Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-01-25
written for THE EvESrSo STAR.
whose Was THE HAND?
BY MISS BRADDON.
Author Of LADY Andlsys Secret" Like and Unlike,
'Ishmael," The Day VIII Come" &c.
tALL RIGHTS Reviewed.
CHAPTER VI.
pkIsY's DIARY.

enough OF Uncle Ambrose or of his goodness TO
me. know she is grateful to him and proud
of nv progress. which is all his work. But
now and then il seems to me that she keeps
him too much at a distance. instead OF treating
him as il he were her brother and really my
uncle She very seldom comes into the morn
ing room while 1 am at my studies there. and
there are many days when he leaves the house
at O'Clock without having seen her. Once In
a wav she asks him to stop to lunch and when
she does can see his pale. fair face light up
suddenly with a flush of pleasure, and he is
full OF lie and talk at luncheon. he who is gen.
orally so calm and placid. like deep water; and
after lunch he fingers and fingers in the garden
or in the drawing room. till mother is obliged to
ask him to stay to tea and after tea he goes away
slowly and reluctantly. lingering to the very
last, lingering at the gate if it is fine weather,
and mother and I so out with him to say
good-by.
He is so fond Of us both, 1t is the little gate
in the fence near his cottage at which we say
good-by to Uncle Ambrose-not the gate by
which father went ont that summer morning,
never TO come back to US again.
That which was brought back nearly week
afterward was not my father. That which lies
with flowers is not my father. We know that
he is living still-somewhcre. Living or wait
ing in placid sleep for the awakening to the
new life. We know not how, We know not
where; put we believe that he is living still,
and that we shall see him again.
Ash grow older and my education goes on
and absorbs more Of my masters valuable time
/ wonder all the more a. the sacrifice which he
ba. for,
sake. When I think that he is man whose
books are valued and praised by the greatest
thinkers of his age. a man who might win dis
tinction IN almost any walk OF literature, 1 am
amazed at his willingness to waste so great a
part Of his life upon my insignificance. 1t Is
all the more wonderful, perhaps. because
although when he came to live at Lamford he
was poor man, he Is now a very rich man, q
distant relation having died in America some
years ago and left him large fortune.
! hardly know when the change in his cir
cumsiances arose. he himself made SO light of
the matter. IL was Cyril who told me one day
that his father was rich.
Did YOU ever know such man as my
father. he said. Ito go on living in that ugly
old cottage when he might have house In
Park Lane and country seat into the bargain,
II he liked"
l asked if Uncle Ambrose was really very
rich
Really, and really. and really. believe. :"
answered Cyril. though he has never con-
descended to erte- into particulars with me:
but Yankee fellow at Oxford told me all about
the man who lett father his fortune, and 1t was
bisglsh pile-that's the Yankees expression,
mind you. not mine.
Cyril is at Christchurch. Oxford, and he
spent his last long vacation in Sweden and
Norway. He has promised me that he will
spend the next long or at any rate the earlier
part OF his TIME at LamfOrd and that he will
take me about In his boat and that shall help
him with his classics.
I'm afraid this is only idle compliment to me,
but l ncle Ambrose SAYS really might be of
some Use 70 Cyril in reading Horace and Virgil
with MIN. and that l know both those poets
better than many undergraduates.
II i do have 10 thank Uncle Ambrose for
my knowledge. and most OF all for teaching
me 70 love Latin poetry instead of to hate
Latin grammar.
Cyril Is sometimes Just little inclined to
ind fault with his father for living in the small
ugly house to which he came in his poverty;
but as he has very liberal allowance can 90
where he likes for his vacations. and is never
denied anything by the most indulgent of
fathers. he feels that he has no right to COM
plain
I'm so afraid that other fellows will take it
into their heads thCt my father is a miser" he
said one day, when they lind that have no
fome TO which can invite them and that my
father mOpes away his life in a cottage by the
Thames. And the worst part OF the business
l. that most fellows in the university know
every yard of ground between Reading and
Henley and must know Lamford.
told him that a man could not be said to
NOPE away his life when he had written two
books which had been read and praised all over
the civilized world
well. no doubt with some men the books
count for something and they put nv father
down a. an eccentric scholar. living his own re-
tired life for his own pleasure, but YOU see
there are more fools than sensible people in
the world and the fools must think nv father
Is too fond OF money to spend it like a gentle
man. dare say they fancy that his wealth
came to him too late IN life and that poverty
small saving habits had got burned into his
very nature
What does il matter what mistakes people
OF that kind may make about your father
SAID. I'VE know that he IL q gentleman in
every act and IN every thought of his life and
that II he does not spend money upon things
that please other people it Is only because he
cares for higher things which don't cost money
or make great show"
You are right there. Daisy, !" answered Cyril
''and there are some things he cares for which
don make show, and do cost money-hls
books, Tor instance. There are two or three
thousand pounds sunk in his lbrary-rare
books, old books, new books. Oriental books
inning the walls OF every room in the cottage
upon my word, now. / can scarcely take NV
bath OF a morning without splashng a tall copy
OF the Fathers, and yet can't get HIM to make
up his mind to build house to hold his
treasures. Perhaps when the last niche OF wall
space Is filled he will begin to think about a
change of quarters"
Cyril Is Dot like his father. He takes after
his mothers family, am told. He has not his
fathers pale far skin and blue eyes. or his
father pale and silky hair. or his fathers high
and thoughtful brow. His eyes are dark gray.
Ms halr Is dark brown-his features are smaller
and sharper than his father's-a keen clever
lace, have heard people call it; not the face
OF thinker and dreamer Ike Uncle Ambrose.
Some call Cyril handsome, and some do not
lie has very kind and bright expression, and
Is Always very good to me. He is tall and
straight and tremendously active a first-rate
oarsman. and am told good shot. He il
very fond of Radnorshire and his mothers
people, and | think he likes mother and me
though we do not see him very often. He
laughs AZ my education and saws that father
would have made me a blue-stOcking il nature
mad not insisted upon making me something
else.
wonder what that something else is?
Fathers grave is in the churchyard at the
Other end of the village. such a pretty pictur-
esque sleeping place for the beloved dead
Ahere Is one corner Of the church ward which
h separated from the river only bv a strip OF
waste land covered with rushes and by low
stone wall, clothed with MOSES and Irhens
gray and gold and green-a dear old wall Wi IA
me sinail-leayed ivy creeping over il here and
there. and with falrv-like spleenyort growing
OUT Vi the lnterstlees of the stone. Just in the