Hagars Daughter | Page 7

me to her mind, ef it's jes' the same to you, Mr. Enson."
"O, be hanged to you. Go where you please. Go to the devil," replied
Enson, as he swung down the hall and elbowed his way out.
"No need of goin' to the devil when he's right side of you, Mr. Enson,"
muttered Walker, as he watched the young man out of sight. "You d--d
aristocrats carry things with a high hand; I'll be glad to take a reef in
your sails, and I'll do it, too, or my name's not Walker."

Chapter III
St. Clair Enson was the second son of an aristocratic Maryland family.
He had a fiery temper that knew no bounds when once aroused.
Motherless from infancy, and born at a period in the life of his parents
when no more children were expected, he grew up wild and self-willed.
As his character developed it became evident that an unsavory future
was before him. There was no malicious mischief in which he was not
found, and older heads predicted that he would end on the gallows.
Sensual, cruel to ferocity, he was a terror to the God-fearing
community where he lived. With women he was successful from
earliest youth, being possessed of the diabolical beauty of Satan
himself. There was great rejoicing in the quiet village near which

Enson Hall was situated when it was known that the young scapegrace
had gone to college.
The atmosphere of college life suited him well, and he was soon the
leader of the fastest set there. He was the instigator of innumerable
broils, insulted his teachers, and finally fought a duel, killing his man
instantly. According to the code of honor of the time, this was not
murder; but expulsion from the halls of learning followed for St. Clair,
and much to his surprise and chagrin, his father, who had always
indulged and excused his acts as the thoughtlessness of youth's high
spirits, was thoroughly enraged.
There was a curious scene between them, and no one ever knew just
what passed, but it was ended by his father's saying:
"You have disgraced the name of Enson, and now you dare make a joke
to me of your wickedness. Let me not see your face in this house again.
Henceforth, until you have redeemed yourself by an honest man's
career, I have but one son, your brother Ellis."
"As you please, sir," replied St. Clair nonchalantly, as he placed the
check his father handed him in his pocket, bowed, and passed from the
room.
That was the last heard of him for five years, when at his father's death
he went home to attend the funeral.
By the terms of the will St. Clair received a small annuity, to be
enlarged at the discretion of his brother, and in event of the latter's
death without issue, the estate was to revert to St. Clair's heirs "if any
there be who are an honor to the name of Enson," was the wording of
the will. In the event of St. Clair's continuing in disgrace and "having
no honorable and lawful issue," the property was to revert to a distant
branch of cousins, "for I have no mind that debauchery and crime shall
find a home at Enson Hall."
After this St. Clair seemingly dropped his wildest habits, but was still
noted on all the river routes of the South as a reckless and daring

gambler.
His man Isaac was as much of a character as himself, and many a game
they worked together on the inexperienced, and many a time but for
Isaac, St. Clair would have fared ill at the hands of his victims. Isaac
was given to his young master at the age of ten years. The only saving
grace about the scion of aristocracy appeared in his treatment of Isaac.
Master and slave were devoted to each other.
As a last resource young Enson had gone in for politics, and the luck
that had recently deserted him at cards and dice, favored him here. The
unsettled state of the country and the threatening war-clouds were a
boon to the tired child of chance, which he hailed as harbingers of
better times for recreant Southern sons. He would gain fame and
fortune in the service of the new government.
All through the dramatic action of the next week when history made so
fast in the United States, when the South Carolina convention declared
that "the union then subsisting between herself and other states of
America, was dissolved" and her example followed by Mississippi,
Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Virginia, Arkansas,
North Carolina and Tennessee, all through that time when politics
reached the boiling point, St. Clair, although in the thickest of the
controversy, busy making himself indispensable to