A Peculiarly Painful Story.

Cromwell Argus, Volume III, Issue 149, 17 September 1872, Page 7

A Peculiarly Painful Story.

' | The London correspondent of the Galloway | Gazette relates the following extraordinary story: Professional knowledge has just j brought within my ken a peculiarly painful i story, which, as I suppress names and places, it can be no breach of duty here to narrate. Fifteen years since Mr , then a young man of rather “ fast” proclivities and unmarried, became the father of a girl, who “throve like a mushroom.” He paid for this child’s I education, and saw that she was respectably I brought up, though during all the long years I which followed, he never once publicly acknowledged her to be his, and had bound her mother never to reveal to anyone who was the father of the child, under loss of payment. Shortly after the birth of the child, he became proprietor and landlord of a large, respectable hotel in the West End, and then he married a lady in his own station, and settled down into staid respectability. A family grew | U P around him, and to one and all, as to his | wife, he was sincerely attached ; a most estii mable citizen, a kind husband, and a fond father, everything seemed to prosper under his hand and to go well with him. His unowned daughter, too, wdio had a year since lost her mother, grew up to budding womanhood ; and being pretty, intelligent, and chatty, he resolved to introduce her into his house as barmaid, still determining, how r ever, to hide his paternity. He soon carried his resolve into execution, and, about six months since, she became an inmate of the hotel, as barmaid. She did all her duties well; she gave every satisfaction both to her mistress and the public ; she seemed to take her new place as if born to it ; she was a general favourite. The eldest son fell in love with the barmaid and she with him, and for upwards I of four months the clandestine courtship continued. The son urged flight upon her, and one morning it was discovered with dismay that the jiair had fled, —the son had eloped with the daughter. Telegrams were despatched to all parts, detectives were put upon i the track, every endeavour was used to apprise the fleeing pair of their imminent peril. But in vain. On the fourth day there came a letter telling how they had been married by license the previous day at . In an agony of haste the father set off express for his son’s temporary home, and there before the appalled couple he unfolded the dread truth. I need not dwell here upon the intense painfulness of the scene which followed. The son has since gone to America, and the daughter has disappeared and left no trace j behind.