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diff --git a/25070-8.txt b/25070-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3e8b031 --- /dev/null +++ b/25070-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6321 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Mr. Opp, by Alice Hegan Rice + +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: Mr. Opp + +Author: Alice Hegan Rice + +Release Date: April 14, 2008 [EBook #25070] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MR. OPP *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, David Wilson and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + +[Illustration: "He read impressively"] + + + + +MR. OPP + + +BY +ALICE HEGAN RICE + +Author of "Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch," +"Lovey Mary," "Sandy," etc. + + +With Illustrations +by LEON GUIPON + + +NEW YORK +THE CENTURY CO. +1909 + + + + +Copyright, 1908, 1909, by +The Century Co. + + +_Published, April, 1909_ + + +THE DE VINNE PRESS + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + PAGE + "He read impressively" _Frontispiece_ + + "'Don't leave me'" 45 + + "'Why, Mr. Opp, I'm not old enough'" 129 + + "It was Mr. Opp saying his prayers" 197 + + "'Oh, my God, it has come'" 263 + + "'Can't nobody beat me making skirts'" 319 + + + + +MR. OPP + + + + +I + + +"I hope your passenger hasn't missed his train," observed the ferryman +to Mr. Jimmy Fallows, who sat on the river bank with the painter of his +rickety little naphtha launch held loosely in his hand. + +"Mr. Opp?" said Jimmy. "I bet he did. If there is one person in the +world that's got a talent for missing things, it's Mr. Opp. I never seen +him that he hadn't just missed gettin' a thousand dollar job, or +inventin' a patent, or bein' hurt when he had took out a accident +policy. If he did ketch a train, like enough it was goin' the wrong +way." + +Jimmy had been waiting since nine in the morning, and it was now well +past noon. He was a placid gentleman of curvilinear type, short of limb +and large of girth. His trousers, of that morose hue termed by the +country people "plum," reached to his armpits, and his hat, large and +felt and weather-beaten, was only prevented from eclipsing his head by +the stubborn resistance of two small, knob-like ears. + +"Mr. Opp ain't been back to the Cove for a long while, has he?" asked +the ferryman, whose intellectual life depended solely upon the crumbs of +information scattered by chance passers-by. + +"Goin' on two years," said Mr. Fallows. "Reckon he's been so busy +formin' trusts and buyin' out railways and promotin' things generally +that he ain't had any time to come back home. It's his step-pa's funeral +that's bringin' him now. The only time city folks seem to want to see +their kin folks in the country is when they are dead." + +"Ain't that him a-comin' down the bank?" asked the ferryman, shading +his eyes with his hands. + +Mr. Fallows, with some difficulty, got to his feet. + +"Yes, that's him all right. Hustlin' to beat the band. Wonder if he +takes me for a street car." + +Coming with important stride down the wharf, and whistling as he came, +was a small man of about thirty-five. In one hand he carried a large +suit-case, and in the other a new and shining grip. On both were +painted, in letters designed to be seen, "D. Webster Opp, Kentucky." + +In fact, everything about him was evidently designed to be seen. His new +suit of insistent plaid, his magnificent tie sagging with the weight of +a colossal scarf-pin, his brown hat, his new tan shoes, all demanded +individual and instant attention. + +The only insignificant thing about Mr. Opp was himself. His slight, +undeveloped body seemed to be in a chronic state of apology for failing +properly to set off the glorious raiment wherewith it was clothed. His +pock-marked face, wide at the temples, sloped to a small, pointed chin, +which, in turn, sloped precipitously into a long, thin neck. It was Mr. +Opp's eyes, however, that one saw first, for they were singularly vivid, +with an expression that made strangers sometimes pause in the street to +ask him if he had spoken to them. Small, pale, and red of rim, they +nevertheless held the look of intense hunger--hunger for the hope or the +happiness of the passing moment. + +As he came bustling down to the water's-edge he held out a friendly hand +to Jimmy Fallows. + +"How are you, Jimmy?" he said in a voice freighted with importance. +"Hope I haven't kept you waiting long. Several matters of business come +up at the last and final moment, and I missed the morning train." + +Jimmy, who was pouring gasolene into a tank in the launch, treated the +ferryman to a prodigious wink. + +"Oh, not more'n four or five hour," he said, casting side glances of +mingled scorn and admiration at Mr. Opp's attire. "It is a good thing +it was the funeral you was tryin' to get to instid of the death-bed." + +"Oh, that reminds me," said Mr. Opp, suddenly exchanging his air of +cheerfulness for one of becoming gravity--"what time is the funeral +obsequies going to take place?" + +"Whenever we git there," said Jimmy, pushing off the launch and waving +his hand to the ferryman. "You're one of the chief mourners, and I'm the +undertaker; there ain't much danger in us gettin' left." + +Mr. Opp deposited his baggage carefully on the seat, and spread his coat +across the new grip to keep it from getting splashed. + +"How long was Mr. Moore sick?" he asked, fanning himself with his hat. + +"Well," said Jimmy, "he was in a dangerous and critical condition for +about twenty-one years, accordin' to his own account. I been seein' him +durin' that time on a average of four times a day, and last night when +I seen him in his coffin it was the first time the old gentleman failed +to ask me to give him a drink on account of his poor health." + +"Is Ben there?" asked Mr. Opp, studying a time-table, and making a note +in his memorandum-book. + +"Your brother Ben? Yes; he come this mornin' just before I left. He was +cussin' considerable because you wasn't there, so's they could go on and +git through. He wants to start back to Missouri to-night." + +"Is he out at the house?" + +"No; he's at Your Hotel." + +Mr. Opp looked up in surprise, and Jimmy chuckled. + +"That there's the name of my new hotel. Started up sence you went away. +Me and old man Tucker been running boardin'-houses side by side all +these years. What did he do last summer but go out and git him a sign as +big as the side of the house, and git Nick Fenny to paint 'Our Hotel' on +it; then he put it up right across the sidewalk, from the gate clean +out to the road. I didn't say nothin', but let the boys keep on +a-kiddin' me till the next day; then I got me a sign jus' like his, with +'Your Hotel' on it, and put it up crost my sidewalk. He'd give a pretty +if they was both down now; but he won't take his down while mine is up, +and I ain't got no notion of taking it down." + +"Yes," said Mr. Opp, absently, for his mind was still on the time-table; +"I see that there's an accommodation that departs out of Coreyville in +the neighborhood of noon to-morrow. It's a little unconvenient, I'm +afraid, but do you think you could get me back in time to take it?" + +"Why, what's yer hurry?" asked Jimmy, steering for mid-stream. "I +thought you'd come to visit a spell, with all them bags and things." + +Mr. Opp carelessly tossed back the sleeve of the coat, to display more +fully the name on the suit-case. "Them's drummers' samples," he said +almost reverently--"the finest line of shoes that have ever been put +out by any house in the United States, bar none." + +"Why, I thought you was in the insurance business," said Jimmy. + +"Oh, no; that was last year, just previous to my reporting on a +newspaper. This"--and Mr. Opp tried to spread out his hands, but was +slightly deterred by the size of his cuffs--"this is the chance I been +looking for all my life. It takes brains and a' educated nerve, and a +knowledge of the world. I ought to create considerable capital in the +next few years. And just as soon as I do"--and Mr. Opp leaned earnestly +toward Jimmy, and tapped one finger upon the palm of his other +hand--"just as soon as I do, I intend to buy up all the land lying +between Turtle Creek and the river. There's enough oil under that there +ground to ca'm the troubled waters of the Pacific Ocean. You remember +old Mr. Beeker? Well, he told me, ten years ago, that he bored a well +for brine over there, and it got so full of black petroleum he had to +abandon it. Now, I'm calculating on forming a stock company,--you and +Mr. Tucker, I and old man Hager, and one or two others,--and buying up +that ground. Then we'll sink a test well, get up a derrick and a' +engine, and have the thing running in no time. The main thing is a +competent manager. You know I'm thinking seriously of taking it myself? +It's too big a proposition to run any risks with." + +"Here, say, wait a minute; how long have you had this here shoe job?" +Jimmy caught madly at the first fact in sight to keep him from being +swept away by the flood of Mr. Opp's oily possibilities. + +"I taken it last week," said Mr. Opp; "had to go all the way to Chicago +to get my instructions, and to get fitted out. My territory is a +specially important one; four counties, all round Chicago." + +"I was in Chicago oncet," said Jimmy, his eyes brightening at the +memory. "By golly! if the world is as big in every direction as it is in +that, she's a whopper!" + +The wind, freshening as they got under way, loosened the canvas +overhead, and Mr. Opp rose to buckle it into place. As he half knelt in +the bow of the boat, he lifted his face to the cool breeze, and took a +deep breath of satisfaction. The prosaic river from Coreyville to the +Cove was the highway he knew best in the world. Under the summer +sunshine the yellow waters lost their sullen hue, and reflected patches +of vivid red and white from the cottages and barns that dotted the +distant shore. + +"I don't consider there's any sceneries in the country that'll even +begin to compare with these here," Mr. Opp announced, out of the depths +of his wide experience. "Just look at the sunshine pouring forth around +the point of the island. It spills through the trees and leaks out over +the water just like quicksilver. Now, that's a good thought! It's +perfectly astounding, you might say surprising, how easy thoughts come +to me. I ought to been a writer; lots of folks have said so. Why, there +ain't a day of my life that I don't get a poem in my head." + +"Shucks!" observed Jimmy Fallows. "I'd as lief read figgers on a +tow-boat as to read poetry. Old man Gusty used to write poetry, but he +couldn't get nobody to print it, so he decided to start a newspaper at +the Cove and chuck it full of his own poems. He bought a whole printin' +outfit, and set it up in Pete Aker's old carpenter shop out there at the +edge of town, opposite his home. But 'fore he got his paper started he +up and died. Yes, sir; and the only one of his poems that he ever did +git in print was the one his wife had cut on his tombstone." + +Mr. Opp was not listening. With his head bared and his lips parted he +was indulging in his principal weakness. For Mr. Opp, it must be +confessed, was given to violent intoxication, not from an extraneous +source, but from too liberal draughts of his own imagination. In +extenuation, the claims of genius might be urged, for a genius he +unquestionably was in that he created something out of nothing. Out of +an abnormal childhood, a lonely boyhood, and a failure-haunted manhood, +he had managed to achieve an absorbing career. Each successive +enterprise had loomed upon his horizon big with possibilities, and +before it sank to oblivion, another scheme, portentous, significant, had +filled its place. Life was a succession of crises, and through them he +saw himself moving, now a shrewd merchant, now a professional man, again +an author of note, but oftenest of all a promoter of great enterprises, +a financier, and man of affairs. + +While he was thus mentally engaged in drilling oil-wells, composing +poetry, and selling shoes, Jimmy Fallows was contemplating with +fascinated wonder an object that floated from his coat pocket. From a +brown-paper parcel, imperfectly wrapped, depended a curl of golden hair, +and it bobbed about in the breeze in a manner that reduced Mr. Fallows +to a state of abject curiosity. + +So intent was Jimmy upon his investigation that he failed to hold his +course, and the launch swung around the end of the island with such a +sudden jerk that Mr. Opp took an unexpected seat. + +As he did so, his hand touched the paper parcel in his pocket, and +realizing that it was untied, he hastily endeavored, by a series of +surreptitious manoeuvers, to conceal what it contained. Feeling the +quizzical eye of his shipmate full upon him, he assumed an air of +studied indifference, and stoically ignored the subterranean chuckles +and knowing winks in which Mr. Fallows indulged. + +Presently, when the situation had become poignant, Mr. Opp observed that +he supposed the funeral would take place from the church. + +"I reckon so," said Jimmy, reluctantly answering to the call of the +conversational rudder. "I told the boys to have a hack there for you and +Mr. Ben and Miss Kippy." + +"I don't think my sister will be there," said Mr. Opp, with dignity; +"she seldom or never leaves the house." + +"Reckon Mr. Ben will have to take keer of her now," said Jimmy; "she +surely will miss her pa. He never done a lick of work since I knowed +him, but he was a nice, quiet old fellow, and he certainly was good to +pore Miss Kippy." + +"Mr. Moore was a gentleman," said Mr. Opp, and he sighed. + +"Ain't she got any kin on his side? No folks except you two +half-brothers?" + +"That's all," said Mr. Opp; "just I and Ben." + +"Gee! that's kind of tough on you all, ain't it?" + +But the sympathy was untimely, for Mr. Opp's dignity had been touched in +a sensitive place. + +"Our sister will be well provided for," he said, and the conversation +suffered a relapse. + +Mr. Opp went back to his time-tables and his new note-book, and for the +rest of the trip Jimmy devoted himself to his wheel, with occasional +ocular excursions in the direction of Mr. Opp's coat pocket. + + + + +II + + +Lying in the crook of the river's elbow, with the nearest railroad +eighteen miles away, Cove City, familiarly known as the Cove, rested +serenely undisturbed by the progress of the world. Once a day, at any +time between sundown and midnight, it was roused from its drowsiness by +the arrival of the mail-boat, and, shaking itself into temporary +wakefulness, sat up and rubbed its eyes. This animation was, however, of +short duration, for before the packet had whistled for the next landing, +the Cove had once more settled back into slumber. + +Main Street began with a shabby, unpainted school-house, and following +dramatic sequence, ended abruptly in the graveyard. Two cross-streets, +which had started out with laudable ideas of independence, lost courage +at Main Street and sought strength in union; but the experiment was not +successful, and a cow-path was the result. The only semblance of +frivolity about the town was a few straggling cottages on stilts of +varying height as they approached the river; for they seemed ever in the +act of holding up their skirts preparatory to wading forth into the +water. + +On this particular summer afternoon Cove City was less out of crimp than +usual. The gathering of loafers that generally decorated the empty boxes +piled along the sidewalk was missing. The old vehicles and weary-looking +mules which ordinarily formed an irregular fringe along the hitching +rail were conspicuously absent. A subdued excitement was in the air, and +at the slightest noise feminine heads appeared at windows, and masculine +figures appeared in doorways, and comments were exchanged in low tones +from one side of the street to the other. For the loss of a citizen, +even a poor one, disturbs the surface of affairs, and when the event +brings two relatives from a distance, the ripples of excitement increase +perceptibly. + +Mr. Moore had been a citizen-in-law, as it were, and had never been +considered in any other light than poor Mrs. Opp's widower. Mrs. Opp's +poor widower might have been a truer way of stating it, but even a town +has its parental weaknesses. + +For two generations the Opp family had been a source of mystery and +romance to the Cove. It stood apart, like the house that held it, poor +and shabby, but bearing a baffling atmosphere of gentility, of +superiority, and of reserve. + +Old women recalled strange tales of the time when Mrs. Opp had come to +the Cove as a bride, and how she refused to meet any of the townspeople, +and lived alone in the old house on the river-bank, watching from hour +to hour for the wild young husband who clerked on one of the river +steamers. They told how she grew thin and white with waiting, and how, +when her two boys were small, she made them stand beside her for hours +at a time, watching the river and listening for the whistle of his boat. +Then the story went that the gay young husband stopped coming +altogether, and still she watched and waited, never allowing the boys +out of her sight, refusing to send them to school, or to let them play +with other children. By and by word was brought that her husband had +been killed in a quarrel over cards, and little Mrs. Opp, having nothing +now to watch for and to wait for, suddenly became strangely changed. + +Old Aunt Tish, the negro servant, was the only person who ever crossed +the threshold, and she told of a strange life that went on behind the +closely curtained windows, where the sunlight was never allowed to +enter, and lamps burned all day long. + +"Yas, 'm," she used to say in answer to curious questionings; "hit's jes +like play-actin' all de time. The Missis dress herself up, an' 'tend +like she's a queen or a duke or somethin', an' dat little D. he jes +acts out all dem fool things she tells him to, an' he ain't never bein' +hisself at all, but jes somebody big and mighty and grand-like." + +When the boys were half-grown, a stranger appeared in the Cove, a dapper +little man of about fifty in a shabby frock-coat and a shabbier high +hat, kind of face and gentle of voice, but with the dignity of conscious +superiority. The day of his arrival he called upon Mrs. Opp; the second +day he took a preacher with him and married her. Whatever old romance +had led to this climax could only be dimly guessed at by the curious +townspeople. + +For two years Mr. Moore fought for the mind of his old sweetheart as he +had long ago fought for her heart. He opened the house to the sunshine, +and coaxed the little lady back into the world she had forgotten. The +boys were sent to school, the old games and fancies were forbidden. +Gradually the color returned to her cheeks, and the light to her eyes. + +Then little Kippy was born, and happiness such as seldom comes to one +who has tasted the dregs of life came to the frail little woman in the +big four-poster bed. For ten days she held the baby fingers to her +heart, and watched the little blossom of a maid unfold. + +But one black night, when the rain beat against the panes, and the moan +of the river sounded in her ears, she suddenly sat up in bed: she had +heard the whistle of _his_ boat! Full of dumb terror she crept to the +window, and with her face pressed against the glass she waited and +watched. The present was swallowed up in the past. She was once more +alone, unloved, afraid. Stealthily snatching a cloak, she crept down +into the garden, feeling her way through the sodden grass, and the +jimpson weed which the rain had beaten down. + +And ever since, when children pass the house on their way to school, +they peep through the broken fence rails, and point out to one another, +in awed tones, the tree under which Miss Kippy's mother killed herself. +Then they look half-fearfully at the windows in the hope of catching a +glimpse of Miss Kippy herself. + +For Kippy had had a long illness in her thirteenth year which left her +with the face and mind of a little child, and kindly, shabby Mr. Moore, +having made the supreme effort of his life, from this time on ceased to +struggle against the weakness that for half a lifetime had beset him, +and sought oblivion in innocuous but perpetual libations. The one duty +which he recognized was the care of his invalid daughter. + +As soon as they were old enough, the boys launched their small craft and +set forth to seek their fortunes. Ben, with no cargo on board but his +own desires, went west and found a snug and comfortable harbor, while D. +Webster, the hope of his mother and the pride of the town, was at +thirty-five still putting out to sea, with all sail set, only to find +himself again and again aground on the sandbars of the old familiar +Cove. + + + + +III + + +Jimmy Fallows, being the boastful possessor of the fleetest horse in +town, was the first to return from the funeral. Extricating himself with +some difficulty from the narrow-seated buggy, he held out his hand to +Mrs. Fallows. But that imposing lady, evidently offended with her jovial +lord, refused his proffered aid, and clambered out over the wheel on the +other side. + +Mrs. Fallows, whose architectural effects were strictly perpendicular, +cast a perpetual shadow of disapproval over the life partner whom it had +pleased Providence to bestow upon her. Jimmy was a born satirist; he +knew things are not what they seem, and he wickedly rejoiced thereat. To +his literal, pious-minded wife he at times seemed the incarnation of +wickedness. + +Sweeping with dignity beneath the arching sign of Your Hotel, she took +her seat upon the porch, and, disposing her sable robes about her, +folded her mitted hands, and waited to see the people return from the +funeral. + +Jimmy, with the uncertain expression of one who is ready to apologize, +but cannot remember the offense, hovered about uneasily, casting +tempting bits of conversational bait into the silence, but failing to +attract so much as a nibble of attention. + +"Miss Jemima Fenny was over to the funeral from Birdtown. Miss Jim is +one of 'em, ain't she?" + +There was no response. + +"Had her brother Nick with her. He's just gettin' over typhoid fever; +looks about the size and color of a slate pencil. I bet, in spite of +Miss Jim's fine clothes, they ain't had a square meal for a month. +That's because she kept him at school so long when he orter been at +work. He did git a job in a newspaper office over at Coreyville not +long 'fore he was took sick. They tell me he's as slick as a onion about +newspaper work." + +Continued silence; but Jimmy boldly cast another fly: + +"Last funeral we had was Mrs. Tucker's, wasn't it? Old man Tucker was +there to-day. Crape band on his hat is climbin' up; it'll be at high +mast ag'in soon." + +Dense, nerve-racking silence; but Jimmy made one more effort: + +"The Opps are coming back here to-night to talk things over before Ben +goes on to Missouri. He counts on ketchin' the night boat. It won't give +him much time, will it?" + +But Mrs. Fallows, unrelaxed, stared fixedly before her; she had taken +refuge in that most trying of all rejoinders, silence, and the fallible +Jimmy, who waxed strong and prospered upon abuse, drooped and languished +under this new and cruel form of punishment. + +It was not until a buggy stopped at the door, and the Opp brothers +descended, that the tension was in any way relieved. + +Jimmy greeted them with the joy of an Arctic explorer welcoming a relief +party. + +"Come right on in here, in the office," he cried hospitably; "your +talkin' won't bother me a speck." + +But Ben abruptly expressed his desire for more private quarters, and led +the way up-stairs. + +The low-ceiled room into which he ushered D. Webster was of such a +depressing drab that even the green and red bed-quilt failed to disperse +the gloom. The sole decoration, classic in its severity, was a large +advertisement for a business college, whereon an elk's head grew out of +a bow of ribbon, the horns branching and rebranching into a forest of +curves and flourishes. + +The elder Opp took his seat by the window, and drummed with impatient +fingers on the sill. He was small, like his brother, but of a compact, +sturdy build. His chin, instead of dwindling to a point, was square and +stubborn, and his eyes looked straight ahead at the thing he wanted, +and neither saw nor cared for what lay outside. He had been trying ever +since leaving the cemetery to bring the conversation down to practical +matters, but D. Webster, seizing the first opportunity of impressing +himself upon his next of kin, had persisted in indulging in airy and +time-destroying flights of fancy. + +The truth is that our Mr. Opp was not happy. In his secret heart he felt +a bit apologetic before the material success of his elder brother. Hence +it was necessary to talk a great deal and to set forth in detail the +very important business enterprises upon which he was about to embark. + +Presently Ben Opp looked at his watch. + +"See here," he interrupted, "that boat may be along at any time. We'd +better come to some decision about the estate." + +D. Webster ran his fingers through his hair, which stood in valiant +defense of the small bald spot behind it. + +"Yes, yes," he said; "business is business. I'll have to be off myself +the very first thing in the morning. This funeral couldn't have come at +a more unfortunate time for me. You see, my special territory--" + +But Ben saw the danger of another bolt, and checked him: + +"How much do you think the old house is worth?" + +D. Webster drew forth his shiny note-book and pencil and made elaborate +calculations. + +"I should say," he said, as one financier to another, "that including of +the house and land and contents of same, it would amount to the whole +sum total of about two thousand dollars." + +"That is about what I figured," said Ben; "now, how much money is in the +bank?" + +D. Webster produced a formidable packet of letters and papers from his +inside pocket and, after some searching, succeeded in finding a +statement, which set forth the fact that the Ripper County Bank held in +trust one thousand dollars, to be divided between the children of Mary +Opp Moore at the death of her husband, Curtis V. Moore. + +"One thousand dollars!" said Ben, looking blankly at his brother, "Why, +for heaven's sake, what have Mr. Moore and Kippy been living on all +these years?" + +D. Webster moved uneasily in his chair. "Oh, they've managed to get +along first rate," he said evasively. + +His brother looked at him narrowly. "On the interest of a thousand +dollars?" He leaned forward, and his face hardened: "See here, have you +been putting up cash all this time for that old codger to loaf on? Is +that why you have never gotten ahead?" + +D. Webster, with hands in his pockets and his feet stretched in front of +him, was blinking in furious embarrassment at the large-eyed elk +overhead. + +"To think," went on Ben, his slow wrath rising, "of your staying here in +Kentucky all these years and handing out what you made to that old +sponger. I cut loose and made a neat little sum, married, and settled +down. And what have you done? Where have you gotten? Anybody that would +let himself be imposed upon like that deserves to fail. Now what do you +propose to do about this money?" + +Mr. Opp did not propose to do anything. The affront offered his business +sagacity was of such a nature that it demanded all his attention. He +composed various denunciatory answers with which to annihilate his +brother. He hesitated between two courses, whether he should hurl +himself upon him in righteous indignation and demand physical +satisfaction, or whether he should rise in a calm and manly attitude and +wither him with blighting sarcasm. And while the decision was pending, +he still sat with his hands in his pockets, and his feet stretched +forth, and blinked indignantly at the ornate elk. + +"The estate," continued Ben, contempt still in his face, "amounts at +most to three thousand dollars, after the house is sold. Part of this, +of course, will go to the maintenance of Kippy." + +At mention of her name, Mr. Opp's gaze dropped abruptly to his brother's +face. + +"What about Kippy? She's going to live with you, ain't she?" he asked +anxiously. + +Ben Opp shook his head emphatically. "She certainly is not. I haven't +the slightest idea of burdening myself and family with that +feeble-minded girl." + +"But see here," said Mr. Opp, his anger vanishing in the face of this +new complication, "you don't know Kippy; she's just similar to a little +child, quiet and gentle-like. Never give anybody any trouble in her +life. Just plays with her dolls and sings to herself all day." + +"Exactly," said Ben; "twenty-five years old and still playing with +dolls. I saw her yesterday, dressed up in all sorts of foolish toggery, +talking to her hands, and laughing. Aunt Tish humors her, and her father +humored her, but I'm not going to. I feel sorry for her all right, but +I am not going to take her home with me." + +D. Webster nervously twisted the large seal ring which he wore on his +forefinger. "Then what do you mean," he said hesitatingly--"what do you +want to do about it?" + +"Why, send her to an asylum, of course. That's where she ought to have +been all these years." + +Mr. Opp, sitting upon the small of his back, with one leg wrapped +casually about the leg of the chair, stared at him for a moment in +consternation, then, gathering himself together, rose and for the first +time since we have met him seemed completely to fill his checked +ready-made suit. + +"Send Kippy to a lunatic asylum!" he said in tones so indignant that +they made his chin tremble. "You will do nothing whatever of the kind! +Why, all she's ever had in the world was her pa and Aunt Tish and her +home; now he's gone, you ain't wanting to take the others away from her +too, are you?" + +"Well, who is going to take care of her?" demanded Ben angrily. + +"I am," announced D. Webster, striking as fine an attitude as ever his +illustrious predecessor struck; "you take the money that's in the bank, +and leave me the house and Kippy. That'll be her share and mine. I can +take care of her; I don't ask favors of nobody. Suppose I do lose my +job; I'll get me another. There's a dozen ways I can make a living. +There ain't a man in the State that's got more resources than me. I got +plans laid now that'll revolutionize--" + +"Yes," said Ben, quietly, "you always could do great things." + +D. Webster's egotism, inflated to the utmost, burst at this prick, and +he suddenly collapsed. Dropping limply into the chair by the table, he +held his hand over his mouth to hide his agitation. + +"There's--there's one thing," he began, swallowing violently, and +winking after each word, "that I--I can't do--and that's to leave +a--sister--to die--among strangers." + +And then, to his mortification, his head went unexpectedly down upon his +arms, and a flood of tears bedimmed the radiance of his twenty-five-cent +four-in-hand. + +From far down the river came the whistle of the boat, and, in the room +below, Jimmy Fallows removed a reluctant ear from the stove-pipe hole. + +"Melindy," he said confidentially, entirely forgetting the late frost, +"I never see anybody in the world that stood as good a show of gittin' +the fool prize as that there D. Opp." + + + + +IV + + +The old Opp House stood high on the river-bank and gazed lonesomely out +into the summer night. It was a shabby, down-at-heel, dejected-looking +place, with one side showing faint lights, above and below, but the +other side so nailed up and empty and useless that it gave the place the +appearance of being paralyzed down one side and of having scarcely +enough vitality left to sustain life in the other. + +To make matters worse, an old hound howled dismally on the door-step, +only stopping occasionally to paw at the iron latch and to whimper for +the master whose unsteady footsteps he had followed for thirteen years. + +In the front room a shaded lamp, turned low, threw a circle of light on +the table and floor, leaving the corners full of vague, uncertain +shadows. From the wide, black fireplace a pair of rusty and battered +andirons held out empty arms, and on the high stone shelf above the +opening, flanked on each side by a stuffed owl, was a tall, square-faced +clock, with the hour-hand missing. The minute-hand still went on its +useless round, and behind it, on the face of the clock, a tiny schooner +with all sail set rocked with the swinging of the pendulum. + +The loud ticking of the clock, and the lamentations of the hound +without, were not the only sounds that disturbed the night. Before the +empty fireplace, in a high-backed, cane-bottomed chair, slept an old +negress, with head bowed, moaning and muttering as she slept. She was +bent and ashen with age, and her brown skin sagged in long wrinkles from +her face and hands. On her forehead, reaching from brow to faded turban, +was a hideous testimony to some ancient conflict. A large, irregular +hole, over which the flesh had grown, pulsed as sentiently and +imperatively as a naked, living heart. + +A shutter slammed sharply somewhere in the house above, and something +stirred fearfully in the shadow of the room. It was a small figure that +crouched against the wall, listening and watching with the furtive +terror of a newly captured coyote--the slight figure of a woman dressed +as a child, with short gingham dress, and heelless slippers, and a +bright ribbon holding back the limp, flaxen hair from her strange, +pinched face. + +Again and again her wide, frightened eyes sought the steps leading to +the room above, and sometimes she would lean forward and whisper in +agonized expectancy, "Daddy?" Then when no answer came, she would +shudder back against the wall, cold and shaking and full of dumb +terrors. + +Suddenly the hound's howling changed to a sharp bark, and the old +negress stirred and stretched herself. + +"What ails dat air dog?" she mumbled, going to the window, and shading +her eyes with her hand. "You'd 'low to hear him tell it he done heared +old master coming up de road." + +That somebody was coming was evident from the continued excitement of +the hound, and when the gate slammed and a man's voice sounded in the +darkness, Aunt Tish opened the door, throwing a long, dim patch of light +out across the narrow porch and over the big, round stepping-stones +beyond. + +Into the light came Mr. Opp, staggering under the load of his baggage, +his coat over his arm, his collar off, thoroughly spent with the events +of the day. + +"Lord 'a' mercy!" said Aunt Tish, "if hit ain't Mr. D.! I done give you +up long ago. I certainly is glad you come. Miss Kippy's jes carrying on +like ever'thing. She ain't been to baid for two nights, an' I can't do +nothin' 't all wif her." + +Mr. Opp deposited his things in a corner, and, tired as he was, assumed +an air of authority. It was evident that a man was needed, a person of +firmness, of decision. + +"I'll see that she goes to bed at once," he said resolutely. "Where is +she at?" + +"She's behind de door," said Aunt Tish; "she's be'n so skeered ever +sence her paw died I can't do nothin' wif her." + +"Kippy," said Mr. Opp, sternly, "come out here this minute." + +But there was no response. Going to the corner where his coat lay, he +took from the pocket a brown-paper parcel. + +"Say, Kippy," he said in a greatly mollified tone, "I wish you would +come on out here and see me. You remember brother D., don't you? You +ought to see what I brought you all the way from the city. It's got blue +eyes." + +At this the small, grotesque figure, distrustful, suspicious, ready to +take flight at a word, ventured slowly forth. So slight she was, and so +frail, and so softly she moved, it was almost as if the wind blew her +toward him. Every thought that came into her brain was instantly +reflected in her hypersensitive face, and as she stood before him +nervously plucking her fingers, fear and joy struggled for supremacy. +Suddenly with a low cry she snatched the doll from him and clasped it to +her heart. + +Meanwhile Aunt Tish had spread a cloth on the table and set forth some +cold corn dodger, a pitcher of foaming butter-milk, and a plate of cold +corned beef. The milk was in a battered pewter pitcher, but the dish +that held the corn bread was of heavy silver, with intricate chasings +about the rim. + +Mr. Opp, with his head propped on his hand, ate wearily. He had been up +since four o'clock that morning, and to-morrow he must be up at daybreak +if he was to keep his engagements to supply the dealers with the +greatest line of shoes ever put upon the market. Between now and then he +must decide many things: Kippy must be planned for, the house gone over, +and arrangements made for the future. Being behind the scenes, as it +were, and having no spectator to impress, he allowed himself to sink +into an attitude of extreme dejection. And Mr. Opp, shorn of the +dignity of his heavily padded coat, and his imposing collar and tie, and +with even his pompadour limp upon his forehead, failed entirely to give +a good imitation of himself. + +As he sat thus, with one hand hanging limply over the back of the chair, +he felt something touch it softly, dumbly, as a dog might. Looking down, +he discovered Miss Kippy sitting on the floor, close behind him, +watching him with furtive eyes. In one arm she cradled the new doll, and +in the other she held his coat. + +Mr. Opp patted her cheek: "Whatever are you doing with my coat?" he +asked. + +Miss Kippy held it behind her, and nodded her head wisely: "Keeping it +so you can't go away," she whispered. "I'll hold it tight all night. +To-morrow I'll hide it." + +"But I'm a business man," said Mr. Opp, unconsciously straightening his +shoulders. "A great deal of responsibility depends on me. I've got to be +off early in the morning; but I'm coming back to see you real +often--every now and then." + +Miss Kippy's whole attitude changed. She caught his hand and clung to +it, and the terror came back to her eyes. + +"You mustn't go," she whispered, her body quivering with excitement. +"It'll get me if you do. Daddy kept It away, and you can keep It away; +but Aunt Tish can't: she's afraid of It, too! She goes to sleep, and +then It reaches at me through the window. It comes down the chimney, +there--where you see the brick's loose. Don't leave me, D. Hush, don't +you hear It?" + +Her voice had risen to hysteria, and she clung to him, cold and shaken +by the fear that possessed her. + +Mr. Opp put a quieting arm about her. "Why, see here, Kippy," he said, +"didn't you know It was afraid of me? Look how strong I am! I could kill +It with my little finger." + +"Could you?" asked Miss Kippy, fearfully. + +"Yes, indeed," said Mr. Opp. "Don't you ever be scared of anything +whatsoever when Brother D.'s round. I'm going to take care of you from +now on." + +"This me is bad," announced Miss Kippy; "the other me is good. Her name +is Oxety; she has one blue eye and one brown." + +"Well, Oxety must go to bed now," said Mr. Opp; "it must be getting +awful late." + +But Miss Kippy shook her head. "You might go 'way," she said. + +Finding that he could not persuade her, Mr. Opp resorted to strategy: +"I'll tell you what let's me and you do. Let's put your slippers on your +hands." + +This proposition met with instant approval. It appealed to Miss Kippy as +a brilliant suggestion. She assisted in unbuttoning the single straps +and watched with glee as they were fastened about her wrists. + +[Illustration: "'Don't leave me'"] + +"Now," said Mr. Opp, with assumed enthusiasm, "we'll make the slippers +walk you up-stairs, and after Aunt Tish undresses you, they shall walk +you to bed. Won't that be fun?" + +Miss Kippy's fancy was so tickled by this suggestion that she put it +into practice at once, and went gaily forth up the steps on all fours. +At the turn she stopped, and looked at him wistfully: + +"You'll come up before I go to sleep?" she begged; "Daddy did." + +Half an hour later Aunt Tish came down the narrow stairway: "She done +gone to baid now, laughin' an' happy ag'in," she said; "she never did +have dem spells when her paw was round, an' sometimes dat chile jes as +clear in her mind as you an' me is." + +"What is it she's afraid of?" asked Mr. Opp. + +Aunt Tish leaned toward him across the table, and the light of the lamp +fell full upon her black, bead-like eyes, and her sunken jaws, and on +the great palpitating scar. + +"De ghosties," she whispered; "dey been worriting dat chile ever' chance +dey git. _I_ hear 'em! Dey wait till I take a nap of sleep, den dey +comes sneakin' in to pester her. She says dey ain't but one, but I hears +heaps ob 'em, some ob 'em so little dey kin climb onder de crack in de +door." + +"Look a-here, Aunt Tish," said Mr. Opp, sternly, "don't you ever talk a +word of this foolishness to her again. Not one word, do you hear?" + +"Yas, sir; dat's what Mr. Moore allays said, an' I _don't_ talk to her +'bout hit, I don't haf to. She done knows I know. I been livin' heah +goin' on forty years, sence 'fore you was borned, an' you can't fool me, +chile; no, sir, dat you can't." + +"Well, you must go to bed now," said Mr. Opp, looking up at the clock +and seeing that it was half-past something though he did not know what. + +"I never goes to baid when I stays here," announced Aunt Tish; "I sets +up in de kitchen an' sleeps. I's skeered dat chile run away; she 'low +she gwine to some day. Her paw ketched her oncet gittin' in a boat down +on de river-bank. She ain't gwine, while I's here, no sir-ee! I never +leaves her in de daytime an' her paw never leaves her at night, dat is, +when he's livin'." + +After she had gone, Mr. Opp ascended the stairway, and entered the room +above. A candle sputtered on the table, and in its light he saw the +wide, four-poster bed that had been his mother's, and in it the frail +figure of little Miss Kippy. Her hair lay loose upon the pillow, and on +her sleeping face, appealing in its helplessness, was a smile of perfect +peace. The new doll lay on the table beside the candle, but clasped +tightly in her arms was the coat of many checks. + +For a moment Mr. Opp stood watching her, then he drew his shirt-sleeve +quickly across his eyes. As he turned to descend, his new shoes creaked +painfully and, after he had carefully removed them, he tiptoed down, +passed through the sitting-room and out upon the porch, where he sank +down on the step and dropped his head on his arms. + +The night was very still, save for the croaking of a bullfrog, and the +incessant scraping of a cedar-tree against the corner of the roof. From +across the river, faint sparks of light shone out from cabin windows, +and, below, a moving light now and then told of a passing scow. Once a +steamboat slipped weirdly out of the darkness, sparkling with lights, +and sending up faint sounds of music; but before the waves from the +wheel had ceased to splash on the bank below, she was swallowed up in +the darkness, leaving lonesomeness again. + +Mr. Opp sat staring out into the night, outwardly calm, but inwardly +engaged in a mortal duel. The aggressive Mr. Opp of the gorgeous raiment +and the seal ring, the important man of business, the ambitious +financier, was in deadly combat with the insignificant Mr. Opp, he of +the shirt-sleeves and the wilted pompadour, the delicate, sensitive, +futile Mr. Opp who was incapable of everything but the laying down of +his life for the sake of another. + +A dull line of light hovered on the horizon, and gradually the woods on +the opposite shore took shape, then the big river itself, gray and +shimmering, with streaks on the water where a snag broke the swift +current. + +"Mr. D.," he heard Aunt Tish calling up the back stairs, "you better git +out of baid; hit's sun-up." + +He rose stiffly and started back to the kitchen. As he passed through +the front room, his eyes fell upon his new suit-case full of the +treasured drummers' samples. Stooping down, he traced the large black +letters with his finger and sighed deeply. + +Then he got up resolutely and marched to the kitchen door. + +"Aunt Tish," he said with authority, "you needn't mind about hurrying +breakfast. I find there's very important business will keep me here in +the Cove for the present." + + + + +V + + +There were two methods of communication in Cove City, both of which were +equally effective. One was the telephone, which from a single, isolated +case had developed into an epidemic, and the other, which enjoyed the +dignity of precedence and established custom, was to tell Jimmy Fallows. + +Both of these currents of information soon overflowed with the news that +Mr. D. Webster Opp had given up a good position in the city, and +expected to establish himself in business in his native town. The nature +of this business was agitating the community at large in only a degree +less than it was agitating Mr. Opp himself. + +One afternoon Jimmy Fallows stood with his back to his front gate, +suspended by his armpits from the pickets, and conducted business after +his usual fashion. As a general retires to a hill-top to organize his +forces and issue orders to his subordinates, so Jimmy hung upon his +front fence and conducted the affairs of the town. He knew what time +each farmer came in, where the "Helping Hands" were going to sew, where +the doctor was, and where the services would be held next Sunday. He was +coroner, wharf-master, undertaker, and notary, and the only thing in the +heavens above or the earth below concerning which he did not attempt to +give information was the arrival of the next steamboat. + +As he stood whittling a stick and cheerfully humming a tune of other +days, he descried a small, alert figure coming up the road. The pace was +so much brisker than the ordinary slow gait of the Cove that he +recognized the person at once as Mr. Opp. Whereupon he lifted his voice +and hailed a boy who was just vanishing down the street in the opposite +direction: + +"Nick!" he called. "Aw, Nick Fenny! Tell Mat Lucas that Mr. Opp's +uptown." + +Connection being thus made at one end of the line, he turned to effect +it at the other. "Howdy, Brother Opp. Kinder dusty on the river, ain't +it?" + +"Well, we _are_ experiencing considerable of warm weather at this +juncture," said Mr. Opp, affably. + +"Mat Lucas has been hanging round here all day," said Jimmy. "He wants +you to buy out a half-interest in his dry-goods store. What do you think +about it?" + +"Well," said Mr. Opp, thrusting his thumbs into the armholes of his +waistcoat, "I am considering of a great variety of different things. I +been in the dry-goods business twice, and I can't say but what it ain't +a pretty business. Of course," he added with a twinge, "my specialty are +shoes." + +"Yes," said Jimmy; "but the folks here all gets their shoes at the drug +store. Mr. Toddlinger's been carrying a line of shoes along with his +pills and plasters ever sence he went into business." + +Mr. Opp looked up at the large sign overhead. "If you and Mr. Tucker +wasn't both in the hotel business, I might be thinking of considering +that." + +This proposition tickled Jimmy immensely. Chuckles of amusement agitated +his rotund figure. + +"Why don't you buy us both out?" he asked. "We could sell out for +nothing and make money." + +"Why, there's three boarders sitting over at Our Hotel now," said Mr. +Opp, who rather fancied himself in the rôle of a genial host. + +"Yes," said Jimmy. "Old man Tucker's had 'em hanging out on the line all +morning. I don't guess they got strength enough to walk around much +after the meals he give 'em." + +"Of course," said Mr. Opp, wholly absorbed in his own affairs, "this is +just temporarily for the time being, as it were. In a year or so, when +my financial condition is sorter more established in a way, I intend to +put through that oil-wells proposition. The fact that I am aiming at +arriving to is what would you think the Cove was at present most in need +of?" + +"Elbow-grease," said Jimmy, promptly. "The only two things that we ain't +got that a city has, is elbow-grease and a newspaper." + +For a moment there was a silence, heavy with significance. Mr. Fallows's +gaze penetrated the earth, while Mr. Opp's scanned the heavens; then +they suddenly looked at each other, and the great idea was born. + +An editor! Mr. Opp's whole being thrilled responsive to the call. The +thought of dwelling above the sordid bartering of commercial life, of +being in a position to exercise those mental powers with which he felt +himself so generously endowed, almost swept him off his feet. He had +been a reporter once; for two golden weeks he had handed in +police-court reports that fairly scintillated with verbal gems plucked +at random from the dictionary. But the city editor had indicated as +kindly as possible that his services were no longer required, vaguely +suggesting that it was necessary to reduce the force; and Mr. Opp had +assured him that he understood perfectly, and that he was ready to +return at any future time. That apprenticeship, brief though it was, +served as a foundation upon which Mr. Opp erected a tower of dazzling +possibilities. + +"What's the matter with you takin' Mr. Gusty's old printin'-shop and +startin' up business for yourself?" asked Jimmy. + +"Do you reckon she'd sell it?" asked Mr. Opp, anxiously. + +"Sell it?" said Jimmy. "Why, she's 'most ready to give it away to keep +from having to pay Pete Aker's rent for the shop. Say--Mr. Gall--up," he +called up the street to a man who was turning the corner, "is Mrs. Gusty +at home?" + +The man, thus accosted, turned and came toward them. + +"Who is Mr. Gallop?" asked Mr. Opp. + +"He's the new telephone girl," said Jimmy, with relish; "ain't been here +but a month, and he's doing the largest and most profitable trade in +tending to other folks's business you ever seen. Soft! Why, he must 'a' +been raised on a pillow--He always puts me in mind of a highly educated +pig: it sorter surprises and tickles you to see him walkin' round on his +hind legs and talking like other people. Other day one of the boys, just +to devil him, ast him to drive his team out home. I liked to 'a' died +when I seen him tryin' to turn the corner, pullin' 'Gee' and hollerin' +'Haw' with every breath. Old mules got their legs in a hard knot trying +to do both at once, and the boys says when Gallop got out in the country +he felt so bad about it he got down and 'pologized to the mules. How +'bout that, Gallop--did you!" he concluded as the subject of the +conversation arrived upon the scene. + +The new-comer, a plump, fair young man, who held one hand clasped +affectionately in the other, blushed indignantly, but said nothing. + +"This here is Mr. Opp," went on Jimmy; "he wants to see Mrs. Gusty. Do +you know whether he will ketch her at home or not?" + +Mr. Gallop was by this time paying the tribute of many an admiring +glance to every detail of Mr. Opp's costume, and Mr. Opp, realizing +this, assumed an air of cosmopolitan nonchalance, and toyed +indifferently with his large watch-fob. + +When Mr. Gallop's admiration and attention had become focused upon Mr. +Opp's ring, he suddenly turned on the faucet of his conversation, and +allowed such a stream of general information to pour forth that Mr. Opp +quite forgot to look imposing. + +"Mrs. Gusty telephoned early this morning to Mrs. Dorsey that she would +come over and help her make preserves. Mrs. Dorsey got a big load of +peaches from her father across the river. He's been down with the +asthma, and had to call up the doctor twice in the night. And the doctor +couldn't get the right medicine in town, and had me call up the city. +They are going to send it down on the _Big Sandy_, but she's stuck in +the locks, and goodness knows when she'll get here. She's--" + +"Excuse me," interrupted Mr. Opp, politely but firmly, "I've got to see +Mrs. Gusty on very important business. Have you any idea whatsoever of +when she will return back home?" + +"Yes," said Mr. Gallop, eager to oblige. "She's about home by this time. +Miss Lou Diker is making her a dress, and she telephoned she'd be by to +try it on 'bout four o'clock. I'll go up there with you, if you want me +to." + +"Why don't you drive him!" suggested Jimmy. "You can borrow a pair of +mules acrost the street." + +"Mr. Opp," said Mr. Gallop, feelingly, as they walked up Main Street, "I +wouldn't treat a' insect like he treats me." + +"Oh, you mustn't mind Jimmy," said Mr. Opp, kindly; "he always sort of +enjoys a little joke as he goes along. Why, I wouldn't be at all +surprised if he even made a joke on me sometime. How long have you been +in Cove City?" + +"Just a month," said Mr. Gallop. "It must look awful little to you, +after all the big cities you been used to." + +Mr. Opp lengthened his stride. "Yes," he said largely; "quite small, +quite little, in fact. No place for a business man; but for a +professional man, a man that requires leisure to sort of cultivate his +brain and that means to be a influence in the community, it's a good +place, a remarkably good place." + +A hint, however vague, dropped into the mind of Mr. Gallop, caused +instant fermentation. From long experience he had become an adept at +extracting information from all who crossed his path. A preliminary +interest, a breath or two of flattery by way of anesthetic, and his +victim's secret was out before he knew it. + +"Reckon you are going up to talk insurance to Mrs. Gusty," he ventured +tentatively. + +"No; oh, no," said Mr. Opp. "I formerly was in the insurance business, +some time back. Very little prospects in it for a man of my nature. I +have to have a chance to sorter spread out, you know--to use my own +particular ideas about working things out." + +"What is your especial line?" asked Mr. Gallop, deferentially. + +"Shoe--" Mr. Opp began involuntarily, then checked +himself--"journalism," he said, and the word seemed for the moment +completely to fill space. + +At Mrs. Gusty's gate Mr. Gallop stopped. + +"I guess I ought to go back now," he said regretfully; "the telephone +and telegraph office is right there in my room, and I never leave them +day or night except just this one hour in the afternoon. It's awful +trying. The farmers begin calling each other up at three o'clock in the +morning. Say, I wish you'd step in sometime. I'd just love to have you. +But you are so busy and got so many friends, you won't have much time +for me, I guess." + +Mr. Opp thought otherwise. He said that no matter how pressed he was by +various important duties, he was never too busy to see a friend. And he +said it with the air of one who confers a favor, and Mr. Gallop received +it as one who receives a favor, and they shook hands warmly and parted. + + + + +VI + + +Mr. Opp, absorbed in the great scheme which was taking definite form in +his mind, did not discover until he reached the steps that some one was +lying in a hammock on the porch. + +It was a dark-haired girl in a pink dress, with a pink bow in her hair +and small bows on the toes of her high-heeled slippers--the very kind of +person, in fact, that Mr. Opp was most desirous of avoiding. + +Fortunately she was asleep, and Mr. Opp, after listening in vain at the +door for sounds of Mrs. Gusty within, tiptoed cautiously to the other +end of the porch and took his seat on a straight-backed settee. + +Let it not for a moment be supposed that Mr. Opp was a stranger to the +fascinations of femininity. He had been inoculated at a tender age, and +it had taken so completely, so tragically, that he had crept back to +life with one illusion sadly shattered, and the conviction firm within +him that henceforth he was immune. His attitude toward the subject +remained, however, interested, but cautious--such as a good little boy +might entertain toward a loaded pistol. + +As he sat very straight and very still on the green settee, he tried to +compose his mind for the coming interview with Mrs. Gusty. Directly +across the road was Aker's old carpenter-shop, a small, square, +one-story edifice, shabby, and holding out scant promise of journalistic +possibilities. Mr. Opp, however, seldom saw things as they were; he saw +them as they were going to be. Before five minutes had elapsed he had +the shop painted white, with trimmings of red, new panes in the windows, +ground glass below and clear above, an imposing sign over the door, and +the roadway blocked with eager subscribers. He would have to have an +assistant, of course, some one to attend to the general details; but he +would have charge of everything himself. He would edit a paper, +comprehensive in its scope, and liberal in its views. Science, art, +religion, society, and politics would all be duly chronicled. Politics! +Why, his paper would be an organ--an organ of the Democratic Party! + +At the thought of being an organ, Mr. Opp's bosom swelled with such +pride that his settee creaked, and he glanced apprehensively toward the +other end of the porch. + +The young lady was still asleep, with her head resting on her bare arm, +and one foot hanging limply below her ruffled petticoat. + +Suddenly Mr. Opp leaned forward and viewed her slipper with interest. He +had recognized the make! It was xxx-aa. He had carried a sample exactly +like it, and had been wont to call enthusiastic attention to the curve +of the instep and the set of the heel. He now realized that the effect +depended entirely on the bow, and he seriously considered writing to the +firm and suggesting the improvement. + +In the midst of his reflections the young lady stirred and then sat up. +Her hair was tumbled, and her eyes indicated that she had been indulging +in recent tears. Resting her chin on her palms, she gazed gloomily down +the road. + +Mr. Opp, at the other end of the porch, also gazed gloomily down the +road. The fact that he must make his presence known was annihilated by +the yet more urgent fact that he could think of nothing to say. A +bumblebee wheeled in narrowing circles above his head and finally +lighted upon his coat-sleeve. But Mr. Opp remained immovable. He was +searching his vocabulary for a word which would gently crack the silence +without shattering it to bits. + +The bumblebee saved the situation. Detecting some rare viand in a crack +of the porch midway between the settee and the hammock, and evidently +being a bibulous bee, it set up such a buzz of excitement that Mr. Opp +looked at it, and the young lady looked at it, and their eyes met. + +"Excuse me," said Mr. Opp, rather breathlessly; "you was asleep, and I +come to see Mrs. Gusty, and--er--the fact is--I'm Mr. Opp." + +At this announcement the young lady put her hand to her head, and by a +dexterous movement rearranged the brown halo of her hair, and twisted +the pink bow into its proper, aggressive position. + +"Mother'll--be back soon,"--she spoke without embarrassment, yet with +the hesitation of one who is not in the habit of speaking for +herself,--"I--I--didn't know I was going to sleep." + +"No," said Mr. Opp; then added politely, "neither did I." Silence again +looming on the horizon, he plunged on: "I think I used to be in the +habit of seeing you when you was--er--younger, didn't I?" + +"Up at the store." She smiled faintly. "You bought me a bag of pop-corn +once with a prize in it. It was a breastpin; I've got it yet." + +Mr. Opp scowled slightly as he tried to extract an imaginary splinter +from his thumb. "Do you--er--attend school?" he asked, taking refuge in +a paternal attitude. + +"I'm finished," she said listlessly. "I've been going to the Young +Ladies' Seminary at Coreyville." + +"Didn't you taken to it?" asked Mr. Opp, wishing fervently that Mrs. +Gusty would return. + +"Oh, yes," said his companion, earnestly. "I love it; I was a special. I +took music and botany and painting. I was in four concerts last year and +played in the double duets at the commencements." During the pause that +followed, Mr. Opp considered various names for his newspaper. "Mother +isn't going to let me go back," the soft, drawling voice continued; "she +says when a girl is nineteen she ought to settle down. She wants me to +get married." + +Mr. Opp laid "The Cove Chronicle" and "The Weekly Bugle" aside for +further consideration, and inquired politely if there was any special +person whom Mrs. Gusty desired for a son-in-law. + +"Oh, no," said the girl, indifferently; "she hasn't thought of anybody. +But I don't want to get married--yet. I want to go back to the seminary +and be a music teacher. I hate it here, every bit of it. It's so +stupid--and lonesome, and--" + +A break in her voice caused Mr. Opp to postpone a decision of the day on +which his paper was to be published, and to give her his undivided +attention. Distress, even in beauty, was not to be withstood, and the +fact that she was unusually pretty had been annoying Mr. Opp ever since +she had spoken to him. As she turned her head away and wiped her eyes, +he rose impulsively and moved toward her: + +"Say, look a-here now, you ain't crying, are you?" he asked. + +She shook her head in indignant denial. + +"Well--er--you don't seem exactly happy, as you might say," suggested +Mr. Opp, boldly. + +"I'm not," she confessed, biting her lip. "I oughtn't to talk to you +about it, but there isn't anybody here that would understand. They think +I'm stuck up when I talk about books and music and--and other kind of +people. They just keep on doing the same stupid things till they get old +and die. Only mother won't even let me do stupid things; she says I +bother her when I try to help around the house." + +"Can't you sew or make mottoes or something?" asked Mr. Opp, very vague +as to feminine accomplishments. + +"What's the use?" asked the girl. "Mother does everything for me. She +always says she'd rather do it than teach me how." + +"Don't you take to reading?" asked Mr. Opp. + +"Oh, yes," she said; "I used to read all the time down at school; but +there never is anything to read up here." + +The editor-elect peopled the country with similar cases, and he +immediately saw himself as a public benefactor supplying starved +subscribers with a bountiful repast of weekly news. + +"Won't you sit down?" asked the girl, interrupting his reflections. "I +don't know what can be keeping mother." + +Mr. Opp looked about for a chair, but there was none. Then he glanced at +his companion, and saw that she was holding aside her pink skirt and +evidently offering him a seat beside her in the hammock. He advanced a +step, retreated, then weakly capitulated. Sitting very rigid, nursing +his hat on his knees, and inserting his forefinger between his neck and +his collar as if to breathe better, he remarked that it was getting +warmer all the time. + +"This isn't anything to what it will be later," said the girl; "it keeps +on getting hotter and dustier all the time. I don't believe there's such +a stupid, poky, little old place anywhere else in the world. You ought +to be mighty glad you don't live here." + +Mr. Opp cleared his throat with some dignity. "I expect to remain here +permanent now. I--well--the truth is, I have decided to operate a +newspaper here." + +"No!" cried the girl, incredulously. "Not in the Cove!" + +"In the Cove," repeated Mr. Opp, firmly. "There's great need here for a +live, enterprising newspaper. It's a virgin field, you might say. There +never was a place that needed a public voice more. My paper is going to +be a voice that hears all sides of a question; it's going to appeal to +the aged and the young and all them that lies between." + +"It will be mighty grand for us!" said his companion, with interest. +"When is it going to start?" + +Definite plans being decidedly nebulous, Mr. Opp wisely confined himself +to generalities. He touched casually on his remarkable fitness for the +work, his wide experience, his worldly knowledge. He hinted that in time +he expected to venture into even deeper literary waters--poetry, and a +novel, perhaps. As he talked, he realized that for the second time that +day he was looked upon with approval. Being accepted at his own estimate +proved a new and exhilarating sensation. + +It was pleasant on the wide porch, with the honeysuckle shutting out the +sun, and the long, yellow blossoms filling the air with fragrance. It +was pleasant to hear the contented chuckle of the hens and the sleepy +hum of the bees, and the sound of his own voice; but most of all it was +pleasant, albeit disconcerting, to glance sidewise occasionally and find +a pair of credulous brown eyes raised to his in frank admiration. What +if the swing of the hammock was making him dizzy and one foot had gone +to sleep? These were minor considerations unworthy of mention. + +"And just to think," the girl was saying, "that you may be right across +the road! I won't mind staying at home so much if you'll let me come +over and see you make the newspaper." + +"You might like to assist sometime," said Mr. Opp, magnanimously, at the +same time cautiously removing a fluttering pink ribbon from his knee. "I +could let you try your hand on a wedding or a 'bituary, or something +along that line." + +"Oh, really?" she cried, her eyes brightening. "I'd just love to. I can +write compositions real nice, and you could help me a little." + +"Yes," agreed Mr. Opp; "I could learn you to do the first draft, and I +could put on the extra touches." + +So engrossed did they become in these plans that they did not hear the +click of the gate, or see the small, aggressive lady who came up the +walk. She moved with the confident air of one who is in the habit of +being obeyed. Her skirt gave the appearance of no more daring to hang +wrong than her bonnet-strings would have presumed to move from the exact +spot where she had tied them under her left ear. Her small, bright eyes, +slightly crossed, apparently saw two ways at once, for on her brief +journey from the gate to the porch, she decapitated two withered +geraniums on the right, and picked up a stray paper and some dead leaves +on the left. + +"Guin-never!" she called sharply, not seeing the couple on the porch, +"who's been tracking mud in on my clean steps?" + +The girl rose hastily and came forward. "Mother," she said, "here's Mr. +Opp." + +Mrs. Gusty glanced up from one to the other, evidently undecided how to +meet the situation. But the hesitancy was not for long; Mr. Opp's +watch-fob, glittering in the sunlight, symbolized such prosperity that +she hastily extended a cordial hand of welcome. + +"You don't mean to tell me Guin-never has been keeping you out here on +the porch instead of taking you in the parlor? And hasn't she given you +a thing to drink? Well, just wait till I get my things off and I'll fix +a pitcher of lemonade." + +"Let me do it, Mother," said Guinevere, eagerly; "I often do it at +school." + +"I'd hate to drink what you make," said Mrs. Gusty, waving her aside. +"You show Mr. Opp in the parlor. No; I'll open the shutters: you'd get +your hands dirty." She bustled about with that tyrannical capability +that reduces every one near it to a state of helpless dependence. + +The parlor was cool and dark, and Mr. Opp felt around for a chair while +the refractory shutter was being opened. When at last a shaft of light +was admitted, it fell full upon a sable frame which hung above the +horse-hair sofa, and inclosed a glorified certificate of the births, +marriages, and deaths in the house of Gusty. Around these written data +was a border realistically depicting the seven ages of man and +culminating in a legend of gold which read + + From the Cradle to the Grave. + +While Mr. Opp was standing before this work of art, apparently deeply +interested, he was, in reality, peeping through a crack in the shutter. +The sunlight was still filtering through the honeysuckle vines, making +dancing, white patches on the porch, the bees were humming about the +blossoms, and Miss Guinevere Gusty was still sitting in the hammock, her +chin in her palms, gazing down the road. + +When Mrs. Gusty returned, she bore a glass pitcher of lemonade, a plate +of crisp gingersnaps, and a tumbler of crushed ice, all of which rested +upon a tray which was covered with her strawberry centerpiece, a mark of +distinction which, unfortunately, was lost upon her guest. + +Mr. Opp, being a man of business, plunged at once into his subject, +presenting the matter so eloquently and using so much more persuasion +than was necessary that he overshot the mark. Mrs. Gusty was not without +business sagacity herself, and when Mr. Opp met a possible objection +before it had ever occurred to her, she promptly made use of the +suggestion. + +"Of course," said Mr. Opp, as a final inducement, "I'd be glad to run +in some of Mr. Gusty's poetical pieces from time to time." + +This direct appeal to her sentiment so touched Mrs. Gusty that she +suggested they go over to the shop at once and look it over. + +For a moment after the door of his future sanctum was thrown open Mr. +Opp was disconcerted. The small, dark room, cluttered with all manner of +trash, the broken window-panes, the dust, and the cobwebs, presented a +prospect that was far from encouraging; but after an examination of the +presses, his courage revived. + +After a great deal of talk on Mr. Opp's part, and some shrewd bargaining +on Mrs. Gusty's, the stupendous transaction was brought to a close, to +the eminent satisfaction of both parties. + + * * * * * + +It was late that night before Mr. Opp retired. He sat in the open window +of his bedroom and looked out upon the river. The cool night air and the +quiet light of the stars calmed the turmoil in his brain. Gradually the +colossal schemes and the towering ambitions gave way to an emotion to +which the editor-elect was by no means a stranger. It was a little +white-faced Fear that lurked always in a corner of his heart, and could +be kept down only by brave words and aggressive deeds. + +He sat with his trembling knees hunched, and his arms awkwardly clasped +about them, an absurd atom in the great cosmic order; yet the soul that +looked out of his squinting, wistful eyes held all the potentialities of +life, and embodied the eternal sadness and the eternal inspiration of +human endeavor. + + + + +VII + + +It is no small undertaking to embark in an untried ship, upon unknown +waters, in the teeth of opposing gales. But Mr. Opp sailed the sea of +life as a valiant mariner should, self-reliant, independent, asking +advice of nobody. He steered by the guidance of his own peculiar moral +compass, regardless of the rough waters through which it led him. + +Having invested the major portion of his savings in the present venture, +it was necessary to begin operations at once; but events conspired to +prevent him. Miss Kippy made many demands upon his time both by day and +night; she had transferred her affection and dependence from her father +to him, and he found himself sorely encumbered by this new +responsibility. Moreover, the attitude of the town toward the innovation +of a newspaper was one of frank skepticism, and it proved a delicate and +arduous task to create the proper public sentiment. In addition to these +troubles, Mr. Opp had a yet graver matter to hinder him: with all his +valor and energy he was suffering qualms of uncertainty as to the proper +method of starting a weekly journal. + +To be sure, he had achieved a name for the paper--a name so eminently +satisfactory that he had already had it emblazoned upon a ream of office +paper. "The Opp Eagle" had sprung full-syllabled from his teeming brain, +and had been accepted over a hundred competitors. + +But naming the fledgling was an easy matter compared with getting it out +of the nest; and it was not until the instalment of his competent staff +that Mr. Opp accomplished the task. + +This important transaction took place one morning as he sat in his new +office and struggled with his first editorial. The bare room, with the +press in the center, served as news-room, press-room, publication +office, and editorial sanctum. Mr. Opp sat at a new deal table, with one +pen behind his ear, and another in his hand, and gazed for inspiration +at the brown wrapping-paper with which he had neatly covered the walls. +His mental gymnastics were interrupted by the appearance at the door of +Miss Jim Fenton and her brother Nick. + +Miss Jim was an anomaly in the community, being by theory a spinster, +and by practice a double grass-widow. Capable and self-supporting, she +attracted the ne'er-do-wells as a magnet attracts needles, but having +been twice induced to forego her freedom and accept the bonds of +wedlock, she had twice escaped and reverted to her original type and +name. Miss Jim was evidently a victim of one of Nature's most economical +moods; she was spare and angular, with a long, wrinkled face surmounted +by a scant fluff of pale, frizzled hair. Her mouth slanted upward at +one corner, giving her an expression unjustly attributed to coquetry, +when in reality it was due to an innocent and pardonable pride in an +all-gold eye-tooth. + +But it was her clothes that brought misunderstanding, misfortune, and +even matrimony upon Miss Jim. They were sent her by the boxful by a +cousin in the city, and the fact was unmistakable that they were clothes +with a past. The dresses held an atmosphere of evaporated frivolity; +flirtations lingered in every frill, and memories of old larks lurked in +every furbelow. The hats had a jaunty list to port, and the colored +slippers still held a dance within their soles. One old bird of paradise +on Miss Jim's favorite bonnet had a chronic wink for the wickedness he +had witnessed. + +It was this wink that attracted Mr. Opp as he looked up from his arduous +labors. For a disconcerting moment he was uncertain whether it belonged +to Miss Jim or to the bird. + +"Howdy, Mr. Opp," said the lady in brisk, businesslike tones. "I was +taking a crayon portrait home to Mrs. Gusty, and I just stopped in to +see if I couldn't persuade you to take my brother to help you on the +newspaper. You remember Nick, don't you?" + +Mr. Opp glanced up. A skeleton of a boy, with a shaven head, was peering +eagerly past him into the office, his keen, ferret-like eyes devouring +every detail of the printing-presses. + +"He knows the business," went on Miss Jim, anxiously pulling at the +fingers of her gloves. "He's been in it over a year at Coreyville. He +wants to go back; but I ain't willing till he gets stronger. He ain't +been up but two weeks." + +Mr. Opp turned impressively in his revolving chair, the one luxury which +he had deemed indispensable, and doubtfully surveyed the applicant. The +mere suggestion of his leaning upon this broken reed seemed ridiculous; +yet the boy's thin, sallow face, and Miss Jim's imploring eyes, caused +him to hesitate. + +"Well, you see," he said, with thumbs together and his lips pursed, +after the manner of the various employers before whom he had stood in +the past, "we are just making a preliminary start, and we haven't +engaged our staff yet. I am a business man and a careful one. I don't +feel justified in going to no extra expense until 'The Opp Eagle' is, in +a way, on its feet." + +"Oh, that's all right," said the boy; "I'll work a month for nothing. +Lots of fellows do that on the big papers." + +Miss Jim plucked warningly at his sleeve, and Mr. Opp, seeing that +Nick's enthusiasm had led him beyond his depth, went gallantly to the +rescue. + +"Not at all," he said hastily; "that ain't my policy. I think I might +contrive to pay you a small, reasonable sum down, and increase it in +ratio as the paper become more prosperous. Don't you think you better +sit down?" + +"No, sir; I'm all right," said the boy, impatiently. "I can do 'most +anything about a paper, setting type, printing, reporting, collecting, +'most anything you put me at." + +Such timely knowledge, in whatever guise it came, seemed Heaven-sent. +Mr. Opp gave a sigh of satisfaction. + +"If you feel that you can't do any better than accepting the small sum +that just at present I'll have to offer you, why, I think we can come to +some arrangement." + +"That's mighty nice in you," said Miss Jim, jerking her head forward in +order to correct an undue backward gravitation of her bonnet. "If ever +you want a crayon portrait, made from life or enlarged from a +photograph, I'll make you a special price on it. I'm just taking this +here one home to Mrs. Gusty; she had it done for Guin-never's birthday." + +Miss Jim removed the wrappings and disclosed a portrait of Miss +Guinevere Gusty, very large as to eyes and very small as to mouth. She +handed it to Mr. Opp, and called attention to its fine qualities. + +"Just look at the lace on that dress! Mrs. Fallows picked a whole +pattern off on her needles from one of my portraits. And did you notice +the eyelashes; you can actually count 'em! She had four buttons on her +dress, but I didn't get in but three; but I ain't going to mention it to +Mrs. Gusty. Don't you think it's pretty?" + +Mr. Opp, who had been smiling absently at the portrait, started +guiltily. "Yes," he said confusedly; "yes, ma'am, I think she is." Then +he felt a curious tingling about his ears and realized, to his +consternation, that he was blushing. + +"She's too droopin' a type for me," said Miss Jim, removing an ostrich +tip from her angle of vision; then she continued in a side whisper: +"Say, would you mind making Nick take this bottle of milk at twelve +o'clock, and resting a little? He ain't as strong as he lets on, and he +has sort of sinking spells 'long about noon." + +Receiving the bottle thus surreptitiously offered, and assisting the +lady to gather up her bundles, Mr. Opp bowed her out, and turned to face +the embarrassing necessity of giving instructions to his new employee. +He was relieved to find, however, that the young gentleman in question +possessed initiative; for Nick had promptly removed his coat, and fallen +to work, putting things to rights with an energy and ability that caused +Mr. Opp to offer up a prayer of heartfelt gratitude. + +All the morning they worked silently, Mr. Opp toiling over his +editorial, with constant references to a small dictionary which he +concealed in the drawer of the table, and Nick giving the presses a +thorough and much-needed overhauling. + +At the noon-hour they shared their lunch, and Mr. Opp, firm in the +authority invested in him by Miss Jim, demanded that Nick should drink +his milk, and recline at length upon the office bench for twenty +minutes. It was with great difficulty that Nick was persuaded to submit +to this transferred coddling; but he evidently realized that +insubordination at the start of his career would be fatal, and, +moreover, his limbs ached and his hands trembled. + +It was in the intimacy of this, their first, staff meal, that they +discussed the policy of the paper. + +"Of course," said Mr. Opp, "we have got a vast undertaking in front of +us. For the next few months we won't scarcely have time to draw a +natural breath. I am going to put every faculty I own on to making 'The +Opp Eagle' a fine paper. I expect to get here at seven o'clock A.M., and +continue to pursue my work as far into the midnight hours as may need +be. Nothing in the way of pleasure or anything else is going to pervert +my attention. Of course you understand that my mind will be taken up +with the larger issues of things, and I'll have to risk a dependence on +you to attend to the smaller details." + +"All right," said Nick, gratefully; "you won't be sorry you trusted me, +Mr. Opp. I'll do my level best. When will we get out the first issue?" + +"Well--er--the truth is," said Mr. Opp, "I haven't, as you might say, +accumulated sufficient of material as yet. You see, I have a great many +irons in the fire, and besides opening up this office, I am the +president of a company that's just bought up twenty acres of ground +around here. The biggest oil proposition--" + +"Yes, sir," interrupted Nick; "but don't you think we could get started +in two weeks, with the ads and the contributors' letters from other +counties, and a story or two I could run in, and your editorial page?" + +"I've got two advertisements," said Mr. Opp; "but I don't intend to rest +content until every man in the Cove has got a card in. Now, about these +contributors from other counties?" + +"I can manage that," said Nick. "I'll write to some girl or fellow I +know in the different towns, and ask them to give me a weekly letter. +They sign themselves 'Gipsy' or 'Fairy' or 'Big Injun' or something +like that, and tell what's doing in their neighborhood. We'll have to +fix the letters up some, but they help fill in like everything." + +Mr. Opp's spirits rose at this capable coöperation. + +"You--er--like the name?" he asked. + +"'The Opp Eagle'?" said Nick. "Bully!" + +Such unqualified approval went to Mr. Opp's head, and he rashly broke +through the dignity that should hedge about an editor. + +"I don't mind reading you some of my editorial," he said urbanely; "it's +the result of considerable labor." + +He opened the drawer and took out some loosely written pages, though he +knew each paragraph by heart. Squaring himself in his revolving-chair, +and clearing his throat, he addressed himself ostensibly to the +cadaverous youth stretched at length before him, but in imagination to +all the southern counties of the grand old Commonwealth of Kentucky. + +His various business experiences had stored such an assorted lot of +information in his brain that it was not unlike a country store in the +diversity of its contents. His style, like his apparel, was more ornate +and pretentious than what lay beneath it. There were many words which he +knew by sight, but with which he had no speaking acquaintance. But Mr. +Opp had ideals, and this was the first opportunity he had ever had to +put them before his fellow-men. + +"The great bird of American Liberty," he read impressively, "has soared +and flown over the country and lighted at last in your midst. 'The Opp +Eagle' appears for the first time to-day. It is no money scheme in which +we are indulging; we aim first and foremost to fulfil a much-needed want +in the community. 'The Opp Eagle' will tell the people what you want to +know better and at less expense than any other method. It will aim at +bringing the priceless gems of knowledge within the reach of everybody. +For what is bread to the body if you do not also clothe the mind +spiritually and mentally? + +"We will boom this, our native, city. If possible, I hope to get the +streets cleaned up and a railroad, and mayhap in time lamp-posts. This +region has ever been known for its great and fine natural resources, but +we have been astounded, you might say astonished, in recent visits to +see its naked and crude immensities, which far exceeds our most sanguine +expectations. So confident are we that a few of our most highly +respectable citizens have, at the instigation of the Editor of 'The Opp +Eagle,' bought up the land lying between Turtle Creek and the river, and +as soon as a little more capital has been accumulated, intend to open up +a oil proposition that will astonish the eyes of the natives! + +"In all candor, we truly believe this favored region of ours to have no +equal in underground wealth nowhere upon this terrestrial earth, albeit +we are not of globe-trotter stock nor tribe. We will endeavor to induce +the home people to copy after the wise example of a few of our leading +citizens and buy up oil rights before the kings of Bonanzas from the +Metropolitan cities discover our treasure and wrench it from our grasp. +'The Opp Eagle' will, moreover, stand for temperance and reform. We will +hurl grape and cannister into the camps of the saloonatics until they +flee the wrath to come. Will also publish a particular statement of all +social entertainments, including weddings, parties, church socials, and +funerals. In conclusion, would say that we catch this first opportunity +to thank you in collective manner herein for the welcome you have +ordained 'The Opp Eagle.'" + +Mr. Opp came to a close and waited for applause; nor was he +disappointed. + +"Gee! I wish I could write like that!" said Nick, rising on his elbow. +"I can do the printing all right, and hustle around for the news; but I +never know how to put on the trimmings." + +Mr. Opp laid a hand upon his shoulder; he was fast developing a +fondness for the youth. + +"It's a gift," he said sympathetically, "that I am afraid, my boy, +nobody can't learn you." + +"Can I come in?" said a voice from outside, and Mr. Gallop peeped around +the open door. + +"Walk in," cried Mr. Opp, while Nick sprang to his feet. "We are just by +way of finishing up the work at hand, and have a few minutes of spare +leisure." + +"I just wanted to know if you'd help us get up a town band," said Mr. +Gallop. "I told the boys you'd be too busy, but they made me come. I +asked Mr. Fallows if you was musical; but I wouldn't repeat what he +said." + +"Oh, Jimmy is just naturally humoristic," said Mr. Opp. "Go along and +tell me what he remarked." + +"Well," said Mr. Gallop, indignantly, "he said you was a expert on the +wind-pipe! Mr. Tucker, I believe it was, thought you used to play the +accordion." + +"No," said Mr. Opp; "it was the cornet. I was considerable of a +performer at one time." + +"Well, we want you for the leader of our band," said Mr. Gallop. "We are +going to have blue uniforms and give regular concerts up on Main +Street." + +Nick Fenny began searching for a pencil. + +"You know," went on Mr. Gallop, rapidly, "the last show boat that was +here had a calliope, and there's another one coming next week. All I +have to do is to hear a tune twice, then I can play it. Miss Guin-never +Gusty is going up to Coreyville next week, and she says she'll get us +some new pieces. She's going to select a plush self-rocker for the +congregation to give the new preacher. They're keeping it awful secret, +but I heard 'em mention it over the telephone. The preacher's baby has +been mighty sick, and so has his mother, up at the Ridge; but she's got +well again. Well, I must go along now. Ain't it warm?" + +Before Mr. Opp had ceased showing Mr. Gallop out, his attention was +arrested by the strange conduct of his staff. That indefatigable youth +was writing furiously on the new wall-paper, covering the clean brown +surface with large, scrawling characters. + +Mr. Opp's indignation was checked at its source by the radiant face +which Nick turned upon him. + +"I've got another column!" he cried; "listen here: + +"'A new and handsome Show Boat will tie up at the Cove the early part of +next week. A fine calliope will be on board.' + +"'Miss Guinevere Gusty will visit friends in Coreyville soon.' + +"'The new preacher will be greatly surprised soon by the gift of a fine +plush rocking-chair from the ladies of the congregation.' + +"'The infant baby of the new preacher has been sick, but is better +some.' + +"'Jimmy Fallows came near getting an undertaking job at the Ridge last +week, but the lady got well.' + +"And that ain't all," he continued excitedly; "I'm going out now to get +all the particulars about that band, and we'll have a long story about +it." + +Mr. Opp, left alone in his office, made an unsuccessful effort to resume +work. The fluttering of the "Eagle's" wings preparatory to taking flight +was not the only thing that interfered with his power of concentration. +He did not at all like the way he felt. Peculiar symptoms had developed +in the last week, and the quinine which he had taken daily had failed to +relieve him. He could not say that he was sick,--in fact, he had never +been in better health,--but there was a strange feeling of restlessness, +a vague disturbance of his innermost being, that annoyed and puzzled +him. Even as he tried to solve the problem, an irresistible impulse +brought him to his feet and carried him to the door. Miss Guinevere +Gusty was coming out of her gate in a soft, white muslin, and a chip hat +laden with pink roses. + +"Anything I can do for you up street?" she called across pleasantly to +Mr. Opp. + +"Why, thank you--no, the fact is--well, you see, I find it necessary for +me to go up myself." Mr. Opp heard himself saying these words with great +surprise, and when he found himself actually walking out of the office, +leaving a large amount of unfinished work, his indignation knew no +bounds. + +"The sun is awful hot. Ain't you goin' to wear a hat?" drawled Miss +Guinevere. + +Mr. Opp put his hand to his head in some embarrassment, and then assured +her that he very often went without it. + +They sauntered slowly down the dusty road. On one side the trees hedged +them in, but on the other stretched wide fields of tasseled corn over +which shimmered waves of summer heat. White butterflies fluttered +constantly across their path, and overhead, hidden somewhere in the +branches, the birds kept up a constant song. The August sun, still high +in the heavens, shone fiercely down on the open road, on the ragweed by +the wayside, on the black-eyed Susans nodding at the light; but it fell +most mercilessly of all upon the bald spot on the head of the +unconscious Mr. Opp, who was moving, as in an hypnotic state, into the +land of romance. + + + + +VIII + + +By all the laws of physics, Mr. Opp during the months that ensued, +should have stood perfectly still. For if ever two forces pulled with +equal strength in opposite directions, love and ambition did in the +heart of our friend the editor. But Mr. Opp did not stand still; on the +contrary, he seemed to be moving in every direction at once. + +In due time "The Opp Eagle" made its initial flight, and received the +approbation of the community. The first page was formal, containing the +editorial, a list of the subscribers, a notice to tax-payers, and three +advertisements, one of which requested "the lady public to please note +that the hats put out by Miss Duck Brown do not show the wire composing +the frame." + +But the first page of the "Eagle" was like the front door of a house: +when once you got on the other side of it, you were in the family, as it +were, formality was dropped, and an easy atmosphere of familiarity +prevailed. You read that Uncle Enoch Siller had Sundayed over at the +Ridge, or that Aunt Gussy Williams was on the puny list, and frequently +there were friendly references to "Ye Editor" or "Ye Quill Driver," for +after soaring to dizzy heights in his editorials, Mr. Opp condescended +to come down on the second page and move in and out of the columns, as a +host among his guests. + +It is painful to reflect what would have been the fate of the infatuated +Mr. Opp in these days had it not been for the faithful Nick. Nick's +thirst for work was insatiable; he yearned for responsibility, and was +never so happy as when gathering news. He chased an item as a dog might +chase a rat, first scenting it, then hunting it down, and after +mutilating it a bit, proudly returning it to his master. + +Mr. Opp was enabled, by this competent assistance, to spare many a +half-hour in consultation with Miss Guinevere Gusty concerning the +reportorial work she was going to do on the paper. The fact that nobody +died or got married delayed all actual performance, but in order to be +ready for the emergency, frequent calls were deemed expedient. + +It became part of the day's program to read her his editorial, or +consult her about some social item, or to report a new subscriber, his +self-esteem meanwhile putting forth all manner of new shoots and +bursting into exotic bloom under the warmth of her approval. + +Miss Gusty, on her part, was acquiring a new interest in her +surroundings. In addition to the subtle flattery of being consulted, she +was the recipient of daily offerings of books, and music, and drugstore +candy, and sometimes a handful of flowers, carefully concealed in a +newspaper to escape the vigilant eye of Jimmy Fallows. + +On several occasions she returned Mr. Opp's calls, picking her way +daintily across the road, and peeping in at the window to make sure he +was there. + +It was at such times that the staff of "The Opp Eagle" misconducted +itself. It objected to a young woman in the press-room; it disapproved +of