Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1892-04-08
or THE BLOOD ROYAL.


When l received my degree of Bachelor
of Laws. | was sure that all that was left .
for me to do to secure a lucrative practice .
was to hire an Office and hang out my sign.
Six months afterward my office door was /
opened by a well-dressed. middle-aged /
man. and | Immediately jumped to the .
conclusion that, at last. ] was discovered; /
that my first client had arrived. The first |
words my visitor uttered dashed my hopes.
Can YOU tell me where Mr.. Us office +.
is in this bulding?'
Mr.. -- was lis now, for that NATTER a
celebrated member of the bar whose office
was several floors below. With not lit /
tie effort ] managed to assume an air of
cheerful politeness and to set Mr. IS
client on the right track. The following
week ! gave UP my practice to become the
private secretary of Mr.. Andrew Cutter
the well-known trustee, whose son had been
my roommate at Cambridge.
Among Mr.. Cutters cestuis Tor rather
clients, for this person enjoyed his income
by the provisions of no wilD was an old
Irishman named O'ConnOr Years before
he had been man-of-all-work for Mr.. Cut
ter. and he possessed a faith in that gen
tlemans judgment and integrity as firm as
was his belief in his own descent from
Roger o. COnnOr, the last king OF Ireland.
After leaving Mr.. Cutters employment,
O'COnnOr invested his savings in Junk.
Again and again he turned his capital. al
WAYS with the shrewdness OF a man of
small beginnings, until he found himself
the lessee OF a small building on one of the
wharyes. and an established buyer and
seller OF secondhand ship-chandlery. In
time he added a branch to his business.
He leased the gTOund-tioOr of the building
adjoining, and opened a saloon where he
supplied the roustabOuts, stevedOres, and
sailors with fair whiskey at regular prices
After a while the profits from both en-
terprises became burdensome to the de
descendant of King Roger O. COnnor The
loss of the throne was followed by rather
hard times among the succeeding genera
tions of O'Connors, and the trader in ship
ehandlery had been allowed to grow up
without even the rudiments of an educa-
ton. But he had inherited-prObabl
from some of his plebian prOgenltors-the
had few that were not OF royal blOod)-a
good stock of cOmmon-sense. This led
him to entrust his savings, year by year, to
his old friend. Mr.. Cutter. who invested
them in real estate for the thrifty trader
One morning in June, soon after l had
begun to assume my duties as private sec
rotary, the door opened slowly and silently,
and a small man in black, wearing a tall
hat, stepped softly into the office. He was
clean-shaven save for fringe of iron
gray beard which followed the line OF Jaws
and chin, and extended from ear to ear
His short turned-up nose, flat at the bridge
and wide at the nostris, combined with
his long, thick upperlip loudly proclaimed
his royal blood. 1t was O'Connor
,li Il mill 4
moved his tall hat, placing it carefully on
the carpet. smoothed his hair nervously
and coughed slightly behind his knobby
hand. At Mr.. Cutters CHEEKY All
O'Connorl How are you?" he walked gin
gerly Oh tiptoe across the office and seated
himself beside his trustee. Then followed
short confidential appeal IN a husky,
though fluent whisper, through which /
could distinctly hear the brogue without
being able to catch a word, until at the end,
when O'Connor placed a bundle OF bank
notes on the desk before Mr.. Cutter and
Immediately leaned back in his chair with
a tremulous sigh of relief that also sup
piled breath for the words, AN you may
count ut yourself, sor, av you phase.
MIR. Gutter hastily counted the money,
and then calling to me to come and see
what | made il, tossed the pile of notes
toward the edge of the desk. The pile
was fine old collection of veteran tves
and tens, that eXhaled a ripe perfume of
salt fish with an undertone of tar. As l
Strengthened up after finishing the count.
Mr.. Cutter asked me, with a suspicion of
a twinkle in his eye,
''Well, what do you make it,
zone thousand, sir, l answered, and
O'Connor, who had leaned forward and
was watching me intently, again sank back
with a long sigh, and a "Thrue for you. -
Soon he rose neryously and started toward
the door. Mr. Cutter said:
I'm glad business is SO good with you,
O'Connor." O'Connor stopped, then tip
tOed back to the desk.
"Thank you, sor But whispherr and
with furtive glance about the office, fol
lowed by confidential wink at me, he con
tinued speaking behind the back of his
hand: 81 do be afther hirin' one o. thin
typewriter ladies a week most, now, to
wOrruk for me-
''Wel wellr' said Mr. Cutter, much as
one might sympathize with a child that
was pleased, you'll be president of a bank
next, | suppose.
O'COnnor allowed the beginning of a
loud laugh to escape him, but Immediately
after, clapping a hand over his mouth
doubled up and wheeZily forced the re-
mainder of his mirth back into his system
Then he Strengthened up, and slowly draw
ing his hand away from his mouth until it
rested among his fringe OF beard, said,
with an air OF reverence:
"Oh. my but it's high-toned lady she
is. An smart. An eddicdytedr' He
finished with an upward and outward gest-
ure that plainly said that the subject was
beyond his powers of expression.
"How old is she9" l asked
Look at that, nowr said O'COnnor
turning quickly to Mr.. Cutter, with "a
quaint pretence OF shocked proprety at
my question. ''Shure, l niver asked her
but she do look to be ship OF a gurrul. 50
And what does Mrs. O'Connor say 10
your having young lady in your office,
Mchael?' asked Mr.. Gutter
O'ConnOr dismissed the subject with a
toss of the head in one direction and an
outward wave of his open hand in the 9th
er merely adding, as he reached the office
door, Il never bodther the ould woman
wild me business matthers.' Then he left
the office as quietly as he had entered it.
Ii may have been an hour after this-I
was about to leave the office to deposit
O'COnnOr's money, together with what 9th
er funds had come in during the day
when there came a timid knock on the
glass of the otfice-door, and a young girl
eDtaraI She handed Mr. Cutter a letter