The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-11-15
A SPECIAL PROVIDENCE,
BY EDGAR FAWCETT.
Copyrighted, 1896, by Edgar Fawcett.

4 ford would say. but now that I'm getting
4 older. and my second history, if it's to be
q done at all, must have at least three good
s. b,rry Of mental concentrate every day,
8 I'm very well pleased with this villa that
Il commands a vague view Of New York
8 from its south windows, and contains a
library thanks more to my dear dead
scholar of a father than to much great col
& 1ective effort on my own parD of nearly
five thousand Volumes
But sometimes he would add, musingly
a and little plaintively: There are my
q girls. however. They're both well past
twentv now, and both, in their different
a vavs. highly attractive. 1t seems as if I
4 were wronging them by this retirement.
3 Still. they don't appear to regard it GOD
bless themD as if they thought it the fain-
4 test form of martyrdom."
Stafford always spoke of them as my
4 girls" with a gentle fatherly inclusive
q ness though but one was his own daugh-
8 fer This was Grace whose mother had
s died years ago of hasty consumption, and
8 by her death had plunged her lord into
II
strangely enough, a new sorrow had reused
him, with agency potent and humane.
4 This was the death of a dear friend, whose
q orphan child, Isabel, he had guarded ever
since. and made the sister-like companion
of his own.
Life was very pleasant at Top-o'-the-Hill
as Stafford had jocularly christened his SUI
=, "a fxVO pirflS different
q as dawn from sunset, and yet they agreed
with one another in sweetest accord. AS
81 for lack of society, Grace would sometimes
4 go into town for the glimpses of it which
certain of her fathers fashionable rela-
q lions were very willing to afford her, and
return somewhat wearied and bored. Isa-
] bel Westwood might have done the same
\ if she had so desired. But always, at the
q least hint of any such metropolitan pill
4 grimmage, she would shrug her firm-mod-
4 elled shoulders and give to the lids of her
4 honest hazel eyes kind of merrily scorn-
full droop and declare that Top o. the Hill
was quite social enough to suit her quiet
tastes.
Besides" she would sometimes add,
1--WE Mr.. Stafford's papers to keep in or
der and lots of copying and note-taking
3 TO do for him, and he's so utterly care
less about his manuscripts and every
Il thing which concerns his profession that
B ! shouldn't like to risk the results of even
n three days absence" She would say this
lightly enough, but serious meaning I'M
deray it. She always called her guardian
8 'Mr. Stafford" though her manner to-
ward him was often most Familiarity filial.
q She was hale; well-built girl, not pretty
or even handsome, but fresh of color, with
a smile that showed two strong, pure
8 arcs of teeth, and with a broad white
q brow Of peculiar charm, at whose tenn
pies her copious chestnut hair clustered
in mimic rebel curls.
Grace, on the other hand, was a beauty;
with large, soft violets of eyes, and
face pink as peach-bloom and just as
delicate. She had never been ill since
she was baby, but she had never been
quite well. and her father had always
watched her and secretly worried about
her, mindful of her mothers quick, UNI
Timely death, and seeing in her countless
traits of resemblance of that same lost
mother, from the gliding steps of her fra
cue feet to the dainty and variant dim
pies that came and went on either chaste-
tinted cheek
Stafford was now nearly fve-and-forty,
put he looked older than that His hair
&was very grey, though his heavy, dark
moustache had cnly a few threads of sli-
yer, and his fine blonde eyes were stin
luminous as boys. Inheriting money, he
had for a long time persuaded himself
mat he was the idlest of men, to discover
phe day that he had accomplished more
POND reading than almost any man ne
kneW. Then he had tried to write a cer-
am history flung away reams of paper,
~ which there was doubtless a good deaf
excellent literature, tried again, perse-
ered, finished his first volume, given IT
20 the world, and achieved hattering Sue
eSs. Inc second volume followed six
Rnohths later, and doubled the welcome
Nhlch the former had won. Now, l shall
york in good earnest" he told himself.
mat had been a long time ago. He
was, indeed, working much harder than
e nad ever dreamed that 1t was in him
do and his clear-brained ward Isabel,
was helping MIN with silent fidelity and
l'Huslasm, to which he had grown so
sea that he never thought of 1t, one
"A ay or another, simply taking it for grant
IKE his foolscap and his pens and
During a good while past, too. he had
laken for granted the visits at his home |
young Oliver Thurston. A mile or |
No away rose the stately residence of |
ulse Ihurston, the young mans wealthy |
"her' Nowadays, the judge lived In |
Involvement, having become more or |
OF an invalid, and Oliver, his only |
ma saw far less Of the theaters and |
JeIhonico's cafe and dances, and din |
I man ne was WONT 10 sec a HLLie |
me ago, when new-hedged from Co |
unDla College. But he didn't seem to |
una the deprivation You had only to |
.ahce at him, with a sunny face crown
an athletic figure, TO see that he be-
5lsed among the people who seldom call |
yrlune by hard names, an act which. in
a Is own case, would have been scarcely |
grateful
DIIVer stays with me right along" said
uuee Thurston, meeting Stafford outside
gate, one day, feeble Of look, yet by
~ means moribund "He feels It, Of /
ourse, a lad Of his age. But Ollie's good
ne is coming, l hope. He'll deserve It.
~, Tor sticking to his old father and
ahlns the best of things"
STAFFORD grimly asked himself. a little
'r whether Oliver wasn't really max
Is the worst OF things rather than the
- OF them, Beyond doubt both the
rs mad got 10 like him very much in
a w. But with Grace any strong emo
0uai disturbance might matter so per-
"1sly' She had not been Just herself
three or four weeks past reelected this
t Vigilant Of fathers; and here was
ing coming on, a season when she al
In, grew languid and got that pensive
ooPhg look that tortured him with +
Tts founded on memories