the said person sitting at the deal table in confidential +conversation with the editor; it saw no humor in her dipping the pencils +into the ink-well, and scrawling names on the new office stationery; and +when the point was reached that she moved about the office, asking +absurd questions and handling the type, the staff could no longer endure +it, but hastened forth to forget its annoyance in the pursuit of +business. + +Moreover, the conduct of the chief, as Nick was pleased to call Mr. Opp, +was becoming more and more peculiar. He would arrive in the morning, his +pockets bristling with papers, and his mind with projects. He would +attack the work of the day with ferocious intensity, then in the midst +of it, without warning, he would lapse into an apparent trance, his +hands in his pockets, his eyes on the ceiling, and such a smile on his +face as one usually reserves for a camera. + +Nick did not know that it was the song of the siren that was calling Mr. +Opp, who, instead of lashing himself to the mast and steering for the +open sea, was letting his little craft drift perilously near the rocky +coast. + +No feature of the proceedings was lost upon Mrs. Gusty. She applied the +same method to her daughter that she did to her vines, tying her firmly +to the wall of her own ability, and prescribing the direction and length +to which she should grow. The situation would need pruning later, but +for the present she studied conditions and bided her time. + +Meanwhile the "Eagle" was circling more widely in its flight. Mr. Opp's +persistent and eloquent articles pertaining to the great oil wealth of +the region had been reinforced by a favorable report from the laboratory +in the city to which he had sent a specimen from the spring on Turtle +Creek. Thus equipped with wings of hope, and a small ballast of fact, +the "Eagle" went soaring on its way, and in time attracted the attention +of a party of capitalists who were traveling through the State, +investigating oil and mineral possibilities. + +One epoch-making day, the editor was called up over the long-distance +telephone, and, after answering numerous inquiries, was told that the +party expected to spend the following night in the Cove. + +This important event took place the last of November, and threw the town +into great excitement. Mr. Opp received the message early in the +morning, and immediately set to work to call a meeting of the Turtle +Creek Land Company. + +"This here is one of the most critical moments in the history of Cove +City," he announced excitedly to Nick. "It's a most fortunate thing that +they've got me here to make the preliminary arrangements, and to sort of +get the thing solidified, as you might say. I'll call a meeting for +eleven o'clock at Your Hotel. You call up old man Hager and the +preacher, and I will undertake to notify Jimmy Fallows and Mr. Tucker." + +"The preacher ain't in town; he's out at Smither's Ridge, marrying a +couple. I got the whole notice written out beforehand." + +"Well, tear it up," said Mr. Opp. "I've engaged a special hand to do all +weddings and funerals." + +Nick looked hurt; this was the first time his kingdom had been invaded. +He kicked the door sullenly. + +"I can't get the preacher if he's out at Smither's Ridge." + +"Nick," said Mr. Opp, equally hurt, "is that the way for a subordinate +reporter to talk to a' editor? You don't seem to realize that this here +is a very serious and large transaction. There may be hundreds of +dollars involved. It's a' awful weight of responsibility for one man. +I'm willing to finance it and conduct the main issues, but I've got to +have the backing of all the other parties. Now it's with you whether +the preacher gets there or not." + +"Shall I hunt up Mat Lucas, too?" asked Nick as he started forth. + +"No; that's my branch of the work: but--say--Nick, your sister will have +to be there; she owns some shares." + +"All right," said Nick; "her buggy is hitched up in front of Tucker's. +I'll tell her to wait till you come." + +Mr. Opp was not long in following. He walked down the road with an +important stride, his bosom scarcely able to accommodate the feeling of +pride and responsibility that swelled it. He was in a position of trust; +his fellow-citizens would look to him, a man of larger experience and +business ability, to deal with these moneyed strangers. He would be +fair, but shrewd. He knew the clever wiles of the capitalists; he would +meet them with calm but unyielding dignity. + +It was in this mood that he came upon Miss Jim, who was in the act of +disentangling a long lace scarf from her buggy whip. Her flushed face +and flashing eyes gave such unmistakable signs of wrath that Mr. Opp +glanced apprehensively at the whip in her hand, and then at Jimmy +Fallows, who was hitching her horse. + +"Howdy, Mr. Opp," she said. "It's a pleasure to meet a gentleman, after +what I've seen." + +"I hope," said Mr. Opp, "that our friend here ain't been indulging in +his customary--" + +"It ain't Mr. Fallows," she broke in sharply; "it's Mr. Tucker. He ain't +got the feeling of a broomstick." + +"Now, Miss Jim," began Jimmy Fallows in a teasing tone; but the lady +turned her back upon him and addressed Mr. Opp. + +"You see this portrait," she said angrily, pulling it out from under the +seat. "It took me four weeks, including two Sunday afternoons, to make +it. I begun it the second week after Mrs. Tucker died, when I seen him +takin' on so hard at church. He was cryin' so when they took up the +collection that he never even seen the plate pass him. I went right +home and set to work on this here portrait, thinking he'd be glad and +willing to buy it from me. Wouldn't you, if you was a widower?" + +Mr. Opp gazed doubtfully at the picture, which represented Mr. Tucker +sitting disconsolately beside a grave, with a black-bordered +handkerchief held lightly between his fingers. A weeping-willow drooped +above him, and on the tombstone at his side were two angels supporting +the initials of the late Mrs. Tucker. + +"Why, Miss Jim," insisted Fallows, "you're askin' too much of old man +Tucker to expect him to keep on seein' a tombstone when he's got one eye +on you and one eye on the Widow Gusty. He ain't got any hair on top of +his head to part, but he's took to partin' it down the back, and I seen +him Sunday trying to read the hymns without his spectacles. He started +up on 'Let a Little Sunshine In' when they was singing 'Come, ye +Disconsolate.' You rub out the face and the initials on that there +picture and keep it for the nex' widower. Ketch him when he's still +droopin'. You'll get your money back. Your mistake was in waiting too +long." + +"Speaking of waiting," said Mr. Opp, impatiently, "there's a call +meeting of the Turtle Creek Land Co. for this morning at eleven at Your +Hotel. Hope it's convenient, Jimmy." + +"Oh, yes," said Jimmy; "we got more empty chairs at Your Hotel than +anything else. What's the meeting for? Struck gold?" + +Mr. Opp imparted the great news. + +"Oh, my land!" exclaimed Miss Jim, "will they be here to-day?" + +"Not until to-morrow night," explained Mr. Opp. "This here meeting this +morning is for the stock-holders only. We got to kinder outline our +policy and arrange a sort of basis of operation." + +"Well," said Miss Jim, "I'll take the portrait up to Mrs. Gusty's and +ask her to take care of it for me. I don't know as I can do the face +over into somebody else's, but I can't afford to lose it." + +It was afternoon before the stock-holders could all be brought together. +They assembled in the office of Your Hotel in varying states of mind +ranging from frank skepticism to intense enthusiasm. + +Mr. Tucker represented the conservative element. He was the rich man of +the town, with whom economy, at first a necessity, had become a luxury. +No greater proof could have been desired of Mr. Opp's persuasive powers +than that Mr. Tucker had invested in a hundred shares of the new stock. +He sat on the edge of his chair, wizen, anxious, fidgety, loaded with +objections, and ready to go off half-cocked. Old man Hager sat in his +shadow, objecting when he objected, voting as he voted, and prepared to +loosen or tighten his purse-strings as Mr. Tucker suggested. + +Mat Lucas and Miss Jim were independents. They had both had sufficient +experience in business to know their own minds. If there was any money +to be made in the Cove or about it, they intended to have a part in it. + +Mr. Opp and the preacher constituted the Liberal party. They furnished +the enthusiasm that floated the scheme. They were able to project +themselves into the future and prophesy dazzling probabilities. + +Jimmy Fallows, alone of the group, maintained an artistic attitude +toward the situation. He was absolutely detached. He sat with his chair +tilted against the door and his thumbs in his armholes, and treated the +whole affair as a huge joke. + +"The matter up for immediate consideration," Mr. Opp was saying +impressively, "is whether these here gentlemen should want to buy us +out, we would sell, or whether we would remain firm in possession, and +let them lease our ground and share the profits on the oil." + +"Well, I'm kinder in favor of selling out if we get the chance," urged +Mr. Tucker in a high, querulous voice. "To sell on a rising market is +always a pretty good plan." + +"After we run up ag'in' them city fellows," said Mat Lucas, "I'll be +surprised if we git as much out as we put in." + +"Gentlemen," protested Mr. Opp, "this here ain't the attitude to assume +to the affair. To my profoundest belief there is a fortune in these here +lands. The establishment of 'The Opp Eagle' has, as you know, been a +considerable tax on my finances, but everything else I've got has gone +into this company. It's a great and glorious opportunity, one that I +been predicting and prophesying for these many years. Are we going to +sell out to this party, and let them reap the prize? No; I trust and +hope that such is not the case. In order to have more capital to open up +the mines, I advocate the taking of them in." + +"I bet they been advocating the taking of us in," chuckled Jimmy. + +"Well, my dear friends, suppose we vote on it," suggested the preacher. + +"Reach yer hand back there in the press, Mr. Opp, and git the +lead-pencil," said Jimmy, without moving. + +"The motion before the house," said Mr. Opp, "is whether we will sell +out or take 'em in. All in favor say 'Aye.'" + +There was a unanimous vote in the affirmative, although each member +interpreted the motion in his own way. + +"Very well," said Mr. Opp, briskly; "the motion is carried. Now we got +to arrange about entertaining the party." + +Mr. Tucker, whose brain was an accommodation stopping at each station, +was still struggling with the recent motion when this new thought about +entertainment whizzed past. The instinct of the landlord awoke at the +call, and he promptly switched off the main line and went down the side +track. + +"Gallop was here while ago," Jimmy was saying, with a satisfied glance +at Mr. Tucker; "said they wanted me to take keer of 'em. I'll 'commodate +all but the preachers. If there are any preachers, Mr. Tucker kin have +'em. I have to draw the line somewheres. I can't stand 'em +'Brother-Fallowsing' me. Last time the old woman corralled one and +brought him home, he was as glad to find me to work on as she'd 'a' be'n +to git some fruit to preserve. 'Brother,' he says, reaching out for my +hand, 'do you ever think about the awful place you are going to when you +die?' 'You bet,' says I; 'I got more friends there than anywhere.'" And +Jimmy's laugh shook the stove-pipe. + +"How many gentlemen are coming to-morrow?" asked Miss Jim, who was +sitting in a corner as far as possible from Mr. Tucker. + +"Ten," said Jimmy. "Now, you wouldn't think it, but this here hotel has +got six bedrooms. I've tooken care of as many as twenty at a time, easy, +but I'll be hanged if I ever heard of such foolishness as every one of +these fellers wantin' a room to hisself." + +"I've got three rooms empty," said Mr. Tucker. + +"Well, that leaves one over," said Mat Lucas. "I'd take him out home, +but we've got company, and are sleeping three in a bed now." + +Mr. Opp hesitated; then his hospitality overcame his discretion. + +"Just consider him my guest," he said. "I'll be very pleased to provide +entertainment for the gentleman in question." + +Not until the business of the day was over, and Mr. Opp was starting +home, did he realize how tired he was. It was not his duties as an +editor, or even as a promoter, that were telling on him; it was his +domestic affairs that preyed upon his mind. For Mr. Opp not only led a +strenuous life by day, but by night as well. Miss Kippy's day began with +his coming home, and ended in the morning when he went away; the rest of +the time she waited. + +Just now the problem that confronted him was the entertainment of the +expected guest. Never, since he could remember, had a stranger invaded +that little world where Miss Kippy lived her unreal life of dreams. +What effect would it have upon her? Would it be kinder to hide her away +as something he was ashamed of, or to let her appear and run the risk of +exposing her deficiency to uncaring eyes? During the months that he had +watched her, a fierce tenderness had sprung up in his heart. He had +become possessed of the hope that she might be rescued from her +condition. Night after night he patiently tried to teach her to read and +to write, stopping again and again to humor her whims and indulge her +foolish fancies. More than once he had surprised a new look in her eyes, +a sudden gleam of sanity, of frightened understanding; and at such times +she would cling to him for protection against that strange thing that +was herself. + +As he trudged along, deep in thought, a white chrysanthemum fell at his +feet. Looking up, he discovered Miss Guinevere Gusty, in a red cloak and +hat, sitting on the bank with a band-box in her lap. + +His troubles were promptly swallowed up in the heart-quake which +ensued; but his speech was likewise, and he stood foolishly opening and +shutting his mouth, unable to effect a sound. + +"I am waiting for the packet to go down to Coreyville," announced Miss +Gusty, straightening her plumed hat, and smiling. "Mr. Gallop says it's +an hour late; but I don't care, it's such a grand day." + +Mr. Opp removed his eyes long enough to direct an inquiring glance at +the heavens and the earth. "Is it?" he asked, finding his voice. "I been +so occupied with business that I haven't scarcely taken occasion to note +the weather." + +"Why, it's all soft and warm, just like spring," she continued, holding +out her arms and looking up at the sky. "I've been wishing I had time to +walk along the river a piece." + +"I'll take you," said Mr. Opp, eagerly. "We can hear the whistle of the +boat in amply sufficient time to get back. Besides, it is a hour late." + +She hesitated. "You're real sure you can get me back?" + +"Perfectly," he announced. "I might say in all my experience I never +have yet got a lady left on a boat." + +Miss Guinevere, used to being guided, handed him her band-box, and +followed him up the steep bank. + +The path wound in and out among the trees, now losing itself in the +woods, now coming out upon the open river. The whole world was a riot of +crimson and gold, and it was warm with that soft echo of summer that +brings some of its sweetness, and all of its sadness, but none of its +mirth. + +Mr. Opp walked beside his divinity oblivious to all else. The sunlight +fell unnoticed except when it lay upon her face; the only breeze that +blew from heaven was the one that sent a stray curl floating across her +cheek. As Mr. Opp walked, he talked, putting forth every effort to +please. His burning desire to be worthy of her led him into all manner +of verbal extravagances, and the mere fact that she was taller than he +caused him to indulge in more lofty and figurative language. He captured +fugitive quotations, evolved strange metaphors, coined words, and poured +all in a glittering heap of eloquence before her shrine. + +As he talked, his companion moved heedlessly along beside him, stopping +now and then to gather a spray of goldenrod, or to gaze absently at the +river through some open space in the trees. For Miss Guinevere Gusty +lived in a world of her own--a world of vague possibilities, of +half-defined longings, and intangible dreams. Love was still an abstract +sentiment, something radiant and breathless that might envelop her at +any moment and bear her away to Elysium. + +As she stooped to free her skirt from a detaining thorn, she pointed +down the bank. + +"There's some pretty sweet-gum leaves; I wish they weren't so far down." + +"Where?" demanded Mr. Opp, rashly eager to prove his gallantry. + +"'Way down over the edge; but you mustn't go, it's too steep." + +"Not for me," said Mr. Opp, plunging boldly through the underbrush. + +The tree grew at a sharp angle over the water, and the branches were so +far up that it was necessary to climb out a short distance in order to +reach them. Mr. Opp's soul was undoubtedly that of a knight-errant, but +his body, alas! was not. When he found himself astride the slender, +swaying trunk, with the bank dropping sharply to the river flowing +dizzily beneath him, he went suddenly and unexpectedly blind. Between +admiration for himself for ever having gotten there, and despair of ever +getting back, lay the present necessity of loosening his hold long +enough to break off a branch of the crimson leaves. He tried opening one +eye, but the effect was so terrifying that he promptly closed it. He +pictured himself, a few moments before, strolling gracefully along the +road conversing brilliantly upon divers subjects; then he bitterly +considered the present moment and the effect he must be producing upon +the young lady in the red cloak on the path above. He saw himself +clinging abjectly to the swaying tree-trunk, only waiting for his +strength or the tree to give away, before he should be plunged into the +waters below. + +"That's a pretty spray," called the soft voice from above; "that one +above, to the left." + +Mr. Opp, rallying all his courage, reached blindly out in the direction +indicated, and as he did so, he realized that annihilation was imminent. +Demonstrating a swift geometrical figure in the air, he felt himself +hurling through space, coming to an abrupt and awful pause when he +struck the earth. Perceiving with a thrill of surprise that he was still +alive, he cautiously opened his eyes. To his further amazement he found +that he had landed on his feet, unhurt, and that in his left hand he +held a long branch of sweet-gum leaves. + +"Why, you skinned the cat, didn't you?" called an admiring voice from +above. "I was just wondering how you was ever going to get down." + +Mr. Opp crawled up the slippery bank, his knees trembling so that he +could scarcely stand. + +"Yes," he said, as he handed her the leaves; "those kind of athletic +acts seem to just come natural to some people." + +"You must be awful strong," continued Guinevere, looking at him with +approval. + +Mr. Opp sank beside her on the bank and gave himself up to the full +enjoyment of the moment. Both hands were badly bruised, and he had a dim +misgiving that his coat was ripped up the back; but he was happy, with +the wild, reckless happiness of one to whom Fate has been unexpectedly +kind. Moreover, the goal toward which all his thought had been rushing +for the past hour was in sight. He could already catch glimpses of the +vision beautiful. He could hear himself storming the citadel with magic +words of eloquence. Meanwhile he nursed the band-box and smiled dumbly +into space. + +From far below, the pungent odor of burning leaves floated up, and the +air was full of a blue haze that became luminous as the sun transfused +it. It enveloped the world in mystery, and threw a glamour over the +dying day. + +"It's so pretty it hurts," said the girl, clasping her hands about her +knees. "I love to watch it all, but it makes the shivers go over +me--makes me feel sort of lonesome. Don't it you?" + +Mr. Opp shook his head emphatically. It was the one time in years that +down in the depths of his soul he had not felt lonesome. For as Indian +summer had come back to earth, so youth had come back to Mr. Opp. The +flower of his being was waking to bloom, and the spring tides were at +flood. + +A belated robin overhead, unable longer to contain his rapture, burst +into song; but Mr. Opp, equally full of his subject, was unable to utter +a syllable. The sparkling eloquence and the fine phrases had evaporated, +and only the bare truth was left. + +Guinevere, having become aware of the very ardent looks that were being +cast upon her, said she thought the boat must be about due. + +"Oh, no," said Mr. Opp; "that is, I was about to say--why--er--say, Miss +Guin-never, do you think you could ever come to keer about me?" + +Guinevere, thus brought to bay, took refuge in subterfuge. "Why--Mr. +Opp--I'm not old enough for you." + +"Yes, you are," he burst forth fervently. "You are everything for me: +old enough, and beautiful enough, and smart enough, and sweet enough. I +never beheld a human creature that could even begin to think about +comparing with you." + +Guinevere, in the agitation of the moment, nervously plucked all the +leaves from the branch that had been acquired with such effort. It was +with difficulty that she finally managed to lift her eyes. + +"You've been mighty good to me," she faltered, "and--and made me lots +happier; but I--I don't care in the way you mean." + +"Is there anybody else?" demanded Mr. Opp, ready to hurl himself to +destruction if she answered in the affirmative. + +"Oh, no," she answered him; "there never has been anybody." + +[Illustration: "'Why, Mr. Opp, I'm not old enough'"] + +"Then I'll take my chance," said Mr. Opp, expanding his narrow chest. +"Whatever I've got out of the world I've had to fight for. I don't mind +saying to you that I was sorter started out with a handicap. You know my +sister--she's a--well, a' invalid, you might say, and while her pa was +living, my fortunes wasn't what you might call as favorable as they are +at present. I never thought there would be any use in my considering +getting married till I met you, then I didn't seem able somehow to +consider nothing else. If you'll just let me, I'll wait. I'll learn you +to care. I won't bother you, but just wait patient as long as you say." +And this from Mr. Opp, whose sands of life were already half-run! "All I +ask for," he went on wistfully, "is a little sign now and then. You +might give me a little look or something just to keep the time from +seeming too long." + +It was almost a question, and as he leaned toward her, with the sunlight +in his eyes, something of the beauty of the day touched him, too, just +as it touched the weed at his feet, making them both for one +transcendent moment part of the glory of the world. + +Guinevere Gusty, already in love with love, and reaching blindly out for +something deeper and finer in her own life, was suddenly engulfed in a +wave of sympathy. She involuntarily put out her hand and touched his +fingers. + +The sun went down behind the distant shore, and the light faded on the +river. Mr. Opp was almost afraid to breathe; he sat with his eyes on the +far horizon, and that small, slender hand in his, and for the moment the +world was fixed in its orbit, and Time itself stood still. + +Suddenly out of the silence came the long, low whistle of the boat. They +scrambled to their feet and hurried down the path, Mr. Opp having some +trouble in keeping up with the nimbler pace of the girl. + +"I'll be calculatin' every minute until the arrival of the boat +to-morrow night," he was gasping as they came within sight of the wharf. +"I'll be envyin' every--" + +"Where's my band-box?" demanded Guinevere. "Why, Mr. Opp, if you haven't +gone and left it up in the woods!" + +Five minutes later, just as the bell was tapping for the boat to start, +a flying figure appeared on the wharf. He was hatless and breathless, +his coat was ripped from collar to hem, and a large band-box flapped +madly against his legs as he ran. He came down the home-stretch at a +record-breaking pace, stepped on board as the gang-plank was lifted, +deposited his band-box on the deck, then with a running jump cleared the +rapidly widening space between the boat and the shore, and dropped upon +the wharf. + +He continued waving his handkerchief even after the boat had rounded +the curve, then, having edited a paper, promoted a large enterprise, +effected a proposal, and performed two remarkable athletic stunts all in +the course of a day, Mr. Opp turned his footsteps toward home. + + + + +IX + + +The next day dawned wet and chilly. A fine mist hung in the trees, and +the leaves and grasses sagged under their burden of moisture. All the +crimson and gold had changed to brown and gray, and the birds and +crickets had evidently packed away their chirps and retired for the +season. + +By the light of a flickering candle, Mr. D. Webster Opp partook of a +frugal breakfast. The luxurious habits of the Moore household had made +breakfast a movable feast depending upon the time of Aunt Tish's +arrival, and in establishing the new régime Mr. Opp had found it +necessary to prepare his own breakfast in order to make sure of getting +to the office before noon. + +As he sipped his warmed-over coffee, with his elbows on the red +table-cloth, and his heels hooked on the rung of the chair, he recited +to himself in an undertone from a very large and imposing book which was +propped in front of him, the leaves held back on one side by a +candlestick and on the other by a salt-cellar. It was a book which Mr. +Opp was buying on subscription, and it was called "An Encyclopedia of +Wonder, Beauty, and Wisdom." It contained pellets of information on all +subjects, and Mr. Opp made it a practice to take several before +breakfast, and to repeat the dose at each meal as circumstances +permitted. "An editor," he told Nick, "has got to keep himself +instructed on all subjects. He has got to read wide and continuous." + +As a rule he followed no special line in his pursuit of knowledge, but +with true catholicity of taste, took the items as they came, turning +from a strenuous round with "Abbeys and Abbots," to enter with fervor +into the wilds of "Abyssinia." The straw which served as bookmark +pointed to-day to "Ants," and ordinarily Mr. Opp would have attacked +the subject with all the enthusiasm of an entomologist. But even the +best regulated minds will at times play truant, and Mr. Opp's had taken +a flying leap and skipped six hundred and thirty-two pages, landing +recklessly in the middle of "Young Lochinvar." For the encyclopedia, in +its laudable endeavor not only to cover all intellectual requirements, +but also to add the crowning grace of culture, had appended a collection +of poems under the title "Favorites, Old and New." + +Mr. Opp, thus a-wing on the winds of poesy, had sipped his tepid coffee +and nibbled his burnt toast in fine abstraction until he came upon a +selection which his soul recognized. He had found words to the music +that was ringing in his heart. It was then that he propped the book open +before him, and determined not to close it until he had made the lines +his own. + +Later, as he trudged along the road to town, he repeated the verses to +himself, patiently referring again and again to the note-book in which +he had copied the first words of each line. + +At the office door he regretfully dismounted from Pegasus, and +resolutely turned his attention to the business of the day. His desire +was to complete the week's work by noon, spend the afternoon at home in +necessary preparation for the coming guest, and have the following day, +which was Saturday, free to devote to the interest of the oil company. + +In order to accomplish this, expedition was necessary, and Mr. Opp, +being more bountifully endowed by nature with energy than with any other +quality, fell to work with a will. His zeal, however, interfered with +his progress, and he found himself in the embarrassing condition of a +machine which is geared too high. + +He was, moreover, a bit bruised and stiff from the unusual performances +of the previous day, and any sudden motion caused him to wince. But the +pain brought recollection, and recollection was instant balm. + +It was hardly to be expected that things would deviate from their usual +custom of becoming involved at a critical time, so Mr. Opp was not +surprised when Nick was late and had to be spoken to, a task which the +editor always achieved with great difficulty. Then the printing-press +had an acute attack of indigestion, and no sooner was that relieved than +the appalling discovery was made that there were no more good "S's" in +the type drawer. + +"Use dollar-marks for the next issue," directed Mr. Opp, "and I'll wire +immediate to the city." + +"We're kinder short on 'I's' too," said Nick. "You take so many in your +articles." + +Mr. Opp looked injured. "I very seldom or never begin on an 'I,'" he +said indignantly. + +"You get 'em in somehow," said Nick. "Why, the editor over at Coreyville +even said 'Our Wife.'" + +"Yes," said Mr. Opp, "I will, too,--that is--er--" + +The telephone-bell covered his retreat. + +"Hello!" he answered in a deep, incisive voice to counteract the effect +of his recent embarrassment, "Office of 'The Opp Eagle.' Mr. Toddlinger? +Yes, sir. You say you want your subscription stopped! Well, now, wait a +minute--see here, I can explain that--" but the other party had +evidently rung off. + +Mr. Opp turned with exasperation upon Nick: + +"Do you know what you went and did last week?" He rose and, going to the +file, consulted the top paper. "There it is," he said, "just identical +with what he asserted." + +Nick followed the accusing finger and read: + +"Mr. and Mrs. Toddlinger moved this week into their new horse and lot." + +Before explanations could be entered into, there was a knock at the +door. When it was answered, a very small black boy was discovered +standing on the step. He wore a red shirt and a pair of ragged trousers, +between which strained relations existed, and on his head was the brim +of a hat from which the crown had long since departed. Hanging on a +twine string about his neck was a large onion. + +He opened negotiations at once. + +"Old Miss says fer you-all to stop dat frowin' papers an' sech like +trash outen de winder; dey blows over in our-all's yard." + +He delivered the message in the same belligerent spirit with which it +had evidently been conveyed to him, and rolled his eyes at Mr. Opp as if +the offense had been personal. + +Mr. Opp drew him