The weekly Floridian. [volume] (Tallahassee, Fla.) 1867-19??, 1886-11-25

do such thing ?"
Lilias Wayland's round cheek was
blanched to an unwonted whiteness as
she stood before her brother in the close,
cramped room which constituted her sole
home.
Charley Wayland, handsome dissipa-
ted-looklng youth of two or three and
twenty, with bold, black eyes and a merry
mouth that seemed made only to smile,
sat opposite her, looking half-rcpentant,
half defiant, as she spoke.
Lilly, | couldn't help it. tell you
l was hard up. A fellow must have
money you women don't know anything
about the temptations and necessities Of
the world ~
"But, Charley" she faltered, edo 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 forgery p
" Nonsense, Lill It's only borrowing
a part of old Glencross' unused millions
to aid my needs. l wrote and asked him
for cash, and he, the unmannerly lout,
refused. Well, what could he expect
after this, but that l should help my
self?"
Lilias wrung her slender hands.
How dare you, Charley? That a
Wayland should come to this - she
walled.
"Dared !" he echoed, recklessly; cit
was but the stroke of 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 LiIias, almost frantically.
" If we could pay him in any way but l
have sold everything that remains of our
former wealth. See!' and she looked
round the miserable apartment. "See
how live! Last night sat up until
midnight sewing to have little money
to pay the rent. have not a jewel left,
nor a trinket''
ooh, bother, Lill If old Glencross
cuts up rough, it is only taking run
across the water. l know lots of ship
captains that would stow me away un-
der their holds, almost any moonlight
night"
Lilias looked dcspairingly at him.
Wac, 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. 81 must be off about my
business. Good-by, Lii. Give us kiss,
my girl. Except that you're uncommon
fond of lecturing 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 were placed All
now depended upon the spirit in which
Paulus Glencross should receive this new
encroachment upon his purse and pa
tience.
Lily had never seen this distant rela-
tion, yet she had formed an opinion Of
him in her inmost mind, as we are all apt
to do of unseen persons whom We hear
great deal about; and whenever she
thought of Mr.. Glencross the image of a
hook-nosed old man, yellow-skinned and
cadaverous, engaged in sorting over piles
of mortgages or counting bags of gold,
suggested itself to her mental eye.
"But he must be human, at least"
thought Lilly, in the agony Of her dis
tress. elf l 60 to him myself, and tell
him just what poor Charley's necessities
were, and how good hearted he is, in
spite of all his faults and thoughtlessness
If l say frankly to him that l 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 bave discharged the horrible debt,
surely, oh, surely he cannot have the
heart to refuse. can do a great many
things. / can sew and embroider and
can make good bread and biscuit, and
poor mamma always said / was a good
housekeeper, and if Mr.. Glencross is real
ly SO miserly as Charley thinks he would
look at the economy of the thing. At
least, it is worth trying.
So favorably did Lilias Wayland re-
gard this idea, broached in her sore ex-
tremity, that in two days from the eve
ming in which she had hidden good-by to
her handsome, reckless brother, she
stepped from the cars at the New York
depot, dressed in a sober brown suit that
made her look like a shrinking little
mouse, with her carpet bag in her hand.
A little inquiry sufficed to bring her
to the street where Mr.. Glencross resided
"a stately avenue, lined on either side
with elegant palaces, the like of which
Lilly had never seen in the palmer city
where she had been born and bred. Her
heart sank within her as she stood ON the
broad brown.stone steps leading up to the
carved rosewood door, on which silver
plate bore the name of "Glencross in
old English letters.
Then coloring deeply at her own cow.
ardly tremulousness and utter lack of all
resolution and enterprise, she rang the
bell to settle the question at once and
definitely.
els Mr.. Glencross at home ?" she asked
Of the colored servant who answered the
summons.
Yes, Mr.. Glencross was at home would
the young lady enter? And Lilias wa
shown into an apartment curtained with
heavy folds of purple satin and carpeted
with velvet of the same rich color, an
apartment whose dusky splendor made