The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1908-11-08

ss.ss.ssss.s....s...s.....s.
draw his protection from me. for I know
shall find my father
Major Carbonnell had long since squan-
dered all his money. He owned nothing
except some jewelry and the house in
which he lived. But he had a distant
hope of a peerage and he was the un-
doubted arbiter of fashion. He made it
point to tell everybody that he would
not pay his bills or his gambling debts.
His frankness Modified his victims; and
] his very considerable skill at whist per-
mitted him to keep himself in ready cash,
for he took great care for his part not
to play with those who would not or could
not pay their gaming debts.
Major carbonnell's introduction was
sufficient to open the doors of the best
society to Japhet. Within three weeks he
was as gallant a buck as any of them,
and the founding who had begun life as
an apotheeary and continued it as a Jug
gler was soon bending over the hands of
duchesses in London drawing rooms and,
it must be confessed, playing his part as
a gentleman of fortune fully as we'll as
he had played his part on village stages
before rustic gapers.
Lord Windermear discovered the inn
posture soon, as Japhet had expected. He
relented, however, when Japhet told him
his story, assured him that he did not
dream of making any use of the secret,
and showed him that he had not touched
the s10OO. AS the recital proceeded VIM
dermear perceived that the young man
was the victim of fixed idea He begged
him to dismiss it from his mind and Of
fered to help him.
He insisted that Japhet use the 9100O
at the bankers. Japhet refused, but Lord
Windermear was determined Timothy
was delighted, for the few hundred
pounds of their joint capital had dwindled
sadly under the attacks of Major Car
bonnell.
Japhet did not tell the major that he
was rich, nor did he deceive him other
wise by any direct statement. He SIM
ply permitted the gentleman to believe
conclusions, believed them implicitly after
he had jumped, and spread the glad news
of a new person of fortune among the
fortune hunting ladies and gentlemen Of
society.
Carbonnell had long lost his principles,
but had managed to keep his character
above water. He did not hesitate to pluck
enc
him too much to rob him-which fact pre-
supposes a really extraordinary degree of
fondness. After that, instead of rocking
him, he made Japhet an inactive though
not quite innocent accomplice in many of
his genteel operations, by which means
they kept themselves very comfortably in
funds
The major soon discovered that Japhet
had a mania, though he could not guess
what 1t was. A hundred times Japhet was
on the point of exposing himself, for
whenever he heard of a scandal in any
, family or saw man or woman who resem-
bed him in the most distant way he for
got the part he was playing and every
thing else and asked questions that
aroused surprise and sometimes conster-
nation.
He raced so furiously after a carriage
that contained a gentleman whose nose
was like his own that he knocked people
down right and left and was finally taken
up as a pickpocket, and only released
when Carbonnell went to court with some
friends to swear to his identity.
He confronted the great Bishop of E
and introduced himself as his long-lost
son, again on the evidence of similarity
of noses.
His worst scrape was with Lady Mael-
early ENHANCEMENT, he asked her about
it without any circumlocution. with the
result that her ladyship became SO vio-
lently hysterical as to frighten him.
He seized a flower vase, pulled out the
flowers and threw the water into Lady
Maelstrom's face to revive her. Unfor-
tunately the flowers had been In it for
green. 1t did not revive her ladyship, but
it certainly vivifed her.
clustered by his accident he snatched
small bottle which he thought contained
eau de cologne and poured a little into
her mouth. The remedy would, no doubt,
have been highly successful had it been
eau de cologne; but it was not. 1t was
marking ink.
Had society not been so firmly convinced
that Mr.. Japhet Newlands was a person
of immense fortune his exploits would
have ended his fashionable career sum-
marily, but as it was, his eccentricities
only made him more interesting.
He was as lucky in money as he was in
society. The cards fell his way, and the