Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1890-08-07
CHaPTER VI.


THE PRIVATE sECRETARY.
The night of the horrible accident had
passed. The new day had come, with it's
heavy burden OF cares and sorrOWs and
pains.
The day. too, wore away. the shadows
of another night fell, and deepened more
and more the gloom that pervaded the
rich but splrit-depTessIng library Of the
Hon. Sherwood Elliston.
Presently the door opened, and woman
stood upon the threshold OF the room,
glance into the apartment caused
frown to settle on her glorious brow.
The servant had neglected to light the
study lamp.
She took step forward and touched
the bell. A fOOt-man appeared with sur
prising celebrity.
"A light, she said, pointing to the ar
gand burner, and then sank YEARLY into
the great easy chair that some time before
had been occupied by her husbands
nephew.
The lamp was lighted, the porcelain
shade properly adjusted, and the servant
retired. Then Cora ElIiston turned eager
~ to the evening paper she held in her
hand.
It did not take her long to find the
heading she was in search of.
ANOTHER HORRIBLE RAILWAY
ACCIDENT!
"A REGULAR TRAIN RUNS INTO A sPE-
GAL, IS TELEsCOPED, THROWN
DOWN AN EAIBANK8IEET
AND TAKES FIRE!s
IlUPuty- three Passengers Killed and
Burned! As Many More Wounded!
"A Complete List of the Victims"
1t was this list that fixed the lady's at
tention, and eagerly she scanned the
Yes, it was there!
Mildred L. Cleveland, wife of Eugene
Cleveland"
Dead! Ahi that was more than she had
hoped for. That was almost too good to
be true. Where was Oscar Slyme? How
dare he stay away so long, when he must
know she was dying to learn exactly what
had happened?
Once more she looked at the heading,
and then slowly and carefully read the
article through from beginning to end.
IF there is no mistake-if the girl is
really dead, nothing could have happened
better, she murmured. Luck will have
played into my hands wonderfully;
but"
A discreet knock at the door attracted
attention.
Come in, she called eagerly, and the
stranger of the Grand Central depot, Of
the train, and Of the scene of the accident,
slid, rather than walked, into the room
Oscar Slyme was the private secretary
of the Hon. Sherwood EllistOn. He was
a man Of, it may be, thirty-fve years of
age. He had been called handsome, and
by some even notwithstanding, and,
lie, at least, believed IN his own good
looks, and secretly datteTed himself on a
certain Tesem blance to the august person
age whose secretary he was. Partly from
nature, and partly from the constant imi-
tatiOn to which he submitted himself this
idea had some foundation, for he re-
sembled the stately Mr. EllistOn as much
as a vulgar man can resemble one of high
polish.
He was the son of a small manufacturer
father an honestly acquired fortune, and
had dlssipated it in the various enter
prises of his adventurous life.
The influence of his college, however,
obtained for him place in the Depart
ment of State at Washington. He left it
to come to New York and study law;
placed himself with an attorney; attempt
ed literature without success; gambled at
one of the most fashionable dens, and
lost there.
He had successfully knocked with fever
ish hand at all the doors of fortune, and
none had opened to him, because, though
his ambition was great, his capacity was
limited.
The subordinate positions, for which
alone he was fit, he did not want. He
would have made q very good schoolmas-
ter. He sighed to be a poet
He would have been respectable vii
lage rector. He pined to be a bishop.
Fitted for an excellent private secre-
IaIys ne dSplE6U 10 DC a member or the
Presidents Cabinet In fine, he wished
to be a great man, and consequently was
a failure as little one.
But he made himself a bypocrite; and
that he found much easier. He fortified
himself on the one hand by fraternizing
with the free-thinkers of the Ing6rsoll
school: on the other, by joining the
orthodox people of certain very religious
community.
By these influences he cOntrived to Sc
cure the secretaryship to the Hon. Sher-
wood EllistOn, who, in his efforts to bring
about his election to the United States
Senate, needed the services Of a person
possessing certain qualifications, and in
his general contempt of the human
species he judged Slyme would answes
his purpose quite as well as another.
Now, as doubtless the reader under
stands, Sherwood Elliston was anything
but what is called a really good man;
hence, familiarity with him was morally,
feaTfullY preJudiciGl to the secretary. It
had, it is true, the effect Of stripping of
his devout mask which he seldom put on
before his employer, but it terribly in
creased in venom the depravIty which
disappointment and wounded pride had
secreted in his liberated heart.
Of course Mr.. ElllstOn never took the
trouble to demOralize his secretary; but
contact, intimacy and example suficed to
do this.
A secretary is always more or less a.
cOnfidant. He divines that which is not
revealed o him, and SlYme could not be
long in discovering that his employers
success In life did not arise, in morals,
from too much principle-ln politics,
from excess of cOnYictiOn-in business,
from a mania for scruples!
no BE coSTINUED.I
Was Original.