The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-01-12

profitable friendship, Give was more than
 welcome-that is, while he was still lad.
 But about the time Colonel Newcome re-
 turned the family of Sir Brian discov-
 cred that he was a lad no more; and
 there came trepidation in that Well-or-
 dered and prudent household.
 The object of that trepidation was
 young lady who had been most correctly
 bred from early youth in the, contempla-
 ton of the blessed mission of young la
 dies to marry well and in manner be-
 coming noble pedigrees. By dint of con
 stant iteration the Newcomes not only
 had made their friends believe, but be-
 lieved themselves the Newcome pedigree
 leading back to that most useful barber
 surgeon of the field of Hastings; while on
 her mothers side Lady Ann, Ethel could
 boast most undoubted blue blood
 through her grandmother, Lady Kew.
 That dr-~ineering old campaigner had
 determyled long ago to marry Ethel to
 her Lrandson, Lord Kew. The family
 az. eed docilely; her daughter, Lady Ann,
 because she was abjectly afrald or the
 fierce old woman, and Sir Brian and his
 son for the dual reason that they wanted
 a lord in the family, and because Lady
 Kew would not leave her great fortune
 to Ethel under any other condition. The
 NeWcomes adored rank and Worsh1pped
 money Give Newcome represented
 neither.
 Into this life of mixed shoddy aristoc-
 racy and genuine, Colonel Newcome came
 like a breeze-a breeze that runleo the
 elder Newcomes sadly and came to the
 naughty Miss Ethel like an awakening
 Thomas Newcome and his niece fell In
 love instantaneously, like Prince Camar-
 alzaman and the Princess of China.
 He took little slim white hand and
 laid it down on his brown palm, where It
 looked all the winter; he cleared the
 frnf
 stopping down. he kissed the little white
 hand with great deal of grace and dig
 nty There was no point of resemblance,
 and yet a something in the g1rfs LOOK,
 voice and motion caused his heart 70
 thrill ariel an image out Of the past 10 rlse
 up al d salute them. The eyes which had
 brigitened his youth (and which he saw
 in his dreams and thoughts for faithful
 years afterward, as though they looked at him out of heaven) seemed to shine upon him after five-and-thirty years It was the romance of his youth, | snatched from him almost in it's dawn, and held sacred by him through all the years, even while he was the kina ana induigent husband of Gives mother. What frank, generous, bright young creature" thought he. What a fine match !, might be made between her and Clive.' That night the Colonel said to his ser want: T say, Kean, is that blue coat l of mine very old?''
 Uncommon white about the seams, Colonel said the man.
 'Is it older than other peoples coats? Kean confessed gravely that it was very queer.
 Get me another coat, then, and see that I don't do anything or wear any, thing unusual" said the Colonel 1 But even had honest Tom Newcomes 1 innocent plans ever had the slightest nf ct1do oll1ncp have been ruined absolutely by an act of Give that struck the Newcome fam 1 fly as nothing short of a scandal. He de- termined to be an artist!
 If the Colonel was at all disappointed | by Gives choice, his loyal love never | permitted the feeling to take form even | within his secret thoughts. He placed his | son with a famous master and paid law | ishly for fitting up studio and den in | the house in which he and Binnie en- 1 gagged.
 Thus Give Newcome entered life. Be- | fore long his fellow students agreed that l he could do great things whenever ne should get down to real work, and his society friends agreed that his odd fad was most entertaining and made him inn ] 1nensely interesting. He rode fine horses | and disported himself with London's finest l dandies in the park. He partook with | equal zest of the remarkable feasts Of | polonies and beer with his fellow artists 1 in their bare rooms. In word, he was l as much at home in a drawing room as 1 in public house parlor.
 The Colonel was now in the possession 1 of that felicity for which his soul had l longed; and yet, as the months went on, | his face grew unconsciously5 melancholy, 1 his loose clothes hung still looser on his long limbs, and he began to sit in long silences.
 1 Sitting thus he could hear Give and his l friends making merry overhead. He 1 longed to share in it, but the party would 1 be hushed if he went in to join 1t, and l he would cop away sad at heart. to l think that las presence should be signal l for silence and that his son could not be l merry in his company.
 l Perhaps this hastened his determine l ton to return to India when his furlough l ended. He had found that he could not l live in England on his income and give l Give what he desired, so he decided to | return and get his promotion, which | would insure him a sufficient pension. l Not that he was poor. He calculated | that he could give Give ten thousand
 pounds when he married and five hum l dred pounds a year out of his own allow l ance This, reflected the Colonel, would l enable his son to enjoy life and paint as l many or as few pictures as he pleased. l So he settled hundred pounds year | on his boy and arranged in addition for l a most handsome annual sum to be paid | while he was away; and then he went l bravely back to India, bearing the parting l from all that he loved for the sake of 1 that love.
 Give immediately plunged with all the l ardor of his nature into the practice of 1 his profession, determined on living by It. l He carried four sketches to a print seller l and obtained a sovereign and half, l which happy news he dispatched to h. | lia at once, explaining that he could do l six such sketches easily in morning. | which would mean at the lowest calcu-. l lation five hundred pounds a year, so that 1 he would not need to touch his allowance at all Then he gave grand feast to l all his friends in homer of the thirty l shillings and departed for a sketching l tour in Europe for which purpose he l bought a snug little travelling carriage. l At Baden he fell in with his aunt Lady l Ann the little Newcomes and Ethel all | travelling very grandly with couriers and | retinue Lady Kew was not there Good l natured Lady Ann, freed from the domi- l nation of her autocratic mother, was too l lazy or too indulgent to interpose any | difficulties between her handsome nephew l and her beautiful daughter.
 l In such circumstances few occupations l are so full of opportunity as is that of l an artist; and so that happened which l was to make life bitter for them. ~Clive 1 and Ethel realized that their childish af- l fectiion had changed-who knows how