A Perilous Secret

s entire separation from his daughter. Bartley had promised him this should not be; but among Hope's go

ss her memory of him was interrupted and puzzled before she grew older, and that she as well as the world must be made

ife and spirit. Joy filled the father's heart; but then came a bitter pang to think that he had faded out of her joyous life; by-and-by he could see her no longer, for a mist came from his heart to his eyes; he bowed his head and went back to his business, his prosperity, and his solitude. These experiments were repeated at times. Moreover, Bartley had the tact never

dark green gloves with a plaid suit, which combination he abhorred as a painter, and our respected readers abominate, for surely it was some such perverse combination that made a French dressmaker lift her hands to heaven and say, "Quelle immoralité!" So then Bartley himself took his little girl f

ace, and gave him her hand,

ealthy and strong, and quick at her lessons; and, what

Bartley's elbow, all but one eye, with which she watched

er could wish," sa

ought; her beautiful eyes wore a strange look of dreamy intelligenc

indeed, Bartley paraded her accomplishments. She played the piano to Hope; she rode her little Shetland pony for Hope; she danced a minuet with singular grace for so young a girl; she conversed with her governess in French, or something very lik

recognize his daughter in this versatile little mind w

he was happy, she was accomplished, but she was his no longer, not even in name; her love was being gained by a stra

. So he invited Hope to England to guide him in what he loved better than steady business, viz., speculation. The truth is, Bartley could execute, but had few original ideas. Hope had plenty, and sound ones, though not common ones. Hope directed the purchase of convertible securities on this principle: Select good ones; avoid time bargains, which introduce a distinct element of risk; and buy largely at every panic not founded on a permanent reason or out of proportion. Example: A great district bank broke. The shares of a great district railway went down thirty per cent. Hope bade his employer

ther railway, and part of the line broken up. V

of the annual sum represented by the fall, and, in three months, fear of another such disaster wil

pot on, and made

id to B

polies. For instance, the directors of a Prussian railway can not swindle the shareholders by false accounts, and passing off loans for dividends. Against the frauds of directors, the English shareholder has only a sham security. He is invited to leave his home, and come two hundred miles to the directors' home, and vote in person. He doesn't do it. Why should he? In Prussia the Government protects the shareholder, and inspects the accounts severely. So much for the superior system o

eld for years, and the shares w

y does," was a favorite saying of William Hope; and

. "I can sit here and speculate. I want to be in something myse

unless you make money

o that nowadays.

pay, but brains and money

on a

unproductive, because to farm means to plough and sow, and reap and mow, and lose money. But meet those conditions. Breed cattle, sheep, and horses, and make the farm their feeding-ground. Give fifty acres to fruit; have a little factory on the land for winter use, and so utilize all your farm hands and the villag

my neighbor, and work it with me, and wa

hort grass for colts, plenty of water, enough arable land and artificial grasses for their purpose, and a gran

er cent. over its cost, and yet deleterious, which tells against your labor. As an employer of labor, th

eed their pigs. Hope's principle was this: Sell no produce in its primitive form; if you change its form you make two profits. Do you grow barley? Malt it, and infuse it, and sell the

money, the results seemed

his loving eyes watched her every movement through his binocular, which might be d

omplished. She was the germ of a woman, and could detect who loved her. She saw in Hope an affection she thought extraordinary, but instinct told her it was not like a young man's love, and she ac

sore tempted one day, when he bought her a cream-colored pony, and she flung her arms round his neck before Mr. Bartley and kissed him eagerly; but he was

d men to be as demonstrative as very young ladies; but h

ly. Both the men were silent, and Mary looked to

matists, taught by impatient audiences to move on, and taught by those great professors of verbosity, our female novelists and nine-tenths of our male, that it is just possible for "masterly inactivity," alias sluggish narrative, creepi

pid stream, and in places pretty deep; but in one particular part it was shallow, and crossed by large stepping-stones, two-thirds of which were generally above-water. The village girls, including Mary Bartley, used all to trip over these

len by recent rains, and foaming and curling round the ste

objected to pa

papa expects us to be punctual at meals, and I am, oh, so hu

water is

my knee. I could cross it without the stones. You go

've seen you

tone, another on the next, and so on to the fourth; and if she had been a boy she would have cleared them all. But holding her skirts instead of keeping her arms to ba

e could not keep them, but was alternately up and down, and driven along, all the time floundering. Oh, then she scream

s high and screaming, but powerless. At first she was buoyed up by her clothes, and particularly by a petticoat of some material

t, she gained resignation; she left scre

s head into the water, and had his arm round his child in a moment. He lashed out with the other hand across the stream. But it was so powerful now as it neared the lasher that they made far more way onward to destruction than they did across the stream; still they did near the bank a little. But the lasher roared nearer and nearer, and the stream pulled them to it wi

ng calmness. "Put your a

," said sh

no danger; move slowly across me,

di

nk with your left hand;

ittle heroine, whose fe

take car

nd, pushed Mary on shore with his right, and

ry Bartley, to whom a man was a very sup

f; the strong man to sobbing and gasping, and k

and kissed him, and then began to comfort him, if you please. "Good, dear, kind Mr. Hope," said she. "La! don't go on like that. You we

s heart nor his sex would let

ugh? You have been near eternity, and if

pe, let me tell you that the moment you put your arm round me I felt just as safe in the water as on dry land; so you see I have had longer to get over it than you have; that accounts for m

everybody was right to love her; indeed, t

ease come home; papa is so punctual. Mr. Hope, are you going to tell papa? Because if you are, just you take m

ill not tell him, to vex

et us r

ate, and oh! the father's heart leaped and glowed a

g countenance at times, and Hope watched her, and wondered what were her thoughts. She wa

r life, and even at this tender age, she had very searching eyes; they were gray now, though th

she, in a resol

" said he

TER THAN PAPA DO

dry fact that might be worth looking into at l