Roxy Hastings — page 189: what you’re looking at

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180 ROXY HASTINGS. he tell them how much more wisely he would have acted if he had been at home. What he thought about it was another matter. ~ Yet he saw that he had been more remiss than they in leaving so large an amount of property so poorly protected, and the lesson was not lost upon him. He was not slow in reading the character of Eldon, but his admiraton of and his gratitude to Louis, whom he had never seen, were such that he overlooked the father’s fault, and resolved to pave the way for a prompt recon- ciliation on the son’s return. The visit was protracted day after day, on the urgent solicitation of the Lees, and the widow, at Charles’ request, after forcing upon her astonished friend a variety of costly presents in the way of apparel, much of which the poor woman greatly needed, still-taxed her ingenuity to think of something new to bestow. | Eldon was not the man to hurry away under such cir- cumstances, and he began to treat his wife with a shade more of consideration. When she would protest against the acceptance of some new gift, the widow would say : “Tut! What is it compared to what Louis has done for us?” and thus the selfish father was taught to entertain a higher opinion of his rebellious son. Before he went home Charles astonished the sordid man still more, for one evening, when he had relapsed into a grumbling mood, and made some allusion to what he had lost in the yield of his farm, in consequence of Louis de- serting him at a time when no other help could be had, young Lee said : “How much—how much, now, do you honestly think that you lost by your son’s absence 2” | “Well, nigh on to three hundred dollars one-way and another, and that’s a great deal in my circumstances. The boy has never sent a dollar of his wages home.” “ Alf said they never received but two months’ pay be-— fore they were taken prisoners, and after that they received none, of course. At any rate he could have had no reason to suppose that you were in want.” : “Of course not,” said Mrs. Eldon. “Oh, of course not,” replied the husband, sneeringly. ‘You'd take his part if he was to rob me of every cent I had in the world.” “Don’t talk of robbing, Eldon,” said Charley, good-na- turedly. “Perhaps there’s a side to the question that you have not properly considered, and if he has wronged you he may live to more than make it good.” Eomicbooks.co