DISHONOURED.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 1725, 6 September 1873, Page 3

DISHONOURED.

CContinu«d.j A new- kind of existence had now opened before Richard Devaux, which, situated as he -was, possessed a peculiar attraction. His father had been one of those men who, beginning their career with nothing, never lose sight of the possibility, of ' being, by some capricious stroke o£ fortune, again reduced to nothing. Prudence, therefore, guided him from the outset of his life to its close. All his thoughts were directed to the establishment of his house on the surest foundation •. and to acquire the reputation of beiug safe while he silently increased his wealth, was the great object of his ambition. He laboured hard also to impress his son with his own views ; and, to carry them into effect, compelled his closest attention to business. Never relaxing from personal toil —not even during the illness which ended fatally— he permitted no relaxation on the part of others ; and thus it happened that Richard Devaux knaw nothing of the pleaBures of society. Home, in its best* sense, he had none, his mother having died while he was yet a child without increasing- the family, and he was left to the training of his father alone. A good training it was for creating a mere money-making machine ; but as men, after all, are not m^abines, but have senses, affections, passions, and as these were for the mosti part overlooked by the elder Devaux in hia desire to make his son a model of commercial? respectability* it is not altogether surprising that the experiment should fail. Richard, Devaux devoted himself to* hi& father's pursuits, as long as he lived,, with all the earnestness the old man could'desare j being reconciled to what was in raaliiy a sacrifice, by an ardent love of money., Theae was, however, this difference- between fathen and son ; the former would! rather have- witnessed the utter downfall: of his hoiise than have sustained it by any eourae not strictly honest ; the latter was- lesa seru- ' jwtlous. Instructed in Monsieur Morux's, reasons , for leaving France at that particular crisis, ! Richard Devaux saw many material advan • tages, and anticipated great personal gratification from being, admitted to the counsels, and enjoying the society of his father's friend. He certainly was. opt disappointed in the last-named expectation. Monsieur Moria was. a, person of extensive information, who had mixed largely with the world, untainted hy its vices, yet familiar with its failings, and master of many of its secre's. His powers of observation were rapid, his instincts true, and his judgments | seldom wrong. The defect in his character — if defect it were— was a natural tendency, which no experience could correct, to put implicit trust in all men's honour. The first article of his creed, both social and political, was truth ; if difficulties arose from being too out-spoken, they must be conquered in fair fight. " Richard Devaux was, perhaps no worshipper of abstract virtue ; but he was fain to respect the qualities conspicuous in Monsieur Morin, and the sentiments he uttered were as much to the purpose as if the sincerest conviction had prompted them. The atmosphere, moreover, ill which he now lived, allowed but of one form of thinking, or, at all events, but of one form of expression. . | The friends who gathered round Monsieur Morin immediately on hia arrival in London, however opposed in many respects, had one common bond of union. They were banded together for one high purpose. The object of the meetings held at Monsieur Morin's house was to effect a combination of emigrant wealth and energy, for restoring France to her former condition. No sudden impulse had caused this movement ; although it was urged to more immediate action by the present danger of the King. Without belonging to the noble class, Monsieur Morin was thoroughly identified with all its interests, or, as he viewed the question, with the interests of his country ; for he had been brought up in the faith of the ancient regime ; not blind to its faults, but believing that, with those faults amended, there was no salvation for France beyond the pale of monarchy. Apprehensions for their penon&l safety, and the security of their property, operated with many of the emigrants • who, bo early as the year seventeen hundred and ninety, withdrew from France into Germany and other countries. But all were not influenced by purely selfish reasons ; and, at the head of the excepted few, was the Marquis de Grandmesnil. a nobleman of considerable ••» ealtb, who had served with distinction in the last war. Not even amongat his own class had Mon sieur de Grandmesnil, a more intimate friend than Monsieur Morin, and it was by his ad ice that the Marquis acted when, with his only son, Henri, then in his twenty-third year, he at length decided on joining the army of the Prince de Conde. In doing so, he left with Monsieur Morin the requisite authority for disposing of all his available property ; and such was the well-known probity

of the man whcnuhe thus trusted, suchwss-the opinion entertained of his politioal capacity, that several' other noblimen, similarly situated, also deposited large sums with Monsieur Morin to be devoted to the object they all had in view. Foreseeing, on. his side, that Kngland mast eventually become the centre of his party's operations, Monsieur Morin repeatedly crossed over to London to organise his plans for theexpected time; and r although such journeys were eminently hazardous, his care and skill, coupled with the assistance rendered by some of the men in power who secretly wished well to the royal cause enabled him. to pass to and fro- without molestation and even without auapieioa These visits were paid in the lifetitae- of the elder Devaux, and it was, privately, through him, as we have seen, that all Monsier Morin 's financial arrangements were made. It has been intimated that Richard Devaus entered readily into the projects of the emigrants; but, besides the feeling excited throughout England by the bloody acts of the Septembnsts, an additional stimulus to his zeal was given by Adelaide Morin, who had herself beheld the fearful spectacle which followed the murder of t'-e unfortunate Princess de Lamballe. Adelaide Morin was well calculated to make converts of those who listened to her impassioned -words. Had there been no suffering to deplore, no wrong to redress, no right to sustain, royalty was so thoroughly a part ot her nature that, even from such as held a contrary opinion, her adveeacy must have commanded attention. But when her auditors felt, or were disposed to. feel as she did, it was no wonder that she created partisans. Of all the circle that surrounded her, none echoed her Bentiments more warmly than Eichard Devaux. It is possible that, for the moment, this young mante devotion to the cause of French royalty was sincere ; but, If Adelaide Morin had been separated from, that cause, there is no room for doubting which side of the question he would have takaa. He had, indeed, fallen deeply in love with her. (To be continued. 1 )