Miss Pink's asthma, developed by the nm
favorable weather, set the doctors art at
defiance, and threatened to keep that I'M
fortunate lady prisoner in her room on
the day of tn, party. Hardyman's invita-
lions were in some cases refused, and IN
others accepted by husbands, with excuses
for the absence of their wives. His elder
brother made an apology for himself as well
"With pleasure, dear Alfred, if my health
permits me to leave the house." Lady
1ydiard, invited at Miss Pink's special re-
quest, sent no reply. The one encouraging
circums ance was the silence OF Lady
Rotherfeld So long as her son received no
intimation to the contrary, it was sign
that Lord Rotherfield permitted his wife to
sanction the marriage by her presence.
Hardyman wrote to his imperial CORE
spondent, engaging to leave England on the
earliest possible day, and asking to be par
doned if he failed to express himself more
definitely, in consideration of domestic al
fairs which it was necessary to settle before
he started for the continent. If there should
not be time enough to write again, he prom,
ised to send Geographic announcement OF
his departure. Long afterward Hardyman
remembered the misgivings that had troubled
him when he wrote that letter. In the rough
draft of it he had mentioned, as his excuse
for not being yet certain of his own move
ments, that he expected to be Immediately
married. In the fair copy the vague fore
boding of some accident to come was 50
painfully present to his mind that he struck
out the words which referred to his mar
rage and substituted the designedly in
definite phrase domestic affairs"