CHAPTER XVIII.
GEORGE AND FANNIE ALDEN.
George Alden resided in a neat little cottage on a side street. Hishouse was presided over by his sister Fannie, his senior by ten years.The dwelling, in no way pretentious, was simple in all its appointments,and the very perfection of neatness. The little parlor was not elegant,but all about were to be seen evidences of the cultivated taste of itsoccupants.
The tables were covered with books of poems from both early and laterauthors, while many classical works could be seen upon the shelves ofa pretty but quaint mahogany bookcase that rose from floor to ceilingon one side of the apartment. The handsomest piece of furniture in thehouse was a large square piano. On entering we behold a dark-haired ladysitting before the instrument, while her fingers glide over the ivorykeys.
The performer is lost in her delightful pastime, her face glowingwith enthusiasm, and, the last strain finished, she rises from theinstrument, and we behold the sister of George Alden.
A lady of medium height, slightly built, with dark hair and eyes;goodness and intelligence are written on every lineament of hercountenance. In early life her father was able to give her manyadvantages; with a natural taste for music, she became mistress ofthe pianoforte, and when her father's physical energies failed,was obliged to teach music for the support of the family. A noblegirl--self-sacrificing to an extraordinary degree. When she announcedthrough the village papers, ten years before our story opened, herdesire for scholars in instrumental music, the good people of Cleverdaleresponded with alacrity.
The family at that time consisted of the parents and the children,Fannie and George, the latter a boy of fourteen. Attending theCleverdale Academy, at the age of sixteen he was graduated with all thehonors the institution afforded. He was a model youth, and on leavingschool possessed a little fund of two hundred and fifty dollars, earnedafter school hours by keeping books for a Cleverdale merchant.
His sister, his adviser in everything, possessed a decided characterand excellent judgment. She had unbounded confidence in her brother.Assisting him in his studies, she inculcated right ideas of independencein his mind, and taught him the value of self-reliance and education. Agreat reader herself, she had, by example and conversation, succeededin bringing him to such a delight in histories, travels, and generalliterature, that he was considered an unusually well-informed young man.
When George Alden finished his common-school education he desired toenter college, but his little savings would scarce allow him to enjoythe fruition of that hope.
His sister succeeded in obtaining a large music class, while her motherattended to the household duties with such aid as her daughter couldgive, and Fannie was not only able to earn sufficient to provide thefamily with necessary comforts, but from time to time placed small sumsof money in the savings bank. Foreseeing that George, with his ambitionto become a scholar, would desire to enter college, to assist him shedenied herself many of the luxuries that all young ladies naturallyenjoy.
Thoroughly devoted to her parents, she always said she should neverleave them so long as either required her services. Perhaps herresolution would not have been so well preserved if a bullet from aSouthern rifle during the war of the Rebellion had not entered the heartof a young Captain of a Cleverdale Company.
At seventeen, George was ready to enter college. With his sister'ssavings of two hundred dollars added to his own fortune of two hundredand fifty, with an additional sum of one hundred and fifty earned duringthe past year, he bade farewell to home and friends to enter upon hiscollegiate course.
Time passed and the boy rose rapidly in his classes. The father's healthcontinued to fail; his mind becoming wholly lost, he was indeed dead tohis friends long before the dissolution of body and soul. Although hewas a great care to his daughter, the patient girl never complained,but ministered to his wants with as much gentleness as if he were achild. One day the poor broken-down machinery refused to work, andbefore George could be summoned home the vital spark had fled, and deathcompleted the work begun nearly two years before.
Fannie now resumed her music class, while George, through his ownefforts of teaching and doing such work as he could get, was enabled tocontinue his course at college. Two years later he was graduated withhigh honors, and returning home found his mother much changed in health,while his sister showed evident signs of fatigue. It then came with fullforce to him that he must give up the idea of a profession, temporarilyat least, and seek employment that would furnish him an immediateincome. Unlike many college-educated young men, he did not expect tocommand a high position, but became salesman with the merchant whosebook-keeper he had been previous to entering college.
One year later, the teller in the Cleverdale bank resigning, GeorgeAlden was appointed to the position, where we find him at the beginningof this story.
It was not long before the mother followed the father. The two orphansmourned the death of their parents; and after a few months of restFannie recovered from her fatigue.
George would not at first give consent to her resuming the music class,which she had been obliged to relinquish on account of her mother'sillness, but when she declared and insisted that she should be muchhappier if allowed to help support the little household, he relented,and she was again at her work teaching music.
The little house their parents left was encumbered with a mortgage,which was finally paid, and it became the property of the brother andsister. Belle Hamblin loved the noble-hearted Fannie, although thelatter was much her senior. Fannie Alden was her ideal of a true woman.She knew all about the ties that bound Belle and George together, andalso knew of Senator Hamblin's opposition to her brother's suit. Oftenthinking of what "might have been," if a bullet had not cut off a lifeso dear to her, she said to George:
"Have patience and all will come right. You are both young and canwait." She thought the hard-hearted father would some time realize thathis daughter's happiness was of more consequence than his own ambition.
When George Alden heard that Sargent was to enter the bank as teller hethreatened to resign, but his sister said:
"Resign! no, George, that must not be done. You can preserve your ownhonor, and if the new teller is not honest his character will soon beknown. Your duty is to remain and not throw away your opportunity,because your employers have chosen to hire a man in whom you have noconfidence."
"Fannie, I cannot work with a rascal, and I believe Sargent to be one.Would an honest man make such a statement against another as he madeagainst Senator Hamblin, and then follow it by another, swearing thefirst was false? I should constantly feel that such a man would dosomething dishonorable, and perhaps get me into trouble. I cannot drivethe impression from my mind, that if Sargent ever comes into the bank asteller there will be some complication."
"Take care of your own work, and you can keep yourself free fromtrouble," she replied.
George Alden could not drive these thoughts from his mind, for he lookedupon Sargent as his evil genius, and was unable to conceal the fact thathe had no confidence in the man. Several times on returning from dinnerhe found the teller engaged in looking over his books, and once askedwhat he was doing, but Sargent only replied:
"I am posting myself thoroughly on the whole system of banking."
Two weeks before Senator Hamblin was to take his seat in the SenateChamber at Albany, a disaster occurred in Cleverdale, which we willrelate in the next chapter.
The Cleverdale Mystery; or, The Machine and Its Wheels: A Story of American Life Page 20