Rensselaer Republican, Volume 21, Number 3, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 September 1888 — AN UNEXPECTED ENDING. [ARTICLE]

AN UNEXPECTED ENDING.

"Papa, who is the stranger I saw’in the library just now? He was talking to your secretary, Mr. Winchell, as it he were quite at home,” said Clyburne, winding one plump, white arm around her father’s neck as she perched herself on the arm of bis chair. Those who knew Silas Clyburne only as a business man, president of several railroads, director of a score of' other corporations and a shareholder in every paying concern in the State, would have been amazed to see how easily this fragile girl bent to her will the stony-heart-ed iron-handed man. "His name is Osborne Palmer,” replied the elder Clyburne, gazine affectionately at his idol. "I didn’t ask you what his name is; I ask, who is he? And is that the way you dare to answer my questions, sir?” and as she spoke Daisy playfully pinched one of his ears. "Ouch! You little inquisitive torment! Well, tp he explicit, Mr. Palmer is to be one of under secretaries, he is to —to assist Mr. Winchell.” "Come, come, sir! that hesitation shows that you are trying to hide something; I want the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.” . "Perhaps you remember that a few weeks ago you and your timid mother exacted from me that I would never again, under any circumstances, open Pre packages which' might come to me by mail or express.” “Of course we.did! If those wretches would send you a dynamite bomb once, 1 they might do it more successfully again; it was by a mere chance that the thing was out of order Bnd did not blow us all up,” replied Daisy, with a shudder. “Not one of the servants has courage enough to do it for me; Mr. Winchell has a family, and since our recent experience he has no taste for the task; so I have employed this young Palmer, whose special business it will be to open parcels.” "Oh, papa, why should he take the risk of his life? He is so —so young, maybe he has a mother?” "No, nor sister, nor any’ near relative. He is highly educated and well born, but being unfortunate in business, and therefore jilted by a heartless girl, he resolved to put an end to an unhappy life. He procured a quantity of laudanum, but decided that that was uncer-. tain, and so shot himself in the head. Either his hand swerved or his aim was uncertain, for the wound proyed to be only serious, not fatal. He was taken to an hospital, and as the letter he had written for post mortem purposes proved that the shooting was intentional, he was in danger of arrest and trial for attempted self-murder. Learning of the affair, I was struck with an idea, and so used my influence in his behalf, and there was no arrest. He placet! no value on his life, and so readily accepted the position I offered him. He came the very day after you and your mother went to your grandmother's to spend Thanksgiving, and Mr. Winchell tells me that he is of great assistance to him, especially in my large foreign correspondence. He is a gentleman bom, so he will live with us as a member of our family, and I wary you to give your cousin Bertha a hint that while ehe is with us we hope she will be courteous to him. I am very fond ‘of Bertha, my dear, but I can see that she is just t|ie least bit snobbish—like her father. Obed, Jenness is an inbred snob!”' v | The famous Kilkenny cats might well have been named Silas Clyburne and Obed Jenness, for these two men were continually fighting, tooth and nail. If one could thwart a scheme of the other it was rare sport to him, but retaliation was sure to come in some heart-search-ing way. As they had married sisters and there was constant intercourse between their wives and daughters, they outwardly maintained an armed neutrality. . V “Goodness gracious, Daisy, do you know who Uncle Silas has in his employ how?” cried Bertha Jenness to her cousin when she, too, had seen the young package opener., “Yes, he told me all about him just a few moments ago. Poor fellow! He has a romantic and sad story,” replied Daisy, and then went on to relate what we already know about Osborne Palmer. Bertha listened attentively, with a peculiar smile hovering around her thin, soulless lips, and when ? the story was concluded she said with a shrug of her shoulders,” "Very romantic, I admit, but what a fool he was!” “Oh, no, Bertha! Doubtless his troubles had temporary fumed his brain, yet surely he is to be pitied.” —but tell me, Daisy, did you ever hear

