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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Hoosier Chronicle, by Meredith Nicholson
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: A Hoosier Chronicle
+
+Author: Meredith Nicholson
+
+Release Date: February 22, 2005 [EBook #15138]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A HOOSIER CHRONICLE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Rick Niles, Charlie Kirschner and the PG Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+By Meredith Nicholson
+
+     A HOOSIER CHRONICLE. With illustrations.
+     THE SIEGE OF THE SEVEN SUITORS. With illustrations.
+     HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
+     Boston and New York
+
+
+
+
+A HOOSIER CHRONICLE
+
+     "Dreams books, are each a world and books, we know,
+     Are a substantial world, both pure and good;
+     Round these, with tendrils strong as flesh and blood,
+     Our pastime and our happiness will grow"
+
+     Wordsworth
+     in
+     Personal Talk
+
+[Illustration: SYLVIA AND PROFESSOR KELTON]
+
+A HOOSIER
+CHRONICLE
+
+MEREDITH NICHOLSON
+
+WITH ILLUSTRATIONS
+BY F.C. YOHN
+
+BOSTON AND NEW YORK
+HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
+The Riverside Press Cambridge
+
+_Published March 1912_
+
+
+
+
+TO
+
+EVANS WOOLLEN, ESQ.
+
+
+The wise know that foolish legislation is a rope of sand which perishes
+in the twisting; that the State must follow and not lead the character
+and progress of the citizen; the strongest usurper is quickly got rid
+of; and they only who build on Ideas, build for eternity; and that the
+form of government which prevails is the expression of what cultivation
+exists in the population which permits it. The law is only a memorandum.
+We are superstitious, and esteem the statute somewhat; so much life as
+it has in the character of living men is its force.
+
+EMERSON: _Politics_.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+     I.  My LADY OF THE CONSTELLATIONS            1
+    II.  SYLVIA GOES VISITING                    20
+   III.  A SMALL DINNER AT MRS. OWEN'S           39
+    IV.  WE LEARN MORE OF SYLVIA                 62
+     V.  INTRODUCING MR. DANIEL HARWOOD          79
+    VI.  HOME LIFE OF HOOSIER STATESMEN          89
+   VII.  SYLVIA AT LAKE WAUPEGAN                113
+  VIII.  SILK STOCKINGS AND BLUE OVERALLS       136
+    IX.  DANIEL HARWOOD RECEIVES AN OFFER       152
+     X.  IN THE BOORDMAN BUILDING               168
+    XI.  THE MAP ABOVE BASSETT'S DESK           193
+   XII.  BLURRED WINDOWS                        212
+  XIII.  THE WAYS OF MARIAN                     225
+   XIV.  THE PASSING OF ANDREW KELTON           246
+    XV.  A SURPRISE AT THE COUNTRY CLUB         257
+   XVI.  "STOP, LOOK, LISTEN"                   271
+  XVII.  A STROLL ACROSS THE CAMPUS             288
+ XVIII.  THE KINGDOMS OF THE WORLD              297
+   XIX.  THE THUNDER OF THE CAPTAINS            321
+    XX.  INTERVIEWS IN TWO KEYS                 350
+   XXI.  A SHORT HORSE SOON CURRIED             374
+  XXII.  THE GRAY SISTERHOOD                    393
+ XXIII.  A HOUSE-BOAT ON THE KANKAKEE           403
+  XXIV.  A WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY BALL           418
+   XXV.  THE LADY OF THE DAGUERREOTYPE          439
+  XXVI.  APRIL VISTAS                           460
+ XXVII.  HEAT LIGHTNING                         474
+XXVIII.  A CHEERFUL BRINGER OF BAD TIDINGS      497
+  XXIX.  A SONG AND A FALLING STAR              511
+   XXX.  THE KING HATH SUMMONED HIS PARLIAMENT  534
+  XXXI.  SYLVIA ASKS QUESTIONS                  542
+ XXXII.  "MY BEAUTIFUL ONE"                     560
+XXXIII.  THE MAN OF SHADOWS                     570
+ XXXIV.  WE GO BACK TO THE BEGINNING            591
+         A POSTSCRIPT BY THE CHRONICLER         602
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+SYLVIA AND PROFESSOR KELTON         _Frontispiece_
+WHOEVER WROTE THAT LETTER WAS TROUBLED ABOUT SYLVIA 284
+A SUDDEN FIERCE ANGER BURNED IN HER HEART           458
+SYLVIA MUST KNOW JUST WHAT WE KNOW                  556
+
+_From drawings by F.C. Yohn_
+
+
+
+
+A HOOSIER CHRONICLE
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+MY LADY OF THE CONSTELLATIONS
+
+
+Sylvia was reading in her grandfather's library when the bell tinkled.
+Professor Kelton had few callers, and as there was never any certainty
+that the maid-of-all-work would trouble herself to answer, Sylvia put
+down her book and went to the door. Very likely it was a student or a
+member of the faculty, and as her grandfather was not at home Sylvia was
+quite sure that the interruption would be the briefest.
+
+The Kelton cottage stood just off the campus, and was separated from it
+by a narrow street that curved round the college and stole, after many
+twists and turns, into town. This thoroughfare was called "Buckeye
+Lane," or more commonly the "Lane." The college had been planted
+literally in the wilderness by its founders, at a time when Montgomery,
+for all its dignity as the seat of the county court, was the most
+colorless of Hoosier hamlets, save only as the prevailing mud colored
+everything. Buckeye Lane was originally a cow-path, in the good old
+times when every reputable villager kept a red cow and pastured it in
+the woodlot that subsequently became Madison Athletic Field. In those
+days the Madison faculty, and their wives and daughters, seeking social
+diversion among the hospitable townfolk, picked their way down the Lane
+by lantern light. An ignorant municipal council had later, when natural
+gas threatened to boom the town into cityhood, changed Buckeye Lane to
+University Avenue, but the community refused to countenance any such
+impious trifling with tradition. And besides, Madison prided herself
+then as now on being a college that taught the humanities in all
+soberness, according to ideals brought out of New England by its
+founders. The proposed change caused an historic clash between town and
+gown in which the gown triumphed. University forsooth!
+
+Professor Kelton's house was guarded on all sides by trees and
+shrubbery, and a tall privet hedge shut it off from the Lane. He tended
+with his own hands a flower garden whose roses were the despair of all
+the women of the community. The clapboards of the simple
+story-and-a-half cottage had faded to a dull gray, but the little plot
+of ground in which the house stood was cultivated with scrupulous care.
+The lawn was always fresh and crisp, the borders of privet were neatly
+trimmed and the flower beds disposed effectively. A woman would have
+seen at once that this was a man's work; it was all a little too
+regular, suggesting engineering methods rather than polite gardening.
+
+Once you had stepped inside the cottage the absence of the feminine
+touch was even more strikingly apparent. Book shelves crowded to the
+door,--open shelves, that had the effect of pressing at once upon the
+visitor the most formidable of dingy volumes, signifying that such
+things were of moment to the master of the house. There was no parlor,
+for the room that had originally been used as such was now shelf-hung
+and book-lined, and served as an approach to the study into which it
+opened. The furniture was old and frayed as to upholstery, and the
+bric-a-brac on an old-fashioned what-not was faintly murmurous of some
+long-vanished feminine hand. The scant lares and penates were sufficient
+to explain something of this shiplike trimness of the housekeeping. The
+broken half of a ship's wheel clung to the wall above the narrow grate,
+and the white marble mantel supported a sextant, a binocular, and other
+incidentals of a shipmaster's profession. An engraving of the battle of
+Trafalgar and a portrait of Farragut spoke further of the sea. If we
+take a liberty and run our eyes over the bookshelves we find many
+volumes relating to the development of sea power and textbooks of an old
+vintage on the sailing of ships and like matters. And if we were to pry
+into the drawers of an old walnut cabinet in the study we should find
+illuminative data touching the life of Andrew Kelton. It is well for us
+to know that he was born in Indiana, as far as possible from salt water;
+and that, after being graduated from Annapolis, he served his country
+until retired for disabilities due to a wound received at Mobile Bay. He
+thereafter became and continued for fifteen years the professor of
+mathematics and astronomy at Madison College, in his native state; and
+it is there that we find him, living peacefully with his granddaughter
+Sylvia in the shadow of the college.
+
+Comfort had set its seal everywhere, but it was keyed to male ideals of
+ease and convenience; the thousand and one things in which women express
+themselves were absent. The eye was everywhere struck by the strict
+order of the immaculate small rooms and the snugness with which every
+article had been fitted to its place. The professor's broad desk was
+free of litter; his tobacco jar neighbored his inkstand on a clean,
+fresh blotter. It is a bit significant that Sylvia, in putting down her
+book to answer the bell, marked her place carefully with an envelope,
+for Sylvia, we may say at once, was a young person disciplined to
+careful habits.
+
+"Is this Professor Kelton's? I should like very much to see him," said
+the young man to whom she opened.
+
+"I'm sorry, but he isn't at home," replied Sylvia, with that directness
+which, we shall find, characterized her speech.
+
+The visitor was neither a member of the faculty nor a student, and as
+her grandfather was particularly wary of agents she was on guard against
+the stranger.
+
+"It is important for me to see him. If he will be back later I can come
+again."
+
+The young man did not look like an agent; he carried no telltale
+insignia. He was tall and straight and decidedly blond, and he smiled
+pleasantly as he fanned himself with his straw hat. Where his brown hair
+parted there was a cowlick that flung an untamable bang upon his
+forehead, giving him a combative look that his smile belied. He was a
+trifle too old for a senior, Sylvia reflected, soberly studying his
+lean, smooth-shaven face, but not nearly old enough to be a professor;
+and except the pastor of the church which she attended, and the
+physician who had been called to see her in her childish ailments, all
+men in her world were either students or teachers. The town men were
+strange beings, whom Professor Kelton darkly called Philistines, and
+their ways and interests were beyond her comprehension.
+
+"If you will wait I think I may be able to find him. He may have gone to
+the library or to the observatory, or for a walk. Won't you please come
+in?"
+
+Her gravity amused the young man, who did not think it so serious a
+matter to gain an interview with a retired professor in a small college.
+They debated, with much formality on both sides, whether Sylvia should
+seek her grandfather or merely direct the visitor to places where he
+would be likely to find him; but as the stranger had never seen
+Professor Kelton, they concluded that it would be wiser for Sylvia to do
+the seeking.
+
+She ushered the visitor into the library, where it was cooler than on
+the doorstep, and turned toward the campus. It is to be noted that
+Sylvia moves with the buoyant ease of youth. She crosses the Lane and is
+on her own ground now as she follows the familiar walks that link the
+college buildings together. The students who pass her grin cheerfully
+and tug at their caps; several, from a distance, wave a hand at her. One
+young gentleman, leaning from the upper window of the chemical
+laboratory, calls, "Hello, Sylvia," and jerks his head out of sight.
+Sylvia's chin lifts a trifle, disdainful of the impudence of sophomores.
+She has recognized the culprit's voice, and will deal with him later in
+her own fashion.
+
+Sylvia is olive-skinned and dark of eye. And they are interesting
+eyes--those of Sylvia, luminous and eager--and not fully taken in at a
+glance. They call us back for further parley by reason of their grave
+and steady gaze. There is something appealing in her that takes hold of
+the heart, and we remember her after she has passed us by. We shall not
+pretend that her features are perfect, but their trifling irregularities
+contribute to an impression of individuality and character. Her mouth,
+for example, is a bit large, but it speaks for good humor. Even at
+fifteen, her lips suggest firmness and decision. Her forehead is high
+and broad, and her head is well set on straight shoulders. Her dark hair
+is combed back smoothly and braided and the braid is doubled and tied
+with a red ribbon. The same color flashes in a flowing bow at her
+throat. These notes will serve to identify Sylvia as she crosses the
+campus of this honorable seat of learning on a June afternoon.
+
+This particular June afternoon fell somewhat later than the second
+consulship of Grover Cleveland and well within the ensuing period of
+radicalism. The Hoosiers with whom we shall have to do are not those set
+forth by Eggleston, but the breed visible to-day in urban marketplaces,
+who submit themselves meekly to tailors and schoolmasters. There is
+always corn in their Egypt, and no village is so small but it lifts a
+smokestack toward a sky that yields nothing to Italy's. The heavens are
+a soundingboard devised for the sole purpose of throwing back the
+mellifluous voices of native orators. At the cross-roads store,
+philosophers, perched upon barrel and soap-box (note the soap-box),
+clinch in endless argument. Every county has its Theocritus who sings
+the nearest creek, the bloom of the may-apple, the squirrel on the
+stake-and-rider fence, the rabbit in the corn, the paw-paw thicket where
+fruit for the gods lures farm boys on frosty mornings in golden autumn.
+In olden times the French _voyageur_, paddling his canoe from Montreal
+to New Orleans, sang cheerily through the Hoosier wilderness, little
+knowing that one day men should stand all night before bulletin boards
+in New York and Boston awaiting the judgment of citizens of the Wabash
+country upon the issues of national campaigns. The Hoosier, pondering
+all things himself, cares little what Ohio or Illinois may think or do.
+He ventures eastward to Broadway only to deepen his satisfaction in the
+lights of Washington or Main Street at home. He is satisfied to live
+upon a soil more truly blessed than any that lies beyond the borders of
+his own commonwealth. No wonder Ben Parker, of Henry County, born in a
+log cabin, attuned his lyre to the note of the first blue-bird and
+sang,--
+
+     'Tis morning and the days are long.
+
+It is always morning and all the days are long in Indiana.
+
+Sylvia was three years old when she came to her grandfather's. This she
+knew from the old servant; but where her earlier years had been spent or
+why or with whom she did not know; and when her grandfather was so kind,
+and her studies so absorbing, it did not seem worth while to trouble
+about any state of existence antedating her first clear
+recollections--which were of days punctuated and governed by the college
+bell, and of people who either taught or studied, with glimpses now and
+then of the women and children of the professors' households. There were
+times, when the winds whispered sharply round the cottage on winter
+nights, or when the snow lay white on the campus and in the woods
+beyond, when some memory taunted her, teasing and luring afar off; and
+once, as she walked with her grandfather on a day in March, and he
+pointed to a flock of wild geese moving _en echelon_ toward the Kankakee
+and the far white Canadian frontier, she experienced a similar vague
+thrill of consciousness, as though remembering that elsewhere, against
+blue spring sky, she had watched similar migrant battalions sweeping
+into the north.
+
+She had never known a playmate. The children of the college circle went
+to school in town, while she, from her sixth year, was taught
+systematically by her grandfather. The faithful oversight of Mary, the
+maid-of-all-work, constituted Sylvia's sole acquaintance with anything
+approximating maternal care. Mary, unknown to Sylvia and Professor
+Kelton, sometimes took counsel--the privilege of her long residence in
+the Lane--of some of the professors' wives, who would have been glad to
+help directly but for the increasing reserve that had latterly marked
+Professor Kelton's intercourse with his friends and neighbors.
+
+Sylvia was vaguely aware of the existence of social distinctions, but in
+Buckeye Lane these were entirely negligible; they were, in fact, purely
+academic, to be studied with other interesting phenomena by spectacled
+professors in quiet laboratories. It may, however, be remarked that
+Sylvia had sometimes gazed, not without a twinge, upon the daughter of a
+village manufacturer whom she espied flashing through the Lane on a
+black pony, and this young person symbolized all worldly grandeur to
+Sylvia's adoring vision. Sylvia knew the world chiefly from her
+reading,--Miss Alcott's and Mrs. Whitney's stories at first, and "St.
+Nicholas" every month, on a certain day that found her meeting the
+postman far across the campus; and she had read all the "Frank"
+books,--the prized possessions of a neighbor's boy,--from the Maine
+woods through the gunboat and prairie exploits of that delectable hero.
+At fourteen she had fallen upon Scott and Bulwer and had devoured them
+voraciously during the long vacation, in shady corners of the deserted
+campus; and she was now fixing Dickens's characters ineffaceably in her
+mind by Cruikshank's drawings. She was well grounded in Latin and had a
+fair reading knowledge of French and German. It was true of Sylvia, then
+and later, that poetry did not greatly interest her, and this had been
+attributed to her undoubted genius for mathematics. She was old for her
+age, people said, and the Lane wondered what her grandfather meant to
+do with her.
+
+The finding of Professor Kelton proves to be, as Sylvia had surmised, a
+simple matter. He is at work in a quiet alcove of the college library, a
+man just entering sixty, with white, close-trimmed hair and beard. The
+eyes he raises to his granddaughter are like hers, and there is a
+further resemblance in the dark skin. His face brightens and his eyes
+kindle as he clasps Sylvia's slender, supple hand.
+
+"It must be a student--are you sure he isn't a student?"
+
+Sylvia was confident of it.
+
+"Very likely an agent, then. They're very clever about disguising
+themselves. I never see agents, you know, Sylvia."
+
+Sylvia declared her belief that the stranger was not an agent, and the
+professor glanced at his book reluctantly.
+
+"Very well; I will see him. I wish you would run down these references
+for me, Sylvia. Don't trouble about those I have checked off. It can't
+be possible I am following a false clue. I'm sure I printed that article
+in the 'Popular Science Monthly,' for I recall perfectly that John Fiske
+wrote me a letter about it. Come home when you have finished and we'll
+take our usual walk together."
+
+Professor Kelton had relinquished his chair in the college when Sylvia
+came to live with him twelve years before the beginning of this history,
+and had shut himself away from the world; but no one knew why. Sylvia
+was the child of his only daughter, of whom no one ever spoke, though
+the older members of the faculty had known her, as they had known also
+the professor's wife, now dead many years. Professor Kelton had changed
+with the coming of Sylvia, so his old associates said; and their wives
+wondered that he should have undertaken the bringing-up of the child
+without other aid than that of the Irishwoman who had cooked his meals
+and taken care of the house ever since Mrs. Kelton's death. He was still
+a special lecturer at Madison, and he derived some income from the sale
+of his textbooks in mathematics, which he revised from time to time to
+bring them in touch with changing educational methods.
+
+He had given as his reason for resigning a wish to secure leisure for
+writing, and he was known to suffer severely at times from the wounds
+that had driven him from active naval service. But those who knew him
+best imagined that he bore in his breast deeper wounds than those of
+war. These old friends of the college circle wondered sometimes at the
+strange passing of his daughter and only child, who had vanished from
+their sight as a girl, never to return. They were men of quality, these
+teachers who had been identified with the college so long; they and
+their households were like a large family; and when younger men joined
+the faculty and inquired, or when their wives asked perfectly natural
+questions about Professor Kelton and Sylvia, their inquiries were met by
+an evasion that definitely dismissed the matter. And out of this spirit,
+which marked all the social intercourse of the college folk, affection
+for Professor Kelton steadily increased, and its light fell upon Sylvia
+abundantly. There was a particular smile for her into which much might
+be read; there was a tenderness manifested toward her which communicated
+itself to the students, who were proud to win her favor and were forever
+seeking little excuses for bandying words with her when they met.
+
+The tradition of Professor Kelton's scholarship had descended to Sylvia
+amusingly. She had never attended school, but he had taught her
+systematically at home, and his interests were hers. The students
+attributed to her the most abstruse knowledge, and stories of her
+precocity were repeated proudly by the Lane folk. Many evenings spent
+with her grandfather at the observatory had not been wasted. She knew
+the paths of the stars as she knew the walks of the campus. Dr.
+Wandless, the president emeritus, addressed her always as "My Lady of
+the Constellations," and told her solemnly that from much peering
+through the telescope she had coaxed the stars into her own eyes.
+Professor Kelton and his granddaughter were thus fully identified with
+the college and its business, which was to impart knowledge,--an
+old-fashioned but not yet wholly neglected function at Madison. She
+reckoned time by semesters; the campus had always been her playground;
+and the excitements of her life were those of a small and sober academic
+community. The darkest tragedies she had known had, indeed, been related
+to the life of the college,--the disciplining of the class of '01 for
+publishing itself in numerals on the face of the court-house clock; the
+recurring conflicts between town and gown that shook the community
+every Washington's birthday; the predatory habits of the Greek
+professor's cow, that botanized freely in alien gardens and occasionally
+immured herself in Professor Kelton's lettuce frames; these and like
+heroic matters had marked the high latitudes of Sylvia's life. In the
+long vacations, when most of the faculty sought the Northern lakes, the
+Keltons remained at home; and Sylvia knew all the trees of the campus,
+and could tell you just what books she had read under particular maples
+or elms.
+
+Andrew Kelton was a mathematical scholar of high attainments. In the
+field of astronomy he had made important discoveries, and he carried on
+an extensive correspondence with observers of stellar phenomena in many
+far corners of the world. His name in the Madison catalogue was followed
+by a bewildering line of cabalistic letters testifying to the honor in
+which other institutions of learning held him. Wishing to devise for him
+a title that combined due recognition of both his naval exploits and his
+fine scholarship, the undergraduates called him "Capordoc"; and it was
+part of a freshman's initiation to learn that at all times and in all
+places he was to stand and uncover when Professor Kelton passed by.
+
+Professor Kelton's occasional lectures in the college were a feature of
+the year, and were given in Mills Hall to accommodate the large audience
+of students and town folk that never failed to assemble every winter to
+hear him. For into discourses on astronomy he threw an immense amount of
+knowledge of all the sciences, and once every year, though no one ever
+knew when he would be moved to relate it, he told a thrilling story of
+how once, guided by the stars, he had run a Confederate blockade in a
+waterlogged ironclad under a withering fire from the enemy's batteries.
+And when he had finished and the applause ceased, he glanced about with
+an air of surprise and said: "Thank you, young gentlemen; it pleases me
+to find you so enthusiastic in your pursuit of knowledge. Learn the
+stars and you won't get lost in strange waters. As we were saying--" It
+was because of still other stories which he never told or referred to,
+but which are written in the nation's history, that the students loved
+him; and it was for this that they gave him at every opportunity their
+lustiest cheer.
+
+The professor found the stranger Sylvia had announced waiting for him at
+the cottage. The young man did not mention his own name but drew from
+his pocket a sealed letter.
+
+"Is this Professor Andrew Kelton? I am to give you this letter and wait
+for an answer."
+
+Professor Kelton sat down at his desk and slit the envelope. The letter
+covered only one page and he read slowly to the end. He then re-read the
+whole carefully, and placed the sheet on his desk and laid a weight upon
+it before he faced the messenger. He passed his hand across his
+forehead, stroked his beard, and said, speaking slowly,--
+
+"You were to bring this letter and bear back an answer to the writer,
+but you were instructed not to discuss it in any way or disclose the
+name or the residence of the person who sent you. So much I learn from
+the letter itself."
+
+"Yes, sir. I know nothing of the contents of the letter. I was told to
+deliver it and to carry back the answer."
+
+"Very good, sir. You have fulfilled your mission. Please note carefully
+what I say. The reply is _No_. There must be no mistake about that,--do
+you understand?"
+
+"I am to report that you answered 'No'."
+
+"That is correct, sir," replied Professor Kelton quietly. The young man
+rose, and the Professor followed him to the door.
+
+"I thank you for your trouble; it has been a warm day, the warmest of
+the season. Good-afternoon, sir."
+
+He watched the young fellow's prompt exit through the gate in the hedge
+to the Lane and then returned to the library, where he re-read the
+letter. Now that he was alone he relaxed somewhat; his manner expressed
+mingled trepidation and curiosity. The letter was type-written and was
+neither dated nor signed. He carried it to the window and held it
+against the sunlight, but there was not even a watermark by which it
+might be traced. Nor was there anything in the few straightforward
+sentences that proved suggestive. The letter ran:--
+
+     Your granddaughter has reached an age at which her maintenance and
+     education require serious consideration. A friend who cannot be
+     known in the matter wishes to provide a sum of money to be held
+     and expended by you for her benefit. No obligations of any sort
+     will be incurred by you in accepting this offer. It is hardly
+     conceivable that you will decline it, though it is quite optional
+     with you to do so. It will not, however, be repeated.
+
+     Kindly designate by a verbal "Yes" or "No" to the bearer whether
+     you accept or decline. The messenger is a stranger to the person
+     making the offer and the contents of this communication are unknown
+     to him. If you wish to avail yourself of this gift, the amount will
+     be paid in cash immediately, and it is suggested that you refrain
+     from mentioning the matter to your granddaughter in any way.
+
+Professor Kelton had given his answer to the messenger unhesitatingly,
+and the trouble reflected in his dark eyes was not due, we may assume,
+to any regret for his negative reply, but to the jangling of old, harsh
+chords of memory. He crossed and recrossed the room, lost in reverie;
+then paused at his desk and tore the letter once across with the evident
+intention of destroying it; but he hesitated, changed his mind, and
+carried it to his bedroom. There he took from a closet shelf a battered
+tin box marked "A. Kelton, U.S.N." which contained his commissions in
+the Navy. He sat down on the bed, folded the letter the long way of the
+sheet and indorsed it in pencil: "Declined." Then he slipped it under
+the faded tape that bound the official papers together, and locked and
+replaced the box.
+
+Sylvia meanwhile had found the review article noted on her grandfather's
+memorandum, and leaving a receipt with the librarian started home with
+the book under her arm. Halfway across the campus she met her
+grandfather's caller, hurrying townward. He lifted his hat, and Sylvia
+paused a moment to ask if he had found her grandfather.
+
+"Yes; thank you. My business didn't take much time, you see. I'm sorry I
+put you to so much bother."
+
+"Oh, that was nothing."
+
+"Is that new building the college library?"
+
+"Yes," replied Sylvia. "Are you a Madison man?"
+
+"No. I was never here before. I went to a very different college
+and"--he hesitated--"a little bigger one."
+
+"I suppose there are bigger colleges," Sylvia remarked, with the
+slightest accent on the adjective.
+
+The young man laughed.
+
+"That's the right spirit! Madison needs no praise from me; it speaks for
+itself. Is this the nearest way to the station?"
+
+It had been on Sylvia's tongue to ask him the name of his college, but
+he had perhaps read this inquiry in her eyes, and as though suddenly
+roused by the remembrance of the secrecy that had been imposed upon him,
+he moved on.
+
+"Yes, I understand," he called over his shoulder. "Thank you, very
+much."
+
+He whistled softly to himself as he continued on his way, still glancing
+about alertly.
+
+The manner of the old professor in receiving the letter and the calmness
+with which he had given his reply minimized the importance of the
+transaction in the mind of the messenger. He was thinking of Sylvia and
+smiling still at her implication that while there were larger colleges
+than Madison there was none better. He turned to look again at the
+college buildings closely clasped by their strip of woodland. Madison
+was not a college to sneer at; he had scanned the bronze tablet on the
+library wall that published the roll of her Sons who had served in the
+Civil War. Many of the names were written high in the state's history
+and for a moment they filled the young man's mind.
+
+As she neared home Sylvia met her friend Dr. Wandless, the former
+president, who always had his joke with her.
+
+"Hail, Lady of the Constellations! You have been looting the library, I
+see. Hast thou named the stars without a gun?"
+
+"That isn't right," protested Sylvia. "You're purposely misquoting.
+You've only spoiled Emerson's line about the birds."
+
+"Bless me, I believe that's so!" laughed the old gentleman. "But tell
+me, Sylvia: 'Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose
+the bands of Orion? Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season? or
+guide Arcturus with his sons?'"
+
+Sylvia, with brightening eyes and a smile on her lips, answered:--
+
+"Knowest thou the ordinances of heaven? canst thou set the dominion
+thereof in the earth?"
+
+"Ah, if only I could, Sylvia!" said the old minister, smiling gravely.
+
+They came in high spirits to the parting of their ways and Sylvia kept
+on through the hedge to her grandfather's cottage. The minister turned
+once, a venerable figure with snowy beard and hair, and beat the path
+softly with his stick and glanced back, as Sylvia's red ribbon bobbed
+through the greenery.
+
+"'Whose daughter art thou?'" he murmured gently.
+
+Then, glancing furtively about, he increased his gait as though to
+escape from his own thoughts; but the question asked of Bethuel's
+daughter by Abraham's servant came again to his lips, and he shook his
+head as he repeated:--
+
+"Whose daughter art thou?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+SYLVIA GOES VISITING
+
+
+"How old did you say you were, Sylvia?"
+
+"I'm sixteen in October, grandpa," answered Sylvia.
+
+"Is it possible!" murmured the professor. "And to think that you've
+never been to school."
+
+"Why, I've been going to school every day, almost, ever since I can
+remember. And haven't I had the finest teacher in the world, all to
+myself?"
+
+His face brightened responsive to her laugh.
+
+This was at the tea-table--for the Keltons dined at noon in conformity
+with local custom--nearly a week after the unsigned letter had been
+delivered to Andrew Kelton by the unknown messenger. Sylvia and her
+grandfather had just returned from a walk, prolonged into the cool dusk.
+They sat at the square walnut table, where they had so long faced each
+other three times a day. Sylvia had never doubted that their lives would
+go on forever in just this way,--that they would always be, as her
+grandfather liked to put it, "shipmates," walking together, studying
+together, sitting as they sat now, at their simple meals, with just the
+same quaintly flowered dishes, the same oddly turned teapot, with its
+attendant cream pitcher (slightly cracked as to lip) and the sugar-bowl,
+with a laboring ship depicted in blue on its curved side, which was not
+related, even by the most remote cousinship, to anything else in the
+pantry.
+
+Professor Kelton was unwontedly preoccupied to-night. Sylvia saw that he
+had barely touched his strawberries--their first of the season, though
+they were fine ones and the cream was the thickest. She folded her hands
+on the edge of the table and watched him gravely in the light of the
+four candles whose flame flared in the breeze that swept softly through
+the dining-room windows. Feeling her eyes upon him the old gentleman
+suddenly roused himself.
+
+"We've had good times, haven't we, Sylvia? And I wonder if I have really
+taught you anything. I suppose I ought to have been sending you to
+school with the other youngsters about here, but the fact is that I
+never saw a time when I wanted to part with you! You've been a fine
+little shipmate, but you're not so little any more. Sixteen your next
+birthday! If that's so it isn't best for us to go on this way. You must
+try your oar in deeper water. You've outgrown me--and I'm a dull old
+fellow at best. You must go where you will meet other girls, and deal
+with a variety of teachers,--not just one dingy old fellow like me. Have
+you ever thought what kind of a school you'd like to go to?"
+
+"I don't believe I have; I don't know much about schools."
+
+"Well, don't you think you'd like to get away from so much mathematics
+and learn things that will fit you to be entertaining and amusing? You
+know I've taught you a lot of things just to amuse myself and they can
+never be of the slightest use to you. I suppose you are the only girl of
+your age in America who can read the sextant and calculate latitude and
+longitude. But, bless me, what's the use?"
+
+"Oh, if I could only--"
+
+"Only what?" he encouraged her. He was greatly interested in getting her
+point of view, and it was perfectly clear that a great idea possessed
+her.
+
+"Oh, if I could only go to college, that would be the finest thing in
+the world!"
+
+"You think that would be more interesting than boarding-school? If you
+go to college they may require Greek and you don't even know what the
+letters look like!"
+
+"Oh, yes, I know a little about it!"
+
+"I think not, Sylvia. How could you?"
+
+"Oh, the letters were so queer, I learned them just for fun out of an
+old textbook I found on the campus one day. Nobody ever came to claim
+it, so I read it all through and learned all the declensions and
+vocabularies, though I only guessed at the pronunciation."
+
+Professor Kelton was greatly amused. "You tackled Greek just for fun,
+did you?" he laughed; then, after a moment's absorption: "I'm going to
+Indianapolis to-morrow and I'll take you with me, if you care to go
+along. In fact, I've written to Mrs. Owen that we're coming, and I've
+kept this as a little surprise for you."
+
+So, after an early breakfast the next morning, they were off for the
+station in one of those disreputable, shaky village hacks that Dr.
+Wandless always called "dark Icarian birds," with their two bags piled
+on the seat before them. On the few railway journeys Sylvia remembered,
+she had been carried on half-fare tickets, an ignominy which she
+recalled with shame. To-day she was a full-grown passenger with a seat
+to herself, her grandfather being engaged through nearly the whole of
+their hour's swift journey in a political discussion with a lawyer who
+was one of the college trustees.
+
+"I told Mrs. Owen not to meet us; it's a nuisance having to meet
+people," said the professor when they had reached the city. "But she
+always sends a carriage when she expects me."
+
+As they stepped out upon the street a station wagon driven by an old
+negro appeared promptly at the curb.
+
+"Mawnin', Cap'n; mawnin'! Yo' just on time. Mis' Sally tole me to kerry
+you all right up to the haouse. Yes, seh."
+
+Sylvia did not know, what later historians may be interested to learn
+from these pages, that the station wagon, drawn by a single horse, was
+for years the commonest vehicle known to the people of the Hoosier
+capital. The panic of 1873 had hit the town so hard, the community's
+punishment for its sins of inflation had been so drastic, that it had
+accepted meekly the rebuke implied in its designation as a one-horse
+town. In 1884 came another shock to confidence, and in 1893, still
+another earthquake, as though the knees of the proud must at intervals
+be humbled. The one-horse station wagon continued to symbolize the
+quiet domesticity of the citizens of the Hoosier capital: women of
+unimpeachable social standing carried their own baskets through the
+aisles of the city market or drove home with onion tops waving
+triumphantly on the seat beside them. We had not yet hitched our wagon
+to a gasoline tank, but traffic regulations were enforced by cruel
+policemen, to the terror of women long given to leisurely manoeuvres on
+the wrong side of our busiest thoroughfares. The driving of cattle
+through Washington Street did not cease until 1888, when cobbles yielded
+to asphalt. It was in that same year that Benjamin Harrison was chosen
+to the seat of the Presidents. What hallowed niches now enshrine the
+General's fence, utterly disintegrated and appropriated, during that
+bannered and vociferous summer, by pious pilgrims!
+
+Down the busy meridional avenue that opened before Sylvia as they drove
+uptown loomed the tall shaft of the soldiers' monument, and they were
+soon swinging round the encompassing plaza. Professor Kelton explained
+that the monument filled a space once called Circle Park, where the
+Governor's Mansion had stood in old times. In her hurried glimpses
+Sylvia was unable to account for the lack of sociability among the
+distinguished gentlemen posed in bronze around the circular
+thoroughfare; and she thought it odd that William Henry Harrison wore so
+much better clothes than George Rogers Clark, who was immortalized for
+her especial pleasure in the very act of delivering the Wabash from the
+British yoke.
+
+"I wonder whether Mrs. Owen will like me?" said Sylvia a little
+plaintively, the least bit homesick as they turned into Delaware Street.
+
+"Of course she will like you!" laughed Professor Kelton, "though I will
+say that she doesn't like everybody by any manner of means. You mustn't
+be afraid of her; she gets on best with people who are not afraid to
+talk to her. She isn't like anybody you ever saw, or, I think, anybody
+you are ever likely to see again!" And the professor chuckled softly to
+himself.
+
+Mrs. Owen's big comfortable brick house stood in that broad part of
+Delaware Street where the maple arch rises highest, and it was
+surrounded by the smoothest of lawns, broken only by a stone basin in
+whose centre posed the jolliest of Cupids holding a green glass
+umbrella, over which a jet of water played in the most realistic
+rainstorm imaginable.
+
+Another negro, not quite as venerable as the coachman, opened the door
+and took their bags. He explained that Mrs. Owen (he called her "Mis'
+Sally") had been obliged to attend a meeting of some board or other, but
+would return shortly. The guests' rooms were ready and he at once led
+the way upstairs, where a white maid met them.
+
+Professor Kelton explained that he must go down into the city on some
+errands, but that he would be back shortly, and Sylvia was thus left to
+her own devices.
+
+It was like a story book to arrive at a strange house and be carried off
+to a beautiful room, with a window-seat from which one could look down
+into the most charming of gardens. She opened her bag and disposed her
+few belongings and was exploring the bathroom wonderingly (for the bath
+at home was an affair of a tin tub to which water was carried by hand)
+when a maid appeared with a glass of lemonade and a plate of cakes.
+
+It was while she munched her cakes and sipped the cool lemonade in the
+window-seat with an elm's branches so close that she could touch them,
+and wondered how near to this room her grandfather had been lodged, and
+what the mistress of the house was like, that Mrs. Owen appeared, after
+the lightest tap on the high walnut door. Throughout her life Sylvia
+will remember that moment when she first measured Mrs. Owen's fine
+height and was aware of her quick, eager entrance; but above all else
+the serious gray eyes that were so alive with kindness were the chief
+item of Sylvia's inventory.
+
+"I thought you were older,--or younger! I didn't know you would be just
+like this! I didn't know just when you were coming or I should have
+tried to be at home--but there was a meeting,--there are so many things,
+child!"
+
+Mrs. Owen did not sigh at the thought of her burdens, but smiled quite
+cheerfully as though the fact of the world's being a busy place was
+wholly agreeable. She sat down beside Sylvia in the window-seat and took
+one of the cakes and nibbled it while they talked. Sylvia had never been
+so wholly at ease in her life. It was as though she had been launched
+into the midst of an old friendship, and she felt that she had conferred
+the greatest possible favor in consenting to visit this house, for was
+not this dear old lady saying,--
+
+"You see, I'm lonesome sometimes and I almost kidnap people to get them
+to visit me. I'm a terribly practical old woman. If you haven't heard it
+I must tell you the truth--I'm a farmer! And I don't let anybody run my
+business. Other widows have to take what the lawyers give them; but
+while I can tell oats from corn and horses from pigs I'm going to handle
+my own money. We women are a lot of geese, I tell you, child! I'm
+treasurer of a lot of things women run, and I can see a deficit through
+a brick wall as quick as any man on earth. Don't you ever let any man
+vote any proxy for you--you tell 'em you'll attend the stockholders'
+meetings yourself, and when you go, kick!"
+
+Sylvia had not the faintest notion of what proxy meant, but she was sure
+it must be something both interesting and important or Mrs. Owen would
+not feel so strongly about it.
+
+"When I was your age," Mrs. Owen continued, "girls weren't allowed to
+learn anything but embroidery and housekeeping. But my father had some
+sense. He was a Kentucky farmer and raised horses and mules. I never
+knew anything about music, for I wouldn't learn; but I own a stock farm
+near Lexington, and just between ourselves I don't lose any money on it.
+And most that I know about men I learned from mules; there's nothing in
+the world so interesting as a mule."
+
+When Professor Kelton had declared to Sylvia on the way from the station
+that Mrs. Owen was unlike any other woman in the world, Sylvia had not
+thought very much about it. To be sure Sylvia's knowledge of the world
+was the meagrest, but certainly she could never have imagined any woman
+as remarkable as Mrs. Owen. The idea that a mule, instead of being a
+dull beast of burden, had really an educational value struck her as
+decidedly novel, and she did not know just what to make of it. Mrs. Owen
+readjusted the pillow at her back, and went on spiritedly:--
+
+"Your grandpa has often spoken of you, and it's mighty nice to have you
+here. You see a good many of us Hoosiers are Kentucky people, and your
+grandpa's father was. I remember perfectly well when your grandpa went
+to the Naval Academy; and we were all mighty proud of him in the war."
+
+Mrs. Owen's white hair was beautifully soft and wavy, and she wore it in
+the prevailing manner. Her eyes narrowed occasionally with an effect of
+sudden dreaminess, and these momentary reveries seemed to the adoring
+Sylvia wholly fascinating. She spoke incisively and her voice was deep
+and resonant. She was exceedingly thin and wiry, and her movements were
+quick and nervous. Hearing the whirr of a lawn-mower in the yard she
+drew a pair of spectacles from a case she produced from an incredibly
+deep pocket, put them on, and criticized the black man below sharply for
+his manner of running the machine. This done, the spectacles went back
+to the case and the case to the pocket. In our capital a woman in a
+kimono may still admonish her servants from a second-story window
+without loss of dignity, and gentlemen holding high place in dignified
+callings may sprinkle their own lawns in the cool of the evening if they
+find delight in that cheering diversion. Joy in the simple life dies in
+us slowly. The galloping Time-Spirit will run us down eventually, but on
+Sundays that are not too hot or too cold one may even to-day count a
+handsome total of bank balances represented in our churches, so strong
+is habit in a people bred to righteousness.
+
+"You needn't be afraid of me; my bark is worse than my bite; you have to
+talk just that way to these black people. They've all worked for me for
+years and they don't any of 'em pay the slightest attention to what I
+say. But," she concluded, "they'd be a lot worse if I didn't say it."
+
+We reckon time in our capital not from fires or floods or even _anno
+urbis conditae_, but from seemingly minor incidents that have
+nevertheless marked new eras and changed the channels of history.
+Precedents sustain us in this. A startled goose rousing the sleeping
+sentinels on the ramparts; a dull peasant sending an army in the wrong
+direction; the mischievous phrase uttered by an inconspicuous minister
+of the gospel to a few auditors,--such unconsidered trifles play havoc
+with Fame's calculations. And so in our calendar the disbanding of the
+volunteer fire department in 1859 looms gloomily above the highest
+altitudes of the strenuous sixties; the fact that Billy Sanderson, after
+his father's failure in 1873, became a brakeman on the J.M. & I.
+Railroad and invested his first month's salary in a silver-mounted
+lantern, is more luminous in the retrospect than the panic itself; the
+coming of a lady with a lorgnette in 1889 (the scion of one of our
+ancient houses married her in Ohio) overshadows even the passing of
+Beecher's church; and the three-days' sojourn of Henry James in 1905
+shattered all records and established a new orientation for our people.
+It was Sally Owen who said, when certain citizens declared that Mr.
+James was inaudible, that many heard him perfectly that night in the
+Propylaeum who had always thought Balzac the name of a tooth-powder.
+
+Mrs. Owen's family, the Singletons, had crossed the Ohio into Hoosier
+territory along in the fifties, in time for Sally to have been a
+student--not the demurest from all accounts--at Indiana Female College.
+Where stood the college the Board of Trade has lately planted itself,
+frowning down upon Christ Church, whose admirable Gothic spire chimed
+for Union victories in the sixties (there's a story about that, too!)
+and still pleads with the ungodly on those days of the week appointed by
+the Book of Common Prayer for offices to be said or sung. Mrs. Jackson
+Owen was at this time sixty years old, and she had been a widow for
+thirty years. The old citizens who remembered Jackson Owen always spoke
+of him with a smile. He held an undisputed record of having been
+defeated for more offices than any other Hoosier of his time. His chief
+assets when he died were a number of farms, plastered with mortgages,
+scattered over the commonwealth in inaccessible localities. His wife,
+left a widow with a daughter who died at fourteen, addressed herself
+zealously to the task of paying the indebtedness with which the
+lamented Jackson had encumbered his property. She had made a point of
+clinging to all the farms that had been so profitless under his
+direction, and so successfully had she managed them that they were all
+paying handsomely. A four-hundred-acre tract of the tallest corn I ever
+saw was once pointed out to me in Greene County and this plantation, it
+was explained, had been a worthless bog before Mrs. Owen "tiled" it; and
+later I saw stalks of this corn displayed in the rooms of the
+Agricultural Society to illustrate what intelligent farming can do.
+
+At the State Fair every fall it was taken as a matter of course that "S.
+Owen" (such was her business designation) should win more red ribbons
+than any other exhibitor either of cereals or live stock. There was
+nothing that Sally Owen did not know about feeding cattle, and a paper
+she once read before the Short-Horn Breeders' Association is a classic
+on this important subject. Mrs. Owen still retained the active control
+of her affairs, though she had gradually given over to a superintendent
+much of the work long done by herself; but woe unto him who ever tried
+to deceive her! She maintained an office on the ground floor of her
+house where she transacted business and kept inventories of every stick
+of wood, every bushel of corn, every litter of pigs to which she had
+ever been entitled. For years she had spent much time at her farms,
+particularly through the open months of the year when farm tasks are
+most urgent; but as her indulgence in masculine pursuits had not abated
+her womanly fastidiousness, she carried with her in all her journeys a
+negro woman whose business it was to cook for her mistress and otherwise
+care for her comfort. She had acquired the farm in Kentucky to continue
+her ties with the state of her birth, but this sentimental consideration
+did not deter her from making the Lexington farm pay; Sally Owen made
+everything pay! Her Southern ancestry was manifest in nothing more
+strikingly than in her treatment of the blacks she had always had about
+her. She called them niggers--as only a Southerner may, and they called
+her "Mis' Sally" and were her most devoted and obedient servants.
+
+Much of this Sylvia was to learn later; but just now, as Mrs. Owen sat
+in the cool window-seat, it was enough for Sylvia to be there, in the
+company of the first woman--so it seemed to her--she had ever known,
+except Irish Mary at home. The wives of the professors in Buckeye Lane
+were not like this; no one was ever like this, she was sure!
+
+"We shall be having luncheon at half-past twelve, and my grandniece
+Marian will be here. Marian is the daughter of my niece, Mrs. Morton
+Bassett, who lives at Fraserville. Marian comes to town pretty often and
+I've asked her down to-day particularly to meet you."
+
+"I'm sure that is very kind," murmured Sylvia, though she would have
+been perfectly happy if just she and her grandfather had been left alone
+with Mrs. Owen.
+
+"There's the bell; that must be Marian now," said Mrs. Owen a moment
+later, and vanished in her quick fashion. Then the door opened again
+instantly and she returned to the room smiling.
+
+"What _is_ your name, dear?" Mrs. Owen demanded. "How very stupid of me
+not to have asked before! Your grandpa in speaking of you always says my
+granddaughter, and that doesn't tell anything, does it?"
+
+"My name is Sylvia--Sylvia Garrison."
+
+"And that's a very nice name," said Mrs. Owen, looking at her fixedly
+with her fine gray eyes. "You're the first Sylvia I have ever known. I'm
+just plain Sally!" Then she seized Sylvia's hands and drew her close and
+kissed her.
+
+As Sylvia had brought but one white gown, she decided that the blue
+serge skirt and linen shirt-waist in which she had traveled would do for
+luncheon. She put on a fresh collar and knotted a black scarf under it
+and went downstairs.
+
+She ran down quickly, to have the meeting with the strange niece over as
+quickly as possible. Mrs. Owen was not in sight, and her grandfather had
+not returned from town; but as Sylvia paused a moment at the door of the
+spacious high-ceilinged drawing-room she saw a golden head bent over a
+music rack by the piano. Sylvia stood on the threshold an instant, shy
+and uncertain as to how she should make herself known. The sun flooding
+the windows glinted on the bright hair of the girl at the piano; she was
+very fair, and her features were clear-cut and regular. There was no
+sound in the room but the crisp rustle of the leaves of music as the
+girl tossed them about. Then as she flung aside the last sheet with an
+exclamation of disappointment, Sylvia made herself known.
+
+"I'm Sylvia Garrison," she said, advancing.
+
+They gravely inspected each other for a moment; then Marian put out her
+hand.
+
+"I'm Marian Bassett. Aunt Sally told me you were coming."
+
+Marian seated herself with the greatest composure and Sylvia noted her
+white lawn gown and white half-shoes, and the bow of white ribbon at the
+back of her head. Sylvia, in her blue serge, black ribbons, and high
+shoes, felt the superiority of this radiant being. Marian took charge of
+the conversation.
+
+"I suppose you like to visit; I love it. I've visited a lot, and I'm
+always coming to Aunt Sally's. I'm in Miss Waring's School, here in this
+city, so I come to spend Sundays with Aunt Sally very often. Mama is
+always coming to town to see how I'm getting on. She's terribly
+ambitious for me, but I hate school, and I simply _cannot_ learn French.
+Miss Waring is terribly severe; she says it's merely a lack of
+application in my case; that I _could_ learn but won't. When mama comes
+she takes me to luncheon at the Whitcomb and sometimes to the matinee.
+We saw John Drew last winter: he's simply perfect--so refined and
+gentlemanly; and I've seen Julia Marlowe twice; she's my favorite
+actress. Mama says that if I just will read novels I ought to read good
+ones, and she gave me a set of Thackeray for my own; but you can skip a
+whole lot in him, I'm here to state! One of our best critics has said
+(mama's always saying that) that the best readers are those who know
+how to skip, and I'm a good skipper. I always want to know how it's
+going to come out. If they can't live happy forever afterward I want
+them to part beautifully, with soft music playing; and _he_ must go away
+and leave _her_ holding a rose as a pledge that _he_ will never forget."
+
+When Marian paused there was a silence as Sylvia tried to pick out of
+this long speech something to which she could respond. Marian was
+astonishingly wise; Sylvia felt herself immeasurably younger, and she
+was appalled by her own ignorance before this child who had touched so
+many sides of life and who recounted her experiences so calmly and
+lightly.
+
+"This is the first time I ever visited," Sylvia confessed. "I live with
+my grandfather Kelton, right by Madison College, that's at Montgomery,
+you know. Grandfather was a professor in the college, and still lectures
+there sometimes. I've never been to school--"
+
+"How on earth do you escape?" demanded Marian.
+
+"It's not an escape," laughed Sylvia; "you see grandfather, being a
+professor, began teaching me almost before I began remembering."
+
+"Oh! But even that would be better than a boarding-school, where they
+make you study. It would be easy to tell your grandfather that you
+didn't want to do things."
+
+"I suppose it would," Sylvia acknowledged; "but it's so nice to have him
+for a teacher that I shouldn't know just how to do it."
+
+This point of view did not interest Marian, and she recurred to her own
+affairs.
+
+"I've been to Europe. Papa took us all last year. We went to Paris and
+London. It was fine."
+
+"My grandfather was in the United States Navy, before he began teaching
+at Madison, so I know a good deal from him about Europe."
+
+"Blackford--he's my brother--is going to Annapolis," said Marian, thus
+reminded of her brother's aspirations. "At least he says he is, though
+he used to talk about West Point. I hope he will go into the Army. I
+should like to visit West Point; it must be perfectly fascinating."
+
+"I suppose it is. I think I should like college."
+
+"Not for me!" exclaimed Marian. "I want to go to a convent in Paris. I
+know a girl right here in Indianapolis who did that, and it's perfectly
+fine and ever so romantic. To get into college you have to know algebra,
+don't you?"
+
+"Yes; I think they require that," Sylvia replied, on guard against a
+display of too much knowledge.
+
+"Do you know algebra?" demanded Marian.
+
+"Sometimes I think I don't!"
+
+"Well, there's no doubt about me! I'm sure I don't. It's perfectly
+horrid."
+
+The entrance of Mrs. Owen and the return of Professor Kelton terminated
+these confidences. The four were soon at the luncheon table, where the
+array of crystal and silver seemed magnificent to Sylvia's unaccustomed
+eyes. She had supposed that luncheon meant some such simple meal as the
+suppers she had been used to at home; but it included fried chicken and
+cold ham, and there were several vegetables; and hot biscuits and hot
+corn bread; and it became necessary for Sylvia to decline an endless
+succession of preserves and jellies. For dessert there were the most
+fragrant red raspberries conceivable, with golden sponge cake. The
+colored man who served the table seemed to enjoy himself immensely. He
+condescended to make suggestions as he moved about. "A little mo' of the
+cold ham, Cap'n?" or, "I 'membah you like the sparrograss, Mis' Marian,"
+he murmured. "The co'n bread's extra fine, Mis'"--to Sylvia. "The hossis
+is awdahed for three, Mis' Sally"--to Mrs. Owen.
+
+"You still have Kentucky cooking, Sally," remarked Professor Kelton, who
+had praised the corn bread.
+
+"I do, Andrew," replied the old lady; "everybody knows that the best
+things in Indiana came through Kentucky. That includes you and me!"
+
+Prompted by Mrs. Owen's friendly questioning, Sylvia found herself
+talking. She felt that she was talking more than Marian; but she was
+much less troubled by this than by Marian's sophisticated manner of
+lifting her asparagus stalks with her fingers, while Sylvia resorted to
+the fork. But Sylvia comforted herself with the reflection that this was
+all in keeping with Marian Bassett's general superiority. Marian
+conducted herself with the most mature air, and she made it quite
+necessary for Professor Kelton to defend the Navy against her assertion
+that the Army was much more useful to the country. The unhurried meal
+passed, and after they had returned to the drawing-room Marian left to
+meet her mother at the dressmaker's and return with her to Fraserville.
+
+"I hope to see you again," said Marian, shaking hands with Sylvia.
+
+"I hope so, too," Sylvia replied.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+A SMALL DINNER AT MRS. OWEN'S
+
+
+Professor Kelton announced that he had not finished his errands in town,
+and begged to be excused from the drive which Mrs. Owen had planned.
+
+"Very well, Andrew. Then I shall take your Sylvia for a longer drive
+than I should expect you to survive. We'll go out and see how the wheat
+looks."
+
+In this new environment Sylvia was aware that despite his efforts to
+appear gay her grandfather was not himself. She was quite sure that he
+had not expected to spend the afternoon downtown, and she wondered what
+was troubling him. The novelty of the drive, however, quickly won her to
+the best of spirits. Mrs. Owen appeared ready for this adventure with
+her tall figure wrapped in a linen "duster." Her hat was a practical
+affair of straw, unadorned save by a black ribbon. As she drew on her
+gloves in the _porte-cochere_ the old coachman held the heads of two
+horses that were hitched to a smart road wagon. When her gloves had been
+adjusted, Mrs. Owen surveyed the horses critically.
+
+"Lift Pete's forefoot--the off one, Joe," she commanded, stepping down
+into the asphalt court. "Um,--that's just what I thought. That new
+blacksmith knows his business. That shoe's on straight. That other man
+never did know anything. All right, Sylvia."
+
+Mrs. Owen explained as the trim sorrels stepped off smartly toward the
+north that they were Estabrook stock and that she had raised them
+herself on her Kentucky farm, which she declared Sylvia must visit some
+day. It was very pleasant to be driving in this way under a high blue
+sky, beside a woman whose ways and interests were so unusual. The
+spirited team held Mrs. Owen's attention, but she never allowed the
+conversation to flag. Several times as they crossed car lines it seemed
+to Sylvia that they missed being struck only by perilously narrow
+margins. When they reached the creek they paused on the bridge to allow
+the sorrels to rest, and Mrs. Owen indicated with her whip the line of
+the new boulevard and recounted the history of the region.
+
+At the State Fair grounds Mrs. Owen drove in, explaining that she wanted
+to see what they were doing to the track. Sylvia noticed that the
+employees they passed grinned at Mrs. Owen as though she were a familiar
+acquaintance, and the superintendent came up and discussed horses and
+the track changes with Mrs. Owen in a strange vocabulary. He listened
+respectfully to what Mrs. Owen said and was impressed, Sylvia thought,
+by her opinions. She referred to other tracks at Lexington and
+Louisville as though they were, of course, something that everybody knew
+about. The sun was hot, but Mrs. Owen did not seem to mind the heat a
+particle. The superintendent looked the sorrels over carefully; they had
+taken no end of ribbons at fairs and horse shows. Here was a team, Mrs.
+Owen announced, that she was not afraid to show in Madison Square Garden
+against any competitors in its class; and the superintendent admitted
+that the Estabrooks were a fine stock. He nodded and kept repeating
+"You're right," or "you're mighty right," to everything the old lady
+said. It seemed to Sylvia that nobody would be likely to question or
+gainsay any opinions Mrs. Owen might advance on the subject of horses.
+She glanced over her shoulder as they were driving back toward the gate
+and saw the superintendent looking after them.
+
+"He's watching the team, ain't he, Sylvia? I thought I'd touch up his
+envy a little. That man," continued Mrs. Owen, "really knows a horse
+from an elephant. He's been trying to buy this team; but he hasn't bid
+up high enough yet. It tickles me to think that some of those rich
+fellows down in New York will pay me a good price when I send 'em down
+there to the show. They need working; you can't do much with horses in
+town; the asphalt plays smash with their feet. There's a good stretch of
+pike out here and I'll show you what this team can do."
+
+This promised demonstration was the least bit terrifying to Sylvia. Her
+knowledge of horses was the slightest, and in reading of horse races she
+had not imagined that there could be such a thrill in speeding along a
+stretch of good road behind a pair of registered roadsters, the flower
+of the Estabrook stock, driven by so intrepid and skillful a whip as
+Mrs. Sally Owen.
+
+"I guess that mile would worry the boys some," observed Mrs. Owen with
+satisfaction as she brought the team to a walk.
+
+This was wholly cryptic to Sylvia, but she was glad that Mrs. Owen was
+not disappointed. As they loitered in a long shady lane Mrs. Owen made
+it possible for Sylvia to talk of herself. Sally Owen was a wise woman,
+who was considered a little rough and peculiar by some of her
+townspeople, chiefly those later comers who did not understand the
+conditions of life that had made such a character possible; but none had
+ever questioned her kindness of heart. And in spite of her frank, direct
+way of speech she was not deficient in tact. Sally Owen had an active
+curiosity, but it was of the healthy sort that wastes no time on
+trifling matters. She was curious about Sylvia, for Sylvia was a little
+different from the young girls she knew. Quite naturally she was
+comparing the slim, dark-eyed girl at her side with Marian Bassett.
+Marian was altogether obvious; whereas Mrs. Owen felt the barriers of
+reserve in Sylvia. Sylvia embodied questions in the Kelton family
+history that she could not answer, though she had known Andrew Kelton
+all his life, and remembered dimly his only daughter, who had
+unaccountably vanished.
+
+"Where do you go to school, Sylvia?" she asked.
+
+"I don't go to school,--not to a real school,--but grandfather teaches
+me; he has always taught me."
+
+"And you are now about--how old?"
+
+"Sixteen in October. I've been talking to grandfather about going to
+college."
+
+"They do send girls to college nowadays, don't they! We're beginning to
+have some of these college women in our town here. I know some of 'em.
+Let's see. What they say against colleges for women is that the girls
+who go there learn too much, so that men are afraid to marry 'em. I
+wonder how that is? But that's in favor of college, I think; don't you?"
+
+Mrs. Owen answered her own question with a laugh; and having opened the
+subject she went on to disclose her opinions further.
+
+"I guess I'm too old to be one of these new women we're hearing so much
+about. Even farming's got to be a science, and it keeps me hustling to
+learn what the new words mean in the agricultural papers. I belong to a
+generation of women who know how to sew rag carpets and make quilts and
+stir soft soap in an iron kettle and darn socks; and I can still cure a
+ham better than any Chicago factory does it," she added, raking a fly
+from the back of the "off" sorrel with a neat turn of the whip. "And I
+reckon I make 'em pay full price for my corn. Well, well; so you're
+headed for college."
+
+"I hope so," said Sylvia; "then after that I'm going to teach."
+
+"Poor pay and hard work. I know lots of teachers; they're always having
+nervous prostration. But you look healthy."
+
+"Oh, I'm strong enough," replied Sylvia. "I think I should like
+teaching."
+
+"Marian was at Miss Waring's school last winter and I couldn't see what
+she was interested in much but chasing to matinees. Are you crazy about
+theatres?"
+
+"Why, I've never been to one," Sylvia confessed.
+
+"You're just as well off. Actors ain't what they used to be. When you
+saw Edwin Booth in 'Hamlet' or Jefferson in 'Rip,' you saw acting. I
+haven't been in any theatre since I saw Jefferson in the 'Rivals' the
+last time he came round. There used to be a stock company at the
+Metropolitan about war-time that beat any of these new actor folks. I'd
+rather see a good circus any time than one of these singing pieces.
+Sassafras tea and a circus every spring; I always take both."
+
+Sylvia found these views on the drama wholly edifying. Circuses and
+sassafras tea were within the range of her experience, and finding that
+she had struck a point of contact, Mrs. Owen expressed her pity for any
+child that did not enjoy a round of sassafras tea every spring.
+Sassafras in the spring, and a few doses of quinine in the fall, to
+eliminate the summer's possible accumulation of malaria, were all the
+medicine that any good Hoosier needed, Mrs. Owen averred.
+
+"I'm for all this new science, you understand that," Mrs. Owen
+continued. "A good deal of it does seem to me mighty funny, but when
+they tell me to boil drinking-water to kill the bugs in it, and show me
+pictures of the bugs they take with the microscope, I don't snort just
+because my grandfather didn't know about those things and lived to be
+eighty-two and then died from being kicked by a colt. I go into the
+kitchen and I say to Eliza, 'Bile the water, Liza; bile it twice.'
+That's the kind of a new woman I am. But let's see; we were speaking of
+Marian."
+
+"I liked her very much; she's very nice and ever so interesting," said
+Sylvia.
+
+"Bless you, she's nice enough and pretty enough; but about this college
+business. I always say that if it ain't in a colt the trainer can't put
+it there. My niece--that's Mrs. Bassett, Marian's mother--wants Marian
+to be an intellectual woman,--the kind that reads papers on the poets
+before literary clubs. Mrs. Bassett runs a woman's club in Fraserville
+and she's one of the lights in the Federation. They got me up to
+Fraserville to speak to their club a few years ago. It's one of these
+solemn clubs women have; awful literary and never get nearer home than
+Doctor Johnson, who was nothing but a fat loafer anyhow. I told 'em
+they'd better let me off; but they would have it and so I went up and
+talked on ensilage. It was fall and I thought ensilage was seasonable
+and they ought to know about it if they didn't. And they didn't, all
+right."
+
+Sylvia had been staring straight ahead across the backs of the team; she
+was conscious suddenly that Mrs. Owen was looking at her fixedly, with
+mirth kindling in her shrewd old eyes. Sylvia had no idea what ensilage
+was, but she knew it must be something amusing or Mrs. Owen would not
+have laughed so heartily.
+
+"It was a good joke, wasn't it--talking to a literary club about silos.
+I told 'em I'd come back and read my little piece on 'Winter Feeding,'
+but they haven't called me yet."
+
+They had driven across to Meridian Street, and Mrs. Owen sent the horses
+into town at a comfortable trot. They traversed the new residential area
+characterized by larger grounds and a higher average of architecture.
+
+"That's Edward Thatcher's new house--the biggest one. They say it's
+easier to pay for a castle like that out here than it is to keep a cook
+so far away from Washington Street. I let go of ten acres right here in
+the eighties; we used to think the town would stop at the creek," Mrs.
+Owen explained, and then announced the dictum: "Keep land; mortgage if
+you got to, but never sell; that's my motto."
+
+It was nearly six when they reached home, and dinner was appointed for
+seven. Mrs. Owen drove directly into the barn and gave minute
+instructions as to the rubbing-down and feeding of the horses. In
+addressing the negroes she imitated their own manner of speech. Sylvia
+had noticed that Mrs. Owen did not always pronounce words in the same
+way, but such variations are marked among our Southwestern people,
+particularly where, as in Mrs. Owen's case, they have lived on both
+sides of the Ohio River. Sometimes she said "hoss," unmistakably; and
+here, and again when she said "bile" for "boil," it was obviously with
+humorous intention. Except in long speeches she did not drawl; at times
+she spoke rapidly, snapping off sentences abruptly. Her fashion of
+referring to herself in the third person struck Sylvia as most amusing.
+
+"Look here, you Joe, it's a nice way to treat yo' Mis' Sally, turning
+out that wagon with the dash all scratched. Don' you think I'm blind
+and can't tell when you boys dig a broom into a varnished buggy! Next
+time I catch yo' doing that I'll send you down to Greene County to plow
+co'n and yo'll not go to any more fancy hoss shows with me."
+
+As she followed Mrs. Owen into the house Sylvia thought she heard
+suppressed guffawing in the stable. Mrs. Owen must have heard it too.
+
+"A worthless lot," she muttered; "I'm going to clean 'em all out some
+day and try the Irish"; but Mrs. Sally Owen had often made this threat
+without having the slightest intention of carrying it into effect.
+
+Professor Kelton had just reached the house, and he seemed so hot and
+tired that Sylvia was struck with pity for him. He insisted, however,
+that he was perfectly well, but admitted that his errands had proved to
+be more vexatious than he had expected.
+
+"What kind of a time have you been having?" he asked as they went
+upstairs together.
+
+"Oh, the finest in the world! I'm sure I've learned a lot to-day--a
+great many things I never dreamed about before."
+
+"Horses?"
+
+"I never knew before that there was anything to know about horses; but
+Mrs. Owen knows all about them. And that team we drove behind is
+wonderful; they move together perfectly and go like lightning when you
+want them to."
+
+"Well, I'm glad you've enjoyed yourself. You'd better put on your white
+dress,--you brought one, didn't you? There will be company at dinner."
+
+"Don't you scare that child about company, Andrew," said Mrs. Owen,
+coming up behind them with the linen duster flung over her arm. "If you
+haven't any white dress, Sylvia, that blue one's perfectly good and
+proper."
+
+She followed Sylvia to her room, continuing to reassure her. She even
+shook out the gown, exclaiming, "Well, well" (Sylvia didn't know why),
+and went out abruptly, instructing Sylvia to ring for the maid if she
+needed help.
+
+There were three other guests for dinner, and they were unlike any other
+people that Sylvia had known. She was introduced first to Admiral
+Martin, a retired officer of the Navy, who, having remained in the
+service of his country to the retiring age, had just come home to live
+in the capital of his native state. He was short and thick and talked in
+a deep, growling voice exactly as admirals should. The suns and winds of
+many seas had burned and scored his face, and a stubby mustache gave him
+a belligerent aspect. He mopped his brow with a tremendous handkerchief
+and when Mrs. Owen introduced Sylvia as Professor Kelton's granddaughter
+he glared fiercely.
+
+"Well, I declare, Andy, your granddaughter; well, I declare." He held
+Sylvia's hand a moment and peered into her face. "I remember your mother
+very well. Andy, I recall distinctly that you and your wife were at Old
+Point in about the winter of '69 and your daughter was with you. So this
+is your granddaughter? Well, I declare; I wish she was mine."
+
+"I'm glad to see you, Sylvia," said Mrs. Martin, a shy, white-haired
+little woman. "I remember that winter at Old Point. I was waiting for my
+husband there. You look like your mother. It's really a very striking
+resemblance. We were all so fond of Edna."
+
+This was the first time that any one except her grandfather had ever
+spoken to Sylvia of her mother, and the words of these strangers
+thrilled her strangely and caused the tears to shine suddenly in her
+eyes. It was all over in a moment, for Mrs. Martin, seeing Sylvia's
+trembling lips, changed the subject quickly.
+
+The last guest was just entering,--a tall trapper-like man who crossed
+the room to Mrs. Owen with a long, curious stride. He had shaken hands
+with Professor Kelton, and Mrs. Owen introduced him to the Martins, who
+by reason of their long absences had never met him before.
+
+"Mr. Ware, this is Sylvia Garrison," said Mrs. Owen.
+
+Sylvia was given then as later to quick appraisements, and she liked the
+Reverend John Ware on the instant. He did not look or act or talk in the
+least like a minister. He was very dark, and his mustache was only
+faintly sprinkled with gray. His hair still showed black at a distance,
+though he was sixty-five. He had been, sometime earlier, the pastor of
+the First Congregational Church, but after a sojourn in other fields had
+retired to live among his old parishioners in the city which had loved
+him best. It had been said of him in the days of his pastorate that he
+drew the largest congregations and the smallest collections of any
+preacher the community had ever known. But Ware was curiously unmindful
+of criticism. He had fished and hunted, he had preached charity and
+kindness, and when there was an unknown tramp to bury or some
+unfortunate girl had yielded to despair, he had officiated at the
+funeral, and, if need be, ridden to the cemetery on the hearse.
+
+"I'm Mrs. Owen's neighbor, you know," he explained to Sylvia. "My family
+have gone for the summer; I'm hanging on here till my Indian sends me a
+postal that the fishing is right on the Nipigon. Nothing like getting
+off the train somewhere and being met by an Indian with a paddle on his
+shoulder. You can learn a lot from an Indian."
+
+There were candles and flowers on the round table, and the dishes and
+silver were Mrs. Owen's "company best," which was very good indeed. The
+admiral and Professor Kelton sat at Mrs. Owen's right and left, and
+Sylvia found herself between the minister and the admiral. The talk was
+at once brisk and general. The admiral's voice boomed out tremendously
+and when he laughed the glasses jingled. Every one was in the best of
+spirits and Sylvia was relieved to find that her grandfather was
+enjoying himself immensely. The admiral's jokes harked back to old
+times, when he and Kelton were at the Naval Academy, or to their
+adventures in the war. It was odd to hear Mrs. Owen and the admiral
+calling her grandfather "Andrew" and "Andy"; no one else had ever done
+that; and both men addressed Mrs. Owen as "Sally." At a moment when
+Sylvia had begun to feel the least bit awkward at being the only silent
+member of the company, the minister spoke to her. He had seemed at first
+glance a stoical person; but his deep-set, brown eyes were bright with
+good humor.
+
+"These old sea dogs made a lot of history. I suppose you know a good
+deal about the sea from your grandfather."
+
+"Yes; but I've never seen the sea."
+
+"I've crossed it once or twice and tramped England and Scotland. I
+wanted to see Burns's country and the house at Chelsea where Carlyle
+smoked his pipe. But I like our home folks best."
+
+"Mr. Ware," growled the admiral, "a man told me the other day that you'd
+served in the Army. I wish I'd had a chaplain like you in the Navy; I
+might have been a different man."
+
+Mrs. Owen glanced at Ware with a twinkle in her eyes.
+
+"Afraid I'm going to be discovered," he remarked to Sylvia as he
+buttered a bit of bread.
+
+"Well, what part of the Army did you serve in?" demanded the admiral.
+
+"Captain, Fifth New York Cavalry," replied the minister quietly,
+shrugging his shoulders.
+
+"Captain! You were a fighting man?" the admiral boomed.
+
+"Sort of one. We had a good deal of fun one way or another. Four years
+of it. Didn't begin fighting the Devil till afterward. How are things at
+the college, Doctor Kelton?"
+
+Ware thus characteristically turned the conversation from himself. It
+was evident that he did not care to discuss his military experiences; in
+a moment they were talking politics, in which he seemed greatly
+interested.
+
+"We've kept bosses out of this state pretty well," Professor Kelton was
+saying, "but I can see one or two gentlemen on both sides of the fence
+trying to play that game. I don't believe the people of Indiana will
+submit to it. The bosses need big cities to prey on and we aren't big
+enough for them to work in and hide in. We all live in the open and
+we're mostly seasoned American stock who won't be driven like a lot of
+foreign cattle. This city isn't a country town any longer, but it's
+still American. I don't know of any boss here."
+
+"Well, Sally, how about Mort Bassett?" asked the admiral. "I hope you
+don't mind my speaking of him."
+
+"Not in the slightest," Mrs. Owen replied. "The fact that Morton Bassett
+married my niece doesn't make it necessary for me to approve of all he
+does--and I don't. When I get a chance I give him the best licks I can.
+He's a Democrat, but I'm not; neither am I a Republican. They're all
+just as crooked as a dog's hind leg. I gave up when they beat Tilden out
+of the presidency. Why, if I'd been Samuel Tilden I'd have moved into
+the White House and dared 'em to throw me out. The Democratic Party
+never did have any gumption!" she concluded vigorously.
+
+"A sound idea, Sally," grumbled the admiral, "but it's not new."
+
+"Bassett isn't a bad fellow," remarked Ware. "You can hardly call him a
+boss in the usual sense of the term."
+
+"Personally, he's certainly very agreeable," said Mrs. Martin. "You
+remember, Mrs. Owen, I visited your niece the last time I was home and
+I never saw a man more devoted to his family than Mr. Bassett."
+
+"There's no complaint about that," Mrs. Owen assented. "And Morton's a
+very intelligent man, too; you might even call him a student. I've been
+sorry that he didn't keep to the law; but he's a moneymaker, and he's in
+politics as a part of his business."
+
+"I've wondered," said Professor Kelton, "just what he's aiming at. Most
+of these men are ambitious to go high. He's a state senator, but there's
+not much in that. He must see bigger game in the future. I don't know
+him myself; but from what you hear of him he must be a man of force.
+Weak men don't dominate political parties."
+
+"This political game looks mighty queer to me," the admiral remarked.
+"I've never voted in my life, but I guess I'll try it now they've put me
+on the shelf. Do you vote, Mr. Ware?"
+
+"Oh, yes! I'm one of these sentimentalists who tries to vote for the
+best man. Naturally no man I ever vote for is elected."
+
+"If I voted I should want to see the man first," Mrs. Owen averred. "I
+should ask him how much he expected to make out of the job."
+
+"You'd be a tartar in politics, Sally," said the admiral. "The Governor
+told me the other day that when he hears that you're coming to the State
+House to talk about the Woman's Reformatory,--or whatever it is you're
+trustee of,--he crawls under the table. He says they were going to cut
+down the Reformatory's appropriation last winter, but that you went to
+the legislature and gave an example of lobbying that made the tough old
+railroad campaigners green with envy."
+
+"I reckon I did! I told the members of that committee that if they cut
+that appropriation I'd go into their counties and spend every cent I've
+got fighting 'em if they ever ran for office again. Joshua, fill the
+glasses."
+
+Sylvia was anxious to know the rest of the story.
+
+"I hope they gave you the money, Mrs. Owen," she said.
+
+Did they give it to me? Why, child, they raised it twenty thousand
+dollars! I had to hold 'em down. Then Morton Bassett pulled it through
+the senate for me. I told him if he didn't I'd cut his acquaintance."
+
+"There's Ed Thatcher, too, if we're restricted to the Democratic camp,"
+the minister was saying. "Thatcher has a fortune to use if he ever wants
+to try for something big in politics, which doesn't seem likely."
+
+"He has a family that can spend his money," said Mrs. Martin. "What
+would he want with an office anyway? The governorship would bore him to
+death."
+
+"It might tickle him to go to the senate, particularly if he had a score
+to clean up in connection with it," remarked Ware.
+
+"Just what do you mean by that?" asked the admiral.
+
+"Well," Ware replied, "he and Bassett are as thick as thieves just now
+in business operations. If some day it came about that they didn't get
+on so well,--if Bassett tried to drop him as they say he has sometimes
+dropped men when he didn't have any more use for them,--then Thatcher's
+sporting blood might assert itself. I should be sorry for Bassett if
+that time came."
+
+"Edward Thatcher knows a horse," interposed Mrs. Owen. "I like Edward
+Thatcher."
+
+"I've fished with Bassett," said the minister. "A good fisherman ought
+to make a good politician; there's a lot, I guess, in knowing just how
+to bait the hook, or where to drop the fly, and how to play your fish.
+And Bassett is a man of surprising tastes. He's a book collector,--rare
+editions and fine bindings and that sort of thing."
+
+"Is it possible! The newspapers that abuse him never mention those
+things, of course," said Mrs. Martin.
+
+A brief restraint fell upon the company, as they realized suddenly that
+they were discussing the husband of their hostess's niece, whom the
+opposition press declared to be the most vicious character that had ever
+appeared in the public life of the state. The minister had spoken well
+of him; the others did not know him, or spoke cautiously; and Mrs. Owen
+herself seemed, during Ware's last speech, to be a trifle restless. She
+addressed some irrelevant remark to the admiral as they rose and
+adjourned to the long side veranda where the men lighted cigars.
+
+"I think I like this corner best," remarked Ware when the others had
+disposed themselves. "Miss Sylvia, won't you sit by me?" She watched his
+face as the match flamed to his cigar. It was deep-lined and rugged,
+with high cheek bones, that showed plainly when he shut his jaws. It
+occurred to Sylvia that but for his mustache his face would have been
+almost typically Indian. She had seen somewhere a photograph of a Sioux
+chief whose austere countenance was very like the minister's. Ware did
+not fit into any of her preconceived ideas of the clerical office. Dr.
+Wandless, the retired president of Madison College, was a minister, and
+any one would have known it, for the fact was proclaimed by his dress
+and manner; he might, in the most casual meeting on the campus, have
+raised his hands in benediction without doing anything at all
+extraordinary. Ware belonged to a strikingly different order, and Sylvia
+did not understand him. He had been a soldier; and Sylvia could not
+imagine Dr. Wandless in a cavalry charge. Ware flung the match-stick
+away and settled himself comfortably into his chair. The others were
+talking amongst themselves of old times, and Sylvia experienced a sense
+of ease and security in the minister's company.
+
+"Those people across there are talking of the Hoosiers that used to be,
+and about the good folks who came into the wilderness and made Indiana a
+commonwealth. I'm a pilgrim and a stranger comparatively speaking. I'm
+not a Hoosier; are you?"
+
+"No, Mr. Ware; I was born in New York City."
+
+"Ho! I might have known there was some sort of tie between us. I was
+born in New York myself--'way up in the Adirondack country. You've heard
+of Old John Brown? My father's farm was only an hour's march from
+Brown's place. I used to see the old man, and it wasn't my fault I
+wasn't mixed up in some of his scrapes. Father caught me and took me
+home--didn't see any reason why I should go off and get killed with a
+crazy man. Didn't know Brown was going to be immortal."
+
+"There must have been a good many people that didn't know it," Sylvia
+responded.
+
+She hoped that Ware would talk of himself and of the war; but in a
+moment his thoughts took a new direction.
+
+"Stars are fine to-night. It's a comfort to know they're up there all
+the time. Know Matthew Arnold's poems? He says 'With joy the stars
+perform their shining.' I like that. When I'm off camping the best fun
+of it is lying by running water at night and looking at the stars. Odd,
+though, I never knew the names of many of them; wouldn't know any if it
+weren't for the dippers,--not sure of them as it is. There's the North
+Star over there. Suppose your grandfather knows 'em all."
+
+"I think he does," replied Sylvia. "He still lectures about them
+sometimes."
+
+"Wonder what that is, just across the farthest tip of that maple? It's
+familiar, but I can't name it."
+
+"That," said Sylvia, "is Cassiopeia."
+
+"So? How many constellations do you know?"
+
+Sylvia was silent a moment. She was not sure that it was polite to
+disclose her knowledge of the subject to a man who had just confessed
+his ignorance. She decided that anything beyond the most modest
+admission would be unbecoming.
+
+"I know several, or I think I do. This is June. That's the North Star
+over the point of that tree, as you said, and above it is Ursa Minor,
+and winding in and out between it and the Big Dipper is Draco. Then to
+the east, higher up, are Cygnus, Lyra, and Aquila. And in the west--"
+
+She paused, feeling that she had satisfied the amenities of conversation
+with this gentleman who had so frankly stated his lack of knowledge.
+
+Ware struck his knee with his hand and chuckled.
+
+"I should say you do know a few! You've mentioned some I've always
+wanted to get acquainted with. Now go back to Cygnus, the Swan. I like
+the name of that one; I must be sure to remember it."
+
+Politeness certainly demanded that Sylvia should answer; and now that
+the minister plied her with questions, her own interest was aroused, and
+she led him back and forth across the starry lanes, describing in the
+most artless fashion her own method of remembering the names and
+positions of the constellations. As their range of vision on the veranda
+was circumscribed, Ware suggested that they step down upon the lawn to
+get a wider sweep, a move which attracted the attention of the others.
+
+"Sylvia, be careful of the wet. Josephus just moved the sprinkler and
+that ground is soaked."
+
+"Don't call attention to our feet; our heads are in the stars," answered
+Ware. "I must tell the Indian boys on the Nipigon about this," he said
+to Sylvia as they returned to the veranda. "I didn't know anybody knew
+as much as you do. You make me ashamed of myself."
+
+"You needn't be," laughed Sylvia. "Very likely most that I've told you
+is wrong. I'm glad grandfather didn't hear me."
+
+The admiral and Professor Kelton were launched upon a fresh exchange of
+reminiscences and the return of Ware and Sylvia did not disturb them. It
+seemed, however, that Ware was a famous story-teller, and when he had
+lighted a fresh cigar he recounted a number of adventures, speaking in
+his habitual, dry, matter-of-fact tone, and with curious unexpected
+turns of phrase. Conversation in Indiana seems to drift into
+story-telling inevitably. John Ware once read a paper before the
+Indianapolis Literary Club to prove that this Hoosier trait was derived
+from the South. He drew a species of ellipsoid of which the Ohio River
+was the axis, sketching his line to include the Missouri of Mark Twain,
+the Illinois of Lincoln, the Indiana of Eggleston and Riley, and the
+Kentucky that so generously endowed these younger commonwealths. North
+of the Ohio the anecdotal genius diminished, he declared, as one moved
+toward the Great Lakes into a region where there had been an infusion of
+population from New England and the Middle States. He suggested that the
+early pioneers, having few books and no newspapers, had cultivated the
+art of story-telling for their own entertainment and that the soldiers
+returning from the Civil War had developed it further. Having made this
+note of his thesis I hasten to run away from it. Let others, prone to
+interminable debate, tear it to pieces if they must. This kind of social
+intercourse, with its intimate talk, the references to famous public
+characters, as though they were only human beings after all, the
+anecdotal interchange, was wholly novel to Sylvia. She thought Ware's
+stories much droller than the admiral's, and quite as good as her
+grandfather's, which was a great concession.
+
+The minister was beginning a new story. He knocked the ashes from his
+cigar and threw out his arms with one of his odd, jerky gestures.
+
+"There's a good deal of fun in living in the woods. Up in the
+Adirondacks there was a lot for the boys to do when I was a youngster. I
+liked winter better than summer; school was in winter, but when you had
+the fun of fighting big drifts to get to it you didn't mind getting
+licked after you got there. The silence of night in the woods, when the
+snow is deep, the wind still, and the moon at full, is the solemnest
+thing in the world. Not really of this world, I guess. Sometimes you can
+hear a bough break under the weight of snow, with a report like a
+cannon. The only thing finer than winter is spring. I don't mean lilac
+time; but before that, the very earliest hint of the break-up. Used to
+seem that there was something wild in me that wanted to be on the march
+before there was a bud in sight. I'm a Northern animal some way; born in
+December; always feel better in winter. I used to watch for the
+northward flight of the game fowl--wanted to go with the birds. Too bad
+they're killing them all off. Wild geese are getting mighty scarce;
+geese always interested me. I once shot a gander in a Kankakee marsh
+that had an Eskimo arrow in its breast. A friend of mine, distinguished
+ethnologist, verified that; said he knew the tribe that made arrows of
+that pattern. But I was going to say that one night,--must have been
+when I was fourteen,--I had some fun with a bear . . ."
+
+Sylvia did not hear the rest of the story. She had been sitting in the
+shadow of the porch, with her lips apart, listening, wondering, during
+this prelude. Ware's references to the North woods had touched lightly
+some dim memory of her own; somewhere she had seen moon-flooded, snowy
+woodlands where silence lay upon the world as soft as moonlight itself.
+The picture drawn by the minister had been vivid enough; for a moment
+her own memory of a similar winter landscape seemed equally clear; but
+she realized with impatience that it faded quickly and became dim and
+illusory, like a scene in an ill-lighted steropticon. To-night she felt
+that a barrier lay between her and those years of her life that
+antedated her coming to her grandfather's house by the college. It
+troubled her, as such mirages of memory trouble all of us; but Ware
+finished his story, and amid the laughter that followed Mrs. Martin
+rose.
+
+"Late hours, Sylvia," said Professor Kelton when they were alone. "It's
+nearly eleven o'clock and time to turn in."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+WE LEARN MORE OF SYLVIA
+
+
+Andrew Kelton put out his hand to say good-night a moment after Sylvia
+had vanished.
+
+"Sit down, Andrew," said Mrs. Owen. "It's too early to go to bed. That
+draft's not good for the back of your head. Sit over here."
+
+He had relaxed after the departure of the dinner guests and looked tired
+and discouraged. Mrs. Owen brought a bottle of whiskey and a pitcher of
+water and placed them near his elbow.
+
+"Try it, Andrew. I usually take a thimbleful myself before going to
+bed."
+
+The novelty of this sort of ministration was in itself sufficient to
+lift a weary and discouraged spirit. Mrs. Owen measured his whiskey, and
+poured it into a tall glass, explaining as she did so that a friend of
+hers in Louisville kept her supplied out of the stores of the Pendennis
+Club.
+
+"It's off the wood. This bottled drug-store whiskey is poison. I'd just
+as lief take paregoric. I drew this from my own 'bar'l' this morning.
+Don't imagine I'm a heavy consumer. A 'bar'l' lasts me a long time. I
+divide it around among my friends. Remind me to give you some to take
+home. Try one of those cigars; John Ware keeps a box here. If they're
+cabbage leaf it isn't my fault."
+
+"No, thanks, Sally. You're altogether too kind to me. It's mighty good
+to be here, I can tell you."
+
+"Now that you are here, Andrew, I want you to remember that I'm getting
+on and you're just a trifle ahead of me on the dusty pike that has no
+turning."
+
+"I wish I had your eternal youth, Sally. I feel about ninety-nine
+to-night."
+
+"That's the reason I'm keeping you up. You came here to talk about
+something that's on your mind, and the sooner it's over the better. No
+use in your lying awake all night."
+
+Professor Kelton played with his glass and moved uneasily in his chair.
+
+"Come right out with it, Andrew. If it's money that worries you, don't
+waste any time explaining how it happened; just tell me how much. I had
+my bank book balanced yesterday and I've got exactly twelve thousand
+four hundred and eighteen dollars and eleven cents down at Tom Adams's
+bank. If you can use it you're welcome; if it ain't enough I'm about to
+sell a bunch o' colts I've got on my Lexington place and they're good
+for six thousand more. I can close the trade by a night telegram right
+now."
+
+Kelton laughed. The sums she named so lightly represented wealth beyond
+the dreams of avarice. It afforded him infinite relief to be able to
+talk to her, and though he had come to the city for the purpose, his
+adventures of the day with banks and trust companies had given a new
+direction to his needs. But the habit of secrecy, of fighting out his
+battles alone, was so thoroughly established that he found it difficult
+to enter into confidences even when this kind-hearted friend made the
+way easy for him.
+
+"Come, out with it, Andrew. You're the only person I know who's never
+come to me with troubles. I'd begun to think you were among the lucky
+ones who never have any or else you were afraid of me."
+
+"It's not fair to trouble you about this, but I'm in a corner where I
+need help. When I asked you to let me bring Sylvia here I merely wanted
+you to look her over. She's got to an age where I can't trust my
+judgment about her. I had a plan for her that I thought I could put
+through without much trouble, but I found out to-day that it isn't so
+easy. I wanted to send her to college."
+
+"You want to send her to college and you thought you would come over and
+let me give her a little motherly counsel while you borrowed the money
+of Tom Adams to pay her college bills. Is that what's happened?"
+
+"Just about that, Sally. Adams is all right; he has to protect the
+bank."
+
+"Adams is a doddering imbecile. How much did you ask him for?"
+
+"Five thousand dollars. I offered to put up my life insurance policy for
+that amount and some stock I own. He said money was tight just now and
+they'd want a good name on the paper besides the collateral, and that
+I'd better try my home bank. I didn't do that, of course, because
+Montgomery is a small town and--well, I'd rather not advertise my
+affairs to a whole community. I'm not a business man and these things
+all seem terribly complicated and embarrassing to me."
+
+"But you tried other places besides Adams? I saw it in your eye when you
+came home this evening that you had struck a snag. Well, well! So money
+is tight, is it? I must speak to Tom Adams about that. He told me
+yesterday they had more money than they could lend and that the banks
+were cutting down their dividends. He's no banker; he ought to be in the
+old-clothes business."
+
+"I can't blame him. I suppose my not being in business, and not living
+here, makes a difference."
+
+"Rubbish! But you ought to have come to me. You spoke of stock; what's
+that in?"
+
+"Shares in the White River Canneries. I put all I had in that company.
+Everybody seemed to make money in the canning business and I thought it
+would be a good investment. It promised well in the prospectus."
+
+"It always does, Andrew," replied the old lady dryly. "Let me see,
+Morton Bassett was in that."
+
+"I believe so. He was one of the organizers."
+
+"Um."
+
+"Adams told me to-day there had been a reorganization and that my shares
+were valueless."
+
+"Well, well. So you were one of the suckers that put money into that
+canning scheme. You can charge it off, Andrew. Let's drop the money
+question for a minute, I want to talk about the little girl."
+
+"Yes I'm anxious to know what you think of her"
+
+"Well, she's a Kelton; it's in the eyes; but there's a good deal of her
+Grandmother Evans in her, too. Let me see,--your wife was one of those
+Posey County Evanses? I remember perfectly. The old original Evans came
+to this country with Robert Owen and started in with the New Harmony
+community down there. There was a streak o' genius in that whole set.
+But about Sylvia. I don't think I ever saw Sylvia's mother after she was
+Sylvia's age."
+
+"I don't think you did. She was away at school a good many years. Sylvia
+is the picture of her mother. It's a striking likeness; but their
+natures are wholly different."
+
+He was very grave, and the despondency that he had begun to throw off
+settled upon him again.
+
+"Andrew, who was Sylvia's father? I never asked you that question
+before, and maybe I oughtn't to ask it now; but I've often wondered. Let
+me see, what was your daughter's name?"
+
+"Edna."
+
+"Just what happened to Edna, Andrew?" she persisted.
+
+Kelton rose and paced the floor. Thrice he crossed the room; then he
+flung himself down on the davenport beside Mrs. Owen.
+
+"I don't know, Sally; I don't know! She was high-spirited as a girl, a
+little willful and impulsive, but with the best heart in the world. She
+lost her mother too soon; and in her girlhood we had no home--not even
+the half-homes possible to naval officers. She had a good natural voice
+and wanted to study music, so after we had been settled at Madison
+College a year I left her in New York with a woman I knew pretty
+well--the widow of a brother officer. It was a horrible, terrible,
+hideous mistake. The life of the city went to her head. She wanted to
+fit herself for the stage and they told me she could do it--had the gift
+and all that. I ought never to have left her down there, but what could
+I do? There was nothing in a town like Montgomery for her; she wouldn't
+listen to it."
+
+"You did your best, Andrew; you don't have to prove that to me. Well--"
+
+"Edna ran off--without giving me any hint of what was coming. It was a
+queer business. The woman I had counted on to look out for her and
+protect her seemed utterly astonished at her disappearance and was
+helpless about the whole matter when I went down there. It was my
+fault--all my fault!"
+
+He rose and flung up his arms with a gesture of passionate despair.
+
+"Sit down, Andrew, and let's go through with it," she said calmly. "I
+reckon these things are hard, but it's better for you to tell me. You
+can't tell everybody and somebody ought to know. For the sake of the
+little girl upstairs you'd better tell me."
+
+"What I've said to you I've never said to a soul," he went on. "I've
+carried this thing all these years and have never mentioned it. My
+friends at the college are the noblest people on earth; they have never
+asked questions, but they must have wondered."
+
+"Yes; and I've wondered, too, since the first time you came here and
+told me you had brought your daughter's child home. It's perfectly
+natural, Andrew, for folks to wonder. Go on and tell me the rest."
+
+"The rest!" he cried. "Oh, that's the hardest part of it! I have told
+you all I know! She wrote me after a time that she was married and was
+happy, but she didn't explain her conduct in any way. She signed herself
+Garrison, but begged me not to try to find her. She said her husband
+wasn't quite prepared to disclose his marriage to his family, but that
+it would all be right soon. The woman with whom I had left her couldn't
+help me to identify him in any way; at least she didn't help me. There
+had been a number of young men boarding in the neighborhood--medical and
+law students; but there was no Garrison among them. It was in June that
+this happened, and when I went down to try to trace her they had all
+gone. I was never quite sure whether the woman dealt squarely with me or
+not. But it was my fault, Sally; I want you to know that I have no
+excuse to offer. I don't want you to try to say anything that would make
+my lot easier."
+
+It was not Sally Owen's way to extenuate errors of commission or
+omission. Her mental processes were always singularly direct.
+
+"Are you sure she was married; did you find any proof of it?" she asked
+bluntly.
+
+He was silent for a moment before he met her eyes.
+
+"I have no proof of it. All I have is Edna's assurance in a letter."
+
+Their gaze held while they read each other's thoughts. She made no
+comment; there was nothing to say to this, nor did she show surprise or
+repugnance at the dark shadow his answer had flung across the meagre
+picture.
+
+"And Garrison--who was he?"
+
+"I don't know even that! From all I could learn I think it likely he was
+a student in one of the professional schools; but whether law or
+medicine, art or music--I couldn't determine. The whole colony of
+students had scattered to the four winds. Probably Garrison was not his
+real name; but that is wholly an assumption."
+
+"It's clear enough that whoever the man was, and whether it was straight
+or not, Edna felt bound to shield him. That's just like us fool women.
+How did Sylvia come to your hands?"
+
+"There was nothing in that to help. About four years had passed since I
+lost track of her and I had traveled all over the East and followed
+every clue in vain. I spent two summers in New York walking the streets
+in the blind hope that I might meet her. Then, one day,--this was twelve
+years ago,--I had a telegram from the superintendent of a public
+hospital at Utica that Edna was there very ill. She died before I got
+there. Just how she came to be in that particular place I have no idea.
+The hospital authorities knew nothing except that she had gone to them,
+apparently from the train, seriously ill. The little girl was with her.
+She asked them to send for me, but told them nothing of herself. She had
+only hand baggage and it told us nothing as to her home if she had one,
+or where she was going. Her clothing, the nurse pointed out, was of a
+style several years old, but it was clean and neat. Most surprising of
+all, she had with her several hundred dollars; but there was nothing
+whatever by which to reconstruct her life in those blank years."
+
+"But she wrote to you--the letters would have given a clue of some
+kind?"
+
+"The few letters she wrote me were the most fragmentary and all in the
+first year; they were like her, poor child; her letters were always the
+merest scraps. In all of them she said she would come home in due
+course; that some of her husband's affairs had to be straightened out
+first, and that she was perfectly happy. They were traveling about, she
+said, and she asked me not to try to write to her. The first letters
+came from Canada--Montreal and Quebec; then one from Albany; then even
+these messages ceased and I heard no more until the telegram called me
+to Utica. She had never mentioned the birth of the child. I don't
+know--I don't even know where Sylvia was born, or her exact age. The
+nurse at the hospital said Edna called the child Sylvia."
+
+"I overheard Sylvia telling Ware to-night that she was born in New York.
+Could it be possible--"
+
+"No; she knows nothing. You must remember that she was only three. When
+she began to ask me when her birthday came--well, Sally, I felt that I'd
+better give her one; and I told her, too, that she was born in New York
+City. You understand--?"
+
+"Of course, Andrew. You did perfectly right. She's likely to ask a good
+many questions now that she's growing up."
+
+"Oh," he cried despairingly, "she's already asked them! It's a
+heartbreaking business, I tell you. Many a time when she's piped up in
+our walks or at the table with some question about her father and mother
+I've ignored it or feigned not to hear; but within the past year or two
+I've had to fashion a background for her. I've surrounded her origin and
+antecedents with a whole tissue of lies. But, Sally, it must have been
+all right--I had Edna's own word for it!" he pleaded brokenly. "It must
+have been all right!"
+
+"Well, what if it wasn't! Does it make any difference about the girl?
+All this mystery is a good thing; the denser the better maybe, as long
+as there's any doubt at all. Your good name protects her; it's a good
+name, Andrew. But go on; you may as well tell me the whole business."
+
+"I've told you all I know; and as I've told it I've realized more than
+before how pitifully little it is."
+
+"Well, there's nothing to do about that. I've never seen any sense in
+worrying over what's done. It's the future you've got to figure on for
+Sylvia. So you think college is a good thing for girls--for a girl like
+Sylvia?"
+
+"Yes; but I want your opinion. You're the only person in the world I can
+talk to; it's helped me more than I can tell you to shift some of this
+burden to you. Maybe it isn't fair; you're a busy woman--"
+
+"I guess I'm not so busy. I've been getting lazy, and needed a hard
+jolt. I've been wondering a good deal about these girls' colleges. Some
+of this new woman business looks awful queer to me, but so did the
+electric light and the telephone a few years ago and I can even remember
+when people were likely to drop dead when they got their first telegram.
+Sylvia isn't"--she hesitated for an instant--"from what you say, Sylvia
+isn't much like her mother?"
+
+"No. Her qualities are wholly different. Edna had a different mind
+altogether. There was nothing of the student about her. The only
+thing that interested her was music, and that came natural to
+her. I've studied Sylvia carefully,--I'm ashamed to confess how
+carefully,--fearing that she would grow to be like her mother; but she's
+another sort, and I doubt if she will change. You can already see the
+woman in her. That child, Sally, has in her the making of a great woman.
+I've been careful not to crowd her, but she has a wonderful mind,--not
+the brilliant sort that half sees things in lightning flashes, but a
+vigorous mind, that can grapple with a problem and fight it out. I'm
+afraid to tell you how remarkable I think she is. No; poor Edna was not
+like that. She hated study."
+
+"Sylvia's very quiet, but I reckon she takes everything in. It's in her
+eyes that she's different. And I guess that quietness means she's got
+power locked up in her. Children do show it. Now Marian, my grandniece,
+is a different sort. She's a forthputting youngster that's going to be
+hard to break to harness. She looks pretty, grazing in the pasture and
+kicking up her heels, but I don't see what class she's going to fit
+into. Now, Hallie,--my niece, Mrs. Bassett,--she's one of these club
+fussers,--always studying poetry and reading papers and coming up to
+town to state conventions or federations and speaking pieces in a new
+hat. Hallie's smart at it. She was president of the Daughters once, by
+way of showing that our folks in North Carolina fought in the
+Revolution, which I reckon they did; though I never saw where Hallie
+proved it; but the speech I heard her make at the Propylaeum wouldn't
+have jarred things much if it hadn't been for Hallie's feathers. She
+likes her clothes--she always had 'em, you know. My brother Blackford
+left her a very nice fortune; and Morton Bassett makes money. Well, as I
+started to say, there's all kinds of women,--the old ones like me that
+never went to school much, and Hallie's kind, that sort o' walked
+through the orchard and picked the nearest peaches, and then starts in
+at thirty to take courses in Italian Art, and Marian, who gives her
+teachers nervous prostration, and Sylvia, who takes to books naturally."
