Lincoln County leader. [volume] (Toledo, Lincoln County, Or.) 1893-1987, 1908-04-03
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CHAPTER l.


am lawyer; sixty-four years is my age.
You may see what kind of man / am by
my portrait; not over pleasant with any
one.
George Flexmore and | were friends.
he was my first client when | set up in
Coneyford, a small town just large enough
at that time as believed, to keep law
yer of its own; there are couple of us
now, and we have as much to do as we
need. F'lekmore had just then come into
a fortune and he did not know what to
do with it. l prevented him from losing
1t, as he certainly would have done with
out proper direction, for he was an easy
going man, Of a credulous disposition,
such as your needy adventurer and shifty
speculator love to take In hand. For ev-
cry man that has money there are ninety
nine who are anxious to spend it for him.
IF any one asks you for money, Flex-
more" said l, don't refuse him; send
him to me-" And he did so. with this re-
sult-he never lost a penny by-these good
natured friends
He had a great respect for me-more
than / deserved doubtless. He seemed to
think that whatever | did must be right,
and believe it was the sheer force of ex-
ample thai kept him out Of matrmony so
long because / did not care to take a
wife, he thought it best to keep single.
But the conditions were different. / am
not an easy-going man, and marriage
would have been purgatory for me or my
wife, and the result must have been equal
ly bad for both of us in either case. But
Flexmore had nothing to do from morning
to night that might not very well be set
aside to attend to the wants of some
body else He saw that he ought to have
some other object in life than to eat and
sleep and kill time-that his life was in
complete in fact. But he still made pre-
tense of being content with a bachelors
Uistence.
One day l caught him singing his old
song, when mans single he lives at his
ease" but in such lugubrious strain
that it would have made me laugh il 1t
had not irritated me.
That's humbug, Flexmore," said /,
"and you know it. A mans happiness
consists in making other people happy
unless he's lawyer. You're not law
yer. and you ought to be making some
body happy. You'd be more at your ease
If you had somebody else to think about
and somebody else to think about you
do you mean that l ought to marry
Tony?" he said, blushing like a girl.
THAT Is exactly what l do mean
George There's little Miss Vaughan
who has been waiting to be asked these
three years; there are dozens of girls tc
be chosen FROM"
do you think she would have mel" he
interrupted eagerly.
"Well. the best way of deciding thai
point is to go and ask her this afternoon,
said l.
The result Of this advice was that
Flexmore married Miss Vaughan just 81,
weeks after.
She was much younger than he, as 9
wife should be. A happier couple never
saw. He lived to please her, and she tc
please him-that was the chief object Of
their lives.
A year after their marriage they had 6
child, and nice fuss they made about it
She grew up pleasant little thing, shy
and timid, with a clinging affection fol
iovable persons and things. never saw
anything like the passionate attachment
that existed between her and her sweet
tempered mother. Poor Mrs. Flexmort
had never been a robust person, and
we'll, to cut short a story that is too pain
>ful to dwell upon, she died when llttl,
Laure was eleven years old.
Flexmore was then sixty-two, but ht
was not too old to suffer. The loss un
manned him completely. He took on lik,
woman and he would have been less 6
nan if he had not, perhaps.
"My poor old FRIEND" said l, ut would
have been better to let you live on al
old bachelor"
mo, no." he replied after such hap
piness an eternity of suffering would fine
me still a gamer"
"You have your chlld-your littl,
Laure," said 1; and then, to turn hi.
thoughts from the past, l talked about
the future, and what he should do fol
the chid's welfare. Indeed the child,
grief gave me almost as much concern a.
the fathers. 1t was not passionate ouc
burst, that spends itself like summer
shower and gives place to peace ant
smiles, but continued fruitless yearn
ing for that loved one to come back who
was gone forever.
"You must have woman here to com
tort her." said to Flexmore.
He agreed to this, and sent for his de
ceased brothers widow, who had married
again and been a second time left 9
widow, as being his nearest female rela
tive, and she came readily enough--a
woman of fifty, hard as nails and string,
as an old crow. She looked upon little
Laures distress as unnatural In child
and her morbid condition as the result Of
defective education; and she set about
correcting all this by setting the little
thing to read some instructive and mora
books which no conceivable creature could
Ind interest or pleasure in.
After she had been there three days
Or. Awdrey had to be sent for. Laurt
was feverish and couldn't hold herself
SIN nronerlvO DR. Awdrev orderad ha,