Millheim Journal. [volume] (Millheim, Pa.) 1876-1984, 1886-10-21
Her Brothers Debt.

oH, SHdIley' ShailSS, ho" Soo'o
you do such thing p
Liias Waylanu's round cheek was
bIanched to an unwonted whiteness as
she stood before her brother in the
close, cramped room which constituted
her sole home.
Charley Wayland, a handsome dissi-
pated looking youth of two or three
and twenty, with bold, black eyes and
a merry mouth that seemed was only
made to smile, sat opposite her, look
ing half repentant, half defiant, rs size
spoke.
Lilly, l couldn't help it. l tell you
| was hard up. A fellow must have
money you women don't know any
thing about temptations and necessi-
ties of the world y
But, Charley, she faltered, do you
know how this same world as you phrase
it. looks at the deed you have just COM
mitted ? Oh, Charley, and her voice
grew low and tremulous, it is a for
gerry =
Nonsense, Lill It's only borrow
ing a part Of old Glencross' unused
mill ons to aid ny needs. | wrote and
asked him for cash, and he, the un-
munnerly lout. refused. Well, what
could he expect after this, but that |
should help myself ?
Lilas wrung her slender hands.
How dare you, Charley That a
Wayland should come to this y she
walled.
Dared = he echoed, recklessly 1T
was but the stroke Of the pen, after all;
and old Glencross would be a paltrier
miser than | take him to be if he
makes fuss about matter of five
hundred dollars
1T is the right and the justice of the
thing cried Lilias, almost frantically.
IF we could pay him in any way but
have sold everything that remains of
our former wealth. See y and she
looked around the miserable apart
ment. See how live Last night l
sat up until midnight sewing to have
little money to pay the rent. l have
not a jewel left nor trinKet.'
'Oh, bother, Lill If old Glencross
cuts up rough, it is only taking run
across the water. | know lots Of ship
captains that would stow me away un-
der their holds, almost any moonlight
night
Lilias looked despairingly at him.
Was it, then, impossible to make him
comprehend the moral obliquity of the
deed he had just committed
But can't stay fooling here OBJ.
served the young man, with a toss of
his black curls 4 must be off about
my business. Good-by, Lii. Give us
a kiss, my girl. Except that you're
uncommon fond of lecturing a fellow,
you're not bad sister in the main.'
After he had gone Lilias sat down to
try and realize the new situation In
which she and her brother we've placed.
All now depended upon the spirit in
which Paulus Glencross should receive
this Lew encroachment upon his purse
and patience.
Lily had never seen this distant re-
lation, yet she had formed an opinion
of him in her lnmost mind, as we are
all apt to do of dnsten persons whom
we hear great deal about and when
ever she thought Of Mr.. Glencross the
image of hook nosed old man, yellow
skinned and cadayerous, engaged in
sorting oyer piles of mo rtgages or
counting bags of gold, suggested itself
to her mental eye.
But he must he human, at least
thought Lily, in the agony of her dis
tress. If | 60 to him myself, and tell
him just what poor Charley's necessi-
ties were, and how good hearted he is
i'm spite of all his faults and thought
lessn ess-if 1 say frankly to him that |
have no money nor jewels to reimburse
him, but that will stay and work for
him, as a servant girl might work in
the kitchen, until I have discharged
the horrible debt, surely oh, surely he
cannot have the heart to refuse. l can
do a great many things. can sew and
embroider, and / can make good bread
and biscuit, and poor mamma always
said | was good housekeeper, and if
Mr.. Glencross is really so miserly as
Charley thinks he would look at the
economy of the thing. At least, it is
worth trying.
So fayorably did Lilias Wayland re-
gard this idea, broached in her sore ex-
tremity, that in two days from the
evening in which she had hidden good
by to her handsome, reckless brother,
she stepped from the cars at the New
York depot, dressed in sober brown
suit that made her look like shrink
ing little mouse. with her carpet bag in
her hand.
A little inquiry suf1iced to bring her
to the street where Mr.. Glencross re-