+
+"There are all kinds of girls, just as there are all kinds of boys. Good
+students, real scholars have always been rare in the world--men and
+women. I should like to see Sylvia go high and far; I should like her to
+have every chance."
+
+"All right, Andrew; let's do it. How much does a college course cost for
+a girl?"
+
+"I didn't come here to interest you in the money side of it, Sally; I
+expected--"
+
+"Answer my question, Andrew."
+
+"I had expected to give her a four-year course for five thousand
+dollars. The actual tuition isn't so much; it's railroad fare, clothing,
+and other expenses."
+
+Mrs. Owen turned towards Kelton with a smile on her kind, shrewd face.
+
+"Andrew, just to please me, I want you to let me be partners with you in
+this. What you've told me and what I've seen of that little girl have
+clinched me pretty strong. I wish she was mine! My little Elizabeth
+would be a grown woman if she'd lived; and because of her I like to help
+other people's little girls; you know I helped start Elizabeth House, a
+home for working girls--and I'm getting my money back on that a thousand
+times over. It's a pretty state of things if an old woman like me,
+without a chick of my own, and with no sense but horse sense, can't back
+a likely filly like your Sylvia. I want you to let me call her our
+Sylvia. We'll train her in all the paces, Andrew, and I hope one of us
+will live to see her strike the home stretch. Come into my office a
+minute," she said, rising and leading the way.
+
+The appointments of her "office" were plain and substantial. A
+flat-topped desk stood in the middle of the room--a relic of the
+lamented Jackson Owen; in one corner was an old-fashioned iron safe in
+which she kept her account books. A print of Maud S. adorned one wall,
+and facing it across the room hung a lithograph of Thomas A. Hendricks.
+Twice a week a young woman came to assist Mrs. Owen with her
+correspondence and accounts,--a concession to age, for until she was
+well along in the fifties Sally Owen had managed these things alone.
+
+"You've seen my picture-gallery before, Andrew? Small but select. I knew
+both the lady and the gentleman," she continued, with one of her
+humorous flashes. "I went to Cleveland in '85 to see Maud S. She ate up
+a mile in 2:08-3/4--the prettiest thing I ever saw. You know Bonner
+bought her as a four-year-old--the same Bonner that owned the 'New York
+Ledger.' I used to read the 'Ledger' clear through, when Henry Ward
+Beecher and Fanny Fern wrote for it. None of these new magazines touch
+it. And you knew Tom Hendricks? That's a good picture. Tom looked like a
+statesman anyhow, and that's more than most of 'em do."
+
+She continued her efforts to divert his thoughts from the real matter at
+hand, summoning from the shadows all the Hoosier statesmen of the
+post-bellum period to aid her, and she purposely declared her admiration
+of several of these to provoke Kelton's ire.
+
+"That's right, Andrew; jump on 'em," she laughed, as she drew from the
+desk a check book and began to write. When she had blotted and torn out
+the check she examined it carefully and placed it near him on the edge
+of her desk. "Now, Andrew Kelton, there's a check for six thousand
+dollars; we'll call that our educational fund. You furnish the girl; I
+put in the money. I only wish I had the girl to put into the business
+instead of the cash."
+
+"But I don't need the money yet; I shan't need it till fall," he
+protested.
+
+"That's all right. Fall's pretty close and you'll feel better if you
+have it. Now, you may count on more when that's gone if you want it. In
+case anything goes wrong with you or me it'll be fixed. I'll attend to
+it. I look on it as a good investment. Your note? Look here, Andrew
+Kelton, if you mention that life insurance to me again, I'll cut your
+acquaintance. You go to bed; and don't you ever let on to that baby
+upstairs that I have any hand in her schooling." She dropped her check
+book into a drawer and swung round in her swivel chair until she faced
+him. "I don't want to open up that affair of Sylvia's mother again, but
+there's always the possibility that something may happen. You know
+Edna's dead, but there's always a chance that Sylvia's father may turn
+up. It's not likely; but there's no telling about such things; and it
+wouldn't be quite fair for you to leave her unprepared if it should
+happen."
+
+"There's one more circumstance I haven't told you about. It happened
+only a few days ago. It was that, in fact, which crystallized my own
+ideas about Sylvia's education. A letter was sent to me by a stranger,
+offering money for Sylvia's schooling. The whole thing was surrounded
+with the utmost secrecy."
+
+"So? Then some one is watching Sylvia; keeping track of her, and must be
+kindly disposed from that. You never heard anything before?"
+
+"Never. I was asked to send a verbal answer by the messenger who brought
+me the letter, accepting or declining the offer. I declined it."
+
+"That was right. But there's no hiding anything in this world; you must
+have some idea where the offer came from."
+
+"I haven't the slightest, not the remotest idea. The messenger was a
+stranger to me; from what Sylvia said he was a stranger at Montgomery
+and had never seen the college before. Time had begun to soften the
+whole thing, and the knowledge that some one has been watching the child
+all these years troubles me. It roused all my old resentment; I have
+hardly slept since it occurred."
+
+"It's queer; but you'd better try to forget it. Somebody's conscience is
+hurting, I reckon. I wouldn't know how to account for it in any other
+way. If it's a case of conscience, it may have satisfied itself by
+offering money; if it didn't, you or Sylvia may hear from it again."
+
+"It's just that that hurts and worries me,--the possibility that this
+person may trouble Sylvia sometime when I am not here to help her. It's
+an awful thing for a woman to go out into the world followed by a
+shadow. It's so much worse for a woman; women are so helpless."
+
+"Some of us, like me, are pretty tough, too. Sylvia will be able to take
+care of herself; you don't need to worry about her. If that's gnawing
+some man's conscience--and I reckon it is--you can forget all about it.
+A man's conscience--the kind of man that would abandon a woman he had
+married, or maybe hadn't married--ain't going to be a ghost that walks
+often. You'd better go to bed, Andrew."
+
+Kelton lingered to smoke a cigar in the open. He had enjoyed to-night an
+experience that he had not known in years--that of unburdening himself
+to a kindly, sympathetic, and resourceful woman.
+
+While they talked of her, Sylvia sat in her window-seat in the dark
+above looking at the stars. She lingered there until late, enjoying the
+cool air, and unwilling to terminate in sleep so eventful a day. She
+heard presently her grandfather's step below as he "stood watch,"
+marking his brief course across the dim garden by the light of his
+cigar. Sylvia was very happy. She had for a few hours breathed the
+ampler ether of a new world; but she was unconscious in her dreaming
+that her girlhood, that had been as tranquil water safe from current and
+commotion, now felt the outward drawing of the tide.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+INTRODUCING MR. DANIEL HARWOOD
+
+
+On the day following the delivery to Andrew Kelton of the letter in
+which money for Sylvia's education was offered by an unknown person, the
+bearer of the message was to be seen at Indianapolis, in the law office
+of Wright and Fitch, attorneys and counselors at law, on the fourth
+floor of the White River Trust Company's building in Washington Street.
+In that office young Mr. Harwood was one of half a dozen students, who
+ran errands to the courts, kept the accounts, and otherwise made
+themselves useful.
+
+Wright and Fitch was the principal law firm in the state in the period
+under scrutiny, as may readily be proved by an examination of the court
+dockets. The firm's practice was, however, limited. Persons anxious to
+mulct wicked corporations in damages for physical injuries did not
+apply to Wright and Fitch, for the excellent reason that this capable
+firm was retained by most of the public service corporations and had no
+time to waste on the petty and vexatious claims of minor litigants. Mr.
+Wright was a Republican, Mr. Fitch a Democrat, and each of these
+gentlemen occasionally raised his voice loud enough in politics to
+emphasize his party fealty. In the seventies Mr. Wright had served a
+term as city attorney; on the other hand, Mr. Fitch had once declined
+the Italian ambassadorship. Both had been mentioned at different times
+for the governorship or for the United States Senate, and both had
+declined to enter the lists for these offices.
+
+Daniel Harwood had been graduated from Yale University a year before we
+first observed him, and though the world lay before him where to choose,
+he returned to his native state and gave himself to the study of law by
+day and earned a livelihood by serving the "Courier" newspaper by night.
+As Mr. Harwood is to appear frequently in this chronicle, it may be well
+to summarize briefly the facts of his history. He was born on a farm in
+Harrison County, and his aversion to farm life had been colored from
+earliest childhood by the difficulties his father experienced in
+wringing enough money out of eighty acres of land to buy food and
+clothing and to pay taxes and interest on an insatiable mortgage held
+somewhere by a ruthless life insurance company that seemed most
+unreasonably insistent in its collections. Daniel had two older brothers
+who, having satisfied their passion for enlightenment at the nearest
+schoolhouse, meekly enlisted under their father in the task of fighting
+the mortgage. Daniel, with a weaker hand and a better head, and with
+vastly more enterprise, resolved to go to Yale. This seemed the most
+fatuous, the most profane of ambitions. If college at all, why not the
+State University, to support which the Harwood eighty acres were taxed;
+but a college away off in Connecticut! There were no precedents for this
+in Harrison County. No Harwood within the memory of man had ever
+adventured farther into the unknown world than to the State Fair at
+Indianapolis; and when it came to education, both the judge of the
+Harrison County Circuit Court and the presiding elder of the district
+had climbed to fame without other education than that afforded by the
+common schools. Daniel's choice of Yale had been determined by the fact
+that a professor in that institution had once addressed the county
+teachers, and young Harwood had been greatly impressed by him. The Yale
+professor was the first graduate of an Eastern university that Daniel
+had ever seen, and he became the young Hoosier's ideal of elegance and
+learning. Daniel had acquired at this time all that the county school
+offered, and he made bold to approach the visitor and ask his advice as
+to the best means of getting to college.
+
+We need not trace the devious course by which, after much burning of oil
+during half a dozen winters, Dan Harwood attained to a freshman's
+dignity at New Haven, where, arriving with his effects in a canvas
+telescope, he had found a scholarship awaiting him; nor need we do more
+than record the fact that he had cared for furnaces, taken the night
+shift on a trolley car, and otherwise earned money until, in his junior
+year, his income from newspaper correspondence and tutoring made further
+manual labor unnecessary. It is with profound regret that we cannot
+point to Harwood as a football hero or the mainstay of the crew. Having
+ploughed the mortgaged acres, and tossed hay and broken colts, college
+athletics struck him as rather puerile diversion. He would have been
+the least conspicuous man in college if he had not shone in debate and
+gathered up such prizes and honors as were accessible in that field. His
+big booming voice, recognizable above the din in all 'varsity
+demonstrations, earned for him the sobriquet of "Foghorn" Harwood. For
+the rest he studied early and late, and experienced the doubtful glory,
+and accepted meekly the reproach, of being a grind.
+
+History and the dismal science had interested him immensely. His
+assiduous attention to the classes of Professor Sumner had not gone
+unnoticed by that eminent instructor, who once called him by name in
+Chapel Street, much to Dan's edification. He thought well of
+belles-lettres and for a time toyed with an ambition to enrich English
+literature with contributions of his own. During this period he
+contributed to the "Lit" a sonnet called "The Clam-Digger" which
+began:--
+
+     At rosy dawn I see thine argosy;
+
+and which closed with the invocation:--
+
+     Fair tides reward thy long, laborious days.
+
+The sonnet was neatly parodied in the "Record," and that journal printed
+a gratuitous defense of the fisherman at whom, presumably, the poem had
+been directed. "The sonnet discloses nothing," said the "Record," "as to
+the race, color, or previous condition of servitude of the unfortunate
+clammer to justify a son of Eli in attacking a poor man laudably engaged
+in a perfectly honorable calling. The sonneteer, coming, we believe,
+from the unsalt waters of the Wabash, seems to be unaware that the
+fisherman at whom he has leveled his tuneful lyre is not seeking fair
+tides but clams. We therefore suggest that the closing line of the
+sextette be amended to read--
+
+     Fair clams reward thy long, laborious days."
+
+Harwood was liked by his fellow students in the law office. Two
+Yalensians, already established there, made his lot easier, and they
+combined against a lone Harvardian, who bitterly resented Harwood's
+habit of smoking a cob pipe in the library at night. The bouquet of
+Dan's pipe was pretty well dispelled by morning save to the discerning
+nostril of the harvard man, who protested against it, and said the
+offense was indictable at common law. Harwood stood stoutly for his
+rights and privileges, and for Yale democracy, which he declared his
+pipe exemplified. There was much good-natured banter of this sort in the
+office.
+
+Harwood was busy filing papers when Mr. Fitch summoned him to his
+private room on the day indicated. Fitch was short, thin, and bald, with
+a clipped reddish beard, brown eyes, and a turn-up nose. He was
+considered a better lawyer than Wright, who was the orator of the firm,
+and its reliance in dealing with juries. In the preparation of briefs
+and in oral arguments before the Supreme Court, Fitch was the superior.
+His personal peculiarities had greatly Interested Harwood; as, for
+example, Fitch's manner of locking himself in his room for days at a
+time while he was preparing to write a brief, denying himself to all
+visitors, and only occasionally calling for books from the library.
+Then, when he had formulated his ideas, he summoned the stenographer and
+dictated at one sitting a brief that generally proved to be the
+reviewing court's own judgment of the case in hand. Some of Fitch's
+fellow practitioners intimated at times that he was tricky. In
+conferences with opposing counsel, one heard, he required watching, as
+he was wary of committing himself and it was difficult to discover what
+line of reasoning he elected to oppose or defend. In such conferences it
+was his fashion to begin any statement that might seem even remotely to
+bind him with the remark, "I'm just thinking aloud on that proposition
+and don't want to be bound by what I say." The students in the office,
+to whom he was unfailingly courteous, apostrophized him as "the fox." He
+called them all "Mister," and occasionally flattered them by presenting
+a hypothetical case for their consideration.
+
+Fitch was sitting before the immaculate desk he affected (no one ever
+dared leave anything on it in his absence) when Harwood entered. The
+lawyer's chair was an enormous piece of furniture in which his small
+figure seemed to shrink and hide. His hands were thrust into his
+pockets, as they usually were, and he piped out "Good-Morning" in a high
+tenor voice.
+
+"Shut the door, please, Mr. Harwood. What have you to report about your
+errand to Montgomery?"
+
+He indicated with a nod the one chair in the room and Harwood seated
+himself.
+
+"I found Professor Kelton without difficulty and presented the letter."
+
+"You delivered the letter and you have told no one of your visit to
+Montgomery."
+
+"No one, sir; no one knows I have been away from town. I handed the
+letter to the gentleman in his own house, alone, and he gave me his
+answer."
+
+"Well?"
+
+"_No_ is the answer."
+
+Fitch polished his eyeglasses with his handkerchief. He scrutinized
+Harwood carefully for a moment, then asked:--
+
+"Did the gentleman--whose name, by the way, you have forgotten--"
+
+"Yes, sir; I have quite forgotten it," Harwood replied promptly.
+
+"Did he show any feeling--indignation, pique, as he read the letter?"
+
+"No; but he read it carefully. His face showed pain, I should say, sir,
+rather than indignation. He gave his negative reply coldly--a little
+sharply. He was very courteous--a gentleman, I should say, beyond any
+question."
+
+"I dare say. What kind of an establishment did he keep?"
+
+"A small cottage, with books everywhere, right by the campus. A young
+girl let me in; she spoke of the professor as her grandfather. She went
+off to find him for me in the college library."
+
+"A young person. What did she look like?"
+
+"A dark young miss, with black hair tied with a red ribbon."
+
+Fitch smiled.
+
+"You are sure of the color, are you? This man lives there with his
+granddaughter, and the place was simple--comfortable, no luxuries. You
+had no conversation with him."
+
+"I think we exchanged a word about the weather, which was warm."
+
+Fitch smiled again. His was a rare smile, but it was worth waiting for.
+
+"What did the trip cost you?"
+
+Harwood named the amount and the lawyer drew a check book from his
+impeccable desk and wrote.
+
+"I have added one hundred dollars for your services. This is a personal
+matter between you and me, and does not go on the office books. By the
+way, Mr. Harwood, what are you doing out there?" he asked, moving his
+head slightly toward the outer office.
+
+"I'm reading law."
+
+"Is it possible! The other youngsters in the office seem to be talking
+politics or reading newspapers most of the time. How do you manage to
+live?"
+
+"I do some work for the 'Courier' from time to time."
+
+"Ah! You are careful not to let your legal studies get mixed with the
+newspaper work?"
+
+"Yes, sir. They put me on meetings, and other night assignments. As to
+the confidences of this office, you need have no fear of my--"
+
+"I haven't, Mr. Harwood. Let me see. It was of you Professor Sumner
+wrote me last year; he's an old friend of mine. He said he thought you
+had a sinewy mind--a strong phrase for Sumner."
+
+"He never told me that," said Dan, laughing. "He several times implied
+quite the reverse."
+
+"He's a great man--Sumner. I suppose you absorbed a good many of his
+ideas at New Haven."
+
+"I hope I did, sir: I believe in most of them anyhow."
+
+"So do I, Mr. Harwood."
+
+Fitch pointed to a huge pile of manuscript on a table by the window. It
+was a stenographic transcript of testimony in a case which had been lost
+in the trial court and was now going up on appeal.
+
+"Digest that evidence and give me the gist of it in not more than five
+hundred words. That's all."
+
+Harwood's hand was on the door when Fitch arrested him with a word.
+
+"To recur to this private transaction between us, you have not the
+remotest idea what was in that letter, and nothing was said in the
+interview that gave you any hint--is that entirely correct?"
+
+"Absolutely."
+
+"Very well. I know nothing of the matter myself; I am merely
+accommodating a friend. We need not refer to this again."
+
+When the door had closed, the lawyer wrote a brief note which he placed
+in his pocket, and dropped later into a letter-box with his own hand.
+Mr. Fitch, of the law firm of Wright and Fitch, was not in the habit of
+acting as agent in matters he didn't comprehend, and his part in
+Harwood's errand was not to his liking. He had spoken the truth when he
+said that he knew no more of the nature of the letter that had been
+carried to Professor Kelton than the messenger, and Harwood's replies
+to his interrogatories had told him nothing.
+
+Many matters, however, pressed upon his attention and offered abundant
+exercise for his curiosity. With Harwood, too, pleased to have for the
+first time in his life one hundred dollars in cash, the incident was
+closed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+HOME LIFE OF HOOSIER STATESMEN
+
+
+In no other place can a young man so quickly attain wisdom as in a
+newspaper office. There the names of the good and great are playthings,
+and the bubble reputation is blown lightly, and as readily extinguished,
+as part of the day's business. No other employment offers so many
+excitements; in nothing else does the laborer live so truly behind the
+scenes. The stage is wide, the action varied and constant. The youngest
+tyro, watching from the wings, observes great incidents and becomes
+their hasty historian. The reporter's status is unique. Youth on the
+threshold of no other profession commands the same respect, gains
+audience so readily to the same august personages. Doors slammed in his
+face only flatter his self-importance. He becomes cynical as he sees how
+easily the spot light is made to flash upon the unworthiest figures by
+the flimsiest mechanism. He drops his plummet into shoal and deep water
+and from his contemplation of the wreck-littered shore grows skeptical
+of the wisdom of all pilots.
+
+Harwood's connection with the "Courier" brought him in touch with
+politics, which interested him greatly. The "Courier" was the organ of
+the Democratic Party in the state, and though his father and brothers
+in the country were Republicans, Dan found himself more in sympathy with
+the views represented by the Democratic Party, even after it abandoned
+its ancient conservatism and became aggressively radical. About the time
+of Harwood's return to his native state the newspaper had changed hands.
+At least the corporation which had owned it for a number of years had
+apparently disposed of it, though the transaction had been effected so
+quietly that the public received no outward hint beyond the deletion of
+"Published by the Courier Newspaper Company" from the head of the
+editorial page. The "policy" of the paper continued unchanged; the
+editorial staff had not been disturbed; and in the counting-room there
+had been no revolution, though an utterly unknown man had appeared
+bearing the title of General Manager, which carried with it authority in
+all departments.
+
+This person was supposed to represent the unknown proprietor, about whom
+there had been the liveliest speculation. The "Courier's" rivals gave
+much space to rumors, real and imaginary, as to the new ownership,
+attributing the purchase to a number of prominent politicians in rapid
+succession, and to syndicates that had never existed. It was an odd
+effect of the change in the "Courier's" ownership that almost
+immediately mystery seemed to envelop the editorial rooms. The managing
+editor, whose humors and moods fixed the tone of the office, may have
+been responsible, but whatever the cause a stricter discipline was
+manifest, and editors, reporters and copy-readers moved and labored with
+a consciousness that an unknown being walked among the desks, and hung
+over the forms to the very last moment before they were hurled to the
+stereotypers. The editorial writers--those astute counselors of the
+public who are half-revered and half-despised by their associates on the
+news side of every American newspaper--wrote uneasily under a
+mysterious, hidden censorship. It was possible that even the young woman
+who gleaned society news might, by some unfortunate slip, offend the
+invisible proprietor. But as time passed nothing happened. The
+imaginable opaque pane that separated the owner from the desks of the
+"Courier's" reporters and philosophers had disclosed no faintest shadow.
+Occasionally the managing editor was summoned below by the general
+manager, but the subordinates in the news department were unable, even
+by much careful study of their subsequent instructions, to grasp the
+slightest thread that might lead them to the concealed hand which swayed
+the "Courier's" destiny. It must be confessed that under this ghostly
+administration the paper improved. Every man did his best, and the
+circulation statements as published monthly indicated a widening
+constituency. Even the Sunday edition, long a forbidding and depressing
+hodge-podge of ill-chosen and ill-digested rubbish, began to show order
+and intelligence.
+
+In October following his visit to Professor Kelton, Harwood was sent to
+Fraserville, the seat of Fraser County, to write a sketch of the
+Honorable Morton Bassett, in a series then adorning the Sunday
+supplement under the title, "Home Life of Hoosier Statesmen." The
+object of the series was frankly to aid the circulation manager's
+efforts to build up subscription lists in the rural districts, and
+personal sketches of local celebrities had proved potent in this
+endeavor. Most of the subjects that had fallen to Harwood's lot had been
+of a familiar type--country lawyers who sat in the legislature, or
+county chairmen, or judges of county courts. As the "Sunday Courier"
+eschewed politics, the series was not restricted to Democrats but
+included men of all faiths. It was Harwood's habit to spend a day in the
+towns he visited, gathering local color and collecting anecdotal matter.
+
+While this employment cut deeply into his hours at the law office, he
+reasoned that there was a compensating advantage in the knowledge he
+gained on these excursions of the men of both political faiths.
+
+Before the train stopped at Fraserville he saw from the car window the
+name "Bassett" written large on a towering elevator,--a fact which he
+noted carefully as offering a suggestion for the introductory line of
+his sketch. As he left the station and struck off toward the heart of
+the town, he was aware that Bassett was a name that appealed to the eye
+frequently. The Bassett Block and Bassett's Bank spoke not merely for a
+material prosperity, rare among the local statesmen he had described in
+the "Courier," but, judging from the prominence of the name in
+Fraserville nomenclature, he assumed that it had long been established
+in the community. Harwood had not previously faced a second generation
+in his pursuit of Hoosier celebrities, and he breathed a sigh of relief
+at the prospect of a variation on the threadbare scenario of early
+hardship, the little red schoolhouse, patient industry, and the
+laborious attainment of meagre political honors--which had begun to bore
+him.
+
+Harwood sought first the editor of the "Fraser County Democrat," who was
+also the "Courier's" Fraserville correspondent. Fraserville boasted two
+other newspapers, the "Republican," which offset the "Democrat"
+politically, and the "News," an independent afternoon daily whose
+function was to encourage strife between its weekly contemporaries and
+boom the commercial interests of the town. The editor of the "Democrat"
+was an extremely stout person, who sprawled at ease in a battered swivel
+chair, with his slippered feet thrown across a desk littered with
+newspapers, clippings, letters, and manuscript. A file hook was
+suspended on the wall over his shoulder, and on this it was his habit to
+impale, by a remarkable twist of body and arm, gems for his hebdomadal
+journal. He wrote on a pad held in his ample lap, the paste brush was
+within easy reach, and once planted on his throne the editor was
+established for the day. Bound volumes of the "Congressional Record" in
+their original wrappers were piled in a corner. A consular report,
+folded in half, was thrust under the editor's right thigh, easly
+accessible in ferocious moments when he indulged himself in the felicity
+of slaughtering the roaches with which the place swarmed. He gave Dan a
+limp fat hand, and cleared a chair of exchanges with one foot, which he
+thereupon laboriously restored to its accustomed place on the desk.
+
+"So you're from the 'Courier'? Well, sir, you may tell your managing
+editor for me that if he doesn't print more of my stuff he can get
+somebody else on the job here."
+
+Dan soothed Mr. Pettit's feelings as best he could; he confessed that
+his own best work was mercilessly cut; and that, after all, the editors
+of city newspapers were poor judges of the essential character of news.
+When Pettit's good humor had been restored, Dan broached the nature of
+his errand. As he mentioned Morton Bassett's name the huge editor's face
+grew blank for a moment; then he was shaken with mirth that passed from
+faint quivers until his whole frame was convulsed. His rickety chair
+trembled and rattled ominously. It was noiseless laughter so far as any
+vocal manifestations were concerned; but it shook the gigantic editor as
+though he were a mould of jelly. He closed his eyes, but otherwise his
+fat face was expressionless.
+
+"Goin' to write Mort up, are you? Well, by gum! I've been readin' those
+pieces in the 'Courier.' Your work? Good writin'; mighty interestin'
+readin', as old Uncle Horace Greeley used to say. I guess you carry the
+whitewash brush along with you in your pilgrimages. You certainly did
+give Bill Ragsdale a clean bill o' health. That must have tickled the
+folks in Tecumseh County. Know Ragsdale? I've set with Bill in the lower
+house three sessions, and I come pretty near knowin' him. I don't say
+that Bill is crooked; but I suspect that if Bill's moral nature could
+be dug out and exposed to view it would be spiral like a bedspring; just
+about. It's an awful load on the Republican Party in this state, having
+to carry Bill Ragsdale. O Lord!"
+
+He pursed his fat lips, and his eyes took on a far-away expression, as
+though some profound utterance had diverted his thoughts to remote
+realms of reverie. "So you're goin' to write Mort up; well, my God!"
+
+The exact relevance of this was not apparent. Harwood had assumed on
+general principles that the Honorable Isaac Pettit, of the "Fraser
+County Democrat," was an humble and obedient servant of the Honorable
+Morton Bassett, and would cringe at the mention of his name. To be sure,
+Mr. Pettit had said nothing to disturb this belief; but neither had the
+editor manifested that meek submission for which the reporter had been
+prepared. The editor's Gargantuan girth trembled again. The spectacle he
+presented as he shook thus with inexplicable mirth was so funny that
+Harwood grinned; whereupon Pettit rubbed one of his great hands across
+his three-days' growth of beard, evoking a harsh rasping sound in which
+he seemed to find relief and satisfaction.
+
+"You don't know Mort? Well, he's all right; he will he mighty nice to
+you. Mort's one of the best fellows on earth; you won't find anybody out
+here in Fraser County to say anything against Mort Bassett. No, sir; by
+God!"
+
+Again the ponderous frame shook; again the mysterious look came into the
+man's curious small eyes, and Harwood witnessed another seismic
+disturbance in the bulk before him; then the Honorable Isaac Pettit grew
+serious.
+
+"You want some facts for a starter. Well, I guess a few facts don't hurt
+in this business, providin' you don't push in too many of 'em."
+
+He pondered for a moment, then went on, as though summarizing from a
+biography:--
+
+"Only child of the late Jeremiah Bassett, founder of Bassett's Bank. Old
+Jerry was pure boiler plate; he could squeeze ten per cent interest out
+of a frozen parsnip. He and Blackford Singleton sort o' divided things
+up in this section. Jerry Bassett corralled the coin; Blackford rolled
+up a couple of hundred thousand and capped it with a United States
+senatorship. Mort's not forty yet; married only child of Blackford F.
+Singleton--Jerry made the match, I guess; it was the only way he could
+get Blackford's money. Mort prepared for college, but didn't go. Took
+his degree in law at Columbia, but never practiced. Always interested in
+politics; been in the state senate twelve years; two children, boy and
+girl. I guess Mort Bassett can do most anything he wants to--you can't
+tell where he'll land."
+
+"But the next steps are obvious," suggested Harwood, encouragingly--"the
+governorship, the United States Senate--ever onward and upward."
+
+"Well, yes; but you never know anything from _him_. _We_ don't know, and
+you might think we'd understand him pretty well up here. He declined to
+go to Congress from this district--could have had it without turning a
+hand; but he put in his man and stayed in the state senate. I reckon he
+cuts some ice there, but he's mighty quiet. Bassett doesn't beat the
+tom-tom to call attention to himself. I guess no man swings more
+influence in a state convention--but he's peculiar. You'll find him
+different from these yahoos you've been writin' up. I know 'em all."
+
+"A man of influence and power--leading citizen in every sense--" Dan
+murmured as he scribbled a few notes.
+
+"Yep. Mort's considered rich. You may have noticed his name printed on
+most everything but the undertaker's and the jail as you came up from
+the station. The elevator and the bank he inherited from his pap. Mort's
+got a finger in most everything 'round here."
+
+"Owns everything," said Harwood, with an attempt at facetiousness,
+"except the brewery."
+
+Mr. Pettit's eyes opened wide, and then closed; again he was
+mirth-shaken; it seemed that the idea of linking Morton Bassett's name
+with the manufacture of malt liquor was the most stupendous joke
+possible. The editor's face did not change expression; the internal
+disturbances were not more violent this time, but they continued longer;
+when the strange spasm had passed he dug a fat fist into a tearful right
+eye and was calm.
+
+"Oh, my God," he blurted huskily. "Breweries? Let us say that he neither
+makes nor consumes malt, vinous nor spirituous liquor, within the
+meaning of the statutes in such cases made and provided. He and Ed
+Thatcher make a strong team. Ed started out as a brewer, but there's
+nothing wrong about that, I reckon. Over in England they make lords and
+dukes of brewers."
+
+"A man of rectitude--enshrined in the hearts of his fellow-citizens,
+popular and all that?" suggested Harwood.
+
+Yes. Mort rather _retains_ his heat, I guess. Some say he's cold as ice.
+His ice is the kind that freezes to what he likes. Mort's a gentleman if
+we have one in Fraser County. If you think you're chasin' one of these
+blue jeans politicians you read about in comic papers you're hitting the
+wrong trail, son. Mort can eat with a fork without appearin'
+self-conscious. Good Lord, boy, if you can say these other fellows in
+Indiana politics have brains, you got to say that Mort Bassett has
+_intellect_. Which is different, son; a dern sight different."
+
+"I shall be glad to use the word in my sketch of Mr. Bassett," remarked
+Dan dryly. "It will lend variety to the series."
+
+Harwood thanked the editor for his courtesy and walked to the door.
+Strange creakings from the editorial chair caused him to turn. The
+Honorable Isaac Pettit was in the throes of another convulsion. The
+attack seemed more severe than its predecessors. Dan waited for him to
+invoke deity with the asthmatic wheeziness to which mirth reduced his
+vocal apparatus.
+
+"It's nothin', son; it's nothin'. It's my temperament: I can't help it.
+Did you say you were from the 'Courier'? Well, you better give Mort a
+good send-off. He appreciates a good job; he's a sort o' literary cuss
+himself."
+
+As another mirthful spasm seemed imminent Dan retired, wondering just
+what in himself or in his errand had so moved the fat editor's
+risibilities. He learned at the Bassett Bank that Mr. Bassett was
+spending the day in a neighboring town, but would be home at six
+o'clock, so he surveyed Fraserville and killed time until evening,
+eating luncheon and supper with sundry commercial travelers at the Grand
+Hotel.
+
+Harwood's instructions were in every case to take the subjects of his
+sketches at their own valuation and to set them forth sympathetically.
+The ambitions of most of the gentlemen he had interviewed had been
+obvious--obvious and futile. Nearly every man who reached the
+legislature felt a higher call to Congress or the governor's chair.
+Harwood had already described in the "Courier" the attainments of
+several statesmen who were willing to sacrifice their private interests
+for the high seat at the state capitol. The pettiness and sordidness of
+most of the politicians he met struck him humorously, but the tone of
+his articles was uniformly laudatory.
+
+When the iron gate clicked behind him at the Bassett residence, his
+notebook was still barren of such anecdotes of his subject as he had
+usually gathered in like cases in an afternoon spent at the court-house.
+Stories of generosity, of the kindly care of widows and orphans, gifts
+to indigent pastors, boys helped through college, and similar
+benefactions had proved altogether elusive. Either Harwood had sought
+in the wrong places or Morton Bassett was of tougher fibre than the
+other gentlemen on whom his pencil had conferred immortality. In
+response to his ring a boy opened the door and admitted him without
+parley. He had a card ready to offer, but the lad ran to announce him
+without waiting for his name and reappeared promptly.
+
+"Papa says to come right in, sir," the boy reported.
+
+Dan caught a glimpse of a girl at the piano in the parlor who turned to
+glance at him and continued her playing. The lad indicated an open door
+midway of the long hall and waited for Harwood to enter. A lady,
+carrying a small workbasket in her hand, bade the reporter good-evening
+as she passed out. On a table in the middle of the room a checkerboard's
+white and black belligerents stood at truce, and from the interrupted
+game rose a thick-set man of medium height, with dark hair and a
+close-trimmed mustache, who came toward him inquiringly.
+
+"Good-evening. I am Mr. Bassett. Have a chair."
+
+Harwood felt the guilt of his intrusion upon a scene so sheltered and
+domestic. The father had evidently been playing checkers with his son;
+the mother's chair still rocked by another table on which stood a
+reading lamp.
+
+Harwood stated his errand, and Bassett merely nodded, offering none of
+those protestations of surprise and humility, those pleas of
+unworthiness that his predecessors on Dan's list had usually insisted
+upon. Dan made mental note at once of the figure before him. Bassett's
+jaw was square and firm--power was manifest there, unmistakably, and
+his bristling mustache suggested combativeness. His dark eyes met
+Harwood's gaze steadily--hardness might be there, though their gaze was
+friendly enough. His voice was deep and its tone was pleasant. He opened
+a drawer and produced a box of cigars.
+
+"Won't you smoke? I don't smoke myself, but you mustn't mind that." And
+Harwood accepted a cigar, which he found excellent. A moment later a
+maid placed on the table beside the checkerboard a tray, with a decanter
+and glasses, and a pitcher of water.
+
+"That's for us," remarked Bassett, nodding toward the glasses. "Help
+yourself."
+
+"The cigar is all I need; thank you."
+
+The reporter was prepared to ask questions, following a routine he had
+employed with other subjects, but Bassett began to talk on his own
+initiative--of the town, the county, the district. He expressed himself
+well, in terse words and phrases. Harwood did not attempt to direct or
+lead: Bassett had taken the interview into his own hands, and was
+imparting information that might have been derived from a local history
+at the town library. Dan ceased, after a time, to follow the narrative
+in his absorption in the man himself. Harwood took his politics
+seriously and the petty politicians with whom he had thus far become
+acquainted in his newspaper work had impressed him chiefly by their
+bigotry or venality. It was not for nothing that he had worshiped at
+Sumner's feet at Yale and he held views that were not readily
+reconcilable with parochial boss-ships and the meek swallowing of
+machine-made platforms. Bassett was not the vulgar, intimate good-fellow
+who slapped every man on the back--the teller of good stories over a
+glass of whiskey and a cigar. He was, as Pettit had said, a new type,
+not of the familiar _cliche_. The decanter was a "property" placed in
+the scene at the dictates of hospitality; the checkerboard canceled any
+suggestion of conviviality that might have been conveyed by the decanter
+of whiskey.
+
+Bassett's right hand lay on the table and Dan found himself watching it.
+It was broad but not heavy; the fingers that opened and shut quietly on
+a small paperweight were supple. It was a hand that would deal few
+blows, but hard ones. Harwood was aware, at a moment when he began to be
+bored by the bald facts of local history, that Bassett had abruptly
+switched the subject.
+
+"Parties are necessary to democratic government. I don't believe merely
+in my own party; I want the opposition to be strong enough to make a
+fight. The people are better satisfied if there's a contest for the
+offices. I'm not sorry when we lose occasionally; defeat disciplines and
+strengthens a party. I have made a point in our little local affairs of
+not fighting independents when they break with us for any reason.
+Believing as I do that parties are essential, and that schismatic
+movements are futile, I make a point of not attacking them. Their
+failures strengthen the party--and incidentally kill the men who have
+kicked out of the traces. You never have to bother with them a second
+time."
+
+"But they help clear the air--they serve a purpose?" suggested Harwood.
+He had acquired a taste for the "Nation" and the New York "Evening Post"
+at college, and Bassett's frank statement of his political opinions
+struck Dan as mediaeval. He was, however, instinctively a reporter, and
+he refrained from interposing himself further than was necessary to
+stimulate the talk of the man before him.
+
+"You are quite right, Mr. Harwood. They serve an excellent purpose. They
+provide an outlet; they serve as a safety valve. Now and then they will
+win a fight, and that's a good thing too, for they will prove, on
+experiment, that they are just as human and weak in practical
+application of their ideas as the rest of us. I'd even go as far as to
+say that in certain circumstances I'd let them win. They help drive home
+my idea that the old parties, like old, established business houses,
+have got to maintain a standard or they will lose the business to which
+they are rightfully entitled. When you see your customers passing your
+front door to try a new shop farther up the street, you want to sit down
+and consider what's the matter, and devise means of regaining your lost
+ground. It doesn't pay merely to ridicule the new man or cry that his
+goods are inferior. Yours have got to be superior--or"--and the gray
+eyes twinkled for the first time--"they must be dressed up to look
+better in your show window."
+
+Bassett rose and walked the length of the room, with his hands thrust
+into his trousers pockets, and before he sat down he poured himself a
+glass of water from the pitcher and drank it slowly, with an air of
+preoccupation. He moved easily, with a quicker step than might have been
+expected in one of his figure. The strength of his hand was also in the
+firm line of his vigorous, well-knit frame. And his rather large head,
+Dan observed, rested solidly on broad shoulders.
+
+Harwood's thoughts were, however, given another turn at once. Morton
+Bassett had said all he cared to say about politics and he now asked Dan
+whether he was a college man, to which prompting the reporter recited
+succinctly the annals of his life.
+
+"You're a Harrison County boy, are you? So you didn't like the farm, and
+found a way out? That's good. You may be interested in some of my
+books."
+
+Dan was immediately on guard against being bored; the library of even an
+intelligent local statesman like Morton Bassett was hardly likely to
+prove interesting. One of his earlier subjects had asked him
+particularly to mention his library, which consisted mainly of
+government reports.
+
+"I've been a collector of Americana," Bassett remarked, throwing open
+several cases. "I've gone in for colonial history, particularly, and
+some of these things are pretty rare."
+
+The shelves rose to the ceiling and Bassett produced a ladder that he
+might hand down a few of the more interesting volumes for Dan's closer
+inspection.
+
+"Here's Wainwright's 'Brief Description of the Ohio River, With some
+Account of the Savages Living Thereon'--published in London in 1732,
+and there are only three copies in existence. This is Atterbury's
+'Chronicle of the Chesapeake Settlements'--the best thing I have. The
+author was an English sailor who joined the colonists in the Revolution
+and published a little memoir of his adventures in America. The only
+other copy of that known to exist is in the British Museum. I fished
+mine out of a pile of junk in Baltimore about ten years ago. When I get
+old and have time on my hands I'm going to reprint some of these--wide
+margins, and footnotes, and that sort of thing. But there's fun enough
+now in just having them and knowing the other fellow hasn't!"
+
+He flung open a panel of the wainscoting at a point still free of
+shelves and disclosed a door of a small iron safe which he opened with a
+key. "This isn't the family silver, but a few little things that are
+more valuable. These are first editions of American authors. Here's
+Lowell's 'Fable for Critics,' first edition; and this is Emerson's
+'Nature,' 1836--a first. These are bound by Orpcutt; had them done
+myself. They feel good to the hand, don't they!"
+
+Harwood's pleasure in the beautiful specimens of the binder's art was
+unfeigned and to his questioning Bassett dilated upon the craftsmanship.
+
+"The red morocco of the Emerson takes the gold tooling beautifully, and
+the oak-leaf border design couldn't be finer. I believe this olive-green
+shade is the best of all. This Whittier--a first edition of 'In War
+Time'--is by Durand, a French artist, and one of the best specimens of
+his work."
+
+Those strong hands of his touched the beautiful books fondly. Harwood
+took advantage of a moment when Bassett carried to the lamp Lowell's
+"Under the Willows" in gold and brown, the better to display the deft
+workmanship, to look more closely at the owner of these lovely baubles.
+The iron hand could be very gentle! Bassett touched the volume
+caressingly as he called attention to its perfection. His face, in the
+lamp's full light, softened, but there was in it no hint of sensuousness
+to prepare one for this indulgence in luxurious bibliomania. There was a
+childlike simplicity in Bassett's delight. A man who enjoyed such
+playthings could not be hard, and Dan's heart warmed with liking.
+
+"Are you a reader of poetry?" asked Dan, as Bassett carefully collected
+the books and returned them to the safe.
+
+"No. That is something we leave behind us with our youth," he said; and
+looking down at the bent head and sturdy shoulders, and watching the
+strong fingers turning the key, Dan wondered what the man's youth had
+been and what elements were mixed in him that soft textures of leather
+and delicate tracings of gold on brown and scarlet and olive could so
+delight him. His rather jaunty attitude toward the "Home Life of Hoosier
+Statesmen" experienced a change. Morton Bassett was not a man who could
+be hit off in a few hundred words, but a complex character he did not
+pretend to understand. Threads of various hues had passed before him,
+but how to intertwine them was a question that already puzzled the
+reporter. Bassett had rested his hand on Dan's shoulder for a moment as
+the younger man bent over one of the prized volumes, and Dan was not
+insensible to the friendliness of the act.
+
+Mrs. Bassett and the two children appeared at the door a little later.
+
+"Come in, Hallie," said the politician; "all of you come in."
+
+He introduced the reporter to his wife and to Marian, the daughter, and
+Blackford, the son.
+
+"The children were just going up," said Mrs. Bassett. "As it's Saturday
+they have an hour added to their evening. I think I heard Mr. Bassett
+talking of books a moment ago. It's not often he brings out his first
+editions for a visitor."
+
+They talked of books for a moment, while the children listened. Then
+Bassett recurred to the fact, already elicited, that Harwood was a Yale
+man, whereupon colleges were discussed.
+
+"Many of our small fresh-water colleges do excellent work," remarked
+Bassett. "Some educator has explained the difference between large and
+small colleges by saying that in the large one the boy goes through more
+college, but in the small one more college goes through the boy. Of
+course I'm not implying, Mr. Harwood, that that was true in your case."
+
+"Oh, I'm not sensitive about that, Mr. Bassett. And I beg not to be
+taken as an example of what Yale does for her students. Some of the
+smaller colleges stand for the best things; there's Madison College,
+here in our own state--its standards are severely high, and the place
+itself has quality, atmosphere--you feel, even as a casual visitor,
+that it's the real thing."
+
+"So I've always heard," remarked Mrs. Bassett. "My father always admired
+Madison. Strange to say, I have never been there. Are you acquainted in
+Montgomery?"
+
+Bassett bent forward slightly at the question.
+
+"I was there for an hour or so last spring; but I was in a hurry. I
+didn't even take time to run into my fraternity house, though I saw its
+banner on the outer wall."
+
+"Your newspaper work must give you many interesting adventures,"
+suggested the politician.
+
+"Not always as pleasant as this, I assure you. But I'm a person of two
+occupations--I'm studying law, and my visit to Montgomery was on an
+errand for the office where I'm allowed to use the books in return for
+slight services of one kind and another. As a newspaper man I'm
+something of an impostor; I hope I'm only a passing pilgrim in the
+business."
+
+Dan faced Mrs. Bassett as he made this explanation, and he was
+conscious, as he turned toward the master of the house, that Bassett was
+observing him intently. His gaze was so direct and searching that
+Harwood was disconcerted for a moment; then Bassett remarked
+carelessly,--
+
+"I should think newspaper work a good training for the law. It drills
+faculties that a lawyer exercises constantly."
+
+Mrs. Bassett now made it possible for Marian and young Blackford to
+contribute to the conversation.
+
+"I'm going to Annapolis," announced the boy.
+
+"You've had a change of heart," said his father, with a smile. "It was
+West Point last week."
+
+"Well, it will be Annapolis next week," the lad declared; and then, as
+if to explain his abandonment of a military career, "In the Navy you get
+to see the world, and in the Army you're likely to be stuck away at some
+awful place on the Plains where you never see anything. The Indians are
+nearly all killed anyhow."
+
+"We hear a good deal nowadays about the higher education of woman," Mrs.
+Bassett remarked, "and I suppose girls should be prepared to earn their
+own living. Mothers of daughters have that to think about."
+
+Miss Marian, catching Dan's eye, smiled as though to express her full
+appreciation of the humor of her mother's remark.
+
+"Mama learned that from my Aunt Sally," she ventured; and Dan saw that
+she was an independent spirit, given to daring sayings, and indulged in
+them by her parents.
+
+"Well, Aunt Sally is the wisest woman in the world," replied Mrs.
+Bassett, with emphasis. "It would be to your credit if you followed her,
+my dear."
+
+Marian ignored her mother's rebuke and addressed herself to the visitor.
+
+"Aunt Sally lives in Indianapolis and I go there to Miss Waring's
+School. I'm just home for Sunday."
+
+"Mrs. Owen is my aunt; you may have heard of her, Mr. Harwood; she was
+my father's only sister."
+
+"Oh, _the_ Mrs. Owen! Of course every one has heard of her; and I knew
+that she was Senator Singleton's sister. I am sorry to say I don't know
+her."
+
+Unconsciously the sense of Morton Bassett's importance deepened. In
+marrying Mrs. Jackson Owen's niece Bassett had linked himself to the
+richest woman at the state capital. He had not encumbered himself with a
+crude wife from the countryside, but had married a woman with important
+connections. Blackford Singleton had been one of the leading men of the
+state, and Mrs. Owen, his sister, was not a negligible figure in the
+background against which the reporter saw he must sketch the
+Fraserville senator. Harwood had met the wives of other Hoosier
+statesmen--uninteresting creatures in the main, and palpably of little
+assistance to ambitious husbands.
+
+It appeared that the Bassetts spent their summers at their cottage on
+Lake Waupegan and that Mrs. Owen had a farm near them. It was clear that
+Bassett enjoyed his family. He fell into a chaffing way with his
+children and laughed heartily at Marian's forwardness. He met his son on
+the lad's own note of self-importance and connived with him to provoke
+her amusing impertinences.
+
+Bassett imposed no restrictions upon Harwood's pencil, and this, too,
+was a novel experience. His predecessors on the list of leaders in
+Hoosier politics had not been backward about making suggestions, but
+Bassett did not refer to Harwood's errand at all. When Dan asked for
+photographs of Mrs. Bassett and the children with which to embellish
+his article, Bassett declined to give them with a firmness that ended
+the matter; but he promised to provide photographs of the house and
+grounds and of the Waupegan cottage and send them to Harwood in a day or
+two.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Harwood gave to his sketch of Morton Bassett a care which he had not
+bestowed upon any of his previous contributions to the "Courier's"
+series of Hoosier statesmen. He remained away from the law office two
+days the better to concentrate himself upon his task, and the result was
+a careful, straightforward article, into which he threw shadings of
+analysis and flashes of color that reflected very faithfully the
+impression made upon his mind by the senator from Fraser. The managing
+editor complained of its sobriety and lack of anecdote.
+
+"It's good, Harwood, but it's too damned solemn. Can't you shoot a
+little ginger into it?"
+
+"I've tried to paint the real Bassett. He isn't one of these raw
+hayseeds who hands you chestnuts out of patent medicine almanacs. I've
+tried to make a document that would tell the truth and at the same time
+please him."
+
+"Why?" snapped the editor, pulling the green shade away from his eyes
+and glaring at the reporter.
+
+"Because he's the sort of man you feel you'd like to please! He's the
+only one of these fellows I've tackled who didn't tell me a lot of
+highfalutin rot they wanted put into the article. Bassett didn't seem to
+care about it one way or another. I rewrote most of that stuff half a
+dozen times to be sure to get the punk out of it, because I knew he
+hated punk."
+
+"You did, did you! Well, McNaughton of Tippecanoe County is the next
+standard-bearer you're to tackle, and you needn't be afraid to pin
+ribbons on him. You college fellows are all alike. Try to remember,
+Harwood, that this paper ain't the 'North American Review'; it's a
+newspaper for the plain people."
+
+Dan, at some personal risk, saw to it that the illustrations were so
+minimized that it became unnecessary to sacrifice his text to
+accommodate it to the page set apart for it. He read his screed in type
+with considerable satisfaction, feeling that it was an honest piece of
+work and that it limned a portrait of Bassett that was vivid and
+truthful. The editor-in-chief inquired who had written it, and took
+occasion to commend Harwood for his good workmanship. A little later a
+clerk in the counting-room told him that Bassett had ordered a hundred
+copies of the issue containing the sketch, and this was consoling.
+Several other subjects had written their thanks, and Dan had rather
+hoped that Bassett would send him a line of approval; but on reflection
+he concluded that it was not like Bassett to do so, and that this
+failure to make any sign corroborated all that he knew or imagined of
+the senator from Fraser.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+SYLVIA AT LAKE WAUPEGAN
+
+
+The snow lay late the next year on the Madison campus. It had been a
+busy winter for Sylvia, though in all ways a happy one. When it became
+known that she was preparing for college all the Buckeye Lane folk were
+anxious to help. Professor Kelton would not trust his own powers too far
+and he availed himself of the offers of members of the faculty to tutor
+Sylvia in their several branches. Buckeye Lane was proud of Sylvia and
+glad that the old professor found college possible for her. Happiness
+reigned in the cottage, and days were not so cold or snows so deep but
+that Sylvia and her grandfather went forth for their afternoon tramp.
+There was nothing morbid or anaemic about Sylvia. Every morning she
+pulled weights and swung Indian clubs with her windows open. A
+mischievous freshman who had thrown a snowball at Sylvia's heels, in the
+hope of seeing her jump, regretted his bad manners: Sylvia caught him in
+the ear with an unexpected return shot. A senior who observed the
+incident dealt in the lordly way of his kind with the offender. They
+called her "our co-ed" and "the boss girl" after that. The professor of
+mathematics occasionally left on his blackboard Sylvia's demonstrations
+and pointed them out to his class as models worthy of their emulation.
+
+Spring stole into the heart of the Wabash country and the sap sang again
+in maples and elms. Lilacs and snowballs bloomed, and Professor Kelton
+went serenely about among his roses. Sylvia passed her examinations, and
+was to be admitted to Wellesley without conditions,--all the Lane knew
+and rejoiced! The good news was communicated to Mrs. Owen, who wrote at
+once to Professor Kelton from the summer headquarters she had
+established on her farm in northern Indiana that just then required
+particular attention. It ran:--
+
+     I want you to make me a visit. Sylvia must be pretty tired after
+     her long, busy year and I have been tinkering the house here a
+     little bit so you can both be perfectly comfortable. It's not so
+     lonely as you might think, as my farm borders Lake Waupegan, and
+     the young people have gay times. My niece, Mrs. Bassett, has a
+     cottage on the lake only a minute's walk from me. I should like
+     Marian and Sylvia to get acquainted and this will be easy if only
+     you will come up for a couple of weeks. There are enough old folks
+     around here, Andrew, to keep you and me in countenance. I inclose a
+     timetable with the best trains marked. You leave the train at
+     Waupegan Station, and take the steamer across the lake. I will meet
+     you at any time you say.
+
+So it happened that on a June evening they left the train at Waupegan
+and crossed the platform to the wheezy little steamer which was waiting
+just as the timetable had predicted; and soon they were embarked and
+crossing the lake, which seemed to Sylvia a vast ocean. Twilight was
+enfolding the world, and all manner of fairy lights began to twinkle at
+the far edges of the water and on the dark heights above the lake.
+Overhead the stars were slipping into their wonted places.
+
+"You can get an idea of how it is at sea," said her grandfather, smiling
+at her long upward gaze. "Only you can hardly feel the wonder of it all
+here, or the great loneliness of the ocean at night."
+
+It was, however, wonder enough, for a girl who had previously looked
+upon no more impressive waters than those of Fall Creek, Sugar Creek,
+and White River. The steamer, with much sputtering and churning and not
+without excessive trepidation on the part of the captain and his lone
+deck hand, stopped at many frail docks below the cottages that hung on
+the bluff above. Every cottager maintained his own light or combination
+of lights to facilitate identification by approaching visitors. They
+passed a number of sailboats lazily idling in the light wind, and
+several small power boats shot past with engines beating furiously upon
+the still waters.
+
+"The Bassetts' dock is the green light; the red, white, and blue is Mrs.
+Owen's," explained the captain. "We ain't stoppin' at Bassett's
+to-night."
+
+These lights marked the farthest bounds of Lake Waupegan, and were the
+last points touched by the boat. Sylvia watched the green light with
+interest as they passed. She had thought of Marian often since their
+meeting at Mrs. Owen's. She would doubtless see more of her now: the
+green light and the red, white and blue were very close together.
+
+Mrs. Owen called to them cheerily from the dock, and waved a lantern in
+welcome. She began talking to her guests before they disembarked.
+
+"Glad to see you, Andrew. You must be mighty hungry, Sylvia. Don't smash
+my dock to pieces, Captain; it's only wood."
+
+Mrs. Owen complained after a few days that she saw nothing of Sylvia, so
+numerous were that young person's engagements. Mrs. Bassett and Marian
+called promptly--the former a trifle dazed by Sylvia's sudden advent,
+and Marian genuinely cordial. Mrs. Bassett had heard of the approaching
+visit with liveliest interest. A year before, when Marian had reported
+the presence in Mrs. Owen's house at Indianapolis of a strange girl with
+Professor Kelton, her curiosity had been piqued, but she soon dismissed
+the matter. Marian had carried home little information, and while Mrs.
+Bassett saw her aunt often on her frequent excursions to the city, she
+knew by long experience that Mrs. Owen did not yield gracefully to
+prodding.
+
+Mrs. Bassett had heard all her life of Professor Kelton and she had met
+him now and then in the Delaware Street house, but her knowledge of him
+and his family was only the most fragmentary. Nothing had occurred
+during the year to bring the Keltons again to her attention; but now,
+with a casualness in itself disconcerting, they had arrived at Mrs.
+Owen's farmhouse, where, Mrs. Bassett was sure, no guests had ever been
+entertained before. The house had just been remodeled and made
+altogether habitable, a fact which, Mrs. Bassett had been flattering
+herself, argued for Mrs. Owen's increasing interest in herself and her
+family. The immediate arrival of the Keltons was disquieting.
+
+Through most of her life Hallie Bassett had assumed that she and her
+children, as Sally Owen's next of kin, quite filled the heart of that
+admirable though often inexplicable woman. Mrs. Bassett had herself
+inherited a small fortune from her father, Blackford F. Singleton, Mrs.
+Owen's brother, a judge of the Indiana Supreme Court and a senator in
+Congress, whose merits and services are set forth in a tablet at the
+portal of the Fraser County Court-House. The Bassetts and the Singletons
+had been early settlers of that region, and the marriage of Hallie
+Singleton to Morton Bassett was a satisfactory incident in the history
+of both families. Six years of Mrs. Bassett's girlhood had been passed
+in Washington; the thought of power and influence was dear to her; and
+nothing in her life had been more natural than the expectation that her
+children would enjoy the fortune Mrs. Owen had been accumulating so long
+and, from all accounts, by processes hardly less than magical. Mrs.
+Bassett's humor was not always equal to the strain to which her aunt
+subjected it. Hallie Bassett had, in fact, little humor of any sort. She
+viewed life with a certain austerity, and in literature she had
+fortified herself against the shocks of time. Conduct, she had read, is
+three fourths of life; and Wordsworth had convinced her that the world
+is too much with us. Mrs. Bassett discussed nothing so ably as a vague
+something she was fond of characterizing as "the full life," and this
+she wished to secure for her children. Her boy's future lay properly
+with his father; she had no wish to meddle with it; but Marian was the
+apple of her eye, and she was striving by all the means in her power to
+direct her daughter into pleasant paths and bright meadows where the
+"full life" is assured. Hers were no mean standards. She meant to be a
+sympathetic and helpful wife, the wisest and most conscientious of
+mothers.
+
+Mrs. Bassett was immensely anxious to please her aunt in all ways; but
+that intrepid woman's pleasure was not a thing to be counted on with
+certainty. She not only sought to please her aunt by every means
+possible, but she wished her children to intrench themselves strongly in
+their great aunt's favor. The reports of such of Mrs. Owen's public
+benefactions as occasionally reached the newspapers were always
+alarming. No one ever knew just how much money Sally Owen gave away; but
+some of her gifts in recent years had been too large to pass unnoticed
+by the press. Only a few months before she had established a
+working-girls' home in memory of a daughter--her only child--who had
+died in early youth, and this crash from a clear sky had aroused in Mrs.
+Bassett the gravest apprehensions. It was just so much money said to be
+eighty thousand dollars--out of the pockets of Marian and Blackford;
+and, besides, Mrs. Bassett held views on this type of benevolence. Homes
+for working-girls might be well enough, but the danger of spoiling them
+by too much indulgence was not inconsiderable; Mrs. Bassett's altruism
+was directed to the moral and intellectual uplift of the mass (she never
+said masses) and was not concerned with the plain prose of housing,
+feeding, and clothing young women who earned their own living. Mrs.
+Owen, in turning over this home to a board of trustees, had stipulated
+that music for dancing should be provided every Saturday evening;
+whereupon two trustees, on whom the Christian religion weighed heavily,
+resigned; but Mrs. Owen did not care particularly. Trustees were only
+necessary to satisfy the law and to assure the legal continuity of
+Elizabeth House, which Mrs. Owen directed very well herself.
+
+Mrs. Bassett encouraged Marian's attentions to Mrs. Owen's young
+visitor; but it must be said that Marian, on her own account, liked
+Sylvia and found delight in initiating her into the mysteries of
+Waupegan life. She taught her to ride, to paddle a canoe, and to swim.
+There were dances at the casino, and it was remarkable how easily Sylvia
+learned to dance. Marian taught her a few steps on the first rainy day
+at the Bassett house, and thereafter no one would have doubted that
+Sylvia had been to dancing-school with the boys and girls she met at the
+casino parties. Marian was the most popular girl in the summer colony
+and Sylvia admired her ungrudgingly. In all outdoor sports Marian
+excelled. She dived from a spring-board like a boy, she paddled a canoe
+tirelessly and with inimitable grace, and it was a joy to see her at the
+tennis court, where her nimbleness of foot and the certainty of her
+stroke made her easily first in all competitions. At the casino, after
+a hard round of tennis, and while waiting for cakes and lemonade to be
+served, she would hammer ragtime on the piano or sing the latest lyrical
+offerings of Broadway. Quiet, elderly gentlemen from Cincinnati,
+Louisville, and Indianapolis, who went to the casino to read the
+newspapers or to play bridge, grinned when Marian turned things upside
+down. If any one else had improvised a bowling-alley of ginger-ale
+bottles and croquet-balls on the veranda, they would have complained of
+it bitterly. She was impatient of restraint, and it was apparent that
+few restraints were imposed upon her. Her sophistication in certain
+directions was to Sylvia well-nigh incomprehensible. In matters of
+personal adornment, for example, the younger girl's accomplishments were
+astonishing. She taught Sylvia how to arrange her hair in the latest
+fashion promulgated by "Vogue"; she instructed her in the refined art of
+manicuring according to the method of the best shop in Indianapolis; and
+it was amazing how wonderfully Marian could improve a hat by the
+slightest readjustments of ribbon and feather. She tested the world's
+resources like a spoiled princess with an indulgent chancellor to pay
+her bills. She gave a party and ordered the refreshments from Chicago,
+though her mother protested that the domestic apparatus for making
+ice-cream was wholly adequate for the occasion. When she wanted new
+tennis shoes she telegraphed for them; and she kept in her room a small
+library of mail-order catalogues to facilitate her extravagances.
+
+Marian talked a great deal about boys, and confided to Sylvia her
+sentimental attachment for one of the lads they saw from day to day, and
+with whom they played tennis at the casino court. For the first time
+Sylvia heard a girl talk of men as of romantic beings, and of love as a
+part of the joy and excitement of life. A young gentleman in a Gibson
+drawing which she had torn from an old copy of "Life" more nearly
+approximated Marian's ideal than even the actors of her remote
+adoration. She had a great number of gowns and was quite reckless in her
+use of them. She tried to confer upon Sylvia scarf pins, ties, and like
+articles, for which she declared she had not the slightest use. In the
+purchase of soda water and candy at the casino, where she scribbled her
+father's initials on the checks, or at the confectioner's in the village
+where she enjoyed a flexible credit, her generosity was prodigal. She
+was constantly picking up other youngsters and piloting them on
+excursions that her ready fancy devised; and if they returned late for
+meals or otherwise incurred parental displeasure, to Marian it was only
+part of the joke. She was always late and ingeniously plausible in
+excusing herself. "Mother won't bother; she wants me to have a good
+time. And when papa is here he just laughs at me. Papa's just the best
+ever."
+
+Mrs. Bassett kept lamenting to Professor Kelton her husband's protracted
+delay in Colorado. He was interested in a mining property there and was
+waiting for the installation of new machinery, but she expected to hear
+that he had left for Indiana at any time, and he was coming direct to
+Waupegan for a long stay. Mrs. Owen was busy with the Waupegan farm and
+with the direction of her farms elsewhere. On the veranda of her house
+one might frequently hear her voice raised at the telephone as she gave
+orders to the men in charge of her properties in central and southern
+Indiana. Her hearing was perfect and she derived the greatest
+satisfaction from telephoning. She sold stock or produce on these
+distant estates with the market page of the "Courier" propped on the
+telephone desk before her, and explained her transactions zestfully to
+Professor Kelton and Sylvia. She communicated frequently with the
+superintendent of her horse farm at Lexington about the "string" she
+expected to send forth to triumph at county and state fairs. The "Annual
+Stud Register" lay beside the Bible on the living-room table; and the
+"Western Horseman" mingled amicably with the "Congregationalist" in the
+newspaper rack.
+
+The presence of the old professor and his granddaughter at Waupegan
+continued to puzzle Mrs. Bassett. Mrs. Owen clearly admired Sylvia, and
+Sylvia was a charming girl--there was no gainsaying that. At the
+farmhouse a good deal had been said about Sylvia's plans for going to
+college. Mrs. Owen had proudly called attention to them, to her niece's
+annoyance. If Sylvia's advent marked the flowering in Mrs. Owen of some
+new ideals of woman's development, Mrs. Bassett felt it to be her duty
+to discover them and to train Marian along similar lines. She felt that
+her husband would be displeased if anything occurred to thwart the hand
+of destiny that had so clearly pointed to Marian and Blackford as the
+natural beneficiaries of the estate which Mrs. Owen by due process of
+nature must relinquish. In all her calculations for the future Mrs.
+Owen's fortune was an integer.
+
+Mrs. Bassett received a letter from her husband on Saturday morning in
+the second week of Sylvia's stay. Its progress from the mining-camp in
+the mountains had been slow and the boat that delivered the letter
+brought also a telegram announcing Bassett's arrival in Chicago, so that
+he was even now on his way to Waupegan. As Mrs. Bassett pondered this
+intelligence Sylvia appeared at the veranda steps to inquire for Marian.
+
+"She hasn't come down yet, Sylvia. You girls had a pretty lively day
+yesterday and I told Marian she had better sleep a while longer."
+
+"We certainly have the finest times in the world," replied Sylvia. "It
+doesn't seem possible that I've been here nearly two weeks."
+
+"I'm glad you're going to stay longer. Aunt Sally told me yesterday it
+was arranged."
+
+"We really didn't expect to stay more than our two weeks; but Mrs. Owen
+made it seem very easy to do so."
+
+"Oh, you needn't be afraid of outstaying your welcome. It's not Aunt
+Sally's way to bore herself. If she didn't like you very much she
+wouldn't have you here at all; Aunt Sally's always right straight out
+from the shoulder."
+
+"Marian has done everything to give me a good time. I want you to know I
+appreciate it. I have never known girls; Marian is really the first
+girl I have ever known, and she has taught me ever so many things."
+
+"Marian is a dear," murmured Mrs. Bassett.
+
+She was a murmurous person, whose speech was marked by a curious rising
+inflection, that turned most of her statements into interrogatories. To
+Sylvia this habit seemed altogether wonderful and elegant.
+
+"Suppose we take a walk along the lake path, Sylvia. We can pretend
+we're looking for wild flowers to have an excuse. I'll leave word for
+Marian to follow."
+
+They set off along the path together. Mrs. Bassett had never seemed
+friendlier, and Sylvia was flattered by this mark of kindness. Mrs.
+Bassett trailed her parasol, using it occasionally to point out plants
+and flowers that called for comment. She knew the local flora well, and
+kept a daybook of the wildflowers found in the longitude and latitude of
+Waupegan; and she was an indefatigable ornithologist, going forth with
+notebook and opera glass in hand. She spoke much of Thoreau and
+Burroughs and they were the nucleus of her summer library; she said that
+they gained tang and vigor from their winter hibernation at the cottage.
+Her references to nature were a little self-conscious, as seems
+inevitable with such devotees, but we cannot belittle the accuracy of
+her knowledge or the cleverness of her detective skill in apprehending
+the native flora. She found red and yellow columbines tucked away in odd
+corners, and the blue-eyed-Mary with its four petals--two blue and two
+white--as readily as Sylvia's inexperienced eye discovered the more
+obvious ladies'-slipper and jack-in-the-pulpit. To-day Mrs. Bassett
+rejoiced in the discovery of the season's first puccoon, showing its
+orange-yellow cluster on a sandy slope. She plucked a spray of the
+spreading dogbane, but only that she might descant upon it to Sylvia; it
+was a crime, Mrs. Bassett said, to gather wild flowers, which were never
+the same when transplanted to the house. When they came presently to a
+rustic seat Mrs. Bassett suggested that they rest there and watch the
+lake, which had always its mild excitements.
+
+"You haven't known Aunt Sally a great while, I judge, Sylvia? Of course
+you haven't known any one a great while!"
+
+"No; I never saw her but once before this visit. That was when
+grandfather took me to see her in Indianapolis a year ago. She and
+grandfather are old friends."
+
+"All the old citizens of Indiana have a kind of friendship among
+themselves. Somebody said once that the difference between Indiana and
+Kentucky is, that while the Kentuckians are all cousins we Hoosiers are
+all neighbors. But of course so many of us have had Kentucky
+grandfathers that we understand the Kentuckians almost as well as our
+own people. I used to meet your grandfather now and then at Aunt
+Sally's; but I can't say that I ever knew him. He's a delightful man and
+it's plain that his heart is centred in you."
+
+"There was never any one like grandfather," said Sylvia with feeling.
+
+"I suppose that as he and Aunt Sally are such old friends they must have
+talked a good deal together about you and your going to college. It
+would be quite natural."
+
+Sylvia had not thought of this. She was the least guileful of beings,
+this Sylvia, and she saw nothing amiss in these inquiries.
+
+"I suppose they may have done so; and Mrs. Owen talked to me about going
+to college when I visited her."
+
+"Oh! If _she_ undertook to persuade you, then it is no wonder you
+decided to go. She's a very powerful pleader, as she would put it
+herself."
+
+"It wasn't just that way, Mrs. Bassett. I think grandfather had already
+persuaded me. Mrs. Owen didn't know of it till afterward; but she seemed
+to like the idea. Her ideas about girls and women are very interesting."
+
+"Yes? She has a very decided way of expressing herself. I should
+imagine, though, that with her training and manner of life she might
+look a little warily at the idea of college training for women.
+Personally, you understand, I am heartily in favor of it. I have hoped
+that Marian might go to college. Aunt Sally takes the greatest interest
+in Marian, naturally, but she has never urged it upon us."
+
+Sylvia gazed off across the lake and made no reply. She recalled
+distinctly Mrs. Owen's comments on Marian, expressed quite clearly on
+the day of their drive into the country, a year before. It was not for
+her to repeat those observations; she liked Marian and admired her, and
+she saw no reason why Marian should not go to college. Sylvia, guessing
+nothing of what was in Mrs. Bassett's mind, failed to understand that
+Mrs. Owen's approval of Marian's education was of importance. Nothing
+could have been more remote from her thoughts than the idea that her own
+plans concerned any one but herself and her grandfather. She was not so
+dull, however, but that she began to feel that Mrs. Bassett was speaking
+defensively of Marian.
+
+"Marian's taste in reading is very unusual, I think. I have always
+insisted that she read only the best. She is very fond of Tennyson. I
+fancy that after all, home training is really the most valuable,--I mean
+that the atmosphere of the home can give a child what no school
+supplies. I don't mean, of course, that we have it in _our_ home; but
+I'm speaking of the ideal condition where there _is_ an atmosphere. I've
+made a point of keeping good books lying about the house, and the best
+magazines and reviews. I was never happier than the day I found Marian
+curled up on a lounge reading Keats. It may be that the real literary
+instinct, such as I feel Marian has, would only be spoiled by college;
+and I should like nothing better than to have Marian become a writer. A
+good many of our best American women writers have not been college
+women; I was looking that up only the other day."
+
+Sylvia listened, deeply interested; then she laughed suddenly, and as
+Mrs. Bassett turned toward her she felt that it would do no harm to
+repeat a remark of Mrs. Owen's that had struck her as being funny.
+
+"I just happened to remember something Mrs. Owen said about colleges.
+She said that if it isn't in the colt the trainer can't put it there;
+and I suppose the successful literary women have had genius whether they
+had higher education or not. George Eliot hadn't a college training, but
+of course she was a very great woman."
+
+Mrs. Bassett compressed her lips. She had not liked this quotation from
+Mrs. Owen's utterances on this vexed question of higher education. Could
+it be possible that Aunt Sally looked upon Marian as one of those colts
+for whom the trainer could do nothing? It was not a reassuring thought;
+her apprehensions as to Sylvia's place in her kinswoman's affections
+were quickened by Sylvia's words; but Mrs. Bassett dropped the matter.
+
+"I have never felt that young girls should read George Eliot. She
+doesn't seem to me _quite_ an ideal to set before a young girl."
+
+As Sylvia knew nothing of George Eliot, except what she had gleaned from
+the biographical data in a text-book on nineteenth-century writers, she
+was unable to follow Mrs. Bassett. She had read "Mill on the Floss," and
+"Romola" and saw no reason why every one shouldn't enjoy them.
+
+Mrs. Bassett twirled her closed parasol absently and studied the profile
+of the girl beside her.
+
+"The requirements for college are not really so difficult, I suppose?"
+she suggested.
+
+Sylvia's dark eyes brightened as she faced her interlocutor. Those of us
+who know Sylvia find that quick flash of humor in her eyes adorable.
+
+"Oh, they can't be, for I answered most of the questions!" she
+exclaimed, and then, seeing no response in her inquisitor, she added
+soberly: "It's all set out in the catalogue and I have one with me. I'd
+be glad to bring it over if you'd like to see it."
+
+"Thank you, Sylvia. I should like to see it. I may want to ask you some
+questions about the work; but of course you won't say anything to Marian
+of our talk. I am not quite sure, and I'll have to discuss it with Mr.
+Bassett."
+
+"Of course I shan't speak of it, Mrs. Bassett."
+
+Marian's voice was now heard calling them, down the path, and the girl
+appeared, a moment later, munching a bit of toast stuccoed with jam, and
+eager to be off for the casino where a tennis match was scheduled for
+the morning.
+
+"Don't be late for dinner this evening, Marian; your father will be
+here, and if you see Blackford, be sure to tell him to meet the 3.10."
+
+"Yes, mama, I'll remember, and I'll try to meet the train too." And then
+to Sylvia, as she led the way to the boathouse to get the canoe, "I'm
+glad dad's coming. He's perfectly grand, and I'm going to see if he
+won't give me a naphtha launch. Dad's a good old scout and he's pretty
+sure to do it."
+
+Marian's manner of speaking of her parents disclosed the filial
+relationship in a new aspect to Sylvia, who did not at once reconcile it
+with her own understanding of the fifth commandment. Marian referred to
+her father variously as "the grand old man," "the true scout," "Sir
+Morton the good knight," and to her mother as "the Princess Pauline,"
+or "one's mama," giving to _mama_ the French pronunciation. All this
+seemed to Sylvia to be in keeping with Marian's general precociousness.
+
+Sylvia had formed the habit of stealing away in the long twilights,
+after the cheerful gathering at Mrs. Owen's supper-table, for a little
+self-communing. Usually Mrs. Owen and Professor Kelton fell to talking
+of old times and old friends at this hour and Sylvia's disappearances
+were unremarked. She felt the joy of living these days, and loved dearly
+the delaying hour between day and night that is so lovely, so touched
+with poetry in this region. There was always a robin's vesper song, that
+may be heard elsewhere than in Indiana, but can nowhere else be so
+tremulous with joy and pain. A little creek ran across Mrs. Owen's farm,
+cutting for itself a sharp defile to facilitate its egress into the
+lake; and Sylvia liked to throw herself down beside a favorite maple,
+with the evening breeze whispering over the young corn behind her, and
+the lake, with its heart open to the coming of the stars, quiet before
+her, and dream the dreams that fill a girl's heart in those blessed and
+wonderful days when the brook and river meet.
+
+On this Saturday evening Sylvia was particularly happy. The day's
+activities, that had begun late, left her a little breathless. She was
+wondering whether any one had ever been so happy, and whether any other
+girl's life had ever been so pleasantly ordered. Her heartbeat quickened
+as she thought of college and the busy years that awaited her there; and
+after that would come the great world's wide-open doors. She was
+untouched by envy, hatred, or malice. There was no cloud anywhere that
+could mar; the stars that stole out into the great span of sky were not
+more tranquil than her own heart. The world existed only that people
+might show kindness one to another, and that all this beauty of wood,
+field, water, and starry sky might bring joy to the souls of men. She
+knew that there was evil in the world; but she knew it from books and
+not from life. Her path had fallen in pleasant places, and only
+benignant spirits attended her.
+
+She was roused suddenly by the sound of steps in the path beneath. This
+twilight sanctuary had never been invaded before, and she rose hastily.
+The course of an irregular path that followed the lake was broken here
+by the creek's miniature chasm, but adventurous pedestrians might gain
+the top and continue over a rough rustic bridge along the edge of Mrs.
+Owen's cornfield. Sylvia peered down, expecting to see Marian or
+Blackford, but a stranger was approaching, catching at bushes to
+facilitate his ascent. Sylvia stepped back, assuming it to be a cottager
+who had lost his way. A narrow-brimmed straw hat rose above the
+elderberry bushes, and with a last effort the man stood on level ground,
+panting from the climb. He took off his hat and mopped his face as he
+glanced about. Sylvia had drawn back, but as the stranger could not go
+on without seeing her she stepped forward, and they faced each other, in
+a little plot of level ground beside the defile.
+
+"Pardon me!" he exclaimed, still breathing hard; and then his eyes met
+hers in a long gaze. His gray eyes searched her dark ones for what
+seemed an interminable time. Sylvia's hand sought the maple but did not
+touch it; and the keen eyes of the stranger did not loosen their hold of
+hers. A breeze blowing across the cornfield swept over them, shaking the
+maple leaves, and rippled the surface of the lake. The dusk, deepening
+slowly, seemed to shut them in together.
+
+"Pardon me, again! I hope I didn't frighten you! I am Mr. Bassett,
+Marian's father."
+
+"And I am Sylvia Garrison. I am staying--"
+
+"Oh," he laughed, "you needn't tell me! They told me at the supper-table
+all about you and that you and Marian are fast friends."
+
+"I knew you were coming; they were speaking of it this morning."
+
+They had drawn closer together during this friendly exchange. Again
+their eyes met for an instant, then he surveyed her sharply from head to
+foot, as he stood bareheaded leaning on his stick.
+
+"I must be going," said Sylvia. "There's a path through the corn that
+Mrs. Owen lets me use. They'll begin to wonder what's become of me."
+
+"Why not follow the path to the lane,--I think there is a lane at the
+edge of the field,--and I will walk to the house with you. The path
+through the corn must be a little rough, and it's growing dark."
+
+"Yes, thank you, Mr. Bassett."
+
+"I had no idea of meeting any one when I came out. I usually take a
+little walk after supper when I'm here, and I wanted to get all the car
+smoke out of my lungs. I was glad to get out of Chicago; it was fiercely
+hot there."
+
+The path was not wide enough for two and she walked before him. After
+they had exhausted the heat as a topic, silence fell upon them. He still
+swung his hat in his hand. Once or twice he smote his stick smartly upon
+the ground. He timed his pace to hers, keeping close, his eyes upon her
+straight slender figure. When they reached the lane they walked together
+until they came to the highway, which they followed to the house. An oil
+lamp marked the walk that led through Mrs. Owen's flower garden.
+
+"Aren't you coming in, Mr. Bassett?" asked Sylvia, as they paused.
+
+Her hand clicked the latch and the little white-washed gate swung open.
+In the lamplight their eyes met again.
+
+"I'm sorry, but I must go home. This is the first time I've been here
+this summer, and my stay is short. I must be off again to-morrow."
+
+"Oh, that's too bad! Marian has been telling me that you would stay a
+month, she will be terribly disappointed"
+
+"My Western trip took more time than I expected I have a good deal to do
+at Fraserville and must get back there"
+
+She stepped inside, thinking he delayed out of courtesy to her, but to
+her surprise he fastened the latch deliberately and lingered.
+
+"They tell me you and your grandfather live at Montgomery. It's a
+charming town, one of the most interesting in the state."
+
+"Yes, Mr. Bassett. My grandfather taught in the college there."
+
+"I have often heard of Professor Kelton, of course. He's a citizen our
+state is proud of. Mrs. Bassett says you're going to college this
+fall--to Wellesley, is it? Mrs. Bassett has an idea that Marian ought to
+have a college education. What do you think about it?"
+
+He smiled kindly, and there was kindness in his deep voice.
+
+"I think girls should go who want to go," answered Sylvia, her hands on
+the pickets of the gate.
+
+"You speak like a politician," laughed Bassett. "That's exactly what I
+think; and I haven't seen that Marian is dying for a college career."
+
+"She has plenty of time to think of it," Sylvia replied. "I'm ever so
+much older"; and this seemed to dispose of that matter.
+
+"You are staying here some time?"
+
+"Another week. It seems that we've hardly been here a day."
+
+"You are fortunate in having Mrs. Owen for a friend. She is a very
+unusual woman."
+
+"The most wonderful person I ever knew!" responded Sylvia warmly.
+
+He still showed no haste to leave her, though he had just reached
+Waupegan, and was going away the next day.
+
+"Your grandfather isn't teaching at Madison now, I believe?"
+
+"No; but he lectures sometimes, and he has taught me; there was never a
+better teacher," she answered, smiling.
+
+"You must have been well taught if you are ready for college so early;
+you are--you say you're older than Marian--do you mind my asking how old
+you are?"
+
+"Nearly seventeen; seventeen in October."
+
+"Oh! Then you are four years older than Marian. But I mustn't keep you
+here. Please remember me to Mrs. Owen and tell her I'll drop in before I
+go." He bent over the gate and put out his hand. "Good-night, Miss
+Garrison!"
+
+Sylvia had never been called Miss Garrison before, and it was not
+without trepidation that she heard herself so addressed. Mr. Bassett had
+spoken the name gravely, and their eyes met again in lingering contact.
+When the door closed upon her he walked on rapidly; but once, before the
+trees had obscured Mrs. Owen's lights, he turned and glanced back.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+SILK STOCKINGS AND BLUE OVERALLS
+
+
+One night in this same June, Harwood was directed by the city editor of
+the "Courier" to find Mr. Edward G. Thatcher. Two reporters had failed
+at it, and it was desirable to verify reports as to certain transactions
+by which Thatcher, in conjunction with Morton Bassett, was believed to
+be effecting a merger of various glass-manufacturing interests. Thatcher
+had begun life as a brewer, but this would long since have been obscured
+by the broadening currents of fortune if it had not been for his
+persistent dabbling in politics. Whenever the Republican press was at a
+loss for something to attack, Thatcher's breweries--which he had
+concealed in a corporation that did not bear his name were an inviting
+and unfailing target. For years, though never seeking office, he had
+been a silent factor in politics, and he and Bassett, it was said,
+controlled their party. Mrs. Thatcher had built an expensive house, but
+fearing that the money her husband generously supplied was tainted by
+the remote beer vats, she and her two daughters spent most of their time
+in Europe, giving, however, as their reason the ill-health of Thatcher's
+son. Thatcher's income was large and he spent it in his own fashion. He
+made long journeys to witness prize fights; he had the reputation of
+being a poor poker player, but "a good loser"; he kept a racing-stable
+that lost money, and he was a patron of baseball and owned stock in the
+local club. He was "a good fellow" in a sense of the phrase that
+requires quotation marks. Mrs. Sally Owen, whose opinion in all matters
+pertaining to her fellow citizens is not to be slighted, fearlessly
+asked Thatcher to dinner at her house. She expressed her unfavorable
+opinion of his family for deserting him, and told him to his face that a
+man who knew as little about horses as he did should have a guardian.
+
+"He's in town somewhere," said the city editor; "don't come back and
+tell me you can't find him. Try the Country Club, where he was never
+known to go, and the University Club, where he doesn't belong, and all
+the other unlikely places you can think of. The other boys have thrown
+up their hands."
+
+Dan had several times been fortunate in like quests for men in hiding,
+and he had that confidence in his luck which is part of the good
+reporter's endowment. He called all the clubs and the Thatcher residence
+by telephone. The clubs denied all knowledge of Edward G. Thatcher, and
+his residence answered not at all; whereupon Harwood took the trolley
+for the Thatcher mansion in the new quarter of Meridian Street beyond
+the peaceful shores of Fall Creek. A humorist who described the passing
+show from the stern of a rubber-neck wagon for the instruction of
+tourists announced on every round that "This is Edward G. Thatcher's
+residence; it contains twelve bath-rooms, and cost seventy-five thousand
+dollars four years ago. The family have lived in it three months. Does
+it pay to be rich?"
+
+As Harwood entered the grounds the house loomed darkly before him. Most
+of the houses in this quarter were closed for the summer, but Dan
+assumed that there must be some sort of caretaker on the premises and he
+began patiently punching the front-door bell. Failing of any response,
+he next tried a side door and finally the extreme rear. He had begun to
+feel discouraged when, as he approached the front entrance for a second
+assault, he saw a light flash beyond the dark blinds. The door opened
+cautiously, and a voice gruffly bade him begone.
+
+"I have a message for Mr. Thatcher; it's very important--"
+
+"Mr. Thatcher not at home; nobody home," growled a voice in broken
+English. "You get right off dis place, quick!"
+
+Dan thrust his walking-stick into the small opening to guard against
+having the door slammed in his face and began a parley that continued
+for several minutes with rising heat on the part of the caretaker. The
+man's rage at being unable to close the door was not without its humor;
+but Dan now saw, beyond the German's broad shoulders, a figure lurking
+within, faintly discernible from the electric lamps in a bronze sconce
+on the wall.
+
+The reporter and the caretaker were making no progress in their colloquy
+and Dan was trying to catch a glimpse of the other man, who leaned
+against the wall quite indifferent to the struggle for the door. Dan
+supposed him to be another servant, and he had abandoned hope of
+learning anything of Thatcher, when a drawling voice called out:--
+
+"Open the door, Hans, and let the gentleman in: I'll attend to him."
+
+Dan found himself face to face with a young man of about his own age, a
+slender young fellow, clad in blue overalls and flannel shirt. He
+lounged forward with an air of languor that puzzled the reporter. His
+dress was not wholly conclusive as to his position in the silent house;
+the overalls still showed their pristine folds, the shirt was of good
+quality and well-cut. The ends of a narrow red-silk four-in-hand swung
+free. He was clean-shaven save for an absurd little mustache so fair as
+to be almost indistinguishable. His blond hair was brushed back unparted
+from his forehead. Another swift survey of the slight figure disclosed a
+pair of patent-leather pumps. His socks, revealed at the ankles, were
+scarlet. Dan was unfamiliar with the menage of such establishments as
+this, and he wondered whether this might not be an upper servant of a
+new species peculiar to homes of wealth. He leaned on his stick, hat in
+hand, and the big blue eyes of the young man rested upon him with
+disconcerting gravity. A door slammed at the rear upon the retreating
+German, whom this superior functionary had dispatched about his
+business. At a moment when the silence became oppressive the young man
+straightened himself slightly and spoke in a low voice, and with
+amusement showing clearly in his eyes and about his lips,--
+
+"You're a reporter."
+
+"Yes; I'm from the 'Courier.' I'm looking for Mr. Thatcher."
+
+"Suppose, suppose--if you're not in a great hurry, you come with me."
+
+The pumps, with the scarlet socks showing below the overalls, turned at
+the end of the broad hall and began ascending the stairs. The young
+man's manner was perfectly assured. He had not taken his hands from his
+pockets, and he carried himself with an ease and composure that set
+Dan's conjectures at naught. In the absence of the family, a servant
+might thus conduct himself; and yet, if Thatcher was not at home, why
+should he be thus ushered into the inner sanctities of the mansion by
+this singular young person, whose silk hose and bright pumps were so
+utterly out of harmony with the rest of his garb. There might be a trick
+in it; perhaps he had intruded upon a burglarious invasion,--this
+invitation to the upper chambers might be for the purpose of shutting
+him in somewhere until the place had been looted. It was, in any case, a
+novel adventure, and his curiosity was aroused by the languid pace with
+which, without pausing at the second floor, the young man continued on
+to the third. Through an open door Dan saw a bedroom in order for
+occupancy; but the furniture in the upper and lower halls was draped,
+and a faint odor of camphor hung upon the air. It had occurred to
+Harwood that he might be stumbling upon material for a good "story,"
+though just what it might prove to be was still a baffling question. His
+guide had not spoken or looked at him since beginning the ascent, and
+Harwood grasped his stick more firmly when they gained the third floor.
+If violence was in the programme he meant to meet it gallantly. His
+conductor passed through a spacious bedroom, and led the way to a
+pleasant lounging- and reading-room with walls lined with books. Without
+pausing he flung open a door that divulged a shop, with a bench and
+tools. The litter of carpentry on the bare floor testified to the room's
+recent use.
+
+"Sit down, won't you, and have a cigar?"
+
+Dan hesitated. He felt that he must be the victim of a practical joke,
+and it was time that his dignity asserted itself. He had accepted a
+cigar and was holding it in his fingers, still standing. His strange
+guide struck a match and held it, so that Dan perforce took advantage of
+the proffered flame; and he noticed now for the first time the young
+fellow's slender, nervous hands, which bore no marks of hard toil. He
+continued to watch them with interest as they found and filled a pipe.
+They were amazingly deft, expressive hands.
+
+"Have a chair! It's a good one; I made it myself!"
+
+With this the young gentleman jumped lightly upon the workbench where he
+nursed his knees and smoked his pipe. He was a graceful person, trimly
+and delicately fashioned, and in this strange setting altogether
+inexplicable. But Dan's time was important, and he had not yet learned
+anything as to Edward G. Thatcher's whereabouts. This languid young
+gentleman seemed wholly indifferent to the reporter's restlessness, and
+Dan's professional pride rebelled.
+
+"Pardon me, but I must see Mr. Thatcher. Where is he, please?"
+
+"He's gone, skipped! No manner of use in looking for him. On my honor,
+he's not in town."
+
+"Then why didn't you say so and be done with it?" demanded Dan angrily.
+
+"Please keep your seat," replied the young fellow from the workbench. "I
+really wish you would."
+
+He drew on his pipe for a moment, and Dan, curiously held by his look
+and manner and arrested by the gentleness of his voice, awaited further
+developments. He had no weapons with which to deal with this composed
+young person in overalls and scarlet hose. He swallowed his anger; but
+his curiosity now clamored for satisfaction.
+
+"May I ask just who you are and why on earth you brought me up here?"
+
+"Those are fair questions--two of them. To the first, I am Allen
+Thatcher, and this is my father's house. To the second--" He hesitated a
+moment, then shrugged his shoulders and laughed. "Well, if you must
+know,--I was so devilish lonesome!"
+
+He gazed at Harwood quizzically, with a half-humorous, half-dejected
+air.
+
+"If you're lonesome, Mr. Thatcher, it must be because you prefer it that
+way. It can't be necessary for you to resort to kidnapping just to have
+somebody to talk to. I thought you were in Europe."
+
+"Nothing as bad as that! What's your name, if you don't mind?"
+
+When Dan gave it, Thatcher nodded and thanked him.
+
+"College man?"
+
+"Yale."
+
+"That's altogether bully. I envy you, by George! You see," he went on
+easily, as though in the midst of a long and intimate conversation,
+"they took me abroad, and it never really counted. They always treated
+me as though I were an invalid; and kept me for a year or two squatting
+on an Alp on account of my lungs. It amused them, no doubt; and it
+filled in my time till I was too old to go to college. But now that I'm
+grown up, I'm going to stay at home. I've been here a month, having a
+grand old time; a little lonesome, and yet I'm a person of occupations
+and Hans cooks enough for me to eat. I haven't been down town much, but
+nobody knows me here anyhow. Dad's been living at the club or a hotel,
+but he moved up here to be with me. Dad's the best old chap on earth. I
+guess he liked my coming back. They rather bore him, I fancy. We've had
+a bully day or two, but dad has skipped. Gone to New York; be back in a
+week. Wanted me to go; but not me! I've had enough travel for a while.
+They gave me a dose of it."
+
+These morsels of information fell from him carelessly. His "they," Dan
+assumed, referred to his mother and sisters somewhere on the other side
+of the Atlantic; and young Thatcher spoke of them in a curiously
+impersonal and detached fashion. The whimsical humor that twinkled in
+his eyes occasionally was interesting and pleasing; and Dan imagined
+that he was enjoying the situation. Silk socks and overalls were
+probably a part of some whim; they certainly added picturesqueness to
+the scene. But the city editor must be informed that Edward G Thatcher
+was beyond his jurisdiction and Dan rose and moved toward the door.
+Allen jumped down and crossed to him quickly.
+
+"Oh, I say! I really wish you wouldn't go!"
+
+There was no doubt of the pleading in his voice and manner. He laid a
+hand very gently on Dan's arm.
+
+"But I've got to get back downtown, if your father has really gone and
+isn't hidden away here somewhere."
+
+"I've cut you a slice right out of the eternal truth on that, old man.
+Father will be in New York for breakfast in the morning. Search the
+house all you please; but, do you know, I'd rather like you to believe
+me."
+
+"Of course, I believe you; but it's odd the office didn't know you were
+here. They told me you and your mother and sisters were abroad, but that
+your father was in town. A personal item in the 'Courier' this morning
+said that you were all in the Hartz Mountains."
+
+"I dare say it did! The newspapers keep them all pretty well before the
+public. But I've had enough junketing. I'm going to stay right here for
+a while."
+
+"You prefer it here--is that the idea?"
+
+"Yes, I fancy I should if I knew it; I want to know it. But I'm all
+kinds of crazy, you know. They really think I'm clear off, simply
+because their kind of thing doesn't amuse me. I lost too much as a kid
+being away from home. They said I had to be educated abroad, and there
+you see me--Dresden awhile, Berlin another while, a lot of Geneva, and
+Paris for grand sprees. And my lung was always the excuse if they wanted
+to do a winter on the Nile,--ugh! The very thought of Egypt makes me ill
+now."
+
+"It all sounds pretty grand to me. I was never east of Boston in my
+life."
+
+"By Jove! I congratulate you," exclaimed the young man fervidly. "And
+I'll wager that you went to school at a cross-roads school-house and
+rode to town in a farm wagon to see a circus that had lions and
+elephants; and you probably chopped wood and broke colts and went
+swimming in an old swimmin'-hole and did all the other things you read
+about in American biographies and story books. I can see it in your eye;
+and you talk like it, too."
+
+"I dare say I do!" laughed Dan. "They've always told me that my voice
+sounds like a nutmeg grater."
+
+"They filed mine off! Mother was quite strong for the Italian _a_, and
+I'm afraid I've caught it, just like a disease."
+
+"I should call it a pretty good case. I was admiral of a canal boat in
+New Jersey one summer trying to earn enough money to carry my sophomore
+year in college, and cussing the mules ruined my hope of a reputable
+accent. It almost spoiled my Hoosier dialect!"
+
+"By George, I wonder if the canal-boat people would take me! It would be
+less lonesome than working at the bench here. Dad says I can do
+anything I like. He's tickled to death because I've come home. He's
+really the right sort; he did all the horny-handed business
+himself--ploughed corn, wore red mittens to a red school-house, and got
+licked with a hickory stick. But he doesn't understand why I don't
+either take a job in his office or gallop the Paris boulevards with
+mother and the girls; but he's all right. We're great pals. But the rest
+of them made a row because I came home. For a while they had dad's
+breweries as an excuse for keeping away, and my lungs! Dad hid the
+breweries, so their hope of a villa at Sorrento is in my chest. Dad says
+my lungs have been their main asset. There's really nothing the matter
+with me; the best man in New York told me so as I came through."
+
+His manner of speaking of his family was deliciously droll; he yielded
+his confidences as artlessly as a child.
+
+"They almost got a steam yacht on me last year," he went on. "Hired a
+Vienna doctor to say I ought to be kept at sea between Gibraltar and the
+Bosphorus. And here, by George, is America the dear, bully old America
+of Washington, Franklin, Andrew Jackson, and Abraham Lincoln! And they
+want to keep me chasing around among ruins and tombs! I say to you, Mr.
+Harwood, in all solemnity, that I've goo-gooed my last goo-goo at the
+tombs of dead kings!"
+
+They stood near the shop door during this interchange. Dan forgot, in
+his increasing interest and mystification, that the "Courier's" city
+editor was waiting for news of Thatcher, the capitalist. Young
+Thatcher's narrative partook of the nature of a protest. He was
+seriously in rebellion against his own expatriation. He stood erect now,
+with the color bright in his cheeks, one hand thrust into his pocket,
+the other clenching his pipe.
+
+"I tell you," he declared, "I've missed too much! Life over here is a
+big thing!--it's wonderful, marvelous, grand, glorious! And who am I to
+spend winters on the dead old Nile when history is being made right here
+on White River! I tell you I want to watch the Great Experiment, and if
+I were not a poor, worthless, ignorant ass I'd be a part of it."
+
+Dan did not question the young fellow's sincerity. His glowing eyes and
+the half-choked voice in which he concluded gave an authentic stamp to
+his lament and pronouncement. A look of dejection crossed his face. He
+had, by his own confession, asked Dan into the house merely to have some
+one to talk to; he was dissatisfied, unhappy, lonely; and his slender
+figure and flushed cheeks supported his own testimony that his health
+had been a matter of concern. The Nile and the Alps against which he had
+revolted might not be so unnecessary as he believed.
+
+The situation was so novel that Harwood's mind did not respond with the
+promptness of his heart. He had known the sons of rich men at college,
+and some of them had been his friends. It was quite the natural and
+accepted order of things that some children should be born to sheltered,
+pampered lives, while others were obliged to hew their own way to
+success. He had observed in college that the sons of the rich had a
+pretty good time of it; but he had gone his own way unenviously. It was
+not easy to classify young Thatcher. He was clearly an exotic, a curious
+pale flower with healthy roots and a yearning for clean, free air. Dan
+was suddenly conscious that the young fellow's eyes were bent upon him
+with a wistfulness, a kind of pleading sweetness, that the reporter had
+no inclination to resist. He delayed speaking, anxious to say the right
+word, to meet the plea in the right spirit.
+
+"I think I understand; I believe I should feel just as you do if I were
+in your shoes. It's mighty interesting, this whole big scheme we're a
+part of. Over there on the other side it's all different, the life, the
+aims, and the point of view. And here we've got just what you call
+it--the most wonderful experiment the world ever saw. Great Scott!" he
+exclaimed, kindling from the spark struck by Thatcher's closing words,
+"it's prodigious, overwhelming! There mustn't be any question of
+losing!"
+
+"That's right!" broke in Thatcher eagerly; "that's what I've been
+wanting somebody to say! It's so beautiful, so wonderful; the hope and
+promise are so immense! You believe it; I can see you do!" he concluded
+happily.
+
+His hand stole shyly from the pocket that seemed to be its inevitable
+hiding-place, and paused uncertainly; then he thrust it out, smiling.
+
+"Will you shake hands with me?"
+
+"Let us be old friends," replied Dan heartily. "And now I've got to get
+out of here or I'll lose my job."
+
+"Then I should have to get you another. I never meant to keep you so
+long. You've been mighty nice about it. I suppose I couldn't help you--I
+mean about dad? All you wanted was to see father or find you couldn't."
