Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1900-01-09
A
~ ~ FANCY

When Lieutenant Hubert Upton, Unit
ed States army, came home, after an alb
sence of three years on frontier duty,
he found things changed sadly. His faith
er had died in the meantime, and, as his
father had been a widower for more than
a dozen years before his death, Hubert
was now head of the family. In this
responsible capacity he began setting
things in order, and one of the first things
for him to set in order was the old Sec
rotary in which he found this letter:
my leaf Sir:
1T is with deep pain that I take this,
the earliest opportunity of informing you,
in pursuance of our agreement, that my
daughter has finally refused to entertain
the project which would have so happily
connected our two families. The quasi
romantic attachment which she has
m as 1t now appears, in a quarter
where the traditions of her family forbid
her hoping to gain my approval is the in
superable obstacle in the way of both
your wishes and mine. You, sir, can
not. I am sure, be more deeply concerned
than l at this c~ontrariety. And yet, such
are my feelings in regard to the impor-
lance and the personal sa%credness of a
matrimonial choice that / dare not go
further in my efforts to affect my daugh-
ter's decision.
Il am, with deep regret,
Most respectfully yours.
JOHN ELMSLEY HABERTON.
T Thomas Fribleigh Upton, Esquire"
AT first it was only a languid Curl
os!ty that Hubert felt in the story UNI
DERIVING this very stately epistle. He
could see that it was moi addressed to
his father, but to his grandfather; and
yet 1t was carefully slowed away among
his fathers papers.
The more he thought about it, the more
inclined did Hubert feel to ferret out the
whole case if only for the fun of the
ferreting out. There was no date legible
on the paper, the hOle of the date having
apparently been torn way with the old
fashioned wafer that closed the letter in
the clumsy manner usual before the in
vention of envelopes, but that really
seemed to make little or no difference
to the problem. 1t was plain that John
Elmsley Haberton and Thomas Frib-
leigh Upton, esquires, had tried to get
up a project which would nave so hap
PLY connected their families, and that
the project had been frustrated by the
will of a daughter of the said Haberton.
Hubs Upton knew nothing about any
Habertons in THE neighborhood of his
home. If he did, he might better have
guessed whether the union was projected
between the young lady and Thomas
Fribleigh Upton or the son of Thomas
Fribleigh Upton. He was not sure wheth-
er his grandmother or his grandfather
mad died first, but he was pretty sure
mat, II Thomas Fribleigh Upton had
gone about taking to himself a wife Of
the house Of Haberton in that dry, formal
manner, It must nave been after his early
youth. Therefore, the question whether
~. =. Y. had or had not been a wldower
was closely connected With the prob
lem.
His younger sister, now under the care
or their aunt, who lived not a stones
throw from the old home, was not like
~ to know anything about such ancient
history. His elder sister. who was mar
rled ana lived in New York, 200 miles
away, was only a little older. and. on
such matters. not at all wiser than him
self. Fortunately there was Keturah.
heturah was a typical woman of New
England. h had grown up and lived