subject, we may as well trace out the future
career of Mrs. Preston. Some years later she was induced, by the
expectation of aiding her social standing, to marry an adventurer who
appeared to be doing a flourishing business as a State Street broker.
By spurious representations, he managed to get hold of her property,
and to be appointed Godfrey's guardian. The result may be foreseen. He
managed to spend or waste the whole and when Godfrey was twenty-one,
he and his mother were penniless. Andy, who was now sole
representative of the firm of Graves & Burke, and in receipt of an
excellent income, heard of the misfortunes of his old enemy, and out
of regard to the memory of his old benefactor voluntarily offered Mrs.
Preston an allowance of five hundred dollars. It cost her pride a
great deal to accept this favor from the boy she had looked down upon
as "only an Irish boy," but her necessity was greater than her pride,
and she saw no other way of escaping the poorhouse. So she
ungraciously accepted. But Andy did not care for thanks. He felt that
he was doing his duty, and he asked no other reward than that
consciousness. Mrs. Preston was allowed to make her home, rent free,
in Mrs. Burke's old house, Andy having built a better and more
commodious one, in which he had installed his mother as mistress. Mrs.
Preston grew old fast, in appearance, and fretted without ceasing for
the fortune and position which she had lost. Her husband left her, and
has not since been heard of. As for Godfrey, Andy secured him a
passage to California, where he led a disreputable life. There is a
rumor that he was killed in a drunken brawl at Sacramento not long
since, but I have not been able to learn whether this is true or not.
His loss of fortune had something to do with his going to the bad, but
I am afraid, with his character and tendencies, that neither in
prosperity nor in adversity would he have built up a good character,
or led an honorable career. His course had been, in all respects, far
different from that of our hero, who, already prosperous, seems likely
to go on adding to his wealth, and growing in the esteem of the best
portion of the community. His success, aided, indeed, by good fortune,
has served to demonstrate the favorable effects of honesty, industry,
and good principles, upon individual success. He is not the first, nor
will he be the last, to achieve prosperity and the respect of the
community, though beginning life as "o