+
+"I had questions to ask him, of course. They were about a glass-factory
+deal with Bassett."
+
+"Oh, I dare say they bought them! He asked me if I didn't want to go
+into the glass business. He talks to me a lot about things. Dad's
+thinking about going to the Senate. Dad's a Democrat, like Jefferson and
+Jackson. If he goes to the Senate I'll have a chance to see the wheels
+go round at Washington. Perfectly bully for me!"
+
+Harwood grinned at the youth's naive references to Edward Thatcher's
+political ambitions. Thatcher was known as a wealthy "sport," and Dan
+had resented his meddling in politics. But this was startling news--that
+Thatcher was measuring himself for a senatorial toga.
+
+"You'd better be careful! There's a good story in that!"
+
+"But you wouldn't! You see, I'm not supposed to know!"
+
+"Bassett and your father will probably pull it off, if they try hard
+enough. They've pulled off worse things. If you're interested in
+American types you should know Bassett. Ever see him?"
+
+Allen laughed. His way of laughing was pleasant; there was a real
+bubbling mirth in him.
+
+"No; but I read about him in the 'Courier,' which they always have
+follow them about--I don't know why. It must be that it helps them to
+rejoice that they are so far away from home; but I always used to read
+it over there, I suppose to see how much fun I missed! And at a queer
+little place in Switzerland where we were staying--I remember, because
+our landlord had the drollest wart on his chin--a copy of the 'Courier'
+turned up on a rainy day and I read it through. A sketch of Bassett
+tickled me because he seemed so real. I felt that I'd like to be Morton
+Bassett myself,--the man who does things,--the masterful American,--a
+real type, by George! And that safe filled with beautiful bindings; it's
+fine to know there are such fellows."
+
+"Your words affect me strangely; I wrote the piece!"
+
+"Now that is funny!" Allen glanced at Dan with frank admiration. "You
+write well--praise from Sir Hubert--I scribble verses myself! So our
+acquaintance really began a long time ago. It must have been last
+October that we were at that place."
+
+"Yes; it was in the fall sometime. It's pleasant to know that anything
+printed in a newspaper is ever remembered so long. Bassett is an
+interesting man all right enough."
+
+"It must be bully to meet men like that--the men who have a hand in the
+big things. I must get dad to introduce me. I suppose you know
+everybody!" he ended admiringly.
+
+They retraced their steps through the silent house and down to the front
+door, continuing their talk. As Dan turned for their last words on the
+veranda steps he acted on an impulse and said:--
+
+"Have supper with me to-morrow night--we won't call it dinner--at the
+Whitcomb House. I'll meet you in the lobby at six o'clock. The honorable
+state committee is in town and I'll point out some of the moulders of
+our political destiny. They're a joy to the eye, I can tell you!"
+
+Allen's eager acquiescence, his stumbling, murmured thanks, emphasized
+Dan's sense of the forlorn life young Thatcher had described.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"So the old boy's skipped, has he?" demanded the city editor. "Well,
+that's one on us! Who put you on?"
+
+"I kept at the bell until the door opened and then I saw Thatcher's son.
+He told me."
+
+"Oh, the family idiot let you in, did he? Then there's no telling
+whether it's true or not. He's nutty, that fellow. Didn't know he was
+here."
+
+"I believe he told me the truth. His father's on his way to New York."
+
+"Well, that sounds definite; but it doesn't make any difference now.
+We've just had a tip to let the deal alone. For God's sake, keep at the
+law, Harwood; this business is hell." The city editor bit a fat cigar
+savagely. "You no sooner strike a good thing and work on it for two days
+than you butt into a dead wall. What? No; there's nothing more for you
+to-night."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+DANIEL HARWOOD RECEIVES AN OFFER
+
+
+A brief note from Morton Bassett, dated at Fraserville, reached Harwood
+in July. In five lines Bassett asked Dan to meet him at the Whitcomb
+House on a day and hour succinctly specified.
+
+Harwood had long since exhausted the list of Hoosier statesmen selected
+for niches in the "Courier's" pantheon. After his visit to Fraserville,
+he had met Bassett occasionally in the street or at the Whitcomb House;
+and several times he had caught a glimpse of him passing through the
+reception room of the law office into Mr. Fitch's private room. On these
+occasions Dan was aware that Bassett's presence caused a ripple of
+interest to run through the office. The students in the library
+generally turned from their books to speak of Bassett in low tones; and
+Mr. Wright, coming in from a journey on one of these occasions and
+anxious to see his partner forthwith, lifted his brow and said "Oh!"
+meaningfully when told that it was Morton Bassett who engaged the time
+of the junior member. Bassett's name did not appear in the office
+records to Dan's knowledge nor was he engaged in litigation. His
+conferences were always with Fitch alone, and they were sometimes of
+length.
+
+Harwood was not without his perplexities these days. His work for the
+"Courier" had gradually increased until he found that his time for study
+had diminished almost to the vanishing point. The home acres continued
+unprofitable, and he had, since leaving college, devoted a considerable
+part of his earnings to the relief of his father. His father's lack of
+success was an old story and the home-keeping sons were deficient in
+initiative and energy. Dan, with his ampler outlook, grudged them
+nothing, but the home needs were to be reckoned with in the disposition
+of his own time. He had now a regular assignment to the county courts
+and received a salary from the "Courier." He was usually so tired at the
+end of his day's work that he found it difficult to settle down to study
+at night in the deserted law office. The constant variety and excitement
+of newspaper work militated against the sober pondering of legal
+principles and Dan had begun to realize that, with the necessity for
+earning money hanging over him, his way to the bar, or to a practice if
+he should qualify himself, lay long and bleak before him.
+
+Dan had heard much of Morton Bassett since his visit to Fraserville. His
+conviction, dating from the Fraserville visit, that Bassett was a man of
+unusual character, destined to go far in any direction in which he chose
+to exert his energies, was proved by Bassett's growing prominence. A
+session of the legislature had intervened, and the opposition press had
+hammered Bassett hard. The Democratic minority under Bassett's
+leadership had wielded power hardly second to that of the majority.
+Bassett had introduced into state politics the bi-partisan alliance, a
+device by virtue of which members of the assembly representing favored
+interests cooperated, to the end that no legislation viciously directed
+against railways, manufacturers, brewers and distillers should succeed
+through the deplorable violence of reformers and radicals. Apparently
+without realizing it, and clearly without caring greatly, Bassett was
+thus doing much to destroy the party alignments that had in earlier
+times nowhere else been so definitely marked as in Indiana. Partisan
+editors of both camps were glad when the sessions closed, for it had
+been no easy matter to defend or applaud the acts of either majority or
+minority, so easily did Republicans and Democrats plot together at
+neutral campfires. It had not been so in those early post-bellum years,
+when Oliver Morton of the iron mace still hobbled on crutches. Harrison
+and Hendricks had fought no straw men when they went forth to battle.
+Harwood began to be conscious of these changes, which were wholly
+irreconcilable with the political ideals he had imbibed from Sumner at
+Yale. He had witnessed several political conventions of both parties
+from the press table, and it was gradually dawning upon him that
+politics is not readily expressed in academic terminology.
+
+The silver lining of the Democratic cloud had not greatly disturbed
+Morton Bassett. He had been a delegate to the national convention of
+1896, but not conspicuous in its deliberations; and in the subsequent
+turbulent campaign he had conducted himself with an admirable
+discretion. He was a member of the state committee and the chairman was
+said to be of his choosing. Bassett stood for party regularity and
+deplored the action of those Democrats who held the schismatic national
+convention at Indianapolis and nominated the Palmer and Buckner ticket
+on a gold-standard platform. He had continued to reelect himself to the
+senate without trouble, and waited for the political alchemists of his
+party to change the silver back to gold. The tariff was, after all, the
+main issue, Bassett held; but it was said that in his business
+transactions during these vexed years he had stipulated gold payment in
+his contracts. This was never proved; and if, as charged, he voted in
+1896 for Republican presidential electors it did not greatly matter when
+a considerable number of other Hoosier Democrats who, to outward view
+were virtuously loyal, managed to run with both hounds and hare. Bassett
+believed that his party would regain its lost prestige and come into
+power again; meanwhile he prospered in business, and wielded the
+Democratic minority at the state house effectively.
+
+Dan presented himself punctually at the Whitcomb House where Bassett,
+with his bag packed, sat reading a magazine. He wore a becoming gray
+suit without a waistcoat, and a blue neglige shirt, with a turnover
+collar and a blue tie. He pulled up his creased trousers when he sat
+down, and the socks thus disclosed above his tan Oxfords proved to be
+blue also. His manner was cordial without effusiveness; when they shook
+hands his eyes met Dan's with a moment's keen, searching gaze, as though
+he sought to affirm at once his earlier judgment of the young man
+before him.
+
+"I'm glad to see you again, Mr. Harwood. I was to be in town for the day
+and named this hour knowing I should be free."
+
+"I supposed you were taking it easy at Lake Waupegan. I remember you
+told me you had a place there."
+
+Bassett's eyes met Dan's quickly; then he answered:--
+
+"Oh, I ought to be there, but I've only had a day of it all summer. I
+had to spend a lot of time in Colorado on some business; and when I
+struck Waupegan I found that matters had been accumulating at home and I
+only spent one night at the lake. But I feel better when I'm at work.
+I'm holding Waupegan in reserve for my old age."
+
+"You don't look as though you needed a vacation," remarked Dan. "In fact
+you look as though you'd had one."
+
+"The Colorado sun did that. How are things going with you?"
+
+"Well, I've kept busy since I saw you in Fraserville. But I seem doomed
+to be a newspaper man in spite of myself. I like it well enough, but I
+think I told you I started out with some hope of landing in the law."
+
+"Yes, I remember. I'm afraid the trouble with you is that you're too
+good a reporter. That sketch you wrote of me proved that. If I had not
+been the subject of it I should be tempted to say that it showed what I
+believe they call the literary touch. Mrs. Bassett liked it; maybe
+because there was so little of her in it. We both appreciated your nice
+feeling and consideration in the whole article. Well, just how are you
+coming on in the law?"
+
+"Some of my work at college was preliminary to a law course, and I have
+done all the reading possible in Wright and Fitch's office. But I have
+to eat and the 'Courier' takes care of that pretty well; I've had to
+give less time to study. I don't know enough to be able to command a
+position as law clerk,--there aren't many pay jobs of that sort in a
+town like this."
+
+"I suppose that's true," assented Bassett. "I suppose I shall always
+regret I didn't hang on at the law, but I had other interests that
+conflicted. But I'm a member of the bar, as I probably told you at
+Fraserville, and I have a considerable library stored away."
+
+"That," laughed Dan, "is susceptible of two interpretations."
+
+"Oh, I don't mean it's in my head; it's in a warehouse in Fraserville."
+
+The grimness of Bassett's face in repose was an effect of his
+close-trimmed mustache. He was by no means humorless and his smile was
+pleasant. Dan felt drawn to him again as at Fraserville. Here was a man
+who stood four square to the winds, undisturbed by the cyclonic
+outbursts of unfriendly newspapers. In spite of the clashing winter at
+the state house and all he had heard and read of the senate leader since
+the Fraserville visit, Dan's opinion of Bassett stood. His sturdy
+figure, those firm, masterful hands, and his deep, serious voice all
+spoke for strength.
+
+"It has occurred to me, Mr. Harwood, that we might be of service to each
+other. I have a good many interests. You may have gathered that I am a
+very practical person. That is wholly true. In business I aim at
+success; I didn't start out in life to be a failure."
+
+Bassett paused a moment and Dan nodded. It was at the tip of his tongue
+to say that such should be every man's hope and aim, but Bassett
+continued.
+
+"I'm talking to you frankly. I'm not often mistaken in my judgments of
+men and I've taken a liking to you. I want to open an office here
+chiefly to have a quiet place from which to keep track of things that
+interest me. Fraserville is no longer quite central enough and I'm down
+here a good deal. I need somebody to keep an office open for me. I've
+been looking about and there are some rooms in the Boordman Building
+that I think would be about right. You might call the position I'm
+suggesting a private secretaryship, as I should want you to take charge
+of correspondence, make appointments, scan the papers, and keep me
+advised of the trend of things. I'm going to move my law library down
+here to give the rooms a substantial look, and if you feel like joining
+me you'll have a good deal of leisure for study. Then when you're ready
+for practice I may be in a position to help you. You will have a salary
+of, say, twelve hundred to begin with, but you can make yourself worth
+more to me."
+
+Dan murmured a reply which Bassett did not heed.
+
+"Your visit to my home and the article in the 'Courier' first suggested
+this to me. It struck me that you understood me pretty well. I read all
+the other sketches in that series and the different tone in which you
+wrote of me gave me the idea that you had tried to please me, and that
+you knew how to do it. How does the proposition strike you?"
+
+"It couldn't be otherwise than gratifying, Mr. Bassett. It's taken my
+breath away. It widens all my horizons. I have been questioning my
+destiny lately; the law as a goal had been drawing further away. And
+this mark of confidence--"
+
+"Oh, that point, the confidence will have to be mutual. I am a
+close-mouthed person and have no confidants, but of necessity you will
+learn my affairs pretty thoroughly if you accept my offer. You have
+heard a good deal of talk about me--most of it unflattering. You have
+heard that I drive hard bargains. At every session of the legislature I
+am charged with the grossest corruption. There are men in my own party
+who are bent on breaking me down and getting rid of me. I'm going to
+give them the best fight I can put up. I can't see through the back of
+my head: I want you to do that for me."
+
+"I don't know much about the practical side of politics; it's full of
+traps I've never seen sprung, but I know they're planted."
+
+"To be perfectly frank, it's because you're inexperienced that I want
+you. I wouldn't trust anybody who had political ambitions of his own, or
+who had mixed up in any of these local squabbles. And, besides, you're a
+gentleman and an educated man, and that counts for something."
+
+"You are very kind and generous. I appreciate this more than I can tell
+you. And I'd like--"
+
+"Don't decide about it now. I'd rather you didn't. Take a week to it,
+then drop me a line to Fraserville, or come up if you want to talk
+further."
+
+"Thank you; I shan't want so much time. In any event I appreciate your
+kindness. It's the most cheering thing that ever happened to me."
+
+Bassett glanced at his watch. He had said all he had to say in the
+matter and closed the subject characteristically.
+
+"Here's a little thing I picked up to-day,--a copy of Darlington's
+'Narrative,'--he was with St. Clair, you know; and practically all the
+copies of the book were burned in a Philadelphia printing-office before
+they were bound; you will notice that some of the pages are slightly
+singed. As you saw at my house, I'm interested in getting hold of books
+relating to the achievements of the Western pioneers. Some of these
+bald, unvarnished tales give a capital idea of the men who conquered the
+wilderness. They had the real stuff in them, those fellows!"
+
+He took the battered volume--a pamphlet clumsily encased in boards, and
+drew his hand across its rough sides caressingly.
+
+"Another of my jokes on the State Library. The librarian told me I'd
+never find a copy, and this was on top of a pile of trash in a
+second-hand shop right here in this town. It cost me just fifty cents."
+
+He snapped his bag shut on the new-found treasure and bade Dan good-bye
+without referring again to the proposed employment.
+
+Dan knew, as he left the hotel, that if an answer had been imperatively
+demanded on the spot, he should have accepted Bassett's proposition; but
+as he walked slowly away questions rose in his mind. Bassett undoubtedly
+expected to reap some benefit from his services, and such services would
+not, of course, be in the line of the law. They were much more likely to
+partake of the function of journalism, in obtaining publicity for such
+matters as Bassett wished to promulgate. The proposed new office at the
+capital marked an advance of Bassett's pickets. He was abandoning old
+fortifications for newer and stronger ones, and Dan's imagination
+kindled at the thought of serving this masterful general as
+aide-de-camp.
+
+He took a long walk, thinking of Bassett's offer and trying to view it
+from a philosophical angle. The great leaders in American politics had
+come oftener than not from the country, he reflected. Fraserville, in
+Dan's cogitations, might, as Bassett's star rose, prove to be another
+Springfield or Fremont or Canton, shrouding a planet destined to a
+brilliant course toward the zenith. He did not doubt that Bassett's
+plans were well-laid; the state senator was farseeing and shrewd, and by
+attaching himself to this man, whose prospects were so bright, he would
+shine in the reflected glory of his successes. And the flattery of the
+offer was not in itself without its magic.
+
+However, as the days passed Dan was glad that he had taken time for
+reflection. He began to minimize the advantages of the proposed
+relationship, and to ponder the ways in which it would compel a certain
+self-effacement. He had sufficient imagination to color the various
+scenes in which he saw himself Bassett's "man." In moods of
+self-analysis he knew his nature to be sensitive, with an emotional side
+whose expressions now and then surprised him. He rallied sharply at
+times from the skeptical attitude which he felt journalism was
+establishing in him, and assured himself that his old ideals were safe
+in the citadel his boyhood imagination had built for them. Dan's father
+was a veteran of the Civil War and he had been taught to believe that
+the Democratic Party had sought to destroy the Union and that the
+Republican Party alone had saved it. Throughout his boyhood on the
+Harrison County farm, he had been conscious of the recrudescence of the
+wartime feeling in every political campaign. His admiration for the
+heroes of the war was in no wise shaken at New Haven, but he first
+realized there that new issues demanded attention. He grew impatient of
+all attempts to obscure these by harking back to questions that the war
+had finally determined, if it had served any purpose whatever. He broke
+a lance frequently with the young men who turned over the books in
+Wright and Fitch's office, most of whom were Republicans and devout
+believers that the furnace fires of America's industries were brought
+down from Heaven by Protection, a modern Prometheus of a new order of
+utilitarian gods. In the view of these earnest debaters, Protection was
+the first and last commandment, the law and the prophets. The
+"Indianapolis Advertiser" and protection newspapers generally had long
+attacked periodically those gentlemen who, enjoying the sheltered life
+of college and university, were corrupting the youth of the land by
+questioning the wisdom of the fire-kindling god. There was a wide margin
+between theory and practice, between academic dilletantism and a
+prosperous industrial life fostered and shielded by acts of Congress. It
+required courage for young men bred in the popular faith to turn their
+backs upon the high altar, so firmly planted, so blazing with lamps of
+perpetual adoration.
+
+While Dan was considering the politician's offer, a letter from home
+brought a fresh plea for help, and strengthened a growing feeling that
+his wiser course was to throw in his fortunes with Bassett. In various
+small ways Mr. Fitch had shown an interest in Harwood, and Dan resolved
+to take counsel of the lawyer before giving his answer.
+
+The little man sat in his private room in his shirt sleeves, with his
+chair tipped back and his feet on his desk. He was, in his own phrase,
+"thinking out a brief." He fanned himself in a desultory fashion with a
+palm leaf. Dan had carried in an arm load of books which Fitch indicated
+should be arranged, back-up, on the floor beside him.
+
+Dan lingered a moment and Fitch's "Well" gave him leave to proceed. He
+stated Bassett's offer succinctly, telling of his visit to Fraserville
+and of the interview at the Whitcomb. When he had concluded Fitch
+asked:--
+
+"Why haven't you gone ahead and closed the matter? On the face of it
+it's a good offer. It gives you a chance to read law and to be
+associated with a man who is in a position to be of great service to
+you."
+
+"Well, to tell the truth, sir, I have had doubts. Bassett stands for
+some things I don't approve of--his kind of politics, I mean."
+
+"Oh! He doesn't quite square with your ideals, is that it?"
+
+"I suppose that is it, Mr. Fitch."
+
+The humor kindled in the little man's brown eyes, and his fingers played
+with his whitening red beard.
+
+"Just how strong are those ideals of yours, Mr. Harwood?"
+
+"They're pretty strong, I hope, sir."
+
+Fitch dropped his feet from the desk, opened a drawer, and drew out a
+long envelope.
+
+"It may amuse you to know that this is the sketch of Bassett you printed
+in the 'Courier' last fall. I didn't know before that you wrote it. No
+wonder it tickled him. And--er--some of it is true. I wouldn't talk to
+any other man in Indiana about Bassett. He's a friend and a client of
+mine. He doesn't trust many people; he doesn't"--the little man's eyes
+twinkled--"he doesn't trust Wright!--and he trusts me because we are
+alike in that we keep our mouths shut. You must have impressed him very
+favorably. He seems willing to take you at face value. It would have
+been quite natural for him to have asked me about you, but he didn't. Do
+you know Thatcher--Edward G.? He has business interests with Bassett,
+and Thatcher dabbles in politics just enough to give him power when he
+wants it. Thatcher is a wealthy man, who isn't fooling with small
+politics. If some day he sees a red apple at the top of the tree he may
+go for it. There'd be some fun if Bassett tried to shake down the same
+apple."
+
+"I know Thatcher's son."
+
+"Allen? I met him the other day. Odd boy; I guess that's one place where
+Ed Thatcher's heart is all right."
+
+After a moment's reflection with his face turned to the open window
+Fitch added:--
+
+"Mr. Harwood, if you should go to Bassett and in course of time,
+everything running smoothly, he asked you to do something that jarred
+with those ideals of yours, what should you do?"
+
+"I should refuse, sir," answered Dan, earnestly.
+
+Fitch nodded gravely.
+
+"Very well; then I'd say go ahead. You understand that I'm not
+predicting that such a moment is inevitable, but it's quite possible.
+I'll say to you what I've never said before to any man: I don't
+understand Morton Bassett. I've known him for ten years, and I know him
+just as well now as I did the day I first met him. That may be my own
+dullness; but ignoring all that his enemies say of him,--and he has some
+very industrious ones, as you know,--he's still, at his best, a very
+unusual and a somewhat peculiar and difficult person."
+
+"He's different, at least; but I can't think him half as bad as they say
+he is."
+
+"He isn't, probably," replied Fitch, whose eyes were contemplating the
+cornice of the building across the street. Then, as though just
+recalling Dan's presence: "May I ask you whether, aside from that
+'Courier' article, you ever consciously served Bassett in any way--ever
+did anything that might have caused him to feel that he was under
+obligations?"
+
+"Why, no, sir; nothing whatever."
+
+"--Or--" a considerable interval in which Fitch's gaze reverted to the
+cornice--"that you might have some information that made it wise for him
+to keep his hand on you?"
+
+"Absolutely nothing," answered Dan, the least bit uncomfortable under
+this questioning.
+
+"You're not aware," the lawyer persisted deliberately, "that you ever
+had any dealings of any kind even remotely with Mr. Bassett."
+
+"No; never, beyond what I've told you."
+
+"Then, if I were in your place, and the man I think you are, I'd accept
+the offer, but don't bind yourself for a long period; keep your mouth
+shut and hang on to your ideals,--it's rather odd that you and I should
+be using that word; it doesn't get into a law office often. If you feel
+tempted to do things that you know are crooked, think of Billy Sumner,
+and act accordingly. It's getting to be truer all the time that few of
+us are free men. What's Shakespeare's phrase?--'bound upon a wheel of
+fire';--that, Mr. Harwood, is all of us. We have valuable clients in
+this office that we'd lose if I got out and shouted my real political
+convictions. We're all cowards; but don't you be one. As soon as I'm
+sure I've provided for my family against the day of wrath I'm going to
+quit the law and blow the dust off of some of my own ideals; it's thick,
+I can tell you!"
+
+This was seeing Fitch in a new aspect. Dan was immensely pleased by the
+lawyer's friendliness, and he felt that his counsel was sound.
+
+Fitch broke in on the young man's thoughts to say:--
+
+"By the way, you know where I live? Come up and dine with me to-morrow
+at seven if you're free. My folks are away and I'd like to swap views
+with you on politics, religion, baseball, and great subjects like that."
+
+Dan wrote his acceptance of Bassett's offer that night.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+IN THE BOORDMAN BUILDING
+
+
+Harwood opened the office in the Boordman Building, and settled in it
+the law books Bassett sent from Fraserville. The lease was taken in
+Dan's name, and he paid for the furniture with his own check, Bassett
+having given him five hundred dollars for expenses. The Boordman was one
+of the older buildings in Washington Street, and as it antedated the era
+of elevators, only the first of its three stories was occupied by
+offices. Its higher altitudes had fallen to miscellaneous tenants
+including a few telegraph operators, printers, and other night workers
+who lodged there for convenience. Dan's immediate neighbors proved to be
+a shabby lawyer who concealed by a professional exterior his real
+vocation, which was chattel mortgages; a fire insurance agency conducted
+by several active young fellows of Dan's acquaintance; and the office of
+a Pittsburg firm of construction contractors, presided over by a girl
+who answered the telephone if haply it rang at moments when the heroes
+of the novels she devoured were not in too imminent peril of death.
+
+This office being nearest, Dan went in to borrow a match for his pipe
+while in the midst of his moving and found the girl rearranging her hair
+before a mirror.
+
+"That's as near heart disease as I care to come," she said, turning at
+his "Beg pardon." "There hasn't been a man in this place for two weeks,
+much less a woman. Yes, I can stake you for a match. I keep them for
+those insurance fellows--nice boys they are, too. You see," she
+continued, not averse to prolonging the conversation, "our business is
+mostly outside. Hear about the sky-scraper we're building in Elwood?
+Three stories! One of the best little towns in Indiana, all right. Say,
+the janitor service in this old ark is something I couldn't describe to
+a gentleman. If there's anything in these microbe fairy stories we'll
+all die early. You might as well know the worst:--they do light
+housekeeping on the third floor and the smell of onions is what I call
+annoying. Oh, that's all right; what's a match between friends! The last
+man who had your office--you've taken sixty-six?--well, he always got
+his matches here, and touched me occasionally for a pink photo of George
+Washington--stamp, ha! ha! see! He was real nice and when his wife
+dropped in to see him one day and I was sitting in there joshing him and
+carrying on, he was that painfully embarrassed! I guess she made him
+move; but, Lord, they have to bribe tenants to get 'em in here. To crawl
+up one flight of that stairway you have to be a mountain climber. I only
+stay because the work's so congenial and it's a quiet place for reading,
+and all the processions pass here. The view of that hairdressing shop
+across the way is something I recommend. If I hadn't studied stenography
+I should have taken up hairdressing or manicuring. A little friend of
+mine works in that shop and the society ladies are most confidential.
+I'm Miss Rose Farrell, if you tease me to tell. You needn't say by any
+other name it's just as sweet--the ruffle's a little frayed on that."
+
+Bassett had stipulated that his name should not appear and he suggested
+that Dan place his own on the door. Later, when he had been admitted to
+the bar it would be easy to add "attorney at law," Bassett said. Each of
+the three rooms of what the agent of the building liked to call a suite
+opened directly into the hall. In the first Harwood set up a desk for
+himself; in the second he placed the library, and the third and largest
+was to be Bassett's at such times as he cared to use it. Throughout the
+summer Harwood hardly saw Bassett, and he began to regret his reluctant
+assent to a relationship which conferred so many benefits with so little
+work. He dug hungrily at the law, and felt that he was making progress.
+Fitch, who was braving the heat in town, had outlined a course of
+reading for him, and continued his manifestations of friendliness by
+several times asking him to dinner, with a motor ride later to cool them
+off before going to bed.
+
+Bassett kept pretty close to Fraserville, running into the city
+occasionally for a few hours. He complained now and then because he saw
+so little of his family, who continued at the lake. Dan had certain
+prescribed duties, but these were not onerous. A great many of the
+country newspapers began to come to the office, and it was Harwood's
+business to read them and cut out any items bearing upon local
+political conditions. Bassett winnowed these carefully, brushing the
+chaff into his wastebasket and retaining a few kernels for later use. He
+seemed thoroughly familiar with the state press and spoke of the rural
+newspapers with a respect that surprised Harwood, who had little
+patience with what he called the "grapevine dailies," with their scrappy
+local news, patent insides, and servile partisan opinions. Still, he
+began to find in a considerable number of these papers, even those
+emanating from remote county seats, a certain raciness and independence.
+This newspaper reading, which Dan had begun perfunctorily, soon
+interested him. It was thus, he saw, that Bassett kept in touch with
+state affairs. Sporadic temperance movements, squabbles over local
+improvements, rows in school boards, and like matters were not beneath
+Bassett's notice. He discussed these incidents and conditions with
+Harwood, who was astonished to find how thoroughly Bassett knew the
+state.
+
+Through all this Dan was not blind to the sins charged against Bassett.
+There were certain corporations which it was said Bassett protected from
+violence at the state house. But as against this did not the vast horde
+of greedy corporations maintain a lobby at every session and was not a
+certain amount of lobbying legitimate? Again, Bassett had shielded the
+liquor interests from many attacks; but had not these interests their
+rights, and was it not a sound doctrine that favored government with the
+least restraint? Rather uglier had been Bassett's identification with
+the organization of the White River Canneries Company, a combination of
+industries on which a scandalous overissue of stock had been sold in
+generous chunks to a confiding public, followed in a couple of years by
+a collapse of the business and a reorganization that had frozen out all
+but a favored few. Still, Bassett had not been the sole culprit in that
+affair, and was not this sort of financiering typical of the time?
+Bassett and Thatcher had both played the gentle game of freeze-out in
+half a dozen other instances, and if they were culpable, why had they
+not been brought to book? In his inner soul Dan knew why not: in the
+bi-partisan political game only the stupid are annoyed by grand juries,
+which take their cue tamely from ambitious prosecuting attorneys eager
+for higher office.
+
+Bassett's desk stood against the wall and over it hung a map of Indiana.
+It was no unusual thing for Dan to find Bassett with his chair tipped
+back, his eyes fixed upon the map. The oblong checkerboard formed by the
+ninety-two counties of the Hoosier commonwealth seemed to have a
+fascination for the man from Fraserville. When Dan found him thus in
+rapt contemplation Bassett usually turned toward him a little
+reluctantly and absently. It was thus that Morton Bassett studied the
+field, like a careful general outlining his campaigns, with ample data
+and charts before him.
+
+This was an "off" year politically, or, more accurately, the statutes
+called for no state election in Indiana. For every one knows that there
+is no hour of the day in any year when politics wholly cease from
+agitating the waters of the Wabash: somewhere some one is always
+dropping in a pebble to see how far the ripple will widen. In the torrid
+first days of September the malfeasance of the treasurer of an Ohio
+River county afforded the Republican press an opportunity to gloat, the
+official in question being, of course, a Democrat, and a prominent
+member of the state committee.
+
+For several days before the exposure Bassett had appeared fitfully at
+the Whitcomb and in the Boordman Building. On the day that the
+Republican "Advertiser" screamed delightedly over the Democratic scandal
+in Ranger County, Bassett called Dan into his office. Bassett's name had
+been linked to that of Miles, the erring treasurer, in the
+"Advertiser's" headlines; and its leading editorial had pointed to the
+defalcation as the sort of thing that inevitably follows the domination
+of a party by a spoilsman and corruptionist like the senator from
+Fraser.
+
+Bassett indicated by a nod a copy of the "Advertiser" on his desk.
+
+"The joke was on us this time. They're pinning Miles on me, and I guess
+I'll have to wear him like a bouquet. I've been in Louisville fixing
+this thing up and they won't have as much fun as they thought. It's a
+simple case: Miles hadn't found out yet that corn margins are not
+legitimate investments for a county's money. He's a good fellow and will
+know better next time. We couldn't afford to have a member of the state
+committee in jail, so I met the bondsmen and the prosecuting
+attorney--he's a Republican--in Louisville and we straightened it all
+out. The money's in bank down there. It proves to be after all a matter
+of bookkeeping,--technical differences, which were reconciled readily
+enough. Miles got scared; those fellows always do. He'll be good now."
+
+Dan had been standing. Bassett pointed to a chair.
+
+"I want you to write an interview with me on this case, laying emphasis
+on the fact that the trouble was all due to an antiquated system of
+keeping the accounts, which Miles inherited from his predecessors in
+office. The president of the bank and the prosecutor have prepared
+statements,--I have them in my pocket,--and I want you to get all the
+publicity you know how for these things. Let me see. In my interview
+you'd better lay great stress on the imperative need for a uniform
+accounting law for county officials. Say that we expect to stand for
+this in our next platform; make it strong. Have me say that this
+incident in Ranger County, while regrettable, will serve a good purpose
+if it arouses the minds of the people to the importance of changing the
+old unsatisfactory method of bookkeeping that so frequently leads
+perfectly trustworthy and well-meaning officials into error. Do you get
+the idea?"
+
+"Yes; perfectly," Dan replied. "As I understand it, Miles isn't guilty,
+but you would take advantage of the agitation to show the necessity for
+reform."
+
+"Exactly. And while you're about it, write a vigorous editorial for the
+'Courier,' on the same line, and a few ironical squibs based on the
+eagerness of the Republican papers to see all Democrats through black
+goggles." The humor showed in Bassett's eyes for an instant, and he
+added: "Praise the Republican prosecutor of Ranger County for refusing
+to yield to partisan pressure and take advantage of a Democrat's
+mistakes of judgment. He's a nice fellow and we've got to be good to
+him."
+
+This was the first task of importance that Bassett had assigned to him
+and Dan addressed himself to it zealously. If Miles was not really a
+defaulter there was every reason why the heinous aspersions of the
+opposition press should be dealt with vigorously. Dan was impressed by
+Bassett's method of dealing with a difficult situation. Miles had erred,
+but Bassett had taken the matter in hand promptly, secretly, and
+effectively. His attitude toward the treasurer's sin was tolerant and
+amiable. Miles had squandered money in bucket-shop gambling, but the sin
+was not uncommon, and the amount of his loss was sufficient to assure
+his penitence; he was an ally of Bassett's and it was Bassett's way to
+take care of his friends. Bassett had not denied that the culprit had
+been guilty of indiscretions; but he had minimized the importance of his
+error and adorned the tale with a moral on which Dan set about laying
+the greatest emphasis. He enjoyed writing, and in the interview he
+attributed ideas to Bassett that would have been creditable to the most
+idealistic of statesmen. He based the editorial Bassett had suggested
+upon the interview; and he wrote half a dozen editorial paragraphs in a
+vein of caustic humor that the "Courier" affected. In the afternoon he
+copied his articles on a typewriter and submitted them to Bassett.
+
+"Good, very good. Too bad to take you out of the newspaper business; you
+have the right point of view and you know how to get hold of the right
+end of a sentence. Let me see. I wish you would do another interview
+changing the phraseology and making it short, and we'll give the
+'Advertiser' a chance to print it. I'll attend to these other things.
+You'd better not be running into the 'Courier' office too much now that
+you're with me. They haven't got on to that yet, but they'll give us a
+twist when they do."
+
+Dan had been admitted to the ante-chamber of Bassett's confidence, but
+he was to be permitted to advance a step further. At four o'clock he was
+surprised by the appearance of Atwill, the "Courier's" manager. Dan had
+no acquaintance with Atwill, whose advent had been coincident with the
+"Courier's" change of ownership shortly after Dan's tentative connection
+with the paper began. Atwill had rarely visited the editorial
+department, but it was no secret that he exercised general supervision
+of the paper. It had been whispered among the reporters that every issue
+was read carefully in proof by Atwill, but Dan had never been
+particularly interested in this fact. As Atwill appeared in the outer
+office, Bassett came from his own room to meet him. The door closed
+quickly upon the two and they were together for half an hour or more.
+Then Bassett summoned Dan.
+
+"Mr. Atwill, this is Mr. Harwood. He was formerly employed on the
+'Courier.' It was he that wrote up the Hoosier statesmen, you may
+remember."
+
+Atwill nodded.
+
+"I remember very well. Those articles helped business,--we could follow
+your pencil up and down the state on our circulation reports. I jumped
+the city editor for letting you go."
+
+Atwill was a lean, clean-shaven man who chewed gum hungrily. His eyes
+were noticeably alert and keen. There was a tradition that he had been a
+"star" reporter in New York, a managing editor in Pittsburg, and a
+business manager in Minneapolis before coming to supervise the "Courier"
+for its new owner.
+
+"Atwill, you and Harwood had better keep in touch with each other.
+Harwood is studying law here, but he will know pretty well what I'm
+doing. He will probably write an editorial for you occasionally, and
+when it comes in it won't be necessary for the regular employees of the
+'Courier' to know where it comes from. Harwood won't mind if they take
+all the glory for his work."
+
+When Atwill left, Bassett talked further to Harwood, throwing his legs
+across a chair and showing himself more at ease than Dan had yet seen
+him.
+
+"Harwood," he said,--he had dropped the mister to-day for the first time
+in their intercourse,--"I've opened the door wider to you than I ever
+did before to any man. I trust you."
+
+"I appreciate that, Mr. Bassett."
+
+"I've been carrying too much, and it's a relief to find that I've got a
+man I can unload on. You understand, I trust you absolutely. And in
+coming to me as you did, and accepting these confidences, I assume that
+you don't think me as wicked as my enemies make me out."
+
+"I liked you," said Dan, with real feeling, "from that moment you shook
+hands with me in your house at Fraserville. When I don't believe in you
+any longer, I'll quit; and if that time comes you may be sure that I
+shan't traffic in what I learn of your affairs. I feel that I want to
+say that to you."
+
+"That's all right, Harwood. I hope our relations will be increasingly
+friendly; but if you want to quit at any time you're not tied. Be sure
+of that. If you should quit me to-morrow I should be disappointed but I
+wouldn't kick. And don't build up any quixotic ideas of gratitude toward
+me. When you don't like your job, move on. I guess we understand each
+other."
+
+If Dan entertained any doubts as to the ethics involved in Bassett's
+handling of the situation in Ranger County they were swept away by the
+perfect candor with which Bassett informed their new intimacy. The most
+interesting and powerful character in Indiana politics had made a
+confidant of him. Without attempting to exact vows of secrecy, or
+threatening vengeance for infractions of faith, but in a spirit of
+good-fellowship that appealed strongly to Harwood, Bassett had given him
+a pass-key to many locked doors.
+
+"As you probably gathered," Bassett was saying, "Atwill represents me at
+the 'Courier' office."
+
+"I had never suspected it," Dan replied.
+
+"Has anybody suspected it?" asked Bassett quickly.
+
+"Well; of course it has been said repeatedly that you own or control the
+'Courier.'"
+
+"Let them keep on saying it; they might have hard work to prove it.
+And--" Bassett's eyes turned toward the window. His brows contracted and
+he shut his lips tightly so that his stiff mustache gave to his mouth a
+sinister look that Dan had never seen before. The disagreeable
+expression vanished and he was his usual calm, unruffled self. "And," he
+concluded, smiling, "I might have some trouble in proving it myself."
+
+Dan was not only accumulating valuable information, but Bassett
+interested him more and more as a character. He was an unusual man, a
+new type, this senator from Fraser, with his alternating candor and
+disingenuousness, his prompt solutions of perplexing problems. It was
+unimaginable that a man so strong and so sure of himself, and so shrewd
+in extricating others from their entanglements, could ever be cornered,
+trapped, or beaten.
+
+Bassett's hands had impressed Dan that first night at Fraserville, and
+he watched them again as Bassett idly twisted a rubber band in his
+fingers. How gentle those hands were and how cruel they might be!
+
+The next morning Dan found that his interview with Bassett was the
+feature of the first page of the "Courier," and the statement he had
+sent to the "Advertiser" was hardly less prominently displayed. His
+editorial was the "Courier's" leader, and it appeared _verbatim et
+literatim_. He viewed his work with pride and satisfaction; even his
+ironical editorial "briefs" had, he fancied, something of the piquancy
+he admired in the paragraphing of the "New York Sun." But his
+gratification at being able to write "must" matter for both sides of a
+prominent journal was obscured by the greater joy of being the chief
+adjutant of the "Courier's" sagacious concealed owner.
+
+The "Advertiser" replied to Bassett's statement in a tone of hilarity.
+Bassett's plea for a better accounting system was funny, that was all.
+Miles, the treasurer of Ranger County, had been playing the bucket shops
+with public moneys, and the Honorable Morton Bassett, of Fraserville,
+with characteristic zeal in a bad cause, had not only adjusted the
+shortage, but was craftily trying to turn the incident to the advantage
+of his party. The text for the "Advertiser's" leader was the jingle:--
+
+     "When the devil was sick, the devil a monk would be;
+     When the devil got well, the devil a monk was he!"
+
+Bassett had left town, but the regular staff of the "Courier" kept up
+the fight along the lines of the articles Dan had contributed. The
+"Advertiser," finding that the Republican prosecuting attorney of Ranger
+County joined with the local bank in certifying to Miles's probity,
+dropped the matter after a few scattering volleys.
+
+However, within a week after the Miles incident, the "Advertiser" gave
+Harwood the shock of an unlooked-for plunge into ice-water by printing a
+sensational story under a double-column headline, reading, "The Boss in
+the Boordman Building." The Honorable Morton Bassett, so the article
+averred, no longer satisfied to rule his party amid the pastoral calm
+of Fraser County, had stolen into the capital and secretly established
+headquarters, which meant, beyond question, the manifestation of even a
+wider exercise of his malign influence in Indiana politics. Harwood's
+name enjoyed a fame that day that many years of laborious achievement
+could not have won for it. The "Advertiser's" photographers had stolen
+in at night and taken a flashlight picture of the office door, bearing
+the legend
+
+     66
+
+     DANIEL HARWOOD
+
+Harwood's personal history was set forth in florid phrases. It appeared
+that he had been carefully chosen and trained by Bassett to aid in his
+evil work. His connection with the "Courier," which had seemed to Dan at
+the time so humble, assumed a dignity and importance that highly amused
+him. It was quite like the Fraserville boss to choose a young man of
+good antecedents, the graduate of a great university, with no previous
+experience in politics, the better to bend him to his will. Dan's
+talents and his brilliant career at college all helped to magnify the
+importance of Bassett's latest move. Morton Bassett was dangerous, the
+"Advertiser" conceded editorially, because he had brains; and he was
+even more to be feared because he could command the brains of other men.
+
+Dan called Bassett at Fraserville on the long distance telephone and
+told him of the disclosure. Bassett replied in a few sentences.
+
+"That won't hurt anything. I'd been expecting something of the kind. Put
+you in, did they? I'll get my paper to-night and read it carefully.
+Better cut the stuff out and send it in an envelope, to make sure. Call
+Atwill over and tell him we ignore the whole business. I'm taking a
+little rest, but I'll be in town in about a week."
+
+Dan was surprised to find how bitterly he resented the attack on
+Bassett. The "Advertiser" spoke of the leader as though he were a
+monster of immorality and Dan honestly believed Bassett to be no such
+thing. His loyalty was deeply intensified by the hot volleys poured into
+the Boordman Building; but he was not disturbed by the references to
+himself. He winced a little bit at being called a "stool pigeon"; but he
+thought he knew the reporter who had written the article, and his
+experience in the newspaper office had not been so brief but that it had
+killed his layman's awe of the printed word. When he walked into the
+Whitcomb that evening the clerk made a point of calling his name and
+shaking hands with him. He was conscious that a number of idlers in the
+hotel lobby regarded him with a new interest. Some one spoke his name
+audibly, and he enjoyed in some degree the sensation of being a person
+of mark.
+
+He crossed University Square and walked out Meridian Street to Fitch's
+house. The lawyer came downstairs in his shirt sleeves with a legal
+envelope in his hand.
+
+"Glad to see you, Harwood. I'm packing up; going to light out in the
+morning and get in on the end of my family's vacation. They've moved out
+of Maine into the Berkshires and the boys are going back to college
+without coming home. I see the 'Advertiser' has been after you. How do
+you like your job?"
+
+"I'm not scared," Dan replied. "It's all very amusing and my moral
+character hasn't suffered so far."
+
+Fitch eyed him critically.
+
+"Well, I haven't time to talk to you, but here's something I wish you'd
+do for me. I have a quit-claim deed for Mrs. Owen to sign. I forgot to
+tell one of the boys in the office to get her acknowledgment, but you're
+a notary, aren't you? I've just been telephoning her about it. You know
+who she is? Come to think of it, she's Bassett's aunt-in-law. You're not
+a good Hoosier till you know Aunt Sally. I advise you to make yourself
+solid with her. I don't know what she's doing in town just now, but her
+ways are always inscrutable."
+
+Dan was soon ringing the bell at Mrs. Owen's. Mrs. Owen was out, the
+maid said, but would be back shortly. Dan explained that he had come
+from Mr. Fitch, and she asked him to walk into the parlor and wait.
+
+Sylvia Garrison and her grandfather had been at Montgomery since their
+visit to Waupegan and were now in Indianapolis for a day on their way to
+Boston. The Delaware Street house had been closed all summer. The floors
+were bare and the furniture was still jacketed in linen. Sylvia rose as
+Harwood appeared at the parlor door.
+
+"Pardon me," said Dan, as the maid vanished. "I have an errand with Mrs.
+Owen and I'll wait, if you don't mind?"
+
+"Certainly. Mrs. Owen has gone out to make a call, but she will be back
+soon. She went only a little way down the street. Please have a chair."
+
+She hesitated a moment, not knowing whether to remain or to leave the
+young man to himself. Dan determined the matter for her by opening a
+conversation on the state of the weather.
+
+"September is the most trying month of the year. Just when we're all
+tired of summer, it takes its last fling at us."
+
+"It has been very warm. I came over from Montgomery this afternoon and
+it was very dusty and disagreeable on the train."
+
+"From Montgomery?" repeated Dan, surprised and perplexed. Then, as it
+dawned upon him that this was the girl who had opened the door for him
+at Professor Kelton's house in Montgomery when he had gone there with a
+letter from Fitch, "You see," he said, "we've met before, in your own
+house. You very kindly went off to find some one for me--and didn't come
+back; but I passed you on the campus as I was leaving."
+
+He had for the moment forgotten the name of the old gentleman to whom he
+had borne a letter from Mr. Fitch. He would have forgotten the incident
+completely long ago if it had not been for the curious manner in which
+the lawyer had received his report and the secrecy so carefully
+enjoined. It was odd that he should have chanced upon these people
+again. Dan did not know many women, young or old, and he found this
+encounter with Sylvia wholly agreeable, Sylvia being, as we know,
+seventeen, and not an offense to the eye.
+
+"It was my grandfather, Professor Kelton, you came to see. He's here
+with me now, but he's gone out to call on an old friend with Mrs. Owen."
+
+Every detail of Dan's visit to the cottage was clear in Sylvia's mind;
+callers had been too rare for there to be any dimness of memory as to
+the visit of the stranger, particularly when she had associated her
+grandfather's subsequent depression with his coming.
+
+Dan felt that he should scrupulously avoid touching upon the visit to
+Montgomery otherwise than casually. He was still bound in all honor to
+forget that excursion as far as possible. This young person seemed very
+serious, and he was not sure that she was comfortable in his presence.
+
+"It was a warm day, I remember, but cool and pleasant in your library.
+I'm going to make a confession. When you went off so kindly to find
+Professor Kelton I picked up the book you had been reading, and it quite
+laid me low. I had imagined it would be something cheerful and
+frivolous, to lift the spirit of the jaded traveler."
+
+"It must have been a good story," replied Sylvia, guardedly.
+
+"It was! It was the 'AEneid,' and I began at your bookmark and tried to
+stagger through a page, but it floored me. You see how frank I am; I
+ought really to have kept this terrible disclosure from you."
+
+"Didn't you like Madison? I remember that I thought you were comparing
+us unfavorably with other places. You implied"--and Sylvia smiled--"that
+you didn't think Madison a very important college."
+
+"Then be sure of my contrition now! Your Virgil sank deep into my
+consciousness, and I am glad of this chance to render unto Madison the
+things that are Madison's."
+
+His chaffing way reminded her of Dr. Wandless, who often struck a
+similar note in their encounters.
+
+Sylvia was quite at ease now. Her caller's smile encouraged
+friendliness. He had dropped his fedora hat on a chair, but clung to his
+bamboo stick. His gray sack suit with the trousers neatly creased and
+his smartly knotted tie proclaimed him a man of fashion: the newest and
+youngest member of the Madison faculty, who had introduced spats to the
+campus, was not more impressively tailored.
+
+"You said you had gone to a large college; and I said--"
+
+"Oh, you hit me back straight enough!" laughed Harwood.
+
+"I didn't mean to be rude," Sylvia protested, coloring.
+
+They evidently both remembered what had been said at that interview.
+
+"It wasn't rude; it was quite the retort courteous! My conceit at being
+a Yale man was shattered by your shot."
+
+"Well, I suppose Yale is a good place, too," said Sylvia, with a
+generous intention that caused them both to laugh.
+
+"By token of your Virgilian diversions shall I assume that you are a
+collegian, really or almost?"
+
+"Just almost. I'm on my way to Wellesley now."
+
+"Ah!" and his exclamation was heavy with meaning. A girl bound for
+college became immediately an integer with which a young man who had not
+yet mislaid his diploma could reckon. "I have usually been a supporter
+of Vassar. It's the only woman's college I ever attended. I went up
+there once to see a girl I had met at a Prom--such is the weakness of
+man! I had arrayed myself as the lilies of the field, and on my way
+through Pokip I gathered up a beautiful two-seated trap with a driver,
+thinking in my ignorance that I should make a big hit by driving the
+fair one over the hills and far away. The horses were wonderful; I found
+out later that they were the finest hearse horses in Poughkeepsie. She
+was an awfully funny girl, that girl. She always used both 'shall' and
+'will,' being afraid to take chances with either verb, an idea I'm often
+tempted to adopt myself."
+
+"It's ingenious, at any rate. But how did the drive go?"
+
+"Oh, it didn't! She said she couldn't go with me alone unless I _was_ or
+_were_ her cousin. It was against the rules. So we agreed to be cousins
+and she went off to find the dean or some awful autocrat like that, to
+spring the delightful surprise, that her long-lost cousin from Kalamazoo
+had suddenly appeared, and might she go driving with him. That was her
+idea, I assure you,--my own depravity could suggest nothing more
+euphonious than Canajoharie. And would you believe it, the consent being
+forthcoming, she came back and said she wouldn't go--absolutely
+declined! She rested on the fine point in ethics that, while it was not
+improper to tell the fib, it would be highly sinful to take advantage of
+it! So we strolled over the campus and she showed me the sights, while
+those funeral beasts champed their bits at so much per hour. She was a
+Connecticut girl, and I made a note of the incident as illustrating a
+curious phase of the New England conscience."
+
+While they were gayly ringing the changes on these adventures, steps
+sounded on the veranda.
+
+"That's Mrs. Owen and my grandfather," said Sylvia.
+
+"I wonder--" began Dan, grave at once.
+
+"You're wondering," said Sylvia, "whether my grandfather will remember
+you."
+
+She recalled very well her grandfather's unusual seriousness after
+Harwood's visit; it seemed wiser not to bring the matter again to his
+attention.
+
+"I think it would be better if he didn't," replied Dan, relieved that
+she had anticipated his thought.
+
+"I was only a messenger boy anyhow and I didn't know what my errand was
+about that day."
+
+"He doesn't remember faces well," said Sylvia, "and wouldn't be likely
+to know you."
+
+As Mrs. Owen asked Dan to her office at once, it was unnecessary for
+Sylvia to introduce him to her grandfather.
+
+Alone with Mrs. Owen, Dan's business was quickly transacted. She
+produced an abstract of title and bade him read aloud the description of
+the property conveyed while she held the deed. At one point she took a
+pen and crossed a _t_; otherwise the work of Wright and Fitch was
+approved. When she had signed her name, and while Dan was filling in the
+certificate, she scrutinized him closely.
+
+"You're in Mr. Fitch's office, are you?" she inquired.
+
+"Not now; but I was there for a time. I happened to call on Mr. Fitch
+this evening and he asked me to bring the deed over."
+
+"Let me see, I don't believe I know any Harwoods here."
+
+"I haven't been here long enough to be known," answered Dan, looking up
+and smiling.
+
+Mrs. Owen removed her hat and tossed it on a little stand, as though
+hats were a nuisance in this world and not worthy of serious
+consideration. She continued her observation of Dan, who was applying a
+blotter to his signature.
+
+"I'll have to take this to my office to affix the seal. I'm to give it
+to Mr. Wright in the morning for recording."
+
+"Where is your office, Mr. Harwood?" she asked flatly.
+
+"Boordman Building," answered Dan, surprised to find himself
+uncomfortable under her direct, penetrating gaze.
+
+"Humph! So you're Morton Bassett's young man who was written up in the
+'Advertiser.'"
+
+"Mr. Bassett has given me a chance to read law in his office. He's a
+prominent man and the 'Advertiser' chose to put its own interpretation
+on his kindness to me. That's all," answered Dan with dignity.
+
+"Sit still a minute. I forget sometimes that all the folks around here
+don't know me. I didn't mean to be inquisitive, or disagreeable; I was
+just looking for information. I took notice of that 'Advertiser's' piece
+because Mr. Bassett married my niece, so I'm naturally interested in
+what he does."
+
+"Yes, Mrs. Owen, I understand."
+
+Dan had heard a good deal about Mrs. Sally Owen, in one way or another,
+and persuaded now, by her change of tone, that she had no intention of
+pillorying him for Bassett's misdeeds, he began to enjoy his unexpected
+colloquy with her. She bent forward and clasped her veined, bony hands
+on the table.
+
+"I'm glad of a chance to talk to you. It's providential, your turning up
+this way. I just came to town yesterday and Edward Thatcher dropped in
+last night and got to talking to me about his boy."
+
+"Allen?"
+
+Dan was greatly surprised at this turn of the conversation. Mrs. Owen's
+tone was wholly kind, and she seemed deeply in earnest.
+
+"Yes, I mean Allen Thatcher. His father says he's taken a great shine to
+you. I hardly know the boy, but he's a little queer and he's always been
+a little sickly. Edward doesn't know how to handle him, and the boy's
+ma--well, she's one of those Terre Haute Bartlows, and those people
+never would stay put. Edward's made too much money for his wife's good,
+and the United States ain't big enough for her and the girls. But that
+boy got tired o' gallivanting around over there, and he's back here on
+Edward's hands. The boy's gaits are too much for Edward. He says you and
+Allen get on well together. I met him in the bank to-day and he asked me
+about you."
+
+"I like Allen;--I'm even very fond of him, and I wish I could help him
+find himself. He's amusing"--and Dan laughed, remembering their first
+meeting--"but with a fine, serious, manly side that you can't help
+liking."
+
+"That's nice; it's mighty nice. You be good to that boy, and you won't
+lose anything by it. How do you and Morton get on?"
+
+"First-rate, I hope. He's treated me generously."
+
+Then she fastened her eyes upon him with quizzical severity.
+
+"Young man, the 'Advertiser' seems to think Morton Bassett is crooked.
+What do you think about it?"
+
+Dan gasped and stammered at this disconcerting question.
+
+She rested her arms on the table and bent toward him, the humor showing
+in her eyes.
+
+"If he _is_ crooked, young man, you needn't think you have to be as big
+a sinner as he is! You remember that Sally Owen told you that. Be your
+own boss. Morton's a terrible persuader. Funny for me to be talking to
+you this way; I don't usually get confidential so quick. I guess"--and
+her eyes twinkled--"we'll have to consider ourselves old friends to make
+it right."
+
+"You are very kind, indeed, Mrs. Owen. I see that I have a
+responsibility about Allen. I'll keep an eye on him.
+
+"Drop in now and then. I eat a good many Sunday dinners alone when I'm
+at home, and you may come whenever you feel like facing a tiresome old
+woman across the table."
+
+She followed him into the hall, where they ran into Sylvia, who had been
+upstairs saying good-night to her grandfather. Mrs. Owen arrested
+Sylvia's flight through the hall.
+
+"Sylvia, I guess you and Mr. Harwood are already acquainted."
+
+"Except," said Dan, "that we haven't been introduced!"
+
+"Then, Miss Garrison, this is Mr. Harwood. He's a Yale College man, so I
+read in the paper."
+
+"Oh, I already knew that!" replied Sylvia, laughing.
+
+"At Wellesley please remember, Miss Garrison, about the Kalamazoo
+cousins," said Dan, his hand on the front door.
+
+"I guess you young folks didn't need that introduction," observed Mrs.
+Owen. "Don't forget to come and see me, Mr. Harwood."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+THE MAP ABOVE BASSETT'S DESK
+
+
+Sometimes, in the rapid progress of their acquaintance, Allen Thatcher
+exasperated Harwood, but more often he puzzled and interested him. It
+was clear that the millionaire's son saw or thought he saw in Dan a
+Type. To be thought a Type may be flattering or not; it depends upon the
+point of view. Dan himself had no illusions in the matter. Allen wanted
+to see and if possible meet the local characters of whom he read in the
+newspapers; and he began joining Harwood in visits to the hotels at
+night, hoping that these wonderful representatives of American democracy
+might appear. Harwood's acquaintance was widening; he knew, by sight at
+least, all the prominent men of the city and state, and after leaving
+the newspaper he still spent one or two evenings a week lounging in the
+hotel corridors. Tradition survived of taller giants before the days of
+the contemporaneous Agamemnons. Allen asked questions about these and
+mourned their passing. Harrison, the twenty-third President; Gresham, of
+the brown eyes, judge and cabinet minister; Hendricks, the courtly
+gentleman, sometime Vice-President; "Uncle Joe" McDonald and "Dan"
+Voorhees, Senators in Congress, and loved in their day by wide
+constituencies. These had vanished, but Dan and Allen made a pious
+pilgrimage one night to sit at the feet of David Turpie, who had been a
+Senator in two widely separated eras, and who, white and venerable, like
+Aigyptos knew innumerable things.
+
+The cloaked poets once visible in Market Street had vanished before our
+chronicle opens, with the weekly literary journals in which they had
+shone, but Dan was able to introduce Allen to James Whitcomb Riley in a
+bookshop frequented by the poet; and that was a great day in Allen's
+life. He formed the habit of lying in wait for the poet and walking with
+him, discussing Keats and Burns, Stevenson and Kipling, and others of
+their common admirations. One day of days the poet took Allen home with
+him and read him a new, unpublished poem, and showed him a rare
+photograph of Stevenson and the outside of a letter just received from
+Kipling, from the uttermost parts of the world. It was a fine thing to
+know a poet and to speak with him face to face,--particularly a poet who
+sang of his own soil as Allen wished to know it. Still, Allen did not
+quite understand how it happened that a poet who wrote of farmers and
+country-town folk wore eyeglasses and patent-leather shoes and carried a
+folded silk umbrella in all weathers.
+
+The active politicians who crossed his horizon interested Allen greatly;
+the rougher and more uncouth they were the more he admired them. They
+were figures in the Great Experiment, no matter how sordid or
+contemptible Harwood pronounced them. He was always looking for "types"
+and "Big" Jordan, the Republican chief, afforded him the greatest
+satisfaction. He viewed the local political scene from an angle that
+Harwood found amusing, and Dan suggested that it must be because the
+feudal taint and the servile tradition are still in our blood that we
+submit so tamely to the rule of petty lordlings. In his exalted moments
+Allen's ideas shot far into the air, and Dan found it necessary to pull
+him back to earth.
+
+"I hardly see a Greek frieze carved of these brethren," Dan remarked one
+night as they lounged at the Whitcomb when a meeting of the state
+committee was in progress. "These fellows would make you weep if you
+knew as much about them as I do. There's one of the bright lights
+now--the Honorable Ike Pettit, of Fraser. The Honorable Ike isn't smart
+enough to be crooked; he's the bellowing Falstaff of the Hoosier
+Democracy. I wonder who the laugh's on just now; he's shaking like a
+jelly fish over something."
+
+"Oh, I know him! He and father are great chums; he was at the house for
+dinner last night."
+
+"What!"
+
+Harwood was unfeignedly surprised at this. The editor of the "Fraser
+County Democrat" had probably never dined at the Bassetts' in his own
+town, or at least Dan assumed as much; and since he had gained an
+insight into Bassett's affairs he was aware that the physical property
+of the "Fraser County Democrat" was mortgaged to Morton Bassett for
+quite all it was worth. It was hardly possible that Thatcher was
+cultivating Pettit's acquaintance for sheer joy of his society. As the
+ponderous editor lumbered across the lobby to where they sat, Dan and
+Allen rose to receive his noisily cordial salutations. On his visits to
+the capital, arrayed in a tremendous frock coat and with a flapping
+slouch hat crowning his big iron-gray head, he was a prodigious figure.
+
+"Boys," he said, dropping an arm round each of the young men, "the
+Democratic Party is the hope of mankind. Free her of the wicked bosses,
+boil the corruption out of her, and the grand old Hoosier Democracy will
+appear once more upon the mountain tops as the bringer of glad tidings.
+What's the answer, my lads, to Uncle Ike's philosophy?"
+
+"Between campaigns we're all reformers," said Harwood guardedly. "I feel
+it working in my own system."
+
+"Between campaigns," replied the Honorable Isaac Pettit impressively,
+"we're all a contemptible lot of cowards, that's what's the matter with
+us. Was Thomas Jefferson engaged in manipulating legislatures? Did he
+obstruct the will of the people? Not by a long shot he did _not_! And
+that grand old patriot, Andrew Jackson, wasn't he satisfied to take his
+licker or let it alone without being like a heathen in his blindness,
+bowing down to wood and stone carved into saloons and distilleries?"
+
+"It's said by virtuous Republicans that our party is only a tail to the
+liquor interests. If you're going back to the Sage of Monticello, how do
+you think he would answer that?"
+
+"Bless you, my dear boy; it's not the saloons we try to protect; it's
+the plain people, who are entitled to the widest and broadest liberty.
+If you screw the lid down on people too tight you'll smother 'em. I'm
+not a drinkin' man; I go to church and in my newspaper I preach the
+felicities of sobriety and domestic peace. But it's not for me to
+dictate to my brother what he shall eat or wear. No, sir! And look here,
+don't you try to read me out of the Democratic Party, young man. At
+heart our party's as sweet and strong as corn; yea, as the young corn
+that leapeth to the rains of June. It's the bosses that's keepin' us
+down."
+
+"Your reference to corn throws us back on the distilleries," suggested
+Harwood, laughing.
+
+But he was regarding the Honorable Isaac Pettit attentively. Pettit had
+changed his manner and stood rocking himself slowly on his heels. He had
+been a good deal at the capital of late, and this, together with his
+visit to Thatcher's house, aroused Harwood's curiosity. He wondered
+whether it were possible that Pettit and Thatcher were conspiring
+against Bassett: the fact that he was so heavily in debt to the senator
+from Fraser seemed to dispose of his fears. Since his first visit to
+Fraserville Dan had heard many interesting and amusing things about the
+editor. Pettit had begun life as a lawyer, but had relapsed into rural
+journalism after a futile effort to find clients. He had some reputation
+as an orator, and Dan had heard him make a speech distinguished by humor
+and homely good sense at a meeting of the Democratic State Editorial
+Association. Pettit, having once sat beside Henry Watterson at a public
+dinner in Louisville, had thereafter encouraged as modestly as possible
+a superstition that he and Mr. Watterson were the last survivors of the
+"old school" of American editors. One of his favorite jokes was the use
+of the editorial "we" in familiar conversation; he said "our wife" and
+"our sanctum," and he amused himself by introducing into the "Democrat"
+trifling incidents of his domestic life, beginning these items with such
+phrases as, "While we were weeding our asparagus bed in the cool of
+Tuesday morning, our wife--noble woman that she is--" etc., etc. His
+squibs of this character, quoted sometimes in metropolitan newspapers,
+afforded him the greatest glee. He appeared occasionally as a lecturer,
+his favorite subject being American humor; and he was able to prove by
+his scrap-book that he had penetrated as far east as Xenia, Ohio, and as
+far west as Decatur, Illinois. Once, so ran Fraserville tradition, he
+had been engaged for the lyceum course at Springfield, Missouri, but his
+contract had been canceled when it was found that his discourse was
+unillumined by the stereopticon, that vivifying accessory being just
+then in high favor in that community.
+
+Out of his own reading and reflections Allen had reached the conclusion
+that Franklin, Emerson, and Lincoln were the greatest Americans. He
+talked a great deal of Lincoln and of the Civil War, and the soldiers'
+monument, in its circular plaza in the heart of the city, symbolized for
+him all heroic things. He would sit on the steps in the gray shadow at
+night, waiting for Dan to finish some task at his office, and Harwood
+would find him absorbed, dreaming by the singing, foaming fountains.
+
+Allen spoke with a kind of passionate eloquence of This Stupendous
+Experiment, or This Beautiful Experiment, as he liked to call America.
+Dan put Walt Whitman into his hands and afterwards regretted it, for
+Allen developed an attack of acute Whitmania that tried Dan's patience
+severely. Dan had passed through Whitman at college and emerged safely
+on the other side. He begged Allen not to call him "camerado" or lift so
+often the perpendicular hand. He suggested to him that while it might be
+fine and patriotic to declaim
+
+     "When lilacs last in the dooryard bloom'd,"
+
+from the steps of the monument at midnight, the police might take
+another view of the performance. He began to see, however, that beneath
+much that was whimsical and sentimental the young fellow was sincerely
+interested in the trend of things in what, during this Whitman period,
+he called "these states." Sometimes Allen's remarks on current events
+struck Harwood by their wisdom: the boy was wholesomely provocative and
+stimulating. He began to feel that he understood him, and in his own
+homelessness Allen became a resource.
+
+Allen was a creature of moods, and vanished often for days or weeks. He
+labored fitfully in his carpenter shop at home or with equal
+irregularity at a bench in the shop of Lueders, a cabinetmaker. Dan
+sometimes sought him at the shop, which was a headquarters for radicals
+of all sorts. The workmen showed a great fondness for Allen, who had
+been much in Germany and spoke their language well. He carried to the
+shop quantities of German books and periodicals for their enlightenment.
+The shop's visitors included several young Americans, among them a
+newspaper artist, a violinist in a theatre orchestra, and a linotype
+expert. They all wore large black scarfs and called each other
+"comrade." Allen earnestly protested that he still believed in the
+American Idea, the Great Experiment; but if democracy should fail he was
+ready to take up socialism. He talked of his heroes; he said they all
+owed it to the men who had made and preserved the Union to give the
+existing government a chance. These discussions were entirely
+good-humored and Harwood enjoyed them. Sometimes they met in the evening
+at a saloon in the neighborhood of the shop where Allen, the son of
+Edward Thatcher, whom everybody knew, was an object of special interest.
+He would sit on a table and lecture the saloon loungers in German, and
+at the end of a long debate made a point of paying the score. He was
+most temperate himself, sipping a glass of wine or beer in the
+deliberate German fashion.
+
+Allen was a friendly soul and every one liked him. It was impossible not
+to like a lad whose ways were so gentle, whose smile was so appealing.
+He liked dancing and went to most of the parties--our capital has not
+outgrown its homely provincial habit of calling all social
+entertainments "parties." He was unfailingly courteous, with a manner
+toward women slightly elaborate and reminiscent of other times. There
+was no question of his social acceptance; mothers of daughters, who
+declined to speak to his father, welcomed him to their houses.
+
+Allen introduced Dan to the households he particularly fancied and they
+made calls together on Dan's free evenings or on Sunday afternoons.
+Snobbishness was a late arrival among us; any young man that any one
+vouched for might know the "nicest" girls. Harwood's social circle was
+widening; Fitch and his wife said a good word for him in influential
+quarters, and the local Yale men had not neglected him. Allen liked the
+theatre, and exercised considerable ingenuity in devising excuses for
+paying for the tickets when they took young women of their acquaintance.
+He pretended to Dan that he had free tickets or got them at a discount.
+His father made him a generous allowance and he bought a motor car in
+which he declared Dan had a half interest; they needed it, he said, for
+their social adventures.
+
+At the Thatcher house, Harwood caught fitful glimpses of Allen's father,
+a bird of passage inured to sleeping-cars. Occasionally Harwood dined
+with the father and son and they would all adjourn to Allen's shop on
+the third floor to smoke and talk. When Allen gave rein to his fancy and
+began descanting upon the grandeur of the Republic and the Beautiful
+Experiment making in "these states," Dan would see a blank puzzled look
+steal into Thatcher's face. Thatcher adored Allen: he had for him the
+deep love of a lioness for her cubs; but all this idealistic patter the
+boy had got hold of--God knew where!--sounded as strange to the rich
+man as a discourse in Sanskrit.
+
+Thatcher had not been among Bassett's callers in the new office in the
+Boordman, but late one afternoon, when Dan was deep in the principles of
+evidence, Thatcher came in.
+
+"I'm not expecting Mr. Bassett to-day, if you wish to see him," said
+Dan.
+
+"Nope," Thatcher replied indifferently, "I'm not looking for Mort. He's
+in Fraserville, I happen to know. Just talking to him on the telephone,
+so I rather guessed you were alone, that's why I came up. I want to talk
+to you a little bit, Harwood. It must be nearly closing time, so suppose
+you lock the door. You see," he continued, idling about the room,
+"Mort's in the newspapers a good deal, and not being any such terrible
+sinner as he is I don't care to have his labels tacked on me too much.
+Not that Mort isn't one of my best friends, you know; but a family man
+like me has got to be careful of his reputation."
+
+Harwood opened his drawer and took out a box of cigars. Thatcher
+accepted one and lighted it deliberately, commenting on the office as he
+did so. He even strolled through the library to the open door of
+Bassett's private room beyond. The map of Indiana suspended above
+Bassett's desk interested him and he stood leaning on his stick and
+surveying it. There was something the least bit insinuating in his
+manner. The room, the map, the fact that Morton Bassett of Fraserville
+had, so to speak, planted a vedette in the heart of the capital, seemed
+to afford him mild, cynical amusement. He drew his hand across his
+face, twisted his mustache, and took the cigar from his mouth and
+examined the end of it with fictitious interest.
+
+"Well," he ejaculated, "damn it all, why not?"
+
+Harwood did not know why not; but a man as rich as Edward Thatcher was
+entitled to his vagaries. Thatcher sank into Bassett's swivel chair and
+swung round once or twice as though testing it, meanwhile eyeing the
+map. Then he tipped himself back comfortably and dropped his hat into
+his lap. His grayish brown hair was combed carefully from one side
+across the top in an unsuccessful attempt to conceal his baldness.
+
+"I guess Mort wouldn't object to my sitting in his chair provided I
+didn't look at that map too much. Who was the chap that the sword hung
+over by a hair--Damocles? Well, maybe that's what that map is--it would
+smash pretty hard if the whole state fell down on Mort. But Mort knows
+just how many voters there are in every township and just how they line
+up election morning. There's a lot of brains in Bassett's head; you've
+noticed it?"
+
+"It's admitted, I believe, that he's a man of ability," said Dan a
+little coldly.
+
+Thatcher grinned.
+
+"You're all right, Harwood. I know you're all right or Mort wouldn't
+have put you in here. I'm rather kicking myself that I didn't see you
+first."
+
+"Mr. Bassett has given me a chance I'd begun to fear I shouldn't get;
+you see I'm studying law here. Mr. Bassett has made that possible. He's
+the best friend I ever had."
+
+"That's good. Bassett usually picks winners. From what I hear of you and
+what I've seen I think you're all right myself. My boy has taken quite a
+great fancy to you."
+
+Thatcher looked at the end of his cigar and waited for Dan to reply.
+
+"I've grown very fond of Allen. He's very unusual; he's full of
+surprises."
+
+"That boy," said Thatcher, pointing his cigar at Dan, "is the greatest
+boy in the world; but, damn it all, I don't make him out."
+
+"Well, he's different; he's an idealist. I'm not sure that he isn't a
+philosopher!"
+
+Thatcher nodded, as though this were a corroboration of his own
+surmises.
+
+"He has a lot of ideas that are what they call advanced, but it's not
+for me to say that he isn't right about them. He talks nonsense some of
+the time, but occasionally he knocks me down with a big idea--or his way
+of putting a big idea. He doesn't understand a good deal that he sees;
+and yet he sometimes says something perfectly staggering."
+
+"He does; by George, he does! Damn it, I took him to see a glassworks
+the other day; thought it would appeal to his sense of what you call the
+picturesque; but, Lord bless me, he asked how much the blowers were paid
+and wanted me to raise their pay on the spot. That was one on me, all
+right; I'd thought of giving him the works to play with, but I didn't
+have the nerve to offer it to him after that. 'Fraid he'd either turn it
+down or take it and bust me."
+
+Thatcher had referred to this incident with unmistakable pride; he was
+evidently amused rather than chagrined by his son's scorn of the gift of
+a profitable industry. "I offered him money to start a carpenter shop or
+furniture factory or anything he wanted to tackle, but he wouldn't have
+it. Said he wanted to work in somebody else's shop to get the
+discipline. Discipline? That boy never had any discipline in his life!
+I've kept my nose to the grindstone ever since I was knee-high to a toad
+just so that boy wouldn't have to worry about his daily bread, and now,
+damn it all, he runs a carpenter shop on the top floor of a house that
+stands me, lot, furniture, and all, nearly a hundred thousand dollars! I
+can't talk to everybody about this; my wife and daughters don't want any
+discipline; don't like the United States or anything in it except
+exchange on London; and here I am with a boy who wears overalls and
+tries to callous his hands to look like a laboring man. If you can
+figure that out, it's a damn sight more than I can do! It's one on Ed
+Thatcher, that's all!"
+
+"If I try to answer you, please don't think I pretend to any unusual
+knowledge of human nature; but what I see in the boy is a kind of poetic
+attitude toward America--our politics, the whole scheme; and it's a
+poetic strain in him that accounts for this feeling about labor. And he
+has a feeling for justice and mercy; he's strong for the underdog." "I
+suppose," said Thatcher dryly, "that if he'd been an underdog the way I
+was he'd be more tickled at a chance to sit on top. When I wore overalls
+it wasn't funny. Well, what am I going to do with him?"
+
+"If you really want me to tell you I'd say to let him alone. He's a
+perfectly clean, straight, high-minded boy. If he were physically strong
+enough I should recommend him to go to college, late as it is for him,
+or better, to a school where he would really satisfy what seems to be
+his sincere ambition to learn to do something with his hands. But he's
+all right as he is. You ought to be glad that his aims are so wholesome.
+There are sons of prosperous men right around here who see everything
+red."
+
+"That boy," declared Thatcher, pride and love surging in him, "is as
+clean as wheat!"
+
+"Quite so; no one could know him without loving him. And I don't mind
+saying that I find myself in accord with many of his ideas."
+
+"Sort of damned idealist yourself?"
+
+"I should blush to say it," laughed Dan; "but I feel my heart warming
+when Allen gets to soaring sometimes; he expresses himself with great
+vividness. He goes after me hard on my _laissez-faire_ notions."
+
+"I take the count and throw up the sponge!"
+
+"Oh, that's a chestnut that means merely that the underdog had better
+stay under if he can't fight his way out."
+
+"It seems tough when you boil it down to that; I guess maybe Allen's
+right--we all ought to divide up. I'm willing, only"--and he grinned
+quizzically--"I'm paired with Mort Bassett."
+
+The light in his cigar had gone out; he swung round and faced the map of
+Indiana above Morton Bassett's desk, fumbling in his waistcoat for a
+match. When he turned toward Harwood again he blew smoke rings
+meditatively before speaking.
+
+"If you're one of these rotten idealists, Harwood, what are you doing
+here with Bassett? If that ain't a fair question, don't answer it."
+
+Harwood was taken aback by the directness of the question. Bassett had
+always spoken of Thatcher with respect, and he resented the new
+direction given to this conversation in Bassett's own office. Dan
+straightened himself with dignity, but before he could speak Thatcher
+laughed, and fanned the smoke of his cigar away with his hands.
+
+"Don't get hot. That was not a fair question; I know it. I guess Bassett
+has his ideals just like the rest of us. I suppose I've got some, too,
+though I'd be embarrassed if you asked me to name 'em. I suppose"--and
+he narrowed his eyes--"I suppose Mort not only has his ideals but his
+ambitions. They go together, I reckon."
+
+"I hope he has both, Mr. Thatcher, but you are assuming that I'm deeper
+in his confidence than the facts justify. You and he have been
+acquainted so long that you ought to know him thoroughly."
+
+Thatcher did not heed this mild rebuke; nor did he resort to
+propitiatory speech. His cool way of ignoring Dan's reproach added to
+the young man's annoyance; Dan felt that it was in poor taste and
+ungenerous for a man of Thatcher's years and position to come into
+Bassett's private office to discuss him with a subordinate. He had
+already learned enough of the relations of the two men to realize that
+perfect amity was essential between them; he was shocked by the
+indifference with which Thatcher spoke of Bassett, of whom people did
+not usually speak carelessly in this free fashion. Harwood's own sense
+of loyalty was in arms; yet Thatcher seemed unmindful that anything
+disagreeable had occurred. He threw away his cigar and drew out a fresh
+one which he wobbled about in his mouth unlighted. He kept swinging
+round in his chair to gaze at the map above Bassett's desk. The tinted
+outlines of the map--green, pink, and orange--could not have had for him
+any novelty; similar maps hung in many offices and Thatcher was moreover
+a native of the state and long familiar with its configuration. Perhaps,
+Dan reflected, its juxtaposition to Bassett's desk was what irritated
+his visitor, though it had never occurred to him that this had any
+significance. He recalled now, however, that when he had arranged the
+rooms the map had been hung in the outer office, but that Bassett
+himself had removed it to his private room--the only change he had made
+in Dan's arrangements. It was conceivable that Thatcher saw in the
+position of the map an adumbration of Bassett's higher political
+ambition, and that this had affected the capitalist unpleasantly.
+
+Thatcher's manner was that of a man so secure in his own position that
+he could afford to trample others under foot if he liked. It was--not to
+put too fine a point upon it--the manner of a bully. His reputation for
+independence was well established; he was rich enough to say what he
+pleased without regard to the consequences, and he undoubtedly enjoyed
+his sense of power.
+
+"I suppose I'm the only man in Indiana that ain't afraid of Mort
+Bassett," he announced casually. "It's because Mort knows I ain't afraid
+of him that we get on so well together. You've been with him long enough
+by this time to know that we have some interests together."
+
+Dan, with his fingers interlocked behind his head, nodded carelessly. He
+had grown increasingly resentful of Thatcher's tone and manner, and was
+anxious to be rid of him.
+
+"Mort's a good deal closer-mouthed than I am. Mort likes to hide his
+tracks--better than that, by George, Mort doesn't _make_ any tracks!
+Well, every man is bound to break a twig now and then as he goes along.
+By George, I tear down the trees like an elephant so they can't miss
+me!"
+
+As Dan made no reply to this Thatcher recurred in a moment to Allen and
+Harwood's annoyance passed. It was obvious that the capitalist had
+sought this interview to talk of the boy, to make sure that Harwood was
+sincerely interested in him. Thatcher's manner of speaking of his son
+was kind and affectionate. The introduction of Bassett into the
+discussion had been purely incidental, but it was not less interesting
+because of its unpremeditated interjection. There was possibly some
+jealousy here that would manifest itself later; but that was not Dan's
+affair. Bassett was beyond doubt able to take care of himself in
+emergencies; Dan's admiration for his patron was strongly intrenched in
+this belief. The bulkier Thatcher, with the marks of self-indulgence
+upon him, and with his bright waistcoat and flashy necktie transcending
+the bounds of good taste, struck him as a weaker character. If Thatcher
+meditated a break with Bassett, the sturdier qualities, the even, hard
+strokes that Bassett had a reputation for delivering, would count
+heavily against him.
+
+"I'm glad you get on so well with the boy," Thatcher was saying. "I
+don't mind telling you that his upbringing has been a little
+unfortunate--too much damned Europe. He's terribly sore because he
+didn't go to college instead of being tutored all over Europe. It's
+funny he's got all these romantic ideas about America; he's sore at me
+because he wasn't born poor and didn't have to chop rails to earn his
+way through college and all that. The rest of my family like the money
+all right; they're only sore because I didn't make it raising tulips.
+But that boy's all right. And see here--" Thatcher seemed for a moment
+embarrassed by what was in his mind. He fidgeted in his chair and eyed
+Harwood sharply. "See here, Harwood, if you find after awhile that you
+don't get on with Bassett, or you want to change, why, I want you to
+give me a chance at you. I'd like to put my boy with you, somehow. I'll
+die some day and I want to be sure somebody'll look after him. By God,
+he's all I got!"
+
+He swung round, but his eyes were upon the floor; he drew out a
+handkerchief and blew his nose noisily.
+
+"By George," he exclaimed, "I promised Allen to take you up to Sally
+Owen's. You know Mrs. Owen? That's right; Allen said she's been asking
+about you. She likes young folks; she'll never be old herself. Allen and
+I are going there for supper, and he's asked her if he might bring you
+along. Aunt Sally's a great woman. And"--he grinned ruefully--"a good
+trader. She has beat me on many a horse trade, that woman; and I always
+go back to try it again. You kind o' like having her do you. And I guess
+I'm the original easy mark when it comes to horse. Get your hat and come
+along. Allen's fixed this all up with her. I guess you and she are the
+best friends the boy's got."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+BLURRED WINDOWS
+
+
+With Sylvia's life in college we have little to do, but a few notes we
+must make now that she has reached her sophomore year. She had never
+known girls until she went to college and she had been the shyest of
+freshmen, the least obtrusive of sophomores.
+
+She had carried her work from the start with remarkable ease and as the
+dragons of failure were no longer a menace she began to give more heed
+to the world about her. She was early recognized as an earnest,
+conscientious student whose work in certain directions was brilliant;
+and as a sophomore her fellows began to know her and take pride in her.
+She was relieved to find herself swept naturally into the social
+currents of the college. She had been afraid of appearing stiff or
+priggish, but her self-consciousness quickly vanished in the broad,
+wholesome democracy of college life. The best scholar in her class, she
+was never called a grind and she was far from being a frump. The wisest
+woman in the faculty said of Sylvia: "That girl with her head among the
+stars has her feet planted on solid ground. Her life will count." And
+the girlhood that Sylvia had partly lost, was recovered and prolonged.
+It was a fine thing to be an American college girl, Sylvia realized, and
+the varied intercourse, the day's hundred and one contacts and small
+excitements, meant more to her than her fellow students knew. When there
+was fun in the air Sylvia could be relied upon to take a hand in it. Her
+allowance was not meagre and she joined zestfully in such excursions as
+were possible, to concerts, lectures, and the theatre. She had that
+reverence for New England traditions that is found in all young
+Westerners. It was one of her jokes that she took two Boston girls on
+their first pilgrimage to Concord, a joke that greatly tickled John
+Ware, brooding in his library in Delaware Street.
+
+A few passages from her letters home are illuminative of these college
+years. Here are some snap-shots of her fellow students:--
+
+     "I never knew before that there were so many kinds of people in the
+     world--girls, I mean. All parts of the country are represented, and
+     I suppose I shall always judge different cities and states by the
+     girls they send here. There is a California freshman who is quite
+     tall, like the redwood trees, I suppose. And there is a little girl
+     in my class--she seems little--from Omaha who lives on a hilltop
+     out there where she can see the Missouri River--and when her father
+     first settled there, Indians were still about. She is the nicest
+     and gentlest girl I know, and yet she brings before me all those
+     pioneer times and makes me think how fast the country has grown.
+     And there is a Virginia girl in my corridor who has the most
+     wonderful way of talking, and there's history in that, too,--the
+     history of all the great war and the things you fought for; but I
+     was almost sorry to have to let her know that you fought on the
+     other side, but I _did_ tell her. I never realized, just from books
+     and maps, that the United States is so big. The girls bring their
+     local backgrounds with them--the different aims and traits. . . . I
+     have drawn a map of the country and named all the different states
+     and cities for the girls who come from them, but this is just for
+     my own fun, of course. . . . I never imagined one would have
+     preferences and like and dislike people by a kind of instinct,
+     without really knowing them, but I'm afraid I do it, and that all
+     the rest of us do the same. . . . Nothing in the world is as
+     interesting as people--just dear, good folksy people!"
+
+The correspondence her dormitory neighbors carried on with parents and
+brothers and sisters and friends impressed her by its abundance; and she
+is to be pardoned if she weighed the letters, whose home news was quoted
+constantly in her hearing, against her own slight receipts at the
+college post-office. She knew that every Tuesday morning there would be
+a letter from her grandfather. Her old friend Dr. Wandless sent
+occasionally, in his kindly humorous fashion, the news of Buckeye Lane
+and the college; and Mrs. Owen wrote a hurried line now and then,
+usually to quote one of John Ware's sayings. The minister asked about
+Sylvia, it seemed. These things helped, but they did not supply the
+sympathy, of which she was conscious in countless ways, between her
+fellow students and their near of kin. With the approach of holiday
+times, the talk among her companions of the homes that awaited them, or,
+in the case of many, of other homes where they were to visit, deepened
+her newly awakened sense of isolation. Fathers and mothers appeared
+constantly to visit their daughters, and questions that had never
+troubled her heart before arose to vex her. Why was it, when these other
+girls, flung together from all parts of the country, were so blest with
+kindred, that she had literally but one kinsman, the grandfather on whom
+all her love centred?
+
+It should not be thought, however, that she yielded herself morbidly to
+these reflections, but such little things as the receipt of gifts, the
+daily references to home affairs, the photographs set out in the girls'
+rooms, were not without their stab. She wrote to Professor Kelton:--
+
+     "I wish you would send me your picture of mother. I often wondered
+     why you didn't give it to me; won't you lend it to me now? I think
+     it is put away in your desk in the library. Almost all the girls
+     have pictures of their families--some of them of their houses and
+     even the horse and dog--in their rooms. And you must have a new
+     picture taken of yourself--I'd like it in your doctor's gown, that
+     they gave you at Williams. It's put away in the cedar chest in the
+     attic--Mary will know where. And if you have a picture of father
+     anywhere I should like to have that too."
+
+She did not know that when this reached him--one of the series of
+letters on which the old gentleman lived these days, with its Wellesley
+postmark, and addressed in Sylvia's clear, running hand, he bowed his
+white head and wept; for he knew what was in the girl's heart--knew and
+dreaded this roused yearning, and suffered as he realized the arid
+wastes of his own ignorance. But he sent her the picture of her mother
+for which she asked, and had the cottage photographed with Mills Hall
+showing faintly beyond the hedge; and he meekly smuggled his doctor's
+gown to the city and sat for his photograph. These things Sylvia proudly
+spread upon the walls of her room. He wrote to her--a letter that cost
+him a day's labor:--
+
+     "We don't seem to have any photograph of your father; but things
+     have a way of getting lost, particularly in the hands of an old
+     fellow like me. However, I have had myself taken as you wished, and
+     you can see now what a solemn person your grandfather is in his
+     _toga academica_. I had forgotten I had that silk overcoat and I am
+     not sure now that I didn't put the hood on wrong-side-out! I'm a
+     sailor, you know, and these fancy things stump me. The photographer
+     didn't seem to understand that sort of millinery. Please keep it
+     dark; your teachers might resent the sudden appearance in the halls
+     of Wellesley of a grim old professor _emeritus_ not known to your
+     faculty."
+
+The following has its significance in Sylvia's history and we must give
+it place--this also to her grandfather:--
+
+     "The most interesting lecture I ever heard (except yours!) was
+     given at the college yesterday by Miss Jane Addams, of Hull House,
+     the settlement worker and writer on social reforms. She's such a
+     simple, modest little woman that everybody loved her at once. She
+     made many things clear to me that I had only groped for before. She
+     used an expression that was new to me, 'reciprocal obligations,'
+     which we all have in this world, though I never quite thought of it
+     before. She's a college woman herself, and feels that all of us who
+     have better advantages than other people should help those who
+     aren't taught to climb. It seems the most practical idea in the
+     world, that we should gather up the loose, rough fringes of society
+     and weave the broken threads into a common warp and woof. The
+     social fabric is no stronger than its weakest thread. . . . To help
+     and to save for the sheer love of helping and saving is the noblest
+     thing any of us can do--I feel that. This must be an old story to
+     you; I'm ashamed that I never saw it all for myself. It's as though
+     I had been looking at the world through a blurred window, from a
+     comfortable warm room, when some one came along and brushed the
+     pane clear, so that I could see the suffering and hardship outside,
+     and feel my own duty to go out and help."
+
+Professor Kelton, spending a day in the city, showed this to Mrs. Owen
+when she asked for news of Sylvia. Mrs. Owen kept the letter that John
+Ware might see it. Ware said: "Deep nature; I knew that night she told
+me about the stars that she would understand everything. You will hear
+of her. Wish she would come here to live. We need women like that."
+
+Professor Kelton met Sylvia in New York on her way home for the holidays
+in her freshman year and they spent their Christmas together in the
+cottage. She was bidden to several social gatherings in Buckeye Lane;
+and to a dance in town. She was now Miss Garrison, a student at
+Wellesley, and the good men and women at Madison paid tribute to her new
+dignity. Something Sylvia was knowing of that sweet daffodil time in the
+heart of a girl before the hovering swallows dare to fly.
+
+In the midyear recess of her sophomore year she visited one of her new
+friends in Boston in a charming home of cultivated people. The following
+Easter vacation her grandfather joined her for a flight to New York and
+Washington, and this was one of the happiest of experiences. During the
+remainder of her college life she was often asked to the houses of her
+girl friends in and about Boston; her diffidence passed; she found that
+she had ideas and the means of expressing them. The long summers were
+spent at the cottage in the Lane; she saw Mrs. Owen now and then with
+deepening attachment, and her friend never forgot to send her a
+Christmas gift--once a silver purse and a twenty-dollar gold piece;
+again, a watch--always something carefully chosen and practical.
+
+Sylvia arranged to return to college with two St. Louis girls after her
+senior Christmas, to save her grandfather the long journey, for he had
+stipulated that she should never travel alone. By a happy chance Dan
+Harwood, on his way to Boston to deliver an issue of telephone bonds in
+one of Bassett's companies, was a passenger on the same train, and he
+promptly recalled himself to Sylvia, who proudly presented him as a Yale
+man to her companions. A special car filled with young collegians from
+Cincinnati and the South was later attached to the train, and Dan,
+finding several Yalensians in the company, including the year's football
+hero, made them all acquainted with Sylvia and her friends. It was not
+till the next day that Dan found an opportunity for personal talk with
+Sylvia, but he had already been making comparisons. Sylvia was as well
+"put up" as any of the girls, and he began to note her quick changes of
+expression, the tones of her voice, the grace of her slim, strong hands.
+He wanted to impress himself upon her; he wanted her to like him.
+
+"News? I don't know that I can give you any news. You probably know that
+Mrs. Owen went to Fraserville for Christmas with the Bassetts? Let me
+see, you do know the Bassetts, don't you?"
+
+"Yes. I was at Waupegan three summers ago at Mrs. Owen's, and Mrs.
+Bassett and all of them were very good to me."
+
+"You probably don't know that I'm employed by Mr. Bassett. He has an
+office in Indianapolis where I'm trying to be a lawyer and I do small
+jobs for him. I'm doing an errand for him now. It will be the first time
+I've been east of the mountains since I left college, and I'm going to
+stop at New Haven on my way home to see how they're getting on without
+me. By the way, you probably know that Marian is going to college?"
+
+"No; I didn't know it," exclaimed Sylvia. "But I knew her mother was
+interested and I gave her a Wellesley catalogue. That was a long time
+ago!"
+
+"That was when you were visiting Mrs. Owen at Waupegan? I see, said the
+blind man!"
+
+"What do you see?" asked Sylvia.
+
+"I see Mrs. Bassett and Marian, niece and grandniece respectively, of
+Aunt Sally Owen; and as I gaze, a stranger bound for college suddenly
+appears on Mrs. Owen's veranda, in cap and gown. Tableau!"
+
+"I don't see the picture," Sylvia replied, though she laughed in spite
+of herself.
+
+"I not only see," Dan continued, "but I hear the jingle of red, red
+gold, off stage."
+
+This was going a trifle too far. Sylvia shook her head and frowned.
+
+"That isn't fair, Mr. Harwood, if I guess what you mean. There's no
+reason why Marian shouldn't go to college. My going has nothing to do
+with it. You have misunderstood the whole matter."
+
+"Pardon me," said Dan quickly. "I mean no unkindness to any of them.
+They are all very good to me. It's too bad, though, that Marian's
+preparation for college hadn't been in mind until so recently. It would
+save her a lot of hard digging now. I see a good deal of the family; and
+I'm even aware of Marian's doings at Miss Waring's school. Master
+Blackford beguiles me into taking him to football games, and I often go
+with all of them to the theatre when they're in town. Mr. Bassett is
+very busy, and he doesn't often indulge himself in pleasures. He's the
+kind of man whose great joy is in work--and he has many things to look
+after."
+
+"You are a kind of private secretary to the whole family, then; but you
+work at the law at the same time?"
+
+Harwood's face clouded for a moment; she noticed it and was sorry she
+had spoken; but he said immediately:--
+
+"Well, I haven't had much time for the law this winter. I have more
+things to do outside than I had expected. But I fear I need prodding;
+I'm too prone to wander into other fields. And I'm getting a good deal
+interested in politics. You know Mr. Bassett is one of the leading men
+in our state."
+
+"Yes, I had learned that; I suppose he may be Senator or Governor some
+day. That makes it all the more important that Marian should be fitted
+for high station."
+
+"I don't know that just that idea has struck her!" he laughed, quite
+cheerful again. "It's too bad it can't be suggested to her. It might
+help her with her Latin. She tells me in our confidences that she thinks
+Latin a beast. It's my role to pacify her. But a girl must live up to
+her mother's ambitions, and Mrs. Bassett is ambitious for her children.
+And then there's always the unencumbered aunt to please into the
+bargain. Mrs. Owen is shrewd, wise, kind. Since that night I saw you
+there we've become pals. She's the most stimulating person I ever knew.
+She has talked to me about you several times"--Dan laughed and looked
+Sylvia in the eyes as though wondering how far to go--"and if you're not
+the greatest living girl you have shamefully fooled Mrs. Owen. Mr. Ware,
+the minister, came in one evening when I was there and I never heard
+such praise as they gave you. But I approved of it."
+
+"Oh, how nice of you!" said Sylvia, in a tone so unlike her that Dan
+laughed outright.
+
+"You are the embodiment of loyalty; but believe me, I am a loyal person
+myself. Please don't think me a gossip. Marian's mother still hopes to
+land her in college next year, but she's the least studious of beings; I
+can't see her doing it. Mrs. Bassett's never quite well, and that's been
+bad for Marian. College would be a good thing for her. I've seen many
+soaring young autocrats reduced to a proper humility at New Haven, and I
+dare say you girls have your own way of humbling a proud spirit."
+
+"I don't believe Marian needs humbling; one can't help liking her; and
+she's ever so good to look at."
+
+"She's certainly handsome," Dan admitted.
+
+"She's altogether charming," said Sylvia warmly; "and she's young--much
+younger than I am, for example."
+
+"How old is young, or how young is old? I had an idea that you and she
+were about the same age."
+
+"You flatter me! I'm nearly four years older! but I suppose she seems
+much more grown-up, and she knows a great many things I don't."
+
+"I dare say she does!" Dan laughed. And with this they turned to other
+matters.
+
+Dan sat facing her, hat in hand, and as the train rushed through the
+Berkshires Sylvia formed new impressions of him. She saw him now as a
+young man of affairs, with errands abroad--this in itself of
+significance; and he had to do with politics, a subject that had begun
+to interest Sylvia. The cowlick where his hair parted kept a stubborn
+wisp of brown hair in rebellion, and it shook amusingly when he spoke
+earnestly or laughed. His gray eyes were far apart and his nose was
+indubitably a big one. He laughed a good deal, by which token one saw
+that his teeth were white and sound. Something of the Southwestern drawl
+had survived his years at New Haven, but when he became earnest his eyes
+snapped and he spoke with quick, nervous energy, in a deep voice that
+was a little harsh. Sylvia had heard a great deal about the brothers and
+young men friends of her companions at college and was now more
+attentive to the outward form of man than she had thought of being
+before.
+
+When they reached Boston, Harwood took Sylvia and her companions to
+luncheon at the Touraine and put them on their train for Wellesley. His
+thoughtfulness and efficiency could not fail to impress the young women.
+He was an admirable cavalier, and Sylvia's companions were delighted
+with him. He threatened them with an early visit to college, suggesting
+the most daring possibilities as to his appearance. He repeated, at
+Sylvia's instigation, the incident of the hearse horses at Poughkeepsie,
+with new flourishes, and cheerfully proposed a cousinship to all of
+them.
+
+"Or, perhaps," he said, when he had found seats for them and had been
+admonished to leave, "perhaps it would be more in keeping with my great
+age to become your uncle. Then you would be cousins to each other and we
+should all be related."
+
+Speculations as to whether he would ever come kept the young women
+laughing as they discussed him. They declared that the meeting on the
+train had been by ulterior design and they quite exhausted the fun of it
+upon Sylvia, who gained greatly in importance through the encounter with
+Harwood. She was not the demure young person they had thought her; it
+was not every girl who could produce a personable young man on a railway
+journey.
+
+Sylvia wondered much about Marian and dramatized to herself the girl's
+arrival at college. It did not seem credible that Mrs. Bassett was
+preparing Marian for college because she, Sylvia Garrison, was enrolled
+there. Sylvia was kindly disposed toward all the world, and she resented
+Harwood's insinuations. As for Mrs. Owen and Dan's intimations that
+Marian must be educated to satisfy the great aunt's ideals as
+represented in Sylvia--well, Sylvia had no patience whatever with any
+such idea.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+THE WAYS OF MARIAN
+
+
+The historian may not always wait for the last grain of sand to mark the
+passing of an hour; he must hasten the flight of time frequently by
+abrupt reversals of the glass. Much competent evidence (to borrow from
+the lawyers) we must reject as irrelevant or immaterial to our main
+issue. Harwood was admitted to practice in the United States courts
+midway of his third year in Bassett's office. The doors of the state
+courts swing inward to any Hoosier citizen of good moral character who
+wants to practice law,--a drollery of the Hoosier constitution still
+tolerated. The humor of being a mere "constitutional" lawyer did not
+appeal to Harwood, who revered the traditions and the great names of his
+chosen profession, and he had first written his name on the rolls of the
+United States District Court.
