The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-07-04

or In the Grip OF Hate New Amsterdam
Book Company The very attitude and
facial expression OF Colonel Rocca, COM
pany promoter, shady flnanoier and all
round scamp Of London, as he faces the
beautiful Mercy Hawthorne and her lover
in the frontispiece warn us to be surprised
at nothing he may do. A most unpleasant
Colonel this, as the artist shows him to US
Rather bald, heavy-featured and OF for
bidding expression, the very way in which
he tugs at his mustache proclaims him.
In Chapter Four we see him at his break
fast in hie chamber in the Adelphi Of which
the furniture il massive and had once been
handsome, but now shows signs OF wear
and tear. The Colonel is opening his let
ters. There are bills, unpleasant business
communications from the city where things
are not going we'll. And several notes.
too, Of private nature, scented and adj
dressed in the handwriting OF women
Of apparently limited education. Having
read his own letters he proceeds to read
those OF his son. The reader will probably
like the son as little as the father. He. too,
is heavy featured and sullen looking, with
stealthy eyes and the swarthy color that
proclaims the browning folly Of his fathers
youth--for the Colonel, it seems, married
a native woman while in India. The son
caught the Colonel in the act of reading
one Of his letters.
Il hope you find my correspondence
interesting" he said in Spanish.
Il do, or shouldn't read it. But wish
to heaven you'd speak in English. Fifty
thousand times I've told you, Juan, not
20 perpetuate your mothers abominable
language in your own still more abomi-
nable patois."
The Colonel is in low water financially,
and he proposes that he and his son shall
respectively marry rich widow and her
beautiful daughter.
Here's a girl pretty enough for any
one and rich enough to more than satisfy
most men, And if you refuse to make
your fortune this way youll certainly
never make 1t in any other"
Il don't want TO marry"
Its better than starving, at any rate.
At the worst it means no more than having
one extra club, exceedingly well-appointed
and maintained for ones sole use, with TIE
single defec. that the head servant is a
woman instead of n man, and holds her
situation permanently. Besides, I'm at
the end of my tethar. Everything in the
city seems to have gone TO the dogs-those
dogs whose diet is financial credit and res
spectability--and I'm as nearly broken as
can be-"
well, you're going TO marry the mother,
you say9"
yes, but not to feed a young cub that
won't go hunting on his own account.
Besides, there's a dramatic fitness about
this double marriage which appeals to my
sense of what is apt in life" He said this
with an expression of mingled cynicism
and seriousness which made the son glance
at him questioningly. I'm like the heavy
father in the melodrama I've set my
heart on this maria &c for my dear boy, and
when l do that I'm an awkward beast to
thwart.'
It is matter for nobody's regret that
the Colonel in due course reaches lis proper
place in one of His Majesty's prisons. AS
for his Objectionable son. he perishes
miserably through prompt action of a
young Indian maiden to whom he offered
gross provocation. She loosed a deadly
pet snake at him and he died in consid
cradle agony