Evening star., 1912-11-24


things just took their course, and by and by
there were terrible scenes between the faml
lies-though | must say little of it leaked
out. But, while the young people wanted
to marry, neither family would allow it, not
even the girls people. In spite of ALL they
thought they could do better by her than
young Damon.
"The upshot of it was that they took her
abroad and my mother, then a young widow
with a nursing child of her own, went with
them. The baby was born abroad and was
given to my mother to bring up, and she was
to live in another parish on the other side OF
England. She did go-and precious lonely
she was! The money the Larrabees and
Damons gave her for the care of the boy
hardly made up to her for being away from
her own people. After two years my father
went as tripper to the seaside place where
she was, and she took his fancy. The up
shot of it was that back she came to the very
parish of the boys father.
"Well, it wasn't SO awkward as it may
sound. They had told Miss Larrabee that
her baby had died, and whether she believed
it or not | have never known. But she mar
RED happily, rich man who lived in the
North, and her visits home were rare enough.
Young Damon was not so easily disposed of:
but he was married too. He bargained with
them that he should get a commission to
India. Somehow, he never cared for Eng
land after that early trouble. The Damon
affections always went deeper than the
Larrabee affections.
But the elder people, the parents and the
aunts, and the sisters and brothers too were
in the neighborhood, and don't know that
it was pleasant to them to see the boy that
thev had done out of name. Not that the
sin of it troubled them if it was sin, but
he had the red Damon hair-torch red it
Was-and the Larrabee blue eyes, with the
arched, finely marked black brows. He had
the big Damon body and the Damon voice,
and he had the red, small Larrabee mouth.
| assure you, Sir, to the eyes of those who
knew, if he had been labeled he could not
have shown the Larrabee and Damon more
distinctly than he did. But the villagers
were stupid enough: to them he was only
another of the Henderson lot that began to
swarm over the steps of my fathers green
grocer shop"
THE cafe was filled with theater crowds,
and Henderson paused for a moment
as the chairs about him began to be oc-
cupied. Sylvester did not glance away from
Henderson's face.
"Do go on" he begged. 3We've the right
to sit here all night, if we like, and for my
part could listen to you till daylight.
II thank you,' said Henderson, with a
prirn little bow. "The young are not always
so ready to listen to the elderly My
brother as he was called, always received a
certain amount of consideration from my
father and mother. They never forgot that
he had in him the blood of the Damons and
the Larrabees, even if it came somewhat
irregularly. Perhaps the consideration they
showed him intensified his natural traits.
At any rate, he soon gave signs of an
overbearing, though generous, disposition,
and high, uncomfortable temper | ought
to be able to tell you that he showed
aristocratic tendencies. In some ways he
did: in other ways he was as common as if
he had been born in an alehouse. The pain
full part of his personality was that it seemed
to be divided against itself: the boorish part
would act first, and then the gentleman part
would stand off and criticize the boorish
part, and my brother, as | called him,
suffered intensely.
"The Damons and Larrabees had sufi-
cient conscience to see that he was sent
away to good school, when he was about
eight, and so after that he was with us only
during vacations. | could never see that his
schooling helped him out any. He was never
very quick at his books, and his mind was
Just as uncouth as if he had been brought up
on the village benches. Perhaps the schools