+
+His work for Bassett grew more and more congenial. The man from Fraser
+was concentrating his attention on business; at least he found plenty of
+non-political work for Dan to do. After the troubled waters in Ranger
+County had been quieted and Bassett's advanced outpost in the Boordman
+Building had ceased to attract newspaper reporters, an important
+receivership to which Bassett had been appointed gave Harwood
+employment of a semi-legal character. Bassett had been a minor
+stockholder in a paper-mill which had got into difficulties through
+sheer bad management, and as receiver he addressed himself to the task
+of proving that the business could be made to pay. The work he assigned
+to Harwood was to the young man's liking, requiring as it did
+considerable travel, visits to the plant, which was only a few hours'
+journey from the capital, and negotiations which required the exercise
+of tact and judgment. However, Harwood found himself ineluctably drawn
+into the state campaign that fall. Bassett was deeply engaged in all the
+manoeuvres, and Harwood was dispatched frequently on errands to county
+chairmen, and his aid was welcomed by the literary bureau of the state
+committee. He prepared a speech whose quality he tested at small
+meetings in his own county, and his efforts having been favorably
+received he acted as a supply to fill appointments where the regular
+schedule failed. Toward the end of the campaign his assignments
+increased until all his time was taken. By studying his audiences he
+caught the trick of holding the attention of large crowds; his old
+college sobriquet of "Foghorn" Harwood had been revived and the
+newspapers mentioned his engagements with a casualness that implied
+fame. He enjoyed his public appearances, and the laughter and applause
+were sweet to him.
+
+After the election Bassett admonished him not to neglect the law.
+
+"I want you to make your way in the profession," he said, "and not let
+my affairs eat up all your time. Give me your mornings as far as
+possible and keep your afternoons for study. If at any time you have to
+give me a whole day, take the next day for yourself. But this work
+you're doing will all help you later. Lawyers these days have got to be
+business men; you understand that; and you want to get to the top."
+
+Dan visited his parents and brothers as often as possible on the
+infertile Harrison County acres, to which the mortgage still clung
+tenaciously. He had felt since leaving college that he owed it to the
+brothers who had remained behind to wipe out the old harassing debt as
+soon as possible. The thought of their struggles often made him unhappy,
+and he felt that he could only justify his own desertion by freeing the
+farm. After one of these visits Bassett drew from him the fact that the
+mortgage was about to mature, and that another of a long series of
+renewals of the loan was necessary. Bassett was at once interested and
+sympathetic. The amount of the debt was three thousand dollars, and he
+proposed that Dan discharge it.
+
+"I've never said so, but at the conclusion of the receivership I've
+intended paying you for your additional work. If everything goes well my
+own allowance ought to be ten thousand dollars, and you're entitled to a
+share of it. I'll say now that it will be not less than two thousand
+dollars. I'll advance you that amount at once and carry your personal
+note for the other thousand in the Fraserville bank. It's too bad you
+have to use your first money that way, but it's natural for you to want
+to do it. I see that you feel a duty there, and the folks at home have
+had that mortgage on their backs so long that it's taken all the spirit
+out of them. You pay the mortgage when it's due and go down and make a
+little celebration of it, to cheer them up. I'll carry that thousand as
+long as you like."
+
+Miss Rose Farrell, nigh to perishing of ennui in the lonely office of
+the absentee steel construction agents, had been installed as
+stenographer in Room 66 a year earlier. Miss Farrell had, it appeared,
+served Bassett several terms as stenographer to one of the legislative
+committees of which he was chairman.
+
+"You needn't be afraid of my telling anything," she said in reply to
+Dan's cautioning. "Those winters I worked at the State House I learned
+enough to fill three penitentiaries with great and good men, but you
+couldn't dig it out of me with a steam shovel. They were going to have
+me up before an investigating committee once, but I had burned my
+shorthand notes and couldn't remember a thing. Your little Irish Rose
+knows a few things, Mr. Harwood. I was on to your office before the
+'Advertiser' sprung that story and gave it away that Mr. Bassett had a
+room here. I spotted the senator from Fraser coming up our pedestrian
+elevator, and I know all those rubes that have been dropping up to see
+him--struck 'em all in the legislature. He won't tear your collar if you
+put me on the job. And if I do say it myself I'm about as speedy on the
+machine as you find 'em. All your little Rose asks is the right to an
+occasional Wednesday matinee when business droops like a sick oleander.
+You needn't worry about me having callers. I'm a business woman, I am,
+and I guess I know what's proper in a business office. If I don't
+understand men, Mr. Harwood, no poor working girl does."
+
+Bassett was pleased with Dan's choice of a stenographer. He turned over
+to Rose the reading of the rural newspapers and sundry other routine
+matters. There was no doubt of Miss Farrell's broad knowledge of the
+world, or of her fidelity to duty. Harwood took early opportunity to
+subdue somewhat the pungency of the essences with which she perfumed
+herself, and she gave up gum-chewing meekly at his behest. She assumed
+at once toward him that maternal attitude which is peculiar to office
+girls endowed with psychological insight. He sought to improve the
+character of fiction she kept at hand for leisure moments, and was
+surprised by the aptness of her comments on the books she borrowed on
+his advice from the Public Library. She was twenty-four, tall and trim,
+with friendly blue-gray eyes and a wit that had been sharpened by
+adversity.
+
+It cannot be denied that Mrs. Bassett and Marian found Harwood a
+convenient reed upon which to lean. Nor was Blackford above dragging his
+father's secretary (as the family called him) forth into the bazaars of
+Washington Street to assist in the purchase of a baseball suit or in
+satisfying other cravings of his youthful heart. Mrs. Bassett, scorning
+the doctors of Fraserville, had now found a nerve specialist at the
+capital who understood her troubles perfectly.
+
+Marian, at Miss Waring's school, was supposed to be preparing for
+college, though Miss Waring had no illusions on the subject. Marian made
+Mrs. Owen her excuse for many absences from school: what was the use of
+having a wealthy great-aunt living all alone in a comfortable house in
+Delaware Street if one didn't avail one's self of the rights and
+privileges conferred by such relationship? When a note from Miss Waring
+to Mrs. Bassett at Fraserville conveyed the disquieting news of her
+daughter's unsatisfactory progress, Mrs. Bassett went to town and dealt
+severely with Marian. Mrs. Owen was grimly silent when appealed to; it
+had never been her idea that Marian should be prepared for college; but
+now that the girl's mother had pledged herself to the undertaking Mrs.
+Owen remained a passive spectator of the struggle. Mrs. Owen was not so
+dull but that she surmised what had inspired this zeal for a collegiate
+training for Marian; and her heart warmed toward the dark young person
+at Wellesley, such being the contrariety of her kindly soul. To Miss
+Waring, a particular friend of hers and one of her admirations, Mrs.
+Owen said:--
+
+"I want you to do the best you can for Marian, now that her mother's
+bitten with this idea of sending her to college. She's smart enough, I
+guess?"
+
+"Too much smartness is Marian's trouble," replied Miss Waring. "There's
+nothing in the gymnasium she can't do; she's become the best French
+scholar we ever had, but that's about all. She's worked hard at French
+because she thinks it gives her a grand air. I can't imagine any other
+reason. She's adorable and--impossible!"
+
+"Do the best you can for her; I want her to go to college if she can."
+
+Miss Waring had the reputation of being strict, yet Marian slipped the
+cords of routine and discipline with ease. She had passed triumphantly
+from the kitchen "fudge" and homemade butterscotch period of a girl's
+existence into the realm of _marrons glaces_. Nothing bored her so much
+as the afternoon airings of the school under the eye of a teacher; and
+these she turned into larks when she shared in them. Twice in one winter
+she had hopped upon a passing street car and rolled away in triumph from
+her meek and horrified companions and their outraged duenna. She
+encouraged by means the subtlest, the attentions of a strange young
+gentleman who followed the school's peregrinations afar off. She carried
+on a brief correspondence with this cavalier, a fence corner in
+Pennsylvania Street serving as post-office.
+
+Luck favored her astonishingly in her efforts to escape the rigors of
+school discipline. Just when she was forbidden to leave Miss Waring's to
+spend nights and Sundays at Mrs. Owen's, her mother came to town and
+opportunely (for Marian) fell ill, at the Whitcomb. Mrs. Bassett was
+cruising languidly toward the sombre coasts of Neurasthenia, and though
+she was under the supervision of a trained nurse, Marian made her
+mother's illness an excuse for moving down to the hotel to take care of
+her. Her father, in and out of the city caring for his multiplying
+interests, objected mildly but acquiesced, which was simpler and more
+comfortable than opposing her.
+
+Having escaped from school and established herself at the Whitcomb,
+Marian summoned Harwood to the hotel on the flimsiest pretexts, many of
+them most ingeniously plausible. For example, she avowed her intention
+of carrying on her studies at the hotel during her enforced retirement
+from Miss Waring's, and her father's secretary, being a college man,
+could assist her with her Latin as well as not. Dan set tasks for her
+for a week, until she wearied of the pretense. She insisted that it was
+too stupid for her to go unattended to the hotel restaurant for her
+meals, and it was no fun eating in her mother's room with that lady in
+bed and the trained nurse at hand; so Harwood must join her for luncheon
+and dinner at the Whitcomb. Mrs. Owen was out of town, Bassett was most
+uncertain in his goings and comings, and Mrs. Bassett was beyond
+Harwood's reach, so he obeyed, not without chafing of spirit, these
+commands of Marian. He was conscious that people pointed her out in the
+restaurant as Morton Bassett's daughter, and he did not like the
+responsibility of this unauthorized chaperonage.
+
+Mrs. Bassett was going to a sanatorium as soon as she was able to move;
+but for three weeks Marian was on Harwood's hands. Her bland airs of
+proprietorship amused him when they did not annoy him, and when he
+ventured to remonstrate with her for her unnecessary abandonment of
+school to take care of her mother, her pretty _moue_ had mitigated his
+impatience. She knew the value of her prettiness. Dan was a young man
+and Marian was not without romantic longings. Just what passed between
+her and her mother Harwood could not know, but the hand that ruled
+indulgently in health had certainly not gained strength in sickness.
+
+This was in January when the theatres were offering an unusual variety
+of attractions. Dan had been obliged to refuse--more harshly than was
+agreeable--to take Marian to see a French farce that had been widely
+advertised by its indecency. Her cool announcement that she had read it
+in French did not seem to Harwood to make an educational matter of it;
+but he was obliged finally to compromise with her on another play. Her
+mother was quite comfortable, she averred; there was no reason why she
+should not go to the theatre, and she forced the issue by getting the
+tickets herself.
+
+That evening when they reached their seats Dan observed that Allen
+Thatcher sat immediately in front of them. He turned and nodded to Dan,
+and his eyes took in Marian. In a moment she murmured an inquiry as to
+who the young man was; and Harwood was aware thereafter that Marian
+divided her attention between Allen and the stage. Allen turned once or
+twice in the entr'actes with some comment on the play, and Marian was
+pleased with his profile; moreover he bore a name with which she had
+long been familiar. As the curtain fell she whispered to Harwood:--
+
+"You must introduce me to Mr. Thatcher,--please--! His father and papa
+are friends, and I've heard so much about the family that I just have
+to know him."
+
+Harwood looked down at her gravely to be sure it was not one of her
+jokes, but she was entirely serious. He felt that he must take a stand
+with her; if her father and mother were unaware of her venturesome
+nature he still had his responsibility, and it was not incumbent on him
+to widen her acquaintance.
+
+"No!" he said flatly.
+
+But Marian knew a trick or two. She loitered by her seat adjusting her
+wrap with unnecessary deliberation. Allen, wishing to arrange an
+appointment with Dan for luncheon the next day, waited for him to come
+into the aisle. Dan had not the slightest idea of introducing his charge
+to Allen or to any one else, and he stepped in front of her to get rid
+of his friend with the fewest words possible. But Marian so disposed
+herself at his elbow that he could not without awkwardness refuse her.
+
+She murmured Allen's name cordially, leveling her eyes at him smilingly.
+
+"I've often heard Mr. Harwood speak of you, Mr. Thatcher! He has a great
+way of speaking of his friends!"
+
+Allen was not a forthputting person, and Dan's manner was not
+encouraging; but the trio remained together necessarily through the
+aisle to the foyer.
+
+Marian took advantage of their slow exit to discuss the play and with
+entire sophistication, expressing astonishment that Allen was lukewarm
+in his praise of it. He could not agree with her that the leading woman
+was beautiful, but she laughed when he remarked, with his droll
+intonation, that the star reminded him of a dressed-up mannikin in a
+clothing-store window.
+
+"That is just the kind of thing I imagined you would say. My aunt, Mrs.
+Owen, says that you always say something different."
+
+"Oh, Aunt Sally! She's the grandest of women. I wish she were my aunt. I
+have aunts I could trade for her."
+
+At the door Allen paused. Marian, running on blithely, gave him no
+opportunity to make his adieux.
+
+"Oh, aren't you going our way?" she demanded, in a tone of invitation.
+
+"Yes; come along; it's only a step to the hotel where Miss Bassett is
+staying," said Harwood, finding that they blocked the entrance and not
+seeing his way to abandoning Allen on the spot. He never escaped the
+appeal that lay in Allen; he was not the sort of fellow one would wound;
+and there could be no great harm in allowing him to walk a few blocks
+with Marian Bassett, who had so managed the situation as to make his
+elimination difficult. It was a cold, clear night and they walked
+briskly to the Whitcomb. When they reached the hotel, Dan, who had left
+the conversation to Marian and Allen, breathed a sigh that his
+responsibility was at an end. He and Allen would have a walk and talk
+together, or they might go up to the Boordman Building for the long
+lounging parleys in which Allen delighted and which Dan himself enjoyed.
+But Dan had not fully gauged the measure of Marian's daring.
+
+"Won't you please wait a minute, Mr. Harwood, until I see if poor mama
+needs anything. You know we all rely on you so. I'll be back in just a
+moment."
+
+"So that's Morton Bassett's daughter," observed Allen when Marian had
+fluttered into the elevator. "You must have a lot of fun taking her
+about; she's much more grown-up than I had imagined from what you've
+said. She's almost a dangerous young person."
+
+The young men found seats and Allen nursed his hat musingly. He had
+nothing whatever to do, and the chance meeting with Harwood was a bright
+incident in a bleak, eventless day.
+
+"Oh, she's a nice child," replied Harwood indifferently. "But she finds
+childhood irksome. It gives her ladyship a feeling of importance to hold
+me here while she asks after the comfort of her mother. I suppose a girl
+is a woman when she has learned that she can tell a man to wait."
+
+"You should write a book of aphorisms and call it 'The Young Lady's Own
+Handbook.' Perhaps I ought to be skipping."
+
+"For Heaven's sake, don't! I want you as an excuse for getting away."
+
+"I think I'd better go," suggested Allen. "I can wait for you in the
+office."
+
+"Then I should pay the penalty for allowing you to escape; she can be
+very severe; she is a much harder taskmaster than her father. Don't
+desert me."
+
+Allen took this at face value; and it seemed only ordinary courtesy to
+wait to say good-night to a young woman who was coming back in a moment
+to report upon the condition of a sick mother. In ten minutes Marian
+reappeared, having left her wraps behind.
+
+"Mama is sleeping beautifully. And that's a sign that she's better."
+
+Here clearly was an end of the matter, and Dan had begun to say
+good-night; but with the prettiest grace possible Marian was addressing
+Allen:--
+
+"I'm terribly hungry and I sent down an order for just the smallest
+supper. You see, I took it for granted that you would both be just as
+hungry as I am, so you must come and keep me company." And to anticipate
+the refusal that already glittered coldly in Dan's eye, she continued,
+"Mama doesn't like me to be going into the restaurant alone, but she
+approves of Mr. Harwood."
+
+The head waiter was already leading them to a table set for three in
+accordance with the order Manan had telephoned from her room. She had
+eliminated the possibility of discussion, and Harwood raged in his
+helplessness. There was no time for a scene even if he had thought it
+wise to precipitate one.
+
+"It's only a lobster, you know," she said, with the careless ease of a
+young woman quite habituated to midnight suppers.
+
+Harwood's frown of annoyance had not escaped her; but it only served to
+add to her complete joy in the situation. There were other people about,
+and music proceeded from a screen of palms at the end of the
+dining-room. Having had her way, Marian nibbled celery and addressed
+herself rather pointedly to Allen, unmindful of the lingering traces of
+Harwood's discomfiture. By the time the lobster was served she was on
+capital terms with Allen.
+
+In his own delight in Marian, Allen failed utterly to comprehend
+Harwood's gloomy silence. Dan scarcely touched his plate, and he knew
+that Marian was covertly laughing at him.
+
+"Do you know," said Allen, speaking directly to Dan, "we're having great
+arguments at Lueders's; we turn the universe over every day."
+
+"You see, Miss Bassett," Allen explained to Marian; "I'm a fair
+carpenter and work almost every day at Louis Lueders's shop. I earn a
+dollar a day and eat dinner--dinner, mind you!--at twelve o'clock, out
+of a tin pail. You can see that I'm a laboring man--one of the toiling
+millions."
+
+"You don't mean that seriously, Mr. Thatcher; not really!"
+
+"Oh, why will you say that? Every one says just that! No one ever
+believes that I mean what I say!"
+
+This was part of some joke, Marian surmised, though she did not quite
+grasp it. It was inconceivable that the son of the house of Thatcher
+should seriously seek a chance to do manual labor. Allen in his dinner
+jacket did not look like a laborer: he was far more her idea of a poet
+or a musician.
+
+"I went to Lueders's house the other evening for supper," Allen was
+saying. "I rather put it up to him to ask me, and he has a house with a
+garden, and his wife was most amusing. We all talked German, including
+the kids,--three of them, fascinating little fellows. He's a
+cabinetmaker, Miss Bassett,--a producer of antiques, and a good one;
+and about the gentlest human being you ever saw. He talks about existing
+law as though it were some kind of devil,--a monster, devouring the
+world's poor. But he won't let his wife spank the children,--wouldn't,
+even when one of them kicked a hole in my hat! I supposed that of course
+there would be dynamite lying round in tomato cans; and when I shook the
+pepper box I expected an explosion; but I didn't see a gun on the place.
+He's beautifully good-natured, and laughed in the greatest way when I
+asked him how soon he thought of blowing up some of our prominent
+citizens. I really believe he likes me--strange but true."
+
+"Better not get in too deep with those fellows," warned Dan. "The police
+watch Lueders carefully; he's considered dangerous. It's the quiet ones,
+who are kind to their families and raise cabbages, that are the most
+violent."
+
+"Oh, Lueders says we've got to smash everything! He rather favors
+socialism himself, but he wants to tear down the court-houses first and
+begin again."
+
+"You'd better be careful or you'll land in jail, Mr. Thatcher," remarked
+Marian, taking an olive.
+
+"Oh, if anything as interesting as that should happen to me, I should
+certainly die of joy!"
+
+"But your family wouldn't like it if you went to jail," persisted
+Marian, delighting in the confidences of a young gentleman for whom
+jails had no terrors.
+
+"The thought of my family is disturbing, it's positively disturbing,"
+Allen replied. "Lueders has given me a chance in his shop, and really
+expects me to work. Surprising in an anarchist; you'd rather expect him
+to press a stick of dynamite in your hand and tell you to go out and
+blow up a bank. Lueders has a sense of humor, you know: hence the
+antiques, made to coax money from the purses of the fat rich. There are
+more ways than one of being a cut-purse."
+
+The lobster had been consumed, and they were almost alone in the
+restaurant. Marian, with her elbows on the table, was in no haste to
+leave, but Dan caught the eye of the hovering waiter and paid the check.
+
+"You shouldn't have done that," Marian protested; "it was my party. I
+sign my own checks here."
+
+But having now asserted himself, Dan rose, and in a moment he and Allen
+had bidden her good-night at the elevator door.
+
+"You didn't seem crazy about your lobster, and you were hardly more than
+polite to our hostess. Sorry to have butted in. But why have you kept
+these tender recreations from me!"
+
+"Oh, that child vexes my spirit sometimes. She's bent on making people
+do things they don't want to do. Of course the lobster was a mere excuse
+for getting acquainted with you; but you needn't be too set up about it:
+I think her curiosity about your family is responsible,--these fake
+newspaper stories about your sister--which is it, Hermione or
+Gwendolen--who is always about to marry a count. Countesses haven't been
+common in Indiana. We need a few to add tone to the local gossip."
+
+"Oh," murmured Allen dejectedly: "I'm sorry if you didn't want me in the
+party. It's always the way with me. Nobody ever really loves me for
+myself alone. What does the adorable do besides midnight lobsters? I
+thought Aunt Sally said she was at Miss Waring's school."
+
+"She is, more or less," growled Dan. "Her mother wants to put her
+through college, to please the wealthy great-aunt. Mrs. Owen has shown
+interest in another girl who is now at Wellesley; hence Marian must go
+to college, and the bare thought of it bores her to death. She's as
+little adapted to a course in college as one of those bright goddesses
+who used to adorn Olympus."
+
+"She doesn't strike me as needing education; she's a finished product. I
+felt very young in the divine presence."
+
+"She gives one that feeling," laughed Dan, his mood of impatience
+dissolving.
+
+"Who's this rival who has made the higher education seem necessary for
+Morton Bassett's daughter?"
+
+"She's an amazing girl; quite astonishing. If Mrs. Bassett were a wise
+woman she wouldn't enter Marian in competition. And besides, I think her
+fears are utterly groundless. Marian is delightful, with her waywardness
+and high-handedness; and Mrs. Owen likes originals, not feeble
+imitations. I should hate to try to deceive Mrs. Sally Owen--she's about
+the wisest person I ever saw."
+
+"Oh, Sylvia! Mrs. Owen has mentioned her. The girl that knows all the
+stars and that sort of thing. But where's Morton Bassett in all this?
+He's rather more than a shadow on the screen?"
+
+"Same old story of the absorbed American father and the mother with
+nerves"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Two afternoons later, as Harwood was crossing University Park on his way
+to his boarding-house, he stopped short and stared. A little ahead of
+him in the walk strolled a girl and a young man, laughing and talking
+with the greatest animation. There was no questioning their identity. It
+was five o'clock and quite dark, and the air was sharp. Harwood paused
+and waited for the two loiterers to cross the lighted space about the
+little park's central fountain. It seemed incredible that Marian and
+Allen should be abroad together in this dallying fashion. His anger rose
+against Allen, but he curbed an impulse to send him promptly about his
+business and take Marian back to the Whitcomb. Mr. Bassett was expected
+in town that evening and Dan saw his duty clearly in regard to Marian;
+she must be returned to school willy-nilly.
+
+The young people were hitting it off wonderfully, and Marian's laughter
+rang out clearly upon the winter air. Her tall, supple figure, her head
+capped with a fur toque, and more than all, the indubitable evidence
+that such a clandestine stroll as this gave her the keenest delight,
+drove home to Harwood the realization that Marian was no longer a child,
+but a young woman, obstinately bent upon her own way. Allen was an
+ill-disciplined, emotional boy, whose susceptibilities in the matter of
+girls Dan had already noted. The combination had its dangers and his
+anger rose as he followed them at a safe distance. They prolonged their
+walk for half an hour, coming at last to the Whitcomb.
+
+Harwood waylaid Allen in the hotel office a moment after Marian had gone
+to her room. The young fellow's cheeks were unwontedly bright from the
+cold or from the excitement of his encounter.
+
+"Halloa! I was going to look you up and ask you to have dinner with me."
+
+"You were looking for me in a likely place," replied Harwood coldly.
+"See here, Allen, I've been laboring under the delusion that you were a
+gentleman."
+
+"Oh! Have we come to that?"
+
+"You know better than to go loafing through town with a truant
+school-girl you hardly know. I suppose it's my fault for introducing you
+to her. I want you to tell me how you managed this. Did you telephone
+her or write a note? Sit down here now and let's have it out."
+
+They drew away from the crowd and found seats in a quiet corner of the
+lobby.
+
+Harwood, his anger unabated, repeated his question.
+
+"Out with it; just how did you manage it?"
+
+Allen was twisting his gloves nervously; he had not been conscious of
+transgressing any law, but he would not for worlds have invited
+Harwood's displeasure. He was near to tears; but he remained stubbornly
+silent until Harwood again demanded to know how he contrived the meeting
+with Marian.
+
+"I'm sorry, old man," Allen answered, "but I can't tell you anything
+about it. I don't see that my crime is so heinous. She has been cooped
+up in the hotel all day with her sick mother, and a short walk--it was
+only a few blocks--couldn't have done her any harm. I think you're
+making too much of it."
+
+"You were dallying there in the park, in a way to attract attention,
+with a headstrong, silly girl that you ought to have protected from that
+sort of thing. You know better than that."
+
+Allen, enfolded in his long ulster, shuffled his feet on the tiling like
+a school-boy in disgrace. Deep down in his heart, Harwood did not
+believe that Allen had proposed the walk to Marian; it was far likelier
+that Marian had sought the meeting by note or telephone. He turned upon
+Allen with a slight relaxation of his sternness.
+
+"You didn't write her a note or telephone her,--you didn't do either,
+did you?"
+
+Allen, silent and dejected, dropped his gloves and picked them up, the
+color deepening in his cheeks.
+
+"I just happened to meet her; that's all," he said, avoiding Dan's eyes.
+
+"She wrote you a note or telephoned you?"
+
+Silence.
+
+"Humph," grunted Harwood.
+
+"She's wonderfully beautiful and strong and so tremendously vivid! I
+think those nice girls you read of in the Greek mythology must have been
+like that," murmured Allen, sighing heavily.
+
+"I dare say they were!" snapped Harwood, searching the youngster's
+thin, sensitive face, and meeting for an instant his dreamy eyes. He was
+touched anew by the pathos in the boy, whose nature was a light web of
+finespun golden cords thrilling to any breath of fancy. The superb
+health, the dash and daring of a school-girl that he had seen but once
+or twice, had sent him climbing upon a frail ladder of romantic dreams.
+
+Harwood struck his hands together sharply. If he owed a duty to Marian
+and her family, not less he was bound to turn Allen's thoughts into safe
+channels.
+
+"Of course it wouldn't do--that sort of thing, you know, Allen. I didn't
+mean to beat you into the dust. Let's go over to Pop June's and get some
+oysters. I don't feel up to our usual boarding-house discussion of
+Christian Science to-night."
+
+At the first opportunity Dan suggested to Bassett, without mentioning
+Marian's adventure with Allen, that the Whitcomb was no place for her,
+and that her pursuit of knowledge under his own tutorship was the merest
+farce; whereupon Bassett sent her back immediately to Miss Waring's.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+THE PASSING OF ANDREW KELTON
+
+
+Andrew Kelton died suddenly, near the end of May, in Sylvia's senior
+year at college. The end came unexpectedly, of heart trouble. Harwood
+read of it in the morning newspaper, and soon after he reached his
+office Mrs. Owen called him on the telephone to say that she was going
+to Montgomery at once, and asking him to meet Sylvia as she passed
+through Indianapolis on her way home. Both of the morning papers printed
+laudatory articles on Kelton; he had been held in high esteem by all the
+friends of Madison College, and his name was known to educators
+throughout the country.
+
+On the same afternoon Bassett appeared in town on the heels of a letter
+saying that Dan need not expect him until the following week.
+
+"Thought I'd better see Fitch about some receiver business, so I came
+down a little ahead of time. What's new?"
+
+"Nothing very exciting. There's a good deal of political buzz, but I
+don't believe anything has happened that you don't know. From the way
+candidates are turning up for state office our fellows must think they
+have a chance of winning."
+
+Bassett was unfailingly punctilious in forecasting his appearances in
+town, and his explanation that legal matters had brought him down was
+not wholly illuminative. Dan knew that the paper-mill receivership was
+following its prescribed course, and he was himself, through an
+arrangement made by Bassett, in touch with Fitch and understood the
+legal status of the case perfectly. As Bassett passed through the
+library to his own room he paused to indulge in a moment's banter with
+Miss Farrell. It was not until he had opened his desk that he replied to
+Harwood's remark.
+
+"A few good men on our ticket might pull through next time, but it will
+take us a little longer to get the party whipped into shape again and
+strong enough to pull a ticket through. But hope springs eternal. You
+have noticed that I don't talk on national affairs when the reporters
+come to me. In the state committee I tell them to put all the snap they
+can into the county organizations, and try to get good men on local
+tickets. When the boys out West get tired of being licked we will start
+in again and do business at the old stand. I've always taken care that
+they shouldn't have a chance to attack my regularity."
+
+"I've just been reading a book of Cleveland's speeches," remarked Dan.
+
+"Solemn, but sound. He will undoubtedly go down as one of the great
+Presidents. I think Republicans and men of all sorts of political ideas
+will come to that."
+
+"But I don't feel that all this radicalism is a passing phase. It's
+eating deeply into the Republicans too. We're on the eve of a revival of
+patriotism, and party names don't mean what they did. But I believe the
+Democratic Party is still the best hope of the people, even when the
+people go clean off their heads."
+
+"You believe in Democracy, but you doubt sometimes whether the
+Democratic Party is really the custodian of the true faith of
+Democracy--is that it?"
+
+"That's exactly it. And my young Republican friends feel the same way
+about their party."
+
+"Well, I guess I stand about where you do. I believe in parties. I don't
+think there's much gained by jumping around from one party to another;
+and independent movements are as likely to do harm as good. I don't mind
+confessing to you that I had a good notion to join the Democratic schism
+in '96, and support Palmer and Buckner. But I didn't, and I'm not sorry
+I kept regular and held on. I believed the silver business would pass
+over; and it's out of sight. They charged me with voting the Republican
+ticket in '96; but that's a lie. I've never scratched a ticket since I
+first voted, and"--Bassett smiled his grim smile--"I've naturally voted
+for a good many rascals. By the way, how much are you seeing of Atwill?"
+
+
+"I make a point of seeing him once a week or oftener. When I'm downtown
+at night I usually catch him for a late supper."
+
+"The 'Courier' is regular, all right enough. It's a good property, and
+when our party gets through chasing meadow-larks and gets down to
+business again it will be more valuable. Was that your editorial
+yesterday on municipal government? Good. I'm for trying some of these
+new ideas. I've been reading a lot of stuff on municipal government
+abroad, and some of those foreign ideas we ought to try here. I want the
+'Courier' to take the lead in those things; it may help"--and Bassett
+smiled--"it may help to make the high brows see that ours has really
+been the party of progress through these years when it's marched
+backward."
+
+Bassett swung round slowly until his gaze fell upon the map, reminding
+the young man of Thatcher's interest in that varicolored oblong of
+paper. Dan had never mentioned Thatcher's visit to the office, feeling
+that if the capitalist were really the bold man he appeared to be, he
+would show his hand to Bassett soon enough. Moreover, Harwood's
+confidence in Bassett's powers had never wavered; in the management of
+the paper-mill receivership the senator from Fraser had demonstrated a
+sagacity and resourcefulness that had impressed Dan anew. Bassett
+possessed, in unusual degree, the astuteness and executive force of the
+successful American business man, and his nice feeling for the things
+that interest cultivated people lifted him far above the common type of
+political boss. Dan had yet to see a demonstration of Bassett's
+political venality; the bank and his other interests at Fraserville were
+profitable. It must be a craving for power, not money, Dan reasoned,
+that led Bassett into politics. Bassett turned to his desk with some
+letters he had taken from his pocket. It occurred to Dan that as Mrs.
+Owen had suggested that he accompany Sylvia to Montgomery, it would be
+well to mention the possibility of his leaving town for a day.
+
+"Mrs. Owen telephoned me this morning of Professor Kelton's death. You
+probably read of it in to-day's papers. Mrs. Owen is an old friend of
+his, and went to Montgomery on the noon train. She asked me to meet the
+Professor's granddaughter, Miss Garrison, when she comes through here in
+the morning on her way home. I know her slightly, and I think I'd better
+go over to Montgomery with her, if you don't mind."
+
+"Yes, certainly; I was sorry to read of Kelton's death. Mrs. Owen will
+feel it deeply. It's a blow to these old people when one of them drops
+out of the ranks. I'm glad the 'Courier' printed that capital sketch of
+him; much better than the 'Advertiser's.' While I think of it, I wish
+you would tell Atwill that I like the idea of saying a word editorially
+for these old citizens as they leave us. It gives the paper tone, and I
+like to show appreciation of fine characters like Kelton."
+
+Bassett had turned round with a letter in his hand. He unfolded it
+slowly and went on, scanning it as he talked.
+
+"I'm sorry I never knew Kelton. They say he was a very able
+mathematician and astronomer. It's rather remarkable that we should have
+kept him in Indiana. I suppose you may have seen him at Mrs. Owen's;
+they had a common tie in their Kentucky connections. I guess there's no
+tie quite like the Kentucky tie, unless it's the Virginian."
+
+He seemed absorbed in the letter--one of a number he had taken from his
+bag; then he glanced up as though waiting for Dan's reply.
+
+"No, I never saw him at Mrs. Owen's; but I did meet him once, in
+Montgomery. He was a fine old gentleman. You would hardly imagine him
+ever to have been a naval officer; he was quite the elderly, spectacled
+professor in his bearing and manner."
+
+"I suppose even a man bred to the sea loses the look of a sailor if he
+lives inland long enough," Bassett observed.
+
+"I think my brief interview with him rather indicated that he had been a
+man of action--the old discipline of the ship may have been in that,"
+remarked Harwood. Then, fearing that he might be laying himself open to
+questions that he should have to avoid answering, he said: "Kelton wrote
+a good deal on astronomical subjects, and his textbooks have been
+popular. Sylvia Garrison, the granddaughter, is something of a wonder
+herself."
+
+"Bright girl, is she?"
+
+"Quite so; and very nice to look at. I met her on the train when I went
+to Boston with those bonds in January. She was going back to college
+after the holidays. She's very interesting--quite different."
+
+"Different?" repeated Bassett vaguely, dropping back in his chair, but
+again referring absently to the letter.
+
+"Yes," Dan smiled. "She has a lot of individuality. She's a serious
+young person; very practical-minded, I should say. They tell me she
+walks through mathematics like a young duchess through the minuet. Some
+other Wellesley girls were on the train and they did not scruple to
+attribute miraculous powers to her; a good sign, other girls liking her
+so much. They were very frank in their admiration."
+
+"Mrs. Owen had her at Waupegan several years ago, and my wife and Marian
+met her there. Mrs. Bassett was greatly impressed by her fine mind. It
+seems to me I saw her, too, that summer; but of course she's grown up
+since then."
+
+He glanced at Harwood as though for confirmation of these details, but
+Dan's thoughts were elsewhere. He was thinking of Sylvia speeding
+homeward, and of the little cottage beside the campus. His subsequent
+meetings with Sylvia had caused a requickening of all the impressions of
+his visit to Professor Kelton, and he had been recalling that errand
+again to-day. The old gentleman had given his answer with decision;
+Harwood recalled the crisp biting-off of the negative, and the Professor
+had lifted his head slightly as he spoke the word. Dan remembered the
+peace of the cottage, the sweet scents of June blowing through the open
+windows; and he remembered Sylvia as she had opened the door, and their
+colloquy later, on the campus.
+
+"You'd better go to Montgomery with Miss Garrison and report to Mrs.
+Owen for any service you may render her. Does the old gentleman's death
+leave the girl alone?"
+
+"Quite so, I think. She had lived with him nearly all her life. The
+papers mentioned no other near relatives."
+
+"I'll be in town a day or two. You do what you can over there for Mrs.
+Owen."
+
+That evening, returning to the office to clear off his desk in
+preparation for his absence the next day, Dan found Bassett there. This
+was unusual; Bassett rarely visited the office at night. He had
+evidently been deeply occupied with his thoughts, for when Dan entered
+he was sitting before his closed desk with his hat on. He nodded, and a
+few moments later passed through the library on his way out.
+
+"Suppose I won't see you to-morrow. Well, I'm going to be in town a few
+days. Take your time."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Dan Harwood never doubted that he loved Sally Owen after that dark day
+of Sylvia's home-coming. From the time Sylvia stepped from the train
+till the moment when, late that same afternoon, just as the shadows were
+gathering, Andrew Kelton was buried with academic and military honors
+befitting his two-fold achievements, Mrs. Owen had shown the tenderness
+of the gentlest of mothers to the forlorn girl. The scene at the grave
+sank deep into Dan's memory--the patriarchal figure of Dr. Wandless,
+with the faculty and undergraduates ranged behind him; the old
+minister's voice lifted in a benediction that thrilled with a note of
+triumphant faith; and the hymn sung by the students at the end, boys'
+voices, sweet and clear, floating off into the sunset. And nothing in
+Dan's life had ever moved him so much as when Mrs. Owen, standing beside
+Sylvia and representing in her gaunt figure the whole world of love and
+kindness, bent down at the very end and kissed the sobbing girl and led
+her away.
+
+Harwood called on Mrs. Owen at the cottage in Buckeye Lane that
+evening. She came down from Sylvia's room and met him in the little
+library, which he found unchanged from the day of his visit five years
+before.
+
+"That little girl is a hero," she began. "I guess she's about the
+lonesomest girl in the world to-night. Andrew Kelton was a man and a
+good one. He hadn't been well for years, the doctor tells me; trouble
+with his heart, but he kept it to himself; didn't want to worry the
+girl. I tell you everything helps at a time like this. Admiral Martin
+came over to represent the Navy, and you saw the G.A.R. there; it caught
+me in the throat when the bugle blew good-night for Andrew. Sylvia will
+rally and go on and do some big thing. It's in her. I reckon she'll have
+to go back to college, this being her last year. Too bad the
+commencement's all spoiled for her."
+
+"Yes; she won't have much heart for it; but she must get her degree."
+
+"She'll need a rest after this. I'll go back with her, and then I'm
+going to take her up to Waupegan with me for the summer. There are some
+things to settle about her, and I'm glad you stayed. Andrew owned this
+house, but I shouldn't think Sylvia would want to keep it: houses in a
+town like this are a nuisance if you don't live where you can watch the
+tenants," she went on, her practical mind asserting itself.
+
+"I suppose--" Dan began and then hesitated. It gave him a curious
+feeling to be talking of Sylvia's affairs in this way.
+
+"Go on, Daniel,"--this marked a departure; she had never called him by
+his first name before. "I'm closer to that girl than anybody, and I'm
+glad to talk to you about her affairs."
+
+"I suppose there will be something for her; she's not thrown on her own
+resources?"
+
+"I guess he didn't make any will, but what he left is Sylvia's. He had a
+brother in Los Angeles, who died ten years ago. He was a rich man, and
+left a big fortune to his children. If there's no will there'll have to
+be an administrator. Sylvia's of age and she won't need a guardian."
+
+Dan nodded. He knew Mrs. Owen well enough by this time to understand
+that she usually perfected her plans before speaking, and that she
+doubtless had decided exactly how Andrew Kelton's estate should be
+administered.
+
+"I'm going to ask the court to appoint you administrator, Daniel. You
+ever acted? Well, you might as well have the experience. I might take it
+myself, but I'm pretty busy and there'll be some running back and forth
+to do. You come back in a day or two and we'll see how things stand by
+that time. As soon as Sylvia gets rested she'll go back to college to
+finish up, and then come to me for the summer."
+
+"She might not like my having anything to do with her affairs," Dan
+suggested. "I shouldn't want to seem to be intruding."
+
+"Oh, Sylvia likes you well enough. The main thing is getting somebody
+that you've got confidence in. I know some people here, and I guess the
+court will do about what we want."
+
+"I should have to come over here frequently until everything was
+settled," Dan added, thinking of his duties in the city. "I suppose if
+you find it possible for me to serve that I shall have to get Mr.
+Bassett's consent; he pays for my time, you know."
+
+"That's right, you ask him; but be sure to tell him that I want it to be
+that way. Morton won't make any fuss about it. I guess you do enough
+work for him. What's he paying you, Daniel?"
+
+"Eighteen hundred since he got the paper-mill receivership."
+
+She made no comment, but received the intelligence in silence. He knew
+from the characteristic quick movement of her eyelids that she was
+pondering the equity of this carefully; and his loyalty to Bassett
+asserting itself, he added, defensively:--
+
+"It's more than I could begin to make any other way; and he's really
+generous about my time--he's made it plain that he wants me to keep up
+my reading."
+
+"They don't read much after they're admitted, do they? I thought when
+you got admitted you knew it all."
+
+"Not if you mean to be a real lawyer," said Dan, smiling.
+
+"Well, I guess you had better go now. I don't want to leave Sylvia alone
+up there, poor little girl. I'll let you know when to come back."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+A SURPRISE AT THE COUNTRY CLUB
+
+
+"That's all right. I shall be glad to have you serve Mrs. Owen in any
+way. It's a good deal of a compliment that she thought of you in that
+connection. Go ahead, and call on me if I can help you. You'll have to
+furnish local bondsmen. See what's required and let me know."
+
+Such was Bassett's reply when Harwood asked his permission to serve as
+administrator of Andrew Kelton's estate. Bassett was a busy man, and his
+domestic affairs often gave him concern. He had talked to Harwood a good
+deal about Marian, several times in fits of anger at her extravagance.
+His wife retired fitfully to sanatoriums, and he had been obliged to
+undertake the supervision of his children's schooling. Blackford was
+safe for the time in a military school, and Marian had been tutored for
+a year at home. The idea of a college course for Marian had been, since
+Sylvia appeared, a mania with Mrs. Bassett. Marian had not the slightest
+interest in the matter, and Bassett was weary of the struggle, and sick
+of the idea, that only by a college career for her could Mrs. Owen's
+money be assured to his children. Mrs. Bassett being now at a rest cure
+in Connecticut, and Bassett, much away from home, and seeing nothing to
+be gained by keeping his daughter at Fraserville, had persuaded Miss
+Waring to take her as a special student, subject to the discipline of
+the school, but permitted to elect her own studies. It was only because
+Bassett was a man she liked to please that the principal accepted
+Marian, now eighteen years old, on this anomalous basis. Marian was
+relieved to find herself freed of the horror of college, but she wished
+to be launched at once upon a social career; and the capital and not
+Fraserville must be the scene of her introduction. Bassett was merely
+tiding over the difficult situation until his wife should be able to
+deal with it. Marian undoubtedly wheedled her father a good deal in the
+manner of handsome and willful daughters. She had rarely experienced his
+anger; but the remembrance of these occasions rose before her as the
+shadowy background of any filial awe she may be said to have had.
+
+Bassett asked Dan to accompany him and Marian to the Country Club for
+dinner one evening while Harwood still waited for Mrs. Owen's summons to
+Montgomery. Picking up Marian at Miss Waring's, they drove out early and
+indulged in a loitering walk along the towpath of the old canal, not
+returning to the clubhouse until after seven. When they had found a
+table on the veranda, Dan turned his head slightly and saw Thatcher,
+Allen, and Pettit, the Fraserville editor, lounging in after-dinner ease
+at a table in a dim corner.
+
+"Why, there's Mr. Thatcher," exclaimed Marian.
+
+"And if that isn't Mr. Pettit! I didn't know he ever broke into a place
+like this."
+
+They all bowed to the trio. Thatcher waved his hand.
+
+"Mr. Pettit," observed Bassett dryly, "is a man of the world and likely
+to break in anywhere."
+
+His manner betrayed no surprise; he asked Marian to order dinner, and
+bowed to a tableful of golfers, where an acquaintance was whispering his
+name to some guests from out of town.
+
+It was the least bit surprising that the Honorable Isaac Pettit should
+be dining at the Country Club with Mr. Edward Thatcher, and yet it was
+possible to read too much seriousness into the situation. Harwood was
+immensely interested, but he knew it was Bassett's way to betray no
+trepidation at even such a curious conjunction of planets as this. Dan
+was in fact relieved that Bassett had found the men together: Bassett
+had seen with his own eyes and might make what he pleased of this sudden
+intimacy.
+
+Marian had scorned the table d'hote dinner, and was choosing, from the
+"special" offerings, green turtle soup and guinea fowl, as affording a
+pleasant relief from the austere regimen of Miss Waring's table. The
+roasting of the guinea hen would require thirty minutes the waiter
+warned them, but Bassett made no objection. Marian thereupon interjected
+a postscript of frogs' legs between soup and roast, and Bassett
+cheerfully acquiesced.
+
+"You seem to be picking the most musical birds offered," he remarked
+amiably. "I don't believe I'd eat the rest of the olives if I were you."
+
+"Why doesn't Allen Thatcher come over here and speak to us, I'd like to
+know," asked Marian. "You wouldn't think he'd ever seen us before."
+
+The three men having dined had, from appearances, been idling at the
+table for some time. Pettit was doing most of the talking, regaling his
+two auditors with tales from his abundant store of anecdotes. At the end
+of a story at which Thatcher had guffawed loudly, they rose and crossed
+the veranda. Hearing them approaching, Bassett rose promptly, and they
+shook hands all round.
+
+If there were any embarrassments in the meeting for the older men, it
+was concealed under the cordiality of their greetings. Pettit took
+charge of the situation.
+
+"Well, sir," he boomed, "I might've known that if I came to town and
+broke into sassiety I'd get caught at it; you can't get away from home
+folks! Thatcher has filled me amply with expensive urban food in this
+sylvan retreat--nectar and ambrosia. I'm even as one who drinks deep of
+the waters of life and throws the dipper in the well. Just come to town
+and wander from the straight and narrow path and your next-door neighbor
+will catch you every time. Fact is I lectured on 'American Humor' in
+Churubusco last night and am lifting the spirits of Brazil to-morrow.
+This will be all from Ike Pettit, the Fraserville funny man, until the
+wheat's safe and our Chautauquas pitch their tents in green fields far
+away. Reminds me of what Dan Voorhees said once,--dear old Dan
+Voorhees,--I almost cry when I think o' Dan: well, as I was saying--"
+
+"Didn't know you were in town, Mort," Thatcher interrupted. "I've been
+in Chicago a week and only got back this evening. I found your esteemed
+fellow townsman about to hit a one-arm lunch downtown and thought it
+best to draw him away from the lights of the great city."
+
+This was apology or explanation, as one chose to take it. Bassett was
+apparently unmoved by it.
+
+"I've been in town a day or two. I don't live in sleeping-cars the way
+you do, Ed. I keep to the main traveled road--the straight and narrow
+path, as our brother calls it," said Bassett.
+
+"Well, I'm going to quit working myself to death. It's getting too hot
+for poker, and I'm almost driven to lead a wholesome life. The thought
+pains me, Mort."
+
+Marian had opened briskly upon Allen. She wanted to know whether he had
+passed the school the night before with a girl in a blue hat; she had
+been sure it was he, and his denial only intensified her belief that she
+had seen him. She had wagered a box of caramels with her roommate that
+it was Allen; how dare he deny it and cause her to lose a dollar of her
+allowance? Allen said the least he could do would be to send the candy
+himself; a proposition which she declared, in a horrified whisper, he
+must put from his thoughts forever. Candy, it appeared, was contraband
+at Miss Waring's! Bassett, ignoring the vivacious colloquy between his
+daughter and Allen, continued to exchange commonplaces with Thatcher and
+Pettit. Marian's ease of manner amused Harwood; Allen was bending over
+her in his eager way; there was no question but that he admired her
+tremendously. The situation was greatly to her liking, and she was
+making the most of it. It was in her eye that she knew how to manage
+men. Seeing that Mr. Thatcher was edging away, she played upon him to
+delay his escape.
+
+"I wish you would come up to Waupegan this summer, Mr. Thatcher. You and
+father are such friends, and we should all be so glad to have you for a
+neighbor. There are always houses to be rented, you know."
+
+"Stranger things have happened than that, Miss Marian," replied
+Thatcher, eying her boldly and quite satisfied with her appearance. "My
+women folks want Allen and me to come across for the summer; but we like
+this side of the big water. Little Old United States--nothing touches
+it! Allen and I may take a run up into Canada sometime when it gets red
+hot."
+
+"Reminds me--speaking of the heat--back in the Hancock campaign--"
+Pettit was beginning, but Thatcher was leaving and the editor and Allen
+followed perforce. In a moment they heard Thatcher's voice peremptorily
+demanding his motor from the steps of the entrance.
+
+"Pettit's lecture dates must be multiplying," observed Dan carelessly.
+
+"They seem to be," Bassett replied, indifferently.
+
+"I can find out easily enough whether he lectured at Churubusco last
+night or not, or is going to invade Brazil to-morrow," Dan suggested.
+
+"Easy, but unnecessary. I think I know what's in your mind," Bassett
+answered, as Marian, interested in the passing show, turned away, "but
+it isn't of the slightest importance one way or another."
+
+"That was Miss Bosworth," announced Marian--"the one in the white
+flannel coat; she's certainly grand to look at."
+
+"Please keep your eyes to the front," Bassett admonished; "you mustn't
+stare at people, Marian." And then, having dismissed Pettit, and feeling
+called upon to bring his daughter into the conversation, he said:
+"Marian, you remember the Miss Garrison your aunt is so fond of? Her
+grandfather died the other day and Miss Garrison had to come home. Your
+Aunt Sally is in Montgomery with her now. Mr. Harwood went to the
+funeral."
+
+"That's too bad," said Marian, at once interested. "Sylvia's a mighty
+nice girl, and I guess her grandfather had just about raised her, from
+what she told me. I wonder what she's going to do?" she asked, turning
+to Harwood.
+
+"She's going back to college to take her degree, and then Mrs. Owen is
+going to have her at Waupegan this summer."
+
+"Oh! I didn't know Aunt Sally was going to open her house this summer!"
+said Marian, clearly surprised. "It must be just that she wants to have
+Sylvia with her. They're the best kind of pals, and of course Aunt Sally
+and the old professor were friends all their lives. I'm glad Sylvia's
+going to be at the lake; she will help some," she concluded.
+
+"You don't mean that you're tired of the lake?" asked Harwood, noting
+the half-sigh with which she had concluded. "I thought all Waupegan
+people preferred it to the Maine coast or Europe."
+
+"Oh, I suppose they do," said Marian. "But I think I could live through
+a season somewhere else. It will be good fun to have Aunt Sally's house
+open again. She must be making money out of that farm now. I suppose
+Sylvia's grandfather didn't have much money. Still Sylvia's the kind of
+girl that wouldn't much mind not having money. She isn't much for style,
+but she does know an awful lot."
+
+"Don't you think a girl may be stylish and know a lot, too?" asked her
+father.
+
+"I suppose it _is_ possible," the girl assented, with a reluctance that
+caused both men to laugh.
+
+"Let me see: Papa, you didn't see Sylvia that summer she was at the
+lake. That was the summer you played a trick on us and only spent a day
+at Waupegan. Yes; I remember now; you came home from Colorado and said
+hello and skipped the next morning. Of course you didn't see Sylvia."
+
+"Oh, yes, I did," replied Bassett. "I remember her very well, indeed. I
+quite agree with your mother and Aunt Sally that she is an exceedingly
+fine girl."
+
+"She certainly discouraged me a good deal about college. Four years of
+school after you're seventeen or eighteen! Not for Marian!" and she
+shook her head drolly.
+
+Bassett was either absorbed in thought or he chose to ignore Marian's
+remark. He was silent for some time, and the girl went on banteringly
+with Harwood. She availed herself of all those immunities and
+privileges which the gods confer upon young women whom they endow with
+good looks. In the half-freedom of the past year she had bought her own
+clothes, with only the nominal supervision of Miss Waring's assistant;
+and in her new spring raiment she was very much the young lady, and
+decidedly a modish one. Dan glanced from her to the young people at a
+neighboring table. Among the girls in the party none was prettier or
+more charmingly gowned than Marian. In the light of this proximity he
+watched her with a new attention, and he saw that her father, too,
+studied her covertly, as though realizing that he had a grown daughter
+on his hands. Her way with Harwood was not without coquetry; she tapped
+his arm with her fan lightly when he refused to enter into a discussion
+of his attentions, of which she protested she knew much, to Miss
+Bosworth. He admitted having called on Miss Bosworth once; her brother
+was a Yale man, and had asked him to the house on the score of that tie;
+but Marian knew much better. She was sure that he was devoting himself
+to Miss Bosworth; every one said that he was becoming a great society
+man.
+
+She had wearied of his big-brother attitude toward her. Except the
+callow youth of Fraserville and the boys she had known all the summers
+of her life at Waupegan, Harwood and Allen Thatcher were the only young
+men she knew. In her later freedom at school she had made the office
+telephone a nuisance to him, but he sympathized with her discreetly in
+her perplexities. Several times she had appealed to him to help her out
+of financial difficulties, confiding to him tragically that if certain
+bills reached Fraserville she would be ruined forever.
+
+Marian found the Country Club highly diverting; it gave her visions of
+the social life of the capital of which she had only vaguely dreamed.
+She knew many people by sight who were socially prominent, and she
+longed to be of their number. It pleased her to find that her father,
+who was a non-resident member and a rare visitor at the club, attracted
+a good deal of attention; she liked to think him a celebrity. The
+Speaker of the House in the last session of the general assembly came
+out and asked Bassett to meet some men with whom he had been dining in
+the rathskeller; while her father was away, Marian, with elbows resting
+on the table, her firm, round chin touching her lightly interlaced
+fingers, gave a capital imitation of a girl making herself agreeable to
+a young man. Dan was well hardened to her cajoleries by this time; he
+was confident that she would have made "sweet eyes at Caliban." Harwood,
+smoking the cigar Bassett had ordered for him, compared favorably with
+other young men who had dawned upon Marian's horizon. Like most Western
+boys who go East to college, he had acquired the habit of careful
+pressing and brushing and combing; his lean face had a certain
+distinction, and he was unfailingly courteous and well-mannered.
+
+"This will be tough on mama," she observed casually.
+
+"Pray, be more explicit!"
+
+"Oh, Aunt Sally having Sylvia up there at the lake again."
+
+"Why shouldn't she have her there if she wants her? I thought your
+mother admired Sylvia. I gathered that ray of light somewhere, from you
+or Mrs. Owen."
+
+"Oh, mama was beautiful to her; but I shall always think, just between
+you and me and that spoon, that it was Aunt Sally asking Sylvia to the
+lake that time that gave mama nervous prostration."
+
+"Nonsense! I advise you, as an old friend, not to say such things: you'd
+better not even think them."
+
+"Well, it was after that, when she saw that Aunt Sally had taken up
+Sylvia, that mama got that bug about having me go to college. She got
+the notion that it was Sylvia's intellectual gifts that interested Aunt
+Sally; and mama thought I'd better improve my mind and get into the
+competition."
+
+"You thought your mother was jealous? I call that very unkind; it's not
+the way to speak of your mother."
+
+"Well, if you want to be nasty and lecture me, go ahead, Mr. Harwood.
+You must like Sylvia pretty well yourself; you took her back to college
+once and had no end of a lark,--I got that from Aunt Sally, so you
+needn't deny it."
+
+"Humph! Of course I like Sylvia; any one's bound to."
+
+"But if Aunt Sally leaves her all her money, just because she's so
+bright, and educated, and cuts me off, then what would be the answer?"
+
+"I shouldn't have anything to say about it; it would be Mrs. Owen that
+did the saying," laughed Dan. "Why didn't you meet the competition and
+go to college? You have brains, but you don't seem interested in
+anything but keeping amused."
+
+"I suppose," she answered petulantly, "it would please you to see me go
+to teaching a kindergarten or something like that. Not for Marian! I'm
+going to see life--" and she added ruefully--"if I get the chance! Why
+doesn't papa leave Fraserville and come to the city? They say he can
+have any political office he wants, and he ought to run for governor or
+something like that, just on my account."
+
+"I dare say he's just waiting for you to suggest it. Why not the
+presidency? You could get a lot of fun out of the White House, ordering
+the army around, and using the battleships to play with. The
+governorship and trifles like that would only bore you."
+
+"Don't be silly. The newspapers print most horrible things about papa--"
+
+"Which aren't true."
+
+"Of course they're newspaper lies; but if he lets them say all those
+things he ought to get something to pay for it. He's only a state
+senator from the jayest county in Indiana. It makes me tired."
+
+The girl's keen penetration had often surprised and it had sometimes
+appalled Harwood in the curious intimacy that had grown up between them.
+Her intuitions were active and she had a daring imagination. He wondered
+whether Bassett was fully aware of the problem Marian presented. Dan had
+never ventured to suggest a sharper discipline for the girl, except on
+the occasion when he had caught her walking with Allen in the park. He
+had regretted his interference afterward; for Bassett's anger had
+seemed to him out of all proportion to the offense. Like most
+indifferent or indulgent parents, Bassett was prone to excesses in his
+fitful experiments in discipline. Dan had resolved not to meddle again;
+but Marian was undeniably a provoking young person. It had been
+suggested to him of late by one or two of his intimates that in due
+course of events he would of course marry his employer's daughter. As
+she faced him across the table, the pink light of the candle-shade
+adding to the glow of health in her pretty cheeks, she caused him to
+start by the abruptness with which she said:--
+
+"I don't see much ahead of me but to get married; do you?"
+
+"If you put it up to me, I don't see anything ahead of you, unless you
+take a different view of life; you never seem to have a serious
+thought."
+
+"Mr. Harwood, you can be immensely unpleasant when you choose to be. You
+talk to me as though I were only nine years old. You ought to see that
+I'm very unhappy. I'm the oldest girl at Miss Waring's--locked up there
+with a lot of little pigeons that coo every time you look at them. They
+treat me as though I were their grandmother."
+
+"Why don't you say all these things to your father?" asked Harwood,
+trying to laugh. "I dare say he'll do anything you like. But please
+cheer up; those people over there will think we're having a terrible
+quarrel."
+
+The fact that they were drawing the glances of Miss Bosworth's party
+pleased her; she had been perfectly conscious of it all the time.
+
+"Well, they won't think you're making _love_ to me, Mr. Harwood; there's
+that to console you." And she added icily, settling back in her chair as
+her father approached, "I hope you understand that I'm not even leading
+you on!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+"STOP, LOOK, LISTEN"
+
+
+Bassett and Atwill held a conference the next day and the interview was
+one of length. The manager of the "Courier" came to the office in the
+Boordman Building at eleven o'clock, and when Harwood went to luncheon
+at one the door had not been opened. Miss Farrell, returning from her
+midday repast, pointed to the closed door, lifted her brows, and held up
+her forefinger to express surprise and caution. Miss Farrell's
+prescience was astonishing; of women she held the lightest opinion, Dan
+had learned; her concern was with the affairs of men. Harwood, intent
+upon the compilation of a report of the paper-mill receivership, was
+nevertheless mindful of the unwonted length of the conference. When he
+returned from luncheon, Bassett had gone, but he reappeared at three
+o'clock, and a little later Atwill came back and the door closed again.
+This second interview was short, but it seemed to leave Bassett in a
+meditative frame of mind. Wishing to discuss some points in the trial
+balance of the receiver's accountant, Harwood entered and found Bassett
+with his hat on, slowly pacing the floor.
+
+"Yes; all right; come in," he said, as Harwood hesitated. He at once
+addressed himself to the reports with his accustomed care. Bassett
+carried an immense amount of data in his head. He understood
+bookkeeping and was essentially thorough. Dan constantly found penciled
+calculations on the margins of the daily reports from the paper-mill,
+indicating that Bassett scrutinized the figures carefully, and he
+promptly questioned any deviation from the established average of loss
+and gain. Bassett threw down his pencil at the end of half an hour and
+told Dan to proceed with the writing of the report.
+
+"I'd like to file it personally so I can talk over the prospect of
+getting an order of sale before the judge goes on his vacation. We've
+paid the debts and stopped the flow of red ink, so we're about ready to
+let go."
+
+While they were talking Miss Farrell brought in a telegram for Harwood;
+it was the summons from Mrs. Owen that he had been waiting for; she bade
+him come to Montgomery the next day. He handed the message to Bassett.
+
+"Go ahead. I'll go over there if you like and find you the necessary
+bondsmen. I know the judge of the circuit court at Montgomery very well.
+You go in the morning? Very well; I'll stay here till you get back. Mrs.
+Bassett will be well enough to leave the sanatorium in a few days, and
+I'm going up to Waupegan to get the house ready."
+
+"It will be pleasant for Mrs. Bassett to have Mrs. Owen there this
+summer. Anybody is lucky to have a woman of her qualities for a
+neighbor."
+
+"She's a noblewoman," said Bassett impressively, "and a good friend to
+all of us."
+
+On the train the next morning Harwood unfolded the day's "Courier" in
+the languidly critical frame of mind that former employees of newspapers
+bring to the reading of the journals they have served. He scanned the
+news columns and opened to the editorial page. The leader at once caught
+his eye. It was double-leaded,--an emphasis rarely employed at the
+"Courier" office, and was condensed in a single brief paragraph that
+stared oddly at the reader under the caption "STOP, LOOK, LISTEN." It
+held Harwood's attention through a dozen amazed and mystified readings.
+It ran thus:--
+
+     It has long been Indiana's proud boast that money unsupported by
+     honest merit has never intruded in her politics. A malign force
+     threatens to mar this record. It is incumbent upon honest men of
+     all parties who have the best interests of our state at heart to
+     stop, look, listen. The COURIER gives notice that it is fully
+     advised of the intentions, and perfectly aware of the methods, by
+     which the fair name of the Hoosier State is menaced. The COURIER,
+     being thoroughly informed of the beginnings of this movement, whose
+     purpose is the seizure of the Democratic Party, and the
+     manipulation of its power for private ends, will antagonize to the
+     utmost the element that has initiated it. Honorable defeats the
+     party in Indiana has known, and it will hardly at this late day
+     surrender tamely to the buccaneers and adventurers that seek to
+     capture its battleflag. This warning will not be repeated. Stop!
+     Look! Listen!
+
+From internal evidence Harwood placed the authorship readily enough:
+the paragraph had been written by the chief editorial writer, an old
+hand at the game, who indulged frequently in such terms as "adventurer"
+and "buccaneer." It was he who wrote sagely of foreign affairs, and once
+caused riotous delight in the reporters' room by an editorial on Turkish
+politics, containing the phrase, "We hope the Sultan--" But not without
+special authority would such an article have been planted at the top of
+the editorial page, and beyond doubt these lines were the residuum of
+Bassett's long interview with Atwill. And its aim was unmistakable: Mr.
+Bassett was thus paying his compliments to Mr. Thatcher. The encounter
+at the Country Club might have precipitated the crisis, but, knowing
+Bassett, Dan did not believe that the "Courier's" batteries would have
+been fired on so little provocation. Bassett was not a man to shoot
+wildly in the dark, nor was he likely to fire at all without being sure
+of the state of his ammunition chests. So, at least, Harwood reasoned to
+himself. Several of his fellow passengers in the smoking-car were
+passing the "Courier" about and pointing to the editorial. All over
+Indiana it would be the subject of discussion for a long time to come;
+and Dan's journalistic sense told him that in the surrounding capitals
+it would not be ignored.
+
+"If Thatcher and Bassett get to fighting, the people may find a chance
+to sneak in and get something," a man behind Dan was saying.
+
+"Nope," said another voice; "there won't be 'no core' when those fellows
+get through with the apple."
+
+"I can hear the cheering in the Republican camp this morning," remarked
+another voice gleefully.
+
+"Oh, pshaw!" said still another speaker; "Bassett will simply grind
+Thatcher to powder. Thatcher hasn't any business in politics anyhow and
+doesn't know the game. By George, Bassett does! And this is the first
+time he's struck a full blow since he got behind the 'Courier.'
+Something must have made him pretty hot, though, to have let off a
+scream like that."
+
+Harwood was interested in these remarks because they indicated a
+prevalent impression that Bassett dominated the "Courier," in spite of
+the mystery with which the ownership of the paper was enveloped. The
+only doubt in Harwood's own mind had been left there by Bassett himself.
+He recalled now Bassett's remark on the day he had taken him into his
+confidence in the Ranger County affair. "I might have some trouble in
+proving it myself," Bassett had said. Harwood thought it strange that
+after that first deliberate confidence and his introduction to Atwill,
+Bassett had, in this important move, ignored him. It was possible that
+his relations with Allen Thatcher, which Bassett knew to be intimate,
+accounted for the change; or it might be due to a lessening warmth in
+Bassett's feeling toward him. He recalled now that Bassett had lately
+seemed moody,--a new development in the man from Fraser,--and that he
+had several times been abrupt and unreasonable about small matters in
+the office. Certain incidents that had appeared trivial at the time of
+their occurrence stood forth disquietingly now. If Bassett had ceased
+to trust him, there must be a cause for the change; slight
+manifestations of impatience in a man so habitually calm and rational
+might be overlooked, but Dan had not been prepared for this abrupt
+cessation of confidential relations. He was a bit piqued, the more so
+that this astounding editorial indicated a range and depth of purpose in
+Bassett's plans that Dan's imagination had not fathomed. He tore out the
+editorial and put it away carefully in his pocketbook as Montgomery was
+called.
+
+A messenger was at the station to guide him to the court-house, where he
+found Mrs. Owen and Sylvia waiting for him in the private room of the
+judge of the circuit court. Mrs. Owen had, in her thorough fashion,
+arranged all the preliminaries. She had found in Akins, the president of
+the Montgomery National Bank, an old friend, and it was her way to use
+her friends when she needed them. At her instance, Akins and another
+resident freeholder had already signed the bond when Dan arrived. Dan
+was amused by the direct manner in which Mrs. Owen addressed the court;
+the terminology pertaining to the administration of estates was at her
+fingers' ends, and there was no doubt that the judge was impressed by
+her.
+
+"We won't need any lawyer over here, Daniel; you can save the estate
+lawyer's fees by acting yourself. I guess that will be all right,
+Judge?"
+
+His Honor said it would be; people usually yielded readily to Mrs.
+Owen's suggestions.
+
+"You can go up to the house now, Sylvia, and I'll be along pretty soon.
+I want to make a memorandum for an inventory with Daniel."
+
+At the bank Akins gave them the directors' room, and Andrew Kelton's
+papers were produced from his box in the safety vault. Akins explained
+that Kelton had been obliged to drop life insurance policies for a
+considerable amount; only one policy for two thousand dollars had been
+carried through. There were a number of contracts with publishers
+covering the copyrights in Kelton's mathematical and astronomical
+textbooks. The royalties on these had been diminishing steadily, the
+banker said, and they could hardly be regarded as an asset.
+
+"Life insurance two thousand, contracts nothing, and the house is worth
+two with good luck. Take it all in--and I reckon this _is_ all--we'll be
+in luck to pinch a little pin-money out of the estate for Sylvia. It's
+more than I expected. You think there ain't anything else, Mr. Akins?"
+
+"The Professor talked to me about his affairs frequently, and I have no
+reason to think there's anything more. He had five thousand dollars in
+government bonds, but he sold them and bought shares in that White River
+Canneries combination. A lot of our Montgomery people lost money in that
+scheme. It promised fifteen per cent--with the usual result."
+
+"Yes. Andrew told me about that once. Well, well!"
+
+"He had money to educate his granddaughter; I don't know how he raised
+it, but he kept it in a special account in the bank. He told me that if
+he died before she finished college that was to be applied strictly to
+her education. There is eight hundred dollars left of that."
+
+"Sylvia's going to teach," said Mrs. Owen. "I've been talking to her and
+she's got her plans all made. She's got a head for business, that girl,
+and nothing can shake her idea that she's got a work to do in the world.
+She knows what she's going to do every day for a good many years, from
+the way she talks. I had it all fixed to take her with me up to Waupegan
+for the summer; thought she'd be ready to take a rest after her hard
+work at college, and this blow of her grandpa dying and all; but not
+that girl! She's going to spend the summer taking a normal course in
+town, to be ready to begin teaching in Indianapolis next September. I
+guess if we had found a million dollars in her grandpa's box it would
+have been the same. When you talk about health, she laughs; I guess if
+there's a healthy woman on earth it's that girl. She says she doubled
+all her gymnasium work at college to build herself up ready for
+business. You know Dr. Wandless's daughter is a Wellesley woman, and
+keeps in touch with the college. She wrote home that Sylvia had 'em all
+beat a mile down there; that she just walked through everything and
+would be chosen for the Phi Beta Kappa--is that right, Daniel? She sort
+o' throws you out of your calculations, that girl does. I'd counted on
+having a good time with her up at the lake, and now it looks like I'd
+have to stay in town all summer if I'm going to see anything of her."
+
+It was clear enough that Mrs. Owen was not interesting herself in
+Sylvia merely because the girl was the granddaughter of an old friend;
+she admired Sylvia on her own account and was at no pains to disguise
+the fact. The Bassett expectations were, Dan reflected, scarcely at a
+premium to-day!
+
+Mr. Akins returned the papers to the safety box, and when Mrs. Owen and
+Harwood were alone, she closed the door carefully.
+
+"Now, Daniel," she began, opening her hand-satchel, "I always hold that
+this is a funny world, but that things come out right in the end. They
+mostly do; but sometimes the Devil gets into things and it ain't so
+easy. You believe in the Devil, Daniel?"
+
+"Well, my folks are Presbyterians," said Dan. "My own religion is the
+same as Ware's. I'm not sure he vouches for the Devil."
+
+"It's my firm conviction that there is one, Daniel,--a red one with a
+forked tail; you see his works scattered around too often to doubt it."
+
+Dan nodded. Mrs. Owen had placed carefully under a weight a paper she
+had taken from her reticule.
+
+"Daniel,"--she looked around at the door again, and dropped her
+voice,--"I believe you're a good man, and a clean one. And Fitch says
+you're a smart young man. It's as much because you're a good man as
+because you've got brains that I've called on you to attend to Sylvia's
+business. Now I'm going to tell you something that I wouldn't tell
+anybody else on earth; it's a sacred trust, and I want you to feel bound
+by a more solemn oath than the one you took at the clerk's office not
+to steal Sylvia's money."
+
+She fixed her remarkably penetrating gaze upon him so intently that he
+turned uneasily in his chair. "It's something somebody who appreciates
+Sylvia, as I think you do, ought to know about her. Andrew Kelton told
+me just before Sylvia started to college. The poor man had been carrying
+it alone till it broke him down; he had never told another soul. I
+reckon it was the hardest job he ever did to tell me; and I wouldn't be
+telling you except somebody ought to know who's in a position to help
+Sylvia--sort o' look out for her and protect her. I believe"--and she
+put out her hand and touched his arm lightly--"I believe I can trust you
+to do that."
+
+"Yes, Mrs. Owen."
+
+She waited until he had answered her, and even then she was silent, lost
+in thought.
+
+"Professor Kelton didn't know, Daniel," she began gravely, "who Sylvia's
+father was." She minimized the significance of this by continuing
+rapidly. "Andrew had quit the Navy soon after the war and came out here
+to Madison College to teach, and his wife had died and he didn't know
+what to do with his daughter. Edna Kelton was a little headstrong, I
+reckon, and wanted her own way. She didn't like living in a country
+college town; there wasn't anything here to interest her. I won't tell
+you all of Andrew's story, but it boils down to just this, that while
+Edna was in New York studying music she got married without telling
+where, or to whom. Andrew never saw her till she was dying in a
+hospital and had a little girl with her,--that's Sylvia. Now, whether
+there was any disgrace about it Andrew didn't know; and we owe it to
+that dead woman and to Sylvia to believe it was all right. You see what
+I mean, Daniel? Now that brings me down to what I want you to know.
+Somebody has been keeping watch of Sylvia,--Andrew told me that."
+
+She was thinking deeply as though pondering just how much more it was
+necessary to tell him, and before she spoke she picked up the folded
+paper and read it through carefully. "When Andrew got this it troubled
+him a lot: the idea that somebody had an eye on the girl, and took
+enough interest in her to do this, made him uneasy. Sylvia never knew
+anything about it, of course; she doesn't know anything about anything,
+and she won't ever need to."
+
+"As I understand you, Mrs. Owen, you want some friend of hers to be in a
+position to protect her if any one tries to harm her; you want to shield
+her from any evil that might follow her from her mother's errors, if
+they were indeed errors. We have no right to assume that she had done
+anything to be ashamed of. That's the only just position for us to take
+in such a matter."
+
+"That's right, Daniel. I knew you'd see it that way. It looks bad, and
+Andrew knew it looked bad; but at my age I ain't thinking evil of people
+if I can help it. If a woman goes wrong, she pays for it--keeps on
+paying after she's paid the whole mortgage. That's the blackest thing in
+the world--that a woman never shakes a debt like that the way a man
+can. You foreclose on a woman and take away everything she's got; put
+her clean through bankruptcy, and the balance is still against her; but
+we can't make over society and laws just sitting here talking about it.
+I reckon Edna Kelton suffered enough. But we don't want Sylvia to
+suffer. She's entitled to a happy life, and we don't want any shadows
+hanging over her. Now that her grandpa's gone she can't go behind what
+he told her,--poor man, he had trouble enough answering the questions
+she had a right to ask; and he had to lie to her some."
+
+"Yes; I suppose she will be content now; she will feel that what he
+didn't tell her she will never know. She's not a morbid person, and
+won't be likely to bother about it."
+
+"No; I ain't afraid of her brooding on what she doesn't know. It's the
+fear it may fly up and strike her when she ain't looking that worries
+me, and it worried the Professor, too. That was why he told me. I guess
+when he talked to me that time he knew his heart was going to stop
+suddenly some day. And he'd got a hint that somebody was interested in
+watching Sylvia--sort o' keeping track of her. And there was conscience
+in it; whoever it is or was hadn't got clean away from what he'd done.
+Now I had a narrow escape from letting Sylvia see this letter. It was
+stuck away in a tin box in Andrew's bedroom, along with his commissions
+in the Navy. I was poking round the house, thinking there might be
+things it would be better not to show Sylvia, and I struck this box, and
+there was this letter, stuck away in the middle of the package. I gave
+Sylvia the commissions, but she didn't see this. I don't want to burn it
+till you've seen it. This must have been what Andrew spoke to me about
+that time; it was hardly before that, and it might have been later. You
+see it isn't dated. He started to tear it up, but changed his mind, so
+now we've got to pass on it."
+
+She pushed the letter across the table to Harwood, and he read it
+through carefully. He turned it over after the first reading, and the
+word "Declined," written firmly and underscored, held him long--so long
+that he started when Mrs. Owen roused him with "Well, Daniel?"
+
+He knew before he had finished reading that it was he who had borne the
+letter to the cottage in Buckeye Lane, unless there had been a series of
+such communications, which was unlikely on the face of it. Mrs. Owen had
+herself offered confirmation by placing the delivery of the dateless
+letter five years earlier. The internal evidence in the phrases
+prescribing the manner in which the verbal reply was to be sent, and the
+indorsement on the back of the sheet, were additional corroboration. It
+was almost unimaginable that the letter should have come again to his
+hand. He realized the importance and significance of the sheet of paper
+with the swiftness of a lightning flash; but beyond the intelligence
+conveyed by the letter itself there was still the darkness to grope in.
+His wits had never worked so rapidly in his life; he felt his heart
+beating uncomfortably; the perspiration broke out upon his forehead, and
+he drew out his handkerchief and mopped his face.
+
+"It's certainly very curious, very curious indeed," he said with all the
+calmness he could muster. "But it doesn't tell us much."
+
+"It wasn't intended to tell anything," said Mrs. Owen. "Whoever wrote
+that letter, as I told you, was troubled about Sylvia. I reckon it was a
+man; and I guess it's fair to assume that he felt under obligations, but
+hadn't the nerve to face 'em as obligations. Is that the way it strikes
+you?"
+
+[Illustration: WHOEVER WROTE THAT LETTER WAS TROUBLED ABOUT SYLVIA]
+
+"That seems clear enough," he replied lamely. He made a pretense of
+rereading the letter, but only detached phrases penetrated to his
+consciousness. His imagination was in rebellion against the curbing to
+which he strove to subject it. When he had borne his answer back to
+Fitch's office and been discharged with the generous payment of one
+hundred dollars for his services as messenger, just what had been the
+further history of the transaction? He had so far controlled his
+agitation that he was able to continue discussing the letter formally
+with the kind old woman who had placed the clue in his hands. He was
+little experienced in the difficult art of conversing with half a mind,
+and a direct question from Mrs. Owen roused him to the necessity of
+heeding what she was saying. He had resolved, however, that he would not
+tell her of his own connection with the message that lay on the table
+before them. He needed time in which to consider; he must not add a
+pebble's weight to an avalanche that might go crashing down upon the
+innocent. His training had made him wary of circumstantial evidence;
+after all it was possible that this was not the letter he had carried to
+Professor Kelton. It would be very like Mrs. Owen, if she saw that
+anything could be gained by such a course, to go direct to Fitch and
+demand to know the source of the offer that had passed through his hands
+so mysteriously; but Fitch had not known the contents of the letter, or
+he had said as much to Harwood. There was also the consideration, and
+not the lightest, that Dan was bound in honor to maintain the secrecy
+Fitch had imposed upon him. The lawyer had confided the errand to him in
+the belief that he would accept the mission in the spirit in which it
+was entrusted to him, and his part in the transaction was a matter
+between himself and Fitch and did not concern Mrs. Owen in any way
+whatever. No possible benefit could accrue to Sylvia from a disclosure
+of his suspicion that he had borne the letter to her grandfather. Mrs.
+Owen had given him the letter that he might be in a position to protect
+Sylvia, and there was nothing incompatible between this confidence and
+his duty to Fitch, who continued to be a kind and helpful friend. He
+dreaded the outcome of an interview between this shrewd, penetrating,
+and indomitable woman and the lawyer. The letter, cold and colorless in
+what it failed to say, and torn half across to mark the indecision of
+the old professor, had in it a great power for mischief.
+
+While Harwood's mind was busy with these reflections he had been
+acquiescing in various speculations in which Mrs. Owen had been
+indulging, without really being conscious of their import.
+
+"I don't know that any good can come of keeping the letter, Daniel. I
+reckon we might as well tear it up. You and I know what it is, and I've
+been studying it for a couple of days without seeing where any good can
+come of holding it. You might burn it in the grate there and we'll both
+know it's out of the way. I guess that person feels that he done his
+whole duty in making the offer and he won't be likely to bother any
+more. That conscience was a long time getting waked up, and having done
+that much it probably went to sleep again. There's nothing sleeps as
+sound as a conscience, I reckon, and I shouldn't be a bit surprised if
+mine took a nap occasionally. Better burn that little document, Daniel,
+and we'll be rid of it and try to forget it."
+
+"No; I don't believe I'd do that," he said slowly. "It might be better
+to hold on to it, at least until the estate is closed up. You can't tell
+what's behind it." And then, groping for a plausible reason, he added:
+"The author of the letter may be in a position to annoy Sylvia by filing
+a claim against the Professor's estate, or something of that kind. It's
+better not to destroy the only thing we have that might help if that
+should occur. I believe it's best to hold on to it till the estate's
+settled."
+
+This was pretty lame, as he realized, but his caution pleased her, and
+she acquiesced. She was anxious to leave no ground for anyone to rob
+Sylvia of her money, and if there was any remote possibility that the
+letter might add to the girl's security she was willing that it should
+be retained. She sent Dan out into the bank for an envelope, and when it
+was brought, sealed up the letter and addressed it to Dan in her own
+hand and marked it private.
+
+"You take good care of that, Daniel, and when you get the estate closed
+up you burn it."
+
+"Yes, it can do no harm to hold it a little while," he said with
+affected lightness.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+A STROLL ACROSS THE CAMPUS
+
+
+Dan joined Mrs. Owen and Sylvia at the cottage later. He was to see them
+off in the morning; and he exerted himself to make Sylvia's last evening
+in Buckeye Lane as happy as possible. The cottage was to be left in the
+care of the old servant until it could be disposed of; Mary herself was
+to be provided for in some way--Sylvia and Mrs. Owen had decided that
+this was only fair and right.
+
+After tea Mrs. Owen said she had letters to write and carried her
+portfolio to the library for the purpose. Dan and Sylvia being thus left
+to themselves, he proposed a stroll across the campus.
+
+"There's something about a campus," he said, as they started
+out;--"there's a likeness in all of them, or maybe it's sentiment that
+binds them together. Wellesley speaks to Yale, and the language of both
+is understood by Madison. Ah--there's the proof of it now!"
+
+     Integer vitae, scelerisque purus!
+
+A dozen students lounging on the steps of the library had begun to sing
+the Latin words to a familiar air. Dan followed in his deep bass to the
+end.
+
+"The words are the words of Horace, but the tune is the tune of Eli
+with thanks to Dr. Fleming," he remarked. "It's that sort of thing that
+makes college worth while. I'll wager those are seniors, who already
+feel a little heartache because their college years are so nearly over.
+I'm getting to be an old grad myself, but those songs still give me a
+twinge."
+
+"I understand that," said Sylvia. "I'll soon be saying good-bye to girls
+I may never see again, or when I meet them at a reunion in five or ten
+years, they'll be different. College is only the beginning, after all."
+
+"It's only the beginning, but for some fellows it's the end, too. It
+scares me to see how many of my classmates are already caught in the
+undertow. I wonder sometimes whether I'm not going under myself."
+
+Sylvia turned toward him.
+
+"I rather imagine that you're a strong swimmer. It would surprise me if
+you didn't do something pretty big. Mrs. Owen thinks you will; she's not
+a person for any one to disappoint."
+
+"Oh, she has a way of thinking in large totals of people she likes, and
+she does like me, most unaccountably."
+
+"She has real illusions about _me_," laughed Sylvia. "She has an idea
+that colleges do things by magic; and I'm afraid she will find out that
+the wand didn't touch me."
+
+"You didn't need the wand's magic," he answered, "for you are a woman of
+genius."
+
+"Which sounds well, Mr. Harwood; no one ever used such words to me
+before! I've learned one thing, though: that patience and work will
+make up for a good many lacks. There are some things I'm going to try to
+do."
+
+They loitered in the quiet paths of the campus. "Bright College Years"
+followed them from the singers at the library. If there's any sentiment
+in man or woman the airs of a spring night in our midwestern country
+will call it out. The planets shone benignantly through the leaves of
+maple and elm; and the young grass was irregular, untouched as yet by
+the mower--as we like it best who love our Madison! A week-old moon hung
+in the sky--ample light for the first hay-ride of the season that is
+moving toward Water Babble to the strains of guitar and banjo and boy
+and girl voices. It's unaccountable that there should be so much music
+in a sophomore--or maybe that's a fraternity affair--Sigma Chi or Delta
+Tau or Deke. Or mayhap those lads wear a "Fiji" pin on their waistcoats;
+I seem to recall spring hay-rides as an expression of "Fiji" spirit in
+my own days at Madison, when I myself was that particular blithe
+Hellenist with the guitar, and scornful of all Barbarians!
+
+Sylvia was a woman now. AEons stretched between to-night and that
+afternoon when she had opened the door for Harwood in Buckeye Lane. His
+chivalry had been deeply touched by Mrs. Owen's disclosure at the bank,
+and subsequent reflection had not lightened the burden of her
+confidence. Such obscurities as existed in the first paragraph of the
+first page of Sylvia's life's record were dark enough in any
+circumstances, but the darkness was intensified by her singular
+isolation. The commission he had accepted in her behalf from Mrs. Owen
+carried a serious responsibility. These things he pondered as they
+walked together. He felt the pathos of her black gown; but she had
+rallied from the first shock of her sorrow, and met him in his key of
+badinage. She was tall--almost as tall as he; and in the combined
+moon- and star-light of the open spaces their eyes met easily.
+
+He was conscious to-night of the charm in Sylvia that he had felt first
+on the train that day they had sped through the Berkshires together. No
+other girl had ever appealed to him so strongly. It was not the charm of
+cleverness, for she was not clever in the usual sense; she said few
+bright, quotable things, though her humor was keen. She had carried into
+womanhood the good looks of her girlhood, and she was a person one
+looked at twice. Her eyes were fine and expressive, and they faced the
+world with an engaging candor. They had learned to laugh since we saw
+her first--college and contact with the world had done that for her. Her
+face was long, her nose a compromise of good models, her mouth a little
+large, but offering compensations when she smiled in her quick,
+responsive fashion. One must go deeper, Harwood reflected, for Sylvia's
+charm, and it dawned upon him that it was in the girl's self, born of an
+alert, clear-thinking mind and a kind and generous heart. Individuality,
+personality, were words with which he sought to characterize her; and as
+he struggled with terms, he found that she was carrying the burden of
+the talk.
+
+"I suppose," she was saying, in her voice that was deeper than most
+women's voices, and musical and agreeable to hear,--"I suppose that
+college is designed to save us all a lot of hard knocks; I wonder if it
+does?"
+
+"If you're asking me personally, I'll say that there are lumps on my
+brow where I have bumped hard, in spite of my A.B. degree. I'm disposed
+to think that college only postpones the day of our awakening; we've got
+to shoot the chutes anyhow. It is so written."
+
+She laughed at his way of putting it.
+
+"Oh, you're not so much older that you can frighten me. People on the
+toboggan always seem to be having a good time; the percentage of those
+whose car jumps the track isn't formidable."
+
+"Just enough fatalities to flavor the statistics. The seniors over there
+have stopped singing; I dare say they're talking about life in large
+capital letters."
+
+"Well, there are plenty of chances. I'm rather of the opinion that we're
+all here to do something for somebody. Nobody's life is just his own.
+Whether we want it that way or not, we are all links in the chain, and
+it's our business not to be the weakest."
+
+"I'm an individualist," he said, "and I'm very largely concerned in
+seeing what Daniel Harwood, a poor young lawyer of mediocre abilities,
+can do with this thing we hear mentioned as life."
+
+"Oh, but there's no such thing as an individualist; the idea is purely
+academic!" and she laughed again, but less lightly. "We're all debtors
+to somebody or something--to the world itself, for example."
+
+"For the stars up there, for grass and trees, for the moon by night and
+the sun by day--for the gracious gift of friends?"
+
+"A little, yes; but they don't count so much. I owe my debt to
+people--real human beings, who may not be as lucky as I. For a good many
+thousand years people have been at work trying to cheer up the
+world--brighten it and make it a better place to live in. I owe all
+those people something; it's not merely a little something; it's a
+tremendous lot, and I must pay these other human beings who don't know
+what they're entitled to. You have felt that; you have felt it just as I
+have, I'm sure."
+
+"You are still in college, and that is what undergraduates are taught to
+call ideals, Miss Garrison. I hope you will hold on to them: I had mine,
+but I'm conscious of late that I'm losing my grip on them. It's
+inevitable, in a man's life. It's a good thing that women hold on to
+them longer; without woman's faith in such things the world would be a
+sad old cinder, tumbling aimlessly around in the void."
+
+She stopped abruptly in the path, very tall and slim in the dusk of
+starlight and moonlight. He had been carrying his hat in his hand and he
+leaned on his stick wondering whether she were really in earnest,
+whether he had displeased her by the half-mocking tone in which he had
+spoken.
+
+"Please don't talk this old, romantic, mediaeval nonsense about women!
+This is the twentieth century, and I don't believe for a minute that a
+woman, just by being a woman, can keep the world sweet and beautiful.
+Once, maybe; but not any more! A woman's ideals aren't a bit better than
+a man's unless she stands up for them and works for them. You don't have
+to take that from a college senior; you can ask dear Mrs. Owen. I
+suppose she knows life from experience if any woman ever did, and she
+has held to her ideals and kept working away at them. But just being a
+woman, and being good, and nice, and going to church, and belonging to a
+missionary society--well, Mr. Harwood?"
+
+She had changed from earnestness to a note of raillery.
+
+"Yes, Miss Garrison," he replied in her own key; "if you expect me to
+take issue with you or Mrs. Owen on any point, you're much mistaken. You
+and she are rather fortunate over many of the rest of us in having both
+brains and gentle hearts--the combination is irresistible! When you come
+home to throw in your lot with that of about a quarter of a million of
+us in our Hoosier capital, I'll put myself at your disposal. I've been
+trying to figure some way of saving the American Republic for the plain
+people, and I expect to go out in the campaign this fall and make some
+speeches warning all good citizens to be on guard against corporate
+greed, invasions of sacred rights, and so on. My way is plain, the duty
+clear," he concluded, with a wave of his stick.
+
+"Well," said Sylvia, "if you care enough about it to do that you must
+still have a few ideals lying around somewhere."
+
+"I don't know, to be honest about it, that it's so much my ideals as a
+wish to help my friend Mr. Bassett win a fight."
+
+"I didn't know that he ever needed help in winning what he really wanted
+to win. I have heard of him only as the indomitable leader who wins
+whenever it's worth while."
+
+"Well," Dan answered, "he's got a fight on hand that he can't afford to
+lose if he means to stay in politics."
+
+"I must learn all about that when I come home. I never saw Mr. Bassett
+but once; that was at Waupegan when I was up there with Mrs. Owen nearly
+five years ago. He had just come back from the West and spent only a day
+at the lake."
+
+"Then you don't really know him?"
+
+"No; they had counted on having him there for the rest of the summer,
+but he came one day and left the next. He didn't even see Mrs. Owen; I
+remember that she expressed surprise that he had come to the lake and
+gone without seeing her."
+
+"He's a busy man and works hard. You were getting acquainted with Marian
+about that time?"
+
+"Yes; she was awfully good to me that summer. I liked Mr. Bassett, the
+glimpse I had of him; he seemed very interesting--a solid American
+character, quiet and forceful."
+
+"Yes, he is that; he's a strong character. He's shown me every
+kindness--given me my chance. I should be ashamed of myself if I didn't
+feel grateful to him."
+
+They had made the complete circuit of the campus several times and
+Sylvia said it was time to go back. The remembrance of Bassett had
+turned her thoughts to Marian, and they were still talking of her when
+Mrs. Owen greeted them cheerily from the little veranda. They were to
+start for Boston in the morning, and Harwood was to stay in Montgomery a
+day or two longer on business connected with the estate. "Don't let my
+sad philosophy keep you awake, Mr. Harwood!--I've given him all my life
+programme, Mrs. Owen. I think it has had a depressing influence on him."
+
+"It's merely that you have roused me to a sense of my own general
+worldliness and worthlessness," he replied, laughing as they shook
+hands.
+
+"I guess Sylvia can tell you a good many things, Daniel," said Mrs.
+Owen. "I wish you'd call Myers--he's my Seymour farmer--on the long
+distance in the morning, and tell him not to think I won't be down to
+look at his corn when I get back. Tell him I've gone to college, but
+I'll be right down there when I get home."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+THE KINGDOMS OF THE WORLD
+
+
+Harwood reached the capital on the afternoon of the second day after
+Mrs. Owen and Sylvia had gone East, and went at once to the Boordman
+Building. Miss Farrell was folding and sealing letters bearing Bassett's
+signature.
+
+"Hello, little stranger; I'd begun to think you had met with foul
+play, as the hero says in scene two, act three, of 'The Dark
+Switch-Lantern'--all week at the Park Theatre at prices within the reach
+of all. Business has been good, if you press me for news, but that
+paper-mill hasn't had much attention since you departed this life.
+Everybody's saying 'Stop, Look, Listen!' When in doubt you say
+that,--the white aprons in the one-arm lunch rooms say it now when you
+kick on the size of the buns. You will find your letters in the
+left-hand drawer. I told that collector from the necktie foundry that he
+needn't wear himself to a shadow carrying bills up here; that you paid
+all your bills by check on the tenth of the month. As that was the
+twenty-ninth, you'd better frame some new by-laws to avoid other breaks
+like that. I can't do much lying at my present salary."
+
+She stood with her hands clasping her belt, and continued to enlighten
+him on current history as he looked over his letters.
+
+"That young Allen Thatcher has been making life a burden to me in your
+lamented absence. Wanted to know every few hours if you had come back,
+and threatened to call you up on the long distance at Montgomery, but I
+told him you were trying a murder case over there, and that if he didn't
+want to get nailed for contempt of court he'd better not interrupt the
+proceedings."
+
+"You're speaking of Mr. Allen Thatcher, are you, Miss Farrell?" asked
+Harwood, in the tone to which the girl frequently drove him.
+
+"The same, like the mind reader you are! Say, that boy isn't stuck on
+you or anything. He came up here yesterday afternoon when the boss was
+out and wanted to talk things over. He seemed to think I hadn't anything
+to do but be a sister to him and hear his troubles. Well, I've got
+embarrassments of my own, with that true sport his papa sending me an
+offer of a hundred per month to work for him. One hundred dollars a
+month in advance! This, Mr. Harwood, is private and confidential. I
+guess I haven't worked at the State House without learning a few tricks
+in this mortal vale of politics."
+
+She had calculated nicely the effect of this shot. Harwood might treat
+her, as she said, like a step-child with a harelip, but occasionally she
+made him sit up. He sat up now. He remarked with the diplomatic
+unconcern that it was best to employ with her:--
+
+"Refused the offer, did you, Miss Farrell?"
+
+"I certainly did. As between a fat old sport like Ed Thatcher and a
+gentleman like Mr. Bassett, money doesn't count--not even with a
+p.w.g., or poor working girl, like me. Hush!--are we quite alone?" She
+bent toward the door dramatically. "What he was playing for, as neat as
+a hatpin in your loved one's eye, was some facts about the boss's
+committee work in that last session I worked at the State House. Cute of
+Thatcher? Well, not so awful bright! He doesn't know what he's up
+against if he thinks Mort Bassett can be caught on flypaper, and you can
+be dead sure I'm not going to sprinkle the sugar to catch our boss with.
+All that Transportation Committee business was just as straight as the
+way home; but"--Miss Farrell tapped her mouth daintily with her fingers
+to stifle an imaginary yawn--"but little Rose brought down her shorthand
+notebooks marked 'M.B. personal,' and the boss and I burned them
+yesterday morning early, right there in that grate in his room. That's
+what I think of Mr. Ed Thatcher. A pearl necklace for my birthday ought
+to be about right for that."
+
+Harwood had been drinking this in as he opened and sorted his letters.
+He paused and stared at her absently.
+
+"You referred to a caller a moment ago--the gentleman who annoyed you so
+much on the telephone. Was I to call him or anything like that?"
+
+"He left a good many orders, but I think you were to eat food with him
+in the frosty halls of the University Club almost at once. He's in a
+state of mind. In love with the daughter of his father's enemy--just
+like a Park Theatre thriller. Wants you to tell him what to do; and you
+will pardon me for suggesting that if there's to be an elopement you
+write it up yourself for the 'Courier.' I was talking to a friend of
+mine who's on the ding-ding desk at the Whitcomb and she says the
+long-distance business in that tavern is painful to handle--hot words
+flying over the state about this Thatcher-Bassett rumpus. You may take
+it from me that the fight is warm, and I guess somebody will know more
+after the convention. But say--!"
+
+"Um," said Harwood, whose gaze was upon the frame of a new building that
+was rising across the street. He was thinking of Allen. If Marian and
+Allen were subjects of gossip in connection with the break between their
+fathers he foresaw trouble; and he was sorry, for he was sincerely
+devoted to the boy; and Marian he liked also, in spite of her vagaries.
+A great many people were likely to be affected by the personal
+difficulties of Thatcher and Bassett. Even quiet Montgomery was teeming,
+and on the way from the station he had met half a dozen acquaintances
+who had paused to shake hands and say something about the political
+situation. His ignorance of Bassett's real intentions, which presumably
+the defiance of the "Courier" merely cloaked, was not without its
+embarrassment. He had been known as a Bassett man; he had received and
+talked to innumerable politicians of Bassett's party in the Boordman
+Building; and during the four years of his identification with Bassett
+he had visited most of the county seats on political and business
+errands. The closeness of their association made all the more surprising
+this sudden exclusion.
+
+"I said 'say,'" repeated Miss Farrell, lightly touching the smooth cliff
+of yellow hair above her brow with the back of her hand. "I was about to
+give you a message from his majesty our king, but if you're on a pipe
+dream don't let me call you home."
+
+"Oh, yes; pardon me. What were you about to say?"
+
+"Mr. Bassett said that if you came in before I quit to ask you to come
+over to the Whitcomb. Mrs. Bassett blew in to-day from that sanatorium
+in Connecticut where they've been working on her nerves. Miss Marian
+brought her back, and they've stopped in town to rest. And say,"--here
+Miss Farrell lowered her voice,--"the Missis must try his soul a good
+deal! I wonder how he ever picked _her_ out of the bunch?"
+
+"That will do!" said Harwood sharply. "I'll find Mr. Bassett at the
+Whitcomb and I shan't have anything for you to-day."
+
+There had been a meeting of the central committee preliminary to the
+approaching state convention. A number of candidates had already opened
+headquarters at the Whitcomb; members of Congress, aspirants for the
+governor's seat, to be filled two years hence, and petty satraps from
+far and near were visible at the hotel. If Bassett's star was declining
+there was nothing to indicate it in the conduct of the advance guard. If
+any change was apparent it pointed to an increase of personal
+popularity. Bassett was not greatly given to loafing in public places;
+he usually received visitors at such times in an upper room of the
+hotel; but Harwood found him established on a settee in the lobby in
+plain view of all seekers, and from the fixed appearance of the men
+clustered about him he had held this position for some time. Harwood
+drew into the outer edge of the crowd unnoticed for a moment. Bassett
+was at his usual ease; a little cheerfuler of countenance than was his
+wont, and yet not unduly anxious to appear tranquil. He had precipitated
+one of the most interesting political struggles the state had ever
+witnessed, but his air of unconcern before this mixed company of his
+fellow partisans, among whom there were friends and foes, was well
+calculated to inspire faith in his leadership. Some one was telling a
+story, and at its conclusion Bassett caught Harwood's eye and called to
+him in a manner that at once drew attention to the young man.
