San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1895-07-21
CHAPTER ".
MRS. DAvoRN's NIECE.

MRS. DAVORN' s NIECE.
1t was now about half past 2 O'Clock.
The morning mist had disappeared,
and there was promise in the sky of a
fine clear day.
In the front sitting room of IS Eel
spar road young girl sat, her arms on
small table in the center of the room,
her head pillowed in her arms.
Ethel Rodney, niece and only living
relative Of the woman lying dead, was
five and twenty years of age. She was
an only child, and her mother had died
before Ethel had reached her fifteenth
birthday. John Rodney, her father, held
an honorable and lucrative post in the
civil service. he was an improvident
man, content always to regard the good
and evil of the day sufficient. He owned
to living up to every penny of his in
come and was always threatening him.
self with retrenchment. At 40, when
Ethel was in her nineteenth year, John
Rodney suddenly died. When his affairs
were wound up, it was ascertained that
not only had he saved nothing, but that
he was considerably in debt. An appeal
had been made to his department, and
a sum Of money was privately subscribed
by his colleagues.
After the payment of John Rodney's
debts, for which purpose the money had
principally been raised, it was found
there was small sum left, and it was
decided to apprentice Ethel to her aunt
"a widowed sister of John Rodney, who
at that time conducted fairly flourish
ing millinery business in the west end
of London. When Ethel had been two
years with her aunt, Mrs. Davorn, be-
ing anxious about her own health and
eager to give up the cares of her shop,
decided to sell the business, and pro-
posed to her niece they should live to-
gether in some quiet London suburb,
Ethel to perform the light duties of
companion to her aunt. Mrs. Davorn,
on settling her affairs, found she was
possessed of a sum of over Sc, 900, and
she felt she could safely leave business
and its cares behind her and be able to
make comfortable provision for herself
and for her niece, whom she dearly
loved
Mrs. Davorn had taken the advice of
a friend, and had invested her savings
in one lump in prosperous colonial
bank. Then she took and furnished Is
Felspar road, and felt that at Al years
of age all her business cares and worries
had been buried forever. In the third
year after she had settled down in Clay
fields the prosperous colonial bank went
into liquidation, and the widowed Lady
found her capital reduced from over
e6, 600 to something under 81, 500. She
knew she was untitled to begin over
again a business career, and she knew
shat 81, 500 securely invested could not
Keep the house going. She was very
much attached to the house, which she
nad furnished tastefully and comforta-
ply; there was pretty garden at the
ear, and the neighborhood was sup
posed to be eminently healthy. There
ore she decided to try the experiment |
If keeping the house and letting apart
nents Steinworth and Vickery had
,een her first and only lodgYs. Both
nen found their quarters specially COM
ortable, but Mrs. Davorn YVES Just be-
ginning to discover that the letting of
.partments was not, in her case, a very
'rcf1table arrangement.
When things had come to this pass,
he received another shock at hearing
hat the bank in which she had invested
Il, 300 was in a perilous condition.
Without waiting to learn if the rumor
vas worth her serious attention she had
n Tuesday, the Sth of October, gone
nto town and drawn her 81, 800 (Which
ad been lodged on deposit at call) out
the bank
About ~ months previously Ethel
'odney had met at dance in the house
a friend in Clayfelds young doctor
Tho was at the time an assistant to Dr.
tanley Percival Maurice Leclerc was
tall, slender, young man, about six and
yenty years of age, with a pale face, a
eautiful square forehead, piercing dark
yes, and crisp brown hair. Though his
sther was a Frenchman, Leclerc had
cen born in England. His mother was |
Irish parentage, and young Leclerc
lherited the volatile nature of his [