FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99  
100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   >>   >|  
ch have hunted you down. He's here--the Yankee creditor." Joyce Basil held up her hand in imploration, but Reybold did not heed the woman's remark. He felt a weight rising from his heart, and the blindness of many months lifted from his eyes. The dying mortal upon the bed, over whose face the blue billow of death was rolling rapidly, and whose eyes sought in his daughter's the promise of mercy from on high, was the mysterious parent who had never arrived--the Judge from Fauquier. In that old man's long waxed mustache, crimped hair, and threadbare finery the Congressman recognized Old Beau, the outcast gamester and mendicant, and the father of Joyce and Uriel Basil. "Colonel Reybold," faltered that old wreck of manly beauty and of promise long departed, "Old Beau's passing in his checks. The chant coves will be telling to-morrow what they know of his life in the papers, but I've dropped a cold deck on 'em these twenty years. Not one knows Old Beau, the Bloke, to be Tom Basil, cadet at West Point in the last generation. I've kept nothing of my own but my children's good name. My little boy never knew me to be his father. I tried to keep the secret from my daughter, but her affection broke down my disguises. Thank God! the old rounder's deal has run out at last. For his wife he'll flash her diles no more, nor be taken on the vag." "Basil," said Reybold, "what trust do you leave to me in your family?" Mrs. Basil strove to interpose, but the dying man raised his voice: "Tryphonee can go home to Fauquier. She was always welcome there--without me. I was disinherited. But here, Colonel! My last drop of blood is in the girl. She loves you." A rattle arose in the sinner's throat. He made an effort, and transferred his daughter's hand to the Congressman's. Not taking it away, she knelt with her future husband at the bedside and raised her voice: "Lord, when Thou comest into Thy kingdom, remember him!" HERMAN OF BOHEMIA MANOR. (_See note at end of poem._) I.--THE MANOR. "My corn is gathered in the bins," The Lord Augustin Herman said; "My wild swine romp in chincapins; Dried are the deer and beaver skins; And on Elk Mountain's languid head The autumn woods are red. "So in my heart an autumn falls; I stand a lonely tree unleaved; And to my hermit manor walls The wild-goose from the water calls, As if to mock a man bereaved: My years
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99  
100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

daughter

 

Reybold

 

promise

 

Colonel

 

father

 

Congressman

 

Fauquier

 

autumn

 

raised

 

throat


sinner
 

rattle

 

effort

 
taking
 
transferred
 
Tryphonee
 

disinherited

 
family
 

interpose

 

strove


BOHEMIA

 

languid

 

Mountain

 

chincapins

 

beaver

 

lonely

 

bereaved

 

unleaved

 

hermit

 

comest


kingdom
 
remember
 
future
 

husband

 

bedside

 

HERMAN

 

gathered

 

Augustin

 
Herman
 
parent

arrived

 

mysterious

 
rolling
 

rapidly

 
sought
 

gamester

 
outcast
 

mendicant

 

faltered

 
recognized