Two years before, Mr. Lansdowne had taken him as a junior partner in
his business. He had since been a member of his sister's family.
A young foreigner had come to reside in the city, professing himself a
member of a noble Italian family. Giuseppe Rossini was poet, orator,
and musician. As poet and orator he was pleasing and graceful; as a
musician he excelled. He was a brilliant and not obtrusive
conversationalist. His enthusiastic expressions of admiration for our
free institutions won him favor with all classes. In the fashionable
circle he soon became a pet.
Mrs. Lansdowne had from the first distrusted him. There was no
tangible foundation for her suspicions, but she had not been able to
overcome a certain instinct that warned her from his presence. She
watched, with misgivings of heart, her brother's growing familiarity
with the Italian. A facility of temper, his characteristic from
boyhood, made her fear that he might not be able to withstand the
soft, insinuating voice that veils guilty designs by winning
sophistics and appeals to sympathy and friendship. And so it proved.
One day, in extreme agitation, Rossini came to Mr. Somers, requesting
the loan of a considerable sum of money, to meet demands made upon
him. Remittances daily expected from Europe had failed to reach him.
Mr. Somers was unable to command so large a sum as he required. His
senior partner was absent from home. But the wily Rossini so won upon
his sympathies, that he went to the private safe of his
brother-in-law, and took from thence the money necessary to free his
friend from embarrassment.
Pages:
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47