me’spcak of *\ young clwlierj had who used to deluge me with rare roues and choice bonbons until his fortune vanished and then showered on me tender versos of liis own composition?” "Oh, jes, qnd how I envied you for having a real poet at your feet! But where is he now? Does he still send r you poems?” “Doggerel, you mean! No.- 1 hope not. In Osborne Palmer, your father’s clerk, vou behold the man!” “No! Not really? Isn’t that odd? And now that he lias come to life again, so to speak, the lovely romance will begin all over again,” said Daisy, with a aint shade of regret in her voice. Each of these cousins hod something ‘the other lacked; Bertha was one bf a large family, and how Daisy wished she too might have one at two brothers, or one or two dear little midgets of sisters. But Bertha regarded these younger ones as channels where a large share of , her father’s money must go, while Daisy was the sole and idolized heir in her home Then, too, Bertha had so many lovers and Daisy so few! To be sure, the former, ever eager for attention, met them fully half way, while the modest little flower waited quietly for notice or attention.

Of course it was not now at all surprising that Osborne Palmer was soon made quite at home in the Clyburne mansion. He and Bertha had one dav a long and confidential conversation, and after that there was no restraint in their intercourse. If, however, he wrote any more verses on his lady’s eyelids, Bertha neither spoke of nor exhibited them. About this time there appeared in the social firmament where the Clyburnes sparkled a new star of great magnitude, neither more nor less than a genuine sprig of British aristocracy; he was poor, to be sure, but he was unmarried and more than one managing mamma was ready to exchange her daughter’s ducats for a share of his Lordship’s title. And Silas Clyburne. as ambitious as Lucifer, made up his mind that it should npt he his fanft if the voung man were not attracted by his Daisy. Thereupon ensued a series of entertainments of all sorts; Clyburne began none of them, but he gave the last of each series, for so much more costly was his dinner or ball, or theatre party, or luncheon, or gayety of any sort, that no one ventured to succeed him. "Papa,” said Daisy to him one evening as he chanced to alone in the library for a few moments, “I have a piece of news for you.” How his heart jumped! The foreign fish had certainly been swimming round and round the bait on the Clyburne hook; was he really going to nibble? "Well, my darling, what is it?” "Did you know, or suspect, that my cousin Bertha was the girl for whom Mr. Palmer was willing to throw away his life?” “No! You don’t mean it! Well, w r ell, I am" surprised. Heartless little jade flint girl is, anyway; just like her father.” "Oh, papa, you do her injustice. She did discourage him then, because—well, because he was poor, hut of course she never dreamed he would take it so to heart.” "And of course she knew her father would frown on any such match!” “Of course, rich men don’t like t» see their daughters wed poverty, ’ "Oh, that’s nonsense, my dear, any father of sense will look first at the character and capabilities of his daughter’s lavar r andiftheyare all right the purse is secondary. As for Osborne Palmer, I assure you, my dear, I have watched him closely since he has been here, and I consider him a very fine fellow. Of 4 course, his would-be suicide is against him, but I’ve come to the conclusion that worry and starvation had made him two-thirds crazy.” "Then you think a girl would—” “lie lucky to marry him? Yes, I do, and if you know of any girl that thinks of doing so—now hush, my dear, don’t speak! Don’t tell me anything! I have a very particular reason for not wanting to know anything—you tell her or him, or both of them, that to save all fuss or awkwardness, I, if I were him or her, would slip off quietly and be married.” "But, papa, dear, do really mean that you would forgive—” “There’s no question oi forgivness. You just tell Osborne what I have said, and if he has the sense I give him credit for he will understand me".” At this moment Palmer himself came into the room. There* the conversation terminated abruptly. For some days thereafter Mr. Clyburne was so good-natured, so almost generous, that e\ery one observed it; his fellow directors and associates nudged one another and Baid: “Now’s vour time to talk to Glyburde on such and such a project;” and his clerks whispered: “How queer Mr. Clyburne seems! Wonder if he’s going to die?” One intimate friend, a ventursome fellow, had the hardihood to say: i "What the mischief has come over you lately? I never knew you to be so genial. Whom have you fleeced this week?” “Oh, I’ve got such a rich thing on Obed Jenness!”replied Clyburne. chuckling to himself for the thousandth time. “Didn’t cost me anything but a little advice—cheapest thing in theworia, you know. He can’t get ahead of me on this score!” The friend didn’t mention this to any