in, and closed the door. "Did--er--did Mrs. Gusty send +you over to say that?" he asked anxiously. + +"Yas, sir; she done havin' a mad spell. What's dat dere machine fer?" + +"It's a printing-press. Do you think Mrs. Gusty is mad at me?" + +"_Yas, sir_," emphatically; "she's mad at ever'body. She 'lows she gwine +lick me ef I don't tek keer. She done got de kitchen so full o' +switches hit looks jes lak outdoors." + +"I don't think she would really whip you," said Mr. Opp, already feeling +the family responsibility. + +"Naw, sir; she jes 'low she gwine to. What's in dem dere little +drawers?" + +"Type," said Mr. Opp. "You go back and tell Mrs. Gusty that Mr. Opp says +he's very sorry to have caused her any inconvenience, and he'll send +over immediate and pick up them papers." + +"You's kinder skeered of her, too, ain't you?" grinned the ambassador, +holding up one bare, black foot to the stove. "My mammy she sasses back, +but I runs." + +"Well, you'd better run now," said Mr. Opp, who resented such insight; +"but, see here, what's that onion for?" + +"To 'sorb disease," said the youth, with the air of one who is +promulgating some advanced theory in therapeutics; "hit ketches it 'stid +of you. My pappy weared a' onion fer put-near a whole year, an' hit +'sorbed all de diseases whut was hangin' round, an' nary a one never +teched him. An' one day my pappy he got hongry, an' he et dat dere +onion, an' whut you reckon? He up an' died!" + +"Well, you go 'long now," said Mr. Opp, "and tell Mrs. Gusty just +exactly verbatim what I told you. What did you say was your name?" + +"Val," said the boy. + +Mr. Opp managed to slip a nickel into the dirty little hand without +Nick's seeing him. Nick was rather firm about these things, and +disapproved heartily of Mr. Opp's indiscriminate charities. + +"Gimme nudder one an' I'll tell you de rest ob it," whispered Val on the +door-step. + +Mr. Opp complied. + +"Valentine Day Johnson," he announced with pride; then pocketing his +prize, he vanished around the corner of the house, forgetting his office +of plenipotentiary in his sudden accession of wealth. + +Once more peace settled on the office, and Mr. Opp was engrossed in an +article on "The Greatest Petroleum Proposition South of the Mason and +Dixon Line," when an ominous, wheezing cough announced the arrival of +Mr. Tucker. This was an unexpected catastrophe, for Mr. Tucker's day for +spending the morning at the office was Saturday, when he came in to pay +for his paper. It seemed rather an unkind trick of Fate's that he should +have been permitted to arrive a day too soon. + +The old gentleman drew up a chair to the stove, then deliberately +removed his overcoat and gloves. + +It was when he took off his overshoes, however, that Mr. Opp and Nick +exchanged looks of despair. They had a signal code which they habitually +employed when storms swept the office, but in a calm like this they were +powerless. + +"Mighty sorry to hear about that uprisin' in Guatemala," said Mr. +Tucker, who took a vivid interest in foreign affairs, but remained quite +neutral about questions at home. + +Mr. Opp moved about the office restlessly, knowing from experience that +to sit down in the presence of Mr. Tucker was fatal. The only chance of +escape lay in motion. He sharpened his pencils, straightened his desk, +and tied up two bundles of papers while Mr. Tucker's address on the +probable future of the Central American republics continued. Then Mr. +Opp was driven to extreme measures. He sent himself a telegram. This +ruse was occasionally resorted to, to free the office from unwelcome +visitors without offending them, and served incidentally to produce an +effect which was not unpleasant to the editor. + +Scribbling a message on a telegraph-blank procured for the purpose from +Mr. Gallop, Mr. Opp handed it secretly to Nick, who in turn vanished out +of the back door only to reappear at the front. Then the editor, with +much ostentation, opened the envelop, and, after reading the contents, +declared that he had business that would require immediate action. Would +Mr. Tucker excuse him? If so, Nick would hold his coat. + +"But," protested Mr. Tucker, resisting the effort to force him into his +overcoat, "I want to talk over this oil business. We don't want to take +any risks with those fellows. As I was a-saying to Mr. Hager--" + +"Yes," said Mr. Opp, taking his own hat from a nail, and apparently in +great haste, "I know, of course. You are exactly right about it. We'll +just talk it over as we go up-street," and linking his arm through Mr. +Tucker's, he steered him up the muddy channel of Main Street, and safely +into the harbor of Our Hotel, where he anchored him breathless, but +satisfied. + +Having thus disposed, to the best of his ability, of his business for +the week, Mr. Opp turned his attention to his yet more arduous domestic +affairs. The menu for the guest's dinner had weighed rather heavily upon +him all day, for he had never before entertained in his own home. His +heart had been set on turkey; but as that was out of the question, he +compromised on a goose, adhering tenaciously to the cranberry sauce. + +It was easier to decide on the goose than it was to procure it, and some +time was consumed in the search. Mr. Opp brought all his mental powers +to bear on the subject, and attacked the problem with a zeal that +merited success. + +When he reached home at noon with his arm full of bundles, Aunt Tish met +him with lamentations. + +"Dey ain't but one clean table-cloth, an' hit's got a hole in hit, an' I +can't find no sheets to put on de company baid, an' dere ain't three +cups an' saucers in de house what belongs to theyselves. I shorely doan +know what you thinkin' 'bout, Mr. D., to go an' ast company fer. We-all +never does hab company. An' Miss Kippy she be'n habin' a sort er spell, +too, cryin' to herself, an' won't tell me whut's de matter." + +Mr. Opp shook the raindrops from his hat-brim, and laid the goose +tenderly on the table; then he stepped inside the dining-room door, and +stood watching the childish figure that sat on the floor before the +fire. She was putting artificial flowers on her head, and every time +they fell off, she dropped her head on her knees and sobbed softly to +herself. Again and again she made the experiment, and again and again +the faded roses came tumbling into her lap. + +"I'll fix 'em," said Mr. Opp, coming up behind her; "don't you cry about +it, Kippy; I can make them stay, easy." He searched around in the +clothes-press until he found a paper box, which he tied securely upon +Miss Kippy's head. + +"Now try it," he cried; "put the flowers on your head; they'll stay." + +Timidly, as if afraid of another disappointment, she tried, and when the +flowers were caught in the box, she gave a sigh of satisfaction and +delight. + +"Well, sence I j'ined de church!" exclaimed Aunt Tish, who had been +watching proceedings from the doorway; then she added, as Mr. Opp came +into the hall: "Hit beats my time de way you handles dat pore chile. +Sometimes she got jes good sense as you an' me has. She ast me t'other +day if she wasn't crazy. I 'lowed no indeedy, dat crazy folks was lock +up in a lunatic asylum. An' she says 'Where?' 'Up at Coreyville,' I say. +She went on playin' jes as nice and happy. De chile's all right ef she +don't git a fool notion; den dey ain't nobody kin make out what she +wants inceptin' you. She been cryin' over dem flowers ever sence +breakfast." + +"Why didn't you come after me?" demanded Mr. Opp. + +"Jes to tie a box on her haid?" asked Aunt Tish. "Lor', I thought you +was busy makin' dem newspapers." + +"So I am," said Mr. Opp, "but whenever Miss Kippy gets to crying, I want +you to come direct after me, do you hear? There ain't anything more +important than in keeping her from getting worried. Now, let's have a +look at that there table-cloth." + +All afternoon Mr. Opp encountered difficulties that would have +disheartened a less courageous host. With the limited means at hand it +seemed impossible to entertain in a manner befitting the dignity of the +editor of "The Opp Eagle." But Mr. Opp, though sorely perplexed, was not +depressed, for beneath the disturbed surface of his thoughts there ran +an undercurrent of pure joy. It caused him to make strange, unnatural +sounds in his throat which he meant for song; it made him stop every now +and then in his work to glance tenderly and reminiscently at the palm of +his right hand, once even going so far as to touch it softly with his +lips. For since the last sun had set there had been no waking moment but +had held for him the image of a golden world inhabited solely by a pair +of luminous eyes, one small hand, and, it must be added, a band-box. + +Through the busy afternoon Mr. Opp referred constantly to his watch, and +in spite of the manifold duties to be performed, longed impatiently for +evening to arrive. At five o'clock he had moved the furniture from one +bedroom to another, demonstrated beyond a possibility of doubt that a +fire could not be made in the parlor grate without the chimney smoking, +mended two chairs, hung a pair of curtains, and made three errands to +town. So much accomplished, he turned his attention to the most +difficult task of all. + +"Kippy," he said, going to the window where she was gleefully tracing +the course of the raindrops as they chased down the pane. "Stop a +minute, Kippy. Listen; I want to talk to you." + +Miss Kippy turned obediently, but her lips continued the dumb +conversation she was having with the rain. + +"How would you like," said Mr. Opp, approaching the subject cautiously, +"to play like you was a grown-up lady--just for to-night, you know?" + +Miss Kippy looked at him suspiciously, and her lips stopped moving. +Heretofore she had resisted all efforts to change her manner of dress. + +"There's a gentleman a-coming," continued Mr. Opp, persuasively; "he's +going to remain over till to-morrow, and Aunt Tish is cooking that +large goose for him, and I've been fixing up the spare room. We are all +endeavoring to give him a nice time. Don't you want to dress up for +him?" + +"Will it make him glad?" asked Miss Kippy. + +Mr. Opp expiated on the enjoyment it would give the unknown guest to see +Kippy in the blue merino dress which Aunt Tish had gotten out of Mrs. +Opp's old trunk up-stairs. + +"And you'll let Aunt Tish arrange your hair up like a lady?" went on Mr. +Opp, pushing the point. + +"Yes," said Miss Kippy, after a moment, "Oxety will. She will make him +glad." + +"Good!" said Mr. Opp. "And if you will sit nice and quiet and never say +a word all through supper, I'll get you a book with pictures in it, +representing flowers and things." + +"Roses?" asked Miss Kippy, drawing a quick breath of delight; and when +Mr. Opp nodded, she closed her eyes and smiled as if heaven were within +sight. For Miss Kippy was like a harp across which some rough hand had +swept, snapping all the strings but two, the high one of ecstasy and the +low one of despair. + +At six o'clock Mr. Opp went up to make his toilet. The rain, which had +been merely rehearsing all day, was now giving a regular performance, +and it played upon the windows, and went trilling through the gutters on +the roof, while the old cedar-tree scraped an accompaniment on the +corner of the porch below. But, nothing daunted, Mr. Opp donned his +bravest attire. Cyclones and tornadoes could not have deterred him from +making the most elaborate toilet at his command. To be sure, he turned +up the hem of his trousers and tied a piece of oilcloth securely about +each leg, and he also spread a handkerchief tenderly over his pink +necktie; but these could be easily removed after he heard the boat +whistle. + +He dressed by the light of a sputtering candle before a small mirror the +veracity of which was more than questionable. It presented him to +himself as a person with a broad, flat face, the nose of which appeared +directly between his eyes, and the mouth on a line with the top of his +ears. But he made allowances for these idiosyncrasies on the part of the +mirror; in fact, he made such liberal allowances that he was quite +satisfied with the reflection. + +"I'll procure the hack to bring the company back in," he said to Aunt +Tish rather nervously as he passed through the kitchen. "You assist Miss +Kippy to get arranged, and I'll carry up the coal and set the table +after I return back home. I can do it while the company is up in his +room." + +All the way into town, as he splashed along the muddy road, he was +alternately dreading the arrival of one passenger, and anticipating +joyfully, the arrival of another. For as the time approached the +impending presence of the company began to take ominous form, and Mr. +Opp grew apprehensive. + +At the landing he found everything dark and quiet. Evidently the packet +was unusually late, and the committee appointed to meet it and conduct +the guests to their various destinations was waiting somewhere uptown, +probably at Your Hotel. Mr. Opp paused irresolute: his soul yearned for +solitude, but the rain-soaked dock offered no shelter except the slight +protection afforded by a pile of empty boxes. Selecting the driest and +largest of these, he turned it on end, and by an adroit adjustment of +his legs, succeeded in getting inside. + +Below, the river rolled heavily past in the twilight, sending up tiny +juts of water to meet the pelting rain. A cold, penetrating mist clung +to the ground, and the wind carried complaining tales from earth to +heaven. Everything breathed discomfort, but Mr. Opp knew it not. + +His soul was sailing sunlit seas of bliss, fully embarked at last upon +the most magic and immortal of all illusions. Sitting cramped and numb +in his narrow quarters, he peered eagerly into the darkness, watching +for the first lights of the _Sunny South_ to twinkle through the gloom. +And as he watched he chanted in a sing-song ecstasy: + + "She is coming, my own, my sweet; + Were it ever so airy a tread, + My heart would hear her and beat, + Were it earth in an earthy bed; + My dust would hear her and beat, + Had I lain for a century dead; + Would start and tremble under her feet, + And blossom in purple and red." + + + + +X + + +When Miss Guinevere Gusty tripped up the gang-plank of the _Sunny South_ +late that afternoon, vainly trying to protect herself from the driving +rain, she was met half-way by the gallant old captain. + +Tradition had it that the captain had once cast a favorable eye upon her +mother; but Mrs. Gusty, being cross-eyed, had looked elsewhere. + +"We are a pudding without plums," he announced gaily, as he held the +umbrella at an angle calculated to cause a waterspout in the crown of +her hat--"not a lady on board. All we needed was a beautiful young +person like you to liven us up. You haven't forgotten those pretty tunes +you played for me last trip, have you?" + +Guinevere laughed, and shook her head. "That was just for you and the +girls," she said. + +"Well, it'll be for me and the boys this time. I've got a nice lot of +gentlemen on board, going down to your place, by the way, to buy up all +your oil-lands. Now I know you are going to play for us if I ask you +to." + +"My goodness! are they on this boat?" asked Guinevere, in a flutter. "I +am so glad; I just love to watch city people." + +"Yes," said the captain; "that was Mr. Mathews talking to me as you came +aboard--the one with the white beard. Everything that man touches turns +to money. That glum-looking young fellow over there is his secretary. +Hinton is his name; curious sort of chap." + +Guinevere followed his glance with eager interest. "The solemn one with +the cap pulled over his eyes?" she asked. + +The captain nodded. "All the rest are inside playing cards and having a +good time; but he's been moping around like that ever since they got on +board. I've got to go below now, but when I come back, you'll play some +for me, won't you?" + +Guinevere protested violently, but something within her whispered that +if the captain was very insistent she would render the selection which +had won her a gold medal at the last commencement. + +Slipping into the saloon, she dropped quietly into one of the very +corpulent chairs which steamboats particularly affect, and, unobserved, +proceeded to give herself up to the full enjoyment of the occasion. The +journey from Coreyville to the Cove, in the presence of the +distinguished strangers, had assumed the nature of an adventure. Giving +her imagination free rein, Miss Gusty, without apology, transported the +commonplace group of business men at the card-table into the wildest +realms of romance. The fact that their language, appearance, and manner +spoke of the city, was for her a sufficient peg upon which to hang +innumerable conjectures. So deep was she in her speculations that she +did not hear the captain come up behind her. + +"Where have you been hiding?" he asked in stentorian tones. "I was +afraid you'd gotten out on deck and the wind had blown you overboard. +Don't you think it's about time for that little tune? We are forty +minutes late now, and we'll lose another half-hour taking on freight at +Smither's Landing. I've been banking on hearing that little dance-piece +you played for me before." + +"I can't play--before them," said Guinevere, nervously. + +The captain laughed. "Yes, you can; they'll like it. Mr. Mathews said +something mighty pretty about you when you came on board." + +"He didn't--honest?" said Guinevere, blushing. "Oh, truly, Captain, I +can't play!" But even as she spoke she unbuttoned her gloves. Her +accomplishment was clamoring for an exhibition, and though her spirit +failed her, she twirled the piano-stool and took her seat. + +The group of men at the table, heretofore indifferent to proceedings, +looked up when a thundering chord broke the stillness. A demure young +girl, with gentle, brown eyes, was making a furious and apparently +unwarranted attack upon the piano. Her one desire evidently was to get +inside of the instrument. With insinuating persistence she essayed an +entrance through the treble, and, being unable to effect it, fell upon +the bass, and exhausted a couple of rounds of ammunition there. The +assault on both flanks being unsuccessful, she resorted to strategy, +crossing her hands and assailing each wing of the enemy from an +unexpected quarter. When this move failed, she evidently became +incensed, and throwing aside diplomacy, rallied all her forces, charging +her artillery up to the highest note, then thundering down to the +lowest, beating down the keys as fast as they dared to rise. In the +midst of the carnage, when the clamor was at its height and victory +seemed imminent, she suddenly paused, with one hand in air and her head +gently inclined, and, tapping out two silvery bugle-notes of truce, +raised the siege. + +The appalling silence that ensued might have hung above a battle-field +of slain and wounded. The captain bit his mustache. + +"That wasn't exactly the one I meant," he said. "I want that little +dance-tune with the jingle to it." + +Miss Gusty, disappointed and surprised at the effect which her +masterpiece had failed to produce, was insisting with flushed cheeks +that she could play no more, when the gentleman who was called Mr. +Mathews rose from the table and came toward her. His hair and pointed +beard were white, but his eyes were still young, and he looked at her +while he spoke to the captain. + +"I beg your pardon, Captain," he was saying in smooth, even tones, +"can't you persuade the young lady to sing something for us?" + +"I never took vocal," said Guinevere, looking at him frankly. "I'm +making a specialty of instrumental." + +The gentleman looked sidewise at his companions and stroked his beard +gravely. "But you _do_ sing?" he persisted. + +"Just popular music," said Guinevere. "I was going to take 'The Holy +City' and 'The Rosary' last year, but the vocal teacher got sick." + +In response to a very urgent invitation, she took her seat again, and +this time sang a sentimental ditty concerning the affairs of one "Merry +Little Milly in the Month of May." + +This selection met with prompt favor, and the men left their cards, and +gathered about the piano, demanding an encore. + +Miss Guinevere's voice was very small, and her accompaniment very loud, +but, in her effort to please, she unconsciously became dramatic in her +expression, and frowned and smiled and lifted her brows in sympathy with +the emotions of the damsel in the song. And Miss Guinevere's eyes being +expressive and her lips very red, the result proved most satisfactory +to the audience. + +One stout young man in particular expressed himself in such unrestrained +terms of enthusiasm, that Guinevere, after singing several songs, became +visibly embarrassed. Upon the plea of being too warm she made her +escape, half-promising to return and sing again later on. + +Flushed with the compliments and the excitement, and a little uncertain +about the propriety of it all, she hurried through the swing-door and, +turning suddenly on the deck, stumbled over something in the darkness. + +It proved to be a pair of long legs that were stretched out in front of +a silent figure, who shot a hand out to restore Miss Gusty to an upright +position. But the deck was slippery from the rain, and before he could +catch her, she went down on her knees. + +"Did it hurt you?" a voice asked anxiously. + +"It don't matter about me," answered Guinevere, "just so it didn't spoil +my new dress. I'm afraid there's an awful tear in it." + +"I hope not," said the voice. "I'd hate to be guilty of dress slaughter +even in the second degree. Sure you are not hurt? Sit down a minute; +here's a chair right behind you, out of the wind." + +Guinevere groped about for the chair. "Mother can mend it," she went on, +voicing her anxiety, "if it isn't too bad." + +"And if it is?" asked the voice. + +"I'll have to wear it, anyhow. It's brand splinter new, the first one I +ever had made by a sure-enough dressmaker." + +"My abominable legs!" muttered the voice. + +Guinevere laughed, and all at once became curious concerning the person +who belonged to the legs. + +He had dropped back into his former position, with feet outstretched, +hands in pockets, and cap pulled over his eyes, and he did not seem +inclined to continue the conversation. + +She drew in deep breaths of the cool air, and watched the big side-wheel +churn the black water into foam, and throw off sprays of white into the +darkness. She liked to be out there in the sheltered corner, watching +the rain dash past, and to hear the wind whistling up the river. She was +glad to be in the dark, too, away from all those gentlemen, so ready +with their compliments. But the sudden change from the heated saloon to +the cold deck chilled her, and she sneezed. + +Her companion stirred. "If you are going to stay out here, you ought to +put something around you," he said irritably. + +"I'm not very cold. Besides, I don't want to go in. I don't want them to +make me sing any more. Mother'll be awfully provoked if I take cold, +though. Do you think it's too damp?" + +"There's my overcoat," said the man, indifferently; "you can put that +around you if you want to." + +She struggled into the large sleeves, and he made no effort to help her. + +"You don't like music, do you?" she asked naïvely as she settled back in +her chair. + +"Well, yes," he said slowly. "I should say the thing I dislike least in +the world is music." + +"Then why didn't you come in to hear me play?" asked Guinevere, +emboldened by the darkness. + +"Oh, I could hear it outside," he assured her; "besides, I have a pair +of defective lamps in my head. The electric lights hurt my eyes." + +He struck a match as he spoke to relight his pipe, and by its flare she +caught her first glimpse of his face, a long, slender, sensitive face, +brooding and unhappy. + +"I guess you are Mr. Hinton," she said as if to herself. + +He turned with the lighted match in his hand. "How did you know that?" + +"The captain told me. He pointed out you and Mr. Mathews, but he didn't +tell me any of the rest." + +"A branch of your education that can afford to remain neglected," said +Mr. Hinton as he puffed at his pipe. + +The door of the saloon swung open, and the chubby gentleman appeared in +the light, shading his eyes, and calling out that they were all waiting +for the little canary-bird. + +"I don't want to go," whispered Guinevere, shrinking back into the +shadow. + +The chubby gentleman peered up and down the deck, then, assailed by a +gust of wind, beat a hasty retreat. + +"I don't like him," announced Guinevere, drawing a breath of relief. "It +isn't just because he's fat and ugly; it's the silly way he looks at +you." + +"What a pity you can't tell him so!" said her companion, dryly. "Such +blasphemy might do him good. He is the scion of a distinguished family +made wealthy by the glorious sale of pork." + +"Are all the gentlemen millionaires?" asked Guinevere in awe. + +"Present company excepted," qualified Hinton. + +"It'll seem awful small to them down in the Cove. Why, we haven't got +room enough at the two hotels to put them all up." + +"Oh, you live there, do you?" + +"Yes; I've just been up at Coreyville spending the night. I used to hate +it down at the Cove, it was so little and stupid; but I like it better +now." + +There was a long silence, during which each pursued a widely different +line of thought. + +"We have got a newspaper at the Cove now," announced Guinevere. "It's an +awful nice paper, called 'The Opp Eagle.'" + +"Opp?" repeated Hinton. "Oh, yes, that was the man I telephoned to. What +sort of chap is he, anyhow?" + +"He's awfully smart," said Guinevere, her cheeks tingling. "Not so much +book learning, but a fine brain. The preacher says he's got a natural +gift of language. You ought to see some of his editorials." + +"Hiding his light under a bushel, isn't he?" + +"That's just it," said Guinevere, glad to expatiate on the subject. "If +Mr. Opp could get in a bigger place and get more chances, he'd have a +lot more show. But he won't leave Miss Kippy. She's his sister, you +know; there is only the two of them, and she's kind of crazy, and has to +have somebody take care of her. Mother thinks it's just awful he don't +send her to an asylum, but I know how he feels." + +"Is he a young man?" asked Mr. Hinton. + +"Well--no, not exactly; he's just seventeen years and two months older +than I am." + +"Oh," said Hinton, comprehensively. + +There was another long pause, during which Guinevere turned things over +in her mind, and Mr. Hinton knocked the ashes from his pipe. + +"I think girls seem a good deal older than they are, don't you?" she +asked presently. + +"Some girls," Hinton agreed. + +"How old would you take me for?" + +"In the dark?" + +"Yes." + +"About twelve." + +"Oh, that's not fair," said Guinevere. "I'm eighteen, and lots of people +take me for twenty." + +"That is when they can see you," said Hinton. + +Guinevere decided that she did not like him. She leaned back in her +corner and tried not to talk. But this course had its disadvantage, for +when she was silent he seemed to forget she was there. + +Once he took a turn up and down the deck, and when he came back, he +stood for a long time leaning over the rail and gazing into the water. +As he turned to sit down she heard him mutter to himself: + + "... That no life lives forever; + That dead men rise up never; + That even the weariest river + Winds somewhere safe to sea." + +Guinevere repeated the words softly to herself, and wondered what they +meant. She was still thinking about them when a dim red light in the +distance told her they were approaching the Cove. She slipped off the +heavy overcoat and began to put on her gloves. + +"Hello! we are getting in, are we?" asked Hinton, shaking himself into +an upright position. "Is that Cove City where the big red light bores +into the water like a corkscrew?" + +They moved to the bow of the boat and watched as it changed its course +and made for the opposite shore. + +"Did you mean," said Guinevere, absently, "that you wanted it all to end +like that? For us to just go out into nothing, like the river gets lost +in the ocean?" + +Hinton glanced at her in surprise, and discovered that there was an +unusually thoughtful face under the sweeping brim of the red hat. The +fact that she was pretty was less evident to him than the fact that she +was wistful. His mood was sensitive to minor chords. + +"I guess you _are_ eighteen," he said, and he smiled, and Guinevere +smiled back, and the chubby gentleman, coming suddenly out upon them, +went in again and slammed the door. + +The lights on the landing twinkled brighter and brighter, and presently +figures could be seen moving here and there. The steamer, grumbling with +every chug of the wheel, was brought around, and the roustabouts crowded +along the rail, ready to make her fast. + +Guinevere and Hinton stood on the upper deck under his umbrella and +waited. + +Directly below them on the dock a small, fantastic figure made frantic +efforts to attract their attention. He stood uncovered, regardless of +the rain, madly waving his hat. + +"Is that anybody you know?" asked Hinton. + +Guinevere, who was watching the lights on the water, started guiltily. + +"Where?" she asked. + +"Down to the right--that comical little codger in the checked suit." + +Guinevere looked, then turned upon Hinton eyes that were big with +indignation. "Why, of course," she said; "that's Mr. Opp." + + + + +XI + + +As Willard Hinton stood on the porch of Your Hotel and waited for his +host for the night to call for him, he was in that state of black +dejection that comes to a young man when Ambition has proposed to +Fortune, and been emphatically rejected. For six years he had worked +persistently and ceaselessly toward a given goal, doing clerical work by +day and creative work by night, going from shorthand into longhand, and +from numerical figures into figures of speech. For the way that Hinton's +soul was traveling was the Inky Way, and at its end lay Authorship. + +Hinton had taken himself and his work seriously, and served an +apprenticeship of hard study and conscientious preparation. So zealous +was he, in fact, that he had arrived at the second stage of his great +enterprise with a teeming brain, a practised hand, and a pair of +affected eyes over which the oculists shook their heads and offered +little encouragement. + +For four months he had implicitly obeyed orders, attending only to his +regular work, eating and sleeping with exemplary regularity, and +spending all of his spare time in the open air. But the ravages made in +the long nights dedicated to the Muses were not to be so easily +repaired, and his eyes, instead of improving, were