a mingled sentiment of tenderness and forgiveness. On reaching the landing-place, I hastened to take possession of the first hackney-coach, and, calling Neptune into it, drove off to my lodgings. 38. On arriving at my apartments, the first object that presented itself to my eye was a note from Maria. I knew the writing at a glance, and the peculiar shape of the billet. All the blood in my veins seemed to rush back toward my heart, and there to stand trembling at the seat of life and motion. I shook like a terrified infant. Who could divine the nature of the intelligence which that note contained? I held the paper some moments in my trembling hand, when at length, with a sudden, a desperate effort of resolution, I broke the seal, and read— 39. What did I read? Why, that she did not write the day before, because her aunt had suddenly determined to come to town that very day—and that they were already at Thomas's Hotel in Bond Street! "Come to us directly,” she said; or if this wicked theft of Drayton's-which, by the bye, will compel us to have a smaller, a quieter, and, therefore, a happier, home, than we otherwise should have had-compels you to be busy among law people, and occupies all your time this morning, pray come to dinner at seven,"―etc., etc. 40. And she was really true!-and only my wicked suspicions were in fault! Oh, how much was I to blame! how severely did my folly deserve punishment! It was now four o'clock in the afternoon. My toilet was hastily made, and, in five minutes after the first reading of Maria's note, I was descending the staircase, and prepared to obey her summons. My servant was standing with his hand on the lock of the street door, when the noise of rapidly approaching wheels was heard. A carriage stopped suddenly before the house-the rapper was loudly and violently beaten with a hurried hand-the street door flew openand John Fraser, in his dinner dress of the last evening, pale with watching, and fatigue, and excitement, and dusty with travel, burst like a sudden apparition upon my sight. 41. Rushing toward me, seizing my hand, and shaking it with the energy of almost convulsive joy, he exclaimed, "Well, Ladowski, I was in time! I thought I should be! The fellows drove capitally-grand good horses, too, or we should never have beaten him." "What do you mean?" I asked. "Beaten whom?" "Did 42. "The rascal Drayton, to be sure," said he. not they tell you that I had got scent of his starting, and was off after him within an hour of his departure ?” 66 'No, indeed, John, they never told me that." 43. "Well, never mind, I overtook him within ten miles of Trenton, and horse whipped him within an inch of his life. In an hour more he would have been away, down the river, for Philadelphia, and then out of the country." “And—and—the money?" 44. "Oh, I've lodged that at your bankers', the Middletons'. I thought it best to put that out of danger at once. So I drove to Wall Street and deposited your two hundred thousand dollars in a place of security before I came here to tell you it was safe." 45. If I had been humbled and ashamed of myself before, this explanation of John Fraser's absence was very little calculated to restore me to my former happy state of self-approbation. Taking my friend by the arm, and calling Neptune, I said, "By and by, John, you shall be thanked as you ought to be for all your kindness; but you must first forgive me. I have been cruelly unjust to Maria, to you, and to poor old Neptune here. Come with me to Bond Street." 46. Without giving him time to ask any questions, I continued in this wise::-"Never again shall I allow a suspicion injurious to those I love to enter my mind. The world's a good world-the women are true-the friends are faithful-and the dogs are all faithfully attached to their masters; and if any individual, under any possible combination of circumstances, is ever, for a single instant, induced to conceive an opposite opinion, depend upon it, that unhappy man is deluded by false appearances, and a little inquiry would convince him of his mistake." 47. "I cannot for the life of me understand what you are driving at," at length exclaimed my friend. "You will presently," I replied; and. in the course of half an hour-seated on the sofa, with Maria on one side of me, with John Fraser on the other, and with Neptune lying at my feet-I had related the painful story of my late follies and sufferings, and heard myself pitied and forgiven. The possession of unmingled happiness put an end to the series of my Day's Reverses. 48. And now, to conclude. In order that this truthful story of a single day's follics, in the life of a hasty man, may impress its useful lessons the more strongly upon any of my descendants who may chance to read this narrative, I will here give the full name of my friend, which is— John Fraser Hardy. 49. " Why, that must have been my papa's father!" exclaimed Nellie,-" my grandfather! I know that was his name." “But who was Mr. Ladowski ?" asked Lulu. "The story will tell you," said her mother. hear the rest of it." "Let us Mr. Agnew then proceeded with the narrative, as follows:- 50. "My name is Roger L. Wilmot,-the L. standing for Ladowski, the name by which I was then generally known, and being the name of the Polish family into which my father married before he came to America." "Uncle Philip told us about that when we found the uniform up in the garret," said Eddie. 51. "And it was our grandfather that wrote the story!" exclaimed Lulu. "Yes," said her mother; "and the Maria that he speaks of was your grandmother." "And so it appears that Nellie's grandfather was the means of restoring the large fortune that was stolen from my grandfather!" said Frank. 52. "And John Fraser Hardy's son, and Roger L. Wilmot's son, married my two sisters-descendants of one of those same Middletons who were your grandfather's bankers," said Uncle Philip. "I think relationships are very puzzling," said Nellie. 53. Fortunately," remarked Mr. Raymond, "this true. story of A Day's Reverses' ended happily; but how near it came to ending otherwise! It is a good lesson for all of us; and it should teach us not to be too hasty in judging from mere circumstances,—and, especially, in judging of our long-tried friends." 54. The reading of this, the first one of the "Old Men's Stories," had occupied so much time, that Mrs. Wilmot thought it best not to take up any of the others until some subsequent evening. It happened that, before the next evening of their meeting, another letter from Freddy Jones had been received, from across the wide water. That letter will be found in the next chapter. CHAPTER XII.-AROUND THE WORLD.-No. 7. We were all anxious to see what Freddy would have to write about Rome and its surroundings; so, on the evening appointed for the reading of his letter, we had quite a large audience at the Hall. Nearly all of Mr. Agnew's pupils were there, by invitation from Mrs. Wilmot; for they had become greatly interested in these letters from foreign lands, which, from time to time, Mr. Agnew had read to them. He had also marked out, on the large outline maps of the school-room, the route which the voyagers had taken, and had made this the basis of a very valuable geographical study for the whole school. It was not a study of names and places merely; but it embraced, in addition, whatever of interest could be connected with them. I.-Rome as it was, and as it is. 1. We have been in Rome nearly three months, including the time given to excursions into the surrounding country; and yet Prof. Howard tells us that we might remain here six months longer, and find something new to see, to hear about, and to read about, every day. Dr. Edson and I have made a collection of marbles, and other stones, from the ruined temples, palaces, arches, and columns, of a by-gone greatness; and I have some of them set apart for our Lake-View Museum. 2. It is no wonder that the poet Byron calls Rome, in view of her past history, "lone mother of dead empires!" But the mother city-as she once was-is dead, also, and buried, too; for the very pavements on which once stood Rome's proudest temples, the monuments of her glory, are buried beneath the ruins of these same structures, often to the depth of thirty feet! 3. To-day we may come here, where this once proud mistress of the world bore sway, and see The cypress, hear the owl, and plod our way Verse 2.-Why is Rome called "mother of dead empires"?-Why is Rome said to be "dead and buried"?-V. 3. Why "proud mistress"?-Why are the expressions, "see the cypress, hear the owl," used, when, perhaps, neither cypress nor owl is to be found in Rome? |