The Press., 1888-01-26


 all day at his office in Water street. produc- ing an increased testiness under which his 1 clerks suffered and for which they could find no adeouate palliatioa in the current condi- tion of trade. Even one of his shippers con- descended to mention in the outer counting house that 1.-the boss was in a regular tear, raging like noreaster, and that all he, the sailor. could do was to reef sail and to bring up close to the wind.
 Old Godfrey was slowly working out a problem more troublesome than any supplied | by the figures on his ledgers or cargo sheets. | And at last he reached the goal of great de- cision. It was clear that his nephew was unfit to be intrusted with the round half million SO laboriously amassed. The scape- grace would make ducks and drakes of it. l Yet to disinherit him by will was an irksome procedure. and ran counter to lifelong pur- poses and prejudices. Old Godfrey had ever been ready with his sheer at merchants who scraped and saved and left their hoard, at their reluctant exit, to asylums or charities. And so far as he knew there was not even Q cousin half dozen times removed who could be dragged into the warm circles Of wealth while the delinquent was bidden stay out in the cold No; it was the choice of unwel- come alternatives that the shipbroker had faced. He might leave his nephew to pres ent content and future triumph. Or-the 1 first inception of the idea was attended by fierce mental throes that fully accounted for I irritability of temper-he might marry. Ana | to marry was his final resolve.
 l The revelation would have Nstounded his clerks and have at once amused and scan- Calized his neighbors and intimates And he opined, rightly or wrongly, Shat by it his misbehaved nephew would be thrown into consternation and despair. It was on this feature of the general effect that he fixed his prophetic gaze with most equanimity. The scamp deserved the punishment.
 Heroism was word contumelously dealt with in old Geofrey's private lexicon He professed to disbelieve in it altogether. His synonyms for it was vainglory-for the hum bier sort, fanaticism. Yet the quality was not absent from the purpose he was now shaping for immediate action. He was 60; all the ways of his daily life were ordered on a model tested and approved by prolonged experience; and it was understood with per feet correctness by the whole body of his as- sociates, whether in Water street or Sefton Park, that he was confirmed miogynist. And in spite of these facts he had determined to write this very evening an explicit pro posal of marriage to girl of whom he knew little more than that she was pretty-repute said cultured-and the daughter of his banker.
 The deed was done before hS again met the intractable nephew whose nose-he chuckled grimly to himself might thus in due time be effectually put out of joint.
 Young Godfrey failed pitiably to read the true meaning of his uncle's elaborate polite ness and elephantine mirth at the dinner table. Generally dreary function at Elgin house was that of the great social feasti He fancied that the sky was clear again; that his uncles wrath was appeased. He learned bet ter when the solemn visaged butler had with drawn.
 "Uml I think it right to inform you Geoff, that intend shortly to change my state-to marry" said old Godfrey.
 A wine glass was shivered, slipping in some occult way to the polished floor. But there was no other overt symptom of disconcert ment on the listeners part. A Middleton tc the core, he simply answered:
 "Indeed! Allow me to congratulate you sir"
 And old Godfrey was strangely vexed al the sturdy restraint and the family phlegn which in similar position would have char acterized himself.
 IL
 ''This means, don't you see, an end to idle dreaming, Dicks. I'll just have to buckle tt work and coerce Dame Fortune ill spite o4 her frowns. But I'd take it better, think if the governor had gone about this freak for such I cA1l it-after my latest scrape And shouldn't have been as much surprised then. But he must have settled it long ago He announced it as fact already in process of fulfIlment. He dropped word or two in the morning as was doing penance oi confession, but didn't take much heed then I shall have to now"
 1 Mr. Godfrey Middleton the younger wa. discussing with the old friend and ally whose post he had taken at York the untoward al teration of his prospects disclosed to him or the previous evening. And not unnaturally though in this instance enormously, he gave his uncle credit for acting with mature de l liberation.
 Edgar Dicks clapped him on the shoulder
 Spoken like Briton," he cried; "but rC have taken oath that tho old fellow had mort sense Yes, and better regard for you Who is the fair beguiler? She'll have prize. ehg'
 "She will speak in all seriousness. No a syllable can or shall be uttered by my lip against my uncle. And he has perfect righ to do as he pleases in this matter. But wht is to be the future Mrs. Middleton am a ignorant, Dicks, as you are."
 "You asked him, surelyF'
 "Not l. suppose my wretched pride go ' blow at last"
 ''Whewl You're queer pair. Eccentric ity must be hereditary; here's the proof"
 And Dicks ended with laugh, compound ed in about equal parts of admiration, pity and amusement-admiration for his com rades chivalrous defense of the imperious olC ship broker, pity for young Geoffrey's ab ruptly overloaded hopes, and amusement at the humor of the off hand avownl whicl Godfrey had described.
 At the same instant Dicks recollected O cal he had to make in Park street They wer, far up Princes road.
 ''I shall have to wish you good morning Middleton; it won't do to neglect duty, anc the beckoning hand is at my rear"
 The friends parted. Godfrey strolleC moodily along, battling with a certain temp tation which was sure to attack him as h. neared Princes park. In house to his righ resided Dusa Venn, a girl whom yesterday he had dared to picture on the canvas of ar exuberant fancy as his wife, but who now was as far above him as the star is evel above the moth. Her friends were rich, anC he was poor geon-nothing more. Hac he not been duly warned that to build ar airy castle on the basis of great inherit ance, as in the past he had been apt to do, was simply to set premium or disappointment and disaster2 Hencefortl he would walk among realities, and as he had assured Dicks, put a decisive period to day dreams. It was hard, all the same, to recognize that the acquaintance that had begun so blithely at Christmas when ~Dusa had returned from Germany and the hope of continuing and developing 1 which had secretly combined with his none tarv need to bring him now to Liverpool