growing rapidly +worse. The question of holding his position had slipped from a matter of +months into weeks. + +As he stood on the porch, he could hear the bustle of entertainment +going on within the limited quarters of Your Hotel. Jimmy Fallows was in +his element. As bartender, head waiter, and jovial landlord he was +playing a triple bill to a crowded house. Occasionally he opened the +door and urged Hinton to come inside. + +"Mr. Opp'll be here 'fore long," he would say. "He's expecting you, but +he had to stop by to take his girl home. You better step in and get a +julep." + +But Hinton, wrapped in the gloom of his own thoughts, preferred to +remain where he was. Already he seemed to belong to the dark, to be a +thing apart from his fellow-men. He shrank from companionship and +sympathy as he shrank from the light. He longed to crawl away like a +sick animal into some lonely corner and die. Whichever way he turned, +the great specter of darkness loomed before him. At first he had fought, +then he had philosophically stood still, now he was retreating. Again +and again he told himself that he would meet it like a man, and again +and again he shrank back, ready to seek escape anywhere, anyhow. + +"O God, if I weren't so damnably young!" he cried to himself, beating +his clenched hand against his brow. "More than half my life yet to +live, and in the dark!" + +The rattle of wheels and the stopping of a light in front of the hotel +made him pull himself together. + +The small gentleman in the checked suit whom he had seen on the wharf +strode in without seeing him. He paused before he opened the door and +smoothed his scanty locks and rearranged his pink necktie. Then he drew +in his chin, threw out his chest, and with a carefully prepared smile of +welcome entered. + +The buzz within increased, and it was some minutes before the door +opened again and Jimmy Fallows was heard saying: + +"He's round here some place. Mr. Hinton! Oh, here you are! Let me make +you acquainted with Mr. Opp; he's going to take you out to his house for +the night." + +No sooner had Hinton's hand been released from Mr. Opp's cordial grasp +than he felt that gentleman's arm thrust through his, and was aware of +being rapidly conducted down the steps and out to the vehicle. + +"On no possible account," Mr. Opp was saying, with Hinton's grip in one +hand and two umbrellas in the other, "would I have allowed myself to be +late, except that it was what you might consider absolutely necessary. +Now, you get right in; just take all that robe. No, the grip can go +right here between my feet. We trust that you will not regard the +weather in any ways synonymous with the state of our feelings of +welcome." + +Mr. Hinton remarked rather shortly that the weather never mattered to +him one way or another. + +"That's precisely like myself," Mr. Opp went on. "I come of very sturdy, +enduring stock. For a man of my size I doubt if you'd find a finer +constitution in the country. You wouldn't particularly think it to look +at me, now would you?" + +Hinton looked at the small, stooping figure, and at the peaked, sallow +face, and said rather sarcastically that he would not. + +"Strong as an ox," declared Mr. Opp. + +Just here the horse stumbled, and they were jerked violently forward. + +Mr. Opp apologized. "Just at present we are having a little difficulty +with our country roads. We have taken the matter up in 'The Opp Eagle' +last week. All these things take time to regulate, but we are getting +there. This oil boom is going to revolutionize things. It's my firm and +abiding conviction that we are on the eve of a great change. It wouldn't +surprise me in the least if this town grew to be one of the principalest +cities on the Ohio River." + +"To be a worthy eyrie for your 'Eagle'?" suggested Hinton. + +"'The Opp Eagle,'" corrected Mr. Opp. "I don't know as you know that I +am the sole proprietor, as well as being the editor in addition." + +"No," said Hinton, "I did not know. How does it happen that a man with +such responsibilities can take time to dabble in oil-wells?" + +"You don't know me," said Mr. Opp, with a paternal smile at his own +ability. "Promoting and organizing comes as natural to me as breathing +the atmosphere. I am engineering this scheme with one hand, the Town +Improvement League with another, and 'The Opp Eagle' with another. Then, +in a minor kind of way, I am a active Odd Fellow, first cornetist in the +Unique Orchestra, and a director in the bank. And beside," Mr. Opp +concluded with some coyness, "there is the natural personal social +diversions that most young men indulge in." + +By this time they had reached the gray old house on the river-bank, and +Mr. Opp hitched the horse and held the lantern, while Hinton stepped +from one stony island to another in the sea of mud. + +"Just enter right into the dining-room," said Mr. Opp, throwing open the +door. "Unfortunately we are having a temporary difficulty with the +parlor heating apparatus. If you'll just pass right on up-stairs, I'll +show you the guest-chamber. Be careful of your head, please!" + +With pomp and dignity Mr. Hinton was conducted to his apartment, and +urged to make known any possible want that might occur to him. + +"I'll be obliged to leave you for a spell," said Mr. Opp, "in order to +attend to the proper putting up of the horse. If you'll just consider +everything you see as yours, and make yourself entirely at home, I'll +come up for you in about twenty minutes." + +Left alone, Hinton went to the bureau to pin a paper around the lamp, +and as he did so he encountered a smiling face in the mirror. The face +was undoubtedly his, but the smile seemed almost to belong to a +stranger, so long had it been since he had seen it. + +He made a hasty toilet, and sat down with his back to the light to await +his summons to dinner. The large room, poorly and scantily furnished, +gave unmistakable evidence of having been arranged especially for his +coming. There was no covering on the floor, there were no pictures on +the wall; but the wall-paper was of a sufficiently decorative character +to warrant the absence of other adornment. It may be said to have been a +botanical paper, for roses and lilies and sunflowers and daisies grew in +riotous profusion. The man who hung the paper evidently was of a +scientific turn, for in matching the strips he had gained some results +in cross-grafting that approached the miraculous. + +After sufficient time had elapsed to have stabled half a dozen horses, +Hinton, whose appetite was becoming ravenous, went into the hall and +started down the steps. When half-way down he heard a crash of china, +and saw his host, in his shirt-sleeves, staggering under a large tray +overcrowded with dishes. + +Beating a hasty retreat, he went quietly up the steps again, but not +before he heard a querulous voice remonstrate: + +"Now, Mr. D., if you ain't done busted two plates and a tea-cup!" + +Retiring to his room until the trouble should be adjusted, Hinton once +more contemplated the floral paper. As he sat there, the door creaked +slightly, and looking up, he thought he saw some one peeping at him +through the crack. Later he distinctly heard the rustle of garments, a +stealthy step, and the closing of the door across the hall. + +At last Mr. Opp came somewhat noisily up the steps and, flinging wide +the door, invited him to descend. In the dining-room below the scene was +nothing short of festal. All the candlesticks were filled with lighted +candles, an American flag was draped across the top of the clock, and +the little schooner that rocked behind the pendulum seemed fired with +the determination to get somewhere to-night if it never did again. Even +the owls on each end of the mantel wore a benignant look, and seemed to +beam a welcome on the honored guest. + +But it was the dining-table that held the center of the stage, and that +held everything else as well. The dinner, through its sequence of soup, +meat, salad, and desert, was displayed in lavish hospitality. Cove +etiquette evidently demanded that no square inch of the table-cloth +should remain unoccupied. + +Seated at the table, with hands demurely folded, was the most grotesque +figure that Hinton had ever seen. Clad in a queer, old-fashioned garment +of faded blue cloth, with very full skirt and flowing sleeves, with her +hair gathered into a tight knot at the back of her head, and a necklace +of nutshells about her neck, a strange little lady sat and watched him +with parted lips and wide, excited eyes. + +"If you'll just sit here opposite my sister," said Mr. Opp, not +attempting an introduction, "I'll as usual take my customary place at +the head of the board." + +It was all done with great éclat, but from the first there were +unmistakable signs of nervousness on the part of the host. He left the +table twice before the soup was removed, once to get the napkins which +had been overlooked, and once to persuade his sister not to put the +baked potatoes in her lap. + +When the critical moment for the trial of strength between him and the +goose arrived, he was not in good condition. It was his first wrestling +match with a goose, and his technical knowledge of the art consisted in +the meager fact that the strategic point was to become master of the +opponent's legs. The fowl had, moreover, by nature of its being, the +advantage of extreme slipperiness, an expedient recognized and made use +of by the gladiators of old. + +Mr. Opp, limited as to space, and aware of a critical audience, rose to +the occasion, and with jaw set and the light of conquest in his eye +entered the fray. He pushed forward, and pulled back, he throttled, he +went through facial and bodily contortions. The match was conducted in +"the catch hold, first down to lose style," and the honors seemed +equally divided. At last, by the adroit administration of a left-leg +stroke, Mr. Opp succeeded in throwing his adversary, but unfortunately +he threw it too far. + +The victory, though brilliant, was not without its casualties. The +goose, in its post-mortem flight, took its revenge, and the overturned +cranberries sent a crimson stain across the white cloth, giving a +sanguinary aspect to the scene. + +When order was restored and Mr. Opp had once more taken his seat, the +little lady in the blue dress, who had remained quiet during the recent +conflict, suddenly raised her voice in joyous song. + +"Now, Kippy," warned Mr. Opp, putting a restraining hand on her arm, and +looking at her appealingly. The little lady shrank back in her chair and +her eyes filled as she clasped his hand tightly in both of hers. + +"As I was remarking," Mr. Opp went steadily on, trying to behave as if +it were quite natural for him to eat with his left hand, "the real +value of the underground product in this country has been but fairly +made apparent, and now that you capitalists are coming in to take a +hold, there's no way of forming a idea of the ultimate result." + +Hinton, upon whom no phase of the situation had been lost, came +valiantly to Mr. Opp's rescue. He roused himself to follow his host's +lead in the conversation; he was apparently oblivious to the many +irregularities of the dinner. In fact, it was one of the rare occasions +upon which Hinton took the trouble to exert himself. Something in the +dreary old room, with its brave attempt at cheer, in the half-witted +little lady who was making such superhuman efforts to be good, and above +all in the bombastic, egotistical, ignorant editor who was trying to +keep up appearances against such heavy odds, touched the best and +deepest that was in Hinton, and lifted him out of himself. Gradually he +began to take the lead in the conversation. With great tact he relieved +Mr. Opp of the necessity of entertaining, and gave him a chance to eat +his dinner. He told stories so simple that even Miss Kippy loosened her +hold on her brother's hand to listen. + +When the sunset of the dinner in the form of a pumpkin pie had +disappeared, the gentlemen retired to the fire. + +"Don't you smoke?" asked Hinton, holding a match to his pipe. + +"Why, yes," said Mr. Opp, "I have smoked occasional. It's amazing how it +assists you in creating newspaper articles. One of the greatest +editorials I ever turned out was when I had a cigar in my mouth." + +"Then why don't you smoke?" + +Mr. Opp glanced over his shoulders at Aunt Tish, who, with Miss Kippy's +doubtful assistance, was clearing the table. + +"I don't mind telling you," he said confidentially, "that up to the +present time I've experienced a good many business reverses and +considerable family responsibility. I hope now in a year or two to be +able to indulge them little extra items. The lack of money," he added +somewhat proudly, "is no disgrace; but I can't deny it's what you might +call limiting." + +Hinton smiled. "I think I've got a cigar somewhere about me. Here it is. +Will you try it?" + +Mr. Opp didn't care if he did, and from the manner in which he lighted +it, and from the way in which he stood, with one elbow on the high +mantel-shelf and his feet gracefully crossed, while he blew curling +wreaths toward the ceiling, it was not difficult to reckon the extent of +his self-denial. + +"Do you indulge much in the pleasure of reading?" he asked, looking at +Hinton through the cloud of smoke. + +"I did," said Hinton, drawing a deep breath. + +"It's a great pastime," said Mr. Opp. "I wonder if you are familiar with +this here volume." He took from the shelf "The Encyclopedia of Wonder, +Beauty, and Wisdom." + +"Hardly a thumb-nail edition," said Hinton, receiving it with both +hands. + +"Say, it's a remarkable work," said Mr. Opp, earnestly; "you ought to +get yourself one. Facts in the first part, and the prettiest poetry you +ever read in the back: a dollar down and fifty cents a month until paid +for. Here, let me show you; read that one." + +"I can't see it," said Hinton. + +"I'll get the lamp." + +"Never mind, Opp; it isn't that. You read it to me." + +Mr. Opp complied with great pleasure, and having once started, he found +it difficult to stop. From "Lord Ullin's Daughter" he passed to +"Curfew," hence to "Barbara Frietchie" and "Young Lochinvar," and as he +read Hinton sat with closed eyes and traveled into the past. + +He saw a country school-house, and himself a youngster of eight +competing for a prize. He was standing on a platform, and the children +were below him, and behind him was a row of visitors. He was paralyzed +with fear, but bursting with ambition. With one supreme effort he began +his speech: + + Oh, the young Lochinvar has came out of the west! + +He got no further; a shout from the big boys and a word from the +teacher, and he burst into tears and fled for refuge to his mother. How +the lines brought it all back! He could feel her arms about him now, and +her cheek against his, and hear again her words of comfort. In all the +years since she had been taken from him he had never wanted her so +insistently as during those few moments that Mr. Opp's high voice was +doing its worst for the long-suffering Lochinvar. + +"Mr. D.," said a complaining voice from the doorway, "Miss Kippy won't +lemme tek her dress off to go to baid. She 'low she gwine sleep in hit." + +Mr. Opp abruptly descended from his elocutionary flight, and asked to be +excused for a few moments. + +"Just a little domestic friction," he assured Hinton; "you can glance +over the rest of the poems, and I'll be back soon." + +Hinton, left alone, paced restlessly up and down the room. The temporary +diversion was over, and he was once more face to face with his problem. +He went to the table, and, taking a note from his pocket, bent over the +lamp to read it. The lines blurred and ran together, but a word here and +there recalled the contents. It was from Mr. Mathews, who preferred +writing disagreeable things to saying them. Mr. Mathews, the note said, +had been greatly annoyed recently by repeated errors in the reports of +his secretary; he was neither as rapid nor as accurate as formerly, and +an improvement would have to be made, or a change would be deemed +advisable. + +"Delicate tact!" sneered Hinton, crushing the paper in his hand. +"Courtesy sometimes begets a request, and the shark shrinks from +conferring favors. And I've got to stick it out, to go on accepting +condescending disapproval until a 'change is deemed advisable.'" + +He dropped his head on his arms, and so deep was he in his bitter +thoughts that he did not hear Mr. Opp come into the room. That gentleman +stood for a moment in great embarrassment; then he stepped noiselessly +out, and heralded his second coming by rattling the door-knob. + +The wind had risen to a gale, and it shrieked about the old house and +tugged at the shutters and rattled the panes incessantly. + +"You take the big chair," urged Mr. Opp, who had just put on a fresh log +and sent the flames dancing up the chimney; "and here's a pitcher of +hard cider whenever you feel the need of a little refreshment. You ain't +a married man I would judge, Mr. Hinton." + +"Thank the Lord, no!" exclaimed Hinton. + +"Well," said Mr. Opp, pursing his lips and smiling, "you know that's +just where I think us young men are making a mistake." + +"Matrimony," said Hinton, "is about the only catastrophe that hasn't +befallen me during my short and rocky career." + +"See here," said Mr. Opp, "I used to feel that way, too." + +"Before you met her?" suggested Hinton. + +Mr. Opp looked pleased but embarrassed. "I can't deny there is a young +lady," he said; "but she is quite young as yet. In fact, I don't mind +telling you she's just about half my age." + +Hinton, instead of putting two and two together, added eighteen to +eighteen. "And you are about thirty-six?" he asked. + +"Exactly," said Mr. Opp, surprised. "I am most generally considered a +long sight younger." + +From matrimony the conversation drifted to oil-wells, then to +journalism, and finally to a philosophical discussion of life itself. +Mr. Opp got beyond his depth again and again, and at times he became so +absorbed that he gave a very poor imitation of himself, and showed +signs of humility that were rarely if ever visible. + +Hinton meantime was taking soundings, and sometimes his plummet stopped +where it started, and sometimes it dropped to an unexpected depth. + +"Well," he said at last, rising, "we must go to bed. You'll go on +climbing a ladder in the air, and I'll go on burrowing like a mole in +the ground, and what is the good of it all? What chance have either of +us for coming out anywhere? You can fool yourself; I can't: that's the +difference." + +Mr. Opp's unusual mental exertions had apparently affected his entire +body, his legs were tightly wrapped about each other, his arms were +locked, and his features were drawn into an amazing pucker of protest. + +"That ain't it," he said emphatically, struggling valiantly to express +his conviction: "this here life business ain't run on any such small +scale as that. According to my notion, or understanding, +it's--well--what you might call, in military figures, a fight." He +paused a moment and tied himself if possible even into a tighter knot, +then proceeded slowly, groping his way: "Of course there's some that +just remains around in camp, afraid to fight and afraid to desert, just +sort of indulging in conversation, you might say, about the rest of the +army. Then there is the cowards and deserters. But a decent sort of a +individual, or rather soldier, carries his orders around with him, and +the chief and principal thing he's got to do is to follow them. What the +fight is concerning, or in what manner the general is a-aiming to bring +it all correct in the end, ain't, according to my conclusion, a particle +of our business." + +Having arrived at this point of the discussion in a somewhat heated and +indignant state, Mr. Opp suddenly remembered his duties as host. With a +lordly wave of the hand he dismissed the subject, and conducted Hinton +in state to his bed-chamber, where he insisted upon lighting the fire +and arranging the bed. + +[Illustration: "It was Mr. Opp saying his prayers"] + +Hinton sat for a long time before undressing, listening to the wind in +the chimney, to the scrape, scrape of the cedar on the roof, and to the +yet more dismal sounds that were echoing in his heart. Everything about +the old house spoke of degeneration, decay; yet in the midst of it lived +a man who asked no odds of life, who took what came, and who lived with +a zest, an abandon, a courage that were baffling. Self-deception, +egotism, cheap optimism--could they bring a man to this state of mind? +Hinton wondered bitterly what Opp would do in his position; suppose his +sight was threatened, how far would his foolish self-delusion serve him +then? + +But he could not imagine Mr. Opp, lame, halt, or blind, giving up the +fight. There was that in the man--egotism, courage, whatever it +was--that would never recognize defeat, that quality that wins out of a +life of losing the final victory. + +Before he retired, Hinton found there was no drinking water in his room, +and, remembering a pitcher full in the dining-room, he took the candle +and softly opened his door. The sudden cold draft from the hall made the +candle flare, but as it steadied, Hinton saw that an old cot had been +placed across the door opposite his, as if on guard, and that beside it +knelt an ungainly figure in white, with his head clasped in his hands. +It was Mr. Opp saying his prayers. + + + + +XII + + +The visit of the capitalists marked the beginning of a long and +profitable spell of insomnia for the Cove. The little town had gotten a +gnat in its eye when Mr. Opp arrived, and now that it had become +involved in a speculation that threatened to develop into a boom, it +found sleep and tranquillity a thing of the past. + +The party of investigators had found such remarkable conditions that +they were eager to buy up the ground at once; but they met with +unexpected opposition. + +At a meeting which will go down to posterity in the annals of Cove City, +the Turtle Creek Land Company, piloted by the intrepid Mr. Opp, had held +its course against persuasion, threats, and bribes. There was but one +plank in the company's platform, and that was a determination not to +sell. To this plank they clung through the storm of opposition, through +the trying calm of indifference that followed, until a truce was +declared. + +Finally an agreement was reached by which the Turtle Creek Land Company +was to lease its ground to the capitalists, receive a given per cent. of +the oil produced, and maintain the right to buy stock up to a large and +impossible amount at any time during the ensuing year. + +Close upon this contract came men and machinery to open up a test well. +For weeks hauling was done up the creek bottom, there being no road +leading to the oil spring where the first drilling was to be done. + +The town watched the operations with alternate scorn and interest. It +was facetious when water and quicksands were encountered, and inclined +to be sarcastic when work was suspended on account of the weather. But +one day, after the pipe had been driven to a considerable depth and the +rock below had been drilled for six inches, the drill suddenly fell into +a crevice, and upon investigation the hole was found to be nearly full +of petroleum. + +The Cove promptly went into a state of acute hysteria. Speculation +spread like the measles, breaking out in all manner of queer and +unexpected places. Everybody who could command a dollar promptly +converted it into oil stock. Miss Jim Fenton borrowed money from her +cousin in the city, and plunged recklessly; the Missionary Band raffled +off three quilts and bought a share with the proceeds; Mr. Tucker +foreclosed two mortgages on life-long friends in order to raise more +money; while the amount of stock purchased by Mr. D. Webster Opp was +limited only by his credit at the bank. + +The one note of warning that was sounded came from Mrs. Fallows, who sat +on the porch of Your Hotel, and, like the Greek Chorus, foretold the +disasters that would befall, and prophesied nothing but evil for the +entire enterprise. Even the urbane Jimmy became ruffled by her insistent +iteration, and declared that she "put him in mind of a darned old +whip-o'-will." + +But Mrs. Fallows's piping note was lost in the gale of enthusiasm. +Farmers coming into town on Saturday became infected and carried the +fever into the country. The entire community suspended business to +discuss the exciting situation. + +These were champagne days for Mr. Opp. Life seemed one long, sparkling, +tingling draft and he was drinking it to Guinevere. If her eyes drooped +and she met his smile with a sigh, he saw it not, for the elixir had +gone to his head. + +Compelled to find some outlet for his energy, he took advantage of the +Cove's unwonted animation and plunged into municipal reform. "The Opp +Eagle" demanded streets, it demanded lamp-posts, it demanded temperance. +The right of pigs to take their daily siesta in the middle of Main +Street was questioned and fiercely denied. Dry-goods boxes, which for +years had been the only visible means of support for divers youths of +indolent nature, were held up to such scathing ridicule that the owners +were forced to remove them. + +The policies suggested by Mr. Opp, the editor, were promptly acted upon +by Mr. Opp, the citizen. So indignant did he become when he read his own +editorials that nothing short of immediate action was to be considered. +He arranged a reform party and appointed himself leader. Mat Lucas, he +made Superintendent of Streets; Mr. Gallop, chairman of the Committee on +City Lights. In fact, he formed enough committees to manage a +Presidential campaign. + +The attitude of the town toward him was that of a large lump of dough to +a small cake of yeast. It was willing to be raised, but doubtful of the +motive power. + +"I'd feel surer," said Jimmy Fallows, "if his intellect was the +standard size. It appears so big to him he can't get his language +ready-made; he has to have it made to order." + +But since the successful management of the oil-wells, Mr. Opp's opinion +was more and more considered. In the course of a short time the office +of "The Opp Eagle" became the hub about which the township revolved. + +One afternoon in March the editor was sitting before his deal table, +apparently in the most violent throes of editorial composition. + +Nick, who was impatiently waiting for copy, had not dared to speak for +an hour, for fear of slipping a cog in the intricate machinery of +creation. The constant struggle to supply "The Opp Eagle" with +sufficient material to enable it to fly every Thursday was telling upon +the staff; he was becoming irritable. + +"Well?" he said impatiently, as Mr. Opp finished the tenth page and +gathered the large sheets into his hand. + +"Yes, yes, to be sure," said Mr. Opp, guiltily; "I am at your disposal. +Just finishing a little private correspondence of a personal nature +that couldn't wait over." + +"Ain't that copy?" demanded Nick, fixing him with an indignant eye. + +"Well, no," said Mr. Opp, uneasily. "The fact is, I haven't been able to +accomplish any regular editorial this week. Unusual pressure of outside +business and--er--" + +"How long is she going to stay down in Coreyville?" Nick asked, with a +contemptuous curl of his lip. + +Mr. Opp paused in the act of addressing the envelop, and gave Nick a +look that was designed to scorch. + +"May I inquire to who you refer?" he asked with dignity. + +Nick's eyes dropped, and he shuffled his feet. "I just wanted to put it +in the paper. We got to fill up with something." + +"Well," said Mr. Opp, slightly conciliated, "you can mention that she +has gone back to attend the spring term at the Young Ladies' Seminary." + +"Gone back to school again?" exclaimed Nick, unable to control his +curiosity. "What for?" + +"To attend the spring term," repeated Mr. Opp, guardedly. Then he added +in a burst of confidence: "Nick, has it ever occurred to you that Mrs. +Gusty was what you might term a peculiar woman?" + +But Nick was not interested in the psychological idiosyncrasies of the +Gusty family. "The Opp Eagle" was crying for food, and Nick would have +sacrificed himself and his chief to fill the vacancy. + +"See here, Mr. Opp, do you know what day it is? It's Monday, and we've +got two columns to fill. New subscriptions are coming in all the time. +We've got to live up to our reputation." + +"Extremely well put," agreed Mr. Opp; "the reputation of the paper must +be guarded above all things. I like to consider that after my mortal +remains has returned to dust, my name will be perpetuated in this paper. +That no monument in marble will be necessary, so long as 'The Opp +Eagle' continues to circulate from home to home, and to promulgate +those--" + +"Can't you write some of it down?" suggested Nick; "it would fill up a +couple of paragraphs. Part of it you used before, but we might change it +around some." + +"Never," said Mr. Opp. "On no consideration would I repeat myself in +print. I'll just run through my box here, and see what new material I +have. Here's something; take it down as I dictate. + +"'Pastor Joe Tyler is holding divine service every second Sunday in Cove +City. He has had thirty conversions, and on Saturday was presented with +a $20.00 suit of clothing from and by this community, and a barrel of +flour, which fully attests what a general church awakening will +accomplish in the direction of good. No one should think of endeavoring +to rear their children or redeem society without the application of the +gospel twice per month.'" + +"Now, if you can keep that up," said Nick, hopefully, "we'll get through +in no time." + +But Mr. Opp had gone back to his letter, and was trying to decide +whether it would take one stamp or two. When he felt Nick's reproachful +eye upon him, he put the envelop resolutely in his pocket. + +"You've already said that work would be resumed at the oil-wells as +early as the inclemency of the weather would permit, haven't you?" + +"We've had it in every issue since last fall," said Nick. + +"Well, now, let's see," said Mr. Opp, diving once more into his reserve +box. "Here, take this down: 'Mr. Jet Connor had his house burnt last +month, it being the second fire he has had in ten years. Misfortunes +never come single.'" + +"All right," encouraged Nick. "Now can't you work up that idea about the +paper offering a prize?" + +Mr. Opp seized his brow firmly between his palms and made an heroic +effort to concentrate his mind upon the business at hand. + +"Just wait a minute till I get it arranged. Now write this: '"The Opp +Eagle" has organized a club called the B.B.B. Club, meaning the Busy +Bottle-Breakers Club. A