+
+"Hello, Dan! You're back from the country all right, I see! I guess you
+boys all know Harwood. You've seen his name in the newspapers!"
+
+Several of the loungers shook hands with Harwood, who had cultivated the
+handshaking habit, and he made a point of addressing to each one some
+personal remark. Thus the gentleman from Tippecanoe, who had met Dan at
+the congressional convention in Lafayette two years earlier, felt that
+he must have favorably impressed Bassett's agent on that occasion; else
+how had Harwood asked at once, with the most shameless flattery, whether
+they still had the same brand of fried chicken at his house! And the
+gentleman from the remote shores of the Lake, a rare visitor in town,
+had every right to believe, from Dan's reference to the loss by fire of
+the gentleman's house a year earlier, that that calamity had aroused in
+Dan the deepest sympathy. Dan had mastered these tricks; it rather
+tickled his sense of humor to practice them; but it must be said for him
+that he was sincerely interested in people, particularly in these men
+who played the great game. If he ever achieved anything in politics it
+must be through just such material as offered itself on such occasions
+as this in the halls of the Whitcomb. These men might be tearing the
+leader to pieces to-morrow, or the day after; but he was still in the
+saddle, and not knowing but that young Harwood might be of use to them
+some day, they greeted him as one of the inner circle.
+
+Most of these men sincerely liked and admired Bassett; and many of them
+accepted the prevailing superstition as to his omniscience and
+invulnerability; even in the Republican camp many shared the belief that
+the spears of the righteous were of no avail against him. Dan's loyalty
+to Bassett had never been more firmly planted. Bassett had always
+preserved a certain formality in his relations with him; to-night he was
+calling him Dan, naturally and as though unconscious of the transition.
+This was not without its effect on Harwood; he was surprised to find how
+agreeable it was to be thus familiarly addressed by the leader in such a
+gathering.
+
+Bassett suggested that he speak to Mrs. Bassett and Marian, who were
+spending a few days in town, and he found them in the hotel parlor,
+where Bassett joined them shortly. Mrs. Bassett and Dan had always got
+on well together; his nearness to her husband brought him close to the
+domestic circle; and he had been invariably responsive to her demands
+upon his time. Dan had learned inevitably a good deal of the inner life
+of the Bassetts, and now and then he had been aware that Mrs. Bassett
+was sounding him discreetly as to her husband's plans and projects; but
+these approaches had been managed with the nicest tact and discretion.
+In her long absences from home she had lost touch with Bassett's
+political interests and occupations, but she knew of his break with
+Thatcher. She prided herself on being a woman of the world, and while
+she had flinched sometimes at the attacks made upon her husband, she was
+nevertheless proud of his influence in affairs. Bassett had once, at a
+time when he was being assailed for smothering some measure in the
+senate, given her a number of books bearing upon the anti-slavery
+struggle, in which she read that the prominent leaders in that movement
+had suffered the most unjust attacks, and while it was not quite clear
+wherein lay Bassett's likeness to Lincoln, Lovejoy, and Wendell
+Phillips, she had been persuaded that the most honorable men in public
+life are often the targets of scandal. Her early years in Washington
+with her father had impressed her imagination; the dream of returning
+there as the wife of a Senator danced brightly in her horizons. It would
+mean much to Marian and Blackford if their father, like their
+Grandfather Singleton, should attain a seat in the Senate. And she was
+aware that without such party service as Bassett was rendering, with
+its resulting antagonisms, the virulent newspaper attacks, the social
+estrangements that she had not escaped in Fraserville, a man could not
+hope for party preferment.
+
+Bassett had recently visited Blackford at the military school where his
+son was established, and talk fell upon the boy.
+
+"Black likes to have a good time, but he will come out all right. The
+curriculum doesn't altogether fit him--that's his only trouble."
+
+Bassett glanced at Harwood for approval and Dan promptly supported the
+father's position. Blackford had, as a matter of fact, been threatened
+with expulsion lately for insubordination. Bassett had confessed to Dan
+several times his anxiety touching the boy. To-day, when the lad's
+mother had just returned after a long sojourn in a rest cure, was not a
+fit occasion for discussing such matters.
+
+"What's Allen doing?" asked Marian. "I suppose now that papa is having a
+rumpus with Mr. Thatcher I shall never see him any more."
+
+"You shouldn't speak so, Marian. A hotel parlor is no place to discuss
+your father's affairs," admonished Mrs. Bassett.
+
+"Oh, Allen's ever so much fun. He's a Socialist or something. Aunt Sally
+likes him ever so much. Aunt Sally likes Mr. Thatcher, too, for that
+matter," she concluded boldly.
+
+"Mr. Thatcher is an old friend of mine," said Bassett soberly.
+
+"You can be awfully funny when you want to, papa," replied Marian. "As
+we came through Pittsburg this morning I bought a paper that told about
+'Stop, Look, Listen.' But Allen won't mind if you do whistle to his
+father to keep off the track."
+
+"Mr. Thatcher's name was never mentioned by me in any such connection,"
+replied Bassett; but he laughed when Marian leaned over and patted his
+cheek to express her satisfaction in her father's cleverness.
+
+"I think it unfortunate that you have gone to war with that man,"
+remarked Mrs. Bassett wearily.
+
+"You dignify it too much by calling it a war," Harwood interjected. "We
+don't want such men in politics in this state and somebody has to deal
+with them."
+
+"I guess it will be a lively scrap all right enough," said Marian,
+delighted at the prospect. "We're going to move to the city this fall,
+Mr. Harwood. Hasn't papa told you?"
+
+Mrs. Bassett glanced at her husband with alert suspicion, thinking that
+perhaps in her absence he had been conniving to this end with Marian.
+
+Bassett smiled at his daughter's adroitness in taking advantage of
+Harwood's presence to introduce this subject; it had been the paramount
+issue with her for several years.
+
+"I shall be glad enough to stay at Fraserville the rest of my days if I
+get through another Waupegan summer safely," said Mrs. Bassett. "The
+mere thought of moving is horrible!"
+
+"Oh, we wouldn't exactly move in coming here; we'd have an apartment in
+one of these comfortable new houses and come down while the
+legislature's in session, so we can be with papa. And there's ever so
+much music here now, and the theatres, and I could have a coming-out
+party here. You know I never had one, papa. And it would be nice to be
+near Aunt Sally; she's getting old and needs us."
+
+"Yes; she undoubtedly does," said Bassett, with faint irony.
+
+Her daughter's rapid fire of suggestions wearied Mrs. Bassett. She
+turned to Harwood:--
+
+"Mr. Bassett and Marian have been telling me, Mr. Harwood, that Aunt
+Sally went back to college with Sylvia Garrison after Professor Kelton's
+death. Poor girl, it's quite like Aunt Sally to do that. Sylvia must be
+very forlorn, with all her people gone. I think Aunt Sally knew her
+mother. I hope the girl isn't wholly destitute?"
+
+"No, the Professor left a small estate and Miss Garrison expects to
+teach," Dan answered.
+
+"Dan is the administrator," remarked Bassett "I'm sure you will be glad
+to know that Miss Garrison's affairs are in good hands, Hallie."
+
+"Aunt Sally is very fond of you, Mr. Harwood; I hope you appreciate
+that," said Mrs Bassett. "Aunt Sally doesn't like everybody."
+
+"Aunt Sally's a brick, all right," declared Marian, as an accompaniment
+to Dan's expression of his gratification that Mrs. Owen had honored him
+with her friendship.
+
+"It's too bad the girl will have to teach," said Mrs. Bassett; "it must
+be a dog's life."
+
+"I think Miss Garrison doesn't look at it that way," Harwood
+intervened. "She thinks she's in the world to do something for somebody;
+she's a very interesting, a very charming young woman."
+
+"Well, I haven't seen her in five years; she was only a young girl that
+summer at the lake. How soon will Aunt Sally be back? I do hope she's
+coming to Waupegan. If I'd known she was going to Wellesley, we could
+have waited for her in New York, and Marian and I could have gone with
+them to see Sylvia graduated. I always wanted to visit the college."
+
+"It was better for you to come home, Hallie," said Mr. Bassett. "You are
+not quite up to sight-seeing yet. And now," he added, "Dan and I have
+some business on hand for an hour or so, and I'm going to send you and
+Marian for an automobile ride before dinner. You must quit the moment
+you are tired. Wish we could all go, but I haven't seen Dan much lately,
+and as I'm going home with you to-morrow we shan't have another chance."
+
+When his wife and daughter had been dispatched in the motor Bassett
+suggested that they go to a private room he had engaged in the hotel,
+first giving orders at the office that he was not to be disturbed. He
+did not, however, escape at once from men who had been lying in wait for
+him in the lobby and corridors, but he made short work of them.
+
+"I want to thresh out some things with you to-day, and I'll be as brief
+as possible," said Bassett when he and Harwood were alone. "You got
+matters fixed satisfactorily at Montgomery--no trouble about your
+appointment?"
+
+"None; Mrs. Owen had arranged all that."
+
+"You mentioned to her, did you, my offer to help?"
+
+"Oh, yes! But she had already arranged with Akins, the banker, about the
+administrator's bond, and we went at once to business."
+
+"That's all right; only I wanted to be sure Mrs. Owen understood I had
+offered to help you. She's very kind to my wife and children; Mrs.
+Bassett has been almost like a daughter to her, you know. There's really
+some property to administer, is there?"
+
+"Very little, sir. The Professor had been obliged to drop part of his
+life insurance and there was only two thousand in force when he died.
+The house he lived in may bring another two. There are some publishers'
+contracts that seem to have no value. And the old gentleman had invested
+what was a large sum for him in White River Canneries."
+
+Bassett frowned and he asked quickly:--
+
+"How much?"
+
+"Five thousand dollars."
+
+"As much as that?"
+
+Bassett's connection with White River Canneries was an incident of the
+politician's career to which Harwood had never been wholly reconciled.
+Nor was he pleasantly impressed by Bassett's next remark, which, in view
+of Mrs. Bassett's natural expectations,--and these Dan had frequently
+heard mentioned at the capital,--partook of the nature of a leading
+question. "That's unfortunate. But I suppose Mrs. Owen, by reason of her
+friendship for the grandfather, won't let the girl suffer."
+
+"She's not the sort of girl who would be dependent in any case. She
+holds rather altruistic ideas in fact," remarked Harwood. "I mean," he
+added, seeing that Bassett waited for him to explain himself, "that Miss
+Garrison feels that she starts life in debt to the world--by reason of
+her own opportunities and so on; she expects to make payments on that
+debt."
+
+"In debt?" Bassett repeated vacantly. "Oh, not literally, I see! She
+expects to teach and help others in that way. That's commendable. But
+let me see."
+
+He had taken an unsharpened lead pencil from his pocket and was slipping
+it through his fingers absently, allowing its blunt ends to tap the arm
+of his chair at intervals. After a moment's silence he plunged into his
+own affairs.
+
+"You probably saw my tip to Thatcher in the 'Courier'? I guess everybody
+has seen it by this time," he added grimly; and he went on as though
+making a statement his mind had thoroughly rehearsed: "Thatcher and I
+have been pretty thick. We've been in a good many business deals
+together. We've been useful to each other. He had more money than I had
+to begin with, but I had other resources--influence and so on that he
+needed. I guess we're quits on the business side. You may be interested
+to know that I never had a cent of money in his breweries and
+distilleries; but I've helped protect the traffic in return for support
+he has given some of my own enterprises. I never owned a penny in that
+Fraserville brewery, for instance; but I've been pointed out as its
+owner. They've got the idea here in Indiana that saloons are my chief
+joy in life; but nothing is farther from the truth. When Mrs. Bassett
+has been troubled about that I have always been able to tell her with a
+good conscience that I hadn't a penny in the business. I've frankly
+antagonized legislation directed against the saloon, for I've never
+taken any stock in this clamor of the Prohibitionists and temperance
+cranks generally; but I've stood consistently for a proper control.
+Thatcher and I got along all right until he saw that the party was
+coming into power again and got the senatorial bee in his bonnet. He's
+got the idea that he can buy his way in; and to buy a seat he's got to
+buy my friends. That's a clear proposition, isn't it?"
+
+"Yes, sir; I haven't seen that he had any personal influence worth
+counting."
+
+"Exactly. Now, I don't intend that Ed Thatcher shall buy a seat in the
+United States Senate if our party in Indiana has one to dispose of. I'm
+not so good myself, but when I found that Thatcher had begun to build up
+a little machine for himself, I resolved to show him that I can't be
+used by any man so long as he thinks he needs me and then kicked out
+when I'm in the way. And I've got some state pride, too, and with all
+the scandals going around in other states over the sale of seats at
+Washington I'm not going to have my party in the state where I was born
+and where I have lived all my life lend itself to the ambitions of an Ed
+Thatcher. I think you share that feeling?"
+
+"The people of the whole state will commend that," replied Dan warmly.
+"And if you want to go to the Senate--"
+
+"I don't want anything from my party that it doesn't want me to have,"
+interrupted Bassett.
+
+He rose and paced the floor. An unusual color had come into his face,
+but otherwise he betrayed no agitation. He crossed from the door to the
+window and resumed his seat.
+
+"They've said of me that I fight in the dark; that I'm a man of secret
+and malign methods. The 'Advertiser' said only this morning that I have
+no courage; that I never make an attack where it costs me anything. I've
+already proved that to be a lie. My attack on Thatcher is likely to cost
+me a good deal. You may be sure he won't scruple to make the bill as
+heavy as he can. I'm talking to you freely, and I'll say to you that I
+expect the better element of the party to rally to my support. You see,
+I'm going to give you idealists a chance to do something that will
+count. Thatcher is not a foe to be despised. Here's his reply to my
+'Stop, Look, Listen,' editorial. The sheriff served it on me just as I
+stepped into the elevator to come up here."
+
+The paper Harwood took wonderingly was a writ citing Bassett to appear
+as defendant in a suit brought in the circuit court by Edward G.
+Thatcher against the Courier Publishing Company, Morton Bassett, and
+Sarah Owen.
+
+Bassett stretched himself at ease in his chair and explained.
+
+"I wanted a newspaper and he was indifferent about it at the time; but
+we went in together, and he consented that I should have a controlling
+interest. As I was tied up tight right then I had to get Mrs. Owen to
+help me out. It wasn't the kind of deal you want to hawk about town, and
+neither Thatcher nor I cared to have it known for a while that we had
+bought the paper. But it's hardly a secret now, of course. Mrs. Owen and
+I together own one hundred and fifty-one shares of the total of three
+hundred; Thatcher owns the rest and he was satisfied to let it go that
+way. He signed an agreement that I should manage the paper, and said he
+didn't want anything but dividends."
+
+"Mrs. Owen's interest is subject to your wishes, of course; that goes
+without saying."
+
+"Well, I guaranteed eight per cent on her investment, but we've made it
+lately, easily. I've now got to devise some means of getting rid of
+Thatcher; but we'll let him cool till after the convention. Mrs. Owen
+won't be back for several weeks, I suppose?"
+
+"No; she and Miss Garrison will return immediately after the
+commencement exercises."
+
+"Well, Thatcher brought that suit, thinking that if he could throw the
+paper into a receivership he'd run up the price when it came to be sold
+and shake me out. He knew, too, that it would annoy Mrs. Owen to be
+involved in litigation. It's surprising that he would incur her wrath
+himself; she's always been mighty decent to Ed and kind to his boy. But
+I'll have to buy her stock and let her out; it's a delicate business,
+and for Mrs. Bassett's sake I've got to get her aunt out as quickly as
+possible."
+
+"That, of course, will be easily managed. It's too bad she's away just
+now."
+
+"It was the first time I ever asked her help in any of my business
+affairs, and it's unfortunate. The fact is that Mrs. Bassett doesn't
+know of it."
+
+He rose and crossed the room slowly with his hands thrust deep into his
+trousers pockets.
+
+"But if Mrs. Owen is guaranteed against loss there's no ground for
+criticizing you," said Dan. "There's nothing to trouble about on that
+side of it, I should think."
+
+"Oh, I'm not troubling about that," replied Bassett shortly. He shrugged
+his shoulders and walked to the window, gazing out on the street in
+silence for several minutes. Then he sat down on the edge of the bed.
+
+"I told you, Dan, when you opened our office in the Boordman Building,
+that if ever the time came when you didn't want to serve me any longer
+you were to feel free to quit. You are under no obligations to me of any
+sort. I caught a bargain in you; you have been useful to me in many
+ways; you have carried nearly the whole burden of the paper-mill
+receivership in a way to win me the praise of the court and all others
+interested. If you should quit me to-night I should still be your
+debtor. I had about decided to leave you out of my calculations in
+politics; you have the making of a good lawyer and if you opened an
+office to-morrow you would find clients without trouble. You are
+beginning to be known, very well known for a man of your years."
+
+Harwood demurred feebly, unheeded by Bassett, who continued steadily.
+
+"I had thought for a time that I shouldn't encourage you to take any
+part in politics--at least in my affairs. The receivership has been
+giving you enough to do; and the game, after all, is a hard one. Even
+after I decided to break with Thatcher I thought I'd leave you out of
+it: that's why I gave you no intimation of what was coming, but put the
+details into Atwill's hands. I had really meant to show you a proof of
+that editorial, but I wasn't sure until they had to close the page that
+night that I was ready to make the break. I had been pretty hot that
+evening at the Country Club when I saw Pettit and Thatcher chumming
+together; I wanted to be sure I had cooled off. But I find that I've got
+in the habit of relying on you; I've been open with you from the
+beginning, and as you know I'm not much given to taking men into my
+confidence. But I've been leaning on you a good deal--more, in fact,
+than I realized."
+
+There was no questioning Bassett's sincerity, nor was there any doubt
+that this appeal was having its effect on the younger man. If Bassett
+had been a weakling timorously making overtures for help, Harwood would
+have been sensible of it; but a man of demonstrated force and
+intelligence, who had probably never talked thus to another soul in his
+life, was addressing him with a candor at once disarming and compelling.
+It was not easy to say to a man from whom he had accepted every kindness
+that he had ceased to trust him; that while he had been his willing
+companion on fair-weather voyages, he would desert without a qualm
+before the tempest. But even now Bassett had asked nothing of him; why
+should he harden his heart against the man who had been his friend?
+
+"You have your ideals--fine ideas of public service that I admire. Our
+party needs such men as you; the young fellows couldn't get away from us
+fast enough after '96; many of the Sons of old-time Democrats joined the
+Republicans. Fitch has spoken to me of you often as the kind of man we
+ought to push forward, and I'm willing to put you out on the
+firing-line, where you can work for your ideals. My help will handicap
+you at first,"--his voice grew dry and hard here,-"but once you have got
+a start you can shake me off as quick as you like. It's a perfectly
+selfish proposition I'm making, Harwood; it simply gets down to this,
+that I need your help."
+
+"Of course, Mr. Bassett; if I can serve you in any way--"
+
+"Anything you can do for me you may do if you don't feel that you will
+be debasing yourself in fighting under my flag. It's a black flag, they
+say--just as black as Thatcher's. I don't believe you want to join
+Thatcher; the question is, do you want to stick to me?"
+
+Bassett had spoken quietly throughout. He had made no effort to play
+upon Harwood's sympathies or to appeal to his gratitude. He was, in
+common phrase, to be taken or let alone. Harwood realized that he must
+either decline outright or declare his fealty in a word. It was in no
+view a debatable matter; he could not suggest points of difference or
+even inquire as to the nature of the service to be exacted. He was face
+to face with a man who, he had felt that night of their first meeting at
+Fraserville, gave and received hard blows. Yet he did not doubt that if
+their relations terminated to-day Bassett would deal with him
+magnanimously. He realized that after all it was not Bassett who was on
+trial; it was Daniel Harwood!
+
+He saw his life in sharp fulgurations; the farm (cleared of debt through
+Bassett's generosity, to be sure!) where his father and brothers
+struggled to wrest a livelihood from reluctant soil, and their pride and
+hope in him; he saw his teachers at college, men who had pointed the way
+to useful and honorable lives; and more than all, Sumner rose before
+him--Sumner who had impressed him more than any other man he had ever
+known. Sumner's clean-cut visage was etched grimly in his consciousness;
+verily Sumner would not have dallied with a man of Bassett's ilk. He had
+believed when he left college that Sumner's teaching and example would
+be a buckler and shield to him all the days of his life; and here he
+was, faltering before a man to whom the great teacher would have given
+scarce a moment's contemptuous thought. He could even hear the
+professor's voice as he ironically pronounced upon sordid little despots
+of Bassett's stamp. And only forty-eight hours earlier he had been
+talking to a girl on the campus at Madison who had spoken of idealism
+and service in the terms of which he had thought of those things when he
+left college. Even Allen Thatcher, in his whimsical fashion, stood for
+ideals, and dreamed of the heroic men who had labored steadfastly for
+great causes. Here was his chance now to rid himself of Bassett; to
+breathe free air again! On the other hand, Bassett had himself suggested
+that Harwood, once in a position to command attention, might go his own
+gait. His servitude would be for a day only, and by it he should win
+eternal freedom. He caught eagerly at what Bassett was saying, grateful
+that the moment of his choice was delayed.
+
+"The state convention is only three weeks off and I had pretty carefully
+mapped it out before the 'Courier' dropped that shot across Thatcher's
+bows. I've arranged for you to go as delegate to the state convention
+from this county and to have a place on the committee on resolutions.
+This will give you an introduction to the party that will be of value.
+They will say you are my man--but they've said that of other men who
+have lived it down. I want Thatcher to have his way in that convention,
+naming the ticket as far as he pleases, and appearing to give me a
+drubbing. The party's going to be defeated in November--there's no
+ducking that. We'll let Thatcher get the odium of that defeat. About the
+next time we'll go in and win and there won't be any more Thatcher
+nonsense. This is politics, you understand."
+
+Harwood nodded; but Bassett had not finished; it clearly was not his
+purpose to stand the young man in a corner and demand a choice from him.
+Bassett pursued negotiations after a fashion of his own.
+
+"Thatcher thinks he has scored heavily on me by sneaking into
+Fraserville and kidnaping old Ike Pettit. That fellow has always been a
+nuisance to me; I carried a mortgage on his newspaper for ten years, but
+Thatcher has mercifully taken that burden off my shoulders by paying it.
+Thatcher can print anything he wants to about me in my own town; but it
+will cost him some money; those people up there don't think I'm so
+wicked, and the 'Fraser County Democrat' won't have any advertisements
+for a while but fake medical ads. But Ike will have more room for the
+exploitation of his own peculiar brand of homely Hoosier humor."
+
+Bassett smiled, and Harwood was relieved to be able to laugh aloud. He
+was enjoying this glimpse of the inner mysteries of the great game. His
+disdain of Thatcher's clumsy attempts to circumvent Bassett was
+complete; in any view Bassett was preferable to Thatcher. As the senator
+from Fraser had said, there was really nothing worse than Thatcher, with
+his breweries and racing-stable, his sordidness and vulgarity.
+Thatcher's efforts to practice Bassett's methods with Bassett's own
+tools was a subject for laughter. It seemed for the moment that
+Harwood's decision might be struck on this note of mirth. Dan wondered
+whether, in permitting Bassett thus to disclose his plans and purposes,
+he had not already nailed his flag to the Bassett masthead.
+
+"I don't want these fellows who are old-timers in state
+conventions--particularly those known to be my old friends--to figure
+much," Bassett continued. "I'm asking your aid because you're new and
+clean-handed. The meanest thing they can say against you is that you're
+in my camp. They tell me you're an effective speaker, a number of
+county chairmen have said your speeches in the last campaign made a good
+impression. I shall want you to prepare a speech about four minutes
+long, clean-cut and vigorous,--we'll decide later what that speech shall
+be about. I've got it in mind to spring something in that convention
+just to show Thatcher that there are turns of the game he doesn't know
+yet. I'm going to give you a part that will make 'em remember you for
+some time, Dan."
+
+Bassett's smile showed his strong sound teeth. He rarely laughed, but he
+yielded now to the contagion of the humor he had aroused in Harwood.
+
+"It's a big chance you're giving me to get into things," replied
+Harwood. "I'll do my best." Then he added, in the glow of his complete
+surrender: "You've never asked me to do a dishonorable thing in the four
+years I've been with you. There's nothing I oughtn't to be glad to do
+from any standpoint, and I'm grateful for this new mark of your
+confidence."
+
+"That's all right, Dan. There are things in store for young men in
+politics in this state--Republicans and Democrats," said Bassett,
+without elation or any show of feeling whatever. "Once the limelight
+hits you, you can go far--very far. I must go over to the 'Courier'
+office now and see Atwill."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+THE THUNDER OF THE CAPTAINS
+
+
+Marian had suggested to her mother that they visit Mrs. Owen in town
+before settling at Waupegan for the summer, and it was Marian's planning
+that made this excursion synchronize with the state convention. Mr.
+Bassett was not consulted in the matter; in fact, since his wife's
+return from Connecticut he had been unusually occupied, and almost
+constantly away from Fraserville. Mrs. Bassett and her daughter arrived
+at the capital the day after Mrs. Owen reached home from Wellesley with
+Sylvia, and the Bassetts listened perforce to their kinswoman's
+enthusiastic account of the commencement exercises. Mrs. Owen had, it
+appeared, looked upon Smith and Mount Holyoke also on this eastward
+flight, and these inspections, mentioned in the most casual manner, did
+not contribute to Mrs. Bassett's happiness.
+
+Finding that her father was inaccessible by telephone, Marian summoned
+Harwood and demanded tickets for the convention; she would make an
+occasion of it, and Mrs. Owen and Sylvia should go with them. Mrs.
+Bassett and her family had always enjoyed the freedom of Mrs. Owen's
+house; it was disheartening to find Sylvia established in Delaware
+Street on like terms of intimacy. The old heartache over Marian's
+indifference to the call of higher education for women returned with a
+new poignancy as Mrs. Bassett inspected Sylvia's diploma, as proudly
+displayed by Mrs. Owen as though it marked the achievement of some near
+and dear member of the family. Sylvia's undeniable good looks, her
+agreeable manner, her ready talk, and the attention she received from
+her elders, were well calculated to arm criticism in a prejudiced heart.
+On the evening of their arrival Admiral and Mrs. Martin and the Reverend
+John Ware had called, and while Mrs. Bassett assured herself that these
+were, in a sense, visits of condolence upon Andrew Kelton's
+granddaughter, the trio, who were persons of distinction, had seemed
+sincerely interested in Mrs. Owen's protegee. Mrs. Bassett was obliged
+to hear a lively dialogue between the minister and Sylvia touching some
+memory of his first encounter with her about the stars. He brought her
+as a "commencement present" Bacon's "Essays." People listened to Sylvia;
+Sylvia had things to say! Even the gruff admiral paid her deference. He
+demanded to know whether it was true that Sylvia had declined a position
+at the Naval Observatory, which required the calculation of tides for
+the Nautical Almanac. Mrs. Bassett was annoyed that Sylvia had refused a
+position that would have removed her from a proximity to Mrs. Owen that
+struck her as replete with danger. And yet Mrs. Bassett was outwardly
+friendly, and she privately counseled Marian, quite unnecessarily, to be
+"nice" to Sylvia. On the same evening Mrs. Bassett was disagreeably
+impressed by Harwood's obvious rubrication in Mrs. Owen's good books.
+It seemed darkly portentous that Dan was, at Mrs. Owen's instigation,
+managing Sylvia's business affairs; she must warn her husband against
+this employment of his secretary to strengthen the ties between Mrs.
+Owen and this object of her benevolence.
+
+Mrs. Bassett's presence at the convention did not pass unremarked by
+many gentlemen upon the floor, or by the newspapers.
+
+"While the state chairman struggled to bring the delegates to order,
+Miss Marian Bassett, daughter of the Honorable Morton Bassett, of Fraser
+County, was a charming and vivacious figure in the balcony. At a moment
+when it seemed that the band would never cease from troubling the air
+with the strains of 'Dixie,' Miss Bassett tossed a carnation into the
+Marion County delegation. The flower was deftly caught by Mr. Daniel
+Harwood, who wore it in his buttonhole throughout the strenuous events
+of the day."
+
+This item was among the "Kodak Shots" subjoined to the "Advertiser's"
+account of the convention. It was stated elsewhere in the same journal
+that "never before had so many ladies attended a state convention as
+graced this occasion. The wives of both Republican United States
+Senators and of many prominent politicians of both parties were present,
+their summer costumes giving to the severe lines of the balcony a bright
+note of color." The "Capital," in its minor notes of the day, remarked
+upon the perfect amity that prevailed among the wives and daughters of
+Republicans and Democrats. It noted also the presence in Mrs. Bassett's
+party of her aunt, Mrs. Jackson Owen, and of Mrs. Owen's guest, Miss
+Sylvia Garrison, a graduate of this year's class at Wellesley.
+
+The experiences and sensations of a delegate to a large convention are
+quite different from those of a reporter at the press table, as Dan
+Harwood realized; and it must be confessed that he was keyed to a proper
+pitch of excitement by the day's prospects. In spite of Bassett's
+promise that he need not trouble to help elect himself a delegate,
+Harwood had been drawn sharply into the preliminary skirmish at the
+primaries. He had thought it wise to cultivate the acquaintance of the
+men who ruled his own county even though his name had been written large
+upon the Bassett slate.
+
+In the weeks that intervened between his interview with Harwood in the
+upper room of the Whitcomb and the primaries, Bassett had quietly
+visited every congressional district, holding conferences and perfecting
+his plans. "Never before," said the "Advertiser," "had Morton Bassett's
+pernicious activity been so marked." The belief had grown that the
+senator from Fraser was in imminent peril; in the Republican camp it was
+thought that while Thatcher might not control the convention he would
+prove himself strong enough to shake the faith of many of Bassett's
+followers in the power of their chief. There had been, apparently, a hot
+contest at the primaries. In the northern part of the state, in a region
+long recognized as Bassett's stronghold, Thatcher had won easily; at
+the capital the contestants had broken even, a result attributable to
+Thatcher's residence in the county. The word had passed among the
+faithful that Thatcher money was plentiful, and that it was not only
+available in this preliminary skirmish, but that those who attached
+themselves to Thatcher early were to enjoy his bounty throughout his
+campaign--which might be protracted--for the senatorship. Bassett was
+not scattering largess; it was whispered that the money he had used
+previously in politics had come out of Thatcher's pocket and that he
+would have less to spend in future.
+
+Bassett, in keeping with his forecast to Harwood, had made a point of
+having many new men, whose faces were unfamiliar in state conventions,
+chosen at the primaries he controlled, so that in a superficial view of
+the convention the complexion of a considerable body of the delegates
+was neutral. Here and there among the delegations sat men who knew
+precisely Bassett's plans and wishes. The day following the primaries,
+Bassett, closeted with Harwood in his room at the Boordman Building, had
+run the point of a walking-stick across every county in the state,
+reciting from memory just how many delegates he absolutely controlled,
+those he could get easily if he should by any chance need them, and the
+number of undoubted Thatcher men there were to reckon with. In Dan's own
+mingling with the crowd at the Whitcomb the night before the convention
+he had learned nothing to shake his faith in Bassett's calculations.
+
+The Honorable Isaac Pettit, of Fraser, was one of the most noteworthy
+figures on the floor. Had he not thrown off the Bassett yoke and
+trampled the lord of Fraser County underfoot? Did not the opposition
+press applaud the editor for so courageously wresting from the
+despicable chieftain the control of a county long inured to slavery?
+Verily, the Honorable Isaac had done much to encourage belief in the
+guileless that such were the facts. Even the "Courier" proved its sturdy
+independence by printing the result of the primary without extenuation
+or aught set down in malice. The Honorable Isaac Pettit undoubtedly
+believed in himself as the savior of Fraser. He had personally led the
+fight in the Fraser County primaries and had vanquished Bassett!
+"Bassett had fought gamely," the Republican organ averred, to make more
+glorious the Honorable Isaac's victory. It was almost inconceivable,
+they said, that Bassett, who had dominated his party for years, should
+not be able to elect himself a delegate to a state convention.
+
+In a statement printed in the "Courier," Bassett had accepted defeat in
+a commendable spirit of resignation. He and Atwill had framed that
+statement a week before the primaries, and Miss Rose Farrell had copied
+at least a dozen drafts before Bassett's critical sense was satisfied.
+Harwood was increasingly amused by the manifestations of Bassett's
+ironic humor. "I have never yet," ran the statement, "placed my own
+ambitions before the wishes of my party; and if, when the Democrats of
+Fraser County meet to choose a candidate for state senator, they are
+not disposed to renominate me for a seat which I have held for twelve
+years, I shall gladly resign to another and give my loyal support to the
+candidate of their choice." It was whispered that the Honorable Isaac
+Pettit would himself be a candidate for the nomination. The chattel
+mortgage scrolls in the office of the recorder of Fraser County
+indicated that his printing-press no longer owed allegiance to the
+Honorable Morton Bassett. Thatcher had treated Pettit generously, taking
+his unsecured note for the amount advanced to cleanse the "Fraser County
+Democrat" of the taint of Bassettism.
+
+As they gathered in the convention hall many of the delegates were
+unable to adjust themselves to the fact that Bassett had not only failed
+of election as delegate from his own county, but that he was not even
+present as a spectator of the convention. The scene was set, the curtain
+had risen, but Hamlet came not to the platform before the castle. Many
+men sought Harwood and inquired in awed whispers as to Bassett's
+whereabouts, but he gave evasive answers. He knew, however, that Bassett
+had taken an early morning train for Waupegan, accompanied by Fitch,
+their purpose being to discuss in peace and quiet the legal proceeding
+begun to gain control of the "Courier." The few tried and trusted
+Bassett men who knew exactly Bassett's plans for the convention listened
+in silence to the hubbub occasioned by their chief's absence; silence
+was a distinguishing trait of Bassett's lieutenants. Among the
+uninitiated there were those who fondly believed that Bassett was
+killed, not scotched, and they said among themselves that the party and
+the state were well rid of him. Thatcher was to be reckoned with, but he
+was no worse than Bassett: with such cogitations they comforted
+themselves amid the noise and confusion. The old Bassett superstition
+held, however, with many: this was only another of the Boss's deep-laid
+schemes, and he would show his hand in due season and prove himself, as
+usual, master of the situation. Others imagined that Bassett was
+sulking, and these were not anxious to be the target of his wrath when
+he chose to emerge from his tent in full armor.
+
+A young woman reporter, traversing the galleries to note the names and
+gowns of the ladies present, sought Mrs. Bassett for information as to
+her husband's whereabouts. When Mrs. Bassett hesitated discreetly,
+Marian rose promptly to the occasion:--
+
+"Papa's gone fishing," she replied suavely.
+
+This was not slow to reach the floor. "Papa's gone fishing" gained wide
+currency as the answer to the most interesting question of the day.
+
+The Honorable Isaac Pettit, seated majestically with the Fraser County
+delegation, tested the acoustics of the hall at the first opportunity.
+While the chairman of the state central committee was endeavoring to
+present as the temporary chairman of the convention a patriot known as
+the "War Eagle of the Wabash," the gentleman from Fraser insisted upon
+recognition.
+
+"Who is that preposterous fat man?" demanded Mrs. Owen, plying her
+palm-leaf fan vigorously.
+
+"That's Mr. Pettit, from our town," said Mrs. Bassett. "He's an editor
+and lecturer."
+
+"He's the man that defeated papa in our primaries," added Marian
+cheerfully. "He's awfully funny, everybody says, and I suppose his
+defeating papa was a joke. He's going to say something funny now."
+
+"He doesn't need to," said Sylvia, not the least interested of the
+spectators. "They are laughing before he begins."
+
+The chairman of the state committee feigned not to hear or see the
+delegate from Fraser, but Mr. Pettit continued to importune the chair
+amid much laughter and confusion. The chairman had hardened his heart,
+but the voice of the gentleman from Fraser alone rose above the tumult,
+and in a moment of comparative calm he addressed the chair unrecognized
+and unpermitted.
+
+"I beg to call your attention, sir, to the presence in the gallery of
+many of the fair daughters of the old Hoosier State. (Applause.) They
+hover above us like guardian angels. They have come in the spirit that
+brought their sisters of old to watch true knights battle in the
+tourney. As a mark of respect to these ladies who do us so much honor, I
+ask the chair to request gentlemen to desist from smoking, and that the
+sergeant-at-arms be ordered to enforce the rule throughout our
+deliberations." (Long-continued applause.)
+
+The state chairman was annoyed and showed his annoyance. He had been
+about to ingratiate himself with the ladies by making this request
+unprompted; he made it now, but the gentleman from Fraser sat down
+conscious that the renewed applause was his.
+
+"Why don't they keep on smoking?" asked Mrs. Owen. "The hall couldn't
+be any fuller of smoke than it is now."
+
+"If they would all put on their coats the room would be more beautiful,"
+said Marian. "They always say the Republicans are much more gentlemanly
+than the Democrats."
+
+"Hush, Marian; some one might hear you," Mrs. Bassett cautioned.
+
+She did not understand her husband's absence; he rarely or never took
+her into his confidence in political matters. She had not known until
+that morning that he was not to be present at the convention. She did
+not relish the idea that he had been defeated in the primaries; in her
+mind defeat was inseparable from dishonor. The "War Eagle of the Wabash"
+was in excellent voice and he spoke for thirty minutes; his speech would
+have aroused greater enthusiasm if it had not been heard in many
+previous state conventions and on the hustings through many campaigns.
+Dan Voorhees had once expressed his admiration of that speech; and it
+was said that Tom Hendricks had revised the original manuscript the year
+he was chosen Vice-President. It was a safe speech, containing nothing
+that any good American might not applaud; it named practically every
+Democratic President except the twenty-second and twenty-fourth, whom it
+seemed the better part of valor just then to ignore. With slight
+emendations that same oration served admirably for high-school
+commencements, and it had a recognized cash value on the Chautauqua
+circuit. The peroration, closing with "Thou, too, sail on, O Ship of
+State!" was well calculated to bring strong men to their feet. The only
+complaint the War Eagle might have lodged against the Ship of State (in
+some imaginable admiralty court having jurisdiction of that barnacled
+old frigate) would have been for its oft-repeated rejection of his own
+piloting.
+
+The permanent chairman now disclosed was a man of business, who thanked
+the convention briefly and went to work. By the time the committee on
+resolutions had presented the platform (on which Bassett and Harwood had
+collaborated) the convention enjoyed its first sensation as Thatcher
+appeared, moving slowly down the crowded main aisle to join the
+delegation of his county. His friends had planned a demonstration for
+his entrance, and in calling it an ovation the newspapers hardly
+magnified its apparent spontaneity and volume. The man who had
+undertaken the herculean task of driving Morton Bassett out of politics
+was entitled to consideration, and his appearance undoubtedly
+interrupted the business of the convention for fully five minutes.
+Thatcher bowed and waved his hand as he sat down. The cordiality of his
+reception both pleased and embarrassed him. He fanned himself with his
+hat and feigned indifference to the admiration of his countrymen.
+
+"Papa always gets more applause than that," Marian remarked to Sylvia.
+"I was at the state convention two years ago and father came in late,
+just as Mr. Thatcher did. They always come in late after all the stupid
+speeches have been made; they're surer to stir up a big rumpus that
+way."
+
+Sylvia gave serious heed to these transactions of history. Her knowledge
+of politics was largely derived from lectures she had heard at college
+and from a diligent reading of newspapers. The report of the committee
+on resolutions--a succinct document to each of whose paragraphs the
+delegates rose in stormy approval--had just been read.
+
+"I don't see how you can listen to such stuff," said Marian during a
+lull in the shouting. "It's only the platform and they don't mean a word
+of it. There's Colonel Ramsay, of Aurora,--the man with white hair who
+has just come on the stage. He had dinner at our house once and he's
+perfectly lovely. He's a beautiful speaker, but they won't let him speak
+any more because he was a gold bug--whatever that is. They say Colonel
+Ramsay has stopped gold-bugging now and wants to be governor. Sylvia,
+all these men that don't want to be United States Senator want to be
+governor. Isn't it funny? I don't see why silver money isn't just as
+good as any other kind, do you?"
+
+"They told me at college," said Sylvia, "but it's rather complicated.
+Why didn't your father come to the convention even if he wasn't a
+delegate? He could have sat in the gallery; I suppose a lot of those men
+down there are not really delegates."
+
+"Oh, that wouldn't be papa's way of doing things. I wish he had come,
+just on mama's account; she takes everything so hard. If papa ever did
+half the naughty things they say he does he'd be in the penitentiary
+good and tight. I should like to marry a public man; if I trusted a man
+enough to marry him I shouldn't be jarred a bit by what the newspapers
+said of him. I like politics; I don't know what it's all about, but I
+think the men are ever so interesting."
+
+"I think so too," said Sylvia; "only I don't understand why they make so
+much noise and do so little. That platform they read a little bit ago
+seemed splendid. I read a lot of political platforms once in
+college--they were part of the course--and that was the best one I ever
+heard. It declared for laws against child labor, and I'm interested in
+that; and for juvenile courts and a lot of the new enlightened things.
+It was all fine."
+
+"Do you think so? It sounded just like a trombone solo to me. Mr.
+Harwood was on that committee. Didn't you hear his name read? He's one
+of these high brows in politics, and father's going to push him forward
+so he can accomplish the noble things that interest him. Father told me
+Mr. Harwood would be a delegate to the convention. That's the reason I
+wanted to come. I hope he will make a speech; they say he's one of the
+best of the younger men. I heard him at the Opera House at Fraserville
+in the last campaign and he kept me awake, I can tell you. And funny!
+You wouldn't think he could be funny."
+
+"Oh, I can see that he has humor--the lines around his mouth show that."
+
+They had discussed the convention and its possibilities at Mrs. Owen's
+breakfast table and with the morning newspapers as their texts. Sylvia
+had gained the impression that Bassett had met a serious defeat in the
+choice of delegates, and she had been conscious that Mrs. Bassett was
+distressed by the newspaper accounts of it. Marian bubbled on
+elucidatively, answering all of Sylvia's questions.
+
+"Don't you think that because papa isn't here he won't be heard from; I
+think I know papa better than that. He didn't think this convention
+would amount to enough for him to trouble with it. I told Aunt Sally not
+to talk much before mother about papa and politics; you will notice that
+Aunt Sally turned the subject several times this morning. That lawsuit
+Mr. Thatcher brought against papa and Aunt Sally made her pretty hot,
+but papa will fix that up all right. Papa always fixes up everything,"
+she concluded admiringly.
+
+It was in Sylvia's mind that she was witnessing a scene of the national
+drama and that these men beneath her in the noisy hall were engaged upon
+matters more or less remotely related to the business of
+self-government. She had derived at college a fair idea of the questions
+of the day, but the parliamentary mechanism and the thunder of the
+captains and the shouting gave to politics a new, concrete expression.
+These delegates, drawn from all occupations and conditions of life, were
+citizens of a republic, endeavoring to put into tangible form their
+ideas and preferences; and similar assemblies had, she knew, for years
+been meeting in every American commonwealth, enacting just such scenes
+as those that were passing under her eyes. Her gravity amused Mrs. Owen.
+
+"Don't you worry, Sylvia; they are all kind to their families and most
+of 'em earn an honest living. I've attended lots of conventions of all
+parties and they're all about alike: there are more standing collars in
+a Republican convention and more whiskers when the Prohibitionists get
+together, but they're all mostly corn-fed and human. A few fellows with
+brains in their heads run all the rest."
+
+"Look, Marian, Mr. Harwood seems to be getting ready to do something,"
+said Sylvia. "I wonder what that paper is he has in his hand. He's been
+holding it all morning."
+
+Harwood sat immediately under them. Several times men had passed notes
+to him, whereupon he had risen and searched out the writer to give his
+answer with a nod or shake of the head. When Thatcher appeared, Dan had
+waited for the hubbub to subside and then he left his seat to shake
+hands with Bassett's quondam ally. He held meanwhile a bit of notepaper
+the size of his hand, and scrutinized it carefully from time to time. It
+contained the precise programme of the convention as arranged by
+Bassett. Morton Bassett was on a train bound for the pastoral shades of
+Waupegan a hundred miles away, but the permanent chairman had in his
+vest pocket a copy of Bassett's scheme of exercises; even Thatcher's
+rapturous greeting had been ordered by Bassett. There had already been
+one slight slip; the eagerness of the delegates to proceed to the
+selection of the state ticket had sent matters forward for a moment
+beyond the chairman's control. A delegate with a weak voice had gained
+recognition for the laudable purpose of suggesting a limitation upon
+nominating speeches; the permanent chairman had mistaken him for
+another gentleman for whom he was prepared, and he hastened to correct
+his blunder. He seized the gavel and began pounding vigorously and the
+man with the weak voice never again caught his eye.
+
+In the middle of the hall a delegate now drew attention to himself by
+rising upon a chair; he held a piece of paper in his hand and waved it;
+and the chairman promptly took cognizance of him. The chairman referred
+to him as the gentleman from Pulaski, but he might have been the
+gentleman from Vallombrosa for all that any one cared. The convention
+was annoyed that a gentleman from Pulaski County should have dared to
+flourish manuscript when there were innumerable orators present fully
+prepared to speak extempore on any subject. For all that any one knew
+the gentleman from Pulaski might be primed with a speech on the chinch
+bug or the Jewish kritarchy; a man with a sheet of paper in his hand was
+a formidable person, if not indeed a foe of mankind, and he was
+certainly not to be countenaced or encouraged in a hot hall on a day of
+June. Yet all other human beings save the gentleman from Pulaski were as
+nothing, it seemed, to the chairman. The Tallest Delegate, around whose
+lean form a frock coat hung like a fold of night, and who flung back
+from a white brow an immense quantity of raven hair, sought to relieve
+the convention of the sight and sound of the person from Pulaski. The
+Tallest Delegate was called smartly to order; he rebelled, but when
+threatened with the sergeant-at-arms subsided amid jeers. The gentleman
+from Pulaski was indulged to the fullest extent by the chairman, to whom
+it had occurred suddenly that the aisles must be cleared. The aisles
+were cleared and delegates were obliged to find their seats before the
+unknown gentleman from Pulaski was allowed to proceed. Even the War
+Eagle had received no such consideration. The gentleman from Pulaski
+calmly waited for a completer silence than the day had known. Ten men in
+the hall knew what was coming--not more; Miss Rose Farrell had typed ten
+copies of the memorandum which Harwood held in his hand!
+
+The gentleman from Pulaski did not after all refer to his manuscript; he
+spoke in a high, penetrating voice that reached the farthest corner of
+the hall, reciting from memory:--
+
+"Be it resolved by this convention that, whereas two years hence it will
+be the privilege and duty of the Indiana Democracy to elect a United
+States Senator to fill the seat now occupied by a Republican, we, the
+delegates here assembled, do hereby pledge the party's support for the
+office of Senator in Congress to the Honorable Edward G. Thatcher, of
+Marion County."
+
+There was a moment's awed calm before the storm broke; Thatcher rose in
+his seat to look at the strange gentleman from Pulaski who had thus
+flung his name into the arena. Thatcher men rose and clamored blindly
+for recognition, without the faintest idea of what they should do if
+haply the cold eye of the chairman fell upon them. The galleries joined
+in the uproar; the band began to play "On the Banks of the Wabash" and
+was with difficulty stopped; a few voices cried "Bassett," but cries of
+"Thatcher" rose in a mighty roar and drowned them. The chairman hammered
+monotonously for order; Mr. Daniel Harwood might have been seen to
+thrust his memorandum into his trousers pocket; he bent forward in his
+seat with his eye upon the chairman. The Honorable Isaac Pettit had been
+for a moment nonplussed; he was unacquainted with the gentleman from
+Pulaski, nor had he known that an effort was to be made to commit the
+convention to Thatcher's candidacy; still the tone of the resolution was
+friendly. Thatcher, rising to his feet, was noisily cheered; his face
+was red and his manner betokened anger; but after glancing helplessly
+over the hall he sank into his seat. The chairman thumped with his
+gavel; it seemed for a moment that he had lost control of the
+convention; and now the Honorable Isaac Pettit was observed demanding to
+be heard. The chairman lifted his hand and the noise died away. It lay
+in his power to ignore the resolution wholly or to rule it out of order;
+the chairman was apparently in no haste to do anything.
+
+"Good old Uncle Ike," howled some one encouragingly, and there was
+laughter and applause. With superb dignity Mr. Pettit appealed for
+silence with gestures that expressed self-depreciation, humility, and
+latent power in one who would, in due course, explain everything. A
+group of delegates in the rear began chanting stridently, "Order!
+Order!" and it was flung back antiphonally from a dozen other
+delegations.
+
+Mr. Harwood became active and climbed upon his chair. Gentlemen in every
+part of the hall seemed at once anxious to speak, but the chairman was
+apparently oblivious of all but the delegate from Marion. The delegate
+from Marion, like the mysterious person from Pulaski, was a stranger to
+state conventions. The ladies were at once interested in the young
+gentleman with the red carnation in his buttonhole--a trim young fellow,
+in a blue serge suit, with a blue four-in-hand knotted under a white
+winged collar. As he waited with his eye on the chairman he put his hand
+to his head and smoothed his hair.
+
+"Is Daniel going to speak?" asked Mrs. Owen. "He ought to have asked me
+if he's going to back Edward Thatcher for Senator."
+
+"I always think his cowlick's so funny. He's certainly the cool one,"
+said Marian.
+
+"I don't know what they're talking about a Senator for," said Mrs.
+Bassett. "It's very unusual. If I'd known they were going to talk about
+that I shouldn't have come. There's sure to be a row."
+
+The chairman seemed anxious that the delegate from Marion should be
+honored with the same close attention that had been secured for the
+stranger from Pulaski.
+
+"I hope he'll wait till they all sit down," said Sylvia; "I want to hear
+him speak."
+
+"You'll hear him, all right," said Marian. "You know at Yale they called
+him 'Foghorn' Harwood, and they put him in front to lead the cheering at
+all the big games."
+
+Apparently something was expected of Mr. Harwood of Marion. Thatcher
+had left his seat and was moving toward the corridors to find his
+lieutenants. Half a dozen men accosted him as he moved through the
+aisle, but he shook them off angrily. An effort to start another
+demonstration in his honor was not wholly fruitless. It resulted at
+least in a good deal of confusion of which the chair was briefly
+tolerant; then he resumed his pounding, while Harwood stood stubbornly
+on his chair.
+
+The Tallest Delegate, known to be a recent convert to Thatcher, was
+thoroughly aroused, and advanced toward the platform shouting; but the
+chairman leveled his gavel at him and bade him sit down. The moment was
+critical; the veriest tyro felt the storm-spirit brooding over the hall.
+
+The voice of the chairman was now audible.
+
+"The chair recognizes the delegate from Marion."
+
+"Out of order! What's his name!" howled many voices.
+
+The chairman graciously availed himself of the opportunity to announce
+the name of the gentleman he had recognized.
+
+"Mr. Harwood, of Marion, has the floor. The convention will be in order.
+The gentleman will proceed."
+
+"Mr. Chairman, I rise to a point of order."
+
+Dan's voice rose sonorously; the convention was relieved to find that
+the gentleman in blue serge could be heard; he was audible even to Mr.
+Thatcher's excited counsellors in the corridors.
+
+"The delegate will kindly state his point of order."
+
+The chairman was quietly courteous. His right hand rested on his gavel,
+he thrust his left into the side pocket of his long alpaca coat. He was
+an old and tried hand in the chair, and his own deep absorption in the
+remarks of Mr. Harwood communicated itself to the delegates.
+
+Dan uttered rapidly the speech he had committed to memory for this
+occasion a week earlier. Every sentence had been carefully pondered;
+both Bassett and Atwill had blue penciled it until it expressed
+concisely and pointedly exactly what Bassett wished to be said at this
+point in the convention's proceedings. Interruptions, of applause or
+derision, were to be reckoned with; but the speaker did not once drop
+his voice or pause long enough for any one to drive in a wedge of
+protest. He might have been swamped by an uprising of the whole
+convention, but strange to say the convention was intent upon hearing
+him. Once the horde of candidates and distinguished visitors on the
+platform had been won to attention, Harwood turned slowly until he faced
+the greater crowd behind him. Several times he lifted his right hand and
+struck out with it, shaking his head with the vigor of his utterance.
+("His voice," said the "Advertiser's" report, "rumbles and bangs like a
+bowling-alley on Saturday night. There was a big bump every time a
+sentence rumbled down the hall and struck the rear wall of the
+building.")
+
+"Sir, I make the obvious point of order that there are no vacancies to
+fill in the office of United States Senator, and that it does not lie
+within the province of the delegates chosen to this convention to pledge
+the party to any man. I do not question the motive of the delegate from
+Pulaski County, who is my personal friend; and I am animated by no
+feelings of animosity in demanding that the convention proceed to the
+discharge of its obligations without touching upon matters clearly
+beyond its powers. I confidently hope and sincerely believe that our
+party in Indiana is soon to receive a new commission of trust and
+confidence from the people of the old Hoosier State. But our immediate
+business is the choice of a ticket behind which the Hoosier Democracy
+will move on to victory in November like an army with banners. (Cheers.)
+There have been intimations in the camp of our enemy that the party is
+threatened with schism and menaced by factional wars; but I declare my
+conviction that the party is more harmonious and more truly devoted to
+high ideals to-day than at any time since the grand old name of Democrat
+became potent upon Hoosier soil. And what have we to do with leaders?
+Men come and men go, but principles alone are eternal and live forever.
+The great task of our party must be to bring the government back to the
+people. (Scattering applause.) But the choice of an invulnerable state
+ticket at this convention is our business and our only business. As for
+Indiana's two seats in the national Senate which we shall soon wrest
+from our adversaries, in due season we shall fill them with tried men
+and true. Sir, let us remember that whosoever maketh himself a king
+speaketh against Caesar. Stop, Look, Listen!"
+
+Hardly a man in the hall so dull that this did not penetrate! Dan had
+given to his last words a weird, mournful intonation whose effect was
+startling. He jumped lightly to the floor and was in his seat before the
+deep boom of his voice had ceased reverberating. Then instantly it
+seemed that the seventeen hundred delegates had been multiplied by ten,
+and that every man had become a raving lunatic. This was Bassett's
+defiance--Bassett, who had gone fishing, but not before planting this
+mine for the confusion of Thatcher. A hundred men who had already
+committed themselves to Thatcher sought to rescue their new leader; they
+rose upon chairs and demanded to be heard. "Stop, Look, Listen" had
+suggested the idea of a locomotive bearing down upon a dangerous
+crossing, and Bassett's men began to whistle. The whistling increased in
+volume until it drowned the shouts, the cheers, and the laughter. Ladies
+in the galleries stopped their ears while the whistling convention
+earned its name. It now occurred to the chairman, who had wasted no
+energy in futile efforts to stay the storm, that he had a duty to
+perform. Even to his practiced hand the restoration of order was not
+easy; but by dint of much bawling and pounding he subdued the uproar.
+Then after impressive deliberation he said:--
+
+"A point of order has been raised against the resolution offered by the
+gentleman from Pulaski. It is the ruling of the chair that the point is
+well taken. The resolution is out of order."
+
+This was greeted with great applause; but the chair checked it promptly.
+The ten gentlemen who had copies of the Bassett programme in their
+pockets were not surprised by the decision. Thatcher stood at a side
+door and two of his men were pushing their way through the aisles to
+reach Pettit; for the Honorable Isaac Pettit was on his feet demanding
+recognition while Thatcher's delegates shouted to him to sit down;
+humiliation must go no farther, and if the Fraser County editor did not
+realize that his new chief was the victim of a vile trick, the gentleman
+from Fraser must be throttled, if necessary, to prevent a further
+affront to Thatcher's dignity. Thatcher was purple with rage; it was
+enough to have been made the plaything of an unscrupulous enemy once,
+without having one's ambitions repeatedly kicked up and down a
+convention hall.
+
+The chairman, fully rehearsed in his part, showed a malevolent
+disposition to continue toward the friends of Thatcher an attitude at
+once benevolent and just. So many were demanding recognition amid
+cat-calling and whistling that the fairest and least partial of
+presiding officers might well have hesitated before singling out one
+gentleman when so many were eagerly, even furiously, desirous of
+enlightening the convention. But the presiding officer was obeying the
+orders communicated to him by a gentleman who was even at this moment
+skimming across the cool waters of Lake Waupegan. It would more fully
+have satisfied the chairman's sense of humor to have recognized the
+Honorable Isaac Pettit and have suffered an appeal from the ruling of
+the chair, which presumably the editor wished to demand. By this means
+the weakness of Thatcher might have expressed itself in figures that
+would have deepened Thatcher's abasement in the eyes of his fellow
+partisans; but this idea had been discussed with Bassett, who had
+sharply vetoed it, and the chairman was not a man lightly to disobey
+orders even to make a Hoosier holiday. He failed to see the editor of
+the "Fraser County Democrat" and peremptorily closed the incident. There
+was no mistaking his temper as he announced:--
+
+"The chair announces that the next business in order is the call of the
+roll of counties for nominations for the office of secretary of state.
+What is the pleasure of the convention?"
+
+Colonel Ramsay had repaired to the gallery to enjoy the proceedings with
+Mrs. Bassett's party. In spite of his support of the Palmer and Buckner
+ticket (how long ago that seems!), the Colonel had never lost touch with
+the main body of his party, and he carried several Indiana counties in
+his pocket. His relations with Bassett had never been in the least
+intimate, though always outwardly cordial, and there were those who
+looked to him to eliminate the Fraser County chief from politics. He was
+quite as rich as Bassett, and a successful lawyer, who had become a
+colonel by grace of a staff appointment in the Spanish War. He had a
+weakness for the poets, and his speeches were informed with that grace
+and sentiment which, we are fond of saying, is peculiar to Southern
+oratory. The Colonel, at all fitting occasions in our commonwealth,
+responded to "the ladies" in tender and moving phrases. He was a
+bachelor, and the ladies in the gallery saw in him their true champion.
+
+"Please tell _us_--we don't understand a bit of it," pleaded
+Marian--"what it's all about, Colonel Ramsay."
+
+"Oh, it's just a little joke of your father's; nothing funnier ever
+happened in a state convention." Colonel Ramsay grinned. "The key to the
+situation is right there: that Pulaski County delegate offered his
+resolution just to make trouble; it was a fake resolution. Of course the
+chairman is in the joke. This young fellow down here--yes, Harwood--made
+his speech to add to the gayety of nations. He had no right to make it,
+of course, but the word had been passed along the line to let him go
+through. Amazing vocal powers, that boy,--you couldn't have stopped
+him!"
+
+Sylvia was aware that Colonel Ramsay's explanation had not pleased Mrs.
+Bassett; but Mrs. Owen evinced no feeling. Marian was enjoying Colonel
+Ramsay's praise of her father's adroitness. Near Sylvia were other women
+who had much at stake in the result of the convention. The wife of a
+candidate for secretary of state had invited herself to a seat beside
+Mrs. Bassett; the wife of a Congressman who wished to be governor, sat
+near, publishing to the world her intimate acquaintance with Morton
+Bassett's family. The appearance and conduct of these women during the
+day interested Sylvia almost as much as the incidents occurring on the
+floor; it was a new idea that politics had a bearing upon the domestic
+life of the men who engaged in the eternal contest for place and power.
+The convention as a spectacle was immensely diverting, but she had her
+misgivings about it as a transaction in history. Colonel Ramsay asked
+her politics and she confessed that she had none. She had inherited
+Republican prejudices from her grandfather, and most of the girls she
+had known in college were of Republican antecedents; but she liked to
+call herself an independent.
+
+"You'd better not be a Democrat, Sylvia," Mrs. Owen warned her. "I
+suffered a good deal in my husband's lifetime from being one. There are
+still people in this town who think a Democrat's the same as a Rebel or
+a Copperhead. It ain't hardly respectable yet, being a Democrat, and if
+they don't all of 'em shut up about the 'fathers' and the Constitution,
+I'm going to move to Mexico where it's all run by niggers."
+
+Sylvia had singled out several figures in the drama enacting below for
+special attention. The chairman had interested her by reason of his
+attitude of scrupulous fairness, in which she now saw the transparent
+irony; the banalities of the temporary chairman had touched her humor;
+she watched him for the rest of the morning with a kind of awe that any
+one could he so dull, so timorous, and yet be chosen to address nearly
+two thousand American citizens on an occasion of importance. She was
+unable to reconcile Thatcher's bald head, ruddy neck, and heavy
+shoulders with Marian's description of the rich man's son, who dreamed
+of heroes and played at carpentry. Dan's speech had not been without its
+thrill for her, and she now realized its significance. It had been a
+part of a trick, and in spite of herself she could not share the
+admiration Colonel Ramsay was expressing for Harwood's share in it. He
+was immeasurably superior to the majority of those about him in the
+crowded hall; he was a man of education, a college man, and she had just
+experienced in her own life that consecration, as by an apostolic
+laying-on of hands, by which a college confers its honors and imposes
+its obligations upon those who have enjoyed its ministry. Yet Harwood,
+who had not struck her as weak or frivolous, had lent himself to-day to
+a bit of cheap claptrap merely to humble one man for the glorification
+of another. Bassett she had sincerely liked in their one meeting at
+Waupegan; and yet this was of his plotting and Harwood was his
+mouthpiece and tool. It did not seem fair to take advantage of such
+supreme stupidity as Thatcher's supporters had manifested. Her
+disappointment in Harwood--and it was quite that--was part of her
+general disappointment in the methods by which men transacted the
+serious business of governing themselves.
+
+Harwood was conscious that he was one of the chief figures in the
+convention; every one knew him now; he was called here and there on the
+floor, by men anxious to impress themselves upon Bassett's authorized
+spokesman. It is a fine thing at twenty-seven to find the doors of
+opportunity flung wide--and had he not crossed the threshold and passed
+within the portal? He was Bassett's man; every one knew that now; but
+why should he not be Bassett's man? He would go higher and farther than
+Bassett: Bassett had merely supplied the ladder on which he would climb.
+He was happier than he had ever been before in his life; he had
+experienced the intoxication of applause, and he was not averse to the
+glances of the women in the gallery above him.
+
+The nomination of candidates now went forward rather tamely, though
+relieved by occasional sharp contests. The ten gentlemen who had been
+favored with copies of the Bassett programme were not surprised that so
+many of Thatcher's friends were nominated; they themselves voted for
+most of them. It seemed remarkable to the uninitiated that Bassett
+should have slapped Thatcher and then have allowed him to score in the
+choice of the ticket. The "Advertiser," anxious to show Bassett as
+strong and malignant as possible, expressed the opinion that the
+Fraserville boss had not after all appreciated the full force of the
+Thatcher movement.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+On the veranda of his Waupegan cottage Bassett and Fitch enjoyed the
+wholesome airs of the country. Late in the afternoon the fussy little
+steamer that traversed the lake paused at the Bassett dock to deliver a
+telegram, which Bassett read without emotion. He passed the yellow slip
+of paper to Fitch, who read it and handed it back.
+
+"Harwood's a clever fellow; but you oughtn't to push him into politics.
+He's better than that."
+
+"I suppose he is," said Bassett; "but I need him."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+INTERVIEWS IN TWO KEYS
+
+
+Mrs. Bassett remained in bed the day following the convention, less
+exhausted by the scenes she had witnessed than appalled by their
+interpretation in the newspapers. The reappearance of Sylvia Garrison
+had revived the apprehensions which the girl's visit to Waupegan four
+years earlier had awakened. She had hoped that Sylvia's long absences
+might have operated to diminish Mrs. Owen's interest and she had managed
+in one way and another to keep them apart during the college holidays,
+but the death of Professor Kelton had evidently thrown Sylvia back upon
+Mrs. Owen. Jealous fears danced blackly in Mrs. Bassett's tired brain.
+
+At a season when she was always busiest with her farms Mrs. Owen had
+made a long journey to see Sylvia graduated; and here was the girl
+established on the most intimate terms in the Delaware Street house, no
+doubt for the remainder of her life. Mrs. Owen did not lightly or often
+change her plans; but she had abandoned her project of spending the
+summer at the lake to accommodate herself to the convenience of her
+protegee. Mrs. Bassett's ill-health was by no means a matter of
+illusion; she was not well and her sojourns in sanatoriums had served
+to alienate her in a measure from her family. Marian had grown to
+womanhood without realizing her mother's ideals. She had hoped to make a
+very different person of her daughter, and Sylvia's reappearance
+intensified her sense of defeat. Even in the retrospect she saw no
+reason why Marian might not have pursued the course that Sylvia had
+followed; in her confused annoyances and agitations she was bitter not
+only against Marian but against Marian's father. The time had come when
+she must take a stand against his further dallyings in politics.
+
+Her day at the convention hall had yielded only the most disagreeable
+impressions. Such incidents as had not eluded her own understanding on
+the spot had been freely rendered by the newspapers. It was all sordid
+and gross--not at all in keeping with her first experience of politics,
+gained in her girlhood, when her father had stood high in the councils
+of the nation, winning coveted positions without the support of such
+allies as she had seen cheering her husband's triumph on the floor of
+the convention. There had strayed into her hands an envelope of
+newspaper clippings from an agency that wished to supply her, as, its
+circular announced, it supplied the wives of many other prominent
+Americans, with newspaper comments on their husbands. As a bait for
+securing a client these examples of what the American press was saying
+of Morton Bassett were decidedly ill-chosen. The "Stop, Look, Listen"
+editorial had suggested to many influential journals a re-indictment of
+bossism with the Bassett-Thatcher imbroglio as text. It was
+disenchanting to find one's husband enrolled in a list of political
+reprobates whose activities in so many states were a menace to public
+safety. Her father had served with distinction and honor this same
+commonwealth that her husband was debasing; he had been a statesman, not
+a politician, not a boss. Blackford Singleton had belonged to the
+coterie that included such men as Hoar and Evarts, Thurman and Bayard;
+neither her imagination nor her affection could bridge the chasm that
+separated men of their type from her husband, who, in middle life, was
+content with a seat in the state legislature and busied himself with
+wars upon petty rivals. Such reflections as these did not contribute to
+her peace of mind.
+
+She was alone in her room at Mrs. Owen's when Bassett appeared, late in
+the afternoon. Mrs. Owen was downtown on business matters; Marian, after
+exhausting all her devices for making her mother comfortable, had flown
+in search of acquaintances; and Sylvia had that day taken up her work in
+the normal school. Left to herself for the greater part of the warm
+afternoon, Mrs. Bassett had indulged luxuriously in forebodings. She had
+not expected her husband, and his unannounced entrance startled her.
+
+"Well," she remarked drearily, "so you have come back to face it, have
+you?"
+
+"I'm undoubtedly back, Hallie," he answered, with an effort at
+lightness, crossing to the bedside and taking her hand.
+
+He had rarely discussed his political plans with her, but he realized
+that the rupture with Thatcher must naturally have distressed her; and
+there was also Thatcher's lawsuit involving her aunt, which had
+disagreeable possibilities.
+
+"I'm sorry your name got into the papers, Hallie. I didn't want you to
+go to the convention, but of course I knew you went to please Marian.
+Where is Marian?"
+
+"Oh, she's off somewhere. I couldn't expect her to stay here in this hot
+room all day."
+
+The room was not uncomfortable; but it seemed wiser not to debate
+questions of temperature. He found a chair and sat down beside her.
+
+"You mustn't worry about the newspapers, Hallie; they always make the
+worst of everything. The temptation to distort facts to make a good
+story is strong; I have seen it in my connection with the 'Courier.'
+It's lamentable, but you can't correct it in a day. I'm pretty well
+hardened to it myself, but I'm sorry you have let these attacks on me
+annoy you. The only thing to do is to ignore them. What's that you have
+there?"
+
+She still clasped the envelope of clippings and thrust it at him
+accusingly. The calmness of his inspection irritated her and she broke
+out sharply:--
+
+"I shouldn't think a man with a wife and family would lay himself open
+to such attacks in all the newspapers in the country. Those papers call
+you another such political boss as Quay and Gorman. There's nothing they
+don't say about you."
+
+"Well, Hallie, they've been saying it for some time; they will go on
+saying it probably not only about me but about every other man who won't
+be dictated to by impractical reformers and pharisaical newspapers. But
+I must confess that this is rather hard luck!" He held up two of the
+cuttings. "I've undertaken to do just what papers like the New York
+'Evening Post' and the Springfield 'Republican' are forever begging
+somebody with courage to do--I've been trying to drive a rascal out of
+politics. I'm glad of this chance to talk to you about Thatcher. He and
+I were friends for years, as you know."
+
+"I never understood how you could tolerate that man; he's so coarse and
+vulgar that his wife stays abroad to keep her daughters away from him."
+
+"Well, that's not my affair. I have had all I want of him. There's
+nothing mysterious about my breaking with him; he got it into his head
+that he's a bigger man in this state than I am. I have known for several
+years that he intended to get rid of me as soon as he felt he could do
+it safely, and be ready to capture the senatorship when he saw that our
+party was in shape to win again. I've always distrusted him, and I've
+always kept an eye on him. When he came into Fraser County and stooped
+low enough to buy old Ike Pettit, I thought it time to strike. You read
+a lot about courage in politics in such newspapers as these that have
+been philosophizing about me at long range. Well, I'm not going to brag
+about myself, but it required some courage on my part to take the
+initiative and read the riot act to Thatcher. I've done what men are
+sometimes praised for doing; but I don't want praise; I only want to be
+judged fairly. I've always avoided bringing business or politics home;
+I've always had an idea that when a man goes home he ought to close the
+door on everything but the interests the home has for him. I may have
+been wrong about that; and I'm very sorry that you have been
+troubled--sincerely sorry. But you may as well know the truth now, which
+is that Thatcher is out of it altogether. You know enough of him to
+understand that he's not a man to trust with power, and I've done the
+state and my party a service in turning him out of doors."
+
+He had spoken quietly and earnestly, and his words had not been without
+their effect. He had never been harsh with her or the children; his
+manner to-day was kind and considerate. He had to an extent measurably
+rehabilitated himself as a heroic public character, a man of honor and a
+husband to be proud of; but she had not spent a sleepless night and a
+gray day without fortifying herself against him. All day her eyes had
+been fixed upon an abandoned squirrel box in the crotch of an elm
+outside her window; it had become the repository of her thoughts, the
+habitation of her sorrows. She turned her head slightly so that her eyes
+might rest upon this tabernacle of fear and illusion, and renewed the
+assault refreshed.
+
+"How is it, then, that newspapers away off in New York and Massachusetts
+speak of you in this outrageous fashion? They're so far away that it
+seems strange they speak of you at all."
+
+He laughed with relief, feeling that the question marked a retreat
+toward weaker fortifications.
+
+"You're not very complimentary, are you, Hallie? They must think me of
+some importance or they'd let me alone. I wouldn't subscribe to that
+clipping bureau if you fear we're too much in the limelight. I've been
+taking the service of one of these bureaus for several years, and I read
+every line the papers print about me. It's part of the regular routine
+in my office to paste them in scrapbooks."
+
+"I shouldn't think you could burn them fast enough; what if the children
+should see them some day!"
+
+"Well, you may be surprised to know that they're not all so bitter. Once
+in a long while I get a kind word. That bill I got through the assembly
+separating hardened criminals from those susceptible of reform--the
+indeterminate sentence law--was praised by penologists all over the
+country. It's all in the day's work; sometimes you're patted on the back
+and the next time they kick you down stairs. Without political influence
+you have no chance to help the good causes or defeat the bad schemes."
+
+"Yes, I suppose that is true," she murmured weakly.
+
+He had successfully met and turned her attack and the worst had passed;
+but he expected her to make some reference to Thatcher's lawsuit for the
+control of the "Courier" and he was not disappointed. Marian, who had a
+genius for collecting disagreeable information and a dramatic instinct
+for using it effectively, had apprised her of it. This hazarding of Mrs.
+Owen's favor became now the gravamen of his offense, the culmination of
+all his offenses. She demanded to know why he had secretly borrowed
+money of her aunt, when from the time of their marriage it had been
+understood that they should never do so. Her own fortune he had been
+free to use as he liked; she demanded to know why he had not taken her
+own money; but to ask financial favors of Aunt Sally, and this, too,
+without consultation, was beyond her comprehension. She was on secure
+ground here; he had always shared her feeling that Mrs. Owen required
+cautious handling, but he had nevertheless violated their compact. She
+rushed breathlessly and with sobs through her recital.
+
+"And you haven't seen Aunt Sally since; you have made no effort to make
+it right with her!"
+
+"As to that, Hallie, I haven't had a chance to see her; she's only been
+home two days and I've been away myself since. Now that I'm in her house
+I shall explain it all to her before I leave."
+
+"But you haven't explained to me why you did it! It seems to me that I
+have a right to know how you came to do such a thing."
+
+"Well, then, the fact is that newspapers these days are not cheap and
+the 'Courier' cost a lot of money. I've been pretty well tied up in
+telephone and other investments of late; and I have never taken
+advantage of my ownership of the Bassett Bank to use its money except
+within my reasonable credit as it would be estimated by any one else.
+Your own funds I have kept invested conservatively in gilt-edged
+securities wholly removed from speculative influences. I knew that if I
+didn't get the newspaper Thatcher would, so I made every possible turn
+to go in with him. I was fifty thousand dollars shy of what I needed to
+pay for my half, and after I had raked up all the money I could safely,
+I asked Aunt Sally if she would lend me that sum with all my stock as
+security."
+
+"Fifty thousand dollars, Morton! You borrowed that much money of her!"
+
+Her satisfaction in learning that Mrs. Owen commanded so large a sum was
+crushed beneath his stupendous error in having gone to her for money at
+all.
+
+"Oh, she didn't lend it to me, after all, Hallie; she refused to do so;
+but she allowed me to buy enough shares for her to make up my quota.
+Thatcher and I bought at eighty cents on the dollar and she paid the
+same. She has her shares and it's a good investment, and she knows it.
+If she hadn't insisted on having the shares in her own name, Thatcher
+would never have known it."
+
+He turned uneasily in his chair, and she was keenly alert at this sign
+of discomfiture, and not above taking advantage of it.
+
+"So without her you are at Thatcher's mercy, are you? I haven't spoken
+to her about this and she hasn't said anything to me; but Marian with
+her usual heedlessness mentioned it, and it was clear that Aunt Sally
+was very angry."
+
+"What did she say?" asked Bassett anxiously.
+
+"She didn't say anything, but she shut her jaw tight and changed the
+subject. It was what she didn't say! You'd better think well before you
+broach the subject to her."
+
+"I've been thinking about it. If I take her stock at par she ought to be
+satisfied. I'll pay more if it's necessary. And of course I'll make
+every effort to restore good feeling. I think I understand her. I'll
+take care of this, but you must stay out of it, and tell Marian to keep
+quiet.
+
+"Well, Aunt Sally and Thatcher are friends. He rather amuses her, with
+his horse-racing, and drinking and gambling. That kind of thing doesn't
+seem so bad to her. She's so used to dealing with men that she makes
+allowances for them."
+
+"Then," he said quickly, with a smile, eager to escape through any
+loophole, "maybe she will make some allowances for me! For the purpose
+of allaying her anger we'll assume that I'm as wicked as Thatcher."
+
+"Well," she answered, gathering her strength for a final assault, "it
+doesn't look as simple as that to me. Your first mistake was in getting
+her into any of your businesses and the second was in making it possible
+for Thatcher to annoy her by all this ugly publicity of a lawsuit. And
+what do you think has happened on top of all this--_that girl is
+here_--here under this very roof!"
+
+"That girl--what girl?"
+
+His opacity incensed her; she had been brooding over her aunt's renewed
+interest in Sylvia Garrison all day and his dull ignorance was the last
+straw upon nerves screwed to the breaking-point. She sat up in bed and
+drew her dressing-gown about her as though it were the vesture of
+despair.
+
+"That Garrison girl! She's not only back here, but from all appearances
+she's going to stay! Aunt Sally's infatuated with her. When the girl's
+grandfather died, Aunt Sally did everything for her--went over to
+Montgomery to take charge of the funeral, and then went back to
+Wellesley to see the girl graduate. And now she's giving up her plan of
+going to Waupegan for the summer to stay here in all the heat with a
+girl who hasn't the slightest claim on her. When the Keltons visited
+Waupegan four years ago I saw this coming. I wanted Marian to go to
+college and tried to get you interested in the plan because that was
+what first caught Aunt Sally's fancy--Sylvia's cleverness, and this
+college idea. But you wouldn't do anything about Marian, and now she's
+thrown away her chances, and here's this stranger graduating with honors
+and Aunt Sally going down there to see it! Aunt Sally's going to make a
+companion of her, and you can't tell what will happen! I'd like to know
+what you can say to your children when all Aunt Sally's money, that
+should rightly go to them, goes to a girl she's picked up out of
+nowhere. This is what your politics has got us into, Morton Bassett!"
+
+The soberness to which this brought him at last satisfied her. She had
+freely expressed the anxiety caused by Sylvia's first appearance on the
+domestic horizon, but for a year or two, in his wife's absences in
+pursuit of health, he had heard little of her apprehensions. Marian's
+own disinclination for a college career had, from the beginning, seemed
+to him to interpose an insurmountable barrier to parental guidance in
+that direction. His wife's attitude in these new circumstances of the
+return of her aunt's protegee struck him as wholly unjustified and
+unreasonable.
+
+"You're not quite yourself when you talk that way, Hallie. Professor
+Kelton was one of Aunt Sally's oldest friends; old people have a habit
+of going back to the friends of their youth; there's nothing strange in
+it. And this being true, nothing could have been more natural than for
+Aunt Sally to help the girl in her trouble, even to the extent of seeing
+her graduated. It was just like Aunt Sally," he continued, warming to
+his subject, "who's one of the stanchest friends anybody could have.
+Aunt Sally's devoted to you and your children; it's ungenerous to her to
+assume that a young woman she hardly knows is supplanting you or Marian.
+This newspaper notoriety I'm getting has troubled you and I'm sorry for
+it; but I can't let you entertain this delusion that your aunt's
+kindness to the granddaughter of one of her old friends means that Aunt
+Sally has ceased to care for you, or lost her regard for Marian and
+Blackford. If you think of it seriously for a moment you'll see how
+foolish it is to harbor any jealousy of Miss Garrison. Come! Cheer up
+and forget it. If Aunt Sally got an inkling of this you may be sure that
+_would_ displease her. You say the girl is here in the house?"
+
+"She's not only here, but she's here to stay! She's going to intrench
+herself here!"
+
+She sent him to the chiffonier to find a fresh handkerchief. He watched
+her helplessly for a moment as she dried her eyes. Then he took her
+hands and bent over her.
+
+"Won't you try to see things a little brighter? It's all just because
+you got too tired yesterday. You oughtn't to have gone to the
+convention; and I didn't know you were going or I should have forbidden
+it."
+
+"Well, Marian wanted to go; and we were coming to town anyhow. And
+besides, Aunt Sally had taken it into her head to go, too. She wanted
+this Garrison girl to see a political convention; I suppose that was the
+real reason."
+
+He laughed, gazing down into her tearful face, in which resentment
+lingered waveringly, as in the faces of children persuaded against their
+will and parting reluctantly with the solace of tears.
+
+"You must get up for dinner, Hallie. Your doctors have always insisted
+that you needed variety and change; and to-morrow we'll take you up to
+the lake out of this heat. We have a good deal to be grateful for, after
+all, Hallie. You haven't any right to feel disappointed in Marian: she's
+the nicest girl in the state, and the prettiest girl you'll find
+anywhere. We ought to be glad she's so high-spirited and handsome and
+clever. College never was for her; she certainly was never for college!
+I talked that over with Miss Waring a number of times. And I don't
+believe Aunt Sally thinks less of Marian because she isn't a better
+scholar. Only a small per cent of women go to college, and I'm not sure
+it's a good thing. I'm even a little doubtful about sending Blackford to
+college; this education business is overdone, and the sooner a boy gets
+into harness the better."
+
+Her deep sigh implied that he might do as he liked with his son, now
+that she had so completely failed with her daughter.
+
+"Aunt Sally is very much interested in Mr. Harwood. She has put Sylvia's
+affairs in his hands. Could it be possible--"
+
+He groped for her unexpressed meaning, and seeing that he had not
+grasped it she clarified it to his masculine intelligence.
+
+"If there are two persons she is interested in, and they understand each
+other, it's all so much more formidable." And then, seeing that this
+also was too subtle, she put it flatly: "What if Harwood should marry
+Sylvia!"
+
+"Well, that _is_ borrowing trouble!" he cried impatiently. "Aunt Sally
+is interested in a great many young people. She is very fond of Allen
+Thatcher. And Allen seems to find Marian's society agreeable, more so, I
+fancy, than Harwood does;--why not speculate along that line? It's as
+plausible as the other."
+
+"Oh, that boy! That's something we must guard against, Morton; that is
+quite impossible."
+
+"I dare say it is," he replied. "But not more unlikely than that Harwood
+will marry this Sylvia who worries you so unnecessarily."
+
+"Marian is going to marry somebody, some day, and that's on my mind a
+great deal. You have got to give more thought to family matters. It's
+right for Marian to marry, and I think a girl of her tastes should
+settle early, but we must guard her from mistakes. I've had that on my
+conscience several years."
+
+"Of course, Hallie; and I've not been unmindful of it."
+
+"And if Aunt Sally is interested in young Harwood and you think well of
+him yourself--but of course I don't favor him for Marian. I should like
+Marian to marry into a family of some standing."
+
+"Well, we'll see to it that she does; we want our daughter to be
+happy--we must do the best we can for our children," he concluded
+largely.
+
+She promised to appear at the dinner table, and he went down with some
+idea of seeing Mrs. Owen at once, to assure her of his honorable
+intentions toward her in the "Courier" matter; he wanted to relieve his
+own fears as well as his wife's as to the mischief that had been wrought
+by Thatcher's suit.
+
+In the hall below he met Sylvia, just back from her first day at the
+normal school. The maid had admitted her, and she was slipping her
+parasol into the rack as he came downstairs. She heard his step and
+turned toward him, a slender, dark young woman in black. In the dim hall
+she did not at once recognize him, and he spoke first.
+
+"Good-afternoon, Miss Garrison! I am Mr. Bassett; I believe I introduced
+myself to you at Waupegan--and that seems a long time ago."
+
+"I remember very well, Mr. Bassett," Sylvia replied, and they shook
+hands. "You found me in my dream corner by the lake and walked to Mrs.
+Owen's with me. I remember our meeting perfectly."
+
+He stood with his hand on the newel regarding her intently. She was
+entirely at ease, a young woman without awkwardness or embarrassment.
+She had disposed of their previous meeting lightly, as though such
+fortuitous incidents had not been lacking in her life. Her mourning hat
+cast a shadow upon her face, but he had been conscious of the
+friendliness of her smile. Her dark eyes had inspected him swiftly; he
+was vaguely aware of a feeling that he wanted to impress her favorably.
+
+"The maid said Mrs. Owen and Marian are still out. I hope Mrs. Bassett
+is better. I wonder if I can do anything for her."
+
+"No, thank you; she's quite comfortable and will be down for dinner."
+
+"I'm glad to hear that; suppose we find seats here."
+
+She walked before him into the parlor and threw back the curtains the
+better to admit the air. He watched her attentively, noting the ease and
+grace of her movements, and took the chair she indicated.
+
+"It's very nice to see Mrs. Bassett and Marian again; they were so good
+to me that summer at Waupegan; I have carried the pleasantest memories
+of that visit ever since. It seems a long time ago and it is nearly four
+years, isn't it."
+
+"Four this summer, I think. I remember, because I had been to Colorado,
+and that whole year was pretty full for me. But all these years have
+been busy ones for you, too, I hear. Your grandfather's death must have
+been a great shock to you. I knew him only by reputation, but it was a
+reputation to be proud of."
+
+"Yes; Grandfather Kelton had been everything to me."
+
+"It was too bad he couldn't have lived to see you through college; he
+must have taken a great interest in your work there, through his own
+training and scholarship."
+
+"It was what he wanted me to do, and I wish he could have known how I
+value it. He was the best of men, the kindest and noblest; and he was a
+wonderful scholar. He had the habit of thoroughness."
+
+"That, I suppose, was partly due to the discipline of the Navy. I fancy
+that a man trained in habits of exactness gets into the way of keeping
+his mind ship-shape--no loose ends around anywhere."
+
+She smiled at this, and regarded him with rather more attention, as
+though his remark had given her a new impression of him which her eyes
+wished to verify.
+
+"They tell me you expect to teach in the city schools; that has always
+seemed to me the hardest kind of work. I should think you would prefer a
+college position;--there would be less drudgery, and better social
+opportunities."
+
+"Every one warns me that it's hard work, but I don't believe it can be
+so terrible. Somebody has to do it. Of course college positions are more
+dignified and likely to be better paid."
+
+He started to speak and hesitated.
+
+"Well," she laughed. "You were going to add your warning, weren't you!
+I'm used to them."
+
+"No; nothing of the sort; I was going to take the liberty of saying that
+if you cared to have me I should be glad to see whether our state
+university might not have something for you. I have friends and
+acquaintances who could help there."
+
+"Oh, you are very kind! It is very good of you to offer to do that;
+but--"
+
+A slight embarrassment was manifest in the quick opening and closing of
+her eyes, a slight turning of the head, but she smiled pleasantly,
+happily. He liked her way of smiling, and smiled himself. He found it
+agreeable to be talking to this young woman with the fine, candid eyes,
+whose manner was so assured--without assurance! She smoothed the black
+gloves in her lap quietly; they were capable hands; her whole appearance
+and manner somehow betokened competence.
+
+"The fact is, Mr. Bassett, that I have declined one or two college
+positions. My own college offered to take me in; and I believe there
+were one or two other chances. But it is kind of you to offer to help
+me."
+
+She had minimized the importance of the offers she had declined so that
+he might not feel the meagreness of his proffered help; and he liked her
+way of doing it; but it was incredible that a young woman should decline
+an advantageous and promising position to accept a minor one. In the
+world he knew there were many hands on all the rounds of all the
+available ladders.
+
+"Of course," he hastened to say, "I knew you were efficient; that's why
+I thought the public schools were not quite--not quite--worthy of your
+talents!"
+
+Some explanation seemed necessary, and Sylvia hesitated for a moment.
+
+"Do I really have to be serious, Mr. Bassett? So many people--the girls
+at college and some of my instructors and Mrs. Owen even--have assured
+me that I am not quite right in my mind; but I will make short work of
+my reasons. Please believe that I really don't mean to take myself too
+seriously. I want to teach in the public schools merely to continue my
+education; there are things to learn there that I want to know. So, you
+see, after all, it's neither important nor interesting; it's only--only
+my woman's insatiable curiosity!"
+
+He smiled, but he frowned too; it annoyed him not to comprehend her.
+School-teaching could only be a matter of necessity; her plea of
+curiosity must cover something deeper that she withheld.
+
+"I know," she continued, "if I may say it, ever so much from books; but
+I have only the faintest notions of life. Now, isn't that terribly
+muggy? People--and their conditions and circumstances--can only be
+learned by going to the original sources."
+
+This was not illuminative. She had only added to his befuddlement and he
+bent forward, soliciting some more lucid statement of her position.
+
+"I had hoped to go ahead and never have to explain, for I fear that in
+explaining I seem to be appraising myself too high; but you won't
+believe that of me, will you? If I took one of these college positions
+and proved efficient, and had good luck, I should keep on knowing all
+the rest of my life about the same sort of people, for the girls who go
+to college are from the more fortunate classes. There are exceptions,
+but they are drawn largely from homes that have some cultivation, some
+sort of background. The experiences of teachers in such institutions are
+likely to cramp. It's all right later on, but at first, it seems to me
+better to experiment in the wider circle. Now--" and she broke off with
+a light laugh, eager that he should understand.
+
+"It's not, then, your own advantage you consult; the self-denial appeals
+to you; it's rather like--like a nun's vocation. You think the service
+is higher!"
+
+"Oh, it would be if I could render service! Please don't think I feel
+that the world is waiting for me to set it right; I don't believe it's
+so wrong! All I mean to say is that I don't understand a lot of things,
+and that the knowledge I lack isn't something we can dig out of a
+library, but that we must go to life for it. There's a good deal to
+learn in a city like this that's still in the making. I might have gone
+to New York, but there are too many elements there; it's all too big for
+me. Here you can see nearly as many kinds of people, and you can get
+closer to them. You can see how they earn their living, and you can even
+follow them to church on Sunday and see what they get out of that!"
+
+"I'm afraid," he replied, after deliberating a moment, "that you are
+going to make yourself uncomfortable; you are cutting out a programme of
+unhappiness."
+
+"Why shouldn't I make myself uncomfortable for a little while? I have
+never known anything but comfort."
+
+"But that's your blessing; no matter how much you want to do it you
+can't remove all the unhappiness in the world--not even by dividing with
+the less fortunate. I've never been able to follow that philosophy."
+
+"Maybe," she said, "you have never tried it!" She was seeking neither to
+convince him nor to accomplish his discomfiture and to this end was
+maintaining her share of the dialogue to the accompaniment of a smile of
+amity.
+
+"Maybe I never have," he replied slowly. "I didn't have your advantage
+of seeing a place to begin."
+
+"But you have the advantage of every one; you have the thing that I can
+never hope to have, that I don't ask for: you have the power in your
+hands to do everything!"
+
+His quick, direct glance expressed curiosity as to whether she were
+appealing to his vanity or implying a sincere belief in his power.
+
+"Power is too large a word to apply to me, Miss Garrison. I have had a
+good deal of experience in politics, and in politics you can't do all
+you like."
+
+"I didn't question that: men of the finest intentions seem to fail, and
+they will probably go on failing. I know that from books; you know it of
+course from actual dealings with the men who find their way to
+responsible places, and who very often fail to accomplish the things we
+expect of them."
+
+"The aims of most of the reformers are futile from the beginning.
+Legislatures can pass laws; they pass far too many; but they can't make
+ideal conditions out of those laws. I've seen it tried."
+
+"Yesterday, when you were able to make that convention do exactly what
+you wanted it to, without even being there to watch it, it must have
+been because of some ideal you were working for. You thought you were
+serving some good purpose; it wasn't just spite or to show your power.
+It couldn't have been that!"
+
+"I did it," he said doggedly, as though to destroy with a single blunt
+thrust her tower of illusions--"I did it to smash a man named Thatcher.
+There wasn't any ideal nonsense about it."
+
+He frowned, surprised and displeased that he had spoken so roughly. He
+rarely let go of himself in that fashion. He expected her to take
+advantage of his admission to point a moral; but she said instantly:--
+
+"Then, you did it beautifully! There was a certain perfection about it;
+it was, oh, immensely funny!"
+
+She laughed, tossing her head lightly, a laugh of real enjoyment, and he
+was surprised to find himself laughing with her. It seemed that the
+Thatcher incident was not only funny, but that its full humorous value
+had not until that moment been wholly realized by either of them.
+
+She rose quickly. One of her gloves fell to the floor and he picked it
+up. The act of restoring it brought them close together, and their talk
+had, he felt, justified another searching glance into her face. She
+nodded her thanks, smiling again, and moved toward the door. He admired
+the tact which had caused her to close the discussion at precisely the
+safe moment. He was a master of the art of closing interviews, and she
+had placed the period at the end of the right sentence; it was where he
+would have placed it himself. She had laughed!--and the novelty of being
+laughed at was refreshing. He and Thatcher had laughed in secret at the
+confusion of their common enemies in old times; but most men feared him,
+and he had the reputation of being a mirthless person. He had rarely
+discussed politics with women; he had an idea that a woman's politics,
+when she had any, partook of the nature of her religion, and that it was
+something quite emotional, tending toward hysteria. He experienced a
+sense of guilt at the relief he found in Sylvia's laughter, remembering
+that scarcely half an hour earlier he had been at pains to justify
+himself before his wife for the very act which had struck this girl as
+funny. He had met Mrs. Bassett's accusations with evasion and
+dissimulation, and he had accomplished an escape that was not, in
+retrospect, wholly creditable. He hated scenes and tiresome debates as
+he hated people who cringed and sidled before him.
+
+His manner of dealing with Thatcher had been born of a diabolical humor
+which he rarely exercised, but which afforded him a delicious
+satisfaction. It was the sort of revenge one reserved for a foe capable
+of appreciating its humor and malignity. The answer of laughter was one
+to which he was unused, and he was amazed to find that it had effected
+an understanding of some vague and intangible kind between him and
+Sylvia Garrison. She might not approve of him, he had no idea that she
+did; but she had struck a chord whose vibrations pleased and tantalized.
+She was provocative and, to a degree, mystifying, and the abrupt
+termination of their talk seemed to leave the way open to other
+interviews. He thought of many things he might have said to her at the
+moment; but her period was not to be changed to comma or semicolon; she
+was satisfied with the punctuation and had, so to speak, run away with
+the pencil! She had tossed his political aims and strifes into the air
+with a bewildering dismissal, and he stood like a child whose toy
+balloon has slipped away, half-pleased at its flight, half-mourning its
+loss.
+
+She picked up some books she had left on a stand in the hall. He stood
+with his hands in his pockets, watching her ascent, hearing the swish of
+her skirts on the stairs: but she did not look back. She was humming
+softly to herself as she passed out of sight.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+A SHORT HORSE SOON CURRIED
+
+
+Sylvia sat beside Bassett at dinner that night, and it was on the whole
+a cheerful party. Mrs. Bassett was restored to tranquillity, and before
+her aunt she always strove to hide her ills, from a feeling that that
+lady, who enjoyed perfect health, and carried on the most prodigious
+undertakings, had little patience with her less fortunate sisters whom
+the doctors never fully discharge. Mrs. Owen had returned so late that
+Bassett was unable to dispose of the lawsuit before dinner; she had
+greeted her niece's husband with her usual cordiality. She always called
+him Morton, and she was Aunt Sally to him as to many hundreds of her
+fellow citizens. She discussed crops, markets, rumors of foreign wars,
+prospective changes in the President's Cabinet, the price of ice, and
+the automobile invasion. Talk at Sally Owen's table was always likely to
+be spirited. Bassett's anxiety as to his relations with her passed; he
+had never felt more comfortable in her house.
+
+Only the most temerarious ever ventured to ask a forecast of Mrs. Owen's
+plans. Marian, who had found a school friend with an automobile and had
+enjoyed a run into the country, did not share the common fear of her
+great-aunt. Mrs. Owen liked Marian's straightforward ways even when
+they approached rashness. It had occurred to her sometimes that there
+was a good deal of Singleton in Marian; she, Sally Owen, was a Singleton
+herself, and admired the traits of that side of her family. Marian
+amused her now by plunging into a description of a new flat she had
+passed that afternoon which would provide admirably a winter home for
+the Bassetts. Mrs. Bassett shuddered, expecting her aunt to sound a
+warning against the extravagance of maintaining two homes; but Mrs. Owen
+rallied promptly to her grandniece's support.
+
+"If you've got tired of my house, you couldn't do better than to take an
+apartment in the Verona. I saw the plans before they began it, and it's
+first-class and up-to-date. My house is open to you and always has been,
+but I notice you go to the hotel about half the time. You'd better try a
+flat for a winter, Hallie, and let Marian see how we do things in town."
+
+Instantly Mrs. Bassett was alert. This could only be covert notice that
+Sylvia was to be installed in the Delaware Street house. Marian was
+engaging her father in debate upon the merits of her plan, fortified by
+Mrs. Owen's unexpected approval. Mrs. Bassett raised her eyes to Sylvia.
+Sylvia, in one of the white gowns with which she relieved her mourning,
+tranquilly unconscious of the dark terror she awakened in Mrs. Bassett,
+seemed to be sympathetically interested in the Bassetts' transfer to the
+capital.
+
+Sylvia was guilty of the deplorable sin of making herself agreeable to
+every one. She had paused on the way to her room before dinner to
+proffer assistance to Mrs. Bassett. With a light, soothing touch she had
+brushed the invalid's hair and dressed it; and she had produced a new
+kind of salts that proved delightfully refreshing. Since coming to the
+table Mrs. Bassett had several times detected her husband in an exchange
+of smiles with the young woman, and Marian and the usurper got on
+famously.
+
+Mrs. Bassett had observed that Sylvia's appetite was excellent, and this
+had weakened her belief in the girl's genius; there was a good deal of
+Early-Victorian superstition touching women in Hallie Bassett! But Mrs.
+Owen was speaking.
+
+"I suppose I'd see less of you all if you moved to town. Marian used to
+run off from Miss Waring's to cheer me up, mostly when her lessons were
+bad, wasn't it, Marian?"
+
+"I love this house, Aunt Sally, but you can't have us all on your hands
+all the time."
+
+"Well," Mrs. Owen remarked, glancing round the table quizzically, "I
+might do worse. But even Sylvia scorns me; she's going to move out
+to-morrow."
