Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1901-06-09
CHAPTER I.

CHAPTER I.
DO you sec him over there7 That Is
he"
What! The big man with the fair
beard trimmed to a point, and the boy
dsh face? Is that really this Francis
Osborne?"
Eyes, that Is Frank Osborne, only
son of the late Mr.. Justice Osborne,
Recorder of Docktown. His father was
always a little queer, you know-be-
lieved in the equality OF mercy. and all
that kind OF thing: and the son i'm
proves upon his fathers model"
The scene was a crush at the British
Embassy In Paris. and Lady Emilia
Dachet. to whom this original charac-
ter was pointed out, raised her lorgn-
cite and regarded him critically.
Il wish someone would go and bring
him here" she said lazily. The peo-
pie one meets nowadays have got into
such a dreadful groove of sameness,
that it is always refreshing to meet one
of these oddities. I can't see him very
we'll from here; but / suppose he is not
good form-wears his necktie awry,
and cultivates a big base voice? All
the men do it who have been elected
to mount the platform and talk to
working-men about the horny-handed
son of TOLL"
Strange to say Mr.. Osborne does
non Of these things" remarked a
third lady, a placid woman, more than
middle-aged, with a sweet, calm face.
He has not appeared as a public
speaker yet"
"Oh! You really must pardon me. I
quite thought he was "a man and a bro
ther.'"
mot in that sense; and, as for the
set of his neck-tie, you shall Judge for
yourself. l will present him as soon as
l can catch his eye, and beckon him to
come here. l don't think, Lady Emil
Ia, that his voice will startle you; one
or two society women have thought 1t
soft and winning; and l think l could
4 point out to you some poor homes in
the low quarters of this and other CT
ties where it has made music on occa-
sions.''
Indeed, Miss Wilfred, I did not
mean to depreciate your friend; but
as l have not yet experienced the fasci-
nation of the voice, nor fallen under
the spell this favourite of your exerts
at will, you must pardon me for being
a little skeptical."
Lady Emilia was a society dame who
had made in her early youth the Gus
tomary exchange of patrician and maid
emily charms for a good establishment.
Marriage with the sort of man her hus-
band was, had proved a complete edu-
cation Of a kind. The hollowness and
depravity of society were an open page
to her, of which not one paragraph was
left unconned. She had come through
stainless, owing more, perhaps, to a GER
tain hardness in her nature. than to the
possession of any beautiful or high
ideal; she believed in neither God nor
devil, man nor woman; she loved and
admired nothing-not even herself (the
cynicism of her nature forbade that.
though, like a true sybarite, she was
particularly careful of her own bodily
weli-being.
"Ah." she added. Here comes your
modern Bayard sans peur ct sans re-
proche." for Osborne, having turned and
caught sight of her companion, was
making towards them.
Sans peur he is, no doubt" answered
Miss Wilfred, in a hurried under-tone.
THE other he cannot hope to remain
for long. You ought to know enough,
Lady Emilia to be aware that not man
a oppose all the preconceived notions
of his age and his set. without coming
to grief sooner or later"
MY dear Miss Wilfred, If you will
accept the assurance from a man who
has had his back to you, possibly for the
last ten minutes have been looking