Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1897-05-14
MISCELLANY.
A DEAL ON CHANGE.
by Robert Barr.
Copyright, 1890, by the Author.1

- '0"' 'b"O W. hHoOh uNcr gracefully n
5000 vase that had come from japan TO
meet disaster i'll New York.
In corner of the room was seated in
a deep and luxurious armchair a most
beautiful woman. She was the wife Of
the son of the richest man in America.
She was young. Her husband was de-
votedly fond of her She was mistress If
palace, Anything that money could
buy was hers did she but express the
wish. But she was weeping softly and
had just made up her mind that she
was the most miserable creature in all
the land.
If stranger had entered the room
he would first have been impressed nv
the fact that he was looking at the pref.
test woman he had ever seen; then he
would have been haunted by the idea
that he had met her somewhere before.
IL he were man moving in artistic
circles, he might perhaps, remember
that he had seen her face looking down
at him from various canvases in picture
exhibitions, and unless he were a stran.
ger to the gossip of the country ne could
hardly help reCollecting the dreadful
fuss the papers made, as if it were any
business of theirs, when young Ed bruce
married the artists model, celebrated
for her loveliness.
Every one has read the story Of that
marriage. Goodness knows the papers
made the most of it, as is their CUSTOM
Young Ed, who knew much more of
the world than did his father, expected
stern opposition, and, knowing the un-
limited power unlimited wealth gave to
the old man, he did not risk an inter
view with his parent, but eloped with
the girl. The first inkling old man
bruce had of the affair was from WV
id, sensational account of the runaway
in an evening paper. He was pictured
in the paper as an implacable father,
who was at that moment searching for
the clippers with shotgun. Old bruce
had been too often the central figure of
journalistic sensation to mind what
the sheet said. He promptly telegraphed
all over the country, and, getting into
communication with his son, asked him
electrically as favor to bring his
young wife home, and not make a fool
of himself. So the truant pair, much
relieved, came back to New York.
Old Druce was a taciturn man, even
with his only son. He wondered at first
that the boy should have so misjudged
him as TO suppose he would raise objec-
tions, no matter whom the lad wished
to marry. He was bewildered rather
than enlightened when Ed told him he
feared opposition because the girl was
poor. What difference on earth did that
make? Had he not money enough for
all of them? If not, was there any trou-
BILE i'll adding to their store? Were there
not railroads to be wrecked, stockhold-
ers TO be heeced, Wall street lambs to
be shorn? Surely man married to
please himself, and not to make money.
Ed assured the old man that cases had
been known where Il suspicion Of mer-
cenary motives had lowered around q
matrimonial alliance, but bruce ex-
pressed the utmost contempt for such
state of things.
AT first Ella had been rather afraid
of hel silent father-in-law, whose very
name made hundreds tremble and thou
sands curse, but she soon discovered
that the old man actually stood in awe
of her, and that his apparent brusque-
ness was the mere awkwardness he felt
when in her presence. He was anxious
to please her and worried himself Won
dering whether there was anything she
wanted.
One day he fumblingly dropped a
check for 81, 900, 600 III her lap, and,
with some nervous confusion, asked her
to run out, like good girl, and buy
herself something. If that wasn't
enough she was to call on him for more.
The girl sprang from her chair and
threw her arms around his neck, much
to the old mans embarrassment, who
was not accustomed to such a situation.
She kissed him in spite of himself, al
lowing the check to hutter to the floor,
the most valuable bit of paper floating
around loose in America that day.
When he reached his Office he sur
priscd his son. He shook his fist in the
young fellows face and said sternly:
''If you ever say a cross word to that
little girl, I'll do what I've never done
yet I'll thrash you. "
The young man laughed.
'All right, father. I'll deserve a
thrashing in that case.
The old man became almost genial
whenever he thought of his pretty
daughter in-law. my little girl" he
always called her. At first Wall street
men said old bruce was getting into his
dotage, but when a nip came in the
market and they found that, as usual,
the old man was on the right side OF the
fence, they were compelled reluctantly
to admit, with emptier pockets, that
the dotage had not yet interfered WIFE
the financial corner of old Druce's mind.
Asyoung Mrs. bruce sat disconsolate-
ly in her drawing room the curtains
parted gently, and her father in-law en-
tered stealthily, as if he were thlef'
which indeed he was, and the very
greatest of them. bruce had small,
shifty, piercing eyes that peered out
from under his gray bushy eyebrows ike
two steel sparks. He never seemed &c
be- looking directly at any one, and ms
eyes somehow gave you the idea thai
they We're trying to glance back ovei
his shoulder as if he feared pursuit
Some said that old bruce was in CON
slant terror of assassination, while 9th
ers held that he knew the devil was Oh
his track and would ultimately nal
him.
Il pity the devil when that day