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VOLUME 48,
Copyright, 1892, by Robert Bonner’s Sons, Al Rights Reserved.
NUMBER 46,
“ROBERT BONNER’S SONS.
Cor. of William and Spruce Sts.
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 1892. Sixty
nas,
THE ACCIDENT TO CAPORAL.
EXPIATION.
BY HENRY RY HUGH.
N PAGES>.;
Fire Cents a Copy.
[ZLhis Story is Complete in This Number.]
CHAPTER I. :
HE famous sculptor, Geoffrey de Vigue, always
said he owed his fame to Caporal, the French
poodle. There had been two turning-points in his
career, and in both of these Caporal had been the
unconscious agent of forwarding him along the path of
destin:
Geoffrey’ 's friends said it was coincidence; but Geoffrey
himself never would acknowledge but that it was fate,
that the dog and he were instruments merely in the bands
of a great power that was working out the salvation of
two lives
The history of Caporal and his master is somewhat un-
common ; hereunderis their story recorded—the lives of a
man, a woman and a dog.
It happened in this wise :
Overhead a sky like ashes, streaked fantastically with
innumerable intertwining columns of sooty smoke, from
which a perpetual rain of dun-colored and ‘almost impal-
pable dust filtered down through the heavy atmosphere ;
a sky murky with the grime of a hundred factories by day,
lit with’a tint of sullen ‘red from a_ thousand, furnace
mouths by night; a city over which there hung, by day
* Copyright, 1892, by RopgeT Bonnek's SONS, All rights reserved,
and by night, a somber and leaden pall, blotting out the
fair face of nature from her toil-worn children; a city in
whose narrow streets, down there amongst the tall crowded
buildings, men and women trampled on and spurned each
other in the daily struggle for gold. Such was Richbor-
ough, All day long. and far nto the night, the hours
weré beaten out to the rhythm of a myriad: whirring
wheels, whose throbbing was never for one moment
stilled; all day long thousands of palefaced men and
women toiled on,: wee: r week, year after year, to
bring gold into the coffers of men already sated with gold—
toiled on, waiting for the day when the high factory win-
dows should grow dim to their weary eyes, when the
jarring of the whcels in their ears should still, and they
themselves should toil no more
No one lived in Richborough who could possible live
outside of it. The wealthy mill-owners and manufacturers
had built unto themselves stately villas, outside the city
limits, where the sky was sometimes blue, and in the
bright spring mornings one still might hear the black-
bird’s call come ringing sweet and mellow from the rain-
washed thickets. One of the prettiest suburbs of Rich-
borough was Fairfield, which lay about two miles from
the parent city, to which it was connected bya line of
cars. Here lived many local magnates, and, chiefest of
them all, in a great, gray-gabled mansion, surrounded by
some fifty. acres of park-land and a high stone-wall,
known as Fairfield House, dwelt General de Vigue.
general was a very rich man, had a large interest in
the great banking-house of Barton & de. Vigue, and was,
moreover, an aristocratic, highly connected, Conserv:
and most obstinate old gentleman. His frequent a
gout had not by any means improved a naturally v
temper: . His grandson Geofirey knew this very ‘well,
and feared him accordingly. He and his grandfather, did
not get on too well together. The old man had set his heart
on Geoffrey’s becoming the head of the, banking- House
and insisted upon his going daily into Richboroug
learn the routine of the business. Now’. Geoffréy’s Soul
loathed banking; he was an artist to his: finger-tips, his
great wish being to become a sculptor..” His mother had
been an Italian, and from her he inherited his passignate
southern nature and his love for beauty.. But ‘although
‘ood, warm-hearted and clever fellow, he, was ‘weak,
iamentably weak, as shall be shown hereafter.
Every morning, at half-past eight, Geoffrey dé Vigye took
the horse-car, outside the lodge- gates, and,was carried
down into Richborough, and every morning, as they passed
the corner of a certain small road, deformed by a row of
cheap and hideous villa residences, the car stopped and
took as passenger a dark, tall, beautiful young girl. This
young girl was always accompanied to the corner by a