Middletown transcript., 1891-03-12
THE GOVERNOR.
A Hard Heart and Cruel Blow.


BY EMMA HOWARD WIGHT.
The gubernatorial residence of
ablaze with light, and a
long line Of carriages fled up to the
entrance and dainsily slippered feet
sprang out upon the rich carpet
stretched from curb to door, as women
in evening dress and glittering jewels
passed into the house, followed BY
their male attendants, along the
wide hall, between rows of hot-house
plants in urns and vases, and foot
men in crimson and gold livery, into
a gold and white room, lined from
floor to ceiling with mirrors and rare
and with exquisite roses
and orchids everywhere. AT one end
Of the long room, with a great mass OF
rich red jacqueminot roses banked
behind them, stood Governor Waring
and his wife.
The former stood head and should
ers above the most of his guests, and
the snowy whiteness of the hair,
brushed straight back from the high,
wide forehead was the only token of
the IS years which had passed over
his head. There was no stoop in the
broad shoulders. no sign OF the
passage Of years in the dark proud
face, cleanly shaven, with the stern
gray eyes, the firm, thin.lipped
mouth, and the strongly moulded
chin. A face at which one in
voluntarily turned to look again,
strong, proud, fascinating, and yet
how little emotion or feeling it ever
showed stern and cold and naughty
except perhaps, to her who
stood by his side, who had been the
one and only love Of his life; and
yet, when once, and once only, in an
hour of supreme agony, she had tried
to break down that indomitable pride
and iron will, she had found them
even stronger than her tears, her
agony. Aud yet they had been a
mothers tears, mothers agony
pleading for her child.
1t was the not uncommon story OF
an only son, on whom were centered
a mother tenderest love, fathers
proudest hopes, bringing sorrow to
the one, and bitter disappointment to
the other. Upon the boys wayward
and high.strung nature the fathers
and severity acted as a
goad. Things grew worse as the boy
reached manhood. Wounded in his
strongest attributes, his pride, by his
sons waywardness and dissipation.
Andrew Waring grew more sternly
intolerant of the formers offences,
until one day, after drauken brawl
OIL the streets in which young War
ing figured conspicuously, his father
called him into his presence, and
coldly, sternly told him he was no
longer a son Of his, and that his house
would shelter him no longer. It was
then 10 vain the mother pleaded; the
son who had no love for his father to
cause him to appeal to him, was
sullenly silent, aud there was only a
muttered curse ON his lips as he went
from his fathers presence to enter it
no more.
"Never speak his name to me
again" said Andrew Waring to his
wife remember that henceforth l
have no son."
She obeyed him. but her mothers s
heart could MT forget or cease to
ache in agony and longing.
Time went on, years passed, and no
tidings ever came Of young Andrew
Waring ; whether he were living or
dead they knew not. In the fifteen
years that had elapsed since he closed
his doors upon that reprobate. .son, the
older man had risen in his career
until be held the highest Office the
State could bestow. Many had for
gotten that he ever had a son; he
himself, seemed to have forgotten it;
the mother, who always remembered
and sorrowed, often thought. AS she
stood by her hus bands side, in her
silks and rare old laces, with dia-
monds flashing on her breast, and in
the fair hair which had grown SO gray
within the last fifteen years, far too
gray, for she was many years younger
than her husband, many in that
brilliant throng envied her, little
guessing how empty it all was to her,
how gladly she would have relinquish-
ed it all for some tidings Of that
absent son. or just to look once again
on his face.
Somewhat late in the evening a
little old man, with sharp features,
and bald head, made his way to
where the Governor and his wife
stood. Both greeted him with
evident pleasure, for Henry Holton,
one Of the most celebrated lawyers Of
his time, had, for many years, been
intimate in the Waring family, he
and the Governor having been
college chums in their young days.
I am delighted to see you," Mrs
Waring said, with her soft, gentle
smile; it was not often the old lawyer
ever attended any fashionable enter
tainments.