+
+Mrs. Bassett with difficulty concealed her immeasurable relief. Mrs.
+Owen left explanations to Sylvia, who promptly supplied them.
+
+"That sounds as though I were about to take leave without settling my
+bill, doesn't it? But I thought it wise not to let it get too big; I'm
+going to move to Elizabeth House."
+
+"Elizabeth House! Why, Sylvia!" cried Marian.
+
+Mrs. Bassett smothered a sigh of satisfaction. If Aunt Sally was
+transferring her protegee to the home she had established for working
+girls (and it was inconceivable that the removal could be upon Sylvia's
+own initiative), the Bassett prospects brightened at once. Aunt Sally
+was, in her way, an aristocrat; she was rich and her eccentricities were
+due largely to her kindness of heart; but Mrs. Bassett was satisfied now
+that she was not a woman to harbor in her home a girl who labored in a
+public school-house. Not only did Mrs. Bassett's confidence in her aunt
+rise, but she felt a thrill of admiration for Sylvia, who was
+unmistakably a girl who knew her place, and her place as a wage-earner
+was not in the home of one of the richest women in the state, but in a
+house provided through that lady's beneficence for the shelter of young
+women occupied in earning a livelihood.
+
+"It's very nice there," Sylvia was saying. "I stopped on my way home
+this afternoon and found that they could give me a room. It's all
+arranged."
+
+"But it's only for office girls and department store clerks and
+dressmakers, Sylvia. I should think you would hate it. Why, my manicure
+lives there!"
+
+Marian desisted, warned by her mother, who wished no jarring note to mar
+her satisfaction in the situation.
+
+"That manicure girl is a circus," said Mrs. Owen, quite oblivious of the
+undercurrent of her niece's thoughts. "When they had a vaudeville show
+last winter she did the best stunts of any of 'em. You didn't mention
+those Jewesses that I had such a row to get in? Smart girls. One of 'em
+is the fastest typewriter in town; she's a credit to Jerusalem, that
+girl. And a born banker. They've started a savings club and Miriam runs
+it. They won't lose any money." Mrs. Owen chuckled; and the rest
+laughed. There was no question of Mrs. Owen's pride in Elizabeth House.
+"Did you see any plumbers around the place?" she demanded of Sylvia.
+"I've been a month trying to get another bathroom put in on the third
+floor, and plumbers do try the soul."
+
+"That's all done," replied Sylvia. "The matron told me to tell you so."
+
+"I'm about due to go over there and look over the linen," remarked Mrs.
+Owen, with an air of making a memorandum of a duty neglected.
+
+"Well, I guess it's comfortable enough," said Marian. "But I should
+think you could do better than that, Sylvia. You'll have to eat at the
+same table with some typewriter pounder. With all your education I
+should think it would bore you."
+
+"Sylvia will have to learn about it for herself, Marian," said Mrs.
+Bassett. "I've always understood that the executive board is very
+careful not to admit girls whose character isn't above reproach."
+
+Mrs. Owen turned the key of her old-fashioned coffee urn sharply upon
+the cup she was filling and looked her niece in the eye.
+
+"Oh, we're careful, Hallie; we're careful; but I tell 'em not to be
+_too_ careful!"
+
+"Well, of course the aim is to protect girls," Mrs. Bassett replied,
+conscious of a disconcerting acidity in her aunt's remark.
+
+"I'm not afraid of contamination," observed Sylvia.
+
+"Of course not _that_," rejoined Mrs. Bassett hastily. "I think it's
+fine that with your culture you will go and live in such a place; it
+shows a beautiful spirit of self-sacrifice."
+
+"Oh, please don't say that! I'm going there just because I want to go!"
+And then, smiling to ease the moment's tension, "I expect to have the
+best of times at Elizabeth House."
+
+"Sylvia"--remarked Mrs. Owen, drawling the name a trifle more than
+usual--"Sylvia can do what she pleases anywhere."
+
+"I think," said Bassett, who had not before entered into the discussion,
+"that Aunt Sally has struck the right word there. In these days a girl
+can do as she likes; and we haven't any business to discuss Miss
+Garrison's right to live at Elizabeth House."
+
+"Of course, Sylvia, we didn't mean to seem to criticize you. You know
+that," said Mrs. Bassett, flushing.
+
+"You are my friends," said Sylvia, glancing round the table, "and if
+there's criticizing to be done, you have the first right."
+
+"If Sylvia is to be criticized,--and I don't understand that any one has
+tried it," remarked Mrs. Owen,--"I want the first chance at her myself."
+And with the snapping of her spectacle case they rose from the table.
+
+They had barely settled themselves in the parlor when Harwood and Allen
+arrived in Allen's motor. Dan had expected his friend to resent his
+part in the convention, and he had sought Allen at Lueders's shop to
+satisfy himself that their personal relations had not been disturbed. He
+had found Allen, at the end of a day's work, perched upon a bench
+discoursing to the workmen on the Great Experiment. Allen had, it
+seemed, watched the convention from an obscure corner of the gallery. He
+pronounced Dan's speech "immense"; "perfectly bully"; he was extravagant
+in his praise of it. His father's success in naming the ticket had
+seemed to him a great triumph. Allen viewed the whole matter with a kind
+of detachment, as a spectator whose interest is wholly impersonal. He
+thought there would be a great fight between the combatants; his dad
+hadn't finished yet, he declared, sententiously. The incidents of the
+convention had convinced him that the Great Experiment was progressing
+according to some predestined formula. He and Harwood had dined together
+at the University Club and he was quite in the humor to call on the
+Bassetts at Mrs. Owen's; and the coming of Sylvia, as to whom Mrs. Owen
+had piqued his curiosity, was not to be overlooked.
+
+He cleared the air by brushing away the convention with a word,
+addressed daringly to Bassett:--
+
+"Papa's come back from fishing! _My_ papa is digging bait," and they all
+laughed.
+
+"Miss Garrison, you must be the greatest of girls, for you have my own
+ideas! Our invincible young orator here has been telling me so!"
+
+"That was a grand speech; many happy returns of the day!" was Marian's
+greeting to Dan.
+
+"You certainly have a great voice, Daniel," remarked Mrs. Owen, "and you
+had your nerve with you."
+
+"You were effective from the first moment, Mr. Harwood. You ought to
+consider going on the lecture platform," said Mrs. Bassett.
+
+"Oh, Dan hasn't come to that yet; its only defeated statesmen who spout
+in the Chautauquas," Bassett remarked.
+
+Harwood was in fine fettle. Many men had expressed their approval of
+him; at the club he had enjoyed the chaffing of the young gentlemen with
+whom he ate luncheon daily, and whose tolerance of the universe was
+tinged with a certain cynicism. They liked Harwood; they knew he was a
+"smart" fellow; and because they liked and admired him they rallied him
+freely. The president of a manufacturing company had called at the
+Boordman Building to retain him in a damage suit; a tribute to his
+growing fame. Dan was a victim of that error to which young men yield in
+exultant moments, when, after a first brush with the pickets, they are
+confident of making their own terms with life. Dan's attitude toward the
+world was receptive; here in the Bassett domestic circle he felt no
+shame at being a Bassett man. All but Sylvia had spoken to him of his
+part in the convention, and she turned to him now after a passage with
+Allen that had left the young man radiant.
+
+"You have a devoted admirer in Mr. Thatcher. He must be a difficult
+friend to satisfy," said Sylvia.
+
+"Then do you think I don't satisfy him?"
+
+"Oh, perfectly! He's a combination of optimist and fatalist, I judge. He
+thinks nothing matters much, for everything is coming out all right in
+the end."
+
+"Then where do you place me in his scheme of things?"
+
+"That depends, doesn't it," she replied carelessly, "on whether you are
+the master of the ship or only a prisoner under the hatches."
+
+He reddened, and she added nothing to relieve his embarrassment.
+
+"You think, then--?" And he stopped, uneasy under her gaze.
+
+"Some of the time I don't think; I just wonder. And that's very
+different, isn't it?"
+
+He realized now how much he had counted on the kind things he had
+expected her to say. He had plainly lost ground with her since their
+talk on the Madison campus, and he wanted to justify himself, to
+convince her of his rectitude, and of her failure to understand his part
+in the convention, but the time and place were unpropitious.
+
+Allen was calling attention to the moonlight and proposing an automobile
+flight into the country. His car would hold them all, and he announced
+himself the safest of chauffeurs. Mrs. Owen declined, on the double plea
+that she had business to attend to and did not ride in motor cars even
+to please Allen Thatcher; Bassett also excused himself; so the rest set
+off presently under Mrs. Bassett's chaperonage.
+
+"Are you going downtown, Morton?" asked Mrs. Owen, as they watched the
+motor roll away.
+
+"No; I'd like to see you on a business matter, Aunt Sally, if you can
+give me a few minutes."
+
+"Certainly, Morton; come right in."
+
+She flashed on the lights in her office where Thomas A. Hendricks still
+gazed benevolently at Maud S. breaking her record.
+
+"I owe you an apology, Aunt Sally," Bassett began at once. "I'm sorry I
+got you into a lawsuit, but things moved so fast that I didn't have a
+chance to pull you out of the way. Thatcher and I have agreed to
+disagree, as you doubtless know."
+
+Mrs. Owen drew her spectacle case from her pocket (there were pockets
+and deep ones in all her gowns), wiped her glasses and put them on.
+
+"You and Edward do seem to be having a little trouble. When I got home I
+found that summons the sheriff left here. Let me see; it was away back
+in '82 that I was sued the last time. Agent for a cornplanter sued me
+for a machine I never ordered and it wasn't worth a farthing anyhow.
+That was on my Greene County place. Just for that I had him arrested for
+trespass for going on the farm to take away the machine. He paid the
+costs all right, and I hope he learned better manners."
+
+This reminiscence, recalled with evident enjoyment, was not wholly
+encouraging. It seemed darkly possible that she had cited a precedent
+applicable to every case where she was haled before a court. The chairs
+in Mrs. Owen's office were decidedly uncomfortable; Bassett crossed and
+recrossed his legs, and pressed his hand nervously to his pocket to make
+sure of his check-book; for he was prepared to pay his wife's aunt for
+her shares in the "Courier" newspaper to facilitate her elimination as a
+co-defendant in the suit at bar.
+
+"It was contemptible of Thatcher to drag you into this, for he knew you
+took those shares merely to help me out. I'm sorry it has turned out
+this way, but I'm anxious to make it right with you, and I'm ready to
+buy your shares--at your own price, of course."
+
+She chose a letter from the afternoon's mail, and opened it with a
+horn-handled paper-cutter, crumpling the envelope and dropping it over
+her shoulder into a big waste-paper basket. She was not apparently
+overcome by his magnanimity.
+
+"Well, well," she said, glancing over the letter; "that man I've got at
+Waupegan is turning out better than I expected when I put him there; or
+else he's the greatest living liar. You never can tell about these
+people. Well, well!--Oh, yes, Morton; about that lawsuit. I saw Edward
+this afternoon and had a little talk with him about it."
+
+"You saw Thatcher about the suit!"
+
+"I most certainly did, Morton. I had him go down to the bank to talk to
+me."
+
+"I'm sorry you took the trouble to do that. If you'd told me--"
+
+"Oh, I'm not afraid of Edward Thatcher. If a man brings a lawsuit
+against me, the sooner I see him the better. I sent word to Edward and
+he was waiting at the bank when I got there."
+
+"I'd given Thatcher credit for being above dragging a woman who had
+always been his friend into a lawsuit. He certainly owed you an
+apology."
+
+"I didn't see it just that way, Morton, and he didn't apologize. I
+wouldn't have let him!"
+
+She looked at him over her glasses disconcertingly, and he could think
+of no reply. It was possible that Thatcher had bought her stock or that
+she had made him bid for it. She had a reputation for driving hard
+bargains, and he judged from her manner that her conference with
+Thatcher, whatever its nature, had not been unsatisfactory. He recalled
+with exasperation his wife's displeasure over this whole affair; it was
+incumbent upon him not only to reestablish himself with Mrs. Owen, but
+to do it in a way to satisfy Mrs. Bassett.
+
+"You needn't worry about that lawsuit, Morton; there ain't going to be
+any lawsuit."
+
+She gave this time to "soak in," as she would have expressed it, and
+then concluded:--
+
+"It's all off; I persuaded Edward to drop the suit. The case will be
+dismissed in the morning."
+
+"Dismissed? How dismissed, Aunt Sally?"
+
+"Just dismissed; that's all there is of it. I went to see Fitch, too,
+and gave him a piece of my mind. He wrote me a letter I found here
+saying that in my absence he'd taken the liberty of entering an
+appearance for me, along with you, in the case. I told him I'd attend to
+my own lawsuits, and that he could just scratch his appearance off the
+docket."
+
+The presumption of her lawyer seemed to obscure all other issues for the
+moment. Morton Bassett was annoyed to be kept waiting for an explanation
+that was clearly due him as her co-defendant; he controlled his
+irritation with difficulty. Her imprudence in having approached his
+enemy filled him with forebodings; there was no telling what compromises
+she might have negotiated with Edward G. Thatcher.
+
+"I suppose you shamed him out of it?" he suggested.
+
+"Shamed him? I _scared_ him out of it! He owns a lot of property in this
+town that's rented for unlawful purposes, and I told him I'd prosecute
+him; that, and a few other things. He offered to buy me out at a good
+price, but he didn't get very far with that. It was a good figure,
+though," she added reflectively.
+
+His spirits rose at this proof of her loyalty and he hastened to
+manifest his appreciation. His wife's fears would be dispelled by this
+evidence of her aunt's good will toward the family.
+
+"I rather imagined that he'd be glad to quit if he saw an easy way out,
+and I guess you gave it to him. Now about your stock, Aunt Sally. I
+don't want you to be brought into my troubles with Thatcher any further.
+I appreciate your help so far, and I'm able now to pay for your shares.
+I don't doubt that Ed offered you a generous price to get a controlling
+interest. I'll write a check for any sum you name, and you'll have my
+gratitude besides."
+
+He drew out his check-book and laid it on the table, with a feeling that
+money, which according to tradition is a talkative commodity, might now
+conclude the conversation. Mrs. Owen saw the check-book--looked at it
+over her glasses, apparently without emotion.
+
+"I'm not going to sell those shares, Morton; not to you or anybody
+else."
+
+"But as a matter of maintaining my own dignity--"
+
+"Your own dignity is something I want to speak to you about, Morton.
+I've been watching you ever since you married Hallie, and wondering just
+where you'd bump. You and Edward Thatcher have been pretty thick and
+you've had a lot of fun out of politics. This row you've got into with
+him was bound to come. I know Edward better--just a little better than I
+know you. He's not a beautiful character, but he's not as bad as they
+make out. But you've given him a hard rub the wrong way and he's going
+to get even with you. He's mighty bitter--bitterer than it's healthy for
+one man to be against another. If it hadn't been for this newspaper fuss
+I shouldn't ever have said a word to you about it; but I advise you to
+straighten things up with Edward. You'd better do it for your own
+good--for Hallie and the children. You've insulted him and held him up
+to the whole state of Indiana as a fool. You needn't think he doesn't
+know just where you gripped that convention tight, and just where you
+let him have it to play with. He's got more money than you have, and
+he's going to spend it to give you some of your own medicine or worse,
+if he can. He's like a mule that lays for the nigger that put burrs
+under his collar. You're that particular nigger just now. You've made a
+mistake, Morton."
+
+"But Aunt Sally--I didn't--"
+
+"About that newspaper, Morton," she continued, ignoring him. "I've
+decided that I'll just hang on to my stock. You've built up the
+'Courier' better than I expected, and that last statement showed it to
+be doing fine. I don't know any place right now where I can do as well
+with the money. You see I've got about all the farms I can handle at my
+age, and it will be some fun to have a hand in running a newspaper. I
+want you to tell 'em down at the 'Courier' office--what's his name?
+Atwill? Well, you tell him I want this 'Stop, Look, Listen' business
+stopped. If you can't think of anything smarter to do than that, you 'd
+better quit. You had no business to turn a newspaper against a man who
+owns half of it without giving him a chance to get off the track. You
+whistled, Morton, after you had pitched him and his side-bar buggy into
+the ditch and killed his horse."
+
+"But who had put him on the track? I hadn't! He'd been running over the
+state for two years, to my knowledge, trying to undermine me. I was only
+giving him in broad daylight what he was giving me in the dark. You
+don't understand this, Aunt Sally; he's been playing on your feelings."
+
+"Morton Bassett, there ain't a man on earth that can play on my
+feelings. I didn't let him jump on you; and I don't intend to let you
+abuse him. I've told you to stop nagging him, but I haven't any idea
+you'll do it. That's your business. If you want a big bump, you go on
+and get it. About this newspaper, I'm going to keep my shares, and I've
+told Edward that you wouldn't use the paper as a club on him while I was
+interested in it. You can print all the politics you want, but it must
+be clean politics, straight out from the shoulder."
+
+He had lapsed into sullen silence, too stunned to interrupt the placid
+flow of her speech. She had not only meddled in his affairs in a fashion
+that would afford comfort to his enemy, but she was now dictating
+terms--this old woman whose mild tone was in itself maddening. The fear
+of incurring his wife's wrath alone checked an outburst of indignation.
+In all his life no one had ever warned him to his face that he was
+pursuing a course that led to destruction. He had always enjoyed her
+capriciousness, her whimsical humor, but there was certainly nothing for
+him to smile at in this interview. She had so plied the lash that it cut
+to the quick. His pride and self-confidence were deeply wounded;--his
+wife's elderly aunt did not believe in his omnipotence! This was a shock
+in itself; but what fantastic nonsense was she uttering now?
+
+"Since I bought that stock, Morton, I've been reading the 'Courier'
+clean through every day, and there are some things about that paper I
+don't like. I guess you and Edward Thatcher ain't so particularly
+religious, and when you took hold of it you cut out that religious page
+they used to print every Sunday. You better tell Atwill to start that up
+again. I notice, too, that the 'Courier' sneaks in little stingers at
+the Jews occasionally--they may just get in by mistake, but you ought to
+have a rule at the office against printing stories as old as the hills
+about Jews burning down their clothing-stores to get the insurance. I've
+known a few Gentiles that did that. The only man I know that I'd lend
+money to without security is a Jew. Let's not jump on people just to
+hurt their feelings. And besides, we don't any of us know much more
+these days than old Moses knew. And that fellow who writes the little
+two-line pieces under the regular editorials--he's too smart, and he
+ain't always as funny as he thinks he is. There's no use in popping
+bird-shot at things if they ain't right, and that fellow's always trying
+to hurt somebody's feelings without doing anybody any good."
+
+She opened a drawer of her desk and drew out a memorandum to refresh her
+memory.
+
+"You've got a whole page and on Sundays two pages about baseball and
+automobiles, and the horse is getting crowded down into a corner.
+We"--he was not unmindful of the plural--"we must print more horse news.
+You tell Atwill to send his young man that does the 'Horse and Track'
+around to see me occasionally and I'll be glad to help him get some
+horse news that is news. I wouldn't want to have you bounce a young man
+who's doing the best he can, but it doesn't do a newspaper any good to
+speak of Dan Patch as a trotting-horse or give the record of my
+two-year-old filly Penelope O as 2:09-1/4 when she made a clean 2:09.
+You've got to print facts in a newspaper if you want people to respect
+it. How about that, Morton?"
+
+"You're right, Aunt Sally. I'll speak to Atwill about his horse news."
+
+He began to wonder whether she were not amusing herself at his expense;
+but she gave him no reason for doubting her seriousness. They might
+have been partners from the beginning of time from her businesslike
+manner of criticizing the paper. She had not only flatly refused to sell
+her shares, but she was taking advantage of the opportunity (for which
+she seemed to be prepared) to tell him how the "Courier" should be
+conducted!
+
+"About farming, Morton," she continued deliberately, "the 'Courier' has
+fun every now and then over the poor but honest farmer, and prints
+pictures of him when he comes to town for the State Fair that make him
+look like a scarecrow. Farming, Morton, is a profession, nowadays, and
+those poor yaps Eggleston wrote about in 'The Hoosier Schoolmaster' were
+all dead and buried before you were born. Farmers are up and coming I
+can tell you, and I wouldn't lose their business by poking fun at 'em.
+That Saturday column of farm news, by the way, is a fraud--all stolen
+out of the 'Western Farmers' Weekly' and no credit. They must keep that
+column in cold storage to run it the way they do. They're usually about
+a season behind time--telling how to plant corn along in August and
+planting winter wheat about Christmas. Our farm editor must have been
+raised on a New York roof-garden. Another thing I want to speak of is
+the space they give to farmers' and stockmen's societies when they meet
+here. The last time the Hoosier State Mulefoot Hog Association met right
+here in town at the Horticultural Society's room at the State House--all
+the notice they got in the 'Courier' was five lines in 'Minor Mention.'
+The same day the State Bankers' Association filled three columns, and
+most of that was a speech by Tom Adams on currency reform. You might
+tell that funny editorial man to give Adams a poke now and then, and
+stop throwing chestnuts about gold bricks and green goods at farmers.
+And he needn't show the bad state of his liver by sarcastically speaking
+of farmers as honest husbandmen either; a farmer is a farmer, unless,
+for lack of God's grace, he's a fool! I guess the folks are coming now.
+I hope Allen won't knock down the house with that threshing-machine of
+his. That's all this time. Let me see--you'd better tell your editor to
+call on me now and then. What did you say his name was, Morton?"
+
+"Atwill--Arthur P."
+
+"Is he a son of that Ebenezer Atwill who used to be a professor in
+Asbury College?"
+
+"I'm afraid not, Aunt Sally; I don't think he ever heard of Ebenezer,"
+replied Bassett, with all the irony he dared.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+
+THE GRAY SISTERHOOD
+
+Elizabeth House was hospitable to male visitors, and Dan found Sylvia
+there often on the warm, still summer evenings, when the young women of
+the household filled the veranda and overflowed upon the steps. Sylvia's
+choice of a boarding-house had puzzled Dan a good deal, but there were a
+good many things about Sylvia that baffled him. For example, this
+preparation for teaching in a public school when she might have had an
+assistant professorship in a college seemed a sad waste of energy and
+opportunity. She was going to school to her inferiors, he maintained,
+submitting to instruction as meekly as though she were not qualified to
+enlighten her teachers in any branch of knowledge. It was preposterous
+that she should deliberately elect to spend the hottest of summers in
+learning to combine the principles of Pestalozzi with the methods of
+Dewey and Kendall.
+
+The acquaintance of Sylvia and Allen prospered from the start. She was
+not only a new girl in town, and one capable of debating the questions
+that interested him, but he was charmed with Elizabeth House, which was
+the kind of thing, he declared, that he had always stood for. The
+democracy of the veranda, the good humor and ready give and take of the
+young women delighted him. They liked him and openly called him "our
+beau." He established himself on excellent terms with the matron to the
+end that he might fill his automobile with her charges frequently and
+take them for runs into the country. When Dan grumbled over Sylvia's
+absurd immolation on the altar of education, Allen pronounced her the
+grandest girl in the world and the glory of the Great Experiment.
+
+Sylvia was intent these days upon fitting herself as quickly as possible
+for teaching, becoming a part of the established system and avoiding
+none of the processes by which teachers are created. Her fellow
+students, most of whom were younger than she, were practically all the
+green fruitage of high schools, but she asked no immunities or
+privileges by reason of her college training; she yielded herself
+submissively to the "system," and established herself among the other
+novices on a footing of good comradeship. During the hot, vexatious days
+she met them with unfailing good cheer. The inspiring example of her
+college teachers, and not least the belief she had absorbed on the
+Madison campus in her girlhood, that teaching is a high calling, eased
+the way for her at times when--as occasionally happened--she failed to
+appreciate the beauty of the "system."
+
+The superintendent of schools, dropping into the Normal after hours,
+caught Sylvia in the act of demonstrating a problem in geometry on the
+blackboard for the benefit of a fellow student who had not yet abandoned
+the hope of entering the state university that fall. The superintendent
+had been in quest of a teacher of mathematics for the Manual Training
+School, and on appealing to the Wellesley authorities they had sent him
+Sylvia's name. Sylvia, the chalk still in her fingers, met his humorous
+reproaches smilingly. She had made him appear ridiculous in the eyes of
+her _alma mater_, he said. Sylvia declined his offer and smiled. The
+superintendent was not used to smiles like that in his corps. And this
+confident young woman seemed to know what she was about. He went away
+mystified, and meeting John Ware related his experience. Ware laughed
+and slapped his knee. "You let that girl alone," the minister said. "She
+has her finger on Time's wrist. Physician of the golden age. Remember
+Matthew Arnold's lines on Goethe? Good poem. Sylvia wants to know 'the
+causes of things.' Watch her. Great nature."
+
+At seven o'clock on a morning of September, Sylvia left Elizabeth House
+to begin her novitiate as a teacher. Allen had declared his intention of
+sending his automobile for her every morning, an offer that was promptly
+declined. However, on that bright morning when the young world turned
+schoolward, Harwood lay in wait for her.
+
+"This must never happen again, sir! And of course you may not carry my
+books--they're the symbol of my profession. Seventeen thousand young
+persons about like me are on the way to school this morning right here
+in Indiana. It would be frightfully embarrassing to the educational
+system if young gentlemen were allowed to carry the implements of our
+trade."
+
+"You can't get rid of me now: I never get up as early as this unless I'm
+catching a train."
+
+"So much the worse for you, then!"
+
+"There will be mornings when you won't think it so much fun. It rains
+and snows in Indiana sometimes."
+
+He still resented the idea of her sacrifice, as he called it, in the
+cause of education. They were now so well acquainted that they were not
+always careful to be polite in their talk; but he had an uneasy feeling
+that she didn't wholly approve of him. All summer, when they had
+discussed politics, she had avoided touching upon his personal interests
+and activities. His alliance with Bassett, emphasized in the state
+convention, was a subject she clearly avoided. This morning, as he kept
+time to her quick step, he craved her interest and sympathy. Her plain
+gray suit and simple cloth hat could not disguise her charm or grace. It
+seemed to him that she was putting herself a little further away from
+him, that she was approaching the business of life with a determination,
+a spirit, a zest, that dwarfed to insignificance his own preoccupation
+with far less important matters. She turned to glance back at a group of
+children they had passed audibly speculating as to the character of
+teacher the day held in store for them.
+
+"Don't you think they're worth working for?" Sylvia asked.
+
+Dan shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"I suppose more lives are ground up in the school-teaching machine than
+in any other way. Go on! The girl who taught me my alphabet in the
+little red school-house in Harrison County earned her salary, I can tell
+you. She was seventeen and wore a pink dress."
+
+"I'm sorry you don't approve of me or my clothes. Now Allen approves of
+me: I like Allen."
+
+"His approval is important, I dare say."
+
+"Yes, very. It's nice to be approved of. It helps some."
+
+"And I suppose there ought to be a certain reciprocity in approval and
+disapproval?"
+
+"Oh, there's bound to be!"
+
+Their eyes met and they laughed lightheartedly.
+
+"I'm going to tell you something," said Dan. "On the reciprocal theory I
+can't expect anything, but I'm lonesome and have no friends anyhow, so
+I'll give you a chance to say something withering and edged with a fine
+scorn."
+
+"Good! I'll promise not to disappoint you."
+
+"I'm going to be put on the legislature ticket to-day--to fill a
+vacancy. I suppose you'll pray earnestly for my defeat."
+
+"Why should I waste prayers on that? Besides, Allen solemnly declares
+that the people are to be trusted. It's not for me to set my prayers
+against the will of the pee-pull."
+
+"If you had a vote," he persisted, "you wouldn't vote for me?"
+
+"I should have to know what you want to go to the legislature for before
+committing myself. What _are_ you doing it for?"
+
+"To do all the mischief I can, of course; to support all the worst
+measures that come up; to jump when the boss's whip cracks!"
+
+She refused to meet him on this ground. He saw that any expectation he
+might have that she would urge him to pledge himself to noble endeavor
+and high achievements as a state legislator were doomed to
+disappointment. He was taken aback by the tone of her retort.
+
+"I hope you will do all those things. You could do nothing better
+calculated to help your chances."
+
+"Chances?"
+
+"Your chances--and we don't any of us have too many of coming to some
+good sometime."
+
+"I believe you are really serious; but I don't understand you."
+
+"Then I shall be explicit. Just this, then, to play the ungrateful part
+of the frank friend. The sooner you get your fingers burnt, the sooner
+you will let the fire alone. I suppose Mr. Bassett has given the word
+that you are graciously to be permitted to sit in his legislature. He
+could hardly do less for you than that, after he sent you into the arena
+last June to prod the sick lion for his entertainment."
+
+They were waiting at a corner for a break in the street traffic, and he
+turned toward her guardedly.
+
+"You put it pretty low," he mumbled.
+
+"The thing itself is not so bad. From what I have heard and read about
+Mr. Bassett, I don't think he is really an evil person. He probably
+didn't start with any sort of ideals of public life: you did. I read in
+an essay the other night that the appeal of the highest should be always
+to the lowest. But you're not appealing to anybody; you're just
+following the band wagon to the centre of the track. Stop, Look, Listen!
+You've come far enough with me now. The walls of my prison house loom
+before me. Good-morning!"
+
+"Good-morning and good luck!"
+
+That night Sylvia wrote a letter to one of her classmates in Boston.
+"I'm a school-teacher," she said,--"a member of the gray sisterhood of
+American nuns. All over this astonishing country my sisters of this
+honorable order rise up in the morning, even as you and I, to teach the
+young idea how to shoot. I look with veneration upon those of our
+sisterhood who have grown old in the classroom. I can see myself reduced
+to a bundle of nerves, irascible, worthless, ready for the scrap-pile
+at, we will say, forty-two--only twenty years ahead of me! My work looks
+so easy and I like it so much that I went in fright to the dictionary to
+look up the definition of teacher. I find that I'm one who teaches or
+instructs. Think of it--I! That definition should be revised to read,
+'Teacher: one who, conveying certain information to others, reads in
+fifty faces unanswerable questions as to the riddle of existence.'
+'School: a place where the presumably wise are convinced of their own
+folly.' Note well, my friend: I am a gray sister, in a gray serge suit
+that fits, with white cuffs and collar, and with chalk on my fingers.
+Oh, it's not what I'm required to teach, but what I'm going to learn
+that worries me!"
+
+Lueders's shop was not far from Sylvia's school and Allen devised many
+excuses for waylaying her. His machine being forbidden, he hung about
+until she appeared and trudged homeward with her. Often he came in a
+glow from the cabinetmaker's and submitted for her judgment the
+questions that had been debated that day at the shop. There was
+something sweet and wistful and charming in his boyishness; and she was
+surprised, as Harwood had been from the first, by the intelligence he
+evinced in political and social questions. He demanded absolute answers
+to problems that were perplexing wise men all over the world.
+
+"If I could answer that," she would say to him, "I should be entitled to
+a monument more enduring than brass. The comfort and happiness of
+mankind isn't to be won in a day: we mustn't pull up the old tree till
+we've got a new one planted and growing."
+
+"The Great Experiment will turn out all right yet! Some fellow we never
+heard of will give the lever a jerk some day, and there will be a rumble
+and a flash and it will run perfectly," he asserted.
+
+The state campaign got under way in October, and Harwood was often
+discussed in relation to it. Allen always praised Dan extravagantly, and
+was ever alert to defend him against her criticisms.
+
+"My dad will run the roller over Bassett, but Dan will be smart enough
+to get from under. It's the greatest show on earth--continuous
+vaudeville--this politics! Dan's all right. He's got more brains than
+Bassett. One of these days Dan will take a flop and land clean over in
+the Thatcher camp. It's only a matter of time. Gratitude and
+considerations like that are holding him back. But I'm not a
+partisan--not even on dad's side. I'm the philosopher who sits on the
+fence and keeps the score by innings."
+
+It seemed to her, in those days and afterward, that Allen symbolized the
+unknown quantity in all the problems that absorbed him. His idealism was
+not a thing of the air, but a flowering from old and vigorous roots. His
+politics was a kind of religion, and it did not prove upon analysis to
+be either so fantastical or so fanatical as she had believed at first.
+As the days shortened, he would prolong their walk until the shops and
+factories discharged their employees upon the streets. The fine thing
+about the people was, he said, the fact that they were content to go on
+from day to day, doing the things they did, when the restraints upon
+them were so light,--it proved the enduring worth of the Great
+Experiment. Then they would plunge into the thick of the crowd and cross
+the Monument plaza, where he never failed to pay a tribute in his own
+fashion to the men the gray shaft commemorated. In these walks they
+spoke French, which he employed more readily than she: in his high moods
+it seemed to express him better than English. It amused him to apply new
+names to the thoroughfares they traversed. For example, he gayly renamed
+Monument Place the Place de la Concorde, assuring her that the southward
+vista in the Rue de la Meridienne, disclosing the lamp-bestarred terrace
+of the new Federal Building, and the electric torches of the Monument
+beyond, was highly reminiscent of Paris. Sylvia was able to dramatize
+for herself, from the abundant material he artlessly supplied, the life
+he had led abroad during his long exile: as a youngster he had enjoyed
+untrammeled freedom of the streets of Paris and Berlin, and he showed a
+curiously developed sympathy for the lives of the poor and unfortunate
+that had been born of those early experiences. He was a great resource
+to her, and she enjoyed him as she would have enjoyed a girl comrade. He
+confessed his admiration for Marian in the frankest fashion. She was
+adorable; the greatest girl in the world.
+
+"Ah, sometime," he would say, "who knows!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+A HOUSE-BOAT ON THE KANKAKEE
+
+
+Harwood's faith in Bassett as a political prophet was badly shaken by
+the result of the campaign that fall. About half the Democratic
+candidates for state office were elected, but even more surprising was
+the rolling-up of a good working majority in both houses of the General
+Assembly. If Thatcher had knifed Bassett men or if Thatcher men had been
+knifed at Bassett's behest, evidence of such perfidy was difficult to
+adduce from the returns. Harwood was not sure, as he studied the
+figures, whether his party's surprising success was attributable to a
+development of real strength in Thatcher, who had been much in evidence
+throughout the campaign, or whether Bassett deserved the credit. He was
+disposed to think it only another expression of that capriciousness of
+the electorate which is often manifested in years when national success
+is not directly involved. While Thatcher and Bassett had apparently
+struck a truce and harmonized their factions, Harwood had at no time
+entertained illusions as to the real attitude of the men toward each
+other. When the _entente_ between the leaders was mentioned among
+Thatcher's intimates they were prone to declare that Ed would "get"
+Bassett; it might take time, but the day of retribution would surely
+come.
+
+As a candidate for the lower house in Marion County, Harwood had been
+thrust forward prominently into a campaign whose liveliness belied the
+traditional apathy of "off" years. On the Saturday night before the
+election, Thatcher and Bassett had appeared together on the platform at
+a great meeting at the capital--one of those final flourishes by which
+county chairmen are prone to hearten their legions against the morrow's
+battle. Bassett had spoken for ten minutes at this rally, urging support
+of the ticket and in crisp phrases giving the lie to reports of his
+lukewarmness. His speech was the more noteworthy from the fact that it
+was the first time, in all his political career, that he had ever spoken
+at a political meeting, and there was no questioning its favorable
+impression.
+
+Bassett was, moreover, reelected to his old seat in the senate without
+difficulty; and Harwood ran ahead of his associates on the legislative
+ticket in Marion County, scoring a plurality that testified to his
+personal popularity. Another campaign must intervene before the United
+States Senatorship became an acute issue, and meanwhile the party in the
+state had not in many years been so united. Credit was freely given to
+the "Courier" for the formidable strength developed by the Democracy:
+and it had become indubitably a vigorous and conservative reflector of
+party opinion, without estranging a growing constituency of readers who
+liked its clean and orderly presentation of general news. The ownership
+of the newspaper had become, since the abrupt termination of the lawsuit
+instituted by Thatcher, almost as much of a mystery as formerly.
+Harwood's intimate relations with it had not been revived, and neither
+Mrs. Owen nor Bassett ever spoke to him of the newspaper except in the
+most casual fashion.
+
+Dan was conscious that the senator from Fraser had changed in the years
+that had passed since the beginning of their acquaintance. Bassett had
+outwardly altered little as he crossed the watershed of middle life; but
+it seemed to Dan that the ill-temper he had manifested in the Thatcher
+affair had marked a climacteric. The self-control and restraint that had
+so impressed him at first had visibly diminished. What Harwood had taken
+for steel seemed to him now only iron after all--and brittle iron.
+
+During the last week of the campaign an incident occurred that shook
+Harwood a good deal. He had been away from the capital for several days
+making speeches, and finding that his itinerary would permit it, he ran
+into town unexpectedly one night to replenish his linen and look at his
+mail. An interurban car landed him in town at eleven o'clock, and he
+went directly to the Boordman Building. As he walked down the hall
+toward his office he was surprised to see a light showing on the
+ground-glass door of Room 66. Though Bassett kept a room at the Whitcomb
+for private conferences, he occasionally used his office in the Boordman
+for the purpose, and seeing the rooms lighted, Dan expected to find him
+there. He tried the door and found it locked, and as he drew out his key
+he heard suddenly the click of the typewriter inside. Miss Farrell was
+rarely at the office at night, but as Harwood opened the door, he found
+her busily tapping the keys of her machine. She swung round quickly with
+an air of surprise, stretched herself, and yawned.
+
+"Well, I wasn't exactly looking for you, but I can't deny that I'm glad
+to be interrupted. Hope you don't mind my doing a small job on the
+side--"
+
+As Harwood stood, suit-case in hand, blinking at her, he heard a door
+farther down the hall close, followed by a step in the hall outside.
+Harwood had seen no lights in the neighboring offices as he crossed the
+hall, and in his frequent long night vigils with his law books, it was
+the rarest thing to find any of the neighboring tenants about. He turned
+quickly to the door while the retreating steps were still audible.
+
+"Oh!"
+
+Rose had half-risen from her seat as he put his hand to the knob and her
+tone of alarm arrested him. Instead of flinging open the door he dropped
+his bag into a corner. His face flushed with sudden anger.
+
+"I didn't suppose you'd mind my doing a little extra work out of hours,
+Mr. Harwood. Colonel Ramsay was in the office to see Mr. Bassett this
+afternoon and asked me to take some dictation for him. I guess it's
+about time for me to go home."
+
+She pulled the sheet of paper from the typewriter with a sharp _brrrrr_
+and dropped it into a drawer with a single deft twist of the wrist.
+
+"The Colonel didn't mention it to me," remarked Dan, feigning
+indifference and not looking at her. "He was making a speech at Terre
+Haute to-night when I left there."
+
+He tried to minimize the disagreeable aspects of the matter. Rose had
+been employed by Bassett as stenographer to one of his legislative
+committees before Dan's relations with the politician began. Since
+Harwood employed her Bassett had made use of her constantly in the
+writing of letters. There would have been nothing extraordinary in his
+calling her to the office for an evening's work; it was the girl's
+falsehood about Ramsay and the quiet closing of the door of Bassett's
+inner room that disturbed Harwood. He passed into the library and Rose
+left without saying good-night. The incident annoyed Dan; Bassett's step
+had been unmistakable, and the girl's confusion had its disagreeable
+significance. He had not thought this of Bassett; it was inconsonant
+with the character of man he still believed Morton Bassett to be.
+
+In winding up the receivership of the paper company Bassett had treated
+Harwood generously. Dan was out of debt; he had added forty acres of
+good land to his father's farm, and he kept a little money in bank. He
+had even made a few small investments in local securities that promised
+well, and his practice had become quite independent of Bassett: almost
+imperceptibly Bassett had ceased to be a factor in his prosperity. The
+office in the Boordman Building remained the same, and Bassett spent a
+good deal of time there. There were days when he seemed deeply
+preoccupied, and he sometimes buried himself in his room without
+obvious reason; then after an interval he would come out and throw his
+leg over a corner of Dan's desk and talk to him with his earlier
+frankness. Once he suggested that Dan might like to leave the Boordman
+for a new office building that was lifting the urban skyline; but the
+following day he came rather pointedly to Dan's desk, and with an
+embarrassment he rarely showed, said that of course if Dan moved he
+should expect to go with him; he hoped Dan had understood that. A few
+days later he entrusted Dan with several commissions that he seemed to
+have devised solely to show his good will and confidence.
+
+Harwood was happy these days. He was still young and life had dealt
+kindly with him. Among lawyers he was pointed to as a coming light of
+the bar; and in politics he was the most conspicuous man of his age in
+the state. He was invited to Harrison County that fall to deliver an
+address at a reunion of the veterans of his father's regiment, and that
+had pleased him. He had more than justified the hopes of his parents and
+brothers, and they were very proud of him. While they did not understand
+his apostasy from the family's stern Republicanism, this did not greatly
+matter when Dan's name so often came floating home in the Indianapolis
+newspapers. His mother kept careful track of his social enthrallments;
+her son was frequently among those present at private and public
+dinners; and when the president of Yale visited Indiana, Dan spoke at
+the banquet given in his honor by the alumni; and not without emotion
+does a woman whose life has been spent on a humble farm find that her
+son has won a place among people of distinction in a city which is to
+her the capital of the Universe. There were times when Dan wished to be
+free of Bassett. He had reached a point where Bassett was not only of
+little service to him, but where he felt he was of little use to
+Bassett. And it was irksome to find that all the local newspapers,
+except the "Courier," constantly identified the Boordman Building with
+Bassett's political activities.
+
+Amid all the agitations of the campaign Dan had seen as much as possible
+of Sylvia. The settlement of Andrew Kelton's estate gave him an excuse
+for consulting her frequently, but he sought her frankly for the
+pleasure of seeing her. He found that she was a good deal at Mrs.
+Owen's, and it was pleasanter to run in upon her there than at Elizabeth
+House, where they must needs share the parlor with other callers. Often
+he and Allen met at Mrs. Owen's and debated the questions that were
+forever perplexing young Thatcher's eager mind,--debates that Mrs. Owen
+suffered to run so far and then terminated with a keen observation that
+left no more to be said, sending them to the pantry to forage for food
+and drink. Thatcher had resented for a time Harwood's participation in
+his humiliation at the convention; but his ill-feeling had not been
+proof against Allen's warm defense. Thatcher's devotion to his son had
+in it a kind of pathos, and it was not in him to vent his spleen against
+his son's best friend.
+
+A few days after the election Thatcher invited Harwood to join him and
+Allen in a week's shooting in the Kankakee where he owned a house-boat
+that Allen had never seen.
+
+"Come up, Dan, and rest your voice. It's a good place to loaf, and we'll
+take John Ware along as our moral uplifter. Maybe we'll pot a few ducks,
+but if we don't we'll get away from our troubles for a little while
+anyhow."
+
+The house-boat proved to be commodious and comfortable, and the ducks
+scarce enough to make the hunter earn his supper. I may say in
+parenthesis that long before Thatcher's day many great and good Hoosiers
+scattered birdshot over the Kankakee marshes--which, alack! have been
+drained to increase Indiana's total area of arable soil. "Lew" Wallace
+and other Hoosier generals and judges used to hunt ducks on the
+Kankakee; and Maurice Thompson not only camped there, but wrote a poem
+about the marshes,--a poem that _is_ a poem,--all about the bittern and
+the plover and the heron, which always, at the right season, called him
+away from the desk and the town to try his bow (he was the last of the
+toxophilites!) on winged things he scorned to destroy with gunpowder.
+(Oh what a good fellow you were, Maurice Thompson, and what songs you
+wrote of our lakes and rivers and feathered things! And how I gloated
+over those songs of fair weather in old "Atlantics" in my grandfather's
+garret, before they were bound into that slim, long volume with the
+arrow-pierced heron on its cover!)
+
+John Ware, an ancient and honorable son of the tribe of Nimrod, was the
+best of comrades. The striking quality in Ware was his beautiful
+humanness, which had given him a peculiar hold upon men. Thatcher was
+far from being a saint, but, like many other cheerful sinners in our
+capital, he had gone to church in the days when Ware occupied the First
+Congregational pulpit. A good many years had passed since Ware had been
+a captain of cavalry, chasing Stuart's boys in the Valley of Virginia,
+but he was still a capital wing shot. A house-boat is the best place in
+the world for talk, and the talk in Thatcher's boat, around the
+sheet-iron stove, was good those crisp November evenings.
+
+On Sunday Ware tramped off to a country church, taking his companions
+with him. It was too bad to miss the ducks, he said, but a day's peace
+in the marshes gave them a chance to accumulate. That evening he talked
+of Emerson, with whom he had spoken face to face in Concord in that
+whitest of houses. We shouldn't bring this into our pages if it hadn't
+been that Ware's talk in that connection interested Thatcher greatly.
+And ordinarily Thatcher knew and cared less about Emerson than about the
+Vedic Hymns. Allen was serenely happy to be smoking his pipe in the
+company of a man who had fought with Sheridan, heard Phillips speak, and
+talked to John Brown and Emerson. When Ware had described his interview
+with the poet he was silent for a moment, then he refilled his pipe.
+
+"It's odd," he continued, "but I've picked up copies of Emerson's books
+in queer places. Not so strange either; it seems the natural thing to
+find loose pages of his essays stuck around in old logging-camps. I did
+just that once, when I was following Thoreau's trail through the Maine
+woods. Some fellow had pinned a page of 'Compensation' on the door of a
+cabin I struck one night when it was mighty good to find shelter,--the
+pines singing, snowstorm coming on. That leaf was pretty well
+weather-stained; I carried it off with me and had it framed--hangs in my
+house now. Another time I was doing California on horseback, and in an
+abandoned shack in the Sierras I found Emerson's 'Poems'--an old copy
+that somebody had thumbed a good deal. I poked it out of some rubbish
+and came near making a fire of it. Left it, though, for the next fellow.
+I've noticed that if one thing like that happens to you there's bound to
+be another. Is that superstition, Thatcher? I'm not superstitious,--not
+particularly,--but we've all got some of it in our hides. After that
+second time--it was away back in the seventies, when I was preaching for
+a spell in 'Frisco--I kept looking for the third experience that I felt
+would come."
+
+"Oh, of course it did come!" cried Allen eagerly.
+
+"Well, that third time it wasn't a loose leaf torn out and stuck on a
+plank, or just an old weather-stained book; it was a copy that had been
+specially bound--a rare piece of work. I don't care particularly for
+fine bindings, but that had been done with taste,--a dark green,--the
+color you get looking across the top of a pine wood; and it seemed
+appropriate. Emerson would have liked it himself."
+
+The sheet-iron stove had grown red hot and Harwood flung open the door.
+The glow from the fire fell full upon the dark, rugged face and the
+white hair of the minister, who was sitting on a soap-box with his
+elbows on his knees. In a gray flannel shirt he looked like a lumberman
+of the North. An unusual tenderness had stolen into his lean,
+Indian-like face.
+
+"That was a long while after that ride in the Sierras. Let me see, it
+was more than twenty years ago,--I can't just place the year; no
+difference. I'd gone up into the Adirondacks to see my folks. I told you
+about our farm once, Allen,--not far from John Brown's old place. It
+isn't as lonesome up there now as it was when I was a boy; there were
+bully places to hide up there; I used to think of that when I was
+reading Scott and Cooper. Brown could have hid there forever if he'd got
+out of Virginia after the raid. Nowadays there are too many hotels, and
+people go canoeing in ironed collars. No good. My folks were all gone
+even then, and strangers lived in my father's house. From the old place
+I moved along, walking and canoeing it. Stopped on Saturday in a
+settlement where there was a church that hadn't been preached in since
+anybody could remember. Preached for 'em on Sunday. An old Indian died,
+while I was there, and I baptized and buried him. But that wasn't what
+kept me. There was a young woman staying at the small boarding-house
+where I stopped--place run by a man and his wife. Stranger had brought
+her there early in the summer. City people--they told the folks they
+came from New York. They were young, well-appearing folks--at least the
+girl was. The man had gone off and left her there, and she was going to
+have a child soon and was terribly ill. They called me in one day when
+they thought the woman was dying. The country doctor wasn't much
+good--an old fellow who didn't know that anything particular had
+happened in his profession since Harvey discovered the circulation of
+the blood. I struck off to Saranac and got a city doctor to go and look
+at the woman. Nice chap he was, too. He stayed there till the woman's
+troubles were over. Daughter born and everything all right. She never
+mentioned the man who had left her there. Wouldn't answer the doctor's
+questions and didn't tell me anything either. Strange business, just to
+drop in on a thing like that."
+
+It occurred to Harwood that this big, gray, kindly man had probably
+looked upon many dark pictures in his life. The minister appeared to be
+talking half to himself, and there had been abrupt pauses in his
+characteristically jerky recital. There was a long silence which he
+broke by striking his hands together abruptly, and shaking his head.
+
+"The man that kept the boarding-house was scared for fear the woman
+wasn't straight; didn't like the idea of having a strange girl with a
+baby left on his hands. I had to reason some with that fellow; but his
+wife was all right, and did her full duty by the girl. She was a mighty
+pretty young girl, and she took her troubles, whatever they were, like
+what you'd call a true sport, Ed."
+
+Thatcher, stretched out on a camp bed at the side of the room, chewing a
+cigar, grunted.
+
+"Well," the minister continued, "I was around there about three weeks;
+put in all my vacation there. Fact is I hated to go off and leave that
+girl until I was sure I couldn't do anything for her. But she was
+getting out of the woods before I left, and I offered to help her any
+way I could. She didn't seem to lack for money; a couple of letters with
+money came for her, but didn't seem to cheer her much. There was a beast
+in the jungle,--no doubt of that,--but she was taking good care to hide
+him. Didn't seem to care much about taking care of herself, even when
+she must have known that it looked bad for her. She was a flighty,
+volatile sort of creature; made a lot of what I'd done for her in
+bringing over the doctor. That doctor was a brick, too. Lots of good
+people in the world, boys. Let me see; Dan, feel in that shooting-coat
+of mine on the nail behind you and you'll find the book I started to
+tell you about. Thanks. You see it's a little banged up because I've
+carried it around with me a good deal--fishing-trips and so on; but it's
+acquired tone since I began handling it--the green in that leather has
+darkened. 'Society and Solitude.' There's the irony of fate for
+you.--Where had I got to? When I went in to say good-bye we had quite a
+talk. I thought maybe there was some message I could carry to her
+friends for her, but she was game and wouldn't hear to it. She wanted
+the little girl baptized, but said she hadn't decided what to name her;
+asked me if I could baptize a baby without having a real name. She was
+terribly cut up and cried about it. I said I guessed God Almighty didn't
+care much about names, and if she hadn't decided on one I'd name the
+baby myself and I did: I named the little girl--and a mighty cute
+youngster she was, too--I named her Elizabeth--favorite name of
+mine;--just the mother, lying there in bed, and the man and woman that
+kept the boarding-house in the room. The mother said she wanted to do
+something for me; and as I was leaving her she pulled this book out and
+made me take it."
+
+"I suppose it was a favorite book of hers and all that," suggested Dan.
+
+"I don't think anybody had ever opened that book," replied Ware,
+smiling. "It was brand-new--not a scratch on it."
+
+"And afterward?" asked Allen, anxious for the rest of the story.
+
+"Well, sir, I passed through there four years afterward and found the
+same people living in the little cottage there at that settlement.
+Strange to say, that woman had stayed there a couple of years after the
+baby was born. Hadn't any place to go, I reckon. Nobody ever went near
+her, they said; but finally she picked up and left; took the baby with
+her. She had never been well afterward, and finally, seeing she hadn't
+long to live, she struck out for home. Wanted to die among her own
+people, maybe. I don't know the rest of the story, Allen. What I've told
+you is all I know,--it's like finding a magazine in a country hotel
+where you haven't anything to read and dip into the middle of a serial
+story. I never told anybody about that but my wife. I had a feeling that
+if that woman took such pains to bury herself up there in the wilderness
+it wasn't my business to speak of it. But it's long ago now--most
+everything that an old chap like me knows is!"
+
+Thatcher rose and crossed to the stove and took the book. He turned it
+over and scrutinized it carefully, scanned the blank pages and the
+silk-faced lids in the glow from the stove, and then handed it to Allen.
+
+"What does that say there, that small gold print on the inside of the
+cover?"
+
+"That's the binder's name--Z. Fenelsa."
+
+Allen closed the book, passed his hand over the smooth covers, and
+handed it back to Ware.
+
+"What did you say the woman's name was, Ware?" asked Thatcher.
+
+"Didn't say, but the name she went by up there was Forbes. She told me
+it was an assumed name. The people she stayed with told me they never
+knew any better."
+
+Several minutes passed in which no one spoke. The minister lapsed into
+one of his deep reveries. Thatcher stood just behind him peering into
+the fire. Suddenly he muttered under his breath and almost inaudibly,
+"Well, by God!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+A WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY BALL
+
+
+The Bassetts moved to the capital that winter, arriving with the phalanx
+of legislators in January, and establishing themselves in a furnished
+house opportunely vacated by the Bosworths, who were taking the
+Mediterranean trip. Bassett had been careful to announce to the people
+of Fraserville that the removal was only temporary, and that he and his
+family would return in the spring, but Marian held private opinions
+quite at variance with her father's published statements.
+
+Mrs. Bassett's acquiescence had been due to Mrs. Owen's surprising
+support of Marian's plan. In declaring that she would never, never
+consent to live in a flat, Mrs. Bassett had hoped to dispose of Marian's
+importunities, to which Bassett had latterly lent mild approval. When,
+however, Mrs. Owen suggested the Bosworth house, which could be occupied
+with the minimum of domestic vexation, Mrs. Bassett promptly consented,
+feeling that her aunt's interest might conceal a desire in the old
+lady's breast to have some of her kinsfolk near her. Mrs. Bassett had
+not allowed her husband to forget the dangerous juxtaposition of Sylvia
+Garrison to Mrs. Owen's check-book. "That girl," as Mrs. Bassett
+designated Sylvia in private conversation with her husband, had been
+planted in Elizabeth House for a purpose. Her relief that Sylvia had not
+been settled in the Delaware Street residence had been of short
+duration: Mrs. Bassett saw now that it was only the girl's adroit method
+of impressing upon Mrs. Owen her humility and altruism. Still Mrs.
+Bassett was not wholly unhappy. It was something to be near at hand
+where she could keep track of Sylvia's movements; and the social scene
+at the capital was not without its interest for her. She was not merely
+the wife of Morton Bassett, but the only child of the late Blackford
+Singleton, sometime Senator in Congress. She was moreover the niece of
+Sally Owen, and this in itself was a social asset. She showed her
+husband the cards that were left at their door, and called his attention
+to the fact that the representative people of the capital were looking
+them up. He made the mistake of suggesting that the husbands of most of
+the women who had called had axes to grind at the State House,--a
+suggestion intended to be humorous; but she answered that many of her
+callers were old friends of the Singletons, and she expressed the hope
+that he would so conduct himself as to adorn less frequently the
+newspaper headlines; the broad advertisement of his iniquities would be
+so much worse now that they were in the city, and with Marian's future
+to consider, and all.
+
+It should be said that Marian's arrival had not gone unheeded. The
+society columns of the capital welcomed her, and the "Advertiser"
+reproduced her photograph in a picture hat. She began at once to be
+among those included in all manner of functions. Allen danced
+cheerfully to her piping and she still telephoned to Harwood when she
+thought of ways of using him. Mrs. Owen had declared her intention of
+giving a "party" to introduce Marian to the society of the capital.
+Sally Owen had not given a "party" since Mrs. Bassett's coming out, but
+she brought the same energy and thoroughness to bear upon a social
+affair that characterized her business undertakings. In preparing the
+list (in itself a task) and in the discussion of details, it was
+necessary of course to consult Marian,--one usually heard Marian's views
+whether one consulted her or not,--but she and her aunt were on the best
+of terms, and Mrs. Owen was sincerely anxious to satisfy her in every
+particular. On half a dozen evenings Allen or Dan brought Sylvia to the
+Delaware Street house to meet Marian and plan the coming event. No one
+would have imagined, from the zest with which Sylvia discussed such deep
+questions as the employment of musicians, the decorating of the hall,
+the german favors and the refreshments, that she had been at work all
+day in a schoolroom that had been built before ventilation was invented.
+
+When Sylvia was busy, she was the busiest of mortals, but when she threw
+herself heart and soul into play, it was with the completest detachment.
+She accomplished wonderful things in the way of work after schoolhours
+if she received warning that either of her faithful knights meditated a
+descent upon her. During these councils of war to plan Marian's belated
+debut, Sylvia might snowball Allen or Dan or both of them all the way
+from Elizabeth House to Mrs. Owen's door, and then appear demurely
+before that amiable soul, with cheeks aglow and dark eyes flashing, and
+Mrs. Owen would say: "This school-teaching ain't good for you, Sylvia;
+it seems to be breaking down your health." That was a lively
+quartette--Sylvia, Marian, Allen, and Dan!
+
+Dan, now duly sworn to serve the state faithfully as a legislator, had
+been placed on several important committees, and a busy winter stretched
+before him. Morton Bassett's hand lay heavily upon the legislature; the
+young man had never realized until he took his seat in the lower house
+how firmly Bassett gripped the commonwealth. Every committee appointment
+in both houses had to be approved by the senator from Fraser. Dan's
+selection as chairman of the committee on corporations both pleased and
+annoyed him. He would have liked to believe himself honestly chosen by
+the speaker on the score of fitness; but he knew well enough that there
+were older men, veteran legislators, more familiar with the state's
+needs and dangers, who had a better right to the honor. The watchful
+"Advertiser" had not overlooked his appointment. On the day the
+committees were announced it laid before its readers a cartoon depicting
+Bassett, seated at his desk in the senate, clutching wires that radiated
+to every seat in the lower house. One desk set forth conspicuously in
+the foreground was inscribed "D.H." "The Lion and Daniel" was the tag
+affixed to this cartoon, which caused much merriment among Dan's friends
+at the round table of the University Club.
+
+Miss Bassett's debut was fixed for Washington's Birthday, and as Mrs.
+Owen's house had no ballroom (except one of those floored attics on
+which our people persist in bestowing that ambitious title) she decided
+that the Propylaeum alone would serve. Pray do not reach for your
+dictionary, my friend! No matter how much Greek may have survived your
+commencement day, you would never know that our Propylaeum (reared by the
+women of our town in North Street, facing the pillared facade of the
+Blind Institute) became, on its completion in 1890, the centre of our
+intellectual and social life. The club "papers" read under that roof
+constitute a literature all the nobler for the discretion that reserves
+it for atrabilious local criticism; the later editions of our _jeunesse
+doree_ have danced there and Boxed and Coxed as Dramatic Club stars on
+its stage. "Billy" Sumner once lectured there on "War" before the
+Contemporary Club, to say nothing of Mr. James's appearance (herein
+before mentioned), which left us, filled with wildest surmise, on the
+crest of a new and ultimate Darien. Nor shall I omit that memorable tea
+to the Chinese lady when the press became so great that a number of
+timorous Occidentals in their best bib and tucker departed with all
+possible dignity by way of the fire-escape. So the place being historic,
+as things go in a new country, Mrs. Owen did not, in vulgar parlance,
+"hire a hall," but gave her party in a social temple of loftiest
+consecration.
+
+It was a real winter night, with a snowstorm and the jangle of
+sleigh-bells outside. The possibilities of a hall famed for its many
+brilliant entertainments had never been more fully realized than on
+this night of Marian Bassett's presentation. The stage was screened in a
+rose-hung lattice that had denuded the conservatories of Newcastle and
+Richmond; the fireplace was a bank of roses, and the walls were
+festooned in evergreens. Nor should we overlook a profile of the father
+of his country in white carnations on a green background, with all the
+effect of a marble bas-relief,--a fitting embellishment for the
+balcony,--done by the florist from Allen's design and under Allen's
+critical eye.
+
+In the receiving line, established in one of the lower parlors, were
+Mrs. Owen, Mr. and Mrs. Morton Bassett, the Governor and his wife (he
+happened just then to be a Republican), Colonel and Mrs. Vinning
+(retired army people), and the pick of the last October's brides and
+their young husbands. We may only glance hurriedly at the throng who
+shook Mrs. Owen's hand, and were presented to Mr. and Mrs. Bassett and
+by them in turn to their daughter. Every one remarked how stunning the
+hostess looked (her gown was white, and in the latest fashion,
+too,--none of your quaint old lace and lavender for Aunt Sally!), and
+what amusing things she said to her guests as they filed by, knowing
+them all and in her great good heart loving them all! It is something to
+be an Aunt Sally where the name is a synonym for perpetual youth and
+perpetual kindness and helpfulness. (And if Aunt Sally didn't live just
+a little way down my own street, and if she hadn't bribed me not to "put
+her in a book" with a gift of home-cured hams from her Greene County
+farm last Christmas, there are many more things I should like to say of
+her!)
+
+Since the little affair of the "Courier" Morton Bassett had fought shy
+of his wife's aunt; but to-night he stood beside her, enjoying, let us
+hope, the grim humor of his juxtaposition to the only person who had
+ever blocked any of his enterprises. Nothing escaped Mrs. Bassett, and
+her heart softened toward her politician husband as she saw that next to
+her aunt and Marian (a daughter to be proud of to-night!) Morton Bassett
+was the person most observed of all observers. She noted the glances
+bent upon him by the strangers to whom he was introduced, and many
+acquaintances were at pains to recall themselves to him. Her husband was
+a presentable man anywhere, and she resolved to deal more leniently with
+his offenses in future. The governorship or a seat in the United States
+Senate would amply repay her for the heartaches so often communicated by
+the clipping bureau.
+
+Mrs. Bassett prided herself on knowing who's who in her native state and
+even she was satisfied that the gathering was representative. The "list"
+had not been submitted for her approval; if it had been she might have
+deleted certain names and substituted others. She was unable, for
+example, to justify the presence of the senior Thatcher, though her
+husband assured her in a tone of magnanimity that it was all right; and
+she had never admired Colonel Ramsay, though to be sure nearly every one
+else did. Was not the Colonel handsome, courteous, genial, eloquent,
+worthy of all admiration? Mrs. Owen had chosen a few legislators from
+among her acquaintances, chiefly gentlemen who had gallantly aided some
+of her measures at earlier sessions of the assembly. This accounted for
+the appearance of a lone Prohibitionist who by some miracle appeared
+biennially in the lower house, and for a prominent labor leader whom
+Mrs. Owen liked on general principles. The statesman who has already
+loomed darkly in these pages as the Tallest Delegate was taller than
+ever in a dress coat, but in all ways a citizen of whom Vermillion
+County had reason to be proud. John Ware and Admiral Martin, finding
+themselves uncomfortable in the crowd, rescued Thatcher and adjourned
+with him to a room set apart for smokers. There they were regarded with
+mild condescension by young gentlemen who rushed in from the dance,
+mopping their brows and inhaling cigarettes for a moment, wearing the
+melancholy air becoming to those who support the pillars of society.
+
+At ten o'clock the receiving line had dissolved and the dance was in
+full swing above. Sylvia had volunteered to act as Mrs. Owen's adjutant,
+and she was up and down stairs many times looking after countless
+details. She had just dispatched Allen to find partners for some
+out-of-town girls when Morton Bassett accosted her in the hall.
+
+"I'm thirsty, Miss Garrison; which punch bowl do you recommend to a man
+of my temperate habits?"
+
+She turned to the table and took a glass from Mrs. Owen's butler and
+held it up.
+
+"The only difference between the two is that one is pink. I put it in
+myself. Your health and long life to Marian," said Sylvia.
+
+"I'm going to take this chance to thank you for your kind interest in
+Marian's party. We all appreciate it. Even if you didn't do it for us
+but for Mrs. Owen, we're just as grateful. There's a lot of work in
+carrying off an affair like this."
+
+He seemed in no hurry and apparently wished to prolong the talk. They
+withdrew out of the current of people passing up and down the stairway.
+
+"You are not dancing?" he asked.
+
+"No; I'm not here socially, so to speak. I'm not going out, you know; I
+only wanted to help Mrs. Owen a little."
+
+"Pardon me; I hadn't really forgotten. You are a busy person; Marian
+tells me you have begun your teaching. You don't show any evidences of
+wear."
+
+"Oh, I never was so well in my life!"
+
+"You will pardon me for mentioning it here, but--but I was sorry to hear
+from Mr. Harwood that the teaching is necessary."
+
+He was quite right, she thought, in saying that the time and place were
+ill-suited to such a remark. He leaned against the wall and she noticed
+that his lids drooped wearily. He seemed content to linger there, where
+they caught fitfully glimpses of Marian's bright, happy face in the
+dance. Mrs. Owen and Mrs. Bassett were sitting in a group of dowagers at
+the other end of the ballroom, identifying and commenting upon the
+season's debutantes.
+
+"I suppose you are very busy now," Sylvia remarked.
+
+Yes; this will be a busy session."
+
+"And I suppose you have more to do than the others; it's the penalty of
+leadership."
+
+He flushed at the compliment, changed his position slightly, and avoided
+her eyes for a moment. She detected in him to-night something that had
+escaped her before. It might not be weariness after all that prompted
+him to lean against the wall with one hand carelessly thrust into his
+pocket; he was not a man to show physical weariness. It seemed, rather,
+a stolid indifference either to the immediate scene or to more serious
+matters. Their meeting had seemed accidental; she could not believe he
+had contrived it. If the dance bored him she was by no means his only
+refuge; many present would have thought themselves highly favored by a
+word from him. A messenger brought Sylvia a question from Mrs. Owen. In
+turning away to answer she gave him a chance to escape, but he waited,
+and when she was free again she felt that he had been watching her.
+
+He smiled, and stood erect as though impelled by an agreeable thought.
+
+"We don't meet very often, Miss Garrison, and this is hardly the place
+for long conversations; you're busy, too; but I'd like to ask you
+something."
+
+"Certainly, Mr. Bassett!"
+
+The newest two-step struck up and she swung her head for a moment in
+time to it and looked out upon the swaying forms of the dancers.
+
+"That's Marian's favorite," she said.
+
+"That afternoon, after the convention, you remember--"
+
+"Of course, Mr. Bassett; I remember perfectly."
+
+"You laughed!"
+
+They both smiled; and it seemed to him that now, as then, it was a smile
+of understanding, a curious reciprocal exchange that sufficed without
+elucidation in words.
+
+"Well!" said Sylvia.
+
+"Would you mind telling me just why you laughed?"
+
+"Oh! That would be telling a lot of things."
+
+Any one seeing them might have thought that this middle-aged gentleman
+was taking advantage of an opportunity to bask in the smile of a pretty
+girl for the sheer pleasure of her company. He was purposely detaining
+her, but whether from a wish to amuse himself or to mark his
+indifference to what went on around him she did not fathom. The fact was
+that Sylvia had wondered herself a good deal about that interview in
+Mrs. Owen's house, and she was not quite sure why she had laughed.
+
+"I'd really like to know, Miss Garrison. If I knew why you laughed at
+me--"
+
+"Oh, I didn't laugh at you! At least--it wasn't just you alone I was
+laughing at!"
+
+"Not at me?"
+
+His look of indifference vanished wholly; he seemed sincerely interested
+as he waited for her reply, delayed a moment by the passing of a group
+of youngsters from the ballroom to the fresher air of the hall.
+
+"I know perfectly well this isn't a good place to be serious in; but I
+laughed--Do you really want to know?"
+
+"Yes, please. Don't try to spare my feelings; they're pretty badly shot
+up anyhow."
+
+"It must have been because it struck me as funny that a man like
+you--with all your influence and power--your capacity for doing big
+things--should go to so much trouble merely to show another man your
+contempt for him. Just a moment"--she deliberated an instant, lifting
+her head a trifle,--"it was funny, just as it would be funny if the
+United States went to war to crush a petty, ignorant pauper power; or it
+would be like using the biggest pile driver to smash a mosquito. It was
+ridiculous just because it seemed so unnecessarily elaborate--such a
+waste of steam."
+
+She had spoken earnestly and quickly, but he laughed to assure her that
+he was not offended.
+
+"So that was it, was it?"
+
+"I think so; something like that. And you laughed too that day!"
+
+"Yes; why did I laugh?" he demanded.
+
+"Because you knew it was grotesque, and not to be taken at all seriously
+as people did take it. And then, maybe--maybe I thought it funny that
+you should have employed Mr. Harwood to pull the lever that sent the big
+hammer smashing down on the insect."
+
+"So that was it! Well, maybe it wasn't so unnecessary after all; to be
+frank, I didn't think so. In my conceit I thought it a good stroke.
+That's a secret; nobody else knows that! Why shouldn't I have used Mr.
+Harwood--assuming that I did use him?"
+
+"Can you stand any more? Shan't we talk of something else?"
+
+Their colloquy had been longer than Sylvia found comfortable: every one
+knew Bassett; every one did not know her. She was a comparative stranger
+in the city, and it was not wholly kind in him to make her conspicuous;
+yet he seemed oblivious to his surroundings.
+
+"You cast an excellent actor for an unworthy part, that's all."
+
+"I was debasing him? Is that what you think?" he persisted.
+
+"Yes," she answered steadily, meeting his eyes.
+
+"You like him; you believe in him?"
+
+"He has ability," she answered guardedly.
+
+"Then I've done nothing to thwart him in the use of it. He's the best
+advertised young man in the state in either political party. He's in a
+place now where he can make good."
+
+His smile was grave; it was impossible to answer him in the key of
+social small talk.
+
+"The 'Advertiser' seems to think that he's in the legislature to do what
+you tell him to."
+
+"He doesn't have to do it, does he? He owes me nothing--absolutely
+nothing. He can kick me down stairs to-morrow if he wants to. It was
+understood when he came into my office that he should be free to quit me
+whenever he liked. I'd like you to know that."
+
+She was embarrassed by the direct look that accompanied this. Her
+opinions could not interest him one way or another, and he was going far
+in assuming that she was deeply concerned in Harwood's welfare. The
+incongruity of their talk was emphasized by the languorous strains of
+the newest popular waltz that floated over them from the ballroom.
+
+"If it were any of my affair--which it certainly isn't--I should tell
+him to stand by you--to say no to you if need be and yet remain your
+friend."
+
+"You think, then, that I am not beyond reclamation--that I might be
+saved--pulled out of the mire?"
+
+"No man is beyond reclamation, is he? I think not; I believe not."
+
+The music ceased; the dancers were demanding a repetition of the number.
+Bassett stood his ground stubbornly.
+
+"Well, I've asked him to do something for me--the only thing I have ever
+asked him to do that wasn't straight."
+
+There was no evading this; she wondered whether he had deliberately
+planned this talk, and what it was leading to. In any view it was
+inexplicable. His brow knit and there was a curious gravity in his eyes
+as they sought hers searchingly.
+
+"That's his affair entirely, Mr. Bassett," she replied coldly. "He and I
+are good friends, and of course I should hate to see him make a
+mistake."
+
+"But the mistake may be mine; let us say that it is mine."
+
+"I had an idea that you didn't make mistakes. Why should you make the
+serious mistake of asking a good man to do a bad thing?"
+
+"The natural inference would be that I'm a bad man, wouldn't it?"
+
+"It wouldn't be my way of looking at it. All you need is courage to be a
+great man--you can go far!"
+
+He smiled grimly.
+
+"I need only one thing, you say;--but what if it's the thing I haven't
+got?"
+
+"Get it!" she replied lightly. "But your defiance in the convention
+wasn't worthy of you; it was only a piece of bravado. You don't deserve
+to be abused for that,--just scolded a little. That's why I laughed at
+you that afternoon; I'm going to laugh at you now!"
+
+The music had ceased again and Allen and Marian flashed out upon them in
+the highest spirits.
+
+"Well, I like this!" cried Marian. "What are you two talking so long
+about? Oh, I saw you through three dances at least!"
+
+"Miss Garrison has been laughing at me," said Bassett, smiling at his
+daughter. "She doesn't take me at all seriously--or too seriously: I
+don't know which!"
+
+"How could she take you seriously!" demanded Marian. "I never do!
+Sylvia, where on earth is our little Daniel? It's nearly time for the
+cotillion. And if Dan Harwood doesn't show up for that I'll never
+forgive him in this world."
+
+"The cotillion?" repeated Bassett, glancing at his watch. "Hasn't Dan
+got here yet? He had a committee meeting to-night, but it ought to have
+been over before now."
+
+Sylvia noted that the serious look came into his eyes again for an
+instant.
+
+"He oughtn't to have had a committe meeting on the night of my party.
+And it's a holiday too."
+
+"And after all the rehearsing we've done at Aunt Sally's the cherry-tree
+figure absolutely has to have him," said Allen. "Maybe I'd better send a
+scout to look him up or run over to the State House myself."
+
+"Oh, he'll be here," murmured Sylvia.
+
+Dan had undoubtedly intended to appear early at the dance, and she
+wondered whether his delay might not be due to the crisis in his
+relations with Bassett of which the politician had hinted. As she ran
+off with Allen to make sure the apparatus for the german was in order,
+she wished Bassett had not spoken to her of Harwood.
+
+Sylvia and Allen had despaired of Dan when at a quarter of twelve he
+appeared. He met their reproaches cheerfully, and airily explained his
+delay.
+
+"State's business! Can you imagine me fresh from Richelieu's cabinet,
+with a trail of dead horses on the road behind me? In plain prose I
+didn't get home to dress until eleven, and the snow makes it hard
+going."
+
+He had dressed with care nevertheless and had never looked better.
+Sylvia sent Allen ahead to begin clearing the floor for the cotillion,
+and followed more slowly with Harwood.
+
+"I suppose," he remarked, half to himself, "that I really oughtn't to do
+it."
+
+"What--you hesitate now after keeping the stage waiting!"
+
+"It may be a case for an understudy. There are reasons why."
+
+"Then--you have done it?"
+
+They were at the turn of the stair and Sylvia paused. He was conscious
+of a quick catch in her breath. Her eyes met his for an instant
+searchingly.
+
+"Yes; I have done it," he answered, and looked at her wonderingly.
+
+A moment later he had made his peace with Mrs. Owen and paid his
+compliments to Mrs. Bassett at the favor table, heaped high with
+beribboned hatchets and bunches of cherries for the first figure.
+
+Morton Bassett had heard praise of his daughter from many lips, but he
+watched her joyous course through the cherry-tree figure in the german
+with an attention that was not wholly attributable to fatherly pride.
+Harwood's white-gloved hand led her hither and thither through the
+intricate maze; one must have been sadly lacking in the pictorial sense
+not to have experienced a thrill of delight in a scene so animate with
+grace, so touched with color. It was ungracious to question the
+sincerity of those who pronounced Marian the belle of the ball when
+Colonel Ramsay, the supreme authority in Hoosier pulchritude, declared
+her to be the fairest rose in a rose-garden of girls. He said the same
+thing to the adoring parents of a dozen other girls that night. (The
+Colonel was born in Tecumseh County, on our side of the Ohio, and just
+plays at being a Kentuckian!) Mothers of daughters, watching the dance
+with a jealous eye on their own offspring, whispered among themselves
+that as likely as not Marian's tall, broad-shouldered cavalier was the
+man chosen of all time to be her husband. He was her father's
+confidential man, and nothing could stay his upward course.
+
+Bassett saw it all and guessed what they were thinking. Sylvia flashed
+across his vision now and then. He overheard people asking who she was,
+and he caught the answers, that she was a girl Mrs. Owen had taken up; a
+public school-teacher, they believed, the daughter of an old friend.
+Sylvia, quite unconscious of this interest, saw that the figures she had
+done so much toward planning were enacted without a hitch. The last one,
+the Pergola, with real roses, if you must know, well deserved Colonel
+Ramsay's compliment. "You can't tell," said the Colonel in his best
+manner, "where the roses end and the girls begin!"
+
+It was two o'clock when Harwood, after taking Mrs. Owen down to supper,
+found himself free. He met Thatcher in the lower hall, muffled in
+astrakhan and swearing softly to himself because his carriage had been
+lost in the blizzard.
+
+"Well; how are things going with you, young man?"
+
+"Right enough. I'm tired and it's about bed-time for me."
+
+"Haven't got House Bill Ninety-five in your pockets have you?" asked
+Thatcher with a grin. "A reporter for the 'Advertiser' was in here
+looking for you a minute ago. He said your committee had taken a vote
+to-night and he wanted to know about it. Told him you'd gone home. Hope
+you appreciate that; I'm used to lying to reporters. You see, my son, I
+ain't in that deal. You understand? That bill was fixed up in Chicago,
+and every corporation lawyer that does business in the old Hoosier State
+has his eye on it. I'm not asking any questions; Lord, no! It's up to
+you. Grand party; that's a nice girl of Bassett's. My wagon here? All
+right. Good-night, Dan! Good-night, Bassett!"
+
+Harwood turned and found himself face to face with Bassett, who was
+loitering aimlessly about the hall.
+
+"Good-evening, sir," he said, and they shook hands mechanically.
+
+"How are you? Party about over?"
+
+"I should like to speak to you to-night, Mr. Bassett. It need take but a
+minute."
+
+"Better now, if it's important," replied Bassett carelessly.
+
+"We voted on House Bill Ninety-five in committee to-night: the majority
+report will be against it."
+
+"So? What was the matter with it?"
+
+"It's crooked, that's all. I wouldn't stand for it; two members were
+willing to support it, and there will be a minority report. It's that
+same bill that was jumped on so hard at the last session, only it's been
+given a fresh coat of paint."
+
+"It seems to have taken you several weeks to find that out. There's
+nothing wrong with that bill. It merely frames a natural and reasonable
+right into a statute. Those labor cranks at the State House have been
+trying to scare you."
+
+"No, sir; that thing's dead wrong! You not only know it's wrong, but you
+misled me about it. That public benefit clause is put in there to throw
+dust in the eyes of the people; it makes possible the very combination
+and absorption of industries that the party is pledged to fight. I have
+bawled against those things in every county in Indiana!"
+
+Bassett nodded, but showed no irritation. His manner irritated Harwood.
+The younger man's lips twitched slightly as he continued.
+
+"And the fact that you were behind it has leaked out; the 'Advertiser'
+is on to it and is going to go after it to-morrow. House Bill
+Ninety-five is an outrage on the party honor and an affront to the
+intelligence of the people. And moreover your interest in having me made
+chairman of the committee that had to pass on it doesn't look good."
+
+"Well, sir, what are you going to do about it? I'm not particularly
+interested in that bill; but a lot of our friends are behind it, and
+we've got to take care of our friends," said Bassett, without raising
+his voice.
+
+Their relations were practically at an end; and Bassett did not care.
+But Dan felt the wrench; he felt it the more keenly because of Bassett's
+impassiveness at this moment of parting.
+
+"You've been a kind friend to me, sir; you've--"
+
+Bassett laid his hand with an abrupt gesture upon Harwood's arm, and
+smiled a curious, mirthless smile.
+
+"None of that! I told you, when the time came for you to go, you need
+shed no tears at the parting. Remember, you don't owe me anything; we're
+quits."
+
+"I hoped you wouldn't see it just this way; that you would realize the
+danger of that bill--to the party, to yourself!"
+
+"You can score heavily by showing up the bill for what you think it is.
+Go ahead; it's your chance. I haven't a word to say to you."
+
+He folded his white gloves and put them away carefully in his breast
+pocket.
+
+"Good-night, sir!"
+
+"Good-night, Harwood!"
+
+The dancing continued above. Mrs. Owen insisted on seeing her last guest
+depart, but begged Harwood to take Sylvia home at once. As they left a
+few minutes later Dan caught a glimpse of Bassett sitting alone in the
+smoking-room.
+
+On the way to Elizabeth House Dan told Sylvia what had happened.
+
+The carriage plunged roughly through the drifting snow. Sleet drove
+sharply against the windows.
+
+"He lied to me about it; and I thought that with all his faults he would
+play square with me. The whole corporation lobby is back of the bill. I
+was stupid not to have seen it earlier; I've been a dull ass about a lot
+of things. But it's over now; I'm done with him."
+
+"I'm glad--glad you met it squarely--and glad that you settled it
+quickly. I'm glad"--she repeated slowly--"but I'm sorry too."
+
+"Sorry?"
+
+"Oh, I'm so sorry for him!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+THE LADY OF THE DAGUERREOTYPE
+
+
+"Daniel doesn't seem to be coming," remarked Mrs. Owen. "He hardly ever
+misses a Sunday afternoon."
+
+"He's working hard. I had no idea legislators had to work so hard," said
+Sylvia.
+
+They sat in Mrs. Owen's office, which was cosier than the sitting-room,
+and the place where she seemed most comfortable. Since we looked at her
+desk last a file-hook has been added to its furniture, and on it hang
+impaled a few cuttings from agricultural newspapers. The content of
+these clippings will ultimately reach the "Courier's" readers,--there is
+no doubt of that, as Mrs. Owen and Mr. Atwill now understand each other
+perfectly. It was the first Sunday in March and a blustery day, with
+rain and sleet alternating at the windows and an impudent wind whistling
+in the chimneys. Hickory logs snapped pleasantly in the small fireplace
+that was a feature of the room. Sylvia had dined with her friend, and
+the day being of the sort that encourages confidences, they had
+prolonged their talk.
+
+"When did you see Daniel last?" asked Mrs. Owen casually.
+
+"Last night," replied Sylvia, meeting her friend's eyes easily. "He
+dropped in for a little while. He wanted to talk about his stand on
+that corporation bill."
+
+"Well, he and Morton have broken up housekeeping. Daniel has climbed on
+to the other side of the breastworks."
+
+Sylvia smiled. "Yes, that's about it. But I think he has acted quite
+finely about it."
+
+"You mean he didn't jump on Morton as he might have done--didn't make a
+grand stand play of it?"
+
+"Yes; he might have made capital for himself out of the corporation
+bill, but he didn't. He made his report without bringing personalities
+into it."
+
+"And the bill was passed over the governor's veto! That was Morton's way
+of showing that he didn't need Daniel."
+
+"Very likely. I'm rather glad it happened that way."
+
+"Glad Daniel got a licking?"
+
+"Oh, not just that; but it shows him that if he's going to be the
+people's champion he will have to be unhorsed pretty often. If all these
+things could be accomplished easily, there wouldn't be any glory in
+success. It's not an easy thing to drive a man like Mr. Bassett out of
+politics, or even to defeat the dangerous measures he introduces in the
+legislature. If it were easy to get rid of them, such men wouldn't last
+long. Besides, I'm a little afraid it wasn't half so much Dan's
+patriotism that was involved as it was his vanity. He was bitter because
+he found that Mr. Bassett had deceived him and was trying to use him.
+But in view of Mr. Bassett's many kindnesses to him he wouldn't make a
+personal matter of it in the House. Dan's opposition was based on legal
+defects in that bill,--points that were over the heads of most of the
+legislators,--but he is now determined to keep up the fight. He finds
+that Mr. Bassett is quite able to do as he pleases even without his
+services. He felt that he dealt with him magnanimously in keeping his
+antagonism to the corporation bill on the high plane of its legal
+unsoundness. Mr. Bassett ignored this, and merely secured the passage of
+the bill by marshaling all the votes he needed in both parties."
+
+"That's a new scheme they say Morton has introduced into Indiana--this
+getting men on both sides to vote for one of these bad bills. That shuts
+up the party newspapers, and neither side can use that particular thing
+as ammunition at the next election. Instead of talking about House Bill
+Ninety-five in the next campaign, they will howl about the tariff on
+champagne, or pensions for veterans of the Black Hawk War. They're all
+tarred with the same stick and don't dare call attention to the other
+fellow. Daniel had better get out of politics," she ended leadingly.
+
+"Please, no! He'd better stay in and learn how to make himself count. So
+far as Mr. Bassett is concerned, I think that for some reason he had
+gone as far with Dan as he cared to. I think he was prepared for the
+break."
+
+Mrs. Owen was wiping her spectacles on a piece of chamois skin she kept
+in her desk for the purpose, and she concluded this rite with unusual
+deliberation.
+
+"How do you figure that out, Sylvia?"
+
+"This must be confidential, Aunt Sally; I have said nothing to Dan about
+it; but the night of your party Mr. Bassett was in a curious frame of
+mind."
+
+"It seemed to me he was particularly cheerful. I thought Morton had as
+good a time as anybody."
+
+"Superficially, yes; but I had a long talk with him--in the hall, after
+the dancing had begun. I think in spite of his apparent indifference to
+the constant fire of his enemies, it has had an effect on him. He's
+hardened--or, if he was always hard, he doesn't care any longer whether
+he wears the velvet glove or not. That attack on Mr. Thatcher in the
+convention illustrates what I mean. His self-control isn't as complete
+as most people seem to think it is; he lets go of himself like a
+petulant child. That must be a new development in him. It doesn't chime
+with the other things you hear of him as a shrewd, calculating manager,
+who strikes his enemies in the dark. He was in an evil humor that night
+or he wouldn't have talked to me as he did. He was ugly and vindictive.
+He was not only glad he had put Dan in the way of temptation, but he
+wanted me to know that he had done it. He seemed to be setting his back
+to the wall and daring the world."
+
+"Well, well," said Mrs. Owen. "Morton has seemed a little uneasy lately.
+But there don't seem to be any reason why he should have picked you out
+to jump on. You never did anything to Morton."
+
+"Yes," said Sylvia, smiling; "I laughed at him once! I laughed at him
+about the way he had treated Mr. Thatcher. We stopped right there, with
+the laugh; he laughed too, you know. And he took that up again at the
+party--and I had to explain what my laugh meant."
+
+"Oh, you explained it, did you?"
+
+And Sylvia recounted the interview.
+
+"I guess Morton hasn't been laughed at much, and that was why he
+remembered it and wanted to talk to you again. I suspect that Hallie
+scolds him when she doesn't pet him. Most folks are afraid of Morton;
+that's why he could take care of that corporation bill with the
+'Advertiser' jumping him the way it did. Well, well! That must have been
+quite a day for Morton. You laughed at him, and when the rest of you
+went off in Allen's automobile that night I ran the harrow over him a
+few times myself. Well, well!"
+
+Mrs. Owen smiled as though recalling an agreeable experience. "As long
+as there are old stumps in a field that you must plough around I haven't
+got much use for the land. When the corn comes up you don't see the
+stumps, just sitting on the fence and looking over the scenery; but when
+you go to put the plow through again, your same old stumps loom up
+again, solider than ever. I guess Daniel will come out all right; he was
+raised on a farm and ought to know how to drive a straight furrow. By
+the way, they telephoned me from Elizabeth House last night that there's
+a vacant room there. Who's moved out?"
+
+Mrs. Owen always prolonged the E of Elizabeth, and never referred to the
+House except by its full title.
+
+"Rose Farrell has left. Went unexpectedly, I think. I didn't know she
+was going."
+
+"Let me see. She's that girl that worked for Morton and Daniel. What's
+she leaving for?"
+
+"I'm going to see if I can't get her back," replied Sylvia evasively.
+
+"Why Rose has been at Elizabeth House for two years and under the rules
+she can stay a year longer. She ain't getting married, is she?"
+
+"I think not," replied Sylvia. "I'm going to look her up and get her
+back if possible."
+
+"You do that, Sylvia. It ain't just your place, but I'll be glad if
+you'll see what's the matter. We don't want to lose a girl if we can
+help it."
+
+Mrs. Owen rose and transferred a pile of paperbound books from a shelf
+to her desk. Sylvia recognized these as college catalogues and noted
+bits of paper thrust into the leaves as markers.
+
+"I've been looking into this business some since we went down to
+college. I had a lot of these schools send me their catalogues and
+they're mighty interesting, though a good deal of it I don't understand.
+Sylvia" (Sylvia never heard her name drawled as Mrs. Owen spoke it
+without a thrill of expectancy)--"Sylvia, there's a lot of books being
+written, and pieces in the magazines all the time, about women and what
+we have done or can't do. What do you suppose it's all leading up to?"
+
+"That question is bigger than I am, Aunt Sally. But I think the
+conditions that have thrown women out into the world as wage-earners are
+forcing one thing--just one thing, that is more important now than any
+other--it's all summed up in the word efficiency."
+
+"Efficiency?"
+
+Mrs. Owen reached for the poker and readjusted the logs; she watched the
+resulting sparks for a moment, then settled herself back in her chair
+and repeated Sylvia's word again.
+
+"You mean that a woman has got to learn how to make her jelly jell? Is
+that your notion?"
+
+"Exactly that. She must learn not to waste her strokes. Any scheme of
+education for woman that leaves that out works an injury. If women are
+to be a permanent part of the army of wage-earning Americans they must
+learn to get full value from their minds or hands--either one, it's the
+same. The trouble with us women is that there's a lot of the old
+mediaeval taint in us."
+
+"Mediaeval? Say that some other way, Sylvia."
+
+"I mean that we're still crippled--we women--by the long years in which
+nothing was expected of us but to sit in ivy-mantled casements and work
+embroidery while our lords went out to fight, or thrummed the lute under
+our windows."
+
+"Well, there was Joan of Arc: she delivered the goods."
+
+"To be sure; she does rather light up her time, doesn't she?" laughed
+Sylvia.
+
+"Sylvia, the day I first saw a woman hammer a typewriter in a man's
+office, I thought the end had come. It seemed, as the saying is, 'agin
+nater'; and I reckon it was. Nowadays these buildings downtown are full
+of women. At noontime Washington Street is crowded with girls who work
+in offices and shops. They don't get much pay for it either. Most of
+those girls would a lot rather work in an office or stand behind a
+counter than stay at home and help their mothers bake and scrub and wash
+and iron. These same girls used to do just that,--help their
+mothers,--coming downtown about once a month, or when there was a circus
+procession, and having for company some young engine-wiper who took them
+to church or to a Thanksgiving matinee and who probably married them
+some day. A girl who didn't marry took in sewing for the neighbors, and
+as like as not went to live with her married sister and looked after her
+babies. I've seen all these things change. Nowadays girls have got to
+have excitement. They like spending their days in the big buildings; the
+men in the offices jolly them, the men bookkeepers and clerks seem a lot
+nicer than the mechanics that live out in their neighborhood. When they
+ain't busy they loaf in the halls of the buildings flirting, or reading
+novels and talking to their bosses' callers. They don't have to soil
+their hands, and you can dress a girl up in a skirt and shirt-waist so
+she looks pretty decent for about two weeks of her wages. They don't
+care much about getting married unless they can strike some fellow with
+an automobile who can buy them better clothes than they can buy
+themselves. What they hanker for is a flat or boarding-house where they
+won't have any housekeeping to do. Housekeeping! Their notions of
+housekeeping don't go beyond boiling an egg on a gas range and opening
+up a sofa to sleep on. You're an educated woman, Sylvia; what's going
+to come of all this?"
+
+"It isn't just the fault of the girls that they do this, is it? Near my
+school-house there are girls who stay at home with their mothers, and
+many of them are without any ambition of any kind. I'm a good deal for
+the girl who wants to strike out for herself. The household arts as you
+knew them in your youth can't be practised in the home any more on the
+income of the average man. Most women of the kind we're talking about
+wear ready-made clothes--not because they're lazy, but because the
+tailor-made suits which life in a city demands can't be made by any
+amateur sempstress. They're turned out by the carload in great factories
+from designs of experts. There's no bread to bake in the modern
+mechanic's home, for better bread and cake are made more cheaply in the
+modern bakeshop. Wasn't there really a good deal of nonsense about the
+pies that mother used to make--I wonder? There were perhaps in every
+community women who were natural cooks, but our Mary used to drive
+grandfather crazy with her saleratus biscuits and greasy doughnuts. A
+good cook in the old times was famous all over the community because the
+general level of cooking was so low. Women used to take great pride in
+their preservings and jellyings, but at the present prices of fruit and
+sugar a city woman would lose money making such things. It's largely
+because this work can't be done at home that girls such as we have at
+Elizabeth House have no sort of manual dexterity and have to earn a poor
+living doing something badly that they're not interested in or fitted
+for. Women have one terrible handicap in going out into the world to
+earn their living; it's the eternal romance that's in all of us," said
+Sylvia a little dreamily. "I don't believe any woman ever gets beyond
+that." It was a note she rarely struck and Mrs. Owen looked at her
+quickly. "I mean, the man who may be always waiting just around the
+corner."
+
+"You mean every girl has that chance before her? Well, a happy marriage
+is a great thing--the greatest thing that can happen to a woman. My
+married life was a happy one--very happy; but it didn't last long. It
+was my misfortune to lose my husband and the little girl when I was
+still young. They think I'm hard--yes, a good many people do--because
+I've been making money. But I had to do something; I couldn't sit with
+my hands folded; and what I've done I've tried to do right. I hope you
+won't leave love and marriage out of your life, Sylvia. In this new
+condition of things that we've talked about there's no reason why a
+woman shouldn't work--do things, climb up high, and be a woman, too.
+He'll be a lucky man who gets you to stand by him and work for him and
+with him."
+
+"Oh," sighed Sylvia, "there are so many things to do! I want to know so
+much and do so much!"
+
+"You'll know them and do them; but I don't want you to have a one-sided
+life. Dear Sylvia," and Mrs. Owen bent toward the girl and touched her
+hand gently, "I don't want you to leave love out of your life."
+
+There was an interval of silence and then Mrs. Owen opened a drawer and
+drew out a faded morocco case. "Here's a daguerreotype of my mother and
+me, when I was about four years old. Notice how cute I look in those
+pantalets--ever see those things before? Well, I've been thinking that
+I'm a kind of left-over from daguerreotype times, and you belong to the
+day of the kodak. I'm a dingy old shadow in a daguerreotype picture, in
+pantalets, cuddled up against my mother's hoopskirt. You, Sylvia, can
+take a suit-case and a kodak and travel alone to Siam; and you can teach
+in a college alongside of men and do any number of things my mother
+would have dropped dead to think about. And," she added quizzically, "it
+gives me heart failure myself sometimes, just thinking about it all. I
+can't make you throw your kodak away, and I wouldn't if I could, any
+more than I'd want you to sit up all night sewing clothes to wear to
+your school-teaching when you can buy better ones already made that have
+real style. It tickles me that some women have learned that it's
+weak-minded to massage and paraffine their wrinkles out--those things,
+Sylvia, strike me as downright immoral. What I've been wondering is
+whether I can do anything for the kind of girls we have at Elizabeth
+House beyond giving them a place to sleep, and I guess you've struck the
+idea with that word efficiency. No girl born to-day, particularly in a
+town like this, is going back to make her own soap out of grease and lye
+in her back yard. But she's got to learn to do something well or she'll
+starve or go to the bad; or if she doesn't have to work she'll fool her
+life away doing nothing. Now you poke a few holes in my ideas, Sylvia."
+
+"Please, Aunt Sally, don't think that because I've been to college I can
+answer all those questions! I'm just beginning to study them. But the
+lady of the daguerreotype in hoops marks one era, and the kodak girl in
+a short skirt and shirt-waist another. Women had to spend a good deal of
+time proving that their brains could stand the strain of higher
+education--that they could take the college courses prescribed for men.
+That's all been settled now, but we can't stop there. A college
+education for women is all right, but we must help the girl who can't go
+to college to do her work well in the office and department store and
+factory."
+
+"Or to feed a baby so it won't die of colic, and to keep ptomaine poison
+out of her ice box!" added Mrs. Owen.
+
+"Exactly," replied Sylvia.
+
+"Suppose a girl like Marian had gone to college just as you did, what
+would it have done for her?"
+
+"A good deal, undoubtedly. It would have given her wider interests and
+sobered her, and broadened her chances of happiness."
+
+"Maybe so," remarked Mrs. Owen; and then a smile stole over her face. "I
+reckon you can hardly call Marian a kodak girl. She's more like one of
+these flashlight things they set off with a big explosion. Only time I
+ever got caught in one of those pictures was at a meeting of the
+Short-Horn Breeders' Association last week. They fired off that
+photograph machine to get a picture for the 'Courier'--I've been
+prodding them for not printing more farm and stock news--and a man
+sitting next to me jumped clean out of his boots and yelled fire. I had
+to go over to the 'Courier' office and see the editor--that Atwill is a
+pretty good fellow when you get used to him--to make sure they didn't
+guy us farmers for not being city broke. As for Marian, folks like her!"
+
+"No one can help liking her. She's a girl of impulses and her impulses
+are all healthy and sound. And her good fellowship and good feeling are
+inexhaustible. She came over to see me at Elizabeth House the other
+evening--had Allen bring her in his machine and leave her. The girls
+were singing songs and amusing themselves in the parlor, and Marian took
+off her hat and made herself at home with them. She sang several songs,
+and then got to 'cutting up' and did some of those dances she's picked
+up somewhere--did them well too. But with all her nonsense she has a lot
+of good common sense, and she will find a place for herself. She will
+get married one of these days and settle down beautifully."
+
+"Allen?"
+
+"Possibly. The Bassetts don't seem troubled by Allen's attentions to
+Marian; but the real fight between Mr. Thatcher and Mr. Bassett hasn't
+come yet."
+
+"Who says so?"
+
+"Oh, it's in the air; every one says so. Dan says so."
+
+"I've warned Morton to let Edward Thatcher alone. The United States
+Senate wouldn't be ornamented by having either one of them down there.
+I met Colonel Ramsay--guess he's got the senatorial bee in his hat,
+too--coming up on the train from Louisville the other day. There's only
+one qualification I can think of that the Colonel has for going to the
+Senate--he would wring tears out of the galleries when he made obituary
+speeches about the dead members. When my brother Blackford was senator,
+it seemed to me he spent most of his time acting as pallbearer for the
+dead ones. But what were we talking about, Sylvia? Oh, yes. I'm going to
+send those catalogues over to your room, and as you get time I want you
+to study out a scheme for a little school to teach what you call
+efficiency to girls that have to earn their living. I don't mean
+school-teaching, but a whole lot of things women ought to be doing but
+ain't because they don't know how. Do you get the idea?"
