Evening star., 1912-11-24

resemblance is SO striking,-l wonder If you
would be willing to call yourself something
else2'
"What!' cried Jimmy Sylvester, as
founded. Il don't understand you"
you'll have to forgive me, said Hen
derson. "Of course l sound as if | were
mad, and equally of course you have your
group of friends, your settled place in the
world, wife and children perhaps. | must
really get something to drink: feel quite
upset. And then, if YOU will permit it, |
will tell YOU a story and you will comprehend
something of my difficulty.
Sylvester beckoned emphatically to
waiter, and Henderson leaned his head on
his hands until the liquor was brought.
Sylvester poured him glass of wine, and
he drank half of it in the manner of one not
at all used to it. Presently his gray face
frightened and he began to talk.
Il have long story to tell you, he said,
"and | should tell it my own way; for |
have no special gift of selection, and must
talk it out much as have lived it. If you
have some other engagement, if you cannot
hear me, you have only to say So
Even if he had wanted to, Jimmy Svl-
vester could not have broken away from
that eager little man, SO anxious to unburden
himself but he did not want to- An ad-
venture of this sort was just the thing with
which to top off the amazing day on which
he had met Angela Give.
Indeed | am very deeply interested
he said warmly.
THANK you. | shall have to begin my
story many years back, long before such
Young men as YOU and Larrabee Damon were
born. must tell you that come from Eng
land,-a Kent man. My people were of no
consequence socially: my father was a
small green grocer. And very surprised and
proud he would be now if he were alive, and
could know that his son was not only law
yer,-what he would call barrister,-but
had million dollars
"a very good lawyer, I'll be bound!' said
Sylvester, touching his glass to Henderson's
"That is just the sort of thing young Lar
rabee Damon would say to meat least |
think he would said Henderson.
"Then YOU don't know him very well?"
asked Sylvester.
"Not very well; but | am coming to that
in time. You must let me tell this story in
my own wav," said Henderson, with a kind
of gentle testiness.
Sylvester threw out his hands with a ges-
ture of apology, and Henderson continued:
an the parish in which | lived the great
people were the Damons. Very fine and
proud they were, and very poor too. All
they had was their thousand acres, mort
gagged up to the hit, and half a dozen widows
and maiden aunts getting dover and allow
ance from it besides. But one bit of capital
the Damons did have,-good looks. Four
children there were, two daughters and two
sons, and it was expected that they would
all make good marriages. Even in England,
Sir, rich man will take a well bred girl
even if she has nothing but her beauty, and
she will often make him a better wife just
because she has nothing of her own.
@In a neighboring parish lived another
great family, the Larrabees. And they had
none too much money; but they were not SO
poor as the Damons. They ran to sons
mostly, and they were nothing in particular
as to looks, except the one daughter, who
was as beautiful as any Damon. That will
prove, Sir, how Providence adjusts matters.
1t would be easy for plain-looking Larrabee
sons to marry girls with money especially if
they were willing to take the daughters of
manufacturers; but if Miss Larrabee had
been plain her marriage would have been
thing to contrive. | often think that if she
had not been SO beautiful all that happened
would not have happened, and my life would
have been a very different matter from what
it has been"
He I,,r 81