The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1897-05-28
r prayed for anything but money.

again. They say she slept in a Grape
veil
Her children were all born black in
the face and crying, and they cried the
greater part Of their childhood.
The boys got ashamed of it after
awhile, for their English blood was
strong, but the girls never did, and
ought to have lived in land of
droughts. Their tears would have fer
tilted desert.
AS it was, there was rain a-plenty
and to spare, and the general kept out
of their way, gave them umbrellas and
handkerchefs for birth day gifts, and
rcjoiced greatly when they cried over
him at their weddings for their last
time, as he thought. But some of them
! drowned their husbands in tears and
came home again damper than ever.
| and no one but the second wife could
have stood them
She laughed, ordered more fires,
brighter lights, opened the windows,
and filled the house with flowers and
gay company.
She called the eldest Niobe to her
face and spoke of them collectively as
the weeping willows, for they were tall
and liked to be thought willowy.
They cried SO much over their little
half brother that the baby fairly de-
tested them and ran away from the
sight Of them.
He grew up strong like his father
and beautiful like his mother, verta-
ble enfant de l'mour, but when he was
10 and the general was seventy the
fine, handsome old gentleman died
suddenly.
The mistress was but 80, just the
age of the youngest stepdaughter, and
she sat in the drawing room when the
will was read with such look on her
face that nobody but Guelph would
have dared to cry. The boy sat beside
her, the very print and copy of father,
with his little aquiline nose, his bright
blue eyes, and his fathers own trick of
holding out his chin and stitfening his
spine when he desired to see clearly.
Now, the general had been good
to his children. He had given gcner-
| ously to his sons and he had helped
them in business. He always gave
marriage portions to his daughters.
They all came to hear the reading
| of the will-the women shrouded in
| Grape, with red eyes and noses The
mistress sat in the gown the general had
loved her most in, and everybody star
ed at it and at her beautiful grief strick-
en face.
The will stated that she should hold
the old Chevalier place for her son. If
she survived him, it should be hers
absolutely, to leave as she pleased.
There should he no division of prop
erty until the last son was of age. Then
came bequests to relatives and servants
and that was all:
The stepshildren were furiously an
cry. One would have thought them
on the verge Of starvation. "Wait ii
years." they cried. "Wait until that
precious brat is ofage! And his moth
er, with everything in her hands and
| responsible to no one? 1t is not to be en-
dured?'
And SO on, worse and worse.
The mistress looked from one to an
other.
81 will not tell you to leave my
house" she said in voice both sweet
and frozen, Tor remind you of the
home you have always had here. You
now have homes of your own and
must live in them, as l shall live in
mine. Ae long as you are in my house
| you must conduct yourselves as your
fathers children should. Your quar-
relS and cruel speeches insult his mem
ory.'
They took flight like so many black
birds. but the mistress was so od
paturcd they flew back at intervals.
and every now and then the boy was
permitted to visit them He went
with pockets full of gold and returned
a total bankrupt. He gave and they
took with both hands
About 4 year after the generals
death the boy came home from a visit
to his eldest brother, Robert, who liv-
ed in the city. He had been at home
for day, perhaps, when he was
taken ill.
His illness puzzled the country ply
sician. and a city colleague was sent
for.
But the boy died
His mother, looking at his dead dodv.
spoke out her thought: lie has been
poisoned. His brother has poisoned
| him
And she ca led the eldest son Cain
and Robert the Devil to his dying
day.
The speech went abroad like blot of
in ink tumblcr of water Robert
never forgave her. There was no proof
that the child was foully dealt with
but the suspicion imbittered his life
and followed him to the grave, and so
they hated each other fiercely.