The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-05-19

also proves that no condition, however. unfavorable. could dim his genius for character drawing.
 ' ADY TIPPINS, relict of Sir Thom-
 as Tippins, knighted by his A< majesty George IT, in mistake for somebody else (hismajesty was gra- ciously pleased to remark while per forming the ceremony; What, what, whatl Who. who, who? Why, why, why?'O Lady Tippins, at dinner given by the Veneerings, insisted upon Morti- mer Lightwood telling the story of the Man from Somewhere." Mortimer, a lawyer who had one client, never had ho one before and never expected to have one again, being thus urged by the skittish, ancient and bony charmer, pro- ceeded to relate his story to the guests who had come to dine with each other and net with the Veneerings-who were a brand-new people fin brand-new house in brand-new part of London.
 The story began with old Harmon, a tight old screw, who had amassed big fortune In the business of dustman or collector and sorter of refuse, rubbish, ashes, etc. When he died nobody re- gretted him. He left one son, whom he had driven from home as a boy. and to this son, who had been making a living as grower of vines somewhere across the water, he willed all his wealth, on the condition that he came home and married a certain young lady named Bella Wilfer. If John Harmon the young CT did not do this the property was to go to one Nicodemus Boffin, who for years had served as a foreman for Old Harmon.
 The old skinhlint had done this with the idea of taking a posthumous revenge upon his son. Being in public park one day he had seen a little girl flying in rage at her fatehr stepping him with her bonnet and pinching his legs. Old Harmon considered that a child with a temper like this, and ndulged as she apparently was by her father, inevitably would grow into a woman calculated to make any man miserable for life. So he inquired her name, and left her to his son John in his will. And now John Harmon was coming home from some where" to take possession of the gold and the girl.
 Just as Mortimer had finished his story the butler handed him note. The law yer read it and said: This arrives most opportunely; this is the conclusion of my story. The Man from Somewhere's s drownedr'
 Gaffer Hexam was one of those river side characters who made a living by picking up dead bodies from the turbid water of the Thames. Strangely enough the bodies all had their pockets turned inside out when Gaffer got them ashore Rogue Riderhood, another waterside char acter, had been Gaffer's partner, but Rogue had been caught robbing a live man. and Gaffer's conscience was so shocked that he dissolved the partner snip at once.
 It was Charley, the son of Gaffer Hex om. who brought the message to Morti- mer. Lightwood and his friend. Eugene Wrayburn, accompanied the boy to his fathers hovel by the river. and then to the police station.
 In the hovey they found, besides Gaf- fer, his daughter, Lizzie, charming girl, modest and pretty. By scraping and sav- ing and denying herself, she had man. aged to give her brother some school ing" and the very next day she was to send him away from the miserable home to a school where Bradley Headstone. master. who had taken a. great interest in the boy and his ambition to make something of himself" was to see that he had a chance eventually to become a teacher.
 Eugene Wrayburn was immediately smitten with Lizzie Hexam: and to Liz zie Eugene was as something splendid come into her dark, hard life to go away again-but not to be forgotten.
 At the police station they saw the body In little morgue across the yard. The steward and a passenger from the ship on which the man had come from "sorne- where" the inspector said. had been around and identified the body as that of John Harmon; papers found on the body, including letter from Lightwood. show ed the dead man to have been John Har- mon. and the steward aforesaid had also sworn to the clothes being those worn by John Harmon
 ,|hile they were viewing the body a stranger called with one of the newly printed bills describing the finding of the man. He acted so queerly that the in- spector called reserve" and had him followed to the address he had given. Finding that he really lived there and that he was registered as Julius Hand ford, nc more notice was taken of him. The pale, seemingly bewildered stranger. however. had made an impression on Mortimer and even upon Eugene Wray- burn, who was seldom impressed being, like Mortimer, briefless barrister and, moreover. person living in a perpetual state of boredom.
 So John Harmon was declared official ly and cOmpIetely dead and Nicodeu111s