The record-union., 1896-02-22

that Mr.. Morgan was the father of the
drowned man was as easily proved as
that the drowned man had been no
other than Mr.. Morgans son. Upon the
latter point the evidence afforded by
baggage and clothes, which were at
once recognized, was conclusive. A
portmanteau, when opened, was found
to contain a faded photograph of the old
man, who gazed silently at it, together
with-oh. bitter ironyi-the last letter.
dated some months back, which he had
addressed to his son. Mr.. Morgan
stopped down and possessed himself of
this document. He seemed to be under
side him were acquainted with it's pur-
port; for he thought it necessary to say,
in tremulous, apologetic accents:
MY son and l were upon rather cold
terms; could not write to him quite as
| felt. My duty, as 1 saw it, was to re-
mind him that-thar he had given me
reason to be displeased with him. For
we ought not to forgive ourselves too
easily, and he was d careless young
fellow-a careless, light-hearted young
fellow!"
He was an uncommonly fine young
fellow" the Captain declared, with a
touch of indignation. "As merry, kind
hearted and open-handed a fellow as
ever | sailed with in my life!'
Thank you, sir returned Mr.. Nor
gan. II am glad you liked him He was
all that you call him, and I dare say
you understood him better than I did
However, that is of little consequence
now. l suppose he didn't-er-happen
to mention me in any way-just in the
course of conversation
The Captain could not remember that
he had done So beyond stating that he
meant to join his father in London by
and-by. He was to have left us at
Madeira. I gathered that he had some
idea of treating himself to a conti-
mental trip with the money that he had
made at the mines. / have his cash
box, I should tell you
There was little more to be said and
very little more to be done. Certain
formalities were undertaken by the
lawyer, who saw his client safely back
to London, and who knew better than
to attempt anything so impossible as
consolation on the journey. Yet, after
all, he had been for many years the
trusted confidant of the so-called miser;
he, and he alone, held the key to that
long, solitary, self denying life, and
he could not say good-by without one
Indispensable word of exhortation.
My dear Mr.. Morgan-my dear old
friend, you won't stay in those wretched
lodgings all by yourself, will you? You
will go down, after a time, to your own
home at Ridge End, and-and try to
n ir1tk fo,
while, if you will only come to us, my
wife will give you a warm welcome,
and / promise you that you shall not
be disturbed in any way"
Thank you," answered the other,
''but l think I will remain where l am,
and 1 hope never to set eyes on Ridge
End again Nevertheless, / am much
obliged to you for your kind offer. AS
for fresh interests-well. hardly at this
time of day! / understand what you
are afraid of, but you are mistaken. l
shall neither cut my throat nor blow
out my brains. Besides, if l did, what
difference would that make to any
hody?"
His despair took that rather unap-
proachable form. People who were
sorry for him (and there are always
few good creatures who are sorry for
the most unamiable of us when we are
in affiiction) did what they could but
fell back discounted before the cold,
dry civility with which their advances
were received. Nobody, except the law
yer knew for certain that he had cared
at all for his only son His wish evil
IDENTIFY was to be left alone, and it was,
of course. a good deal easier to comply
with that wish than to combat it,
A visitor who was, if anything
slightly more unwelcome to him than
the rest was Charles Leighton, a man
with whom he had at enc time been al
most intimate, but whom he had care
fully avoided ever since poor Dicks alb
surd announcement that he was en-
gagged to be married to Mr.. Leighton's
daughter. There had been no formal
engagement. The girls parents, who
had been reasonable enough, had agreed
that, under the circumstances, nothing
OF that sort could possibly be sane
toned. Still, Mr. Morgan had not been
altogether satisfied, suspecting them of
suspecting him Nothing was more
probable than that they believed, as
most people did, that he was really
rich man and could afford to give his
son a handsome allowance if he chose.
Leighton himself, an elderly, good-hu-
nored Stockbroker, was harmless and
unobjectionable-as were also, for the
matter of that, his wife and his daugh-
ter. Only they were utterly unknown
in society, and it had seemed prudent to
drop them. But now, for reasons best
known to himself, here was this pros
us-looking Philistine, with visage
elongated to fit the demands of the case,
and suggestion that hands might once
more be clasped under the pressure of
common affliction.
MY good man. said Mr.. Morgan ST
have no quarrel with you; I am sorry
that you should have imagined l had
any. Previous to my sons sailing for
South Africa we agreed, if / remember
rightly, that we had better see rather
less of one another than we had done
that was ALL
but you can have no objection to
seeing US now. Morgan" observed Mr..
Leighton, with a sigh. Whatever your
views and wishes may have been, an
end has come to them-as we'll as to our
hopes"
What hopes?' Mr.. Morgan asked
rather sharply
1t was absurd to be annoyed. seeing
that nothing mattered, or even would
matter again, yet he could not help re-
senting little the employment of that
word
WELL if you had daughter who was
growing thin and i'll for love of a young
man who hadn't money enough to
marry upon, and if that young man
wrote to saw that he was making his