handsome prize of a valued nature will be +awarded the boy or girl which breaks the largest number of whisky and +beer bottles before the first of May.' The boats to Coreyville run +different on Sunday, don't they, Nick?" + +Nick, who had unquestioningly taken the dictation until he reached his +own name, glanced up quickly, then threw down his pen and sighed. + +"I'm going up to Mr. Gallop's," he said in desperation; "he's got his +mind on things here in town. I'll see what he can do for me." + +Mr. Opp remorsefully allowed him to depart, and gazed somewhat guiltily +at the unaccomplished work before him. But instead of making reparation +for recent delinquency, he proceeded to make even further inroads into +the time that belonged to "The Opp Eagle." + +Moving stealthily to the door, he locked it, then pulled down the shade +until only a strip of light fell across his table. These precautions +having been observed, he took from his pocket a number of letters, and, +separating a large typewritten one from several small blue ones, +arranged the latter in a row before him according to their dates, and +proceeded, with evident satisfaction, to read them through twice. Then +glancing around to make quite sure that no one had crawled through the +key-hole, he unlocked a drawer, and took out a key which in turn +unlocked a box from which he carefully took a small object, and +contemplated it with undisguised admiration. + +It was an amethyst ring, and in the center of the stone was set a pearl. +He held it in the narrow strip of light, and read the inscription +engraved within: "Guinevere forever." + +For Miss Guinevere Gusty, ever plastic to a stronger will, had +succumbed to the potent combination of absence and ardor, and given her +half-hearted consent for Mr. Opp to speak to her mother. Upon that +lady's unqualified approval everything would depend. + +Mr. Opp had received the letter a week ago, and he had immediately +written to the city for a jeweler's circular, made his selection, and +received the ring. He had written eight voluminous and eloquent epistles +to Guinevere, but he had not yet found the propitious moment in which to +call upon Mrs. Gusty. Every time he started, imperative business called +him elsewhere. + +As he sat turning the stone in the sunlight and admiring every detail, +the conviction oppressed him that he could no longer find any excuse for +delay. But even as he made the decision to face the ordeal, his eye +involuntarily swept the desk for even a momentary reprieve. The large +typewritten letter arrested his attention; he took it up and reread it. + + Dear Opp: Do you know any nice, comfortable place in your + neighborhood for a man to go blind in? I'll be in the hospital for + another month, and after that I am to spend the summer out of doors, + in joyful anticipation of an operation which I am assured beforehand + will probably be unsuccessful. Under the peculiar circumstances I am + not particular about the scenery, human or natural; the whole affair + resolves itself into a matter of flies and feather-beds. If you know + of any place where I can be reasonably comfortable, I wish you'd + drop me a line. The ideal place for me would be a neat pine box + underground, with a dainty bunch of daisies overhead. + + Yours gratefully, + + Willard Hinton. + + P.S. I sent you a box of my books last week. Chuck out what you + don't want. The candy was for your sister. + +Mr. Opp, with the letter still in his hand, suddenly saw a way out of +his difficulty: he would make Hinton's request an excuse for a call upon +Mrs. Gusty. No surer road to her good graces could he travel than by +seeking her advice. + +Replacing the ring in the drawer and the letters in his pocket, he +buttoned up his coat, and with a stern look of determination went out of +the office. At the Gusty gate he encountered Val, who was on all fours +by the fence, searching for something. + +"What's the matter, Val?" asked Mr. Opp. "Lost something?" + +Val raised a pair of mournful eyes. "Yas, sir; you bet I is. Done lost a +penny Mr. Jimmy Fallows gimme for puttin' my fisty in my mouf." + +"Putting your fist in your mouth!" repeated Mr. Opp, surprised. "Can you +perform that act?" + +Val promptly demonstrated; but just as he was midway, a peremptory voice +called from a rear window: + +"Val! You Val! You better answer me this minute!" + +Val cowered lower behind the fence, and violently motioned Mr. Opp to go +on. + +"Is--er--is Mrs. Gusty feeling well to-day?" asked Mr. Opp, still +lingering at the gate. + +"Jes tolerable," said Val, lying flat on his back and speaking in +guarded tones. "Whenever she gits to beatin' de carpets, an' spankin' de +beds, and shakin' de curtains, I keeps outen de way." + +"Do you think--er--that--er--I better go in?" asked Mr. Opp, sorely in +need of moral support. + +"Yas, sir; she's 'spectin' yer." + +This surprising announcement nerved Mr. Opp to open the gate. + +It is said that the best-drilled soldiers dodge when they first face the +firing-line, and if Mr. Opp's knees smote together and his body became +bathed in profuse perspiration, it should not be attributed to lack of +manly courage. + +In response to his knock, Mrs. Gusty herself opened the door. The signs +that she had been interrupted in the midst of her toilet were so +unmistakable that Mr. Opp promptly averted his eyes. A shawl had been +hastily drawn about her shoulders, on one cheek a streak of chalk +awaited distribution, and a single bristling curl-paper, rising fiercely +from the top of her forehead, gave her the appearance of a startled +unicorn. + +"You'll have to excuse me, Mr. Opp," she said firmly, putting the door +between them. "I can't come out, and you can't come in. Did you want +anything?" + +"Well, yes," said Mr. Opp, looking helplessly at the blank door. "You +see, there is a matter I have been considering discussing with you for a +number of weeks. It's a--" + +"If it's waited this long, I should think it could wait till to-morrow," +announced the lady with decision. + +Mr. Opp felt that his courage could never again stand the strain of the +last few moments. He must speak now or never. + +"It's immediate," he managed to gasp out. "If you could arrange to give +me five or ten minutes, I won't occupy more than that." + +Mrs. Gusty considered. "I am looking for company myself at five +o'clock. That wouldn't give you much time." + +"Ample," urged Mr. Opp; "it's just a little necessary transaction, as it +were." + +Mrs. Gusty reluctantly consented. + +"You go on in the parlor, then," she said. "I'll be in as quick as I +can. You won't more than have time to get started, though." + +Mr. Opp passed into the parlor and hung his hat on the corner of a +large, unframed canvas that stood on the floor with its face to the +wall. The room had evidently been prepared for a visitor, for a fire was +newly kindled and a vase of flowers adorned the table. But Mr. Opp was +not making observations. He alternately warmed his cold hands at the +fire, and fanned his flushed face with his handkerchief. He was too +nervous to sit still, yet his knees trembled when he moved about. It was +only when he touched the little packet of letters in his breast pocket +that his courage revived. + +At last Mrs. Gusty came in with a rustle of garments suggestive of +Sunday. Even in his confusion Mr. Opp was aware that there was something +unusual in her appearance. Her hair, ordinarily drawn taut to a prim +knot at the rear, had burst forth into curls and puffs of an amazing +complexity. Moreover, her change of coiffure had apparently affected her +spirits, for she, too, was flurried and self-conscious and glanced +continually at the clock on the mantel. + +"I'll endeavor not to intrude long on your time," began Mr. Opp, +politely, when they were seated side by side on the horse-hair sofa. +"You--er--can't be in total ignorance of the subject that--er--I mean to +bring forward." He moistened his lips, and glanced at her for succor, +but she was adamant. "I want to speak with you," he plunged on +desperately--"that is, I thought I had better talk with you about Mr. +Hinton." + +"Who?" blazed forth Mrs. Gusty in indignant surprise. + +"Mr. Hinton," said Mr. Opp, breathlessly, "a young friendly +acquaintance of mine. Wants to get board for the summer, you know; would +like a nice, quiet place and all that, Mrs. Gusty. I thought I'd consult +you about it, Mrs. Gusty, if you don't mind." + +She calmly fixed one eye upon him and one upon the clock while he went +into particulars concerning Mr. Hinton. When he paused for breath, she +folded her arms and said: + +"Mr. Opp, if you want to say what you come to say, you haven't got but +four minutes to do it in." + +"Oh, yes," said Mr. Opp, gratefully, but helplessly; "I was just coming +to that point. It's a matter--that--er--well you might say it is in a +way pertaining--to--" + +"Guin-never!" snapped Mrs. Gusty, unable longer to stand his hesitation. +"I'd have been a deaf-mute and a fool to boot not to have known it long +ago. Not that I've been consulted in the matter." She lifted a stiffened +chin, and turned her gaze upward. + +"You have," declared Mr. Opp, earnestly; "that is, you will be. +Everything is pending on you. There has been no steps whatever taken by +Miss Guin-never or I--rather I might say by her. I can't say but what I +have made some slight preliminary arrangements." He paused, then went on +anxiously: "I trust there ain't any personal objections to the case." + +Mrs. Gusty made folds in her black-silk skirt and creased them down with +her thumb-nail. "No," she said shortly; "far as I can see, Guin-never +would be doing mighty well to get you. You'd be a long sight safer than +a good-looking young fellow. Of course a man being so much older than a +girl is apt to leave her a widow. But, for my part, I believe in second +marriages." + +Mr. Opp felt as if he had received a hot and cold douche at the same +time; but the result was a glow. + +"Then you don't oppose it, Mrs. Gusty," he cried eagerly. "You'll write +her you are willing?" + +"Not yet," said Mrs. Gusty; "there's a condition." + +"There ain't any condition in the world I won't meet to get her," he +exclaimed recklessly, his fervor bursting its bounds. "You don't know +how I feel about that young lady. Why, I'd live on bread and water all +the rest of my life if it would make her happy. There hasn't been a hour +since I met her that she hasn't held my soul--as you might say--in the +pa'm of her hand." + +"People don't often get it so bad at our age," remarked Mrs. Gusty, +sarcastically, and Mr. Opp winced. + +"The condition," went on Mrs. Gusty, "that I spoke about, was your +sister. Of course I never would consent to Guin-never living under the +same roof with a crazy person." + +The hope which was carrying Mr. Opp to the dizziest heights dropped to +earth at this unexpected shaft, and for a moment he was too stunned to +speak. + +"Kippy?" he began at last, and his voice softened at the name. "Why, +you don't understand about her. She's just similar to a little child. I +told Miss Guin-never all about her; she never made any objections. +You--you--wouldn't ask me to make any promises along that line?" Abject +entreaty shone from Mr. Opp's eyes; it was a plea for a change of +sentence. She had asked of him the only sacrifice in the world at which +he would have faltered. "Don't--don't put it like that!" he pleaded, +laying his hand on her arm in his earnestness. "I'm all she's got in the +world; I've kind of become familiar with her ways, you know, and can +manage her. She'll love Miss Guin-never if I tell her to. She shan't be +a bit of care or trouble; I and Aunt Tish will continue on doing +everything for her. You won't refuse your consent on that account, will +you? You'll promise to say yes, now won't you, Mrs. Gusty?" + +A slight and ominous cough in the doorway caused them both to start. Mr. +Tucker, in widower's weeds, but with a jonquil jauntily thrust through +his buttonhole, stood with his hand still on the knob, evidently +transfixed by the scene he had witnessed. + +For a moment the company was enveloped in a fog of such dense +embarrassment that all conversation was suspended. Mrs. Gusty was the +first to emerge. + +"Howdy, Mr. Tucker," she said, rustling forward in welcome. "I didn't +think you'd get here before five. Mr. Opp just dropped in to consult me +about--about boarding a friend of his. Won't you draw up to the fire?" + +Mr. Tucker edged forward with a suspicious eye turned upon Mr. Opp, who +was nervously searching about for his hat. + +"There it is, by the door," said Mrs. Gusty, eager to speed his +departure; and as they both reached for it, the picture upon which it +hung toppled forward and fell, face upward, on the floor. It was the +portrait of Mr. Tucker mourning under the willow-tree which Miss Jim had +left with Mrs. Gusty for safe-keeping. + +Mr. Opp went home across the fields that evening instead of through the +town. He was not quite up to any of his rôles--editor, promoter, or +reformer. In fact, he felt a desperate need of a brief respite from all +histrionic duties. A reaction had set in from the excitement of the past +week, and the complication involved in Mrs. Gusty's condition puzzled +and distressed him. Of course, he assured himself repeatedly, there was +a way out of the difficulty; but he was not able to find it just yet. He +had observed that Mrs. Gusty's opinions became fixed convictions under +the slightest opposition, whereas Guinevere's firmest decision trembled +at a breath of disapproval. He sighed deeply as he meditated upon the +vagaries of the feminine mind. + +Overhead the bare trees lifted a network of twigs against a dull sky, a +cold wind stirred the sedge grass, and fluttered the dry leaves that had +lain all winter in the fence corners. Everything looked old and worn and +gray, even Mr. Opp, as he leaned against a gaunt, white sycamore, his +head bent, and his brows drawn, wrestling with his problem. + +Suddenly he lifted his head and listened, then he smiled. In the tree +above him a soft but animated conversation was in progress. A few daring +birds had braved the cold and the wind, and had ventured back to their +old trysting-place to wait for the coming of the spring. No hint of +green had tinged the earth, but a few, tiny, pink maple-buds had given +the secret away, and the birds were cuddled snugly together, planning, +in an ecstasy of subdued enthusiasm, for the joyous days to come. + +Mr. Opp listened and understood. They were all whispering about one +thing, and he wanted to whisper about it, too. It was the simple theme +of love without variations--love, minus problems, minus complications, +minus consequences. He took out his little packet of letters and read +them through; then, unmindful of the chill, he stretched himself under +the tree and listened to the birds until the twilight silenced them. + +When he reached home at last, Miss Kippy met him at the door with a +happy cry of welcome. + +"D.," she said, with her arm through his, and her cheek rubbing his +sleeve, "I've been good. I've let my hair stay up all day, and Aunt Tish +is making me a long dress like a lady." She looked at him shyly and +smiled, then she pulled his head down and whispered, "If I'm very good, +when I grow up, can I marry Mr. Hinton?" + +Miss Kippy, too, had been listening to the bird-song. + + + + +XIII + + +It was May when Willard Hinton arrived at the Cove and took up his abode +at Mrs. Gusty's. For the first week he kept to his bed, but at the end +of that time he was able to crawl down to the porch and, under the +protection of dark glasses and a heavy shade, sit for hours at a time in +the sunshine. The loss of his accustomed environment, the ennui that +ensues from absolute idleness, the consciousness that the light was +growing dimmer day by day, combined to plunge him into abysmal gloom. + +He shrank from speaking to any one, he scowled at a suggestion of +sympathy, he treated Mr. Opp's friendly overtures with open discourtesy. +Conceiving himself on the rack of torture, he set his teeth and +determined to submit in silence, but without witnesses. + +One endless day dragged in the wake of another, and between them lay the +black strips of night that were heavy with the suggestion of another +darkness pending. When sleep refused to come, he would go out into the +woods and walk for hours, moody, wretched, and sick to his innermost +soul with loneliness. + +The one thing in the whole dreary round of existence that roused in him +a spark of interest was his hostess. She bestowed upon him the same +impersonal attention that she gave her fowls. She fed him and cared for +him and doctored him as she saw fit, and after these duties were +performed, she left him to himself, pursuing her own vigorous routine in +her own vigorous way. + +Hinton soon discovered that Mrs. Gusty was temperamental. Her intensely +energetic nature demanded an emotional as well as a physical outlet. +Sometime during the course of each day she indulged in emotional +fireworks, bombs of anger, rockets of indignation, or set pieces of +sulks and pouts. + +These periodic spells of anger acted upon her like wine: they warmed her +vitals and exhilarated her; they made her talk fluently and eloquently. +As a toper will accept any beverage that intoxicates, so Mrs. Gusty +accepted any cause that would rouse her. At stated intervals her +feelings demanded a stimulant, and obeying the call of nature, she went +forth and got angry. + +Hinton came to consider these outbursts as the one diversion in a +succession of monotonous hours. He tabulated the causes, and made bets +with himself as to the strength and duration of each. + +Meanwhile the sun and the wind and the silence were working their +miracle. Hinton was introduced to nature by a warlike old rooster whose +Hellenic cast of countenance had suggested the name of Menelaus. A +fierce combat with a brother-fowl had inevitably recalled the great +fight with Paris, and upon investigation Hinton found that the speckled +hen was Helen of Troy! This was but the beginning of a series of +discoveries, and the result was an animated and piquant version of Greek +history, which boldly set aside tradition, and suggested many +possibilities heretofore undreamed of. + +Early one morning as Hinton was wandering listlessly about the yard he +heard the gate click, and, looking up, saw Mr. Opp hurrying up the walk +with a large bunch of lilacs in one hand and a cornet in the other. + +"Good morning," said that gentleman, cheerily. "Mighty glad to see you +out enjoying the beauties of nature. I haven't got but a moment in which +to stop; appointment at eight-fifteen. We are arranging for a concert +soon up in Main Street, going to practise this afternoon. I'll be glad +to call by for you if you feel able to enjoy some remarkable fine +selections." + +Hinton accepted the proffered bouquet, but made a wry face at the +invitation. + +"None of your concerts for me," he said brusquely. "It would interfere +too seriously with my own musical job of getting in tune with the +infinite." + +"Mornin', Mr. Opp," said Mrs. Gusty from the dining-room window. "There +ain't many editors has time to stand around and talk this time of day." + +"Just paused a moment in passing," said Mr. Opp. "Wanted to see if I +couldn't induce our young friend here to give us a' article for 'The Opp +Eagle.' Any nature, you know; we are always metropolitan in our taste. +Thought maybe he'd tell us some of his first impressions of our city." + +Hinton smiled and shook his head. "You'd better not stir up my +impressions about anything these days; I am apt to splash mud." + +"We can stand it," said Mr. Opp, affably. "If Cove City needs criticism +and rebuke, 'The Opp Eagle' is the vehicle to administer it. You dictate +a few remarks to my reporter, and I'll feature it on the front editorial +column." + +Hinton's eyes twinkled wickedly behind his blue glasses. "I'll give you +an article," he said, "but no name is to be signed." + +Mr. Opp, regretting the stipulation, but pleased with the promise, was +turning to depart when Mrs. Gusty appeared once more at the window. + +"What's the matter with the oil-wells?" she demanded, as she dusted off +the sill. "Why don't they open up? You can't use bad weather for an +excuse any longer." + +"It wasn't the weather," said Mr. Opp, with the confident and superior +manner of one who is conversant with the entire situation. "This here +delay has been arranged with a purpose. I and Mr. Mathews has a plan +that will eventually yield every stock-holder in the Cove six to one for +what he put into it." + +"Intend selling out to a syndicate?" asked Hinton. + +Mr. Opp looked at him in surprise. + +"Well, yes; I don't mind telling you two, but it mustn't go any farther. +The oil prospects in this region are of such a great magnitude that we +can't command sufficient capital to do 'em justice. I and Mr. Mathews +are at present negotiating with several large concerns with a view to +selling out the entire business at a large profit. You can't have any +conception of the tac' and patience it takes to manage one of these +large deals." + +"Who was that man Clark that was down here last week?" asked Mrs. Gusty, +impressed, in spite of herself, at being taken into the confidence of +such a man of affairs. + +Mr. Opp's face clouded. "Now that was a very unfortunate thing about +Clark. He was sent down by the Union Syndicate of New York city to make +a report on the region, and he didn't get the correct ideas in the case +at all. If they hadn't sent such a poor man, the whole affair might have +been settled by now." + +"Wasn't his report favorable?" asked Hinton. + +"He hasn't made it yet," said Mr. Opp; "but he let drop sundry casual +remarks to me that showed he wasn't a man of fine judgment at all. I +went over the ground with him, and pointed out some of the places where +we calculated on drilling; but he was so busy making measurements and +taking notes that he didn't half hear what I was saying." + +"He stayed at Our Hotel," said Mrs. Gusty. "Mr. Tucker said he had as +mean a face as ever he looked into." + +"Who said so?" asked Hinton. + +She tossed her head and flipped her duster at him, but it was evident +that she was not displeased. + +"By the way, Mr. Opp," she said, "I'm thinking about letting Guin-never +come home week after next. Guess you ain't sorry to hear that." + +On the contrary, Mr. Opp was overcome with joy. Letters were becoming +less and less satisfying, and the problem suggested by Mrs. Gusty was +still waiting solution. + +"If you'll just mention the date," he said, trying to keep his +countenance from expressing an undue amount of rapture, "I'll make a +business trip down to Coreyville on purpose to accompany her back home." + +But Mrs. Gusty declined to be explicit. She deemed it unwise to allow a +mere man to know as much as she did upon any given subject. + +Hinton's editorial appeared in the next issue of "The Opp Eagle." It was +a clever and cutting satire on the impressions of a foreigner visiting +America for the first time. Hinton interviewed himself concerning his +impressions of the Cove. He approached the subject with great +seriousness, handling village trifles as if they were municipal +cannon-balls. He juggled with sense and nonsense, with form and +substance. The result shot far over the heads of the country +subscribers, and hit the bull's-eye of a big city daily. + +Mr. Opp's excitement was intense when he found that an editorial from +"The Opp Eagle" had been copied in a New York paper. The fact that it +was not his own never for a moment dimmed the glory of the compliment. + +"We are getting notorious," he said exultingly to Hinton. "There are +few, if any, papers that in less than a year has extended its influence +as far as the Atlantic Ocean. Now I am considering if it wouldn't be a +wise and judicious thing to get you on the staff permanent--while you +are here, that is. Of course you understand I am invested up pretty +close; but I'd be willing to let you have a little of my oil stock in +payment for services." + +Hinton laughingly shook his head. "Whenever you run short of material, +you can call on me. The honor of seeing my humble efforts borne aloft on +the wings of 'The Opp Eagle' will be sufficient reward." + +Having once conceived it as a favor that was in his power to bestow, Mr. +Opp lost no opportunity for inviting contributions from the aspiring +author. + +As Hinton's strength returned, Mr. Opp adopted him as a protégé, at +first patronizing him, then consulting him, and finally frankly +appealing to him. For during the long afternoon walks which they got +into the habit of taking together, Mr. Opp, in spite of bluster and brag +and evasion, found that he was constantly being embarrassed by a +question, a reference, a statement from his young friend. It was the +first time he had ever experienced any difficulty in keeping his head +above the waves of his own ignorance. + +"You see," he said one day by way of explanation, "my genius was never +properly tutored in early youth. It's what some might regard as a +remarkable brain that could cope with all the different varieties of +enterprises that I have engaged in, with no instruction or guidance but +just the natural elements that God give it in the beginning." + +But in spite of Mr. Opp's lenient attitude toward his intellectual +short-comings, it was evident that upon the serene horizon of his +egotism small clouds of humility were threatening to gather. + +Hinton, restlessly seeking for something to fill the vacuum of his days, +found Mr. Opp and his paper a growing source of diversion. "The Opp +Eagle," at first an object of ridicule, gradually became a point of +interest in his limited range of vision. Under his suggestions it was +enlarged and improved, and induced to publish news not strictly local. + +Mr. Opp, meanwhile, was buzzing as persistently and ineffectually as a +fly on a window-pane. The night before Guinevere's return, he found +that, in order to accomplish all that he was committed to, it would be +necessary to spend the night at the office. + +The concert for which the Unique Orchestra had been making night hideous +for two weeks had just come to a successful close, and the editor found +himself at a late hour tramping out the lonely road that led to the +office with the prospect of a couple of hours' work to do before he +could seek a well-earned rest upon the office bench. + +He was flushed with his double triumph as director and cornet soloist, +and still thrilled by the mighty notes he had breathed into his beloved +instrument. + +The violin sobs, the flute complains, the drum insists, but the cornet +brags, and Mr. Opp found it the instrument through which he could best +express himself. + +It was midnight, and the moon, one moment shining brightly and the next +lost behind a flying cloud, sent all sorts of queer shadows scurrying +among the trees. Mr. Opp thought once that he saw the figure of a man +appear and disappear in the road before him, but he was so engrossed in +joyful anticipation of the morrow that he gave the incident no +attention. As he was passing the Gusty house, he was rudely plunged from +sentiment into suspicion by the sight of a figure stealthily moving +along the wall beneath the front windows. + +Mr. Opp crouched behind the fence to watch him, but the moon took that +inopportune moment to sink into a bank of clouds, and the yard was left +in darkness. No sound broke the stillness save the far-off bark of a dog +or an occasional croak from a bullfrog. Mr. Opp waited and listened in a +state of intense suspense. Presently he heard the unmistakable sound of +a window being cautiously raised, and then just as cautiously lowered. +Summoning all his courage, he skirted the yard and hid in the bushes +near the house. Nothing was to be seen or heard. He watched for a light +at any of the windows, but none came. + +The rash desire to capture the burglar single-handed, and thus +distinguish himself in the eyes of Guinevere's mother, caused Mr. Opp to +stiffen his knees and assume a fierce and determined expression. But he +was armed only with his cornet, which, though often deadly as an +instrument of attack, has never been recognized as a weapon of defense. +There seemed no alternative but to waken Hinton and effect a +simultaneous attack from within and without. + +After throwing a few unsuccessful pebbles at Hinton's window, Mr. Opp +remembered a ladder he had seen at the back of the barnyard. Shaking as +if with the ague, but breathing dauntless courage, he departed in great +excitement to procure it. + +Unfortunately another party was in possession. A dozen guinea-fowls were +roosting on the rungs, and when he gave them to understand they were to +vacate they raised an outcry that would have quelled the ardor of a less +valiant knight. + +But the romantic nature of the adventure had fired Mr. Opp's +imagination. He already saw himself lightly dusting his hands after +throttling the intruder, and smiling away Mrs. Gusty's solicitude for +his safety. Meanwhile he staggered back to the house with his burden, +dodging fearfully at every shadow, and painfully aware that his heart +was beating a tattoo on his ear-drums. + +Placing the ladder as quietly as possible under Hinton's window, he +cautiously began the ascent. The sudden outburst of the guineas had set +his nerves a-quiver, and what with his breathless condition, and a +predisposition to giddiness, he found some difficulty in reaching the +sill. When at last he succeeded, he saw, by the light of the now +refulgent moon, the figure of Hinton lying across the foot of the bed, +dressed, but asleep. The opening not being sufficiently large to admit +him, he thrust in his head and whispered hoarsely through his chattering +teeth: + +"Hinton! I say, Hinton, there's a burglar in the house!" + +Hinton started up, and stared dully at the excited apparition. + +"Hush!" whispered Mr. Opp, dramatically, lifting a warning hand. "I've +been tracking the scoundrel for half an hour. He's in the house now. +We'll surround him. We'll bind him hand and foot. You get the front door +open, and I'll meet you on the outside. It's all planned; just do as I +say." + +Hinton, who was springing for the door, paused with his hand on the +knob. "What's that?" + +It was Mrs. Gusty's commanding tones from a front window: "He's round at +the side of the house. He's been after my guineas! I saw him a minute +ago going across the yard with a ladder. Shoot him if you can. Shoot him +in the leg, so he can't get away. Quick! Quick!" + +Mr. Opp had only time to turn from the window when he felt the ladder +seized from below and jerked violently forward. With a terrific