CHAPTER III.
(Extract from the “Boston Herald.â€)
(Extract from the “Boston Herald.â€)
(Extract from the “Boston Herald.â€)
MILDRED’S MILLIONS.—BOSTON’S BEAUTIFUL BELLE FALLS HEIRESS TO A FORTUNE ESTIMATED AT THIRTY MILLIONS! MISS MILDRED BREWSTER THE SOLE HEIRESS.
When the rumor in yesterday’s South American despatches hinted that the colossal fortune amassed by the late Mr. William Dunreath was, according to his will, to be transferredin tototo a Boston lady, when moreover, on investigation, the name of the aforesaid lady was disclosed by her lawyer, an enterprising representative of the “Herald†was not long in finding his way to the residence of this favored daughter of fortune.
Two other journalists, with pencil and pad in readiness, arrived almost simultaneously and were shown into the reception room.
Miss Brewster was out.
Would her ladyship soon return?
That was doubtful.
A skillful use of some of Uncle Sam’s coin, however, secured an “aside†in the library with the sable domestic whose acquaintance with desirable facts proved a godsend.
“Was Miss Brewster young?â€
Certainly. She had just celebrated her twenty-fourth birthday, or, to quote our informant more literally, “Yes, sah, she is done gone twenty-fo’ shuah, fo’ I made her buffday cake.â€
“Was Miss Brewster handsome?â€
In response to this momentous question this jewel of a Chloe produced from a corner of the library a photograph album containing two cabinet photographs, taken in Boston and Paris respectively, and representing one of the most attractive types of petite female beauty. One picture was taken in a jaunty riding habit, displaying to good advantage a slender, trim figure, with a graceful poise to a very pretty head, and a pair of fascinating dark eyes looking frankly at you from under the hat-brim. The other was in a white evening dress modestly covering the sloping shoulders, the hair worn Pompadour, and no ornaments save flowers. There was a delicacy and refinement indicated in the small ear and sensitive mouth, which betokened generations of the best blood and culture. It was gratifying to perceive that the enviable possessor of one of the largest private fortunes in New England was evidently richly endowed by nature with every charm which could lend grace to the brilliant position in society that she without doubt is destined to fill.
The “Herald†representative inquired further as to the past history of Miss Brewster, and learned that she was the only child of a physician, was born in Cambridge, has spent some years in foreigntravel and study under the chaperonage of a distinguished leader of society, was presented at the Court of St. James, and received marked attention from some of the scions of the oldest and noblest houses of England.
She is supposed to have had a small independent fortune of her own, but having literary and philanthropic tastes, has quietly devoted herself to study and works of charity, thus depriving society of one peculiarly fitted to be one of its brightest ornaments.
The connection between the defunct millionaire and the charming girl upon whom he has lavished all his wealth seems hard to prove. From all that could be learned, however, it seems conclusive that an engagement existed between them, and that the death of Mr. Dunreath was a great shock to the fortunate lady of his choice. In the absence of any family or near relatives, Mr. D. being an only son and a bachelor, she will find no one to dispute the will. This latter point was confirmed by her lawyer, Mr. Kilrain, of No. 55 Pemberton Square, who, however, remained very provokingly non-committal on all other points of interest, intimating that he was thus obeying the instructions of his fair client, who modestly wishes to avoid the sudden notoriety which her fortune will necessarily bring upon her.
A call on some of her co-workers in the Associated Charities revealed the fact that Miss Brewster is ardently absorbed in her work, and has beenpeculiarly successful in winning the hearts of the streetgaminsin her district. She is interested in various charities, and it is anticipated that her increased wealth will not lessen the time nor the interest which she has devoted to her various benefactions.
It was intimated from one source that Miss Brewster holds very pronounced views upon women’s rights, and will probably use a great part of her wealth in advancing the cause of female suffrage, but this we are loth to believe.
(Extract from the “Boston Globe.â€)
... After waiting an hour and calling at three different times, the representative of the “Globe†was finally so fortunate as to encounter the fair lady in whom the public is now feeling so warm an interest. She had just returned home, and was standing in the hall with her little toque of wine-colored velvet still crowning her chestnut tresses, and her tall, stately figure draped from head to foot in a fur-trimmed cloak of the same shade.
She received the “Globe†representative most courteously, ushering him into a cosy little reception room, and meanwhile drawing off thegants de suedewhich encased her shapely hands. She seemed nervous and tired, but had a brilliant color which deepened perceptibly when requested to grant an interview. The involuntary look of surprise andhauteurwhich accompanied this only enhanced her beauty, but quickly recovering herself she repliedwithout embarrassment that there was nothing whatever that she wished to state to the public. She had not been apprised of the nature of the will until within three days. Since then she had been overwhelmed with business arrangements, and was very tired and wished to see only her intimate friends.
