Lawrence democrat. (Lawrenceburg, Tenn.) 1884-1925, 1892-01-15
MR.. THRIFTSPENDER.
The Secret That Costs Him $500
q Year.

The Secret That Costs Him $500
q Year.
Robert Thriftspender sat one morn
ing luxuriously toasting his slippered
feet before his dressing-room fire. The
Times, nicely aired, had just been
placed at his elbow and brandy and
soda fixed temptingly beside it. Mr..
Thriftspender lay back, with his fingers
intertwined over that part of him
where his digestive apparatus ought to
have been, and twiddled his thumbs
with as contented an air as was COM
patible with slight chronic dyspepsia.
He was indulging in little retrospect.
How fortunately everything had turned
out for him. Indeed, barring his dys-
pepsia, Providence could hardly have
dealt more kindly with him in his mid
die age had his youth been the correct
est instead of somewhat wild and reck-
less He had sown the wind and was
reaping a zephyr. Not that Mr.. Thrift
spender, whom Mr.. Thriftspender
knew, was the Mr.. Thriftspender that
was known to the world about him.
Far from it. There were two Mr..
Thriftspenders, 80 to speak-a Mr.
Jekyll Thriftspender and DIR. Hyde
Thrlftspender-two personages as dis
tinct as the Corsican brothers, but rep
resented by one actor who played the
double part. The Mr. Thriftspender
known to the world was an independ-
emit member of parliament, the devoted
husband of plain wife, whom he had
whom Providence had chastened with
q dyspepsia rather for the faults of his
forbears than his own. The Mr.. Thrift
spender known to himself and to one
other was a politician who had never
joined a party, because he never knew
his own mind; the husband of a wife
whom the strong willed Lady Thrift
spender had forced him to marry, con-
trolling as she did, the entire fortune
amassed by the late Sir Threadneedle
Thriftspender, man who had only
himself to thank for the measure of i'll
health which the world put down to
heredity.
The girl he had married was the Lady
Mary Fortune, who had been intrusted
to the care of Lady Thriftspender,
while the marquis of Brixton, her
father, was completing the term of his
governorship of Bomcutta. For the
space of year Mr.. and Lady Mary
Thriftspcnder whose marriage was far
from being acceptable to her parents,
had lived on the old lady's bounty.
1t is proverbially an i'll wind that
blows nobody any good, and the gale
which blew the good ship Dresdonian,
with the marquis and marchioness of
Brixton and their only son, the infant
Lord Stockwell, to the bottom of the
sea and incidentally cast a matter of
$4,000 IN the S-per-cents into the lap
of Lady Mary Thriftspender, could
hardly prove anything but agreeable to
that lady's amiable husband. He be-
gan to think that really he must have
been so cute as to hoodwink Providence;
but whatever was the cause of his
good fortune, he was, at all events, in
clined this morning on which we are
introduced to him to be thoroughly con-
tent with the course which his affairs
had taken.
True, the heyday of youth and an I'M
impaired digestion were passed, but he
found dignified and luxurious ease by
no means bad exchange for them,
and it was wonderful how many of his
waking hours could be enjoyed in the
contemplation of the wickedness of his
early manhood, the recollection of his
Sturm und Drang. Imagination en-
abled him to take delight in the past
without running any of the risks by
which they had been accompanied. New
er again would he hazard reputation or
liberty in the pursuit of unrespectable
enjoyments.
At this moment his reverie was inter-
rupted by the entrance of his valet
Now, Mr.. Silby was an absolutely
perfect servant He looked upon his
employment as an art. 1t was not
enough for him that every gentleman
required certain things done for him,
and there a servants duty ended. He
recognized that every gentleman had
his idiosyucrasies, his weaknesses, his
pet vices, and that to become indis-
pensable these peculiarities must be
studied in all their bearings. His late
master. the marquis of Brlxton, had
declared that his greatest grief in
leaving England had been the necessi-
ty of parting with Silby. Indeed, had
it not been for the marchioness it is
more than doubtful whether, on learn
ing that SiIby absolutely refused to
leave his native land, his lordship
would not have thrown up his appoint
ment on the eve of his departure. The
man had lately become butler to Lady
Thriftspender and bodyservant to her
son.
Tell her iadyship, Silby, that shall
not be dining at home this evening"
Eyes, sir; if you please, sir, the same
man has called as called yesterday
when you were out He says will you
please to see him, as he has something
very important 70 communicated
"What did you say his name WASP"