The Washington herald., 1919-09-18
All Sorts and Conditions
Of Men
By WALTER BESANT.
CONDENSATION by Charles H. Lincoln>)


The girl was the greatest hefress
in England. On the morrow she
was to leave the university where,
in anticipation of assuming the re-
sponsibility Of her fortune. she had
acquired all Of the theory of politi-
cal economy that text books could
give her. Speaking 10 a girl friena.
she summed up the sources of her
wealth:
ITO begin with. there is the brew
cry. You cannot escape from big
brewery if il belongs to you. You
cannot hide It away. Messenger.
Marsden and Company-s Stout. their
NIX. their Old and Mild. their Bit
ter. their Family Ales (that parti-
Cularly at eight-and-siX the nine
gallon cask, if paid for on delivery.
their drays, their huge horses, their
strong men-fheset hings stare one
in the face wherever you go. l am
Messenger, Marsden and Company.
myself, the sole partner in what my
lawyer sweetly calls the concern"
Also there was an unconscionaole
sum of money in the funds And
whole streets OF houses. They lay
all about Whitechapel way. Her
grandfather had bought houses just
as other people buy apples.
Yet Angela Messenger never had
been inside one OF her own houses.
Never had visited her brewery. She
knew all the theories about people.
but she didn't know people them
selves. She resolved:
'T efface myself. 1 vanish. dis
appear. Your Angela will be a
dressmaker. and she will live by
herself and become-wnat her
great-grandmother was-one Of the
people"
This was in June, 1881.
For a long time to come. fashion
able London would see Angela Mes
senger no more.
But in whitechapel district. a
charming young woman claiming z
the name of Kennedy appeared from
nowhere in particular. to open
drcssmaking rOomr.
At Mrs. Bormalack's boarding
house she met the man.
The man had all of personal re-
tinement education and aristocratic
poise that was to be expected in the
favorite member OF the family of
Lord Jocelyn lie Breton. Reaching
the age of %, he had been told the
secret of his birth: his only claim
upon that home of wealth and So
cial distinction was one of graft
tude. For. ln truth, he had been
the child OF a sergeant in the Eng
llsh army; and instead OF lie Bre-
ton, his name was Goslett-Harry
Goslett, the first name being pro-
nounced AIRY IN the neighborhood
where he had been born
Free to make his choice, he resolved
- l.
Mrs. Bormalack's boarding house
old and shabby; everything wanted
polishing. washing, Frightening up.
The boarders numbered an elderly
couple from a New Hampshire town,
hugging the delusion that they were
rightful owners of a peerage. and
awaiting the day when their rights
would be recognized; a sleight-of-hand
performer, out of employment, who
bored mis- fellows by practicing his
magic upon them: a learned scholar
from Australia. who claimed the dis
covery of the original tablets of stone
upon which the Ten Comma ndments
had been written. but who was de-
prived of the glory due such an
achievement by the jealousy OF rival
scholars; a clerk in the great brewery.
who for thirty years had labored un-
der suspicion of stealing certain valua-
ibles from a safe of the concern-hold-
ing on to an ill-paid position through
decades. without hope of promotion or
fear of discharge, until guilt might be
proven or the missing valuables dis
Fcovered.
In such surroundings Angela and
Harry naturally gravitated toward
each other. Without question, they
took each other at face value: she, a