El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1900-08-18
If he was left behind.

/
| isfied in his own mind that the action
would be entirely justifiable Still he was
a man not without natural affections. He
was extremely fond of his ward, Amy
Rivers, even though through the old fash
toned wooden headedness of his cotrustee
| he did not have the actual handling OF
penny of her money. The cotrustee was
lawyer with an admiration for per
cent corporation stocks, and he insisted on
| Miss Rivers fortune staying in these and
showed cause why the script should re-
main in his own office safe. The money
| tempted Theodore Shelf to the sin of COW
eteousness continually-he could have
made such excellent use of it-but to the
mans credit be it said he never visited
| his irritation on his ward. Indeed be was
only known to be disagreeable to her once,
and that once was the last time he and she
had speech together and what he had said
was entirely to her interest and without
any profit to himself. 1t was on the morn
ing of the great ball, and he called her to
him in his room and asked If Fairfax
would be there that evening.
| sOf course, - she said, ''why?"
"After what has passed between uss"
| You mean in the city,"
| II do, my dear. Mr.. Fairfax has dis
pleased me much. First of all, he resi- gned
FROM the directorate of my new company,
the Brothers Steamship association, on
which 1 had placed him, very hattering
position for so young a man, and then he
caused me deep sorrow in doubling the
pureness of my motives in floating the
company at all. I am long suffering,
Amy, and because it is my duty to bear
with the hasty 1 do so as much as posi-
BILE. But Mr. Fairfax overstepped the
mark. Such a spirit as his would cause dis
sension among our simple minded work
erS, and 1 felt it due to them that he should
no longer be at their side.
so you gave him the-well, the sack.
| Of course l know"
Perhaps, - said Mr.. Shelf, with a smile
of pain, ''he will be able to obtain employ
ment elsewhere, or being a young man of
means he may choose to set up in business
for himself. but L fear, my dear, that he
will miss many of the Christian Influences
which so elevate and purify the dependents
of Marmaduke Rivers & Shelf
Miss Rivers shrugged her shoulders.
Isn't this" she said, to do with the
city and not Park lane? AS Mrs. Shelf
says, we're ordinary society heathens
when were here, and as she sent Hamil-
ton. his card 1 don't see that it matters.
It's Mrs. Shelf's at home. -
And not mine Amy? You are right in
the word, my dear, but not in the spirit.
As a Christian, of course, 1 have already
forgiven the wrong Mr.. Fairfax has done
me in doubling the pureness of my mo-
tives. But this humble roof is mine, Amy,
and it would grieve me to receive under it
any one with whom 1 am not on terms Of
brotherly amity. But perhaps you can as
sure me, my dear, that Mr. Fairfax has
already repented him of his hasty and I'M
just words. -
Not that, - said Miss Rivers. Il M sure
he hasn't"
Then replied Mr.. Theodore Shelf,
with a sorrowful firmness, Il cannot
ceive him. l couldn't do it.
Il suppose you know, the girl retorted
sharply, that if Hamilton does not come
here tonight 1 shan't either
You are my ward
Il may be. But you We never tyrannized
over me, and you are not going to begin
now. 1 tell you fatty that if it's no
Hamilton it's going TO be me- 1 shall
go to Hampstead to stay with my cousin
Il cannot give way in this, Amy. My
conscience will not permit me-
Very well. May 1 have a carriage, or
must order a hansom?'
MY dear child, L can refuse you moth
ing in reason. The brougham is now, as
it always has been, entirely at your dis
posal.
Miss Rivers left the room, and Mr.
Shelf scrubbed his dogs ragged head.
"She's angry with me now, George" he
said, with fat, satisfied smile, but 1
think she'll change her mind afterward.
She's a clever girl, and she'll see. So with
that young beggar Fairfax, oonfound
himr'
Then Mr.. Shelf put George on a COM
Portable chair and turned to his table. He
mad, as may be imagined, good deal of
writing to get through, and a considerable
deal of burning, and the work took him
till very late. Then he dressed, slipped
out for dinner and returned by 4 o'clock
to stand behind his wife and watch her as
she received her guests. He thought he
had never seen the woman look SO hand
some so queenly, and once or twice he
half regretted the blow which he was GO
ing to bring down upon her. But then his
eyes would fall on the walls of the room,
and the silver lamps and the flowers, and
the items of that gorgeous display would
go into his soul and wither up any morsel
of compassion which might have been
there.
"A mans impelling motive is not al
ways under his own hat" he overheard
some one saying they passed him, and
he applied the words to himself, and when
he remembered the ruthless extravaganza
which no words entreaties of his own
could stay, and which alone-so he be-
lieved-had forced him into knavery, he
felt that social deash was a poor requital
to the woman who had worked his ruin.
knife was more her due. And yet-and
yet she was such monstrous fine woman
and so thoroughly clever in the role she
had set herself to play!
1t certainly was gorgeous assembly,
not made up exclusively of the very best |
people perhaps though many of them |
were there, but it looked wealth unspeak- |
able. Men in evening dress cannot show |
this. If they fail to appear like walters,
that is the utmost they can expect. But |
the women! They carried it their |
shoulders and backs, they have done |