FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152  
153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   >>   >|  
meeting Mr. Cashel personally. His present intention is to visit your neighborhood next week. I am, dear sir, truly yours, M. Kennyfeck. Cornelius Corrigan, Esq., Tubber-beg Cottage. The second letter was as follows:-- "Simpkins and Green have the honor to forward for acceptance the enclosed bill for two hundred and seventeen pounds, at three months, Mr. Heneage Leicester, of New Orleans, on Mr. Corrigan. "They are authorized also to state that Mr. Leicester's affairs have suffered considerably from the consequence of the commercial distress at N. O., and his personal property has been totally lost by the earthquake which took place on the 11th and 12th ultimo. He therefore trusts to Mr. C------ 's efforts to contribute to his aid by a greater exertion than usual, and will draw upon him for two sums of one hundred, at dates of six and nine months, which he hopes may suit his convenience, and be duly honored. Mr. Leicester continues to hope that he may be able to visit Europe in the spring, where his great anxiety to see his daughter will call him." "The ruin is now complete," said the old man. "I have struggled for years with poverty and privation to ward off this hour; but, like destiny, it will not be averted! Despoiled of fortune; turned from the home where I have lived from my childhood; bereft of all! I could bear up still if she were left to me; but now, he threatens to take _her_, my child, my hope, my life! And the world will stand by him, and say, 'He is her father!' He, that broke the mother's heart,--my own darling girl!--and now comes to rob me--a poor helpless old man--of all my companionship and my pride. Alas, alas! the pride, perhaps, deserves the chastisement. Poor Mary, how will she ever learn to look on him with a daughter's affection?--What a life will hers be! and this deception,--how will it, how can it ever be explained? I have always said that he was dead." Such, in broken half-sentences, were the words he spoke, while thick-coming sobs almost choked his utterance. "This cannot be helped," said he, taking up the pen and writing his name across the bill. "So much I can meet by selling our little furniture here; we shall need it no more, for we have no longer a home. Where to, then?" He shook his hands in mournful despair, and walked towards the window. Mary was standing outside
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152  
153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
Leicester
 

hundred

 

months

 

Corrigan

 

daughter

 
darling
 
turned
 

fortune

 
childhood
 

Despoiled


companionship

 

bereft

 
helpless
 

father

 
mother
 

threatens

 
deception
 
selling
 

furniture

 

taking


writing

 

walked

 

despair

 

window

 

standing

 

mournful

 

longer

 

helped

 

averted

 

explained


affection

 
deserves
 

chastisement

 

broken

 

choked

 
utterance
 

coming

 
sentences
 

anxiety

 
pounds

Heneage
 

Orleans

 
seventeen
 
enclosed
 

Simpkins

 

forward

 
acceptance
 

commercial

 
consequence
 

distress