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diff --git a/15138.txt b/15138.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..edaecb9 --- /dev/null +++ b/15138.txt @@ -0,0 +1,17221 @@ +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 + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A HOOSIER CHRONICLE *** + +***** This file should be named 15138.txt or 15138.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/5/1/3/15138/ + +Produced by Rick Niles, Charlie Kirschner and the PG Online +Distributed Proofreading Team. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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