THE GENTLEMAN BEGGAR.

Patea Mail, Volume IX, Issue 1079, 29 August 1883, Page 4

THE GENTLEMAN BEGGAR.

LITERATURE.

{Concluded.') On the appointed day came a communication with L. & P. seal, which I opened, not without professional eagerness. It was as follows : “In re Moiinos Fitz Roy ami Another. . “Sir: In answer to your application on behalf of Mr Moiinos Fitz Roy, we beg to inform yon that under the administration of a paternal aunt who died intestate, your client is entitled to £2,500 8s sd, 3 per cents. Reduced : £I,OOO long nnnuties, £SOO bank slock, £3,500 India stock, besides other securities, making up about £IO,OOO, which wc are prepared to transfer over to Mr Moiinos Fitz Roy’s direction forthwith.” Here was a windfall. It quit; took away my breath. At dusk came my gentleman beggar, and whai puzzled me was, how to break the news to him. R-ing very much overwhelmed "with business that day, 1 had not much time, for consideration. Ho came in ratln r belter dressed than when I .fitst”:saw him,, with'only a week’s heard on his .chin, and,, as usual, not quite sober. Bix weeks had elapsed since our first interview. He was still the humble, trcmMing, low - voiced creature I first knew hint. After a prelim-', I said: “I find Mr F., yon are entitled to something..,. Fray, what do you mean to give me in ••addition to my bill for. r obtaining it ? * He answered rapidly ; “ Gh, lake half. It Ilb• nr is £IUO, ! take half; it tlicre is £SOO, take half.” “ No, no, Mr.F., I don’t do business in. that .way;, I .shall be satisfied with 10 per cent.” It was so settled. I then led him out into the street; impelled to tell him the hews, yet dreading the effect; not daring to mala* the revelation in niy office, for .fear of a scene. I began hesitatingly, .“ Mr Fitzroy, I am happy to say that I-find you are enl it led to ■*f £ 10*000/’ " “ TVn thousand pounds,” he echoed ; “’£lo,ooo !”Tie shrieked ; “£IO,OOO !” he yielled, : seizing my arm violently. “ You are .a brick. Hen*, cab, cab.” Several, drove np-r— the shout might have been beard a mile off. He jumped in the first. ■ ; ? ;; . - “' Where to ?” sai>l the driver, -i p “ To a tailor’s, yon rascal.” “Teii thousand ponhds ;; ha, ha, lib I” he repeated ,-hysterically wlieu.in the cab, and eyi'ty, 'moment grasping my arm;. Presently :• ho subsided, , looked me straight, in the face, and muttered with agbniiing fervor’ ; - ' “ What V jolly Wiek yon-arc I” The tailor, the hosier' tlie bootriiaker, the hair dresser, were in turn visited by this poor pagan of externals. As, by, degrees, finder their hands,, he emerged from the beggar to .the gentleman',- his. cpirits rose 1 ; his eyes brightened; he walked erect;, but always ' nervously grasping my . arm; fearing apparently, to loose sight of me for a moment, least his.,,forthfie should vanish with me.. Thednipatient pride with which he gave his-orders to the astonished tradesmen for The finest and best of everything, and the amazed air of the fashionable hair dresser when he presented his matted locks and.stubble chin, to be “ cut nud, shaveil,” ni,ay hjo 1 acted-it can not be described.’ f| By.the; time tlie exlernartransfornialion was complete, nod |I sat down in a cafe in the Hay market, opposite a haggardy *bfiV hafidsomfi thoroughbreds looking' any witlb the exception of the ! vtfijd .cves / and. ; dMp!y : browned face,.did ,iiot; difflu'Trbm (he stereotyped mafi fifiont,tbwn sitting arofihd'its. Mr Fitz Euy opd-.already, almost’ forgotten the pgst,; , he ..bulbed the waiter and criticised;!tho: wine as if he had done nothing - else hot dine and drink and scold there all the.days of his life. Once he wished to ;drink my health, and would Kaye , proclaimed .his whole story to the coffee-room assembly in a raving style.?-When I left-he almost wept in.terror at the idea of losing sight of me; 1 But 1 Allowing for These'ebfillitions—the natural result of such a whirl of events —be was wonderfully calm and self-possessed. : The next;day his first thought was to distribute £SO among bis ■ friends, the cadgers-at a house of call in Westmin- - ster, and formally, to dissolve 1 his connection with them; those present undertaking Tor, the, “fraternity” that for the future he should never be noticed by them in pablicor private. I can not follow his career much farther. Adversity had taught him "nothing, t He was soon again surrounded by well-bred vampires, who had forgotten him when penniless ; but they amused him, and that was chough.; , The £ 10,00Q were rapidly melting, when he invited me to a grand dinner-at Richmond, which included a dozen of the most agreeable, goodlooking well-dfessed dandies bf London, interspersed with a display of pretty butterfly bonnets. We dined deliciously, and drank as* men do of iced wines in the dog days—looking down from Richmond Hill. One of the pink bonnets crowned Fitz Roy with a wreath of flowers, he looked—less the intellect—as handsome as Alcibiades. Intensely excited and flushed, he rose with a champagne glass fn his hand to propose my health.’ The oratorical powers of his father had not descended to him. Jerking out sentences by spasms, at length he said : “ I was a beggar—l am a gentlemanthanks to this—” Here he leaned heavily on my shoulder a moment and then fell back. Wo raised him, loosened his neckcloth “ Fainted !” said The ladies. “ Drunk !” said .the gentlemen. He was dead.