+
+"A school?" asked Sylvia wonderingly.
+
+"A kind of school."
+
+"It's a splendid, a beautiful idea, but you need better advice than I
+can give you. They talk a good deal now about vocational training, and
+it's going to mean a great deal to women."
+
+"Well, we must get hold of all the latest ideas, and if there's any good
+in us old daguerreotypes, we'll keep it, and graft it on to the kodak."
+
+"Oh, I hope there will always be ladies of the daguerreotype! One thing
+we women have to pray to be saved from is intolerance toward our
+sisters. You know," continued Sylvia with a dropping of her voice and a
+tilting of her head that caused Mrs. Owen to laugh,--"you know we are
+not awfully tolerant. And there's a breadth of view, an ability to brush
+away trifles and get to the heart of things, that we're just growing up
+to. And magnanimity--I think we fall short there. I'm just now trying to
+cultivate a sisterly feeling toward these good women for whom Jane
+Austen and Sir Roger de Coverley and the knitting of pale-blue tea
+cosies are all of life--who like mild twilight with the children singing
+hymns at the piano and the husband coming home to find his slippers set
+up against the baseburner. That was beautiful, but even they owe
+something to the million or so women to whom Jane Addams is far more
+important than Jane Austen. It might be more comfortable if the world
+never moved, but unfortunately it does seem to turn over occasionally."
+
+"I notice that you can say things like that, Sylvia, without waving your
+hands, or shouting like an old woman with a shawl on her head swinging a
+broom at the boys in her cherry tree. We've got to learn to do that. It
+was some time after I went into business, when Jackson Owen died, before
+I learned that you couldn't shoo men the way you shoo hens. You got to
+drop a little corn in a fence corner and then throw your apron over 'em.
+It strikes me that if you could catch these girls that go to work in
+stores and offices young enough you might put them in the way of doing
+something better. There are schools doing this kind of thing, but I'd
+like to plant one right here in Indiana for the kind of girls we've got
+at Elizabeth House. They haven't much ambition, most of 'em; they're
+stuck right where they are. I'd like to see what can be done toward
+changing that, and see it started in my lifetime. And we must do it
+right. Think it over as you get time." She glanced at the window. "You'd
+better stay all night, Sylvia; it's getting dark."
+
+"No, I must run along home. The girls expect me."
+
+"That school idea's just between you and me for the present," Mrs. Owen
+remarked as she watched Sylvia button her mackintosh. "Look here,
+Sylvia, don't you need some money? I mean, of course, don't you want to
+borrow some?"
+
+"Oh, never! By the way, I didn't tell you that I expect to make some?
+The publisher of one of grandfather's textbooks came to see me about the
+copyright, and there were some changes in the book that grandfather
+thought should be made and I'm going to make them. There's a chance of
+it's being adopted in one or two states. And then, I want to make a
+geometry of my own. All the textbooks make it so hard--and it really
+isn't. The same publisher told me he thought well of my scheme, and I'm
+going ahead with it."
+
+"Well, don't you kill yourself writing geometries: I should think
+teaching the youngsters would be a full job."
+
+"That's not a job at all, Aunt Sally; that's just fun. And you know I'm
+not going to do it always. I'm learning things now that I needed to
+know. I only wish my mind were as sound as my health."
+
+"You ought to wear heavier flannels, though; it's a perfect scandal what
+girls run around in nowadays."
+
+She rested her hands on Sylvia's shoulders lightly, smiled into her
+face, and then bent forward and kissed her.
+
+"I don't understand why you won't wear rubbers, but be sure you don't
+sit around all evening in wet stockings."
+
+A gray mist was hastening nightfall, though the street lamps were not
+yet lighted. The glow of Mrs. Owen's kindness lingered with Sylvia as
+she walked toward Elizabeth House. She was constantly surprised by her
+friend's intensely modern spirit--her social curiosity, and the breadth
+and sanity of her views. This suggestion of a vocational school for
+young women had kindled Sylvia's imagination, and her thoughts were upon
+it as she tramped homeward through the slush. To establish an
+institution such as Mrs. Owen had indicated would require a large sum of
+money, and there were always the Bassetts, the heirs apparent of their
+aunt's fortune. Any feeling of guilt Sylvia may have experienced by
+reason of her enforced connivance with Mrs. Owen for the expenditure of
+her money was mitigated by her belief that the Bassetts were quite
+beyond the need of their aunt's million, the figure at which Mrs. Owen's
+fortune was commonly appraised.
+
+She was thinking of this when a few blocks from Mrs. Owen's she met
+Morton Bassett. The electric lamp overhead was just sputtering into
+light as he moved toward her out of an intersecting street. His folded
+umbrella was thrust awkwardly under his arm, and he walked slowly with
+bent head. The hissing of the lamp caused him to lift his eyes. Sylvia
+paused an instant, and he raised his hat as he recognized her.
+
+"Good evening, Miss Garrison! I've just been out for a walk. It's a
+dreary evening, isn't it?"
+
+Sylvia explained that she had been to Mrs. Owen's and was on her way
+home, and he asked if he might go with her.
+
+"Marian usually walked with me at Fraserville, but since we've been
+here, Sunday seems to be her busy day. I find that I don't know much
+about the residential district; I can easily lose myself in this part of
+town."
+
+During these commonplaces she wondered just where their conversation at
+Marian's ball had left them; the wet street was hardly a more favorable
+place for serious talk than the crowded Propylaeum. The rain began to
+fall monotonously, and he raised his umbrella.
+
+"Some things have happened since our last talk," he observed presently.
+
+"Yes?" she replied dubiously.
+
+"I want to talk to you of them," he answered. "Dan has left me. You know
+that?"
+
+"Yes; I know of it."
+
+"And you think he has done quite the fine thing about it--it was what
+you would have had him do?"
+
+"Yes, certainly. You practically told me you were putting him to the
+test. You weren't embarrassed by his course in any way; you were able to
+show him that you didn't care; you didn't need him."
+
+"You saw that? You read that in what followed?"
+
+"It was written so large that no one could miss it. You are the master.
+You proved it again. I suppose you found a great satisfaction in that. A
+man must, or he wouldn't do such things."
+
+"You seem to understand," he replied, turning toward her for an instant.
+"But there may be one thing you don't understand."
+
+There was a moment of silence, in which they splashed on slowly through
+the slush.
+
+"I liked Dan; I was fond of him. And yet I deliberately planned to make
+him do that kind of thing for me. I pulled him out of the newspaper
+office and made it possible for him to study law, just that I might put
+my hand on him when he could be useful. Please understand that I'm not
+saying this in the hope that you will intercede to bring him back.
+Nothing can bring him back. I wouldn't let him come back to me if he
+would starve without my help."
+
+Sylvia was silent; there was nothing with which she could meet this.
+
+"What I mean is," he continued, "that I'm glad he shook me; I had
+wondered from the beginning just when it would come, and when I saw his
+things going out of my office, it satisfied something in me. I wonder
+whether there's some good in me after all that made me glad in spite of
+myself that he had the manhood to quit."
+
+Bassett was a complex character; his talk and manner at Marian's ball
+had given her a sense of this which he was now confirming. Success had
+not brought him happiness; the loss of Dan had been a blow to him, and
+she felt the friendlessness and isolation of this man whom men feared.
+He had spoken doggedly, gruffly, and if she had marveled at their talk
+at the dance, her wonder was the greater now. It was inconceivable that
+Morton Bassett should come to her with his difficulties. If his
+conscience troubled him, or if he was touched with remorse for his
+conduct toward Dan Harwood, she was unable to see why he should make his
+confession to her. It seemed that he had read her thoughts, for he spoke
+roughly, as though defending himself from an attack.
+
+"You like him; you've known him for several years; you know him probably
+better than you know any other man."
+
+"I suppose I do, Mr. Bassett," said Sylvia; "we are good friends,
+but--that's all."
+
+He stopped short, and she felt his hand touch her arm for an instant
+lightly--it was almost like a caress, there in the rain-swept street
+with the maple boughs swishing overhead in the cold west wind.
+
+He quickened his pace now, as though to mark a new current in his
+thoughts.
+
+"There's a favor I want to ask of you, Miss Garrison. Dan talked to me
+once or twice about your grandfather's estate. He owned some shares in a
+business I had helped to organize, the White River Canneries. The scheme
+failed for many reasons; the shares are worthless. I want you to let me
+pay you back the money Professor Kelton paid for them. I should have to
+do it privately--it would have to be a matter between you and me."
+
+[Illustration: A SUDDEN FIERCE ANGER BURNED IN HER HEART]
+
+"Oh, no! Dan explained that to me; he didn't hold you responsible. He
+said the company failed, that was all. You are kind to offer, but I
+can't think of accepting it."
+
+"Very well," he said quietly. And then added, as though to explain
+himself more fully: "Your grandfather and Mrs. Owen were old friends. He
+wasn't a business man. I promoted the canneries scheme and I was
+responsible for it, no matter what Harwood says about it."
+
+She had experienced sharp alternations of pity and apprehension in this
+brief walk. He was a prominent man; almost, it might be said, a
+notorious character. The instinct of self-protection was strong in her;
+what might lie behind his confidences, his blunt confessions, and his
+offer of help, she did not know. They had reached Elizabeth House, and
+she paused on the broad steps under the shelter of the veranda. With her
+back toward the door she looked down upon him as he stood on the
+sidewalk, his umbrella deeply shadowing his head and shoulders. She
+stood before him like a vestal guarding her temple from desecration. She
+was conscious of a sharp revulsion of feeling, and a sudden fierce anger
+burned in her heart. She spoke with a quick, passionate utterance.
+
+"There is something you can do for me, Mr. Bassett. I'm going to bring
+Rose Farrell back to this house. I want you to let her alone!"
+
+He stood dumbly staring at the door as it closed upon her. He lingered a
+moment, the rain beating down upon him, and then walked slowly homeward.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+APRIL VISTAS
+
+
+"Is it _possible_? _Is_ it possible!"
+
+Colonel Ramsay's entrances were frequently a bit theatrical, and on a
+particular afternoon in April, as he opened the door of Dan Harwood's
+new office in the Law Building, the sight of Miss Farrell at the
+typewriter moved him to characteristic demonstrations. Carefully closing
+the door and advancing, hat in hand, with every appearance of deepest
+humility, he gazed upon the young woman with a mockery of astonishment.
+
+"Verily, it is possible," he solemnly ejaculated. "And what is it that
+our own poet says:--
+
+     "'When she comes home again! A thousand ways
+       I fashion to myself the tenderness
+       Of my glad welcome: I shall tremble--yes--'"
+
+"Stop trembling, Colonel, and try one of our new office chairs,
+warranted to hold anybody but Brother Ike Pettit without fading away."
+
+The Colonel bent over Miss Farrell's hand reverently and sat down.
+
+"I've been trying to earn an honest living practicing law down at home
+and this is the first chance I've had to come up and see what the late
+lamented legislature left of the proud old Hoosier State. Is Dan locked
+up inside there with some lucrative client?"
+
+"I regret to say that I don't believe there's a cent in his present
+caller."
+
+"Hark!" At this moment a roar was heard from the inner room on which
+"private" was printed in discreet letters. The Colonel was at once
+alert.
+
+     "'Ask me no more; the moon may draw the sea'
+       But Isaac Pettit's jokes shall shake the land,--
+
+with apologies to the late Laureate. So the boys are finding their way
+up here, are they? I'll wait an hour or two till that compendium of
+American humor has talked Dan to sleep. So you and Dan left your Uncle
+Morton all alone in gloomy splendor in the Boordman Building!"
+
+"Mr. Harwood made me an offer and I accepted it," replied Rose. "This is
+a free country and a P.W.G. can work where she pleases, can't she?"
+
+"P.W.G.?"
+
+"Certainly, a poor working-girl"--Rose clasped her hands and bowed her
+head--"if the initials fail to illuminate."
+
+The Colonel inspected the room, and his eyes searched Miss Farrell's
+desk.
+
+"Let me see, I seem to miss something. It must be the literary offerings
+that used to cluster about the scene of your labors. Your selections in
+old times used to delight me. No one else of my acquaintance has quite
+your feeling for romance. I always liked that one about the square-jawed
+American engineer who won the Crown Princess of Piffle from her father
+in a poker game, but decided at the last minute to bestow her upon his
+old college friend, the Russian heir-apparent, just to preserve the
+peace of Europe. I remember I found you crying over the great
+renunciation one day."
+
+"Oh, I've passed that all up, Colonel. I'm strong for the pale high-brow
+business now. I'm doing time in all the night classes at Elizabeth House
+where I board, and you'll hardly know your little Rose pretty soon."
+
+"Fitting yourself for one of the learned professions?"
+
+"Scarcely. Just fitting myself to be decent," replied Rose in a tone
+that shifted the key of the conversation--a change which the Colonel
+respected.
+
+"That's right, Rose. This is a good place for you, and so is Mrs. Owen's
+boarding-house. By the way, who's this school-teacher Aunt Sally has
+taken up--saw her at the party-great chum of the old lady's."
+
+"You must mean Miss Sylvia."
+
+"Sylvia?"
+
+"Miss Sylvia Garrison. Colonel Ramsay," continued Rose earnestly,
+resting an elbow lightly on her typewriter, "you and I are old pals--you
+remember that first winter I was over at the State House?"
+
+"Very well, Rose."
+
+"Well, it wasn't a good place for me to be. But I was a kid and hadn't
+much sense. I've learned a good deal since then. It ain't so easy to
+walk straight; so many people are careless about leaving banana peelings
+lying round."
+
+The Colonel nodded.
+
+"You needn't apologize to me, Rose. It's all right now, is it?"
+
+"You can be dead sure of it, Colonel. Miss Garrison caught me by the
+heel of my shoe, just as I was going down the third time, and yanked me
+back. There's a good many cheap imitations of human beings loose around
+this world, but that's a woman, I can tell you!"
+
+"Glad you struck a good friend, Rose. You did well to come along with
+Harwood."
+
+"Well, she fixed that, too, after I cut loose from _him_--you
+understand? I guess Miss Garrison and Mr. Harwood are pretty good
+friends."
+
+"Oh!" ejaculated Ramsay. "So there's that, is there?"
+
+"I hope so; they're all white and speak the same language. This is on
+the dead. I'm only talking to you because you're an old friend."
+
+An occasional roar from within testified to Mr. Pettit's continued
+enjoyment of his own jokes.
+
+"You know," Rose continued, "I learned a good deal those winters I spent
+at the State House, when I was stenog to certain senate committees. I
+see where you stand now, all right, Colonel. I always knew you didn't
+belong in that bunch of lobbyists that was always gum-shoeing through
+the marble halls of the State House. Thatcher sends somebody around to
+look me up every little while to see if he can't coax something out of
+me,--something he can use, you know."
+
+"Thatcher oughtn't to do that. If you want me to, I'll pull him off."
+
+"No; I guess I can take care of myself. He"--Rose indicated the inner
+office with a slight movement of the head, "he never tries to pump me.
+He ain't that kind of a fighter. But everybody that's anywhere near the
+inside knows that Thatcher carries a sharp knife. He's going to shed
+some pink ink before he gets through. Are you on?"
+
+They exchanged a glance.
+
+"Something that isn't nice?"
+
+Rose nodded.
+
+"I hate to see that sort of thing brought into the game. But they'll
+never find anything. The gentleman we are referring to works on
+noiseless rollers." Colonel Ramsay indicated the closed door by an
+almost imperceptible gesture of interrogation; and Rose replied by
+compressing her lips and shaking her head.
+
+"He isn't in on that; he's a gentleman, you know; not a mud-slinger."
+
+"He might have to stand for anything Thatcher springs. Thatcher has
+developed into a shrewd and hard fighter. The other crowd don't laugh at
+him any more; it was his work that got our legislative ticket through
+last fall when Bassett passed the word that we should take a licking
+just to magnify his importance. Is Thatcher in town now?"
+
+"No; that boy of his with the bad lung had to go off to the Adirondacks,
+and he went with him."
+
+The inner door opened at this moment, disclosing the Honorable Isaac
+Pettit, who greeted Ramsay effusively.
+
+"What is immortality, gentlemen!" the Honorable Isaac Pettit inquired,
+clinging to the Colonel's hand. "We had a little social gathering for
+our new pastor up at Fraser the other night, and I sprung a new game on
+the old folks. Offered a prize for anybody who could name all the
+Vice-Presidents of the United States since Lincoln's administration, and
+they couldn't even get past Grant--and Schuyler Colfax being right off
+our own Hoosier pastures! Then we tried for the Democratic candidates
+for President, beginning back at the war, and they couldn't even start.
+One young chap piped up and said Jeff Davis--oh, Lord!--which reminds me
+that the teaching of history in the public schools ain't what it ought
+to be. They hadn't heard of Hancock, and when somebody said Blaine, the
+teacher of the infant class in our Sunday School said Blaine who? That
+reminds me of one time when I met Dan Voorhees, than whom God Almighty
+never made a nobler soul; I met Dan down here in the lobby of the old
+Bates House, carrying a 'Harper's Weekly' with one of Tom Nast's
+cartoons spread wide open. You know Dan had--"
+
+Colonel Ramsay had been edging toward the door of Harwood's private
+room, and he now broke in upon the editor's reminiscences.
+
+"You tell that story to Miss Farrell, Ike. I'm spouting myself to-night,
+at a Christian Endeavor rally at Tipton, and want to see Dan a minute."
+
+Miss Farrell was inured to Pettit's anecdotes of Dan Voorhees, and the
+Fraserville editor continued, unmindful of the closing of the door upon
+Dan and Ramsay.
+
+Ramsay pushed his fedora to the back of his head and inspected Dan's new
+furniture.
+
+"Well, you did it! You've cut loose from your base and burned your
+bridges behind you. I would have brought my congratulations sooner, but
+I've had a long jury case on hand. You did it, my boy, and you did it
+like a gentleman. You might have killed him if you had wanted to."
+
+"I don't want to kill anybody," smiled Dan. "I want to practice law."
+
+"That's a laudable ambition, but you can't go back on us now. What we've
+needed for a long time was a young man of about your make-up who wasn't
+afraid."
+
+"Don't rub it in, Colonel. I was a mighty long time seeing the light,
+and I don't deserve any praise from anybody. I mean what I say about
+practicing law. I'm a free man now and any political work I do is going
+to be along the lines of the simple, childish ideas I brought home from
+college with me. I had begun to feel that all this political idealism
+was sheer rubbish, but I put the brakes on before I got too far
+downhill. If a few of us who have run with the machine and know the
+tricks will turn and help the bewildered idealists, we can make idealism
+effective. Most of the people don't want a handful of crooks to govern
+them, but there's a kind of cheap cynicism abroad that discourages the
+men who are eager to revolt. There are newspapers that foster that
+sentiment, and scores of men who won't take time to go to a caucus keep
+asking what's the use. Now, as for Bassett, I'm not going to bite the
+hand that fed me; I'm simply going to feed myself. Pettit was just in
+here to sound me as to my feelings toward Thatcher. Quite frankly, I'm
+not interested in Thatcher as a senatorial possibility."
+
+"That's all right; but if you had to make a choice between Thatcher and
+Bassett?"
+
+Dan shrugged his shoulders impatiently.
+
+"You mustn't exaggerate the importance of my influence. I don't carry
+United States senatorships around in my pocket."
+
+"You're the most influential man of your age in our state. I'm not so
+sure you wouldn't be able to elect any man you supported if the election
+were held to-morrow."
+
+"You've mastered the delicate art of flattery, Colonel; when the time
+comes, I'll be in the fight. It's not so dead certain that our party's
+going to have a senator to elect--there's always that. But all the walls
+are covered with handwriting these days that doesn't need interpreting
+by me or any other Daniel. Many of the younger men all over this state
+in both parties are getting ready to assert themselves. What we
+want--what you want, I believe--is to make this state count for
+something in national affairs. Just changing parties doesn't help
+anything. I'd rather not shift at all than send some fellow to the
+Senate just because he can capture a caucus. It's my honest conviction
+that any man can get a caucus vote if he will play according to the old
+rules. You and I go out over the state bawling to the people that they
+are governing this country. We appeal to them for their votes when we
+know well enough that between Thatcher and Bassett as Democrats, and
+'Big' Jordan and Ridgefield in the Republican camp, the people don't
+stand to win. It may tickle you to know that I've had some flattering
+invitations lately to join the Republicans--not from the old guard, mind
+you, but from some of the young fellows who want to score results for
+policies, not politicians. I suppose, after all, Colonel, I'm only a
+kind of academic Democrat, with no patience whatever with this eternal
+hitching of our ancient mule to the saloons and breweries just to win.
+In the next campaign I'm going to preach my academic Democracy all the
+way from Lake Michigan to the Ohio River, up and down and back and
+forth--and I'm going to do it at my own expense and not be responsible
+to any state committee or anybody else. That's about where I stand."
+
+"Good; mighty good, Dan. All the rest of us want is for you to holler
+that in your biggest foghorn voice and you'll find the crowd with you."
+
+"But if the crowd isn't with me, it won't make a bit of difference; I
+shall bark just the same."
+
+"Now that we've got down to brass tacks, I'll tell you what I've thought
+ever since Bassett got his clamps on the party: that he really hasn't
+any qualities of leadership; that grim, silent way of his is a good deal
+of a bluff. If anybody ever has the nerve to set off a firecracker just
+behind him, he'll run a mile. The newspapers keep flashing him up in big
+headlines all the time, and that helps to keep the people fooled. The
+last time I saw him was just after he put through that corporation bill
+you broke on, and he didn't seem to have got much fun out of his
+victory; he looked pretty gray and worried. It wasn't so easy pulling
+through House Bill Ninety-five; it was the hardest job of Mort's life;
+but he had to do it or take the count. And Lord! he certainly lost his
+head in defeating those appropriation bills; he let his spite toward the
+governor get the better of him. It wasn't the Republican governor he put
+in the hole; it was his own party."
+
+"That's the way with all these men of his type on both sides; they have
+no real loyalty; they will sacrifice their parties any time just to
+further personal ends, or in this case it would seem to have been out of
+sheer bad temper. I didn't use to think Bassett had any temper or any
+kind of emotional organization. But when he's mad it's the meanest kind
+of mad, blind and revengeful."
+
+"He's forced an extra session--he's brought that on us. Just chew on
+that a minute, Dan. A Republican governor has got to reassemble a
+Democratic legislature merely to correct its own faults. It looks well
+in print, by George! Speaking of print, how did he come to let go of the
+'Courier,' and who owns that sheet anyway? I thought when Thatcher
+sprung that suit and dragged our Aunt Sally into it, the Wabash River
+would run hot lava for the next forty years. But that night of the ball
+she and Mort stood there on the firing-line as though nothing had ever
+happened."
+
+Harwood grinned and shook his head gravely.
+
+"There are some things, Colonel, that even to a good friend like you I
+can't give away. Besides, I promised Atwill not to tell."
+
+"All right, Dan. And now, for fear you may think I've got something up
+my sleeve, I want to say to you with my hand on my heart that I don't
+want any office now or ever!"
+
+"Now, Colonel, be very careful!" laughed Dan.
+
+"No; I'm not up here on a fishing-trip. But I want you to know where I
+stand and the friendly feeling of a whole lot of people toward you. You
+say the younger men are getting tired of the old boss system; I'll tell
+you that a lot of the old fellows too are beginning to get restless. The
+absurdity of the whole game on both sides is beginning to get into the
+inner consciousness of the people. You know if I had stayed regular when
+the free-silver business came on I might have been in a position now to
+play for the governorship--which is the only thing I ever wanted; rather
+nice to be governor of your own state, and have your name scratched on a
+slab at the State House door; it's even conceivable, Daniel, that a man
+might do a little good--barely possible," he concluded dryly. "I'm out
+of it now for good; but anything I can do to help you, don't wait to
+write, just telephone me. Now--"
+
+"I'm not so sure you can't make it yet; I'd like to see you there."
+
+"Thanks, Daniel; but like you I'm in the ranks of the patriots and not
+looking for the pie counter. Here's another matter. Do you mind telling
+me what you're up to in this White River Canneries business? I notice
+that you've been sticking the can-opener into it."
+
+"Yes; that protest of the original stockholders against the
+reorganization is still pending. As administrator of the estate of
+Professor Kelton--you remember him--Madison College--I filed a petition
+to be let into the case. It's been sleeping along for a couple of
+years--stockholders too poor to put up a fight. I've undertaken to probe
+clear into the mire. I've got lots of time and there's lots of mire!"
+
+"Good. They say the succotash and peaches were all cooked in the same
+pot, and that our Uncle Mort did the skimming."
+
+"So they say; but believe me, I can attack him without doing violence to
+my professional conscience. White River Canneries was never in the
+Boordman office to my knowledge. This isn't vengeance on my part; it's
+my duty to get what I can for the estate."
+
+"Well, some of our farmers down my way got soaked in that deal, but it
+never seemed worth while to waste their money in litigation. I'll be
+glad to turn the claims I have in my office over to you; the more you
+have, the stronger fight you can make."
+
+"Good. I welcome business. I'm going to see if I can't get to the bottom
+of the can."
+
+As a _revolte_ Dan had attracted more attention than he liked, in all
+the circumstances. Now that the legislature had adjourned, he was
+anxious to give his energy to the law, and he did not encourage
+political pilgrims to visit his office. He felt that he had behaved
+generously toward his old chief when the end came, and the promptness
+with which Bassett's old guard sought to impeach his motives in fighting
+the corporation bill angered him. Threats of retaliation were conveyed
+to him from certain quarters; and from less violent sources he heard
+much of his ingratitude toward the man who had "made" him. He had failed
+in his efforts to secure the passage of several measures whose enactment
+was urged by the educational and philanthropic interests of the
+community, and this was plainly attributable to the animosity aroused by
+his desertion of the corporation bill. He had not finished with this
+last measure, which had been passed by Bassett's bi-partisan combination
+over the governor's veto. The labor organizations were in arms against
+it and had engaged Dan to attack it in the courts.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Sylvia's approval of his course had been as cordial as he could have
+asked, and as the spring advanced they were much together. They attended
+concerts, the theatre, and lectures, as often as she had time for
+relaxation, and they met pretty regularly at Mrs. Owen's dinner table on
+Sunday--often running out for long tramps in the country afterward, to
+return for supper, and a renewal of their triangular councils. The
+Bassetts were to continue at the Bosworth house until June, and when
+Marian dashed in upon these Sunday symposiums--sometimes with a young
+cavalier she had taken out for a promenade--she gave Dan to understand
+that his difficulties with her father made not the slightest difference
+to her.
+
+"But, mama!" She spoke of her mother as of one whose views must not
+weigh heavily against the world's general good cheer--"mama says she
+_never_ trusted you; that there was just that something about you that
+didn't seem quite--" Marian would shake her head and sigh suggestively,
+whereupon Mrs. Owen would rebuke her and send her off to find the candy
+in the sideboard.
+
+Allen, relegated for a time to a sanatorium in the Adirondacks, amused
+himself by telegraphing to Marian daily; and he usually managed to time
+a message to reach Mrs. Owen's Sunday dinner table with characteristic
+remembrances for all who might be in her house. To Dan he wrote a letter
+commending his course in the legislature.
+
+"I always knew you would get on Dad's side one of these days. The Great
+Experiment is making headway. Don't worry about me. I'm going to live to
+be a hundred. There's really nothing the matter with my lungs, you know.
+Dad just wanted an excuse to come up here himself (mother and the girls
+used me as an excuse for years, you remember). He's doing big stunts
+tramping over the hills. You remember that good story Ware told us that
+night up in the house-boat? You wouldn't think Dad would have so much
+curiosity, but he's been over there to look at that place Ware told
+about. He's left me now to go down to New York to see the lights. . . .
+I'm taking quite a literary turn. You know, besides Emerson and those
+chaps who camped with him up here, Stevenson was here, too,--good old
+R.L.S.!"
+
+Several times Sylvia, Marian, and Dan collaborated in a Sunday round
+robin to Allen, in the key of his own exuberances.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII
+
+HEAT LIGHTNING
+
+
+"We'll finish the peaches to-night, and call it a day's work," remarked
+Mrs. Owen. "Sylvia, you'd better give another turn to the covers on
+those last jars. There's nothing takes the heart out of a woman like
+opening a can of fruit in January and finding mould on top. There,
+Annie, that's enough cinnamon. Put in too much and your peaches will
+taste like a drug store."
+
+Spicy odors floated from the kitchen of Mrs. Owen's house on Waupegan.
+The August afternoon sun struck goldenly upon battalions of glasses and
+jars in the broad, screened veranda, an extension of the kitchen itself.
+The newly affixed labels announced peach, crab-apple, plum, and
+watermelon preserves (if the mention of this last item gives you no
+thrill, so much the worse for you!); jellies of many tints and flavors,
+and tiny cucumber pickles showing dark green amid the gayer colors. Only
+the most jaded appetite could linger without sharp impingements before
+these condensations and transformations of the kindly fruits of the
+earth.
+
+In Mrs. Owen's corps of assistants we recognize six young women from
+Elizabeth House--for since the first of July Elizabeth House has been
+constantly represented on Waupegan, girls coming and going in sixes for
+a fortnight at the farm. Mrs. Owen had not only added bedrooms to the
+rambling old farmhouse to accommodate these visitors, but she had, when
+necessary, personally arranged with their employers for their vacations.
+
+On the face of it, the use of her farm as a summer annex to the working
+girls' boarding-house in town was merely the whim of a kind-hearted old
+woman with her own peculiar notions of self-indulgence. A cynical member
+of the summer colony remarked at the Casino that Mrs. Owen, with
+characteristic thrift, was inveigling shop-girls to her farm and then
+putting them to work in her kitchen. Mrs. Owen's real purpose was the
+study of the girls in Elizabeth House with a view to determining their
+needs and aptitude: she was as interested in the woman of forty
+permanently planted behind a counter as in the gayest eighteen-year-old
+stenographer. An expert had built for her that spring a model plant for
+poultry raising, an industry of which she confessed her own ignorance,
+and she found in her battery of incubators the greatest delight.
+
+"When a woman has spent twenty years behind a counter, Sylvia, or
+working a typewriter, she hasn't much ahead of her. What's the matter
+with ducks?"
+
+They made prodigious calculations of all sorts that summer, and
+continued their study of catalogues. Mrs. Owen expected to visit the
+best vocational schools in the country during the fall and winter. The
+school could not be a large one, but it must be wisely planned. Mrs.
+Owen had already summarized her ideas on a sheet of paper in the neat,
+Italian script which the daguerreotype ladies of our old seminaries
+alone preserve for us. The students of the proposed school were to be
+girls between fifteen and eighteen, who were driven by necessity into
+shops, factories, and offices. None should be excluded for lack of the
+knowledge presupposed in students ready for high school, and the general
+courses were to be made flexible so that those who entered deficient
+might be brought to a fixed standard. The vocational branches were the
+most difficult, and at Sylvia's suggestion several well-known
+authorities on technical education were called into conference. One of
+these had visited Waupegan and expressed his enthusiastic approval of
+Mrs. Owen's plans. She was anxious to avoid paralleling any similar
+work, public or private. What the city schools did in manual training
+was well enough, and she did not mean to compete with the state's
+technical school, or with its reformatory school for erring girls. The
+young girl about to take her place behind the ribbon counter, or at a
+sewing-machine in a garment factory, or as a badly equipped, ignorant,
+and hopeless stenographer, was the student for whom in due course the
+school should open its doors. Where necessary, the parents of the
+students were to be paid the wages their daughters sacrificed in
+attending school during the two-year course proposed. The students were
+to live in cottages and learn the domestic arts through their own
+housekeeping, the members of each household performing various duties in
+rotation. The school was to continue in session the year round, so that
+flower--and kitchen--gardening might take rank with dressmaking,
+cooking, fruit culture, poultry raising, and other branches which Mrs.
+Owen proposed to have taught.
+
+"I can't set 'em all up in business, but I want a girl that goes through
+the school to feel that she won't have to break her back in an overall
+factory all her life, or dance around some floor-walker with a waxed
+mustache. They tell me no American girl who has ever seen a trolley car
+will go into a kitchen to work--she can't have her beaux going round to
+the back door. Sylvia, we've got to turn out cooks that are worth going
+to kitchen doors to see! Now, I've taught you this summer how to make
+currant jelly that you needn't be ashamed of anywhere on earth, and it
+didn't hurt you any. A white woman can't learn to cook the way darkies
+do, just by instinct. That's a miracle, by the way, that I never heard
+explained--how these colored women cook as the good ones do--those
+old-fashioned darkies who take the cook book out of your hand and look
+at it upside down and grin and say, 'Yes, Miss Sally,' when they can't
+read a word! You catch a clean, wholesome white girl young enough, and
+make her understand that her kitchen's a laboratory, and her work
+something to be proud of, and she'll not have any trouble finding places
+to work where they won't ask her to clean out the furnace and wash the
+automobile."
+
+The Bassetts had opened their cottage early and Morton Bassett had been
+at the lake rather more constantly than in previous summers. Marian was
+off on a round of visits to the new-found friends that were the fruit
+of her winter at the capital. She was much in demand for house parties,
+and made her engagements, quite independently of her parents, for weeks
+and fortnights at widely scattered mid-Western resorts. Mrs. Bassett was
+indulging in the luxury of a trained nurse this summer, but even with
+this reinforcement she found it impossible to manage Marian. It need
+hardly be said that Mrs. Owen's philanthropic enterprises occasioned her
+the greatest alarm. It was enough that "that girl" should be spending
+the summer at Waupegan, without bringing with her all her fellow
+boarders from Elizabeth House.
+
+Mrs. Bassett had now a tangible grievance against her husband.
+Blackford's course at the military school he had chosen for himself had
+been so unsatisfactory that his father had been advised that he would
+not be received for another year. It was now Mrs. Bassett's turn to
+cavil at her husband for the sad mess he had made of the boy's
+education. She would never have sent Blackford to a military school if
+it had been her affair; she arraigned her husband for having encouraged
+the boy in his dreams of West Point.
+
+Blackford's father continuing indifferent, Mrs. Bassett rose from bed
+one hot August day filled with determination. Blackford, confident of
+immunity from books through the long vacation, was enjoying himself
+thoroughly at the lake. He was a perfectly healthy, good-natured lad,
+whose faults were much like those of the cheerful, undisciplined
+Marian. His mother scanned the reports of Blackford's demerits and
+decided that he required tutoring immediately. She thereupon reasoned
+that it would score with her aunt if she employed "that girl" to coach
+the delinquent Blackford. It would at any rate do no harm to manifest a
+friendly interest in her aunt's protegee, who would doubtless be glad of
+a chance to earn a little pin-money. She first proposed the matter to
+her aunt, who declared promptly that it must be for Sylvia to say; that
+Sylvia was busy writing a book (she was revising her grandfather's
+textbook), besides helping to entertain the Elizabeth House guests; but
+when the matter was referred to Sylvia, she cheerfully agreed to give
+Blackford two hours a day.
+
+Sylvia quickly established herself on terms of good comradeship with her
+pupil. Blackford was old enough to find the proximity of a pretty girl
+agreeable, and Sylvia was sympathetic and encouraging. When he confided
+to her his hopes of a naval career (he had finally renounced the Army)
+Sylvia sent off to Annapolis for the entrance requirements. She told him
+of her Grandfather Kelton's service in the Navy and recounted some of
+the old professor's exploits in the Civil War. The stories Sylvia had
+heard at her grandfather's knee served admirably as a stimulus. As the
+appointments to Annapolis had to be won in competitive examinations she
+soon persuaded him that the quicker he buckled down to hard study the
+sooner he would attain the goal. This matter arranged, Mrs. Bassett went
+back to bed, where she received Sylvia occasionally and expressed her
+sorrow that Mrs. Owen, at her time of life, should be running a
+boarding-house for a lot of girls who were better off at work. Her aunt
+was merely making them dissatisfied with their lot. She did not guess
+the import of the industries in Mrs. Owen's kitchen, as reported through
+various agencies; they were merely a new idiosyncracy of her aunt's old
+age, a deplorable manifestation of senility.
+
+Sylvia was a comfortable confessor; Mrs. Bassett said many things to her
+that she would have liked to say to Mrs. Owen, with an obscure hope that
+they might in due course be communicated to that inexplicable old woman.
+And Sylvia certainly was past the difficult art of brushing
+hair without tangling and pulling it, thereby tearing one's nerves to
+shreds--as the nurse did. Mrs. Owen's visits were only occasional, but
+they usually proved disturbing. She sniffed at the nurse and advised her
+niece to get up. She knew a woman in Terre Haute who went to bed on her
+thirtieth birthday and left it only to be buried in her ninetieth year.
+Sylvia was a far more consoling visitor to this invalid propped up on
+pillows amid a litter of magazines, with the cool lake at her elbow.
+Sylvia did not pooh-pooh Christian Science and New Thought and such
+things with which Mrs. Bassett was disposed to experiment. Sylvia even
+bestowed upon her a boon in the shape of the word "psychotherapy." Mrs.
+Bassett liked it, and declared that if she read a paper before the
+Fraserville Woman's Club the next winter--a service to which she was
+solemnly pledged--psychotherapy should be her subject. Thus Mrs.
+Bassett found Sylvia serviceable and comforting. And the girl knew her
+place, and all.
+
+Morton Bassett found Sylvia tutoring his son one day when he arrived at
+Waupegan unexpectedly. Mrs. Bassett explained the arrangement privately
+in her own fashion.
+
+"You seem to take no interest in your children, Morton. I thought
+Blackford was your particular pride, but the fact that he was
+practically expelled from school seemed to make not the slightest
+impression on you. I thought that until you _did_ realize that the boy
+was wasting his time here, I'd take matters into my own hands. Miss
+Garrison seems perfectly competent; she tells me Blackford is very
+quick--all he needs is application."
+
+"I hadn't got around to that yet, Hallie. I'd intended taking it up this
+week. I'm very busy," murmured Bassett.
+
+His wife's choice of a tutor seemed inconsistent with her earlier
+animosity toward Sylvia, but he shrank from asking explanations. Mrs.
+Bassett had grown increasingly difficult and arbitrary.
+
+"That's the American father all over! Well, I've done my duty."
+
+"No doubt it's a good arrangement. We've got to keep Blackford in hand.
+Where's Marian?"
+
+"She's visiting the Willings at their place at Whitewater. She's been
+gone a week."
+
+"The Willings? Not those Burton Willings? How did that happen;--I don't
+believe we care to have her visit the Willings."
+
+"They are perfectly nice people," she replied defensively, "and Marian
+knew their daughter at school. Allen Thatcher is in the party, and
+they're all people we know or know about."
+
+"Well, I don't want Marian visiting around promiscuously. I know nothing
+about the family, but I don't care for Willing. And we've had enough of
+young Thatcher. Marian's already seen too much of him."
+
+"Allen's a perfectly nice fellow. It isn't fair to dislike him on his
+father's account. Allen isn't a bit like his father; but even if he were
+you used to think well enough of Ed Thatcher."
+
+This shot was well aimed, and Bassett blinked, but he felt that he must
+exercise his parental authority. If he had been culpable in neglecting
+Blackford he could still take a hand in Marian's affairs.
+
+"So I did," he replied. "But I'm going to telegraph Marian to come home.
+What's the Willings' address?"
+
+"Oh, you'll find it on a picture postal card somewhere about. I'll write
+Marian to come home; but I wouldn't telegraph if I were you, Morton. And
+if you don't like my employing Miss Garrison, you can get rid of her: I
+merely felt that _something_ had to be done. I turn it all over to you,"
+she ended mournfully.
+
+"Oh, I have no objections to Miss Garrison. We'll see how Blackford gets
+on with her."
+
+Bassett was troubled by other things that summer than his son's
+education. Harwood's declaration of war in the White River Canneries
+matter had proved wholly disagreeable, and Fitch had not been able to
+promise that the case might not come to trial, to Bassett's
+discomfiture. It was a hot summer, and Bassett had spent a good deal of
+time in his office at the Boordman Building, where Harwood's name no
+longer adorned the door of Room 66. The 'Advertiser' continued to lay on
+the lash for his defeat of the appropriations necessary to sustain
+several important state institutions while he carried through his
+corporation bill. They were saying in some quarters that he had lost his
+head, and that he was now using his political power for personal warfare
+upon his enemies. Thatcher loomed formidably as a candidate for the
+leadership, and many predicted that Bassett's power was at last broken.
+On the other hand, Bassett's old lieutenants smiled knowingly; the old
+Bassett machine was still in perfect running order, they said, as
+Thatcher would learn when he felt the wheels grinding him.
+
+Bassett saw Sylvia daily, and he was wary of her at first. She had dealt
+him a staggering blow that rainy evening at the door of Elizabeth
+House--a blow which, from her, had an effect more poignant than she
+knew. That incident was ended, however, and he felt that he had nothing
+to fear from her. No one appreciates candor so thoroughly as the man who
+is habitually given to subterfuge, evasion, and dissimulation. Sylvia's
+consent to tutor Blackford indicated a kindly feeling toward the family.
+It was hardly likely that she would report to Mrs. Bassett his
+indiscretions with Rose Farrell. And his encounters with Sylvia had
+moreover encouraged the belief that she viewed life broadly and
+tolerantly.
+
+There was little for a man of Bassett's tastes to do at Waupegan. Most
+of the loungers at the Casino were elderly men who played bridge, which
+he despised; and he cared little for fishing or boating. Tennis and golf
+did not tempt him. His wife had practically ceased to be a figure in the
+social life of the colony; Marian was away, and Blackford's leisure was
+spent with boys of his own age. Morton Bassett was lonely.
+
+It thus happened that he looked forward with growing interest to
+Sylvia's daily visits to his house. He found that he could mark her
+progress from Mrs. Owen's gate round the lake to his own cottage from
+the window of a den he maintained in the attic. He remained there under
+the hot shingles, conscious of her presence in his house throughout her
+two hours with Blackford. Once or twice he took himself off to escape
+from her; but on these occasions he was surprised to find that he was
+back on the veranda when Sylvia emerged from the living-room with her
+pupil. She was always cheery, and she never failed to say something
+heartening of Blackford's work.
+
+A number of trifling incidents occurred to bring them together. The cook
+left abruptly, and Mrs. Bassett was reduced to despair. Bassett,
+gloomily pacing his veranda, after hearing his wife's arraignment of the
+world in general and domestic servants in particular, felt the clouds
+lift when Sylvia came down from a voluntary visit to the invalid. He
+watched her attack the problem by long-distance telephone. Sensations
+that were new and strange and sweet assailed him as he sat near in the
+living-room of his own house, seeing her at the telephone desk by the
+window, hearing her voice. Her patience in the necessary delays while
+connection was made with the city, her courtesy to her unseen auditors,
+the smile, the occasional word she flung at him--as much as to say, of
+course it's bothersome but all will soon come right!--these things
+stirred in him a wistfulness and longing such as the hardy oak must feel
+when the south wind touches its bare boughs with the first faint breath
+of spring.
+
+"It's all arranged--fixed--accomplished!" Sylvia reported at last.
+"There's a cook coming by the afternoon train. You'll attend to meeting
+her? Please tell Mrs. Bassett it's Senator Ridgefield's cook who's
+available for the rest of the summer, as the family have gone abroad.
+She's probably good--the agent said Mrs. Ridgefield had brought her from
+Washington. Let me see! She must have Thursday afternoon off and a
+chance to go to mass on Sunday. And you of course stand the railroad
+fare to and from the lake; it's so nominated in the bond!"
+
+She dismissed the whole matter with a quick gesture of her hands.
+
+Their next interview touched again his domestic affairs. He had
+telegraphed Marian to come home without eliciting a reply, and the next
+day he found in a Chicago newspaper a spirited and much-beheadlined
+account of the smashing of the Willings' automobile in a collision. It
+seemed that they had run into Chicago for a day's shopping and had met
+with this misadventure on one of the boulevards. The Willings' chauffeur
+had been seriously injured. Miss Marian Bassett, definitely described as
+the daughter of Morton Bassett, the well-known Indiana politician, had
+been of the party. Allen Thatcher was another guest of the Willings, a
+fact which added to Bassett's anger. He had never visited his hatred of
+Thatcher upon Allen, whom he had regarded as a harmless boy not to be
+taken seriously; but the conjunction of his daughter's name with that of
+his enemy's son in a newspaper of wide circulation in Indiana greatly
+enraged him. It was bound to occasion talk, and he hated publicity. The
+Willings were flashy people who had begun to spend noisily the money
+earned for them by an automobile patent. The indictment he drew against
+Marian contained many "counts." He could not discuss the matter with his
+wife; he carefully kept from her the newspaper story of the smash-up.
+The hotel to which the Willings had retired for repairs was mentioned,
+and Bassett resolved to go to Chicago and bring Marian home.
+
+The best available train passed Waupegan Station at midnight, and he sat
+alone on his veranda that evening with anger against Marian still hot in
+his heart. He had yet to apprise Mrs. Bassett of his intended journey,
+delaying the moment as long as possible to minimize her inevitable
+querulous moanings. Blackford was in his room studying, and Bassett had
+grimly paced the veranda for half an hour when the nurse came down with
+a request that he desist from his promenade, as it annoyed Mrs. Bassett
+in her chamber above.
+
+He thereupon subsided and retired to the darkest corner of the veranda.
+A four-hour vigil lay before him, and he derived no calm from the still
+stars that faintly shadowed the quiet waters below. He was assailed by
+torments reserved for those who, having long made others writhe without
+caring that they suffered, hear the swish of the lash over their own
+heads. He had only lately been conscious of his growing irritability. He
+hated men who yield to irritation; it was a sign of weakness, a failure
+of self-mastery. He had been carried on by a strong tide, imagining that
+he controlled it and guided it. He had used what he pleased of the
+apparatus of life, and when any part of the mechanism became
+unnecessary, he had promptly discarded it. It angered him to find that
+he had thrown away so much, that the mechanism was no longer as
+responsive as it had been. The very peace of the night grated upon him.
+
+A light step sounded at the end of the veranda. A figure in white was
+moving toward the door, and recognizing Sylvia, he rose hastily and
+advanced to meet her.
+
+"Is that you, Mr. Bassett? I ran over with a new grammar for Blackford
+that he will like better than the one he's using. I've marked his lesson
+so he can look it over before I come in the morning. How is Mrs.
+Bassett?"
+
+"She's very tired and nervous to-night. Won't you sit down?"
+
+"Thank you, no. If it isn't too late I'll run up and see Mrs. Bassett
+for a moment."
+
+"I think you'd better not. The nurse is trying to get her to sleep."
+
+"Oh, then of course I shan't stop," and Sylvia turned to go. "How soon
+will Marian be home?"
+
+"To-morrow evening; I'm going up to get her to-night," he answered
+harshly.
+
+"You are going to the Willings to come home with her?" asked Sylvia,
+surprised by his gruffness.
+
+He spoke in a lower tone.
+
+"You didn't see to-day's papers? She's been to Chicago with those
+Willings and their machine was smashed and the chauffeur hurt. I'm going
+to bring her back. She had no business to be visiting the Willings in
+the first place, and their taking her to Chicago without our consent was
+downright impudence. I don't want Mrs. Bassett to know of the accident.
+I'm going up on the night train."
+
+It satisfied his turbulent spirit to tell her this; he had blurted it
+out without attempting to conceal the anger that the thought of Marian
+roused in him.
+
+"She wasn't hurt? We should be glad of that!"
+
+Sylvia lingered, her hand on the veranda rail. She seemed very tall in
+the mellow starlight. His tone had struck her unpleasantly. There was no
+doubt of his anger, or that Marian would feel the force of it when he
+found her.
+
+"Oh, she wasn't hurt," he answered dully.
+
+"It's very unfortunate that she was mixed up in it. I suppose she ought
+to come home now anyhow."
+
+"The point is that she should never have gone! The Willings are not the
+kind of people I want her to know. It was a great mistake, her ever
+going."
+
+"Yes, that may be true," said Sylvia quietly. "I don't believe--"
+
+"Well--" he ejaculated impatiently, as though anxious for her to speak
+that he might shatter any suggestion she made. Before she came he had
+sharply vizualized his meeting with Marian and the Willings. He was
+impatient for the encounter, and if Sylvia projected herself in the path
+of his righteous anger, she must suffer the consequences.
+
+"If I were you I shouldn't go to Chicago," said Sylvia calmly. "I think
+your going for Marian would only make a disagreeable situation worse.
+The Willings may not be desirable companions for her, but she has been
+their guest, and the motor run to Chicago was only an incident of the
+visit. We ought to be grateful that Marian wasn't hurt."
+
+"Oh, you think so! You don't know that her mother had written for her to
+come home, and that I had telegraphed her."
+
+"When did you telegraph her?" asked Sylvia, standing her ground.
+
+"Yesterday; yesterday morning, in care of Willing at his farm address."
+
+"Then of course she didn't get your message; she couldn't have had it if
+the accident happened in time for this morning's Chicago papers. It must
+have taken them all day to get from their place to Chicago." "If she had
+been at the Willings' where we supposed she was she would have, got the
+message. And her mother had written--twice!"
+
+"I still think it would be a serious mistake in all the circumstances
+for you to go up there in a spirit of resentment to bring Marian home.
+It's not exactly my business, Mr. Bassett. But I'm thinking of Marian;
+and you could hardly keep from Mrs. Bassett the fact that you went for
+Marian. It would be sure to distress her."
+
+"Marian needs curbing; she's got to understand that she can't go
+gallivanting over the country with strangers, getting her name in the
+newspapers. I'm not going to have it; I'm going to stop her nonsense!"
+
+His voice had risen with his anger. Sylvia saw that nothing was to be
+gained by argument.
+
+"The main thing is to bring Marian home, isn't it, Mr. Bassett?"
+
+"Most certainly. And when I get her here she shall stay; you may be sure
+of that!"
+
+"I understand of course that you want her back, but I hope you will
+abandon the idea of going for her yourself. Please give that up! I
+promise that she shall come home. I can easily take the night train and
+come back with her. What you do afterward is not my affair, but somehow
+I think this is. Please agree to my way of doing it! I can manage it
+very easily. Mrs. Owen's man can take me across to the train in the
+launch. I shan't even have to explain about it to her, if you'd rather I
+didn't. It will be enough if I tell her I'm going on business. You will
+agree, won't you--please?"
+
+It was not in his heart to consent, and yet he consented, wondering that
+he yielded. The rescue of Marian from the Willings was taken out of his
+hands without friction, and there remained only himself against whom to
+vent his anger. He was curiously agitated by the encounter. The ironic
+phrases he had already coined for Marian's discomfiture clinked into the
+melting-pot. Sylvia was turning away and he must say something, though
+he could not express a gratitude he did not feel. His practical sense
+grasped one idea feebly. He felt its imbecility the moment he had
+spoken.
+
+"You'll allow me, of course, to pay your expenses. That must be
+understood."
+
+Sylvia answered over her shoulder.
+
+"Oh, yes; of course, Mr. Bassett. Certainly."
+
+He meant to accompany her to Mrs. Owen's door, but before he could move
+she was gone, running along the path, a white, ghost-like figure faintly
+discernible through the trees. He walked on tiptoe to the end of the
+veranda to catch the last glimpse of her, and waited till he caught
+across the quiet night the faint click of Mrs. Owen's gate. And he was
+inexpressibly lonely, now that she had gone.
+
+He opened the door of the living-room and found his wife standing like
+an accusing angel by the centre table. She loomed tall in her blue
+tea-gown, with her brown braids falling down her back.
+
+"Whom were you talking to, Morton?" she demanded with ominous severity.
+
+"Miss Garrison came over to bring a book for Blackford. It's a grammar
+he needed in his work."
+
+He held up the book in proof of his assertion, and as she tossed her
+head and compressed her lips he flung it on the table with an effort to
+appear at ease.
+
+"She wanted him to have it before his lesson in the morning."
+
+"She certainly took a strange time to bring it over here."
+
+"It struck me as very kind of her to trouble about it. You'll take cold
+standing there. I supposed you were asleep."
+
+"I've no doubt you did, Morton Bassett; but how do you suppose I could
+sleep when you were talking right under my window? I had already sent
+word about the noise you were making on the veranda."
+
+"We were not talking loudly; I didn't suppose we were disturbing you."
+
+"So you were talking quietly, were you! Will you please tell me what you
+have to talk to that girl about that you must whisper out there in the
+dark?"
+
+"Please be reasonable, Hallie. Miss Garrison was only here a few
+minutes. And as I knew noises on the veranda had disturbed you I tried
+to speak in a low tone. We were speaking of Blackford."
+
+"Well, I'd like you to know that I employed that girl to remedy your
+mistakes in trying to educate Blackford, and if she has any report to
+make she can make it to me."
+
+"Very well, then. It was only a few days ago that you told me you had
+done all you were going to do about Blackford; you gave me to
+understand that you washed your hands of him. You're nervous and
+excited,--very unnecessarily excited,--and I insist that you go back to
+bed. I'll call Miss Featherstone."
+
+"Miss Featherstone is asleep and you needn't bother her. I'm going to
+send her away at the end of her week anyhow. She's the worst masseuse I
+ever had; her clumsiness simply drives me frantic. But I never thought
+you would treat me like this--entertaining a young woman on the veranda
+when you thought I was asleep and out of the way. I'm astonished at Miss
+Garrison; I had a better opinion of her. I thought she knew her place. I
+thought she understood that I employed her out of kindness; and she's
+abused my confidence outrageously."
+
+"You can't speak that way of that young woman; she's been very good to
+you. She's come to see you nearly every day and shown you many
+kindnesses. It is kind of her to be tutoring Blackford at all when she
+came to the lake for rest."
+
+"For rest!"
+
+She gulped at the enormity of this; it was beyond belief that any
+intelligent being could have been deceived in a matter that was as plain
+as daylight to any understanding. "You think she came here for rest!
+Don't you know that she's hung herself around Aunt Sally's neck, and
+that she's filling Aunt Sally's head with all manner of wild ideas?
+She's been after Aunt Sally's money ever since she saw that she could
+influence her. Did you ever know of Aunt Sally's taking up any other
+girl? Has she ever traveled over the country with Marian or shown any
+such interest in her own flesh and blood?"
+
+"Please quiet yourself. You'll have Blackford and the nurse down here in
+a minute. You know perfectly well that Aunt Sally started Elizabeth
+House long before she had ever heard of this girl, and you know that
+your aunt is a vigorous, independent woman who is not led around by
+anybody."
+
+Her nostrils quivered and her eyes shone with tears. She leveled her arm
+at him rigidly.
+
+"I saw you walking with that girl yesterday! When she left here at noon
+you came down from the den and walked along to Aunt Sally's gate with
+her. I could see you through the trees from my bed, laughing and talking
+with her. I suppose it was then you arranged for her to come and sit
+with you on the veranda when you thought I was asleep!"
+
+He took a step toward her and seized the outstretched hand roughly.
+
+"You are out of your senses or you wouldn't speak in this way of Miss
+Garrison. She's been a kind friend to you all summer; you've told me
+yourself self how she's gone up to brush your hair and do little things
+for you that the nurse couldn't do as well. You've grown morbid from
+being ill so long, but nothing was ever more infamous than your
+insinuations against Miss Garrison. She's a noble girl and it's not
+surprising that Aunt Sally should like her. Everybody likes her!"
+
+Having delivered this blow he settled himself more firmly on his feet
+and glared.
+
+"Everybody likes her!" she repeated, snatching away her hand. "I'd like
+to know how you come to know so much about her."
+
+"I know enough about her: I know all about her!"
+
+"Then you know more than anybody else does. Nobody else seems to know
+_anything_ about her!" she ended triumphantly.
+
+"There you go again with insinuations! It's ungenerous, it's unlike
+you."
+
+"Morton Bassett," she went on huskily, "if you took some interest in
+your own children it would be more to your credit. You blamed me for
+letting Marian go to the Willings' and then telegraphed for her to come
+home. It's a beautiful relationship you have established with your
+children! She hasn't even answered your telegram. But I suppose if she
+had you'd have kept it from me. The newspapers talk about your secretive
+ways, but they don't know you, Morton Bassett, as I do. I suppose you
+can't imagine yourself entertaining Marian on the veranda or walking
+with her, talking and laughing, as I saw you with that girl."
+
+"Well, thank God there's somebody I can talk and laugh with! I'm glad to
+be able to tell you that Marian will be home to-morrow. You may have the
+satisfaction of knowing that if you _would_ let her go to the Willings'
+with Allen Thatcher I can at least bring her back after you failed to do
+it."
+
+"So you did hear from her, did you! Of course you couldn't have told me:
+I suppose you confide in Miss Garrison now," she ended drearily.
+
+His wife's fatigue, betrayed in her tired voice, did not mitigate the
+stab with which he wished to punish her references to Sylvia. And he
+delivered it with careful calculation.
+
+"You are quite right, Hallie. I did speak to Miss Garrison about Marian.
+Miss Garrison has gone to bring Marian home. That's all; go to bed."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII
+
+A CHEERFUL BRINGER OF BAD TIDINGS
+
+
+The announcement that Harwood was preparing to attack the reorganization
+of the White River Canneries corporation renewed the hopes of many
+victims of that experiment in high finance, and most of the claims
+reached Dan's office that summer. The legal points involved were
+sufficiently difficult to evoke his best energies, and he dug diligently
+in the State Library preparing his case. He was enjoying the cool, calm
+heights of a new freedom. Many older men were eking out a bare living at
+the law, and the ranks were sadly overcrowded, but he faced the future
+confidently. He meant to practice law after ideals established by men
+whose names were still potent in the community; he would not race with
+the ambulance to pick up damage suits, and he refused divorce cases and
+small collection business. He meant to be a lawyer, not a
+scandal-hunting detective or pursuer of small debtors with a constable's
+process.
+
+He tried to forget politics, and yet, in spite of his indifference,
+hardly a day passed that did not bring visitors to his office bent upon
+discussing the outlook. Many of these were from the country; men who,
+like Ramsay, were hopeful of at last getting rid of Bassett. Some of his
+visitors were young lawyers like himself, most of them graduates of the
+state colleges, who were disposed to take their politics seriously. Nor
+were these all of his own party. He found that many young Republicans,
+affected by the prevailing unrest, held practically his own views on
+national questions. Several times he gathered up half a dozen of these
+acquaintances for frugal dinners in the University Club rathskeller, or
+they met in the saloon affected by Allen's friends of Lueders's carpenter
+shop. He wanted them to see all sides of the picture, and he encouraged
+them to crystallize their fears and hopes; more patriotism and less
+partisanship, they all agreed, was the thing most needed in America.
+
+Allen appeared in Dan's office unexpectedly one hot morning and sat down
+on a chair piled with open lawbooks. Allen had benefited by his month's
+sojourn in the Adirondacks, and subsequent cruises in his motor car had
+tanned his face becomingly. He was far from rugged, but he declared that
+he expected to live forever.
+
+"I'm full of dark tidings! Much has happened within forty-eight hours.
+See about our smash-up in Chicago! Must have read it in the newspapers?"
+
+"A nice, odorous mess," observed Dan, filling his pipe. "I'm pained to
+see that you go chasing around with the plutocrats smashing lamp-posts
+in our large centres of population. That sort of thing is bound to
+establish your reputation as the friend of the oppressed. Was the
+chauffeur's funeral largely attended?"
+
+"Pshaw; he was only scratched; we chucked him into the hospital to keep
+him from being arrested, that was all. Look here, old man, you don't
+seem terribly sympathetic. Maybe you didn't notice that it was _my_ car
+that got smashed! It looked like a junk dealer's back yard when they
+pulled us out. I told them to throw it into the lake: I've just ordered
+a new car. I never cared for that one much anyhow."
+
+"Another good note for the boys around Lueders's joint! You're identified
+forever with the red-necked aristocrats who smash five thousand dollar
+motors and throw them away. You'd better go out in the hall and read the
+sign on the door. I'm a lawyer, not a father confessor to the
+undeserving rich."
+
+"This is serious, Dan," Allen remonstrated, twirling his straw hat
+nervously. "All that happened in connection with the smash-up didn't get
+into the newspapers."
+
+"The 'Advertiser' had enough of it: they printed, published, and uttered
+an extra with Marian's picture next to yours on the first page! You
+can't complain of the publicity you got out of that light adventure. How
+much space do you think it was worth?"
+
+"Stop chaffing and hear me out! I'm up against a whole lot of trouble,
+and I came to get your advice. You see, Dan, the Bassetts didn't know
+Marian was going on that automobile trip. Her mother had written
+her to leave the Willings' and go home--twice! And her father
+telegraphed--after we left the farm. She never got the telegram. Then,
+when Mr. Bassett read of the smash in the papers, I guess he was warm
+clear through. You know he doesn't cut loose very often; and--"
+
+"And he jumped on the train and went to Chicago to snatch Marian away
+from the Willings? I should think he would have done just that."
+
+"No; oh, no! He sent Sylvia!" cried Allen. "Sylvia came up on the night
+train, had a few words privately with Marian, took luncheon with the
+Willings, all as nice as you please, and off she went with Marian."
+
+Harwood pressed his thumb into his pipe-bowl and puffed in silence for a
+moment. Allen, satisfied that he had at last caught his friend's
+attention, fanned himself furiously with his hat.
+
+"Well," said Dan finally, "there's nothing so staggering in that.
+Sylvia's been staying at the lake: I suppose Mrs. Bassett must have
+asked her to go up and bring Marian home when the papers screamed her
+daughter's name in red ink. I understand that Mrs. Bassett's ill, and I
+suppose Bassett didn't like to leave her. There's nothing fuddlesome in
+that. Sylvia probably did the job well. She has the habit. What is there
+that troubles you about it, Allen?"
+
+His heart had warmed at the mention of Sylvia, and he felt more kindly
+toward Allen now that she had flashed across his vision. Many times a
+day he found Sylvia looking up at him from the pages of his books; this
+fresh news brought her near. Sylvia's journey to Chicago argued an
+intimacy with the Bassetts that he did not reconcile with his knowledge
+of her acquaintance with the family. He was aroused by the light touch
+of Allen's hand on his knee. The young man bent toward him with a
+bright light in his eyes.
+
+"You know," he said, "Marian and I are engaged!"
+
+"You're what?" bellowed Dan.
+
+"We're engaged, old man; we're engaged! It happened there at the
+Willings'. You know I think I loved her from the very first time I saw
+her! It's the beautifullest thing that ever came into my life. You don't
+know how happy I am: it's the kind of happiness that makes you want to
+cry. Oh, you don't know; nobody could ever know!"
+
+Dan rose and paced the floor, while Allen stood watching him eagerly and
+pouring his heart out. Dan felt that tragedy loomed here. He did not
+doubt Allen's sincerity; he was not unmoved by his manner, his voluble
+description of all the phases of his happiness. Allen, with all his
+faults and weaknesses, had nevertheless a sound basis of character.
+Harwood's affection for him dated from that first encounter in the
+lonely Meridian Street house when the boy had dawned upon him in his
+overalls and red silk stockings. He had never considered Allen's
+interest in Marian serious; for Allen had to Dan's knowledge paid
+similar attentions to half a dozen other girls. Allen's imagination made
+a goddess of every pretty girl, and Dan had settled down to the belief
+that his friend saw in Marian only one of the many light-footed Dianas
+visible in the city thoroughfares, whom he invested with deific charms
+and apostrophized in glowing phrases. But that he should marry
+Marian--Marian, the joyous and headstrong; Marian the romping, careless
+Thalia of Allen's bright galaxy! She was ill-fitted for marriage,
+particularly to a dreamy, emotional youngster like Allen. And yet, on
+the other hand, if she had arrived at a real appreciation of Allen's
+fineness and gentleness and had felt his sweetness and charm, why not?
+
+Dan's common sense told him that quite apart from the young people
+themselves there were reasons enough against it. Dan had imagined that
+Allen was content to play at being in love; that it satisfied the
+romantic strain in him, just as his idealization of the Great Experiment
+and its actors expressed and satisfied his patriotic feelings. The news
+that he had come to terms of marriage with Marian was in all the
+circumstances dismaying, and opened many dark prospects. Allen stood at
+the window staring across the roofs beyond. He whirled round as Dan
+addressed him.
+
+"Have you spoken to Mr. Bassett? You know that will be the first thing,
+Allen."
+
+"That's exactly what I want you to help me about? He's at Waupegan now,
+and of course I've got to see him. But you know this row between him and
+dad makes it hard. You know dad would do anything in the world for
+me--dear old dad! Of course I've told _him_. And you'd be surprised to
+see the way he took it. You know people don't know dad the way I do.
+They think he's just a rough old chap, without any fine feeling about
+anything. And mother and the girls leaving him that way has hurt him; it
+hurts him a whole lot. And when I told him last night, up at that big
+hollow cave of a house, how happy I was and all that, it broke him all
+up. He cried, you know--dad cried!"
+
+The thought of Edward G. Thatcher in tears failed to arrest the dark
+apprehensions that tramped harshly through Dan's mind. As for Bassett,
+Dan recalled his quondam chief's occasional flings at Allen, whom the
+senator from Fraser had regarded as a spoiled and erratic but innocuous
+trifler. Mrs. Bassett, Dan was aware, valued her social position highly.
+As the daughter of Blackford Singleton she considered herself
+unassailably a member of the upper crust of the Hoosier aristocracy. And
+Dan suspected that Bassett also harbored similar notions of caste.
+
+Independently of the struggle in progress between Thatcher and Bassett,
+it was quite likely that the Bassetts would look askance at the idea of
+a union between their daughter and Edward Thatcher's son, no matter what
+might be said in Allen's favor. Bassett's social acceptance was fairly
+complete, and he enjoyed meeting men of distinction. He was invariably
+welcomed to the feasts of reason we are always, in our capital,
+proffering to the great and good of all lands who pause for
+enlightenment and inspiration in our empurpled Athens. He was never
+ignored in the choice of those frock-coated and silk-hatted non-partisan
+committees that meet all trains at the Union Station, and quadrennially
+welcome home our eternal candidates for the joyous office of
+Vice-President of the Republic. He kept his dress suit packed for flight
+at Fraserville free of that delicate scent of camphor that sweetens the
+air of provincial festivals. Thatcher never, to the righteous,
+sensitive, local consciousness, wholly escaped from the maltster's
+taint, in itself horrible and shocking; nor did his patronage of budding
+genius in the prize ring, or his adventures (often noisily heralded) as
+a financial pillar of comic opera, tend to change or hide the leopard's
+spots in a community where the Ten Commandments haven't yet been
+declared unconstitutional, save by plumbers and paperhangers. Women who
+had never in their lives seen Mrs. Thatcher admired her for remaining in
+exile; they knew she must be (delectable phrase!) a good woman.
+
+"You know dad has had an awful lonely time of it, Dan, and if he has
+done things that haven't sounded nice, he's as sorry as anybody could
+ask. You know dad never made a cent in his life at poker, and his horses
+have come near busting him lots of times. And sentiment against
+breweries over here would astonish people abroad. It's that old Puritan
+strain, you know. You understand all that, Dan."
+
+Dan grinned in spite of himself. It was hardly less than funny to
+attempt a defense of Ed Thatcher by invoking the shades of the Puritans.
+But Thatcher did love his boy, and Dan had always given him full credit
+for that.
+
+"Never mind the breweries; tell me the rest of it."
+
+"Well," Allen continued, "dad always tells me everything, and when I
+spoke of Marian he told me a lot of things. He wants to put Bassett out
+of business and go to the Senate. Dad's set his heart on that. I didn't
+know that any man could hate another as he hates Bassett. That business
+in the state convention cut him deep;--no, don't you say a word! Dad
+hasn't any feeling against you; he thinks you're a fine fellow, and he
+likes to feel that when you quit Bassett you put yourself on his side.
+Maybe he's wrong, but just for my sake I want you to let him think so.
+But he's got it in for Bassett; he's got his guns all loaded and primed.
+Dad's deeper than you think. They used to say that dad was only second
+fiddle to Bassett, but you'll see that dad knows a thing or two."
+
+Dan drummed his desk. This reference to Thatcher's ambitions only
+kindled his anger and he wished that Allen would end his confidences and
+take himself off. But he pricked up his ears as Allen went on.
+
+"I'm telling you this just to show you how it mixes up things for Marian
+and me. I came to you for help, old man; and I want you to see how hard
+it is for me to go to Mr. Bassett and tell him I want to marry Marian."
+
+"Just a minute, Allen. Are you quite sure that Marian has made up her
+mind to marry you; that she really wants to marry anybody?"
+
+"I tell you it's all fixed! You don't imply that Marian is merely
+amusing herself at my expense! It wouldn't be like you to think that. I
+have always thought you liked Marian and saw how superb she is."
+
+"Of course I like Marian," said Dan hastily. "My one hope is that both
+of you will be happy; and the difficulties you have suggested only make
+that more important. You will have to wait. I'm not sure but that you
+had better keep this to yourselves for a while--maybe for a long time.
+It would be wise for you to talk to Aunt Sally. She's a good friend of
+yours, and one of the wisest of women."
+
+It was not in Allen's eye that he sought wisdom. With him, as with most
+people who ask advice, advice was the last thing he wanted. It was his
+way to unbosom himself, however, and he forged ahead with his story,
+with what seemed to Harwood a maddening failure to appreciate its
+sinister import. "You remember that when we were up there on the
+Kankakee, John Ware told a story one night--a mighty good story about an
+experience he had once?"
+
+"Yes; he told a lot of stories. Which one do you mean?"
+
+"Oh, the best one of all--about the woman in the Adirondacks. You
+haven't forgotten that?"
+
+"No; I do remember something about it."
+
+"You may not have noticed that while Ware was telling the story dad got
+up from the bed in the corner and walked over to the stove, after Ware
+had asked you--it was you, wasn't it?--to reach into the pocket of his
+coat over your head and get the book he was talking about--it was you he
+spoke to, wasn't it?"
+
+"Yes; it comes back to me now," replied Dan, frowning.
+
+"Well, I remember, because it struck me as odd that dad should be
+interested; it was Emerson, you know; and dad looked at the book in the
+light from the stove and asked me what the name was down in the inside
+of the cover. It was the binder's name in small letters,--Z. Fenelsa.
+Well, there's a long story about that. It's a horrible story to know
+about any man; but dad had been trying to find something he could use on
+Bassett. He's had people--the sort you can get to do such jobs--going
+over Bassett's whole life to find material. Dad says there's always
+something in every man's life that he wants to hide, and that if you
+keep looking you can find it. You see--"
+
+"I don't like to see," growled Harwood. "It's an ugly idea." And then,
+with sudden scorn for Thatcher's views on man's frailty, he said with
+emphasis: "Now, Allen, it's all right for you to talk to me about
+Marian, and your wish to marry her; but don't mix scandal up in it. I'm
+not for that. I don't want to hear any stories of that kind about
+Bassett. Politics is rotten enough at best without tipping over the
+garbage can to find arguments. I don't believe your father is going to
+stoop to that. To be real frank with you, I don't think he can afford
+to."
+
+"You've got to hear it; you can't desert me now. I'm away up in the air
+this morning, and even if you do hate this kind of thing, you've got to
+see where dad's hatred of Bassett puts Marian and me."
+
+"It puts you clean out of it; away over the ropes and halfway home!
+That's where it puts you," boomed Harwood.
+
+"Well, you've got to listen, and you've got to tell me what to do. Dad
+had already investigated Bassett's years in New York, when he was a
+young man studying in the law school down there. But they could get
+about so far and no farther. It's a long time ago and all the people
+Bassett knew at that time had scattered to the far corners of the earth.
+But that book struck dad all of a heap. It fitted into what he had heard
+about Bassett as a dilettante book collector; even then Bassett was
+interested in such things. And you know in that account of him you wrote
+in the 'Courier' that I told you I had read on the other side that first
+time we met? Well, when dad and I went to the Adirondacks it was only
+partly on my account; he met a man up there who had been working up
+Bassett's past, and dad went over all the ground himself. It was most
+amazing that it should all come out that way, but he found the place,
+and the same man is still living at the house where the strange woman
+stayed that Ware told about. I know it's just as rotten as it can be,
+but dad's sure Bassett was the man who took that woman there and
+deserted her. It fits into a period when Bassett wasn't in New York and
+he wasn't at Fraserville. They've found an old file of the Fraserville
+paper at the State Library that mentions the fact that Bassett's father
+was very ill--had a stroke--and they had hard work locating Bassett, who
+was the only child. There's only one missing link in the chain of
+evidence, and that's the woman herself, and her child that was born up
+there. Ware told us that night how he failed to get track of them later,
+and dad lost the trail right there too. But that's all I need tell you
+about it. That's what I've got hanging over me. And dad won't promise
+not to use it on Bassett if he has to."
+
+Harwood's face had gone white, but he smiled and knit his fingers
+together behind his head with an air of nonchalance that he did not
+feel. He knew that Thatcher meant to drive Bassett out of politics, but
+he had little faith in Thatcher's ability to do so. He discredited
+wholly the story Allen had so glibly recited. By Allen's own admission
+the tale was deficient in what Harwood's lawyer's instinct told him were
+essentials. The idea that Bassett could ever have been so stupid as to
+leave traces of any imaginable iniquities plain enough for Thatcher to
+find them after many years was preposterous. The spectacle of the pot
+calling the kettle black, never edifying, aroused Dan's ire against
+Thatcher. And Bassett was not that sort; his old liking for the man
+stirred to life again. Even the Rose Farrell incident did not support
+this wretched tissue of fabrication. He had hated Bassett for that; but
+it was not for the peccable Thatcher to point a mocking finger at
+Achilles's heel.
+
+"Well," said Allen impatiently.
+
+"Well," Dan blurted contemptuously, "I think your father's stooped
+pretty low, that's all. You can tell him for me that if he's digging in
+the muck-pile for that sort of thing, I'm done with him; I'm not only
+done with him, but if he attempts to use any such stuff as that, I'll
+fight him; I will raise a war on him that won't be forgotten in this
+state through all eternity. You tell him that; tell him you told me your
+story and that's what I said about it."
+
+"But, Dan, old man--" began Allen pleadingly.
+
+Harwood shook his head until his cowlick bobbed and danced.
+
+"You'd better get out of here, Allen. If you think you can marry Morton
+Bassett's daughter with that kind of a scandal in your pocket, I tell
+you you're mad--you've plumb gone insane! Great God, boy, you don't know
+the meaning of the words you use. You handle that thing like a child
+with a loaded pistol. Don't you see what that would mean--to Marian, to
+Blackford, to Mrs. Bassett--to Aunt Sally! Now, you want my advice, or
+you said you did, and I'm going to give you some. You go right down to
+that bank over there on the corner and buy a steamer ticket and a long
+letter of credit. Then take the first train for New York and go back to
+your mother and stay there till I send for you to come home. I mean
+that--every word of it. If you don't skip I'm damned if I don't go to
+Bassett and tell him this whole rotten story."
+
+Allen, the tears glistening in his frightened eyes, turned toward the
+door.
+
+"Good-bye, Dan, old man; I'm sorry it had to end this way. I'm
+disappointed, that's all."
+
+He paused after opening the door, hoping to be called back, but Harwood
+had walked to the window and stood with his hands in his pockets staring
+into the street.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX
+
+A SONG AND A FALLING STAR
+
+
+This was on Friday, and Harwood took the afternoon train for Waupegan.
+He had found that when he was tired or lonely or troubled he craved the
+sight of Sylvia. Sylvia alone could restore his equanimity; Sylvia who
+worked hard but never complained of weariness; Sylvia who saw life
+steadily and saw it whole, where he caught only fitful, distorted
+glimpses. Yes; he must see Sylvia. Not only must he see her but there
+were things he meant to say to her.
+
+He needed Sylvia. For several months he had been sure of that. He loved
+her and he meant to marry her. Since leaving college he had indulged in
+several more or less ardent flirtations, but they had ended harmlessly;
+it was very different with Sylvia! He had realized all that spring that
+she was becoming increasingly necessary to him; he needed her solace and
+her inspiration. He thrust one or two new books on the prevailing social
+unrest into his suit case and added a box of candy, smiling at the
+combination. Sylvia with all her ideals was still so beautifully human.
+She was quite capable of nibbling bon-bons to the accompaniment of a
+vivacious discussion of the sorrows of the world--he had seen her do
+just that! With her ideals of life and service, she would not be easily
+won; but he was in the race to win. Yes, there were things he meant to
+say to Sylvia, and in the tedious journey through the hot afternoon to
+Waupegan he formulated them and visualized the situations in which he
+should utter them.
+
+Dan reached Waupegan at six o'clock and went to one of the little inns
+at the lakeside near the village. He got into his flannels, ate supper,
+and set off for Mrs. Owen's with his offerings on the seven o'clock
+boat. In the old days of his intimacy with Bassett he had often visited
+Waupegan, and the breach between them introduced an element of
+embarrassment into his visit. He was very likely to meet his former
+chief, who barely bowed to him now when they met in hotels or in the
+streets of the capital.
+
+Jumping aboard the steamer just as it was pulling out, he at once saw
+Bassett sitting alone in the bow. There were only a few other
+passengers, and hearing Dan's step on the deck behind him, Bassett
+turned slightly, nodded, and then resumed his inspection of the farther
+shore lines. A light overcoat lay across his knees, and the protruding
+newspapers explained his visit to the village. Dan found a seat on the
+opposite side of the deck, resolved to accept Bassett's own definition
+of their relations--markedly expressed in Bassett's back and shoulders
+that were stolidly presented to him. Dan, searching out the lights that
+were just beginning to blink on the darkling shores, found the
+glimmering lanterns of Mrs. Owen's landing. Sylvia was there! It was
+Sylvia he had come to see, and the coldness with which Morton Bassett
+turned his back upon him did not matter in the least. It was his
+pliability in Bassett's hands, manifested at the convention where he had
+appeared as the boss's spokesman, that had earned him Sylvia's first
+rebuke.
+
+He was thinking of this and of Sylvia when Bassett left his chair and
+crossed the deck. Dan barely turned his head, thinking he was merely
+changing his seat for a better view; but as Bassett stopped in front of
+him, Dan rose and pushed forward a chair.
+
+"No, thank you; I suppose you came up on the evening train. I just
+wondered whether you saw Fitch to-day."
+
+"No, sir; I didn't see him; I didn't know he wanted to see me."
+
+"He was here yesterday and probably hadn't had time to see you before
+you left town. He had a proposition to make in that Canneries case."
+
+"I didn't know that, of course, or I should have waited. I've never had
+any talk with him about the Canneries business."
+
+"So he said."
+
+Bassett clapped his hand savagely upon his hat suddenly to save it from
+the breeze that had been roused by the increasing speed of the boat. He
+clearly disliked having to hold his hat on his head. Dan marked his old
+chief's irritation. There were deep lines in Bassett's face that had
+only lately been written there.
+
+"I'll see him Monday. I only ran up for a day or two. It's frightfully
+hot at home."
+
+Neither the heat, nor Harwood's enterprise in escaping from it,
+interested Bassett, who lifted his voice above the thumping of the
+machinery to say:--
+
+"I told Fitch to talk to you about that suit of yours and fix it up if
+we can come to terms. I told him what I'd stand for. I'm not afraid of
+the suit, and neither is Fitch, and I want you to understand that. My
+reasons for getting rid of it are quite apart from the legal questions."
+
+"It will save time, Mr. Bassett, if you tell Fitch that the suit won't
+be dropped until all the claims I represent are paid in full. Several of
+your associates in the reorganization have already sounded me on that,
+and I've said no to all of them."
+
+"Oh, you have, have you?" There was a hard glitter in Bassett's eyes and
+his jaws tightened.
+
+"All right, then; go ahead," he added, and walked grimly back to his
+chair.
+
+When the steamer stopped at his landing, Bassett jumped off and began
+the ascent to his house without looking at Harwood again. Dan felt that
+it had been worth the journey to hear direct from Bassett the
+intimations of a wish to compromise the Canneries case. And yet, while
+the boat was backing off, it was without exultation that he watched
+Bassett's sturdy figure slowly climbing the steps. The signs of wear,
+the loss of the politician's old elasticity, touched a chord of pity in
+Harwood's breast. In the early days of their acquaintance it had seemed
+to him that Bassett could never be beaten; and yet Dan had to-night read
+defeat in his face and manner. The old Morton Bassett would never have
+yielded an inch, never have made overtures of compromise. He would have
+emerged triumphant from any disaster. Harwood experienced something of
+the sensations of a sculptor, who, having begun a heroic figure in the
+grand manner of a Michael Angelo, finds his model shrinking to a pitiful
+pygmy. As Bassett passed from sight he turned with a sigh toward the
+red, white and blue lanterns that advertised Mrs. Owen's dock to the
+mariner.
+
+"Well, well, if it isn't Daniel," exclaimed Mrs. Owen, as Harwood
+greeted her and Sylvia on her veranda. "One of the farm hands quit
+to-day and you can go to work in the morning, Daniel."
+
+"Not if I'm strong enough to run, Aunt Sally. I'm going to have
+forty-eight hours' vacation if I starve to death the rest of my life."
+
+Rose Farrell had told him that Mrs. Owen was entertaining the Elizabeth
+House girls in installments, and he was not surprised to find the
+veranda filled with young women. Some of them he knew and Sylvia
+introduced him to the others.
+
+"When's Rose coming up?" asked Sylvia, balancing herself on the veranda
+rail. "You know she's expected."
+
+"Do I know she's expected? Didn't I have a note from you, Aunt Sally,
+ordering me to send her up? She's coming just as soon as I get back, but
+I think of staying forever."
+
+"A man has come and he's come to stay forever," murmured one of the
+young women.
+
+"Oh, you're an event!" laughed Sylvia. "But don't expect us to spoil
+you. The sport for to-morrow is tomato pickles, and the man who skipped
+to-day left because Aunt Sally wanted him to help scald and peel the
+tomats. Your job is cut out for you."
+
+"All right," he replied humbly. "I'll do anything you say but plough or
+cut wood. My enchanted youth on the farm was filled with those delights,
+and before I go back to that a swift Marathon runner must trip me."
+
+He was aware presently that one by one the girls were slipping away; he
+saw them through the windows settling themselves at the round table of
+the living-room, where Mrs. Owen was reading a newspaper. Not more than
+a quarter of an hour had passed when he and Sylvia found themselves
+alone.
+
+"I haven't scarlet fever or anything," he remarked, noting the flight
+with satisfaction.
+
+"I suppose we might go inside, too," suggested Sylvia obtusely.
+
+"Oh, I came up for the fresh air! Most of my nights lately have been
+spent in a hot office with not even a June bug for company. How are the
+neighbors?"
+
+"The Bassetts? Oh, Mrs. Bassett is not at all well; Marian is at home
+now; Blackford is tutoring and getting ready to take the Annapolis
+examinations the first chance he gets."
+
+"I saw Allen to-day," he remarked carelessly.
+
+She said nothing. He moved his chair nearer.
+
+"He told me things that scared me to death--among others that he and
+Marian are engaged."
+
+"Yes, Marian told me that."
+
+"Ah! She really takes it seriously, does she?"
+
+"Yes, she takes it seriously; why shouldn't she?"
+
+"It's the first time she ever took anything seriously; that's all."
+
+"Please don't speak of her like that, Dan. You know she and I are
+friends, and I thought you and she were friends too. She always speaks
+of you in the very kindest way. Your leaving Mr. Bassett didn't make any
+difference with her. And you are the greatest of Blackford's heroes next
+to Nelson and Farragut."
+
+Dan laughed.
+
+"So it isn't Napoleon, and Grant and Custer any more? I'm glad he's
+settled down to something."
+
+"He's a fine boy with a lot of the right stuff in him. We've been having
+some lessons together."
+
+"Tutoring Blackford? You'll have to explain the psychological processes
+that brought that about."
+
+"Oh, they're simple enough. He hadn't done well in school last year;
+Mrs. Bassett was troubled about it. I take him for a couple of hours
+every morning. Mrs. Bassett engaged me, and Mr. Bassett approved of the
+plan. Allen probably told you all the news, but he didn't know just how
+I came to go to Chicago cago to bring Marian home. It was to keep the
+news of that automobile smash from Mrs. Bassett, and to save Marian's
+own dignity with the Willings."
+
+"Oh! You went at her father's instance, did you?"
+
+"Yes. I offered to go when I found that he was very angry and likely to
+deal severely and ungenerously with Marian. I thought it would be better
+for me to go."
+
+"As near as I can make out, you've taken the Bassetts on your
+shoulders. I didn't suppose Aunt Sally would stand for that."
+
+"Aunt Sally doesn't know why I went to Chicago. I assume Mrs. Bassett
+knows I went to bring Marian home, but I don't know what Mr. Bassett
+told her about it, and I haven't seen her since. It's possible my going
+may have displeased her. Blackford came here for his lessons this
+morning."
+
+Dan moved uneasily. The domestic affairs of the Bassetts did not
+interest him save as they involved Sylvia. It was like Sylvia to help
+them out of their scrapes; but Sylvia was not a person that he could
+scold or abuse.
+
+"You needed rest and it's too bad you've had to bother with their
+troubles. Bassett was on the boat as I came over. He had a grouch. He
+doesn't look like a happy man."
+
+"I don't suppose he is altogether happy. And I've begged Marian not to
+tell him she wants to marry Allen. That would certainly not cheer him
+any, right now."
+
+"I'm glad you had a chance to do that. I told Allen to skip right out
+for Europe and hang on to his mother's apron strings till I send for
+him. This old Capulet and Montague business doesn't ring quite true in
+this twentieth century; there's something unreal about it. And just what
+those youngsters can see in each other is beyond me."
+
+"You must be fair about that. We haven't any right to question their
+sincerity."
+
+"Oh, Allen is sincere enough; but you'll have to show me the documents
+on Marian's side of it. She sees in the situation a great lark. The
+fact that her father and Thatcher are enemies appeals to her romantic
+instincts."
+
+"I think better of it than that, Dan. She's a fine, strong, loyal girl
+with a lot of hard common sense. But that doesn't relieve the situation
+of its immediate dangers. She's promised me not to speak to her father
+yet--not until she has my consent. When I see that it can't be helped,
+I'm going to speak to Mr Bassett about it myself."
+
+"You seem to be the good angel of the Bassett household," he remarked
+sullenly. A lover's jealousy stirred in his heart, he did not like to
+think of Sylvia as preoccupied with the affairs of others, and he saw no
+peace or happiness ahead for Marian and Allen. "It's all more wretched
+than you imagine. This war between Thatcher and Bassett has passed the
+bounds of mere political rivalry. There's an implacable hatred there
+that's got to take its course. Allen told me of it this morning when he
+was trying to enlist me in his cause with Marian. It's hideous--a
+perfectly rotten mess. Thatcher is preparing a poisoned arrow for
+Bassett. He's raked up an old scandal, an affair with a woman. It makes
+my blood run cold to think of its possibilities."
+
+"But Mr. Thatcher wouldn't do such a thing; he might threaten, but he
+wouldn't really use that sort of weapon!"
+
+"You don't know the man, Sylvia. He will risk anything to break Bassett
+down. There's nothing respectable about Thatcher but his love for Allen,
+and that doesn't redeem everything."
+
+"But you won't let it come to that. You have influence enough yourself
+to stop it. Even if you hated him you would protect Mrs. Bassett and the
+children."
+
+"I could do nothing of the kind, Sylvia. Now that I've left Bassett my
+influence has vanished utterly. Besides, I'm out of politics. I hate the
+game. It's rotten--rotten clean through."
+
+"I don't believe it's quite true that you have lost your influence. I
+read the newspapers, and some of them are saying that you are the hope
+of your party, and that you have a large following. But you wouldn't do
+that, Dan; you wouldn't lend yourself to such a thing as that!"
+
+"I'm not so sure," he replied doggedly, angry that they should be
+discussing the subject at all, though to be sure he had introduced it.
+"A man's family has got to suffer for his acts; it's a part of the
+punishment. I'd like to see Bassett driven out of politics, but I assure
+you that I don't mean to do it. There's no possibility of my having the
+chance. He put me in the legislature to use me; and I'm glad that's all
+over. As I tell you, I'm out of the game."
+
+"I don't sympathize with that at all, Dan; you not only ought to stay
+in, but you ought to do all you can to make it impossible for men like
+Bassett and Thatcher to have any power. The honor of the state ought to
+be dear to all of us; and if I belonged to a party I think I should have
+a care for its honor too."
+
+The time was passing. It was not to discuss politics that he had gone to
+Waupegan.
+
+"Come," he said. "Let's find a canoe and get out under the stars."
+
+Sylvia went for a wrap, and they had soon embarked, skimming along in
+silence for a time till they were free of the shores. There was no moon,
+but the stars shone brilliantly; a fitful west wind scarcely ruffled the
+water. Along the deep-shadowed shores the dock lanterns twinkled, and
+above and beyond them the lamps of the cottages flashed and vanished.
+Dan paddled steadily with a skilled, splashless stroke. The paddle sank
+noiselessly and rose to the accompaniment of a tinkling drip as the
+canoe parted the waters. There is nothing like a canoe flight under
+stars to tranquilize a troubled and perplexed spirit, and Dan was soon
+won to the mood he sought. It seemed to him that Sylvia, enfolded in the
+silvery-dim dusk in the bow, was a part of the peace of sky and water.
+They were alone, away from the strifes and jars of the world, shut in
+together as completely as though they had been flung back for unreckoned
+ages into a world of unbroken calm. The peace that Wordsworth sought and
+sang crept into their blood, and each was sensible that the other knew
+and felt it and that it was grateful to them both.
+
+Sylvia spoke, after a time, of immaterial things, or answered his
+questions as to the identity of the constellations mapped in the clear
+arch above.
+
+"I dream sometimes of another existence," she said, "as I suppose every
+one does, when I knew a quiet lake that held the stars as this does. I
+even think I remember how it looked in winter, with the ice gleaming in
+the moonlight, and of snow coming and the keen winds piling it in
+drifts. It's odd, isn't it? those memories we have that are not
+memories. The metempsychosis idea must have some substance. We have all
+been somebody else sometime, and we clutch at the shadows of our old
+selves, hardly believing they are shadows."
+
+"It's a good deal a matter of imagination, isn't it?" asked Dan, idling
+with the paddle.
+
+"Oh, but I haven't a bit of that. That's one thing I'm not troubled
+with, and I'm sorry for it. When I look up at the stars I think of the
+most hideous formula for calculating their distances from the earth.
+When I read in a novel that it was a night of stars, I immediately
+wonder what particular stars. It used to make dear Grandfather Kelton
+furiously indignant to find a moon appearing in novels contrary to the
+almanac; he used to check up all the moons, and he once thought of
+writing a thesis on the 'Erroneous Lunar Calculations of Recent
+Novelists,' but decided that it didn't really make any difference. And
+of course it doesn't."
+
+As they discussed novels new and old, he drew in his paddle and crept
+nearer her. It seemed to him that all the influences of earth and heaven
+had combined to create this hour for him. To be talking to her of books
+that interpreted life and of life itself was in itself something sweet;
+he wished such comradeship as this, made possible by their common
+interests in the deep, surging currents of the century in which they
+lived, to go on forever.
+
+Their discussion of Tolstoy was interrupted by the swift flight of a
+motor boat that passed near, raising a small sea, and he seized the
+paddle to steady the canoe. Then silence fell upon them.
+
+"Sylvia" he said softly, and again, "Sylvia!" It seemed to him that the
+silence and the beauty of the night were his ally, communicating to her
+infinite longings hidden in his heart which he had no words to express.
+"I love you, Sylvia; I love you. I came up to-night to tell you that."
+
+"Oh, Dan, you mustn't say it--you must never say it!"
+
+The canoe seemed to hang between water and stars, a motionless argosy in
+a sea of dreams.
+
+"I wanted to tell you before you came away," he went on, not heeding; "I
+have wanted to tell you for a long time. I want you to marry me. I want
+you to help me find the good things; I want you to help me to stand for
+them. You came just when I needed you; you have already changed me, made
+a different man of me. It was through you that I escaped from my old
+self that was weak and yielding, and I shall do better; yes, I shall
+prove to you that I am not so weak but that I can strive and achieve.
+Every word you ever spoke to me is written on my heart. I need you,
+Sylvia!"
+
+"You're wrong, you're terribly wrong about all that; and it isn't fair
+to let you say such things. Please, Dan! I hoped this would never
+come--that we should go on as we have been, good friends, talking as we
+were a while ago of the fine things, the great things. And it will have
+to be that way--there can be nothing else."
+
+"But I will do my best, Sylvia! I'm not the man you knew first; you
+helped me to see the light. Without you I shall fall into the dark
+again. I had to tell you, Sylvia. It was inevitable that I should tell
+you; I wonder I kept it to myself so long. Without you I should go
+adrift--no bearings, no light anywhere."
+
+"You found yourself, Dan; that was the way of it. I saw it and
+appreciated it--it meant more to me than I can tell you. I knew exactly
+how it was that you started as you did; it was part of your fate; but it
+made possible the finer thing. It's nothing in you or what you've done
+or may do. But I have my own work to do. I have cut a pattern for my own
+life, and I must try to follow it. I think you understand about that--I
+told you that night when we talked of our aims and hopes on the campus
+at Montgomery that I wanted to do something for the world. And I must
+still go on trying to do that. It's a poor, tiny little gleam; but I
+must follow the gleam."
+
+"But there's nothing in that that we can't do together. We can go on
+seeking it together," he pleaded.
+
+"I hope it may be so. We must go on being the good friends we are now.
+You and Aunt Sally are all I have--the best I have. I can't let you
+spoil that," she ended firmly, as though, after all, this were the one
+important thing.
+
+There was nothing here, he reasoned, that might not be overcome. The
+work that she had planned to do imposed no barrier. Men and women were
+finding out the joy of striving together; she need give up nothing in
+joining her life to his. He touched the hand that lay near and thrilled
+to the contact of her lingers.
+
+"Please, Dan!" she pleaded, drawing her hand away. "I mean to go on with
+my life as I have begun it. I shall never marry, Dan,--marriage isn't in
+my plan at all. But for you the right woman will come some day--I hope
+so with all my heart. We must understand all this now. And I must be
+sure, oh, very sure, that you know how dear it is to have had you say
+these things to me."
+
+"But I shall say them again and always, Sylvia! This was only the
+beginning; I had to speak to-night; I came here to say these things to
+you. I am able to care for you now--not as I should like to, but I'm
+going to succeed. I want to ease the way for you; I mean that you
+mustn't go back to teaching this fall!"
+
+"There, you see"--and he knew she smiled in her patient, sweet way that
+was dear to him--"you want to stop my work before it's begun! You see
+how impossible it would be, Dan!"
+
+"But you can do other things; there are infinite ways in which you can
+be of use, doing the things you want to do. The school work is only a
+handicap,--drudgery that leads to nothing."
+
+He knew instantly that he had erred; and that he must give her no
+opportunity to defend her attitude toward her work. He returned quickly
+to his great longing and need.
+
+"Without you I'm a failure, Sylvia. If it hadn't been for you I should
+never have freed myself of that man over there!" And he lifted his arm
+toward the lights of the Bassett landing on the nearer shore.
+
+"No; you would have saved yourself in any case; there's no questioning
+that. You were bound to do it. And it wasn't the man; it was the base
+servitude that you came to despise."
+
+"Not without you! It was your attitude toward me, after that cheap piece
+of melodrama I figured in in that convention, that brought me up with a
+short turn. It all came through you--my wish to measure up to your
+ideal."
+
+"That's absurd, Dan. If I believed that I should think much less of you;
+I really should!" she exclaimed. "It was something finer and higher than
+that; it was your own manhood asserting itself. That man over there,"
+she went on more quietly, "is an object of pity. He's beset on many
+sides. It hurt him to lose you. He's far from happy."
+
+"He has no claim upon happiness; he doesn't deserve happiness," replied
+Dan doggedly.
+
+"But the break must have cost you something; haven't you missed him just
+a little bit?"
+
+It was clear from her tone that she wished affirmation of this. The
+reference to his former employer angered him. He had been rejoicing in
+his escape from Morton Bassett, and yet Sylvia spoke of him with
+tolerance and sympathy. The Bassetts were coolly using her to extricate
+themselves from the embarrassments resulting from their own folly; it
+was preposterous that they should have sent Sylvia to bring Marian home.
+And his rage was intensified by the recollection of the pathos he had
+himself felt in Bassett that very evening, as he had watched him mount
+the steps of his home. Sylvia was causing the old chords to vibrate with
+full knowledge that, in spite of his avowed contempt for the man, Morton
+Bassett still roused his curiosity and interest. It was unfair for
+Sylvia to take advantage of this.
+
+"Bassett's nothing to me," he said roughly.
+
+"He seems to me the loneliest soul I ever knew," replied Sylvia quietly.
+
+"He deserves it; he's brought himself to that."
+
+"I don't believe he's altogether evil. There must be good in him."
