| Show 0 0 acl J TOR 9 N ay A coly loy mrs ad stopped and was standing very stiffly avith her red indian face even grimmer than usual Pe arpon said she jeremaah lah pearson the same the it 11 off she cried you need not bavry out that investment very well ma am they walked on side side PRE PRESS p association CHAPTER X CONTINUED guests whose guests he cried angrily what Is the meaning of this exhibit exhibition tion 7 we have been giving a little supper papa they were our guests oh indeed the doctor laughed sarcastically you think it right then to entertain young bachelors late at night to smoke and drink with them to oh that I 1 should ever have live livel to blush for my own daughters I 1 thank god that your dear mother never saw the day dearest papa cried clara ahr throwing owing her arms about him do not be angry with us it if you understood all you would see that there Is no harm in it no harm miss who Is the best judge of that mrs suggested ida slyly the doctor spring from his chair confound mrs he cried striking frenziedly frenzl edly into the air with nis hands am I 1 to hear of nothing but this woman 9 Is she to conf confront aront me at every turn I 1 will endure it no longer but it was your wish papa but I 1 will tell you now what my sec see ond and wiser wish is and we shall see if you will obey it as you have the first of course we will papa then my wish Is that you should for ge get t the odious notions which you have imbibed that you should dress and act as you used to do before ever you saw this woman and that in future you con fine your intercourse with her to such civilities as are necessary between neighbors we are to give up mrs westma c cott ott or give me up oh dear dad how can you say any thing so cruel cried ida burrowing her towey golden hear into her father fathers s shirt front while clara pressed her cheek against his whisker of course we shall give her up if you prefer it of course we shall papa the doctor patted the two caressing heads these are my own two girls again he cried it has been my fault as much as yours I 1 have been astray and you have followed me in my error it was only by seeing your mistakes that I 1 have become conscious of my own let us set it aside and neither say nor think anything more about it CHAPTER XI A BLOT FROM THE bauls 0 BY THE erness of the two girls a dark cloud was thinned away and turned into sunshine over one ot of them alas an 0 other ther cloud was gathering which could not be so aas lly fly dispersed of these three house holds which fate had thrown together r two had already bee been n united by if ties es of love it was destined however that a bond of an other sort should connect the westma cotts with the hay denberg between the admiral and the widow a very cordial feeling had existed since the day when the old seaman had hauled down his flag and changed his opinions granting to the yachtswoman all that he had refused to the reformer his own frank and downright nature respected the same qualities in his neighbor and a friendliness sprang up between them which was more like that which exists between two men founded upon esteem and a community of tastes by the way admiral said mrs as they walked together down to the station I 1 understand that this boy of yours in the intervals of paying his devotions to miss walker is doing something upon change yes ma am and there Is no man of Ms age who Is doing so well hes he s drawing ahead I 1 can tell you ma am some of those that started with him are hull down astarb now he touched his five hundred last year and be fore he s thirty he 11 be making the tour four alg figures res the reason I 1 asked Is that I 1 have small investments to make myself from time to time and my present broker Is a rascal I 1 should be very glad to do it through your son it Is very kind of you ma am I 1 his its partner Is away on a holiday and har old would like to push on a bit an and show what he can do you know the POP isn t big enough to hold the lieu tenant when the skipper skippers s on shore I 1 suppose he charges the usual halt half per cent don t know I 1 in sure ma am III swear he does what is right and prop er that is what I 1 usually pay ten ehll shil lings in the hundred pounds if you se him before I 1 do just ask him to get me five thousand in fit new zealanda Zea lands t Is four just now and I 1 fancy it may rise five thousand exclaimed the ad miral reckoning in his own mind lemme see that a twenty five pounds commission A nice day days s upon my word it Is a very handsome order ma am tbell veil I 1 must pay some one and why not him i I 1 II 11 tell him and I 1 m sure he 11 lose no time oh there Is no great hurry by the w way ay I 1 understand from what you said just now that he has a partner yes my boy Is the junior partner pearson Is the senior I 1 was introduced Introduce 4 to him years ago and he offered har flar OI 01 old the opening of course we had a tretty stiff p estum to pay she brooding over some thought ot of tier her own and he a little crossed and digap pointed at her caprice and the lost corn cont mission for harold I 1 tell you what admiral she ex claimed suddenly if I 1 were you I 1 should set get your boy out of this part but why madam because he Is tied to one of the deep est slyest foxes in the whole city of london jeremiah pearson ma amt am what can you know of him he bears a good name I 1 no one in this world knows jeremiah pearson as I 1 know him admiral I 1 ft arn you because I 1 have a frici filer adly feeling both for you and for your son the man Is a rogue and you had bad best avoid him but these are only words ma am do you tell me that you know him oetter than the brokers and jobbers in the city man cried mrs will you allow that I 1 know him when I 1 tell you that my maiden name was ada pearson and that jeremiah pearson Is my only brother 7 the admiral whistled whew cried he now that I 1 think of it there Is a likeness he Is a man of iron admiral admirada adm irala a roan man without a heart I 1 should shock you if I 1 were to tell you what I 1 have en dured from frim my brother my fathers wealth was divided equally between us his own share he ran through in five years and he has tried since then by every trick of a cunning low minded man by base cajolery by legal bles by brutal intimidation to juggle me out of my share as well there Is no villainy of which the man Is not ca pable oh I 1 know my brother jere miah I 1 know him and I 1 am prepared tor for him this Is all new to me ma am pon my word I 1 hardly know what to say to it I 1 thank you for having spoken so plainly from what you say this Is a poor sort of consort for a man to sail with perhaps harold would do well to cut him adrift without losing a day well we shall talk it over you may be sure of that but here we are at the station so