The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-07-06
Mrs. DuPOnt's Diamonds.
BY MRS. MOSES P. HANDY.

BY MRS. MOSES P. HANDY.
 (copyright, 1909. by Daily Story Pub. co) | '.No. I will never consent, never. I | wonder you ask it. Have you absolutely no family pride?"
 | "But mother-'
 There is no but about 1t. The Du my family is one of the pest in Maryland.
 Yet you actually ask me to consent to Ifyour marrying Tom O'Leary, as if you | expected me to do so." | Mother, Eugene
 | Mrs. Du Fonts voice softened, as 1t al- ways did at the name of her dead boy. | so dearly loved so deeply regretted, but
 she interrupted her daughter impatiently
 "Yes. know he and Tom were good friends: I'm not denying that Tom | O'Leary is an excellent young man in his place, which I don't want to be that of my son-in-law. Why, Martha, think father began at the bottom of the ladder, literally; he owns to having been a brick layer, and for aught know may have been a bod carrier. know he is rich "Oh, mother how can you? As if I thought of the money. love Tom with all my heart"
 Words failed Mrs: Du Pont for, a full minute or more. She merely looked at Martha in silence which spoke. Then she said more gently:
 Martha, how can you? never expect ed this. never. or l would have set my face against 'Gene's having Tom here so much. But 1t simply never occurred to me that Du Pont could think of mar rying an O'Leary. And you least of all. Angels and ministers of grace defend us.'
 Had Martha Du Pont been less dutiful daughter, she might have suggested that nothing less could reasonably have been expected. Her only brother and Tom O'Leary had been chums through the grammar school and the high school, and when Mrs. Du Pont taxed her slender resources to the utmost to send Eugene to college. Tom OLeary went. too. When the two boys graduated. Eugene young OLeary naturally became a part ner in his fathers business, and it was to please him that the old man gave Eu- gene lucrative position in the counting room of OLeary & Son, contractors and builders.
 For a little it seemed as though Mrs. Du Fonts hard struggle with diversity was ended. She even talked of giving up the boarding house which she had kept successfully since her husbands death. She had an infinitesimal income, and upon that together with Eugene's salary. the three might live in economical comfort. Then came the deluge. |- Eugene contracted malignant typhoid, and from the outset there was little or no hope of his recovery. Mrs. Du Pont had no thought. no time for anything but her son; it was a relief rather than oth- erwtse when the boarders left in body. All that money could do was done in vain.
 Eugene's death was a more terrible blow to his mother than that of her husband had been. A devoted wife, Mrs. Du Pont was an adoring mother, and she was numb. until the sharp exigencies of life reused her to action; the world goes on, Nnvar Alias
 For some time things went fairly we'll. A new house was taken; many of the old boarders, and somes new ones, came to fill 1t: Mrs. Du Pont was kept too busy new landlord. reputed a hard man, took a strong fancy to her; he was liberal as to repairs, lenient as to rent.
 When, on the 1st of January following these events, the books of O'Leary & Son were balanced, MT. O'Leary, ST., slapped o'Leary. Jr.. on the back, with loud guffaw.
 "Shure, and if the luck fAulds out Ioike this. it's millionaires we'll be. me bhoy, and not so long first. ayther. You'd bet ther be afther getting you wife. know the gurl you have your eye on. and loike her. She's purity, and rale that fur both av ye, and her mither into the bargaiH. The ould teddy is a bit sthuck up, mebbe, but. thin, shure, an she has a roight to be-
 And so Tom, who had been in love with Martha ever since he knew what love was, if not longer, thanked his father and spoke.
 Even though the man who loves you, and whom you love, may frankly admit that you are too good for him, 1t is not easy to inform him that your relatives are of the same opinion. So Martha tenn porized
 Mother is too independent to be willing to live with us," she told Tom, "and I cannot leave her now, when she Is so broken up about Gene's death"
 Loyal-hearted Tom agreed to wait: he had full faith in his sweetheart, and a high respect for her mother. As for Martha, she trusted to time aided by Toms sterling worth. to conquer Mrs