A BOLD STROKE; OR, THE CASHIER’S DAUGHTER.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume X, Issue 1030, 31 January 1882, Page 4

A BOLD STROKE; OR, THE CASHIER’S DAUGHTER.

“ No ; I refuse.” “ Reflect a moment, Myrtle, I beseech you 1 You hold my life and happiness in your hands,” and the voice of Adelbert Tompkins trembled as he spoke these words with an earnestness that forbade, even for an instant, any doubt as to their being the outpourings of his heart. Myrtle Mahaffy was a beautiful girl, just budding into sweet womanhood, and Adelbert loved her dearly. They had wandered together this summer afternoon from the matinee to the street car, and he had asked her to be his wife. It was in answer to this question—the earnest appeal of a man whose whole nature was wrapped up in a passion he could neither control nor cast aside—that Myrtle had spoken the words with which our story opens. She had watched him closely during an acquaintance of nearly two years, and noticed with pain how he sedulously avoided candy stores and ice cream saloons. “ I can never marry a man,” she had said to her mother one day, “ who shies at the sight of a candy store like a country horse at a fire engine.” And when the expected avowal came she had kept her word. Adelbert turned around in a dazed sort of way after Myrtle had rejected himand walked swiftly towards the dry goods store which had been so fortunate as to secure his services. All the afternoon Adelbert stood moodily behind the ribbon counter, thinking of how he should revenge himself on the naughty girl who had wrecked his happiness. At precisely 4.30 o’clock a fierce joy lighted up his countenance, and putting on his hat I he left the store. * * * • As the bells of St. Agnes’ Church were striking nine, a young man sprang lightly up the steps of a magnificent residence, and was soon seated in the ' sumptuously furnished parlor. The j proprietor of the house, a benevolent- | looking old gentleman, entered the ■ room. “Do you wish to see me ?” he said to Adelbert Tompkins —for it was he who had sprung lightly up the steps. “Yes,” he replied, “you are the person I seek.” “ What would you ?” said the old gentleman. “ You are the cashier in the Bank, I believe ?” said the young man. “ I am.” “ You have been stealing the concern’s money. Do not seek to deceive me. You are cashier ; ’tis enough. Give me 820,000 or I will expose you and ruin your life. Having heard me twitter, you cau choose your own course.” For an instant the cashier did not move, and then, going to an elegant escritoire which stood in a corner of the room he wrote a cheque for 850,000 certified it, and handed the piece of paper, now a fortune, to the youth. “ I have but one favor to ask,” he said, “ and that is that you will marry my daughter. I wouldn’t like to let as sure a thing as you are go out of the family. She has $lOO,OOO in her own right, and when I am dead and the bank directors are in jail on account of my bookkeeping it will suffice to keep you in comfort.” i * « Two months later Myrtle Mahaffy, the cashier’s only child, became Adelbert’s bonny bride. One child, a blue eyed boy with golden hair, lias blessed the union, and as he sits on his grandfather’s knee in front of the fire, and asks in his innocent, childish way if “papa isn’t a smart man,” the old gentleman kisses him fondly, aud says in soft, low tones. “ You’re singing on the right key now, sonny.”— Chicago Times.