I 1 will just see you into your carriage and then home to see what my wife says to the matter As he hd trudged homeward thoughtful and perplexed he was surprised to hear a shout behind mm and to see harold running down the road after him why dad he cried I 1 have just come from town and the first thing I 1 saw was your back as you marched away but you are such a quick walker that I 1 had to run to catch you the admiral a smile of pleasure had broken his stern face into a thousand wrinkles you are early to day said he yes I 1 wanted to consult you nothing wrong oh no only an inconvenience what Is it then how much have we in our private account pretty fair some eight hundred I 1 oh half that will be ample it was rather thoughtless of pearson what then well you see dad when he went away dway upon this little holiday to havre he left me to pay accounts and so on he told me that there was enough at the bank tor for all claims I 1 had occasion on tuesday to pay away two cheques chequer one for ISO HO and the other for 1120 1120 and here they are returned with a bank no tice that we have already overdrawn to the extent of some hundreds the admiral looked very grave what s the meaning of that then he asked oh it can easily be set right you see pearson invests all the spare cap ital and keeps as small a margin as possible in the bank still it was too bad tor for him to allow me even to run a i risk of having a cheque returned I 1 have written to him and demanded his authority to sell out some stock and I 1 have written an explanation to these people in the meantime however I 1 have had to issue several cheques chequer so I 1 had better transfer part of our private account to meet them quite so my boy all that p mine Is 1 yours but who do you think this pearson is isa he Is mrs Westma cotts a brother heally really what a singular thing well I 1 can see a likeness now that you men afon it they have both the same hat haid d type of face she has been warning me against him hirn says he Is the rankest pirate in london I 1 hope that it Is all right boy and that we may not find our selves in broken water harold had turned a little pale as he heard mrs s opinion of his senior partner it gave shape and sul stance to certain vague fears and sui of his own which had been pushed back as often as they obtruded themselves as being too monstrous and fantastic tor for belief he Is a well known man in the city dad said he of course he Is of course he Is thit Is what I 1 told her they would have found him out there it if anything had been amiss with him bless you there 3 nothing so bitter as a family quarrel still still it Is just as well anat you hae haia written about this affair for we may as well have all fair and above board but harold a letter to his partner was crossed by a letter from his hartnel to harold it lay awaiting him upon the breakfast table next morning and it ent sent the heart into nis mouth as he read it and caused him to spring up from his chair with a white face and staring eves wes s vf tf duyl boal I 1 am ruined mother rul he we stood gazing wildly in frona of bim him while the she t of paper fluttered down to the carpet then hi he dropped back into the chair and sank his face inac hie his hani han his ills mother had bad her arms round him hirn in an instant while the admiral with shaking fingers picked up tt it e let ter frnia the floor and adjusted his glasses gl ases to read it my uy dear denver it ran by tho the time that this reaches you I 1 shall be out of the reach of yourself or of any one else who may desire an interview you need el not t search for me tor for I 1 assure you that hat t this letter Is posted by a friend and that you will have your trouble in vain it if you try to find me I 1 am sorry to leave you in such a tight place but one or other of us must be squeezed and on the whole I 1 pret r that it should be you you 11 find nothing in the bank and about 13 un accounted for I 1 in not sure that the best thing you can do Is not to realize what you can and imitate your senior s example it if you act at once you may get clean away if not it s only that you must put up your shutters but I 1 am afraid that this missing money could hard hardly lybe be included as an ordinary debt and of course you are legally re for it aist as much as I 1 am take a friend s advice and get to america A young man with brains can always do something out there and you can live down this little mischance it will be a cheap lesion if it teaches you to take nothing upon trust in business buel nese and to insist upon knowing exactly what your partner Is doing however senior he may be to you yours faith fully JEREMIAH PEARSON great heavens groaned the admiral he has absconded and left me both a bankrupt and a thief no no harold sobbed his mother all will be right what matter about money money it Is my honor the boy Is right it Is his honor and my honor for his Is mine this ie is a sore trouble mother when we thought our lifes afe s troubles were all behind us but we will bear it as we have borne others he ile held out his stringy hand and the two old folk sat with bow A grey heads their fingers intertwined strong in each other others s love and sympathy we were too happy ehe she sighed but it Is god s will mother yes john it Is god s will and yet it Is bitter to bear I 1 could have lost all the house money rank I 1 could bave 1 ave borne it but at my age my honor the honor of an admiral ot of the fleet no honor can be lost john where no dishonor has been done what havo have you done what has harold done there Is no question of honor the old man shook his head but ilar harold had already called together his clear practical sense which for an instant in the presence of this frightful blow had deserted him the mater Is right dad said he it la is bad enough heaven knows but we must not take too dark a view of it after all this insolent letter Is in itself evidence that I 1 had haa nothing to do with the schemes of the base villain who wrote it they may think it prearranged they could not my whole life crie out against the thought they could not look me in the face and entertain it no boy not if they have eyes in their heads cried the admiral plucking up courage at the sight of the flashing eyes and brave defiant face we have the letter and we have your character we 11 weather it yet between them it s my fault from the begin ning for choosing such a landsmark land shark tor for your consort god help me I 1 thought I 1 was finding such an opening for you dear dad how could you possibly know As he says in his letter it haa has given me a lesson but he was so much older and so much more experienced that it was hard for me to ask to examine his books but we must waste no 10 time I 1 must go to the city what will you do TO BE CONTINUED |
