Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1911-12-22

Thurlow Weed was in the city, the Gov
ernor went at once to him and told him
the story as II has been narrated above.
Mr.. Weed said: 1T is your duty to
yourself and to the young woman to get
an explanation of this refusal. Her
father evidently greatly regretted the
necessity of telling you what he did,
therefore he can have no objection to
you personally. AS you have offered to
make his daughter your wife, 1t is your
right to demand from him some reason
for his refusal. Go at once to his hotel
and have an interview with him"
The young Governor lost no time in
taking this advice. He was not able to
find the father of his betrothed until
evening, and when he called then at the
hotel where this father was staying he
was most courteously received, but yet
with evident sorrow on the fathers part.
Pleading Loves Cause.
The Governor said to the father that
he felt that it was due him that some
explanation should be made of the abrupt
refusal which the father had given him
In Saratoga, the more especially as it was
evident there was no personal feeling
against him.
You are right, Governors: there is
none But you must believe me when l
tell you that this marriage can never be.
There are insuperable objections to It."
ought l not be the judge of that?"
the Governor asked. ut is a matter of
her health? If so that is not insuperable,
for I will be as tender of her as her
mother could be-"
mo, it is not that" said the father.
us it that you have promised to bestow
her upon someone else?'
Not that" said the father, and let
me say that l know of no man whom |
would more greatly rejoice to have as a
member of my family, a son-in-law, than
yourself"
"Then for Heavens sake, tell me what
this objection is. If you will do that, and
1 find that my judgment is the same as
yours, I will bow my head to 1t in sorrow
but in resignation"
She is Your Own Daughter"
"Well, then, since you insist upon it,
I'll tell you what the reason Is. 1t Is this:
She is you own daughter"
The young Governor looked at the
father of his betrothed in amaZement,
wondering whether by these words an in
suit was intended to be conveyed or
whether the man was of sound mind.
He could not speak. And then the father,
going to him and putting his hand ten
derby upon his shoulder, said: Now, !
will tell you what perhaps you should
long ago have known. In your college
days you were engaged to Mary -,
and you were anxious to marry her as
soon as you graduated. She would not,
but when you found that she was going
away to the South for a year or two
your affection overwhelmed you. You
took an excursion with her over the line
into New York state, where you had
heard that If a man and woman say that
they are man and wife in another's pres
ence that u%tterance makes them so.
Mary came to my home. We were
very fond of her, but she had not been
thnrn lnnp hoforn che hnna rno t1n1iln hnr-
self, for she seemed sad. And by and by
she told my wife of her engagement and
of the excursion to New York, where you
and she, in the presence of another,
called yourselves man and wife. Such
a law has no recognition in my state, but
we believed, as Mary did, that it was
binding in New York. Just before she
died she turned to my wife and said;
You will take care of my little girl, will
you not? I am confused and worried
about what was called our marriage cere-
mony, because it was secret, and l have
no evidence of it. BY and by in your own
way you can tell her father"
We'll sir" continued the father, I'VE
took that little one and we adopted it as
our own, She has never known We are
not her father and mother and she never
will unless you tell her. Nor does any
one else excepting one or two of our own
kin and her old colored nanny, who will
y lCNthi nv StNitl. -NON, wv tl IN >
I have told you. We nave done wrong,
perhaps, TO keep this child and to leave
you without the knowledge that your
betrothed. and, as she always asserted,
your wife, had died, leaving you this
child. But we felt down our way, sir,
that there would be no belief in this story
of the New York ceremony, and for
Mary's sake we took this course. l leave
the rest to you now"
The Story Ends.
The young Governor never knew exact
ly how he quilted that house, nor did he
fully regain his senses until he was again
in the presence of Thurlow Weed. When
Mr.. Weed saw the Governor he was hOr-
riied. His countenance was livid, his
eyes wild, and Mr.. Weed was fearful that
he had committed SOM act of violence.
At last, when Mr.. Weed had quoted him
somewhat, he told the story as he had
learned it from the girls adopted father.
what shall | do? What shall I do?"
he pleaded.
There is only one thing now to be
done. You must not reveal this to the
girl. You must not see her, but you
must write to her and say you recognize
her fathers imperative refusal as bind
Ing, and that all you can do Is to cherish
her memory and be faithful to your
affection during life" This the young
Governor did, and he never saw his
daughter, who was also his betrothed,
again. Blu when he was an old man he
heard that she had been happily married
and was living in luxury on a great plan
tation in the far South"
When Mr.. Blaine finished telling this
tale no one spoke. and Mr.. Blaine. per-
ceiving that the story had caused such
establishment as produces silence, simply
added: Gentlemen, that is not fiction;
that is not fiction; that is true. Where
can 1t be matched in romance"
A few days after the writer, speaking
of this story which Mr.. Blaine told at a
washington dinner party to eX-Postmas-
ter James, was surprised to hear General
James say:
"Mr. Blaine was quite right when he
said that this is a true story, for I once
heard 1t from Thurlow Weeds own lips
myself."-G"E. I. E." in New York Sun