The Greenville journal. [volume] (Greenville, Ohio) 1850-1918, 1910-08-11

ficiently to take his place and hold
his own with men and women. 1t was
impossible to keep secret forever the
details of such a story as his, es-
pecially when it was linked with a
name so famous and still remembered
as that of Katharine Brenton, and 1t
had been decided by Capt. Ashby and
Whitaker and the man himself that
such portions of 1t as would suffice
to explain his own presence and her
fate should be given to the world. Upon
the foundation thus afforded ro-
nance builded. Charnock Immediately
became marked man. He would have
been a marked man in any event from
the financial power that he possessed.
His uncle's management had been wise
and prudent, he had spent little and
had saved much, so that Charnock
found himself the possessor of vast
riches in the form of available capital.
Among the first things he learned
been steadied by the memory of the
woman, he would probably have
learned 1t to his sorrow. AS it was, he
was almost miserly. He spent little up
on himself. His wants were astonish-
ingly few and contact with the world
did not develop extravagant ideas.
Those were things which he was too
old to learn, against which he had
been anchored. He was saving what
he had and what he could get for
some great purpose, purpose of help,
of assistance in which he could COM
memorate her name, for which future
generations should rise up and call
her blessed.
He had long talks with his uncle
about it. The old man would fain
have had his nephew marry and carry
on the ancient line. Delicately, ten
derIy, he broached the subject after a
time, but the suggestion met with alb
solute refusal. Women interested
Charnock as men did. Indeed his in
terest in his kind was intense. The
intellectual stimulus of conversations
with bright, intelligent people was the
! most enhancing result of his contact
with the world. But none of them
touched his heart. That was buried on
that gemlike island in the far off sea.
He was a man of unusual force of
character, prompt and unyielding de-
cision. His uncle had not lived his
long life without being able to esti-
mate men. He recognized very early
in the undertaking the futility of ar
gument, and though he tried tinesse in
the presence of the wittiest, the clev-
crest, and most beautiful women of
Virginia and elsewhere, for the two
travelled throughout the United
States, welcomed everywhere, his ef-
forts were unavailing. There was
more than one woman who would
have been glad to accept the mans
suit; whom, if he had wooed ever so
slightly he could have won, but he
was friendly with everyone and in
love with none.
At the end of two years society gave
him up as confirmed in his isolation
and loneliness. He was not the less
| welcome, but he was no longer a
matrimonial possibility, nor was he
any more the wonder that he had
been. New things engrossed public
attention. The world presently took
Charnock as he would fain have it
take him, as a matter of courge.
He did things slowly, not because
that was his nature, but from an In
vincible determination 10 do things
right. He made his plans deliberately
and had formulated an enterprise so
comprehensive in its scope, so vast In
its outlay and with such infinite possi'
bilities of help to the poor, the
wretched, the down-troJden classes of
society, that when this foreshadowtngs
of it were announced, people stood
amazed. An undertaking so great was
not within the power even Of Char
mock. His resources were utterly un'
equal to it, but he had enough to make
magnificent beginning and by SeVo-
ting to it the whole revenue of mis- es-
tate, and the estate itself after he
died, gradually the enterprise would
be achieved.
There was no necessity for secrecy
about it. Indeed with that simplicity
and candor so unusual and so uncon-