The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1910-01-26
CHAPTER I.
Continued.

And in less time than it has taken
ne to write, husband and wife had
made up their minds heroically to the
:acrifce. The details We're not Diff
ticult to agree upon. Cornelius
would seek his fortune in America,
the best country on earth for a maj
ST resolution and ability" Poor,
,emi-widoWed Rose took refuge at
3rompton. Belinda, with the hun
tired and twenty pounds a year de-
lived from her mothers fortune,
night be considered Independent.
She should be sent to some moderate
" expensive boarding school for the
aext two years, the term of her ia
hers Punishment, and Uncle Robert
aad CONSIDERABLY said that she might
look upon his house as her home dur
ng the midsummer and Christmas
holidays.
Belinda independent, Cornelius put
1pon his legs and offered his free
Som, and Rose restored to a pew in
church, fine clothes and livery SER
rants - what a touch Of the magi-
:ian's wand was this!
Next day was Sunday. Major
t'Shea dyed his whiskers, which he
aad suffered to grow gray under the
.old shade of poverty, brushed up
ais coat, put on a pair of lavender
gloves, and lounged away the after
aoon in the park, his hat as rakish-
~ set on his head, his whole air as
launty as in the palmiest days OF his
youth. Madame, after duly attend
Ing morning service-for was it not
her first duty, said Rosie, her eyes
swimming, to offer Thanksgiving for
Ter own and her dear O'Shea's good
Observation-Disclosures, after attending
morning service, betook herself to
Brompton and employed the remain
ier Of the day in talking over events
and planning a thousand agreeable
domestic comforts for herself with
Uncle Robert. Belinda, poor little
Tool, cried herself white and sick
with passionate grief. She did not
want responsibility or boarding
schools or a home in the holidays.
She wanted all she loved on earth
her worthless old father, and was to
lose him.
I'VE really have very different
ways of showing our Affection" said
Mrs. O'Shea when she returned we'll
dressed, blooming, full of hope in the
future, and found the child crouched
down, dinnerless, dirty, her face dis
figured and swollen with tears, be-
side a fireless hearth. Il suppose I
shall suffer more than any one else
by your papa's absence, but l do what
is right. I do not embitter the
horny path of duty still more to his
feet"-Rosie had always a fine ford
style of metaphor of her own when
she tried to talk grand-'by useless
tears and lamentations"
From that night on until the hour
of final separation, scarcely more
han a week, Belinda kept her feel
tngs better under control. She
worked a little purse in secret, upon
which you may be SUR many a salt
tear fell, put in it all her slender
hoard of pocket money, and pushed
it into her fathers not unwilling
hand on the day of his departure
instinct telling her what kind of a
gift would to Cornelius be the well
CONTEST token of flial love. When
the supreme moment of parting had
arrived she chung to him, shivering,
fearless, dumb; while Rosie, whose
only feeling was n Of cheerful re-
lief, cried almost to the verge OF IN
becomingness, and uttered every i'm
aginabIe wifely %platitude about the
haart-rending cruelty of the stu
alton, and the dreadful, dreadful pain
that her devotion to duty and to her
husbands interests were costing her.
Then came the removal to Bromp-
ton; fine rosewood and mahogany,
excellent dinners, city friends, Uncle
Roberts vulgar, purse-proud talk
all, it Would seem, very tasteful to
Mrs. O'Shea. And then less than a
twelvemonth after Belinda felt that
last kiss of her fathers lips, came a
New York paper, directed in a
strange hand, to Uncle Robert, and
containing the bald announcement of
Cornelius O'Shea's death. The poor
little girl, away at a second-class
Brighton boarding-school, was sum-
moned home in haste; the blinds of
the Brompton villa were drawn de-
Gently close for four days and partial
ly lowered on the fifth, or imaginary
funeral day; Rosie, for the second
time in her life, yelled her sorrow
under the most beWitching weeds.
Uncle Robert talked about the mys-
FERROUS ways of Providence, kept the
corners Of his mouth we'll down be-
fore the servants, and ere a week was
over had made a new will, leaving
every shilling he possessed at the un-
conditional disposal of his dear niece
Rose.
O'Shea, in short, by dying, had
committed by far the best action of
his half-century Of life, and every
body in the house knew it. Every
body but Belinda! Nature has COM
%pensation for US all-gives a neg
lected little daughter to love, to
mourn even a Cornelius O'Shea.
Fiercer than eve grew Belinda's re-
bellion now against Uncle Roberts