There was to be a private missionary meeting at Mrs Stewart’s house, and Philip and his brother received an invitation. There were many of his Toronto acquaintances in the room, the rest were strangers. He looked round the different rooms in vain for Mary Ashton, for she it was, once his affianced wife, whom he expected to meet. Two young ladies answered somewhat the description his friend had given him, still he did not like to ask if a Miss Ashton was present, lest his hopes should be rudely dashed to the ground. The speakers had not arrived, and people were moving about from room to room. He tried to compose his feelings by talking to his acquaintance on the subject of the mission about to be advocated. While he was talking Harry came to him, and, touching his elbow, said, “Phil, I have just been introduced to a very nice person, who, curious enough, has our name. I do not know if she knew mine, but I saw her afterwards watching me round the room, and I want you to find out who she can be. She may be a cousin of the fiftieth degree, perhaps, and I should like to find some relations out here.”
Philip did not stop to hear more, but hurrying into the room his brother mentioned, he satisfied himself that Mary Ashton was really there. She discovered him. He advanced, and saw by the pleased expression of her countenance that he might venture to take a seat by her side. Explanation quickly followed. He told her how he had come out to Canada, and how successful he and his family had been in establishing a home for themselves in the wilderness.
“I have a very different tale to tell,” she said with a sigh, and her countenance grew sad. “My home is broken up. The wealth my poor father so suddenly acquired has been dissipated and lost. Without the necessary experience for business, or, perhaps, I should say wanting the calculating craft of the successful speculator, he suffered himself to be involved in transactions of an extensive nature, which he was led to believe would double his wealth. They proved to be the fraudulent schemes of sharpers, planned for their own profit and my father’s ruin. It was in vain that he was warned of their designs—he was infatuated, and would listen to no counsel but that of his treacherous betrayers, who plunged him deeper and deeper into obligations and liabilities, which, in the end, engulphed the whole of his large fortune. He had even to fly the country to escape a prison, and is at this moment in hiding from his creditors until his affairs can be arranged. Everything had to be given up. My mother’s small portion is barely sufficient to maintain her and my sisters; my brothers, ill-prepared for the lot that is before them, are abroad in the world, making their way as they best can; as for myself, not choosing to add to my mother’s burdens, I have accepted the post in Mrs Mason’s family which I now occupy. She is an old and well-tried friend, who has known me from my infancy, and both she and her children regard me as one of themselves. They urged me to accompany them in their removal to Canada, and cast in my lot with theirs. What better could I do? Of my own family, not one advised my remaining in England. I accepted my dear friend’s offer—and thus it has come to pass that we meet once more.”
Whether Philip and Mary Ashton understood all the interesting addresses given on that occasion may be doubted.
“I say, Harry,” cried Charley, some days after this, “I am so glad that Phil is going to be married. That Mary is a nice girl, and she will make some amends for Sophy having gone away. Not that she is likely to be up to her—I should like to see the girl who could be.”
A short time after the family were reunited at Ashton Clearing, to which Philip had brought his wife, Charley acknowledged that if not superior she was fully equal to Sophy. Harry had made up his mind that no employment was superior to that of a settler; and, anxious to resume it, he studied very hard while at college, and took a most creditable degree. The farm had now grown into a very pretty little estate, to which the name of Ashton was universally given. Cottages had been erected on the property, and had been eagerly taken by new comers. Saw and grist-mills had been built in the neighbourhood, and many other houses and cottages. Harry had, with his father’s assistance, purchased a good-sized farm near Ashton, and had secured another for Charley, so that they might be near their father to render him the assistance he required.
His family had long known what had been Philip’s secret wish. They now unanimously assured him that he might properly follow it, and entreated him to do so. It was to enter the ministry. A church was required at Ashton—the funds were forthcoming—before it was completed Philip was ordained and became its minister. Few rejoiced as much as his devoted wife at seeing his talents employed in the noblest cause in which a human being can engage.
There was one cloud in Mary Ashton’s otherwise serene life—not one of her family wrote to her, and she could hear nothing about them. Mr and Mrs Ashton had their hearts gladdened with a visit from their sailor son Leonard, now a lieutenant, his ship having come to Quebec. From him Philip first heard of the fate of any of the John Ashtons. “I was surprised,” said Leonard, “to hear among a batch of lads just joined, the name of Thomas Ashton. He was not a prepossessing youth, but as he had evidently had a better education than the generality of those who enter the service, he had a fair prospect of doing well if he behaved properly. He did not though, and was constantly in scrapes, drunk, and disorderly. He was under confinement for such offences, when he caught the fever in the West Indies. The surgeon came one day and said that he was very ill and wished to see me. I of course went to the lad, who then told me that he knew who I was—that he was the son of John Ashton who got our property. It was dreadful to hear him speak of his father who had cheated us he declared, and cheated all his family, and every body else. He seemed to consider that he had a claim on me in consequence of our relationship. I did all I could for him by procuring him better attendance than he would otherwise have had, and by shifting him into comfortable quarters where he would get the benefit of pure air. He soon began to mend, and then I took the liberty of reading him some serious lectures as to his past conduct and scandalous mode of life. He took my reproof in good part; and you will be pleased to hear that when he was at length restored to health, he became quite a new man—scrupulously faithful in discharge of his duty, sober to abstinence, and cheerfully obedient to orders. He has had a narrow escape from death, and is, I trust, thankful to God that he was not cut off suddenly in his mad career. He is grateful to me for the service I rendered him—says, indeed, that I saved his life; I shall take advantage of that feeling to keep him right, if I can. I have trusted him with some responsibility during my absence, and if, on my return, I find he has done well, that will afford me a pretext for helping him forward, which it would give me real pleasure to do.”
Philip had little doubt but that his father and he had been deprived of their property by unfair means, though he never even breathed such an idea to his wife. He is, however, able to assure her, with all sincerity, that he does not regret its loss, and that he is convinced that his father is happier with his children collected around him and all actively employed, than he would have been had he retained his wealth and lived on in the world of fashion.