Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1900-08-08
BY B. ny. CROkRR
.N'IItary.Romance. .of. .Soutb. africa

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
IN three thousand year, Mrs. firaba.
zon." said Teddy, impetuously. his soul
revolving at her hypocritical rapacity and
meanness.
Three thousand a year. It's nothing
of the sort" quickly turning to him with
hVld face. What business is the
amount of my income to you? II ia nv
money, passionately, land not yours,
We put up with your insolence too long
won t-have you another week I've been
prepared for this pointing trembling
hnger to the paper. I've heard of some
thing at the West Coast of Africa that
VIII suit. There you will learn industry
uiscipiine and manners, and never wish
TO see you again. l shall write about
your passage this very day-this very
post"
You need not trouble yourself, Mrs
brabazon, interrupted Teddy, decidedly
may as well tell you at once that l
shall not go to the West Coast of AT.
rica. l can find work for myself. After
what you have said, would rather break
stones than be beholden to you for q
crumb. l know of something that will
suit me better than the yellow fever"
Take care what you do" she exclaim-
ed hoarsely. IF you get into low com.
pany, or disgrace yourself in any way.
l shall wash my hands of you and your
affairs. You shall be" here she sud
denly discovered that Teddy had depart
ed.
When he left his stepmother's presence
be quickly made up his mind what to do.
He had failed in passing the examination
for an officer, he would enlist as private
in the ranks.
He SO informed his sisters during the
day, and stuck to his determination in
spite of all their expostulations. On one
thing he was as obstinate as q mule
he would not pass another night in the
house as dependent on his stepmother's S
bounty. At o'clock that night he bade
his sisters fond farewell, and left Bar
rowsford to become q soldier.
CHAPTER II.
Mr.. Adrian Brabazon had been an idle.
indolent man, whose prediction was
congenial society, and who, when his
pretty wife died and left him with four
small children, had promptly dispatched
the boys to school, the girls to the care of
their aunt, his sister, shut up at Barons-
ford, and taken himself of ahpoad. He
spent q good deal of money in an easy
going, gentlemanly fashion, passing as an
invalid, q connoisseur in cookery. a pat
ron of the fine arts, and rambling from
Italy to the South of France, from Paris
to the German Spas. in a kind Of peren-
nial circular tour. During his travels he
III h. e.
that she was a Mrs. Jupp, widow, aged
40, nothing whatever was known Of her
antecedents, although the ears Of the
MaxtOn gossips were literally aching for
particulars.
To speak quite frankly, Mrs. Brabazon
was not a lady by birth, nor yet one Of
natures gentlewomen. She was a shrewd,
sharp, scheming woman, of scant educa-
ton, who had worked herself up step by
step, and who had recently come abroad
as confidential travelling maid to an el-
derly lady In bad health. She and her
employer happened to be inmates OF the
same hotel in Paris as Mr.. Brabazon. 1t
was an unhealthy season, low fever was
prowling about and carried of the elder
ly Englishwoman as one Of its first vic
tins. Mr.. Brabazon himself became dan
gerously Ill, and was tenderly nursed
back to convalescence by Mrs. Jupp, who
was a skilled sick nurse, and soft-voieed.
soft-footed, sympathetic and soothing.
Vague possibilities were floating through
Mrs. Jupps brain at this period. In ad-
dition to a small legacy. she had sue
ceeded to her late mistress handsome
wardrobe, and made quite an imposing
appearance in soft cashmeres and rich
- opA dainty liftla Ioca copS
whenever Mr.. Brabazon was sufficiently
convalescent to notice such matters. She
spoke of herself as companion only to her
late dear FRIEND" and talked tearfully
of better days, far more affiuent circum-
stances, and bewailed her losses in an
apocryphal mine in Cornwall. Mrs. Jupp
had made herself very necessary to the
invalid; he liked her, he was grateful to
her. She exactly understood his wants,
knew his favorite little dishes, and did
not suffer him to be troubled or bored
His health was uncertain, he told him
self that he could not dispense with her.
He hated the trouble of combating her
stronger will, and, telling himself that
he was acting for the best. and required
A sensible woman to look after him, mar
ried her at the English church one morn
ing In November, and, as a reward, his
bride carried him away to Italy imme-
diately after the ceremony.
Gradually Mr.. Brabazon became more
and more feeble and decrepit, and during
the last year of his life his mind was
much affected. At first he forgot things
that happened thirty years previously.
thea twenty, then ten, then last year
Yesterday. His state was not generally
known beyond the small retinue Of ltal-
ian servants, as for years Mrs. Brabazon
had conducted his correspondence and
managed all his business, and his present
unhappy condition made no alteration in
his affairs.
She corresponded with her step-childrei
from time to time: stiff, conventional let
ters, whose contents might have been
posted in the market place; but she firm
Iy repressed any desire on their part TO
come abroad and see their dear papa. The
miserable state Of his health, she declar-
cd in one Of her first epistles she wrote
TO them after her marriage, preeluded
their much desired visit, although per-
sonally she was languishing to make their
, ,cauaintance. At last one day they re-
eciyeJ q letter with an inch-deep black
border. announcing the not unexpected
death of their father; and Mrs. Brabazon.
having buried him under touching and
handsome white monument in the ceme-
tcry at Florence, disposed of her villa,
dismissed her servants and returned as
n widow TO reign at Baronsford.
The will created profound sensation.
was left in the hands or Mrs
Brabazon until Florian attained his ma
;ority. and he was not to come of age
until he was twenty-five. Over the for
tunes Of her step daughters and their
possibilities her power was
! bsolute. She was sole mistress Of the
nroperty till Florian came Of age, and