+
+"It's because he's so evil that you pity him; it's because of that that
+I'm sorry for him. It's because we know that he must be broken upon the
+wheel before he realizes the vile use he has made of his power that we
+are sorry for him. Why, Sylvia, he's the worst foe we have--all of us
+who want to do what we call the great things--ease the burdens of the
+poor, make government honest, catch the gleam we seek! Even poor Allen,
+when he stands on the Monument steps at midnight and spouts to me about
+the Great Experiment, feels what Morton Bassett can't be made to feel."
+
+"But he may yet see it; even he may come to see it," murmured Sylvia.
+
+"He's a hard, stubborn brute; it's in the lines of his back--I was
+studying him on the boat this evening, and my eyes followed him up the
+steps after they dropped him at his dock. It's in those strong, iron
+hands of his. I tell you, what we feel for him is only the kind of pity
+we have for those we know to be doomed by the gods to an ignominious
+end. He's not worth our pity. He asks no mercy and he won't get any."
+
+He was at once ashamed of the temper to which he had yielded, and angry
+at himself for having broken the calm of the night with these discordant
+notes. Sylvia's hand touched the water caressingly, waking tiny ripples.
+
+"Sylvia," he said when he was calm again, "I want you to marry me."
+
+"I have told you, Dan, that I can never marry any one; and that must be
+the end of it."
+
+"But your work can go on--" he began, ready for another assault upon
+that barrier.
+
+A sailboat loitering in the light wind had stolen close upon them, and
+passed hardly a paddle's length away. Dan, without changing his
+position, drove the canoe toward the shore with a few strokes of the
+paddle, then steadied himself to speak again. Sylvia's eyes watched the
+sails vanishing like ghosts into the dark.
+
+"That won't do, Sylvia: that isn't enough. You haven't said that you
+don't care for me; you haven't said that you don't love me! And I can't
+believe that your ambitions alone are in the way. Believe me, that I
+respect them; I should never interfere with them. There must be some
+other reason. I can't take no for an answer; this night was made for us;
+no other night will ever be just like this. Please, dear, if there are
+other reasons than my own poor spirit and the little I can offer, let me
+know it. If you don't care, it will be kinder to say it now! If that is
+the reason--even if there's some other man--let me know it now. Tell me
+what it is, Sylvia!"
+
+It was true that she had not said she did not care. Her silence now at
+the direct question stirred new fears to life in his breast, like the
+beat of startled wings from a thicket in November.
+
+Only the lights of the sailboat were visible now, but suddenly a girl's
+voice rose clear and sweet, singing to the accompaniment of guitar and
+mandolin. The guitar throbbed; and on its deep chords the mandolin wove
+its melody. The voice seemed to steal out of the heart of the night and
+float over the still waters. The unseen singer never knew the mockery of
+the song she sang. It was an old song and the air was one familiar the
+world round. And it bore the answer to Dan's question which Sylvia had
+carried long in her heart, but could not speak. She did not speak it
+then; it was ordained that she should never speak it. And Dan knew and
+understood.
+
+     "Who is Sylvia, what is she,
+     That all the swains adore her?"
+
+"_Who is Sylvia_?" Dan knew in that hour the answer of tears!
+
+The song ceased. When Dan saw Sylvia's head lift, he silently took the
+paddle and impelled the canoe toward the red, white, and blue lanterns
+that defined Mrs. Owen's landing. They were within a hundred yards of
+the intervening green light of the Bassett dock when a brilliant meteor
+darted across the zenith, and Dan's exclamation broke the tension.
+Their eyes turned toward the heavens--Sylvia's still bright with tears,
+Dan knew, though he could not see her face.
+
+"Poor lost star!" she murmured softly.
+
+Dan was turning the canoe slightly to avoid the jutting shore that made
+a miniature harbor at the Bassett's when Sylvia uttered a low warning.
+Dan, instantly alert, gripped his paddle and waited. Some one had
+launched a canoe at the Bassett boathouse. There was a stealthiness in
+the performance that roused him to vigilance. He cautiously backed water
+and waited. A word or two spoken in a low tone reached Dan and Sylvia:
+two persons seemed to be embarking.
+
+A canoe shot out suddenly from the dock, driven by a confident hand.
+
+"It must be Marian; but there's some one with her," said Sylvia.
+
+Dan had already settled himself in the stern ready for a race.
+
+"It's probably that idiot Allen," he growled. "We must follow them."
+
+Away from the shore shadows the starlight was sufficient to confirm
+Dan's surmise as to the nature of this canoe flight. It was quite ten
+o'clock, and the lights in the Bassett house on the bluff above had been
+extinguished. It was at once clear to Dan that he must act promptly.
+Allen, dismayed by the complications that beset his love-affair, had
+proposed an elopement, and Marian had lent a willing ear.
+
+"They're running away, Sylvia; we've got to head them off." He bent to
+his paddle vigorously. "They can't possibly get away."
+
+But it was not in Marian's blood to be thwarted in her pursuit of
+adventure. She was past-mistress of the canoeist's difficult art, and
+her canoe flew on as though drawn away into the dark on unseen cords.
+
+"You'd better lend a hand," said Dan, and Sylvia turned round and knelt,
+paddling Indian fashion. The canoe skimmed the water swiftly. It was in
+their thoughts that Marian and Allen must not land at Waupegan, where
+their intentions would be advertised to the world. The race must end
+before the dock was reached. At the end of a quarter of an hour Dan
+called to Sylvia to cease paddling.
+
+"We've passed them; there's no doubt of that," he said, peering into the
+dark.
+
+"Maybe they're just out for fun and have turned back," suggested Sylvia.
+
+"I wish I could think so. More likely they're trying to throw us off.
+Let's check up for a moment and see if we hear them again."
+
+He kept the canoe moving slowly while they listened for some sign of the
+lost quarry. Then suddenly they heard a paddle stroke behind them, and
+an instant later a canoe's bow brushed their craft as lightly as a hand
+passing across paper. Dan threw himself forward and grasped the sides
+firmly; there was a splashing and wobbling as he arrested the flight. A
+canoe is at once the most docile and the most intractable of argosies.
+Sylvia churned the water with her paddle, seeking to crowd the rocking
+canoes closer together, while Marian endeavored to drive them apart.
+
+"Allen!" panted Dan, prone on the bottom of his canoe and gripping the
+thwarts of the rebellious craft beside him, "this must end here."
+
+"Let us go!" cried Allen stridently. "This is none of your business. Let
+us go, I say."
+
+Finding it impossible to free her canoe, Marian threw down her paddle
+angrily. They were all breathless; Dan waited till the canoes rode
+together quietly. Sylvia had brought an electric lamp which Dan now
+flashed the length of the captive canoe. It searched the anxious, angry
+faces of the runaways, and disclosed two suit cases that told their own
+story.
+
+"I told you to keep away from here, Allen. You can't do this. It won't
+do," said Dan, snapping off the light; "you're going home with us,
+Marian."
+
+"I won't go back; you haven't any right to stop me!"
+
+"You haven't any right to run away in this fashion," said Sylvia,
+speaking for the first time. "You would cause endless trouble. It's not
+the way to do it."
+
+"But it's the only way out," stormed Allen. "There's no other way. Dan
+told me himself I couldn't speak to Mr. Bassett, and this is the only
+thing we could do."
+
+"Will you kindly tell me just what you intended doing?" asked Dan, still
+gripping the canoe.
+
+"I'd spoken to the minister here in the village. Marian was going to
+spend the night at his house and we were to be married in the morning
+as soon as I could get a license."
+
+"You can't get a marriage license in Waupegan; your minister ought to
+know that."
+
+"No; but we could have driven over early to the county seat and got it;
+I tell you I had it all fixed. You let go of that canoe!"
+
+"Stand by, Sylvia," said Dan with determination.
+
+He steadied himself a moment, stepped into Marian's canoe, and caught up
+her paddle.
+
+"Wait here, Sylvia. I'm going to land Allen over there at that dock with
+the two white lights, and I'll come back with Marian and we'll take her
+home. Flash the light occasionally so I shan't lose you."
+
+A few minutes later when Allen, sulky and breathing dire threats, had
+been dropped ashore, Harwood paddled Marian home, Sylvia trailing
+behind.
+
+It was near midnight when Sylvia, having hidden Marian's suit case in
+Mrs. Owen's boathouse, watched the tearful and wrathful Juliet steal
+back into her father's house.
+
+Allen lodged at the inn with Dan that night and, duly urged not to make
+a fool of himself again, went home by the morning train.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX
+
+THE KING HATH SUMMONED HIS PARLIAMENT
+
+
+The Great Seal of the Hoosier Commonwealth, depicting a sturdy pioneer
+felling a tree while behind him a frightened buffalo gallops madly into
+oblivion, was affixed to a proclamation of the governor convening the
+legislature in special session on the 20th of November. It was Morton
+Bassett's legislature, declared the Republican press, brought back to
+the capital to do those things which it had left undone at the regular
+session. The Democratic newspapers proved conclusively that the demands
+of the state institutions said to be in dire need were the fruit of a
+long period of Republican extravagance, for which the Democratic Party,
+always prone to err on the side of frugality, was in no wise
+responsible. The Republican governor had caused the legislative halls to
+be reopened merely to give a false impression of Democratic
+incompetence, but in due season the people would express their opinion
+of that governor. So reasoned loyal Democrats. Legislatures are not
+cheap, taken at their lowest valuation, and a special session, costing
+something like one hundred thousand of the people's dollars, is an
+extravagance before which a governor may well hesitate. This particular
+convocation of the Hoosier lawmakers, summoned easily enough by a
+stroke of the pen, proved to be expensive in more ways than one.
+
+On the third day of the special session, when the tardiest member,
+hailing from the remote fastnesses of Switzerland County, was just
+finding his seat, and before all the others had drawn their stationery
+and registered a generous computation of their mileage, something
+happened. The bill for an act entitled an act to lift the lid of the
+treasure chests was about to be read for the first time when a page
+carried a telegram to Morton Bassett in the senate chamber.
+
+Senator Bassett read his message once and again. His neighbors on the
+floor looked enviously upon the great man who thus received telegrams
+without emotion. It seemed, however, to those nearest him, that the bit
+of yellow paper shook slightly in Bassett's hand The clerk droned on to
+an inattentive audience. Bassett put down the telegram, looked about,
+and then got upon his feet. The lieutenant-governor, yawning and idly
+playing with his gavel, saw with relief that the senator from Fraser
+wished to interrupt the proceedings.
+
+"Mr. President."
+
+"The senator from Fraser."
+
+"Mr. President, I ask leave to interrupt the reading of the bill to make
+an announcement."
+
+"There being no objection, the senator will make his announcement."
+
+Senators who had been smoking in the cloakroom, or talking to friends
+outside the railing, became attentive. The senator from Fraser was
+little given to speech, and it might be that he meant at this time to
+indicate the attitude of the majority toward the appropriations asked by
+the governor. In any event, it was always wise to listen to anything
+Morton Bassett had to say.
+
+The senator was unusually deliberate. Even when he had secured the
+undivided attention of the chamber he picked up the telegram and read it
+through again, as though to familiarize himself with its contents.
+
+"Mr. President, I have just received the following message from a
+personal friend in Washington: 'The Honorable Roger B. Ridgefield,
+United States Senator from Indiana, while on a hunting trip in
+Chesapeake Bay with a party of Baltimore friends, died suddenly this
+morning. The death occurred at a point remote from the telegraph. No
+particulars have yet been received at Washington.' It is with profound
+sorrow, Mr. President, that I make this announcement. Though Senator
+Ridgefield had long been my political antagonist, he had also been, for
+many years, a valued personal friend. The Republican Party has lost one
+of its great leaders, and the State of Indiana a son to whom men of all
+parties have given their ungrudging admiration. Mr. President, I move
+that the senate do now adjourn to meet at ten o'clock to-morrow
+morning."
+
+Even before the motion could be put, Bassett was passing about among the
+desks. The men he spoke to nodded understandingly. A mild, subdued
+excitement reigned in the chamber. It flashed through the mind of every
+Democratic member that that death in the Chesapeake had brought a crisis
+in the war between Bassett and Thatcher. In due course the assembly,
+convened in joint session, would mourn decorously the death of a
+statesman who had long and honorably represented the old Hoosier State
+in the greatest tribunal on earth; and his passing would be feelingly
+referred to in sonorous phrases as an untoward event, a deplorable and
+irreparable loss to the commonwealth. To Republicans, however, it was a
+piece of stupendous ill-luck that the Senator should have indulged in
+the childish pastime of duck shooting at an inconvenient season when the
+Democratic majority in the general assembly would be able to elect a
+successor to complete his term of office.
+
+When the gavel fell, adjourning the senate, gentlemen were already
+seeking in the Federal Constitution for the exact language of the
+section bearing upon this emergency. If the Republican governor had not
+so gayly summoned the legislature he might have appointed a Senator of
+his own political faith to serve until the next regular session,
+following the elections a year hence. It was ungenerous and disloyal of
+Roger B. Ridgefield to have taken himself out of the world in this
+abrupt fashion. Before the first shock had passed, there were those
+about the State House who, scanning the newspaper extras, were saying
+that a secret fondness for poker and not an enthusiasm for ducks had led
+the Honorable Roger B. Ridgefield to the remote arm of the Chesapeake,
+where he had been the guest of a financier whose influence in the upper
+house of Congress was notoriously pernicious. This did not, however,
+alter the immediate situation. The language of the Federal and State
+Constitutions was all too explicit for the Republican minority; it was
+only in recess that a governor might fill a vacancy; and beyond doubt
+the general assembly was in town, lawfully brought from the farm, the
+desk, the mine, and the factory, as though expressly to satisfy the
+greed for power of a voracious Democracy.
+
+Groups of members were retiring to quiet corners to discuss the crisis.
+Bassett had already designated a committee room where he would meet his
+followers and stanch adherents. Thatcher men had gone forth to seek
+their chief. The Democrats would gain a certain moral strength through
+the possession of a Senator in Congress. The man chosen to fill the
+vacancy would have an almost irresistible claim upon the senatorship if
+the Democrats should control the next legislature. It was worth fighting
+for, that dead man's seat!
+
+The full significance of the news was not wasted upon Representative
+Harwood. The house adjourned promptly, and Dan hastened to write
+telegrams. He wired Colonel Ramsay, of Aurora, to come to the capital on
+the first train. Telegrams went flying that afternoon to every part of
+Indiana.
+
+Thatcher read the evening papers in Chicago and kept the wires hot while
+he waited for the first train for Indianapolis.
+
+One of his messages, addressed to Harwood, read:
+
+     "Breakfast with me to-morrow morning at my house. Strictly private.
+     This is your big chance."
+
+Harwood, locked in his office in the Law Building, received this message
+by telephone, and it aroused his ire. His relations with Thatcher did
+not justify that gentleman in tendering him a strictly private
+breakfast, nor did he relish having a big chance pointed out to him by
+Mr. Thatcher. It cannot be denied that Dan, too, felt that Senator
+Ridgefield had chosen a most unfortunate season for exposing himself to
+the ravages of the pneumococcus. He kept away from the State House and
+hotels that evening, having decided to take no part in the preliminary
+skirmishes until he had seen Ramsay, who would bring a cool head and a
+trained hand to bear upon this unforeseen situation.
+
+He studied the newspapers as he ate breakfast alone at the University
+Club early the next morning. The "Advertiser" had neatly divided its
+first page between the Honorable Roger B. Ridgefield, dead in a far
+country, and the Honorable Morton Bassett, who, it seemed, was very much
+alive at the Hoosier capital. A double column headline conveyed this
+intelligence:--
+
+     BASSETT IS HIMSELF AGAIN
+
+Harwood, nibbled his toast and winnowed the chaff of speculation from
+the grains of truth in this article. He had checked off the names of all
+the Bassett men in both houses of the assembly, and listed Thatcher's
+supporters and the doubtful members. Bassett would undoubtedly make a
+strong showing in a caucus, but whether he would be able to command a
+majority remained to be seen. There were men among the doubtful who
+would be disposed to favor Thatcher because he had driven a wedge into
+the old Bassett stone wall. No one else had ever succeeded in imperiling
+the security of that impregnable stronghold. The thought of this made
+Harwood uncomfortable. It was unfortunate from every standpoint that the
+legislature should be called upon to choose a Senator without the usual
+time for preparation. Dan had already been struck by the general air of
+irresponsibility that prevailed among the legislators. Many of the
+members had looked upon the special session as a lark; they seemed to
+feel that their accountability to their constituents had ended with the
+regular session.
+
+The "Courier," Dan observed, printed an excellent biographical sketch of
+the dead Senator, and its news article on the Democratic opportunity was
+seemly and colorless. The state and federal statutes bearing upon the
+emergency were quoted in full, but the names of Bassett and Thatcher did
+not appear, nor were any possible successors to Ridgefield mentioned.
+Dan opened to the editorial page, and was not surprised to find the
+leading article a dignified eulogy of the dead Senator. Then his eye
+fastened upon an article so placed that it dominated the whole page. It
+was the old "Stop, Look, Listen!" editorial, reproduced with minute
+citation of the date of original publication.
+
+Dan flinched as though a cupful of ice water had struck him in the face.
+Whatever scandalous knowledge touching Bassett's public or private life
+Thatcher might possess, it was plain that Bassett was either ignorant of
+it or knew and did not fear exposure. In either event, the republication
+of the "Stop, Look, Listen!" article was an invitation to battle.
+
+It was in no happy frame of mind that Harwood awaited the coming of
+Ramsay.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI
+
+SYLVIA ASKS QUESTIONS
+
+
+The Wares had asked Sylvia to dine with them on Friday evening a
+fortnight later, and Harwood was to call for her at the minister's at
+nine o'clock. Sylvia went directly to the Wares' from school, and on
+reaching the house learned that Mrs. Ware had not come home and that the
+minister was engaged with a caller in the parlor. Sylvia, who knew the
+ways of the house well, left her wraps in the hall and made herself
+comfortable in the study, that curious little room that was never free
+from the odor of pipe smoke, and where an old cavalry sabre hung above
+the desk upon which in old times many sermons had been written. A
+saddle, a fishing-rod, and a fowling-piece dwelt together harmoniously
+in one corner, and over the back of a chair hung a dilapidated corduroy
+coat.
+
+It had been whispered in orthodox circles that Ware had amused himself
+one winter after his retirement by profanely feeding his theological
+library into the furnace. However true this may be, few authors were
+represented in his library, and these were as far as possible compressed
+in one volume. Shakespeare, Milton, Emerson, Arnold, and Whittier were
+always ready to his hand; and he kept a supply of slender volumes of
+Sill's "Poems" in a cupboard in the hall and handed them out
+discriminatingly to his callers. The house was the resort of many young
+people, some of them children of Ware's former parishioners, and he was
+much given to discussing books with them; or he would read
+aloud--"Sohrab and Rustum," Lowell's essay on Lincoln, or favorite
+chapters from "Old Curiosity Shop"; or again, it might be a review
+article on the social trend or a fresh view of an old economic topic.
+The Wares' was the pleasantest of small houses and after Mrs. Owen's the
+place sought oftenest by Sylvia.
+
+"There's a gentleman with Mr. Ware: he's been here a long time," said
+the maid, lingering to lay a fresh stick of wood on the grate fire.
+
+Sylvia, warming her hands at the blaze, heard the faint blur of voices
+from the parlor. She surveyed the room with the indifference of
+familiarity, glanced at a new magazine, and then sat down at the desk
+and picked up a book she had never noticed before. She was surprised to
+find it a copy of "Society and Solitude" that did not match the
+well-thumbed set of Emerson--one of the few "sets" Ware owned. She
+passed her hand over the green covers, that were well worn and scratched
+in places. The fact that the minister boasted in his humorous way of
+never wasting money on bindings caused Sylvia to examine this volume
+with an attention she would not have given it in any other house. On the
+fly leaf was written in pencil, in Ware's rough, uneven hand, an
+inscription which covered the page, with the last words cramped in the
+lower corner. These were almost illegible, but Sylvia felt her way
+through them slowly, and then turned to the middle of the book quickly
+with an uncomfortable sense of having read a private memorandum of the
+minister's. The margins of his books she knew were frequently scribbled
+over with notes that meant nothing whatever to any one but Ware himself.
+After a moment her eyes sought again irresistibly the inscription. She
+re-read it slowly:--
+
+     "The way of peace they know not; and there is no judgment in their
+     goings; they have made them crooked paths; whosoever goeth therein
+     shall not know peace. Tramping in Adirondacks. Baptized Elizabeth
+     at Harris's."
+
+It was almost like eavesdropping to come in this way upon that curiously
+abrupt Ware-like statement of the minister's: "Tramping in Adirondacks.
+Baptized Elizabeth at Harris's."
+
+The discussion in the parlor had become heated, and occasionally words
+in a voice not Ware's reached Sylvia distinctly. Some one was
+alternately beseeching and threatening the minister. It was clear from
+the pauses in which she recognized Ware's deep tones that he was
+yielding neither to the importunities nor the threats of his blustering
+caller. Sylvia had imagined that the storms of life had passed over the
+retired clergyman, and she was surprised that such an interview should
+be taking place in his house. She was about to retreat to the
+dining-room to be out of reach of the voices when the parlor door opened
+abruptly and Thatcher appeared, with anger unmistakably showing in his
+face, and apparently disposed to resume in the hall the discussion which
+the minister had terminated in the library. Thatcher seemed balder and
+more repellent than when she had first seen him on the floor of the
+convention hall on the day Harwood uttered Bassett's defiance. Sylvia
+rose with the book still in her hand and walked to the end of the room;
+but any one in the house might have heard what Thatcher was saying.
+
+"That's the way with you preachers; you talk about clean politics, and
+when we get all ready to clean out a bad man, you duck; you're a lot of
+cowardly dodgers. I tell you, I don't want you to say a word or figure
+in this thing at all; but you give me that book and I'll scare Mort
+Bassett out of town. I'll scare him clean out of Indiana, and he'll
+never show his head again. Why, Ware, I've been counting on it, that
+when you saw we were in a hole and going to lose, you'd come down from
+your high horse and help me out. I tell you, there's no doubt about it;
+that woman's the woman I'm looking for! I guessed it the night you told
+that story up there in the house-boat."
+
+"Quit this business, Ed," the minister was saying; "I'm an old friend of
+yours. But I won't budge an inch. I'd never breathed a word of that
+story before and I shouldn't have told it that night. It was so far back
+that I thought it was safe. But your idea that Bassett had anything to
+do with that is preposterous. Your hatred of him has got the better of
+you, my friend. Drop it: forget it. If you can't whip him fair, let him
+win."
+
+"Not much I won't; but I didn't think you'd go back on me; I thought
+better of you than that!"
+
+Thatcher strode to the door and went out, slamming it after him.
+
+The minister peered into the library absently, and then, surprised to
+find Sylvia, advanced to meet her, smiling gravely. He took both her
+hands, and held them, looking into her face.
+
+"What's this you've been reading? Ah, that book!" The volume slipped
+into his hands and he glanced at it, frowning impatiently. "Poor little
+book. I ought to have burned it years ago; and I ought to have learned
+by this time to keep my mouth shut. They've always said I look like an
+Indian, but an Indian never tells anything. I've told just one story too
+many. _Mea maxima culpa!_"
+
+He sat down in the big chair beside his desk, placed the book within
+reach, and kept touching it as he talked.
+
+"I saw Mr. Thatcher," said Sylvia. "He seemed very much aroused. I
+couldn't help hearing a word now and then."
+
+"That's all right, Sylvia. I've known Thatcher for years, and last fall
+I went up to his house-boat on the Kankakee for a week's shooting. Allen
+and Dan Harwood were the rest of the party--and I happened to tell the
+story of this little book--an unfinished story. We ought never to tell
+stories until they are finished. And it seems that Thatcher, with a zeal
+worthy of a better cause, has been raking up the ashes of an old affair
+of Bassett's with a woman, and he's trying to hitch it on to the story I
+told him about this book. He says by shaking this at Bassett he can
+persuade him that he's got enough ammunition to blow him out of the
+water. But I don't believe a word of it; I won't believe such a thing of
+Morton Bassett. And even if I did, Thatcher can't have that book. I owe
+it to the woman whose baby I baptized up there in the hills to keep it.
+And the woman may be living, too, for all I know. I think of her pretty
+often. She was game; wouldn't tell anything. If a man had deceived her
+she stood by him. Whatever she was--I know she was not bad, not a bit of
+it--the spirit of the hills had entered into her--and those are
+cleansing airs up there. I suppose it all made the deeper impression on
+me because I was born up there myself. When I strike Adirondacks in
+print I put down my book and think a while. It's a picture word. It
+brings back my earliest childhood as far as I can remember. I call words
+that make pictures that way moose words; they jump up in your memory
+like a scared moose in a thicket and crash into the woods like a cavalry
+charge. I can remember things that happened when I was three years old:
+one day father shot a deer in our cornfield and I recall it perfectly.
+The general atmosphere of the old place steals over me yet. The very
+thought of the pointed spruces, the feathery tamaracks, all the scents
+and sounds of summer, and the long, white winters, does my soul good
+now. The old Hebrews understood the effect of landscape on character.
+They knew most everything, those old chaps. 'I will lift up mine eyes
+unto the hills from whence cometh my help.' Any strength there is in me
+dates back to the hills of my youth. I'd like to go back there to die
+when the bugle calls."
+
+Mrs. Ware had not yet come in. Ware lighted the lamp and freshened the
+fire. While he was doing this, Sylvia moved to a chair by the table and
+picked up the book. What Ware had said about the hills of his youth, the
+woods, the word tamarack that he had dropped carelessly, touched chords
+of memory as lightly as a breeze vibrates a wind harp. Was this merely
+her imagination that had been stirred, or was it indeed a recollection?
+Often before she had been moved by similar vague memories or longings,
+whatever they were. They had come to trouble her girlhood at Montgomery,
+when the snow whitened the campus and the wind sang in the trees. She
+was grateful that the minister had turned his back. Her hands trembled
+as she glanced again at the scribbled fly leaf; and more closely at the
+words penciled at the bottom: "Baptized Elizabeth at Harris's." Thatcher
+wanted this book to use against Bassett. Bassett was a collector of fine
+bindings; she had heard it spoken of in the family. It was part of
+Marian's pride in her father that he was a bookish man. When the
+minister returned to his seat Sylvia asked as she put down the book:--
+
+"Who was Elizabeth?"
+
+And then, little by little, in his abrupt way, he told the story, much
+as he had told it that night on the Kankakee, with pauses for which
+Sylvia was grateful--they gave her time for thought, for filling in the
+lapses, for visualizing the scene he described. And the shadow of the
+Morton Bassett she knew crept into the picture. She recalled their early
+meetings, that first brief contact on the shore of the lake; their talk
+on the day following the convention when she had laughed at him; that
+wet evening when they met in the street and he had expressed his
+interest in Harwood and the hope that she might care for the young
+lawyer. With her trained habits of reasoning she rejected this or that
+bit of testimony as worthless; but even then enough remained to chill
+her heart. Her hands were cold as she clasped them together. Who was
+Elizabeth? Ah, who was Sylvia? The phrase of the song that had brought
+her to tears that starry night on the lake when Dan Harwood had asked
+her to marry him smote her again. Her grandfather's evasion of her
+questions about her father and mother, and the twinges of heartache she
+had experienced at college when other girls spoke of their homes,
+assumed now for the first time a sinister meaning. Had she, indeed, come
+into the world in dishonor, and had she in truth known that far hill
+country, with its evergreens and glistening snows?
+
+Ware had finished his story, and sat staring into the crackling fire. At
+last he turned toward Sylvia. In the glow of the desk lamp her face was
+white, and she gazed with unseeing eyes at the inscription in the book.
+
+The silence was still unbroken when a few minutes later Mrs. Ware came
+in with Harwood, whom she had met in the street and brought home to
+dinner.
+
+Dan was full of the situation in the legislature, and the table talk
+played about that topic.
+
+"We're sparring for time, that's all, and the people pay the freight!
+The deadlock is clamped on tight. I never thought Thatcher would prove
+so strong. I think we could shake loose enough votes from both sides to
+precipitate a stampede for Ramsay, but he won't hear to it. He says he
+wants to do the state one patriotic service before he dies by cleaning
+out the bosses, and he doesn't want to spoil the record by taking the
+senatorship himself. Meanwhile Bassett stands fast and there's no
+telling when he'll break through Thatcher's lines."
+
+"Thatcher was here to see me to-day--the third time. He won't come back.
+You know what he's after?" said Ware.
+
+"Yes; I understand," Dan answered.
+
+"There won't be anything of that kind, will there, Dan?"
+
+Dan shrugged his shoulders, and glanced at Sylvia and Mrs. Ware.
+
+"Mrs. Ware knows about it; I had to tell her," remarked the minister,
+chuckling. "When Ed Thatcher makes two calls on me in one week, and one
+of them at midnight, there's got to be an explanation. And Sylvia heard
+him raving before I showed him out this afternoon."
+
+Sylvia's plate was untouched; her eyes searched those of the man who
+loved her before she spoke.
+
+"That's an ethical point, Mr. Ware. If it were necessary to use
+that,--if every other resource failed,--would you use it?"
+
+"No! Not if Bassett's success meant the utter destruction of the state.
+I don't believe a word of it. I haven't the slightest confidence in
+Thatcher's detective work, and the long arm of coincidence has to grasp
+something firmer than my pitiful little book to convince me."
+
+Dan shook his head.
+
+"He doesn't need the book, Mr. Ware. I've seen the documents in the
+case. Most of the evidence is circumstantial, but you remember what your
+friend Thoreau said about circumstantial evidence--something to the
+effect that it's sometimes pretty convincing, as when you find a trout
+in the milk."
+
+"But has Thatcher found the trout?"
+
+"Well, no; he hasn't exactly found the trout, but there's enough,
+there's altogether too much!" ended Dan despairingly. "The caucus
+doesn't meet again till to-morrow night, when Thatcher promises to show
+his hand. I'm going to put in the time trying to persuade Ramsay to come
+round."
+
+"You might take it yourself, Dan," suggested Mrs. Ware.
+
+"Oh, I'm not eligible; I'm a little shy of being old enough! And
+besides, I couldn't allow Ramsay to prove himself a better patriot than
+I am. There are plenty of fellows who have no such scruples, and we've
+got to look out or Bassett will shift suddenly to some man of his own if
+he finds he can't nominate himself."
+
+"But do you think he has any idea what Thatcher has up his sleeve?"
+asked Ware.
+
+"It's possible; I dare say he knows it. He's always been master of the
+art of getting information from the enemy's camp. But Thatcher has shown
+remarkable discretion in managing this. He tells me solemnly that nobody
+on earth knows his intentions except you, Allen, and me. He's saving
+himself for a broadside, and he wants its full dramatic effect."
+
+Sylvia had hardly spoken during this discussion; but the others looked
+at her curiously as she said:--
+
+"I don't think he has it to fire; it's incredible; I don't believe it."
+
+"Neither do I, Sylvia," said the minister earnestly.
+
+The talk at the Wares' went badly that evening. Harwood's mind was on
+the political situation. As he sat in the minister's library he knew
+that in upper chambers of the State House, and in hotels and
+boarding-houses, members of the majority in twos and threes, or here and
+there a dozen, were speculating and plotting. The deadlock was becoming
+intolerable. Interest in the result was keen in all parts of the
+country, and the New York and Chicago newspapers had sent special
+representatives to watch the fight. Dan was sick of the sight and sound
+of it. In the strict alignment of factions he had voted with Thatcher,
+yet he told himself he was not a Thatcher man. He had personally
+projected Ramsay's name one night in the hope of breaking the Bassett
+phalanx, but the only result was to arouse Thatcher's wrath against him.
+Bassett's men believed in Bassett. The old superstition as to his
+invulnerability had never more thoroughly possessed the imaginations of
+his adherents. Bassett was not only himself again, but his iron grip
+seemed tighter than ever He was making the fight of his life, and he was
+beyond question a "game" fighter, the opposition newspapers that most
+bitterly opposed Bassett tempered their denunciations with this
+concession. Dan fumed at this, such bosses were always game fighters,
+they had to be, and the readiness of Americans to admire the gameness of
+the Bassetts deepened his hostility. The very use of sporting
+terminology in politics angered him. In his mind the case was docketed
+not as Thatcher _versus_ Bassett, but as Thatcher and Bassett _versus_
+the People. It all came to that. And why should not the People--the
+poor, meek, long-suffering People, the "pee-pul" of familiar
+derision--sometimes win? His pride in the state of his birth was strong;
+his pride in his party was only second to it. He would serve both if he
+could. Not only must Bassett be forever put down, but Thatcher also; and
+he assured himself that it was not the men he despised, but the
+wretched, brutal mediaeval system that survived in them. And so
+pondering, it was no wonder that Dan brought no joy to John Ware's
+library that night. The minister himself seemed unwontedly preoccupied;
+Sylvia stared at the fire as though seeking in the flames answers to
+unanswerable questions. Mrs. Ware sought vainly to bring cheer to the
+company:
+
+Shortly after eight o'clock, Sylvia rose to leave.
+
+"Aunt Sally got home from Kentucky this afternoon, and I must drop in
+for a minute, Dan, if you don't mind."
+
+Sylvia hardly spoke on the way to Mrs. Owen's. Since that night on the
+lake she had never been the same, or so it seemed to Dan. She had gone
+back to her teaching, and when they met she talked of her work and of
+impersonal things. Once he had broached the subject of marriage,--soon
+after her return to town,--but she had made it quite clear that this was
+a forbidden topic. The good comradeship ship and frankness of their
+intercourse had passed, and it seemed to his despairing lover's heart
+that it could never be regained. She carried her head a little higher;
+her smile was not the smile of old. He shrank from telling her that
+nothing mattered if she cared for him as he believed she did. She gave
+him no chance, for one thing, and he had never in his bitter
+self-communing found any words in which to tell her so. More than ever
+he needed Sylvia, but Sylvia had locked and barred the doors against
+him.
+
+Mrs. Owen received them in her office, and the old lady's cheeriness was
+grateful to both of them.
+
+"So you've been having supper with the Wares, have you, while I ate here
+all by myself? A nice way to treat a lone old woman,--leaving me to prop
+the 'Indiana Farmer' on the coffee pot for company! I had to stay at
+Lexington longer than I wanted to, and some of my Kentucky cousins held
+me up in Louisville. I notice, Daniel, that there are some doings at the
+State House. I must say it was a downright sin for old Ridgefield to go
+duck shooting at his time of life and die just when we were getting
+politics calmed down in this state. When I saw that old 'Stop, Look,
+Listen!' editorial printed like a Thanksgiving proclamation in the
+'Courier,' I knew there was trouble. I must speak to Atwill. He's
+letting the automobile folks run the paper again."
+
+She demanded to know when Dan would have time to do some work for her;
+she had disposed of her Kentucky farm and was going ahead with her
+scheme for a vocational school to be established at Waupegan. This was
+the first that Dan had heard of this project, and its bearing upon the
+hopes of the Bassetts as the heirs apparent of Mrs. Owen's estate
+startled him.
+
+"I want you to draw up papers covering the whole business, Daniel, but
+you've got to get rid of your legislature first. I thought of a good
+name for the school, Sylvia. We'll call it Elizabeth House School, to
+hitch it on to the boarding-house. I want you and Daniel to go down East
+with me right after Christmas to look at some more schools where they do
+that kind of work. We'll have some fun next spring tearing up the farm
+and putting up the new buildings. Are Hallie and Marian in town,
+Sylvia?"
+
+"No, they're at Fraserville," Sylvia replied. "And I had a note from
+Blackford yesterday. He's doing well at school now."
+
+"Well, I guess you did that for him, Sylvia. I hope they're all grateful
+for that."
+
+"Oh, it was nothing; and they paid me generously for my work."
+
+"Humph!" Mrs. Owen sniffed. "Children, there are things in this world
+that a check don't settle."
+
+There were some matters of business to be discussed. Dan had at last
+received an offer for the Kelton house at Montgomery, and Mrs. Owen
+thought he ought to be able to screw the price up a couple of hundred
+dollars.
+
+"I'm all ready to close the estate when the sale is completed," said
+Dan. "Practically everything will be cleaned up when the house is sold.
+That Canneries stock that we inventoried as worthless is pretty sure to
+pan out. I've refused to compromise."
+
+"That's right, Daniel. Don't you compromise that case. This skyrocket
+finance is all right for New York, but we can't allow it here in the
+country where folks are mostly square or trying to be."
+
+"It seems hard to let the house go," said Sylvia. "It's given Mary a
+home and we'll have to find a place for her."
+
+"Oh, that's all fixed," remarked Mrs. Owen. "I've got work for her at
+Elizabeth House. She can do the darning and mending. Daniel, have you
+brought the papers from Andrew's safety box over here?"
+
+"Yes, Aunt Sally; I did that the last time I was in Montgomery. I wanted
+to examine the abstract of title and be ready to close this sale if you
+and Sylvia approved of it."
+
+"Well, well," Mrs. Owen said, in one of those irrelevances that adorned
+her conversation.
+
+Dan knew what was in her mind. Since that night on Waupegan, blessed
+forever by Sylvia's tears, the letter found among Professor Kelton's
+papers had led him through long, intricate mazes of speculation. It was
+the torn leaf from a book that was worthless without the context; a
+piece of valuable evidence, but inadmissible unless supported and
+illuminated by other testimony.
+
+[Illustration: SYLVIA MUST KNOW JUST WHAT WE KNOW]
+
+Sylvia had been singularly silent, and Mrs. Owen's keen eyes saw that
+something was amiss. She stopped talking, as much as to say, "Now, if
+you young folks have anything troubling you, now's your time to come out
+with it."
+
+An old clock on the stair landing boomed ten. Mrs. Owen stirred
+restlessly. Sylvia, sitting in a low chair by the fire, clasped her
+hands abruptly, clenched them hard, and spoke, turning her head slowly
+until her eyes rested upon Dan.
+
+"Dan," she asked, "did you ever know--do you know now--what was in the
+letter you carried to Grandfather Kelton that first time I saw you--the
+time I went to find grandfather for you?"
+
+Dan glanced quickly at Mrs. Owen.
+
+"Answer Sylvia's question, Daniel," the old lady replied.
+
+"Yes; I learned later what it was. And Aunt Sally knows."
+
+"Tell me; tell me what you know about it," commanded Sylvia gravely, and
+her voice was clear now.
+
+Dan hesitated. He rose and stood with his arm resting on the mantel.
+
+"It's all right, Daniel. Now that Sylvia has asked, she must know just
+what we know," said Mrs. Owen.
+
+"The letter was among your grandfather's papers. It was an offer to pay
+for your education. It was an unsigned letter."
+
+"But you know who wrote it?" asked Sylvia, not lifting her head.
+
+"No; I don't know that," he replied earnestly; "we haven't the slightest
+idea."
+
+"But how did you come to be the messenger? Who gave you the letter?" she
+persisted quietly.
+
+"Daniel never told me that, Sylvia. But if you want to know, he must
+tell you. It might be better for you not to know; you must consider
+that. It can make no difference now of any kind."
+
+"It may make a difference," said Sylvia brokenly, not lifting her head;
+"it may make a great deal of difference. That's why I speak of it;
+that's why I must know!"
+
+"Go on, Daniel; answer Sylvia's question."
+
+"Mr. Fitch gave it to me. It had been entrusted to him for delivery by a
+personal friend or a client: I never knew. He assured me that he had no
+idea what the letter contained; but he knew of course where it came
+from. He chose me for the errand, I suppose, because I was a new man in
+the office, and a comparative stranger in town. I remember that he asked
+me if I had ever been in Montgomery, as though to be sure I had no
+acquaintances there. I carried back a verbal answer--which was
+stipulated in the letter. The answer was 'No,' and in what way Mr. Fitch
+passed it on to his client I never knew."
+
+"You didn't tell me those things when we found the letter, Daniel," said
+Mrs. Owen reproachfully.
+
+The old lady opened a drawer, found a chamois skin, and polished her
+glasses slowly. Dan walked away as though to escape from that figure
+with averted face crouching by the fire. But without moving Sylvia
+spoke again, with a monotonous level of tone, and her question had the
+empty ring of a lawyer's interrogatory worn threadbare by repetition to
+a succession of witnesses:--
+
+"At that time was Mr. Bassett among the clients of Wright and Fitch, and
+did you ever see him in the office then, or at any time?"
+
+Mrs. Owen closed the drawer deliberately and raised her eyes to Dan's
+affrighted gaze.
+
+"Daniel, you'd better run along now. Sylvia's going to spend the night
+here."
+
+Sylvia had not moved or spoken again when the outer door closed on
+Harwood.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII
+
+"MY BEAUTIFUL ONE"
+
+
+Miss Farrell was surprised to find her employer already in his office
+when she unlocked the door at eight o'clock the next morning, and her
+surprise was increased when Harwood, always punctilious in such matters,
+ignored the good-morning with which she greeted him. The electric lights
+over Dan's desk were burning, a fact not lost upon his stenographer. It
+was apparent that Harwood had either spent the night in his office or
+had gone to work before daylight. Rose's eyes were as sharp as her wits,
+and she recognized at a glance the file-envelopes and papers relating to
+the Kelton estate, many of them superscribed in her own hand, that lay
+on Harwood's desk.
+
+She snapped off the lights with an air that implied reproof, or could
+not have failed of that effect if the man at the desk had been conscious
+of the act. He was hopelessly distraught and his face appeared no less
+pallid in daylight than in the electric glare in which Rose had found
+him. As the girl warmed her hands at the radiator in the reception room
+the telephone chimed cheerily. The telephone provides a welcome
+companionship for the office girl: its importunities and insolences are
+at once her delight and despair. Rose took down the receiver with
+relief. She parleyed guardedly with an unseen questioner and addressed
+Harwood from the door in the cautious, apologetic tone with which wise
+office girls break in upon the meditations of their employers.
+
+"Pardon me, Mr. Harwood. Shall I say you're engaged. It's Mr. Thatcher."
+
+Dan half-turned and replied with a tameness Rose had not expected.
+
+"Say what you please, Rose; only I don't want to talk to him or see him,
+or anybody."
+
+The clock in the court-house tower boomed nine sombrely. Dan distrusted
+its accuracy as he distrusted everything in the world that morning. He
+walked listlessly to the window and compared the face of the clock with
+his watch. He had thought it must be noon; but the hour of the day did
+not matter greatly.
+
+"It's all right," said Rose meekly from the door. "I told him you were
+probably at the State House."
+
+"Whom? Oh, thank you, Rose." And then, as though to ease her conscience
+for this mild mendacity, he added: "I believe I did have an engagement
+over there at nine."
+
+"He said--" Rose began warily; and then gave him an opportunity to cut
+her short.
+
+"What did he say?"
+
+"Oh, he was hot! He said if you came in before he found you, to say that
+if you and Ramsay didn't help him deliver the freight to-day he would
+get action to-morrow; that that's the limit."
+
+"He said to-morrow, did he? Very well, Rose. That's all."
+
+Rose, virtuously indexing the letter-book, saw Harwood as he idly ranged
+the rooms try the hall door to make sure it was bolted. Then he stood at
+the window of his own room, staring at nothing. The telephone chimed
+cheerfully at intervals. Ramsay sought him; Thatcher had stationed one
+of his allies at a telephone booth in the State House corridor to call
+the office at regular intervals. Newspaper reporters demanded to know
+where Harwood could be found; the governor, rankling under the criticism
+he had brought upon his party by the special session, wished to see
+Harwood to learn when, if possible, the legislature would take itself
+home. To these continual importunities Rose replied in tones of
+surprise, regret, or chagrin, as the individual case demanded, without
+again troubling her employer. The index completed, she filed papers,
+smoothed her yellow hair at the wash stand, exchanged fraternal signals
+with a girl friend in the office opposite, and read the "Courier's"
+report of the senatorial struggle with complete understanding of its
+intricacies.
+
+"Rose!"
+
+It was twelve o'clock when Harwood called her. He had brushed aside the
+mass of documents she had noted on her arrival, and a single letter
+sheet lay before him. Without glancing up he bade her sit down. She had
+brought her notebook prepared to take dictation. He glanced at it and
+shook his head. The tired, indifferent Harwood she had found at the end
+of his night vigil had vanished; he was once more the alert, earnest
+young man of action she admired.
+
+"Rose, I want to ask you some questions. I think you will believe me if
+I say that I shouldn't ask them if they were not of importance--of very
+great importance."
+
+"All right, Mr. Harwood."
+
+Her eyes had fallen upon the letter and her lids fluttered quickly. She
+touched her pompadour with the back of her hand and tightened the knot
+of her tie.
+
+"This is on the dead, Rose. It concerns a lot of people, and it's
+important for me to know the truth. And it's possible that you may not
+be able to help; but if you can't the matter ends here."
+
+He rose and closed the door of his room to shut out the renewed jingle
+of the telephone.
+
+"I want you to look at this letter and tell me whether you ever saw it
+before."
+
+She took it from him, glanced at the first line indifferently, looked
+closely at the paper, and gave it back, shaking her head.
+
+"We never had anything like that in the office, paper or machine either.
+That's heavier than the stationery you had over in the Boordman
+Building, and that's a black ribbon; we've always used purple
+copying-ribbons. And that letter wasn't copied; you can tell that."
+
+"That doesn't answer my question, Rose. I want to know whether you ever
+saw that letter before. Perhaps you'd better take another look at it."
+
+"Oh, I can tell any of my work across the street! I don't know anything
+about that letter, Mr. Harwood."
+
+Her indifference had yielded to respectful indignation. She set her
+lips firmly, and her blue eyes expressed surprise that her employer
+should be thus subjecting her to cross-examination.
+
+"I understand perfectly, Rose, that this is unusual, and that it is not
+quite on the square. But this is strictly between ourselves. It's on the
+dead, you understand."
+
+"Oh, I'd do anything for you that I'd do for anybody, yes, sir--I'd do
+more: but I refused ten thousand dollars for what I know about what
+happened in the Transportation Committee that winter I was its stenog.
+That's a lot of money; it would take care of me for the rest of my life;
+and you know Thatcher kept after me until I had to tell him a few things
+I'd do to him if he didn't let me alone. I'll answer your question
+straight," and she looked him in the eye, "I never saw that letter
+before, and I don't know anything about it. Is that all?"
+
+"To go back again, Rose," resumed Dan patiently, "not many girls would
+have the strength to resist a temptation like that, as you did. But this
+is a very different case. I need your help, but it isn't for myself that
+I'm trying to trace that letter. If it weren't a matter of actual need I
+shouldn't trouble you--be sure of that."
+
+"I always thought you were on the square, but you're asking me to do
+something you wouldn't do yourself. And I've told you again that I don't
+know anything about that letter; I never saw it before."
+
+She tapped the edge of the desk to hide the trembling of her fingers.
+The tears shone suddenly in her blue eyes.
+
+Dan frowned, but the frown was not for Rose. She had already betrayed
+herself; he was confident from her manner that she knew. The prompt
+denial of any knowledge of the fateful sheet of paper for which he had
+hoped all night had not been forthcoming. But mere assumptions would not
+serve him; he had walked in darkness too long not to crave the full
+light. The pathos of this girl's loyalty had touched him; her chance in
+life had been the slightest, she had been wayward and had erred deeply,
+and yet there were fastnesses of honor in her soul that remained
+unassailable.
+
+Her agitation distressed him; he had never seen her like this; he missed
+the little affectations and the droll retorts that had always amused
+him. She was no longer the imperturbable and ready young woman whose
+unwearying sunniness and amazing intuitions had so often helped him
+through perplexities.
+
+"As a matter of your own honor, Rose, you wouldn't tell me. But if the
+honor of some one else--"
+
+She shook her head slowly, and he paused.
+
+"No," she said. "I'm only a poor little devil of a stenog and I've been
+clear down,--you know that,--but I won't do it. I turned down Thatcher's
+ten thousand dollars, and I turned it down hard. The more important that
+letter is, the less I know about it. I'll go into court and swear I
+never saw or heard of it before. I don't know anything about it. If you
+want me to quit, it's all right; it's all right, Mr. Harwood. You've
+been mighty good to me and I hate to go; but I guess I'd better quit."
+
+He did not speak until she was quite calm again. As a last resource he
+must shatter her fine loyalty by an appeal to her gratitude.
+
+"Rose, if some one you knew well--some one who had been the kindest of
+friends, and who had lent you a hand when you needed it most--were in
+danger, and I needed your help to protect--that person--would you tell
+me?"
+
+Their eyes met; she looked away, and then, as she met his gaze again,
+her lips parted and the color deepened in her face.
+
+"You don't mean--" she began.
+
+"I mean that this is to help me protect a dear friend of yours and of
+mine. I shouldn't have told you this if it hadn't been necessary. It's
+as hard for me as it is for you, Rose. There's a great deal at stake.
+Innocent people will suffer if I'm unable to manage this with full
+knowledge of all the facts. You think back, six years ago last spring,
+and tell me whether you have any knowledge, no matter how indefinite, as
+to where that letter was written."
+
+"You say," she began haltingly, "there's a friend of mine that I could
+help if I knew anything about your letter? You'll have to tell me who it
+is."
+
+"I'd rather not do that; I'd rather not mention any names, not even to
+you."
+
+She was drying her eyes with her handkerchief. Her brows knit, she bent
+her head for an instant, and then stared at him in bewilderment and
+unbelief, and her lips trembled.
+
+"You don't mean my friend--my beautiful one!--not the one who picked me
+up out of the dirt--" She choked and her slender frame shook--and then
+she smiled wanly and ended with the tears coursing down her cheeks. "My
+beautiful one, who took me home again and kissed me--she kissed me
+here!" She touched her forehead as though the act were part of some
+ritual, then covered her eyes.
+
+"You don't mean"--she cried out suddenly,--"you don't mean it's that!"
+
+"No; it's not that; far from _that_," replied Dan sadly, knowing what
+was in her mind.
+
+He went out and closed the door upon her. He called Mrs. Owen on the
+telephone and told her he would be up immediately. Then he went back to
+Rose.
+
+"It was like this, Mr. Harwood," said the girl, quite composed again. "I
+knew him--pretty well--you know the man I mean. After that
+Transportation Committee work I guess he thought he had to keep his hand
+on me. He's like that, you know. If he thinks anybody knows anything on
+him he watches them and keeps a tight grip on them, all right. You know
+that about him?"
+
+Dan nodded. He saw how the web of circumstance had enmeshed him from the
+beginning. All the incidents of that chance visit to Fraserville to
+write the sketch of Bassett for the "Courier" lived in his memory.
+Something had been said there about Madison College; and his connection
+with Fitch's office had been mentioned, and on the fears thus roused in
+Morton Bassett, he, Daniel Harwood, had reared a tottering
+superstructure of aims, hopes, ambitions, that threatened to overwhelm
+him! But now, as the first shock passed, he saw all things clearly. He
+would save Sylvia even though Bassett must be saved first. If Thatcher
+could be silenced in no other way, he might have the senatorship; or Dan
+would go direct to Bassett and demand that he withdraw from the contest.
+He was not afraid of Morton Bassett now.
+
+"I had gone to work for that construction company in the Boordman where
+you found me. It was his idea to move me into your office--I guess you
+thought you picked me out; but he gave me a quiet tip to ask you for the
+job. Well, he'd been dropping into the construction office now and then
+to see me--you know the boss was never in town and I hadn't much to do.
+He used to dictate letters--said he couldn't trust the public stenogs in
+the hotels; and one day he gave me that letter to copy. He had written
+it out in lead pencil beforehand, but seemed mighty anxious to get it
+just right. After I copied it he worked it over several times, before he
+got it to suit him. He said it was a little business he was attending to
+for a friend. We burnt up the discards in the little old grate in the
+office. He had brought some paper and envelopes along with him, and I
+remember he held a sheet up to the light to make sure it didn't have a
+watermark. He threw down a twenty-dollar gold piece and took the letter
+away with him. After I had moved into your office he spoke of that
+letter once: one day when you were out he asked me how much money had
+been mentioned in the letter."
+
+"When was that, Rose?"
+
+"A few days after the state convention when you shot the hot tacks into
+Thatcher. He had been at Waupegan, you remember."
+
+Dan remembered. And he recalled also that Bassett had seen Sylvia at
+Mrs. Owen's the day following the convention, and it was not astonishing
+that the sight of her had reminded him of his offer to pay for her
+education. His own relation to the matter was clear enough now that Rose
+had yielded her secret.
+
+Rose watched him as he drew on his overcoat and she handed him his hat
+and gloves. Her friend, "the beautiful one," would not suffer; she was
+confident of this, now that Harwood was fully armed to protect her.
+
+"Keep after Ramsay by telephone until you find him. Tell him to come
+here and wait for me if it's all day. If you fail to catch him by
+telephone, go out and look for him and bring him here."
+
+In a moment he was hurrying toward Mrs. Owen's.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII
+
+THE MAN OF SHADOWS
+
+
+The dome was a great blot against the stars when, shortly after eight
+o'clock that evening, Sylvia entered the capitol.
+
+All night, in the room she had occupied on that far day of her first
+visit to Mrs. Owen, Sylvia had pondered. It is not for us to know what
+passed in that still chamber between her and her friend; but it was the
+way of both women to meet the truth squarely. They discussed facts
+impersonally, dispassionately, and what Sylvia had assumed, her old
+friend could not controvert. Not what others had done, not what others
+might do, but what course Sylvia should follow--this was the crux of the
+situation.
+
+"I must think it out; I must think it out," Sylvia kept repeating. At
+last Mrs. Owen left her lying dressed on the bed, and all night Sylvia
+lay there in the dark. Toward morning she had slept, and later when Mrs.
+Owen carried up her breakfast she did not refer to her trouble except to
+ask whether there was any news. Mrs. Owen understood and replied that
+there was nothing. Sylvia merely answered and said: "Then there is still
+time." What she meant by this her kind old friend did not know; but she
+had faith in her Sylvia. Dan came, but he saw Mrs. Owen only. Later
+Sylvia asked what he had said, and she merely nodded when Rose's story
+was repeated. Again she said: "Yes; there is still time."
+
+Sylvia had kept her room all day, and Mrs. Owen had rigidly respected
+her wish to be alone. She voluntarily appeared at the evening meal and
+talked of irrelevant things: of her school work, of the sale of the
+house at Montgomery, of the projected school at Waupegan.
+
+"I'm going out for a while," she said, after an hour in the little
+office. "I shan't be gone long, Aunt Sally; don't trouble about me. I
+have my key, you know."
+
+When she had gone, Mrs. Owen called one of the colored men from the
+stable and gave him a line to Harwood, with a list of places where Dan
+might be found. Her message was contained in a single line:--
+
+     "Sylvia has left the house. Keep an eye out for her; she told me
+     nothing."
+
+Sylvia found consolation and courage in the cold night air; her old
+friends the stars, whose names she had learned before she knew her
+letters, did not leave her comfortless. They had unconsciously
+contributed to her gift for seeing life in long vistas. "When you are
+looking at the stars," Professor Kelton used to say, "you are not
+thinking of yourself." It was not of herself that Sylvia was thinking.
+
+She prolonged her walk, gathering strength as the exercise warmed her
+blood, planning what she meant to do, even repeating to herself phrases
+she meant to use. So it happened that Mrs. Owen's messenger had found
+Dan at the State House and delivered the note, and that Dan, called from
+a prolonged conference with Ramsay, saw Sylvia's unmistakable figure as
+she reached the top of the stairway, watched her making inquiries of a
+lounger, saw men staring at her. It crossed his mind that she was
+seeking him, and he started toward her; but she had stopped again to
+question one of the idlers in the hall. He saw her knock at a door and
+knew it was Bassett's room--a room that for years had been set apart for
+the private councils of the senator from Fraser. As Sylvia knocked,
+several men came out, as though the interruption had terminated an
+interview. The unveiled face of the tall, dark girl called for a second
+glance; it was an odd place for a pretty young woman to be seeking
+Morton Bassett. They looked at each other and grinned.
+
+A single lamp on a table in the middle of the high-ceilinged room shed a
+narrow circle of light that deepened the shadows of the walls. Bassett,
+standing by a window, was aware of a lighter step than was usual in this
+plotting chamber. He advanced toward the table with his hands in his
+pockets, waited till Sylvia was disclosed by the lamp, stopped abruptly,
+stared at her with eyes that seemed not to see her. Then he placed a
+chair for her, muttering:--
+
+"I thought you would come."
+
+It seemed to her that a sigh broke from him, hidden by the scraping of
+the chair across the bare floor. He crossed and recrossed the floor
+several times, as though now that she had come he had dismissed her
+from his thoughts. Then as he passed near her with slow, heavy step she
+spoke.
+
+"I came to talk to you, Mr. Bassett. Please turn on the other lights."
+
+"Pardon me," he said; and she heard his fingers fumbling for the switch
+by the door. In a moment the room was flooded from the chandelier
+overhead, and he returned, and sat down by the table without looking at
+her.
+
+"I shouldn't have come here, but I knew of no other way. It seemed best
+to see you to-night."
+
+"It's all right," he replied indifferently.
+
+He sat drooping, as though the light had in itself a weight that bore
+him down. His face was gray; his hands hung impotently from the arms of
+his chair. He still did not meet her eyes, which had taken in every line
+of his figure, the little details of his dress, even the inconspicuous
+pearl pin thrust through the loose ends of his tie. A man opened the
+door hurriedly and peered in: Bassett was wanted elsewhere, he said.
+Without rising Bassett bade him wait outside. The man seemed to
+understand that he was to act as guard, and he began patroling the
+corridor. The sound of his steps on the tiles was plainly
+distinguishable as he passed the door.
+
+"It's all right now," Bassett explained. "No one will come in here."
+
+He threw his arm over the back of his chair and bent upon Sylvia a
+glance of mingled curiosity and indifference.
+
+"I understand," she said quietly, "that nothing has been done. It is
+not yet too late. The situation here is as it has been?"
+
+"Yes; if you mean out _there_. They are waiting for me."
+
+"I suppose Mr. Harwood is there, and Mr. Thatcher."
+
+He blinked at the names and changed his position slightly.
+
+"I dare say they are," he answered coldly.
+
+"I thought it best to see you and talk to you; and I'm glad I knew
+before it was too late."
+
+His eyes surveyed her slowly now from head to foot. Why was she glad she
+had known before it was too late? Her calmness made him uneasy,
+restless. It was a familiar characteristic of Morton Bassett that he met
+storm and stress stoically. He was prepared for scorn, recrimination,
+tears; but this dark-eyed girl, sitting before him in her gray
+walking-dress and plain hat with a bunch of scarlet flowers showing
+through the veil she had caught up over them, seemed in no danger of
+yielding to tears. Her voice fell in cool, even tones. He had said that
+he expected her, but she did not know what manner of meeting he had been
+counting on in his speculations. After a long look he passed his hand
+across his face.
+
+"I hope you haven't thought--you didn't think I should let them bring
+you into it."
+
+He spoke as though this were something due her; that she was entitled to
+his reassurance that the threatened cataclysm should not drag her down
+with him. When she made no reply he seemed to feel that he had not made
+himself clear, and he repeated, in other terms, that she need not be
+concerned for the outcome; that he meant to shield her.
+
+"Yes; I supposed you would do that; I had expected that."
+
+"And," he went on, as though to anticipate her, to eliminate the
+necessity for her further explanations, "you have a right to ask what
+you please. Or we can meet again to arrange matters. I am prepared to
+satisfy your demands in the fullest sense."
+
+His embarrassment had passed. She had sought the interview, but he had
+taken charge of it. Beyond the closed door the stage waited. This was
+the briefest interlude before the moment of his triumphant entrance.
+
+Sylvia smiled, an incredulous smile, and shook her head slowly, like a
+worn, tired mother whose patience is sorely taxed by a stubborn,
+unyielding child at her knee. Her lips trembled, but she bent her head
+for a moment and then spoke more quickly than before, as though
+overriding some inner spirit that strove rebelliously within her breast.
+
+"I know--almost all I ever need to know. But there are some things you
+must tell me now. This is the first--and the last--time that I shall
+ever speak to you of these things. I know enough--things I have stumbled
+upon--and I have built them up until I see the horror, the blackness.
+And I want to feel sure that you, too, see the pity of it all."
+
+Her note of subdued passion roused him now to earnestness, and he framed
+a disavowal of the worst she might have imagined. He could calm her
+fears at once, and the lines in his face relaxed at the thought that it
+was in his power to afford her this relief.
+
+"I married your mother. There was nothing wrong about it. It was all
+straight."
+
+"And you thought, oh, you thought I came for that--you believed I came
+to have you satisfy me of her honor! I never doubted her!" and she
+lifted her head proudly. "And that is what you thought I came for?" The
+indignation that flashed in her first stammered sentences died
+falteringly in a contemptuous whisper.
+
+Her words had cut him deep; he turned away aimlessly, fingering some
+papers on the table beside him. Then he plunged to the heart of the
+matter, as though in haste to exculpate himself.
+
+"I never meant that it should happen as it did. I knew her in New York
+when we were both students there. My father had been ill a long time; he
+was bent upon my marrying the daughter of his old friend Singleton, a
+man of wealth and influence in our part of the state. I persuaded your
+mother to run away and we were married, under an assumed name,--but it
+was a marriage good in law. There's no question of that, you understand.
+Then I left her up there in the Adirondacks, and went home. My father's
+illness was prolonged, and his condition justified me in asking your
+mother to wait. She knew the circumstances and agreed to remain away
+until I saw my way clear to acknowledging her and taking her home. You
+were born up there. Your mother grew impatient and hurt because I could
+not go back to her. But I could not--it would have ruined all my chances
+at home. When I went to find my wife she had disappeared. She was a
+proud woman, and I suppose she had good cause for hating me."
+
+He told the story fully, filling in the gaps in her own knowledge. He
+did not disguise the fact of his own half-hearted search for the woman
+he had deserted. He even told of the precautions he had taken to assure
+himself of the death of Edna Kelton by visiting Montgomery to look at
+her grave before his marriage to Hallie Singleton. He had gone back
+again shortly before he made the offer to pay for Sylvia's schooling,
+and had seen her with her grandfather in the little garden among the
+roses.
+
+Outside the guard slowly passed back and forth. Sylvia did not speak;
+her seeming inattention vexed and perplexed him. He thought her lacking
+in appreciation of his frankness.
+
+"Thatcher knows much of this story, but he doesn't know the whole," he
+went on. "He believes it was irregular. He's been keeping it back to
+spring as a sensation. He's told those men out there that he can break
+me; that at the last minute he will crush me. They're waiting for me
+now--Thatcher and his crowd; probably chuckling to think how at last
+they've got me cornered. That's the situation. They think they're about
+rid of Morton Bassett."
+
+"You left her; you deserted her; you left her to die alone, unprotected,
+without even a name. You accepted her loyalty and fidelity, and then
+threw her aside; you slunk away alone to her grave to be sure she
+wouldn't trouble you again. Oh, it is black, it is horrible!"
+
+Sylvia was looking at him with a kind of awed wonder in her eyes. For an
+instant there had been a faint suggestion of contrition in his tone, but
+it was overwhelmed by his desire for self-justification. It was of
+himself he was thinking, not of the deed in itself, not of the woman he
+had left to bear her child in an alien wilderness.
+
+"I tried to do what I could for you. I want you to know that. I meant to
+have cared for you, that no harm should come to you," he said, and the
+words jarred upon his own ears as he spoke them.
+
+In her face there was less of disdain than of marvel. He wished to
+escape from her eyes, but they held him fast. Messengers ran hurriedly
+through the corridors; men passed the door talking in tones faintly
+audible; but the excitement in the rival camps communicated nothing of
+its intensity to this quiet chamber. Men had feared Morton Bassett; this
+girl, with her wondering dark eyes, did not fear him. But he was
+following a course he had planned for this meeting, and he dared not
+shift his ground.
+
+"I don't want you to think that I haven't been grieved to see you
+working for your living; I never meant that you should do that.
+Hereafter that will be unnecessary; but I am busy to-night. To-morrow,
+at any time you say, we will talk of those things."
+
+There was dismissal in his manner and tone. He was anxious to be rid of
+her. The color deepened in her olive cheeks, but she bent upon him once
+more her patient, wondering, baffling smile.
+
+"Please never propose such a thing again, Mr. Bassett. There is
+absolutely nothing of that kind that you can do for me."
+
+"You want to make it hard for me; but I hope you will think better of
+that. It is right that I should make the only reparation that is
+possible now."
+
+This rang so false and was so palpably insincere that he was relieved
+when she ignored it.
+
+"You said a moment ago that your enemies, waiting out there, thought
+they had you beaten. I want you to tell me just how you propose to meet
+Mr. Thatcher's threat."
+
+"What am I going to do?" he broke out angrily. "I'm going into that
+caucus and beat Thatcher's game; I'm going to tell his story first! But
+don't misunderstand me; I'm going to protect you. I know men, and those
+men will respect me for coming out with it. I haven't been in politics
+all these years to be beaten at last by Ed Thatcher. I've pledged votes
+enough to-day to give me a majority of three on the next ballot; but
+I'll explode Thatcher's bombshell in his own hands. I'm all prepared for
+him; I have the documents--the marriage certificate and the whole
+business. But you won't suffer; you won't be brought into it. That's
+what I'm going to do about it!"
+
+The failure of his declaration to shake her composure disturbed him;
+perhaps after all his contemplated _coup_ was not so charged with
+electricity as he had imagined. Nothing in his bald statement of his
+marriage to her mother and the subsequent desertion had evoked the
+reproach, the recrimination, for which he had steeled himself when she
+entered the room. He felt his hold upon the interview lessening. He had
+believed himself expert in calculating effects, yet apparently she had
+heard his announcement, delivered with a brutal directness, without
+emotion.
+
+"This isn't quite all, Mr. Bassett," Sylvia began after a moment. "You
+have offered me reparation, or what you called by that name. You can't
+deny that I have a right to be satisfied with that reparation."
+
+"Certainly; anything in reason. It is for you to name the terms; I
+expect you to make them--adequate."
+
+"Let us go back a moment," she began, smiling at the care with which he
+had chosen his last word. "Last night I fought out for myself the whole
+matter of your scoundrelly, cowardly treatment of my mother. You can
+make no reparation to her. The time passed long ago for that. And there
+is absolutely nothing you can do for me. I will accept nothing from you,
+neither the name you denied to her nor money, now or later. So there is
+only one other person whose interest or whose happiness we need
+consider."
+
+He stared at her frowning, not understanding. Once more, as on that day
+when she had laughed at him, or again when she had taken the affairs of
+his own household into her hands, he was conscious of the strength that
+lay in her, of her power to drive him back upon himself. Something of
+his own masterful spirit had entered into her, but with a difference.
+Her self-control, her patient persistence, her sobriety of judgment, her
+reasoning mind, were like his own. She was as keen and resourceful as
+he, and he was eager for the explanation she withheld, as though,
+knowing that she had driven in his pickets, he awaited the charge of her
+lines. He bent toward her, feeling her charm, yielding to the
+fascination she had for him.
+
+"No," he said gently and kindly. "I don't see; I don't understand you."
+
+She saw and felt the change in him; but she was on guard against a
+reaction. He could not know how her heart throbbed, or how it had seemed
+for a moment that words would not come to her lips.
+
+"It is to you; it is to yourself that you must make the reparation. And
+you must make it now. There may never be a time like this; it is your
+great opportunity."
+
+"You think, you ask--" he began warily; and she was quick to see that
+the precise moment for the full stroke had not come; that the ground
+required preparation.
+
+"I think," she interrupted, smiling gravely, "that you want me to be
+your friend. More than that, we have long been friends. And deep down in
+your heart I believe you want my regard; you want me to think well of
+you. And I must tell you that there's a kind of happiness--for it must
+be happiness--that comes to me at the thought of it. Something there is
+between you and me that is different; somehow we understand each other."
+
+His response was beyond anything she had hoped for; a light shone
+suddenly in his face. There was no doubt of the sincerity of the feeling
+with which he replied:--
+
+"Yes; I have felt it; I felt it the first day we met!"
+
+"And because there is this understanding, this tie, I dare to be frank
+with you: I mean to make your reparation difficult. But you will not
+refuse it; you will not disappoint me. I mean, that you must throw away
+the victory you are prepared to win."
+
+He shook his head slowly, but he could not evade the pleading of her
+eyes.
+
+"I can't do it; it's too much," he muttered. "It's the goal I have
+sought for ten years. It would be like throwing away life itself."
+
+"Yes; it would be bitter; but it would be the first sacrifice you ever
+made in your life. You have built your life on lies. You have lurked in
+shadows, hating the light. You have done your work in the dark,
+creeping, hiding, mocking, vanishing. What you propose doing to-night in
+anticipating the blow of your enemy is only an act of bravado. There is
+no real courage in that. When you thrust Dan Harwood into the convention
+to utter your sneer for you, it was the act of a coward. And that was
+contemptible cowardice. You picked him up, a clean young man of ideals,
+and tried to train him in your cowardly shadow ways. When the pricking
+of your conscience made you feel some responsibility for me, you
+manifested it like a coward. You sent a cowardly message to the best man
+that ever lived, not knowing, not caring how it would wound him. And you
+have been a great thief, stealing away from men the thing they should
+prize most, but you have taught them to distrust it--their faith in
+their country--even more, their faith in each other! The shadows have
+followed you to your own home. You have hidden yourself behind a veil of
+mystery, so that your own wife and children don't know the man you are.
+You have never been true to anything--not to yourself, not to those who
+should be near and dear to you. And you have sneered at the people who
+send you here to represent them; you have betrayed them, not once but a
+hundred times; and you know it hasn't paid. You are the unhappiest man
+in the world. But there's a real power in you, or you could never have
+done the things you have done--the mean and vile things. You have brains
+and a genius for organizing and managing men. You could never have
+lasted so long without the personal qualities that a man must have to
+lead men. And you have led them, down and down."
+
+To all appearances she had spoken to dull ears. Occasionally their eyes
+had met, but his gaze had wandered away to range the walls. When she
+ceased he moved restlessly about the room.
+
+"You think I am as bad as that?" he asked, pausing by the table and
+looking down at her.
+
+"You are as bad--and as good--as that," she replied, the hope that
+stirred in her heart lighting her face.
+
+He shrugged his shoulders and sat down.
+
+"You have the wit to see that the old order of things is passing; the
+old apparatus you have learned to operate with a turn of the hand is out
+of date. Now is your chance to leave the shadow life and begin again.
+It's not too late to win the confidence--the gratitude even--of the
+people who now distrust and fear you. The day of reckoning is coming
+fast for men like you, who have made a mystery of politics, playing it
+as a game in the dark. I don't pretend to know much of these things, but
+I can see that men of your type are passing out; there would be no great
+glory for you in waiting to be the last to go. And there are things
+enough for you to do. If you ally yourself with the good causes that cry
+for support and leadership, you can be far more formidable than you have
+ever been as a skulking trickster; you can lead men up as you have led
+them down."
+
+"The change is coming; I have seen it coming," he replied, catching at
+the one thing it seemed safest to approve.
+
+But she was not to be thwarted by his acquiescence in generalities. He
+saw that she had brought him back to a point whence he must elect his
+course, but he did not flinch at the flat restatement of her demand.
+
+"You have done nothing to deserve the senatorship; you are not the
+choice of the people of this state. You must relinquish it; you must
+give it up!"
+
+The earnestness with which she uttered her last words seemed, to her
+surprise, to amuse him.
+
+"You think," he said, "that I should go back and make a new start by a
+different route? But I don't know the schedule; my transportation is
+good on only one line." And he grinned at his joke.
+
+"Oh, you will have to pay your fare!" she replied quickly. "You've never
+done that."
+
+His grin became a smile, and he said: "You want me to walk if I can't
+pay my way!"
+
+"Yes," she laughed happily, feeling that her victory was half won; "and
+you would have to be careful to stop, look, and listen at the
+crossings!"
+
+The allusion further eased the stress of the hour; humor shone in his
+gray eyes. He consulted his watch, frowned, bent his eyes upon the
+floor, then turned to her with disconcerting abruptness.
+
+"I haven't been half the boss you think me. I've been hedged in,
+cramped, and shackled. All these fellows who hop the stick when I say
+'Jump' have their little axes I must help grind. I've fooled away the
+best years of my life taking care of these little fellows, and I've
+spent a lot of money on them. It's become a little monotonous, I can
+tell you. It's begun to get on my nerves, for I have a few; and all this
+hammering I've taken from the newspapers has begun to make me hot. I
+know about as much as they do about the right and wrong of things; I
+suppose I know something about government and the law too!"
+
+"Yes," Sylvia assented eagerly.
+
+He readjusted himself in his chair, crossing his legs and thrusting his
+hands into his trousers pockets.
+
+"It _would_ be rather cheerful and comfortable," he continued musingly,
+as though unburdening himself of old grievances, "to be free to do as
+you like once in a lifetime! Those fellows in Thatcher's herd who have
+practically sold out to me and are ready to deliver the goods to-night
+are all rascals, swung my way by a few corporations that would like to
+have me in Washington. It would be a good joke to fool them and elect a
+man who couldn't be bought! It's funny, but I've wondered sometimes
+whether I wasn't growing tired of the old game."
+
+"But the new game you can play better than any of them. It's the only
+way you can find peace."
+
+With a gesture half-bold, half-furtive, he put out his hand and touched
+lightly the glove she had drawn off and laid on the table.
+
+"You believe in me; you have some faith left in me?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+Her hand touched his; her dark eyes searched the depths of his
+soul--sought and found the shadows there and put them to flight. When
+she spoke it was with a tenderness that was new to all his experience of
+life; he had not known that there could be balm like this for a bruised
+and broken spirit. This girl, seeking nothing for herself, refusing
+anything he could offer, had held up a mirror in which he saw himself
+limned against dancing, mocking shadows. Nothing in her arraignment had
+given him a sharper pang than her reference to his loneliness, his
+failure to command sympathy and confidence in his home relationships. No
+praise had ever been so sweet to him as hers; she not only saw his
+weaknesses and dealt with them unsparingly, but she recognized also the
+strength he had wasted and the power he had abused. She saw life in
+broad vistas as he had believed he saw it; he was not above a stirring
+of pride that she appreciated him and appraised his gifts rightly. He
+had long played skillfully upon credulity and ignorance; he had
+frittered away his life in contentions with groundlings. It would be a
+relief, if it were possible, to deal with his peers, the enlightened,
+the far-seeing, and the fearless, who strove for great ends. So he
+pondered, while outside the sentinel kept watch like a fate.
+
+"Yes," Sylvia was saying slowly, "you can make restitution. But not to
+the dead--not to my mother asleep over there at Montgomery, oh, not to
+me! What is done is past, and you can't go back. There's no going back
+in this world. But you can go on--you can go on and up--"
+
+"No! You don't see that; you don't believe that?"
+
+"Yes, I believe it. The old life--the life of mystery and duplicity is
+over; you will never go back to the old way."
+
+"The old way?" he repeated.
+
+"The old unhappy way."
+
+"Up there at the lake you knew I was unhappy; you knew things weren't
+right with me?"
+
+"Things weren't right because you were wrong! Success hadn't made you
+happy. The shadows kept dancing round you. Mrs. Bassett's troubles came
+largely from worrying about you. In time Marian and Blackford will begin
+to see the shadows. I should think--I should think"--and he saw that she
+was deeply moved--"that a man would want the love of his children; I
+should think he would want them to be proud of him."
+
+"His children; yes; I haven't thought enough of that."
+
+She had so far controlled herself, but an old ache throbbed in her
+heart. "In college, when I heard the girls talking of their homes, it
+used to hurt me more than you can ever know. There were girls among my
+friends whose fathers were fine men,--some of them great and famous; and
+I used to feel sure that my father would have been like them. I
+felt--that I should have been proud of him." And suddenly she flung her
+arms upon the table and bowed her face upon them and wept.
+
+He stood beside her, patiently, helplessly. The suggestion of her lonely
+girlhood with its hovering shadow smote him the more deeply because it
+emphasized the care she had taken to subordinate herself throughout
+their talk.
+
+"Do you think you could ever be proud of me?--that you might even care a
+little, some day?" he asked, bending over her.
+
+"Oh, if it could be so!" she whispered brokenly, so low that he bent
+closer to hear.
+
+The room was very still. Sylvia rose and began drawing on her glove, not
+looking at him. She was afraid to risk more; there was, indeed, nothing
+more to say. It was for him to make his choice. He was silent so long
+that she despaired. Then he passed his hand across his face like one
+roused from sleep.
+
+"Wait a moment," he said, "and I will walk home with you."
+
+He went to the door and dispatched the guard on an errand; then he
+seated himself at the table and picked up a pad of paper. He was still
+writing when Harwood entered. Sylvia and Dan exchanged a nod, but no
+words passed between them. They watched the man at the table, as he
+wrote with a deliberation that Dan remembered as characteristic of him.
+When he had finished, he copied what he had written, put the copy in his
+breastpocket and buttoned his coat before glancing at Harwood.
+
+"If I withdraw my name, what will happen?" he asked quietly.
+
+"Ramsay will be nominated, sir," Dan answered.
+
+Bassett studied a moment, fingering the memorandum he had written; then
+he looked at Dan quizzically.
+
+"Just between ourselves, Dan, do you really think the Colonel's
+straight?"
+
+"If he isn't, he has fooled a lot of people," Dan replied.
+
+He had no idea of what had happened, but he felt that all was well with
+Sylvia. It seemed a long time since Bassett had called him Dan!
+
+"Well, I guess the Colonel's the best we can do. I'm out of it. This is
+my formal withdrawal. Hand it to Robbins--you know him, of course. It
+tells him what I want done. My votes go to Ramsay on the next ballot. I
+look to you to see that it's played square. Give the Colonel my
+compliments. That's all. Good-night."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Harwood called Robbins from the room where Bassett's men lounged,
+waiting for the convening of the caucus, and delivered the message. As
+he hurried toward Thatcher's headquarters he paused suddenly, and bent
+over the balcony beneath the dome to observe two figures that were
+slowly descending one of the broad stairways. Morton Bassett and Sylvia
+were leaving the building together. A shout rang out, echoing hollowly
+through the corridors, and was followed by scattering cheers from men
+who were already hastening toward the senate chamber where the caucus
+sessions were held.
+
+Somehow Morton Bassett's sturdy shoulders, his step, quickened to adapt
+it to the pace of his companion, did not suggest defeat. Dan still
+watched as the two crossed the rotunda on their way to the street.
+Bassett was talking; he paused for an instant and looked up at the dome,
+as though calling his companion's attention to its height.
+
+Sylvia glanced up, nodded, and smiled as though affirming something
+Bassett had said; and then the two vanished from Dan's sight.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV
+
+WE GO BACK TO THE BEGINNING
+
+
+"Sylvia was reading in her grandfather's library when the bell tinkled."
+
+With these words our chronicle began, and they again slip from the pen
+as I begin these last pages. When Morton Bassett left her at the door of
+Elizabeth House she had experienced a sudden call of the truant spirit.
+Sylvia wanted to be alone, to stand apart for a little while from the
+clanging world and take counsel of herself. Hastily packing a bag she
+caught the last train for Montgomery, walked to the Kelton cottage, and
+roused Mary, who had been its lone tenant since the Professor's death.
+She sent Mary to bed, and after kindling a fire in the grate, roamed
+about the small, comfortable rooms, touching wistfully the books, the
+pictures, the scant bric-a-brac. She made ready her own bed under the
+eaves where she had dreamed her girlhood dreams, shaking from the sheets
+she found in the linen chest the leaves of lavender that Mary had strewn
+among them. The wind rose in the night and slammed fitfully a blind
+that, as long as she could remember, had uttered precisely that same
+protest against the wind's presumption. It was all quite like old times,
+and happy memories of the past stole back and laid healing hands upon
+her.
+
+She slept late, and woke to look out upon a white world. Across the
+campus floated the harsh clamor of the chapel bell, and she saw the
+students tramping through the swirling snow just as she had seen them in
+the old times, the glad and happy times when it had seemed that the
+world was bounded by the lines of the campus, and that nothing lay
+beyond it really worth considering but Centre Church and the court-house
+and the dry-goods shop where her grandfather had bought her first and
+only doll. She bade Mary sit down and talk to her while she ate
+breakfast in the little dining-room; and the old woman poured out upon
+her the gossip of the Lane, the latest trespasses of the Greek
+professor's cow, the escapades of the Phi Gamma Delta's new dog, the
+health of Dr. Wandless, the new baby at the house of the Latin
+professor, the ill-luck of the Madison Eleven, and like matters that
+were, and that continue to be, of concern in Buckeye Lane. Rumors of the
+sale of the cottage had reached Mary, but Sylvia took pains to reassure
+her.
+
+"Oh, you don't go with the house, Mary! Mrs. Owen has a plan for you.
+You haven't any cause for worry. But it's too bad to sell the house. I'd
+like to get a position teaching in Montgomery and come back here and
+live with you. There's no place in the world quite like this."
+
+"But it's quiet, Miss, and the repairs keep going on. Mr. Harwood had to
+put a new downspout on the kitchen; the old one had rusted to pieces.
+The last time he was over--that was a month ago--he came in and sat down
+to wait for his train, he said; and I told him to help himself to the
+books, but when I looked in after a while he was just sitting in that
+chair out there by the window looking out at nothing. And when I asked
+him if he'd have a cup of tea, he never answered; not till I went up
+close and spoke again. He's peculiar, but a good-hearted gentleman. You
+can see that. And when he paid me my wages that day he made it five
+dollars extra, and when I asked him what it was for, he smiled a funny
+kind of smile he has, and said, 'It's for being good to Sylvia when she
+was a little girl.' He's peculiar, very peculiar, but he's kind. And
+when I said I didn't have to be paid for that, he said all right, he
+guessed that was so, but for me to keep the money and buy a new bonnet
+or give it to the priest. A very kind gentleman, that Mr. Harwood, but
+peculiar."
+
+The sun came out shortly before noon. Sylvia walked into town, bought
+some flowers, and drove to the cemetery. She told the driver not to
+wait, and lingered long in the Kelton lot where snow-draped evergreens
+marked its four corners. The snow lay smooth on the two graves, and she
+placed her flowers upon them softly without disturbing the white
+covering. A farmboy whistling along the highway saw her in the lonely
+cemetery and trudged on silently, but he did not know that the woman
+tending her graves did not weep, or that when she turned slowly away,
+looking back at last from the iron gates, it was not of the past she
+thought, nor of the heartache buried there, but of a world newly
+purified, with long, broad vistas of hope and aspiration lengthening
+before her. But we must not too long leave the bell--an absurd
+contrivance of wire and knob--that tinkled rather absently and eerily in
+the kitchen pantry. Let us repeat once more and for the last time:--
+
+Sylvia was reading in her grandfather's library when the bell tinkled.
+
+Truly enough, a book lay in her lap, but it may be that, after all, she
+had not done more than skim its pages--an old "Life of Nelson" that had
+been a favorite of her grandfather's. Sylvia rose, put down the book,
+marked it carefully as on that first occasion which so insistently comes
+back to us as we look in upon her. Mary appeared at the library door,
+but withdrew, seeing that Sylvia was answering the bell.
+
+Some one was stamping vigorously on the step, and as Sylvia opened the
+door, Dan Harwood stood there, just as on that other day; now, to be
+sure, he seemed taller than then, though it must be only the effect of
+his long ulster.
+
+"How do you do, Sylvia," he said, and stepped inside without waiting for
+a parley like that in which Sylvia had engaged him on that
+never-to-be-forgotten afternoon in June. "You oughtn't to try to hide;
+it isn't fair for one thing, and hiding is impossible for another."
+
+"It's too bad you came," said Sylvia, "for I should have been home
+to-morrow. I came just because I wanted to be alone for a day."
+
+"I came," said Dan, laughing, "because I didn't like being alone."
+
+"I hope Aunt Sally isn't troubled about me. I hadn't time to tell her I
+was coming here; I don't believe I really thought about it; I simply
+wanted to come back here once more before the house is turned over to
+strangers."
+
+"Oh, Aunt Sally wasn't worried half as much as I was. She said you were
+all right; she has great faith in your ability to take care of yourself.
+I'm pretty sure of it, too," he said, and bent his eyes upon her keenly.
+
+There was nothing there to dismay him; her olive cheeks still glowed
+with color from her walk, and her eyes were clear and steady.
+
+"Did you see the paper--to-day's paper?" he asked, when they were seated
+before the fire.
+
+"No," she replied, folding her arms and looking at the point of her
+slipper that rested against the brass fender.
+
+"You will be glad to know that the trouble is all over. Ramsay has the
+senatorship, all but the confirmation of the joint session, which is
+merely a formality. They've conferred on me the joy of presenting his
+name. Ramsay is clean and straight, and thoroughly in sympathy with all
+the new ideas that are sound. Personally I like him. He's the most
+popular and the most presentable man we have, and his election to the
+Senate will greatly strengthen the party."
+
+He did not know how far he might speak of the result and of the causes
+that had contributed to it. He was relieved when she asked, very simply
+and naturally,--
+
+"I suppose Mr. Bassett made it possible; it couldn't have been, you
+couldn't have brought it about, without him."
+
+"If he hadn't withdrawn he could have had the nomination himself!
+Thatcher's supporters were growing wobbly and impatient. We shouldn't
+any of us care to see Thatcher occupy a seat in the Senate that has been
+filled by Oliver Morton and Joe MacDonald and Ben Harrison and Dave
+Turpie. We Hoosiers are not perfect, but our Senators first and last
+have been men of brains and character. Ramsay won't break the apostolic
+succession; he's all right."
+
+"You think Mr. Bassett might have had it; you have good reason for
+believing that?" she asked.
+
+"I could name you the men who were ready to go to him. He had the
+stampede all ready, down to the dress rehearsal. He practically gave
+away a victory he had been working for all his life."
+
+"Yes; he is like that; he can do such things," murmured Sylvia.
+
+"History has been making rapidly in the past twenty-four hours. Bassett
+has bought Thatcher's interest in the 'Courier,' and he proposes editing
+it himself. More than that, he was at my office this morning when I got
+there, and he asked me, as a special favor to him, to take a few shares
+in the company to qualify me as secretary of the corporation, and said
+he wanted me to help him. He said he thought it about time for Indiana
+to have a share in the general reform movement; talked about it as
+though this were something he had always intended doing, but had been
+prevented by press of other matters. He spoke of the Canneries case and
+wanted to know if I cared to reconsider my refusal to settle it. He put
+it quite impersonally--said Fitch told him he couldn't do more than
+prolong the litigation by appeals, and that in the end he was bound to
+be whipped. And I agreed, on terms that really weren't generous on my
+part. He said all right; that he wanted to clear up all his old business
+as quickly as possible. As he left my office I almost called him back to
+throw off the last pound I had exacted; he really made me feel ashamed
+of my greed. The old spell he had for me in the beginning came back
+again. I believe in him; I never believed in any man so much, Sylvia!
+And if he does throw his weight on the right side it will mean a lot to
+every good cause men and women are contending for these days. It will
+mean a lot to the state, to the whole country."
+
+"And so much, oh, so much to him!"
+
+Just what had passed between Bassett and Sylvia he only surmised; but it
+was clear that the warmth with which he had spoken of his old employer
+was grateful to Sylvia. He had not meant to dwell upon Bassett, and yet
+the brightening of her eyes, her flash of feeling, the deep inner
+meaning of her ejaculation, had thrilled him.
+
+"I've said more than I meant to; I didn't come to talk of those things,
+Sylvia."
+
+"I'm glad you thought I should like to know--about him. I'm glad you
+told me."
+
+They were quiet for a little while, then he said, "Sylvia!" very
+softly.
+
+"Not that, Dan; please! I can't bear to hear that. It will break my
+heart if you begin that!"
+
+She rose and faced him, her back to the wall.
+
+He had come to complete the declaration which the song had interrupted
+on the lake, and at the first hint the chords that had been touched by
+the unknown singer vibrated sharply, bringing back her old heartache. He
+crossed to her quickly that he might show her how completely the memory
+of that night had been obliterated; that it had vanished utterly and
+ceased to be, like the ripple stirred to a moment's life by the brush of
+a swallow's wing on still water. He stood beside her and took both her
+hands in his strong clasp.
+
+"We are going to be married, Sylvia; we are going to be married, here,
+now, to-day!"
+
+"No, no!"
+
+She turned away her head, but his arms enfolded her; he bent down and
+kissed her forehead, her eyes, and her lips last of all.
+
+"Yes; here and now. Unless you say you don't care for me, that you don't
+love me. If you say those things I shall go away."
+
+She did not say them. She clung to him and looked long into his face,
+and kissed him.
+
+Harwood had chosen the hour well. Sylvia had met bravely the great
+crisis of her life, and had stood triumphant and satisfied, weary but
+content in the clear ether to which she had climbed; but it was a relief
+to yield herself at last to the sway of emotions long checked and
+stifled. Save for her grandfather's devoted kindness, and the friendship
+of Mrs. Owen, her experiences of affection had been singularly meagre.
+She had resolved that if Dan should speak of love again she would be
+strong enough to resist him; but she had yielded unhesitatingly at a
+word. And it was inexpressibly sweet to yield, to feel his strong arms
+clasping her, to hear his protestations and assurances, to know that her
+life had found shelter and protection. She knew that she had never
+questioned or doubted, but that her faith had grown with her love for
+him. Not only had he chosen the hour well, but there was a fitness in
+his choice of place. The familiar scene emphasized her sense of
+dependence upon him and gave a sweet poignancy to the memories of her
+childhood and youth that were enshrined within the cottage walls. In
+this room, in the garden outside, on the campus across the Lane, she had
+known the first tremulous wonderings and had heard the first whispered
+answers to life's riddles and enigmas; and now she knew that in Love
+lives the answer to all things.
+
+After a little she rested her hands on his shoulders, half-clinging to
+him, half-repelling him, and he pressed his hands upon her cheeks, to be
+ready for the question he had read in her eyes.
+
+"But," she faltered, "there are things I have promised to do for Aunt
+Sally; we shall have to wait a long time!"
+
+"Not for Aunt Sally," he cried happily. "Here she is at the door now. I
+left her and John Ware at Dr. Wandless's."
+
+"Well, well!" exclaimed Mrs. Owen, advancing into the room and throwing
+open her coat. "You said you meant to get back to the city in time to
+catch that limited for New York, and you haven't got much margin,
+Daniel, I can tell you that!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It seemed to the people who heard of it afterward a most romantic
+marriage, that of Sylvia and Dan Harwood; but whatever view we may take
+of this, it was certainly of all weddings the simplest. They stood there
+before the mantel above which still hung the broken half of a ship's
+wheel. Mrs. Owen, very tall and gaunt, was at one side, and Dr. Wandless
+at the other; and old Mary, abashed and bewildered, looked on with
+dilated eyes and crossed herself at intervals.
+
+John Ware drew a service book from his pocket, and his fingers trembled
+as he began. For none in the room, not even for Sylvia, had this hour
+deeper meaning than for the gray soldier. He read slowly, as though this
+were a new thing in the world, that a man and a woman had chosen to walk
+together to the end of their days. And once his voice broke. He who, in
+a hill country far away, had baptized this woman into the fold of Christ
+the Shepherd, wavered for an instant as he said:--
+
+"Elizabeth, wilt thou have this man--"
+
+Sylvia lifted her head. She had not expected this, nor had Dan; but Dr.
+Wandless had already stepped forward to give her in marriage, and as she
+repeated her name after the minister, she felt the warm, reassuring
+pressure of Dan's hand.
+
+And so they went forth together from the little cottage by the campus
+where they had first met; nor may it have been wholly a fancy of Dr.
+Wandless's that the stars came out earlier that white, winter evening to
+add their blessing!
+
+
+
+
+A POSTSCRIPT BY THE CHRONICLER
+
+
+Those who resent as an impertinence the chronicler's intrusion upon the
+scene may here depart and slam the door, if such violence truly express
+their sentiments. Others, averse to precipitous leavetaking, may linger,
+hat in hand, for the epilogue.
+
+I attended a public hearing by the senate committee on child labor at
+the last session of the general assembly, accompanying my neighbor, Mrs.
+Sally Owen, and we found seats immediately behind Mr. and Mrs. Daniel
+Harwood.
+
+"There's _E_-lizabeth and Daniel," remarked Mrs. Owen, as they turned
+round and nodded to us. I found it pleasant to watch the Harwoods, who
+are, as may have been surmised, old friends of mine. The meeting
+gathered headway, and as one speaker after another was presented by the
+chairman, I observed that Mrs. Harwood and her husband frequently
+exchanged glances of approval; and I'm afraid that Mrs. Harwood's
+profile, and that winning smile of hers, interested me quite as much as
+the pleas of those who advocated the pending bill. Then the
+representative of a manufacturers' organization inveighed against the
+measure, and my two friends became even more deeply absorbed. It was a
+telling speech, by one of the best-known lawyers in the state. Once I
+saw Dan's cowlick shake like the plume of an angry warrior as his wife
+turned toward him inquiringly. When the orator concluded, I saw them
+discussing his arguments in emphatic whispers, and I was so pleased with
+the picture they made that I failed to catch the name of the speaker
+whom the chairman was introducing. A nudge from Mrs. Owen caused me to
+lift my eyes to the rostrum.
+
+"The next speaker is Mrs. Allen Thatcher," announced the chairman,
+beaming inanely as a man always does when it becomes his grateful
+privilege to present a pretty woman to an audience. Having known Marian
+a long time, it was almost too much for my composure to behold her
+there, beyond question the best-dressed woman in the senate chamber,
+with a single American Beauty thrust into her coat, and a bewildering
+rose-trimmed hat crowning her fair head. A pleasant sight anywhere on
+earth, this daughter of the Honorable Morton Bassett, sometime senator
+from Fraser; but her appearance in the legislative hall long dominated
+by her father confirmed my faith in the ultimate adjustments of the law
+of compensations. I had known Marian of old as an expert golfer and the
+most tireless dancer at Waupegan; but that speech broke all her records.
+
+Great is the emotional appeal of a pretty woman in an unapproachable
+hat, but greater still the power of the born story-teller! I knew that
+Marian visited Elizabeth House frequently and told stories of her own or
+gave recitations at the Saturday night entertainments; but this was
+Marian with a difference. She stated facts and drove them home with
+anecdotes. It was a vigorous, breathless performance, and the
+manufacturers' attorney confessed afterward that she had given him a
+good trouncing. When she concluded (I remember that her white-gloved
+hand smote the speaker's desk with a sharp thwack at her last word), I
+was conscious that the applause was started by a stout, bald gentleman
+whom I had not noticed before. I turned to look at the author of this
+spontaneous outburst and found that it was the Honorable Edward G.
+Thatcher, whose unfeigned pride in his daughter-in-law was good to see.
+
+When the applause had ceased, Mrs. Owen sighed deeply and ejaculated:
+"Well, well!"
+
+As we walked home Aunt Sally grew talkative. "I used to say it was all
+in the Book of Job and believed it; but there are some things that Job
+didn't know after all. When I put Marian on the board of trusteees of
+_E_-lizabeth House School, it was just to make good feeling in the
+family, and I didn't suppose she would attend a meeting; but she's one
+of the best women on that job. And _E_-lizabeth"--I loved the way she
+drawled the name, and repeated it--"_E_-lizabeth says they couldn't do
+without her. I guess between 'em those girls will make _E_-lizabeth
+House School go right. That investment will be a dividend payer. And
+there's Morton Bassett, that I never took much stock in, why, he's
+settled down to being a decent and useful citizen. There ain't a better
+newspaper in the country than the 'Courier,' and that first editorial,
+up at the top of the page every morning, he writes himself, and it's got
+a smack to it--a kind of pawpaw and persimmon flavor that shows it's
+honest. I guess settling up that Canneries business cost him some
+money, but things had always come too easy for Morton. And now that
+they've moved down here, Hallie's cheered up a good deal, and she shows
+signs of being cured of the sanatorium habit."
+
+We were passing round the Monument, whose candelabra flooded the plaza
+with light, and Mrs. Owen inveighed for a moment against automobiles in
+general as we narrowly escaped being run down by a honking juggernaut at
+Christ Church corner.
+
+"It seems Morton has grown some," she resumed. "He's even got big enough
+to forgive his enemies, and John Ware says only great men do that.
+You've noticed that 'Hoosier Folks at Home' column in the 'Courier'?
+Well, Ike Pettit runs that; Morton brought him to town on purpose after
+Edward Thatcher closed out the Fraserville paper. I read every word of
+that column every day. It gives you a kind of moving-picture show of
+cloverfields, and children singing in the country schools, and rural
+free delivery wagons throwing off magazines and newspapers, and the
+interurban cars cutting slices out of the lonesomeness of the country
+folks. It's certainly amazing how times change, and I want to live as
+long as I can and keep on changing with 'em! Why, these farmers that
+used to potter around all winter worrying over their debts to the
+insurance companies are now going to Lafayette every January to learn
+how to make corn pay, and they're putting bathrooms in their houses and
+combing the hay out of their whiskers. They take their wives along with
+'em to the University, so they can have a rest and learn to bake bread
+that won't bring up the death-rate; and when those women go home they
+dig the nails out of the windows to let the fresh air in, and move the
+melodeon to the wood-pile, and quit frying meat except when the minister
+stops for dinner. It's all pretty comfortable and cheerful and busy in
+Indiana, with lots of old-fashioned human kindness flowing round; and
+it's getting better all the time. And I guess it's always got to be that
+way, out here in God's country."
+
+
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's A Hoosier Chronicle, by Meredith Nicholson
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