One question, however, she so far forgot herself as to answer, namely, as to whether she should change her residence. She replied that she purposed soon to leave town for an indefinite period. A further question designed to draw out some information regarding her acquaintance with Mr. Dunreath, whom it is certain she has for a long time corresponded with, met with no reply beyond “I will bid you good evening.â€
Miss Brewster is certainly a very prepossessing lady. In addition to her beauty her voice is particularly well modulated and pleasing. She is decidedly above the medium height, and has a queenly air combined with a brisk, business-like manner, which gives evidence that she is at once a lady and a shrewd woman of the world,—an indication of anything but the helpless state into which most inexperienced women would have been thrown at so sudden and astounding a change of fortune.
In the gaslight and with such a color Miss Brewster had the appearance of being not over twenty-three; we learn, however, on unquestioned authority from a former schoolmate of hers, that she is just twenty-six, having had a birthday last week.
Miss Brewster is said to be a very devout church-woman of the ritualistic type, and usually attends the Church of the Advent.
The Hub is certainly to be commiserated at the prospect of so soon losing a lady who would otherwise become one of its most admired belles as well as a leader of its most cultured society, and we trust that her stay though indefinite may not be prolonged.
Three of the one hundred and twenty-seven letters received by Miss Brewster during the first week after the above newspaper extracts appeared will serve as types of the whole.
LETTER NO. I.
Jonesport, Pa.,Jan. — 18—
Jonesport, Pa.,Jan. — 18—
Jonesport, Pa.,Jan. — 18—
Jonesport, Pa.,Jan. — 18—
Derest Miss Brewster honored miss
Derest Miss Brewster honored miss
Derest Miss Brewster honored miss
Derest Miss Brewster honored miss
God has been verry bountiful too you truly and no doubt your kind heart is greatful for all his Mercies and anxshus to do your part in relieving the wos of humanity. Henceforth your couch is down and your pathway strude with roses. You have more money than you know what too do with and will take it kindly for me suggest a most useful and feesable way to do the greatest good to the greatest number which is the Christian’s vitle breath. My dorter Rose Ethel Bangs is just turned sixtine and is as smart and handsum a girl as ever trod shu lether. She is awful musicle and is just dying to get a chance to go to the BostonConservatory, she plays the banjo best of anybody in the county and has given solo peices at some of the best concerts she plays the melodeon at meeting and the best critics say her voice is amazing a professor from Philadelfy said he had heard a great many voices but he never heard a voice that was as strong as her voice. A yere’s residens in Boston would complete her education she has a young gentleman second cousin who is anxshus to show her about to see the sites and 300 dollers with what her pa can raise would just about do the bizness now dear miss when you have it in your pour to bestough such a blessing how can you refrane. We shall bless you and my dorter will be a credit to you and a jewel in the crown which our Heavenly father will bestough on all who remember the proverb it is more blessed to give than to receive.
Yours with love and regardsMrs. Mattie T. Bangs.
Yours with love and regardsMrs. Mattie T. Bangs.
Yours with love and regardsMrs. Mattie T. Bangs.
Yours with love and regards
Mrs. Mattie T. Bangs.
P. S. I send Bose Ethel’s tintype took when she was fourtine she wears her hair up now.
LETTER NO. II.
New York, N. Y., —— Street.
New York, N. Y., —— Street.
New York, N. Y., —— Street.
New York, N. Y., —— Street.
Dear Miss Brewster:
Dear Miss Brewster:
Dear Miss Brewster:
Dear Miss Brewster:
Permit me at this moment of your joy and unprecedented good fortune to present to you my most heartfelt congratulations.
Perhaps you may not recollect my humble self,as you always impressed me with such a sense of awe and dignity that I dared not venture to disclose to you theprofoundadmiration which I have always felt for yourexaltedcharacter.
Rarely have I known such a nature as yours. One so endowed with all the charms and graces of agoddessand asaintit has never been my fortune to meet. Do not think I am flattering you,mon ange; but ever since the first moment when my eyes fell on your face suffused with dewy tears, as you bade good-by to your native land, you have been the ideal of my fondest dreams.
I sailed with you on the steamer, like you bound for those shores of mystery and delight which from childhood’s hour had haunted my imagination, nowhélas!never to be revisited, for I—how can I say it?—have been doomed by fate to loseallthat is most dear to me.
I had kept my diamond earrings until the last, but yesterday even those, my last precious treasures, had to be sacrificed. How can I relate to you the story of our disgrace!
A year ago papa failed, and we were obliged to leave our palatial home on Fifth Avenue and betake ourselves to a small hotel on W. Ninth Street. I nearly cried my eyes out. I spent days and nights in weeping over our sad fortunes, and as one by one I was obliged to surrender the darling treasures of happier days I felt that if this were to go on I should either become ahopeless wreckwith shattered nerves and end my days in a lunatic asylum,or else that rather than suffer the mental torture which I had endured I should with my own hand take the life which was acurseto me.
Everything has gone from bad to worse, though I have fought against fate with all the passion ofdesperation. Our friends have deserted us; that is, all the young society which I care about and really need to keep up my spirits and make me cheerful. I can find no congenial society in the class with whom I am doomed to associate, and so I keep my room, and solace my sad hours with works of fiction, which for the time being take me out of myself, and with fancy work, which is the one little link that connects me with my happy past.