but ten of his most intimate friends, and as they were equally secretive it did not take long to set every man on ’Change to slyly watching Obed Jenness. They naturally supposed that Clyburne refereed to things financial, not matrimonial. s Bertha visited Daisy quite often about that time, and Mr. Clyburne lost no chance in publicly insisting that Bertha must send her "things” and remain the rest of the week with. Daisy. One morning, during a visit, a servant came to Mr. Clyburne as he sat at breakfast,and trembling, said: “Mass’ Clyburne, sah, Miss Daisy ain’t in her room, sah!” '‘No! Gone for a walk, I suppose.” “I —I’s feared not, sah. Ah’—an’ Miss Bertha done too.” "They’ll probably be here soon. Keep some effflee hot for them.” • ' "B —but, sah, Mary she say as how de beds ain’t ben slen’ in.” “Neither of them?” asked Mr. Clyburne, a little anxiously. “N—no, sah, an’ yur’s a note Mary foun’ in Miss Daisy’s room,” added the man, handing a tiny envelope to his master, but Standing as far from him as the width of the silver salver and the extent of his long arm would permit. Mr. Clyburne opened the note calmly; he suspected that he knew what was in it; he merely glanced at the first lines: “Darling Papa—This is to tell you that Mr. Palmer is about to act on your advice; Bertha aiAl I are to meet him at Dr. ’s at eleven o’clock to-night for we think it best to have a friendly witness to such a matter.” “Ha, ha, ha!’’ laughed he heartily, to the surprise and delight of the alarmed servant. "I understand it now; Miss Daisy will be home pretty soon, but it is not neeesary to give any hint of this little affair to vour mistress. She has a severe headaehe apd it will only worry her. Send Mary-here.” Mary quickly appeared, for Silas Clyburne was a terror to evil-doers, and she too, was cautioned to silence and her fears all allayed. Silent! Yes, truly they would be very silent, especially when each of them received a S2O bill with the remark, "I’ll give you as much more if you will ever again bring me such good news.” "And now,” he said to himself, as he was on his way down town, “how best to break the news to my dear old friend Obed! Ha, ha, ha; How ,he will rage and fume! Wonder what I’d best say? Guess I’ll just hand him Daisy’s nojte to me and watch his face while he reads it. By the way, I haven’t lead it all myself.” “Drawing the note from his pocket he began to read: " ‘At Dr. ’s,’ um, I’ve read that, um, um ‘such a deed,and who can be a better one than a cousin? Bertha goes honle to-night.’ Oh, pshaw, then the fun is all over! Bnt what, is this? ‘I go with my husband.’ Why, why, what— ‘Your loving daughter, soon to be Daisy Palmer!’ Am I crazy?” No, he was not crazy. In his greed to work a mischief to his enemy he had not allowed his daughter to explain that it was she, not Bertha, with whom Osborne Palmer was in love. He jumped to the conclusion that she was referring to Bertha all the time, and, lo! he had himself fallen into the pit he had so carefully digged for another. “If I am fooled, old Obed shall not know it; I’d not give him tha| satisfaction,” was his decision. But though he put a brave face on the matter, no one was deceived, and he knew it. They to one ahother and wondered "where is the little game he is to play on his enemy?” Of course Daisy’s husband, in Daisy’s eyes, is far too precious to risk his life in opening any more of papa’s bombs, so Mr. Clyburne is again in search of such a deputy.