The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1895-07-05
miscellaneous.
A Seeming SCOUNDREL.
BY w. ]. HAMPTON.

l.
never occurred to me at all. Or if it
did it was merely to make me proud
of myself that had run the gauntlet of
half a century and didn't show Il
scratch. At least, | didn't see any,
though a friend of mine-one of those
fellows who go about among their &C
quaintances doing everything they
car. to make truth odious-had a hab-
e 6f fhllftg;iae every day or two that
d ill;S,i q ii xizssearcely as chip
per- as 4 man of thib6y, whatever he
niehtfhlpk al himself.
$ In addffion to mr. fifty years l was
(which was ufed against me by
these, iSAi "a rs. slje able to analyze
true graces OF character) rich. Not Il
multi-millionaire, perhaps, but enough
to make bachelor very comfortable,
not to say luxurious. My business
was easy, and l had no help to bother
after, except a clerk or private secre-
tary, as it sounded more elaborate to
call him, and a young woman who
manipulated the typewriter III my Of
fee. Concerning these two persons l
have considerable to say.
NV private secretary, whose name
was Jeremy Kilton, was without any
exception the most modest and lady
like Young man | ever met. He had
come to my service highly recon-
mended by friends of mine i'll the
country, and though he had been with
me for seven years in town, he never
came into the office of a morning that
| was not reminded of the green fields
and the running brooks and that sort
of thing, indigenous to all traditions
of the rural neighborhood. He was
only about ten years younger than l
was, and have many times sat watch
ing him ploddling away at his desk, ST.
lent as sphinx and faithful as fa-
matte and wondered why it was that
he should be as he was, and | as | was.
| with the money, and he with the
numberless good qualities that would
be an ornament to wealth, even
though he lacked in that polish which
wealth seems to demand.
But paid him a good salary, for l
could afford to, and his twenty-five
hundred a year appeared to be almost
as satisfactory to him as my twenty
five thousand was to me.
Yet he wasn't half the man / was in
youth and love of life, and l used to
twit him about his advancing years,
and tried to get him to go and call on
the ladies with me. BY all that is
lovely, you should have seen him the
first time l asked him to go with me
to call on particularly bright and in
teresting young woman l knew, and
whom he had met ON one occasion
when she had come to my office with
her mother to see about a piece of
property the mother wanted to buy.
The girl had flashed her brilliant eyes
on Jeremy, out of pure mischief, be-
cause had told her of his diffidence,
and she wanted to make him feel as
uncomfortable as she could, and for a
minute or two l was fearful that /
would lose my valued servant, SO evil
dent was his desire to incontinently
run away. He blushed two or three
colors, and stammered so when he
tried to talk to her that thought he
would get his tongue twisted around
his teeth, and in a moment of confu-
sion would bite it off. When she had
gone, / asked him how he would like
to go up and call some evening, and
he showed signs at once of hysteria.
Then told him if he would not do
that, / would send him up to the
house next day with the paper for the
mother and daughter to examine and
sign, and, though he said no word and
bowed in humble submission to my
will, felt so sorry for him that took
them up myself.
And here, may say that a little
thing like woman never had the
least effect on me. Atleast, in respect
of giving me the panicky feeling that
overlook Jeremy every time woman
came in sight. He was a bachelor, of
course, for how could man of his
sheeplike courage be anything else 4!
He couldn't, and Jeremy was living
example of it. Even the young wo-
man who manipulated the typewriter
was source of discomfort to Jeremy.
She had been with me for three
years, and was a most exemplary per
son, not to say very intelligent and
good-looking one. Being a woman,
she did not get as much salary as the
! the man, but she was quite as well
satisfied with the nine hundred dol
lars a year paid her, and | must say
my official family was very agreeable
in its relations to me and to itself.
felt this particularly, because, for
sometime past, Miss Higgins-that
was the young woman's name-had
been occupying a good deal Of my atten-
ton, and | am pretty sure that if
Jeremy had been a dashing young fell
! low or dashing old one, he would
have made me have more or less pal
pitations of the heart and other dis
agreeable sensations which are expert