MAJOR ASHTON IN A QUANDARY.
We must now leave our hero for a time and return to Chicago, to look
after some of the other characters whom we have introduced in our story.
Major Ashton, after a late breakfast, sat in a handsome apartment,
with several letters before him. These he had examined without much
apparent satisfaction. Finally he threw down the last with a gesture of
impatience.
"They all sing the same tune," he said, irritably. "They are all poor
trades-people, who want money. Here's my tailor, who ventures to hope I
will call round and settle his little bill--two hundred and seventeen
dollars!--as he is in great want of money. What business has the rascal
to want money? I dare say he has a plentiful bank account, made by
fleecing customers like myself. Then there's Jones, the boot-maker,
wants me to pay up his bill of sixty-five dollars for boots and shoes.
I can't remember having all the things he charges for. I dare say the
rogue has charged for what I never had. Then here's my landlady has
left on my table a bill for the last two months' board, at the rate of
thirty-five dollars a week. Really, it looks as if all my creditors had
combined to annoy me on this particular evening.
"The worst of it is," continued the major, after a slight pause, "I
don't see any way out of the difficulty. I haven't even money enough
to pay my way in a cheap boarding-house. If I should descend to such
degradation, farewell to all my social position. Managing mammas would
no more angle for me, and even Miss Framley would turn up her plebeian
pug nose at me, though it would seem as if nature had saved her the
necessity. At present she is trying in desperate earnest to catch me."
The major was not misled by vanity. Miss Framley knew very well that
the major was regarded as a great catch, and that a match with him
would give her a distinguished position in society. Moreover, she was
under the mistaken impression that he was wealthy. The mistake was a
natural one. The major was always arrayed with irreproachable elegance,
wore expensive jewelry, was known to live handsomely, and indeed to
possess all the outward marks of prosperity. She would gladly have
embraced the opportunity to become Mrs. Major Ashton.
At one time the major thought of giving her the opportunity. He knew
that Framley _pere_ was rich, and that Miss Framley had fifty thousand
dollars in her own right. How far this money would be at the command of
her husband was an important question.
Miss Framley forever spoiled her chances one day, when she incautiously
expressed the determination to have her fortune settled on herself. She
was not speaking to the major, but he overheard her.
"Forewarned is forearmed," he said to himself. "Miss Framley is a pill
which must be sugar-coated to be taken, or, as I may say, well gilded.
If the girl expects to make a good match on the score of her own
personal attractions, she makes an egregious mistake. No, young lady, I
must have your money paid over, or secured to me on the wedding-day, or
your name can never be Mrs. Ashton."
Of course, while there seemed a chance of securing Grace Dearborn,
the major never gave a thought to Miss Framley, but Grace's manner at
the ball convinced him that to cherish further hopes in that quarter
would be a mere waste of time. He could never hope to marry her, except
against her will, and was compelled to leave her out of the account.
For Grace, it must be owned, he cherished as warm an affection as he
was capable of feeling for any one, and he would have married her even
with the proviso that all her wealth should be settled on herself. He
was, at all events, a man of taste, and he understood very well the
difference between Grace and Miss Framley.
His affairs now had reached a point when it seemed necessary to take
some step to relieve himself from the claims of creditors, who were
daily becoming more clamorous. In his perplexity, one door of relief
seemed to open to him. His brow cleared, he brought down his hand upon
the table, and exclaimed:
"Now I see my way clear. It won't be so great a sacrifice after all. If
I can't be Grace's husband, I will be her uncle."