But now a crisis has come in papa’s affairs. He is offered a position in Jersey City, and compels us to go with him to thisodiousplace, to live in a second or third rate boarding-house, away from everything that makes life endurable.
Icannotdo it. I should simply be burying myself alive. To one of my sensitive temperament the shock would be too great, and I know that I should become but a wreck of my former self.
I have racked my brains and tossed on my sleepless pillow many a night, endeavoring to solve the problem that is before me.
This morning a ray of light dawned upon the gloom which has enshrouded me. I picked up the morning paper and read the delightful announcement of the good fortune which has come to you. My heart throbbed with sympathetic joy,mon amie,to think that in this desolate world at least one whom I loved wascompletelyhappy.
The report says that you are soon to go abroad. Like an inspiration the thought came to me, “Oh, if only I could go with her as acompanion!†The thought fairly suffocated me. Once the idea of attempting to go as a paid companion, of accepting money for services rendered, no matter how valuable they might be, would have brought the blush to my cheek. But my pride has been humbled, and though even now I could not do it for every one, foryouwhom Iadoreit would seem no sacrifice but a privilege.
I could be of invaluable service to you in shopping and in visiting galleries. I speak French perfectly, and could play whist or sing to you when you are tired. I know how to arrange flowers, to design toilettes, to order dinners, and can read aloud without fatigue. I could relieve you of all care, and this you will certainly require, as so many new cares have devolved upon you, and you must be distracted with all the new things you have to order and to attend to.
What steamer shall you take? I like the North German Lloyd best,—don’t you?
I can be ready at a moment’s notice. I await your answer in anagonyof suspense.
Yours devotedly,M. Jeanette Mason.
Yours devotedly,M. Jeanette Mason.
Yours devotedly,M. Jeanette Mason.
Yours devotedly,
M. Jeanette Mason.
LETTER NO. III.
E. Gainsborough, Vt.
E. Gainsborough, Vt.
E. Gainsborough, Vt.
E. Gainsborough, Vt.
Miss Brewster:
Miss Brewster:
Miss Brewster:
Miss Brewster:
Dear Miss,—No doubt you will be very much surprised to get a letter from me for you don’t know me at all and I don’t know you at all and I persume you are not used to getting letters from strangers. But you are a rich kind lady and as a last resorse I turn to you for my heart is bleeding and my friends can’t do no more for me. I am an inventor as you will be surprised to learn. Ever since I was able to hold a jack knife and whittle I have been whittling out things and making inventions. Some folks say I am a genius and if I had my rights I should be rolling in welth and be able to keep a horse and carriage.
My inventions have been about all sorts of things. I almost got a patent for a clothes-wringer but a mean sneak of a fellow stole it from me taking the bread from my children’s mouths. My wife took in sewing and washing and the children milked the cow and kept the garden running and sometimes I got odd jobs. But a month ago Susie and Jimmie took sick with scarlet fever and wife she was up with them night and day and she took sick too and first Jimmie died and then Susie, and mother the next day.
I did the best I could and the neighbors was kind and came in spite of its being so catching.
But now there all gone and nobody but the baby and me is left. He had it light and wan’t down but a day or two. I feel most crazy when I think of it all and wonder what I’m going to do. The neighbors cooked up some vittles for a few days but there poor too and I can’t count on them for doing much.
I’ve got to do something right off and I an’t a cent of money more than enough to pay the postage of this letter.
Last night when Mis deacon Allen went by with the newspaper she had got to the P. O. she stopped and read me all about your getting rich so sudden and she said to me brother Silas if I was you I’d just write to that Miss Brewster and if she’s a woman with a heart in her she’ll feel for that poor motherless little feller there a toddlin about, and you with your hands tied sos you cant leave him a minute. I’d take him myself said she if my hands wasnt tied too. Which is true enough for shes five of her own and one adopted.
Now Miss Brewster if you could take my baby for a while, his name is Orlando and he is 18 months old and help me make a man of him and get on my feet a little and carry out a scheme I’ve got for an improved churn I’d thank you to my dying day. I aint a great hand at farm work for I cut my foot in a mowing machine and have been lame ever since and my hearing is bad. So you see there aint much I can do except invent and sometimes if it want for the inventing I think Idrather die. But I do feel sure sometime if I can only get a chance I can invent something that will sell and then I can repay you.
If you send for Orlie to go to Boston I must stay there too. I couldn’t bear to be so far away from him. I should die of lonesomeness. Couldn’t you get me a chance there? I am forty-six years old and a professor.[1]
Yr. ob’t servant,Silas Kittredge.
Yr. ob’t servant,Silas Kittredge.
Yr. ob’t servant,Silas Kittredge.
Yr. ob’t servant,
Silas Kittredge.
1. Of religion.—Ed.
1. Of religion.—Ed.