The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1906-06-29

comfortable house in the forlorn, de
serted village"
It is not necessary to the develop
ment of this true but simple tale 10
give in detail the negotiations by
which Haywood Brown enlisted north
ern capital in industrial development
at Bon Air. or his two or three i'm
portant inventions in textile machin-
cry which made him the rich man al
ready introduced TO the reader, his cot
tage became a lordly mansion. his
stocking full of specie grown into Il
plutocratic bank account
But fortune is a tickle jade" and,
after lavishing her favors, often turns
about, IN the r contrareity o iher
disposition, and slaps in the face even
those she has set on To flourish like
the green bay tree" Ellen Brown hal
known the hard side of life when. III
days long gone by, she had FASTENED
at the sound of the factory bell to
hours of unremitting toll; but the biz
ter tears and the crushed heart had
come with the big house, and its lux
ury and rich furnishings. Cleaning
plate glass and great mahogany doors
could not keep out the dark shadows
deepening about the fireside, and ven
the stern, hard man came 10 feel that
money was not a panacea against the
woes that beSet poor humankind. HIS
eldest son was the first great disap-
pointment of his life, the boy repuIi-
ating the career marked out for him
a training in the mills, preparatory 70
a partnership in the lucrative business.
There was a bitter quarrel, and a part
ing after words hat ranked in the
heart like poisoned darts in fostering
wounds. Doubtless they were both 10
blame; but, be hat as it may, the son
never again crossed the threshold of
his fathers house, and to this day no
n knows whether he is alive or dead.
Then a second son and the third child,
a daughter, died, leaving to these
grief-stricken parents only the young
est, Madeline.
Haywood Brown loved his wife next
to the gains mo successes of the world
but he idolized this girl. Az she ex-
panded from childhood into youth and
~maidenhood, she was almost worthy Of
this worship. Indulgence did not avail
to spoil her sweet and modest DISPOSE
ton; fOndled and petted as she vas,
she grew not like an exotic, but in
the wholesome strength and beauty Of
a wild. flower, while the care of her
teachers in the high school and semi
nary was rewarded by diligence and
hard study which made Madeline
Brown a very intelligent, accomplish
ed young m
The Bon Air railroad station in
creased in Importance with the growth
of the manufacturing business at that
point; and, as there was a crossing Of
two lines at a small station about ten
miles southwark, the telegraph opera
tor at Bon Air was also the train dis
patcher. This important position was
taken a few months before Madeline
graduated by Elliott Webb, a man
about thirty years of age, who had
been sent by the railroad COMPANY
from another point. When the girl
came home it was not long before
h n b station agent became ac-
quaintances-very naturally and al
most inevitably in so small a COM
mnnity; and this grew into a friendly
intimacy from a love Of reading and a
literary taste characteristic Of both,
but little cultivated in their surround
ings. Madeline's bright mind was
quick to take impressions from the
more vigorous intellect and superior
scholarship of Elliott Webb; but moth
ing in all their intercourse stirred her
nature SO much as to bring a flush to
her cheek or a quickened beat to her
heart.
It was far different with the man.
This beautiful young creature was 9
new and marvellous experience in a lie
which had hitherto been we'll nigh col
orless, a Startling revelation to a
nature which took the world with In
tense e~arnestness. Brown said one
of the Bon Air Manufacturing Com
pany, a nOrtherner who clme down
on periodical visits, a cultured, polish
ed man of the world; why don't you
turn that fellow Webb to the right
about, dangling as he is about your
pretty daughter? | d;strust him, with
his square jaw and i~nscrutable eyes.
He is a deaths head at the banquet
of youth, tragic enough to poison the
first full cup of LIES innocent pleas
ures, Better stop it before mischief
comes of it" His friends philosophy
was too fne-spun for Haywood Brown;
but he shrugged his broad shoulders,
and smiled grimly at the presumption
of an obscure station agent who would
aspire to his idol. He sounded Made
line, though, with caution and mole
delicacy than would have been expect
ed of his raising; and was relieved to
find that she simply did not cOmprc-
bend the tenor of his words.
If the rest of the world could have
been shut out from this pretty country
village, perhaps Webb-reticent, Sc
cretive, distrustful of himself-might
have been content with mute ~adoration,
silent worship. But it was 20 to lie.
The awakening of that maiden soul
was at hand; the mysterious new life
was to stir under the touch of Pygma-
tism. A new general superintendent
for the Bon Air company was IN
nounced with the coming of Phillip
Wilson, a junior partner, living up 10
that time in New York, a handsome
young man, happy in his youth and
his good fortune, finding the world a
very pleasant world, and disposed to