crash he +came down with it, and found himself locked in a close struggle with the +supposed burglar. To his excited imagination his adversary seemed a +Titan, with sinews of steel and breath of fire. The combatants rolled +upon the ground and fought for possession of each other's throats. The +conflict, while fierce, was brief. As Hinton and Mrs. Gusty rushed +around the corner of the house, the fighters shouted in unison, "I've +got him!" and Mr. Opp, opening one swollen eye, gazed down into the +mild but bloody features of little Mr. Tucker! + +With the instinct that always prompted him to apologize when any one +bumped into him, he withdrew his hands immediately from Mr. Tucker's +throat and began vehement explanations. But Mr. Tucker still clung to +his collar, sputtering wrathful ejaculations. Mrs. Gusty, wrapped in a +bed-quilt, and with her unicorn horn at its most ferocious angle, held +the lamp on high while Hinton rushed between the belligerents. + +Excited and incoherent explanations followed, and it was not until Mr. +Opp, who was leaning limply against a tree, regained his breath that the +mystery was cleared up. + +"If you will just listen here at me a moment," he implored, holding a +handkerchief to his bruised face. "We are one and all laboring under a +grave error. It's my belief that there ain't any burglar whatsoever here +at present. Mr. Hinton forgot his key and had to climb in the window. I +mistaken him for the burglar, and Mrs. Gusty, here, from what she +relates, mistaken me for him, and not knowing Mr. Hinton had come in, +telephoned our friend Mr. Tucker, and me and Mr. Tucker might be said, +in a general way, to have mistaken each other for him." + +"A pretty mess to get us all into!" exclaimed Mrs. Gusty. "A man made +his fortune once 'tending to his own business." + +"But, Mrs. Gusty--" began Mr. Opp, indignantly. + +Hinton interrupted. "You would better put something on that eye of +yours. It will probably resemble a Whistler 'Nocturne' by morning. What +are you looking for?" + +The object lost proved to be Mr. Opp's cherished cornet, and the party +became united in a common cause and joined in the search. Some time +elapsed before the horn was found under the fallen ladder, having +sustained internal injuries which subsequently proved fatal. + +When dawn crept into the dingy office of "The Opp Eagle," the editor was +watching for it. He was waiting to welcome the day that would bring back +Guinevere. As Hope with blindfold eyes bends over her harp and listens +to the faint music of her one unbroken string, so Mr. Opp, with bandaged +head, bent over his damaged horn and plaintively evoked the only note +that was left therein. + + + + +XIV + + +Those who have pursued the coy goddess of happiness through the mazes of +the labyrinth of life, know well how she invites her victim on from +point to point, only to evade capture at the end. Mr. Opp rose with each +summer dawn, radiant, confident, and expectant, and each night he sat in +his window with his knees hunched, and his brows drawn, and wrestled +with that old white-faced fear. + +Two marauders were harassing the editor these days, dogging his +footsteps, and snapping at him from ambush. One was the wolf that howls +at the door, and the other was the monster whose eyes are green. + +Since the halcyon days that had wafted Miss Guinevere Gusty back to the +shore of the Cove, Mr. Opp had not passed a serene hour out of her +presence. His disposition, though impervious to the repeated shafts of +unkind fortune, was not proof against the corrosive effect of jealousy. + +If he could have regarded Willard Hinton in the light of a hated rival, +and met him in fair and open fight, the situation would have been +simplified. But Hinton was the friend of his bosom, the man who, he had +declared to the town, "possessed the grandest intelligence he had ever +encountered in a human mind." He admired him, he respected him, and, in +direct contradiction to the emotion that was consuming him, he trusted +him. + +Concerning Miss Guinevere Gusty's state of mind, Mr. Opp permitted +himself only one opinion. He fiercely denied that she was absent-minded +and listless when alone with him; he refused to believe his own eyes +when he saw a light in her face when she looked at Hinton that was +never there for him. He preferred to exaggerate to himself her +sweetness, her gentleness, her loyalty, demanding nothing, and +continuing to give all. + +His entire future happiness, he assured himself, hung upon the one +question of little Miss Kippy. For four months the problem had been a +matter for daily, prayerful consideration, but he was still in the dark. + +When he was with Guinevere the solution seemed easy. In explaining away +the difficulties to her, he explained them away to himself, also. It was +only a matter of time, he declared, before the oil-well would yield rich +profit. When that time arrived, he would maintain two establishments, +the old one for Miss Kippy, and a new and elegant one for themselves. +Mr. Opp used the hole in the ground as a telescope through which he +viewed the stars of the future. + +But when he was alone with Kippy, struggling with her whims, while he +tried to puzzle out the oldest and most universal of conundrums,--that +of making ends meet,--the future seemed entirely blotted out by the +great blank wall of the present. + +The matter was in a way complicated by the change that had come over +Miss Kippy herself. Two ideas alternately depressed and elated her. The +first was a fixed antipathy to the photograph of Miss Guinevere Gusty +which Mr. Opp had incased in a large hand-painted frame and installed +upon his dresser. At first she sat before it and cried, and later she +hid it and refused for days to tell where it was. The sight of it made +her so unhappy that Mr. Opp was obliged to keep it under lock and key. +The other idea produced a different effect. It had to do with Hinton. +Ever since his visit she had talked of little else. She pretended that +he came to see her every day, and she spread her doll dishes, and +repeated scraps of his conversation, and acted over the events of the +dinner at which he had been present. The short gingham dresses no longer +pleased her; she wanted long ones, with flowing sleeves like the blue +merino. She tied her hair up in all manner of fantastic shapes, and +stood before the glass smiling and talking to herself for hours. But +there were times when her mind paused for a moment at the normal, and +then she would ask frightened, bewildered questions, and only Mr. Opp +could soothe and reassure her. + +"D.," she said one night suddenly, "how old am I?" + +Mr. Opp, whose entire mental and physical powers were concentrated upon +an effort to put a new band on his old hat, was taken off his guard. +"Twenty-six," he answered absently. + +A little cry brought him to her side. + +"No," she whispered, shivering away from him, yet clinging to his +sleeve, "that's a lady that's grown up! Ladies don't play with dolls. +But I want to be grown up, too. D., why am I different? I want to be a +lady; show me how to be a lady!" + +Mr. Opp gathered her into his arms, along with his hat, a pair of +scissors, and a spool of thread. + +"Don't, Kippy!" he begged. "Now, don't cry like that! You are getting on +elegant. Hasn't brother D. learned you to read a lot of pieces in your +first reader? And ain't we going to begin on handwriting next? Wouldn't +you like to have a slate, and a sponge to rub out with?" + +In an instant her mood veered. + +"And a basket?" she cried eagerly. "The children carry a basket, too. I +see them when I peep through the shutters. Can I have a basket, too?" + +The network of complexities that was closing in upon Mr. Opp apparently +affected his body more than his spirits. He seemed to shrivel and +dwindle as the pressure increased; but the fire in his eyes shone +brighter than before. + +"None of his folks live long over forty," said Mrs. Fallows, +lugubriously; "they sorter burn themselves out." + +Hinton, meanwhile, utterly unaware of being the partial cause of the +seismic disturbance in the editorial bosom, pursued the monotonous +routine of his days. It had taken him only a short time to adapt himself +to the changes that the return of the daughter of the house had brought +about. He had anticipated her arrival with the dread a nervous invalid +always feels toward anything that may jolt him out of his habitual rut. +He held a shuddering remembrance of her musical accomplishments, and +foresaw with dread the noisy crowd of young people she might bring about +the house. + +But Guinevere had slipped into her place, an absent-minded, dreamy, +detached damsel, asserting nothing, claiming nothing, bending like a +flower in the high winds of her mother's wrath. + +Hinton watched the dominating influence nip every bud of individuality +that the girl ventured to put forth, and he determined to interfere. +During the long months he had spent with Mrs. Gusty he had discovered a +way to manage her. The weak spot in her armor was pride of intellect; +she acknowledged no man her superior. By the use of figurative +language, and references to esoteric matters, he was always able to +baffle and silence her. His joy in handling her in one of her tempers +was similar to that of controlling a cat-boat in squally weather. Both +experiences redounded to his masculine supremacy. + +One hot August day, he and Mrs. Gusty had just had an unusually sharp +round, but he had succeeded, by alternate compliment and sarcasm, in +reducing her to a very frustrated and baffled condition. + +It was Sunday, the day the Cove elected for a spiritual wash-day. In the +morning the morals of the community were scrubbed and rinsed in the +meeting-house, and in the afternoon they were hung out on the line to +dry. The heads of the families sat in their front yards and dutifully +tended the children, while their wives flitted from house to house, +visiting the sick and the afflicted, and administering warnings to the +delinquent. It was a day in which Mrs. Gusty's soul reveled, and she +demanded that Guinevere's soul should revel likewise. + +It was with the determination that Guinevere should occasionally be +allowed the privilege of following her own inclinations that Hinton +hurled himself into the breach. + +"I'll go, Mother," said Guinevere; "but it's so hot. We went to see +everybody last Sunday. I thought I'd rather stay home and read, if you +didn't mind." + +Mrs. Gusty tossed her head in disgust, and turned to Hinton. + +"Now, ain't that a Gusty for you! I never saw one that didn't want to +set down to the job of living. Always moping around with their nose in a +book. I never was a reader, never remember wasting a' hour on a book in +my life, and yet I never saw the time that I wasn't able to hold my own +with any Gusty living." + +"In short," said Hinton, sympathetically, "to quote a noted novelist, +you have never considered it necessary to add the incident of learning +to the accident of brains." + +Mrs. Gusty tied her bonnet-strings in a firmer knot as she looked at him +uncertainly, then, not deigning to cast another glance in the direction +of her daughter, who was disappearing up the stairs, swept out of the +house. + +Hinton looked at his watch; it was not yet two o'clock. The afternoon +threatened to be a foretaste of eternity. He went out on the porch and +lay in the hammock, with his hands clasped across his eyes. He could no +longer see to read or to write. The doctor said the darkness might close +in now at any time, after that the experiment of an operation would be +made, and there was one chance in a hundred for the partial restoration +of the sight. + +Having beaten and bruised himself against the bars of Fate, he now lay +exhausted and passive in the power of his jailer. He had tried to run +his own life in his own way, and the matter had been taken out of his +hands. He must lie still now and wait for orders from headquarters. The +words of Mr. Opp, spoken in the low-ceiled, weird old dining-room, came +vividly back to him: "What the fight is concerning, or in what manner +the general is a-aiming to bring it all correct in the end, ain't, +according to my conclusion, a particle of our business." + +And Hinton, after a year of rebellion and struggle and despair, had at +last acknowledged a superior officer and declared himself ready to take +whatever orders came. + +As he lay in the hammock he turned his head at every noise within the +house, and listened. He had become amazingly dependent upon a soft, +drawling voice which day after day read to him for hours at a time. At +first he had met Guinevere's offers of help with moody irritability. + +"Pray, don't bother about me," he had said. "I am quite able to look +after myself; besides, I like to be alone." + +But her unobtrusive sympathy and childish frankness soon conquered his +pride. She read to him from books she did not understand, played games +with him, and showed him new walks in the woods. And incidentally, she +revealed to him her struggling, starving, wistful soul that no one else +had ever discovered. + +She never talked to him of her love affair, but she dwelt vaguely on the +virtues of duty and loyalty and self-sacrifice. The facts in the case +were supplied by Mrs. Gusty. + +Hinton looked at his watch again, and groaned when he found it was only +a quarter past two. Feeling his way cautiously along the porch and down +the steps, he moved idly about the yard. He could not distinguish +Menelaus from Paris now, and Helen of Troy was no longer to be +recognized. + +At long intervals a vehicle rattled past, leaving a cloud of dust +behind. The air shimmered with the heat, and the low, insistent buzzing +of bees beat on his ears mercilessly. He wondered impatiently why +Guinevere did not come down, then checked himself as he remembered the +constant demands he made upon her time. + +At three o'clock he could stand it no longer. He felt a queer, dull +sensation about his head, and he constantly drew his hand across his +eyes to dispel the impression of a mist before them. + +"Oh, Miss Guinevere!" he called up to her window. "Would you mind coming +down just for a little while!" + +Guinevere's head appeared so promptly that it was evident it had been +lying on the window-sill. + +"Is it time for your medicine?" she asked guiltily. "Mother said it +didn't come till four." + +"Oh, no," said Hinton, with forced cheerfulness; "it isn't that. You +remember the old song, don't you, 'When a man's afraid, a beautiful maid +is a cheering sight to see'?" + +She disappeared from the window, and in a moment joined him behind the +screen of honeysuckles on the porch. The hammock hung, inviting ease, +but neither of them took it. She sat primly on the straight-backed, +green settee, and he sat on the step at her feet with his hat pulled +over his eyes. + +"What an infernal nuisance I have been to you!" he said ruefully; "but +no more than I have been to myself. The only difference was that I had +to stand it, and you stood it out of the goodness of that kind little +heart of yours. Well, it's nearly over now; I'm expecting to go to the +city any day. I guess you'll not be sorry to get rid of me, will you, +Miss Guinevere?" + +Instead of answering, she drew a quick breath and turned her head away. +When she did speak, it was after a long pause. + +"I like the way you say my name. Nobody says it like that down here." + +"Guinevere?" he repeated. + +She nodded. "When you say it like that, I feel like I was another +person. It makes me think of flowers, and poetry, and the wind in the +trees, and all those things I've been reading you out of your books. +Guin-never and Guinevere _don't_ seem the same at all, do they?" + +"They aren't the same," he said, "and you aren't the same girl I met on +the boat last March. I guess we've both grown a bit since then. You know +I was rather keen on dying about that time,--'in love with easeful +death,'--well, now I am not keen about anything, but I am willing to +play the game out." + +They sat in silence for a while, then he said slowly, without raising +his eyes: "I am not much good at telling what I feel, but before I go +away I want you to know how much you've helped me. You have been the one +light that was left to show me the way down into the darkness." + +A soft touch on his shoulder made him lift his head. Guinevere was +bending toward him, all restraint banished from her face by the +compassion and love that suffused it. + +[Illustration: "'Oh, my God, it has come'"] + +Instinctively he swayed toward her, all the need of her crying out +suddenly within him, then he pulled himself sharply together, and, +resolutely thrusting his hands in his pockets, rose and took a turn up +and down the porch. + +"Do you mind reading to me a little?" he asked at length. "There are +forty devils in my head to-day, all hammering on the back of my +eyeballs. I'll get my Tennyson; you like him better than you do the +others. Wait; I'm going." + +But she was up the steps before him, eager to serve, and determined to +spare him every effort. + +Through the long afternoon Guinevere read, stumbling over the strange +words and faltering through the difficult passages, but vibrant to the +beauty and the pathos of it all. On and on she read, and the sun went +down, and the fragrance of dying locust bloom came faintly from the +hill, and overhead in the tree-tops the evening breeze murmured its +world-old plaint of loneliness and longing. + +Suddenly Guinevere's voice faltered, then steadied, then faltered again, +then without warning she flung her arms across the back of the bench, +and, dropping her head upon them, burst into passionate sobs. + +Hinton, who had been sitting for a long time with his hands pressed over +his eyes, sprang up to go to her. + +"Guinevere," he said, "what's the matter? Don't cry, dear!" Then, as he +stumbled, a look of terror crossed his face and he caught at the railing +for support. "Where are you?" he asked sharply. "Speak to me! Give me +your hand! I can't see--I can't--oh, my God, it has come!" + + + + +XV + + +The warning note sounded by Mrs. Fallows at the beginning of the oil +boom was echoed by many before the summer was over. The coldest thing in +the world is an exhausted enthusiasm, and when weeks slipped into +months, and notes fell due, and the bank became cautious about lending +money, a spirit of distrust got abroad, and a financial frost settled +upon the community. + +Notwithstanding these conditions, "The Opp Eagle" persistently screamed +prosperity. It attributed the local depression to the financial +disturbance that had agitated the country at large, and assured the +readers that the Cove was on the eve of the greatest period in its +history. + +"The ascending, soaring bubble of inflated prices cannot last much +longer," one editorial said; "the financial flurry in the Wall Streets +of the North were pretty well over before we become aware of it, in a +major sense. 'The Opp Eagle' has in the past, present, and future waged +noble warfare against the calamity jays. Panic or no panic, Cove City +refuses to remain in the backgrounds. There has been a large order for +job-work in this office within the past ten days, also several new and +important subscribers, all of which does not make much of a showing for +hard times, at least not from our point of looking at it." + +But in the same issue, in an inconspicuous corner, were a couple of +lines to the effect that "the editor would be glad to take a load of +wood on subscription." + +The truth was that it required all of Mr. Opp's diplomacy to rise to the +occasion. The effort to meet his own obligations was becoming daily +more embarrassing, and he was reduced to economies entirely beneath the +dignity of the editor of "The Opp Eagle." But while he cheerfully +restricted his diet to two meals a day, and wore shirt-fronts in lieu of +the genuine article, he was, according to Nick's ideas, rashly +extravagant in other ways. + +"What did you go and buy Widow Green's oil-shares back for?" Nick +demanded upon one of these occasions. + +"Well, you see," explained Mr. Opp, "it was purely a business +proposition. Any day, now, things may open up in a way that will +surprise you. I have good reason to believe that those shares are bound +to go up; and besides," he added lamely in an undertone, "I happen to +know that that there lady was in immediate need of a little ready +money." + +"So are we," protested Nick; "we need every cent we can get for the +paper. If we don't get ahead some by the first of the year, we are going +under, sure as you live." + +Mr. Opp laid a hand upon his shoulder and smiled tolerantly. +"Financiers get used to these fluctuations in money circles. Don't you +worry, Nick; you leave that to the larger brains in the concern." + +But in spite of his superior attitude of confidence, Nick's words +rankled in his mind, and the first of the year became a time which he +preferred not to consider. + +One day in September the mail-packet brought two letters of great +importance to Mr. Opp. One was from Willard Hinton, the first since his +operation, and the other was from Mr. Mathews, stating that he would +arrive at the Cove that day to lay an important matter of business +before the stock-holders of the Turtle Creek Land Company. + +Mr. Opp rushed across the road, a letter in each hand, to share the news +with Guinevere. + +"It's as good as settled," he cried, bursting in upon her, where she sat +at the side door wrestling with a bit of needlework. "Mr. Mathews will +be here to-day. He is either going to open up work or sell out to a +syndicate. I'm going to use all my influence for the latter; it's the +surest and safest plan. Miss Guin-never,"--his voice softened,--"this is +all I been waiting for to make my last and final arrangement with your +mother. It was just yesterday she was asking me what I'd decided to do, +and I don't mind telling you, now it's all over, I never went to bed all +last night--just sat up trying to figure it out. But this will settle +it. I'll be in a position to have a little home of my own and take care +of Kippy, too. I don't know as I ever was so happy in all my life put +together before." He laughed nervously, but his eyes anxiously studied +her averted face. + +"Then there's more news," he plunged on, when she did not speak--"a +letter from Mr. Hinton. I thought maybe you'd like to hear what he had +to say." + +Guinevere's scissors dropped with a sharp ring on the stepping-stone +below, and as they both stooped to get them, their fingers touched. Mr. +Opp ardently seized her hand in both of his, but unfortunately he +seized her needle as well. + +"Oh, I am so sorry!" she said. "Wait, let me do it," and with a +compassion which he considered nothing short of divine she extricated +the needle, and comforted the wounded member. Mr. Opp would have gladly +suffered the fate of a St. Sebastian to have elicited such sympathy. + +"Is--is Mr. Hinton better?" she asked, still bending over his hand. + +"Hinton?" asked Mr. Opp. "Oh, I forgot; yes. I'll read you what he says. +He got his nurse to write this for him. + + Dear Opp: The die is cast; I am a has-been. I did not expect + anything, so I am not disappointed. The operation was what they + called successful. The surgeon, I am told, did a very brilliant + stunt; something like taking my eyes out, playing marbles with them, + and getting them sewed back again all in three minutes and a half. + The result to the patient is of course purely a minor consideration, + but it may interest you to know that I can tell a biped from a + quadruped, and may in time, by the aid of powerful glasses, be able + to distinguish faces. + + With these useful and varied accomplishments I have decided to + return to the Cove. My modest ambition now is to get out of the way, + and the safest plan is to keep out of the current. + + You will probably be a Benedick by the time I return. My heartiest + congratulations to you and Miss Guinevere. Words cannot thank either + of you for what you have done for me. All I can say is that I have + tried to be worthy of your friendship. + + What's left of me is + + Yours, + + Willard Hinton." + +Mr. Opp avoided looking at her as he folded the sheets and put them back +in the envelop. The goal was bright before his eyes, but quicksands +dragged at his feet. + +"And he _will_ find us married, won't he, Miss Guin-never? You'll be +ready just as soon as I and your mother come to a understanding, won't +you? Why, it seems more like eleven years than eleven months since you +and me saw that sunset on the river! There hasn't been a day since, you +might say, that hasn't been occupied with you. All I ask for in the +world is just the chance for the rest of my life of trying to make you +happy. You believe that, don't you, Miss Guin-never?" + +"Yes," she said miserably, gazing out at the little arbor Hinton had +made for her beneath the trees. + +"Well, I'll stop by this evening after the meeting, if it ain't too +late," said Mr. Opp. "You'll--you'll be--glad if everything culminates +satisfactory, won't you?" + +"I'm glad of everything good that comes to you," said Guinevere so +earnestly that Mr. Opp, who had lived on a diet of crumbs all his life, +looked at her gratefully, and went back to the office assuring himself +that all would be well. + +The visit of Mr. Mathews, while eagerly anticipated, could not have +fallen on a less auspicious day. Aunt Tish, the arbiter of the Opp +household, had been planning for weeks to make a visit to Coreyville, +and the occasion of an opportune funeral furnished an immediate excuse. + +"No, _sir_, Mr. D., I can't put hit off till to-morrow," she declared in +answer to Mr. Opp's request that she stay with Miss Kippy until after +the stock-holders' meeting. "I's 'bleeged to go on dat night boat. De +funeral teks place at ten o'clock in de mawnin', an' I's gwine be dar ef +I has to swim de ribber." + +"Was he a particular friend, the one that died?" asked Mr. Opp. + +"Friend? Bunk Bivens? Dat onery, good-fer-nothin' ole half-strainer? +Naw, sir; he ain't no friend ob mine." + +"Well, what makes you so pressing and particular about attending his +funeral?" asked Mr. Opp. + +"'Ca'se I 'spise him so. I been hating dat nigger fer pretty nigh forty +year, an' I ain't gwine lose dis chanst ob seein' him buried." + +"But, Aunt Tish," persisted Mr. Opp, impatiently, "I've got a very +important and critical meeting this afternoon. The business under +consideration may be wound up in the matter of a few minutes, and then, +again, it may prolong itself into several consecutive hours. You'll have +to stay with Kippy till I get home." + +The old woman looked at him strangely. "See dis heah hole in my haid, +honey? 'Member how you and Ben uster ast Aunt Tish what mek hit? Dat +nigger Bunk Bivens mek hit. He was a roustabout on de ribber, an' him +an' yer paw fell out, an' one night when you was a baby he follow yer +paw up here, an' me an' him had hit out." + +"But where was my father?" asked Mr. Opp. + +"Dey was 'sputin' right heah in dis heah kitchen where we's standin' at, +an' dat mean, bow-laigged nigger didn't have no better manners den to +'spute wif a gentleman dat was full. An' pore Miss she run in so skeered +an' white an' she say, 'Aunt Tish, don't let him hurt him; he don't know +what he's sayin',' she baig, an' I tell her to keep yer paw outen de +way an' I tek keer ob Bunk." + +"And did he fight you?" asked Mr. Opp, indignantly. + +"Naw, sir; I fit him. We put nigh tore up de floor ob de kitchen. Den he +bust my haid open wif de poker, an' looks lak I been losing my knowledge +ever sence. From dat day I 'low I's gwine to git even if it took me till +I died, an' now dat spiteful old devil done died fust. But I's gwine see +him buried. I want to see 'em nail him up in a box and th'ow dirt on +him." + +Aunt Tish ended the recital in a sing-song chant, worked up to a state +of hysteria by the recital of her ancient wrong. + +Mr. Opp sighed both for the past and the present. He saw the futility of +arguing the case. + +"Well, you'll stay until the boat whistles?" he asked. "Sometimes it is +two hours late." + +"Yas, sir; but when dat whistle toots I's gwine. Ef you is heah, all +right; ef you ain't, all right: I's _gwine_!" + +As Mr. Opp passed through the hall he saw Miss Kippy slip ahead of him +and conceal herself behind the door. She carried something hidden in her +apron. + +"Have you learned your reading lesson to say to brother D. to-night?" he +asked, ignoring her behavior. "You are getting so smart, learning to +read handwriting just as good as I can!" + +But Miss Kippy only peeped at him through the crack in the door and +refused to be friendly. For several days she had been furtive and +depressed, and had not spoken to either Aunt Tish or himself. + +On the way to his office Mr. Opp was surprised to see Mr. Gallop leaning +out of the window of his little room beckoning frantically. It was +evident that Mr. Gallop had a secret to divulge, and Mr. Gallop with a +secret was as excited as a small bird with a large worm. + +"Just come in a minute and sit down," he fluttered; "you'll have to +excuse the looks of things. Having just this one room for telegraph +office and bedroom and everything crowds me up awful. I've been trying +to fix my lunch for half an hour, but the telephone just keeps me busy. +Then, besides, Mr. Mathews was here; he came down on the launch at +twelve o'clock. Now, of course I know it ain't right to repeat anything +I hear over the long-distance wire, but being such a good friend of +yours, and you being such a friend of mine--why, Mr. Opp there ain't +anybody in the world I owe more to than I do to you, not only the money +you've lent me from time to time, but your standing up for me when +everybody was down on me--and--" + +"Yes; but you was remarking about Mr. Mathews?" Mr. Opp interrupted. + +"Yes; and I was saying I never make a practice of repeating what I hear, +but he was talking right here in the room, and I was mixing up a little +salad dressing I promised Mrs. Fallows for the social,--it's to be over +at Your Hotel this evening--there's the telephone!" + +Mr. Opp sat on the edge of the sofa, the rest of it being occupied with +gaily embroidered sofa pillows, specimens, the town declared, of Mr. +Gallop's own handiwork. In fact, the only unoccupied space in the room +was on the ceiling, for between his duties as operator and housekeeper +Mr. Gallop still found time to cultivate the arts, and the result of his +efforts was manifest in every nook and corner. + +"It was Mrs. Gusty getting after Mr. Toddlinger for sending vanilla +extract instead of lemon," explained Mr. Gallop, who had stopped to hear +the discussion. + +"Well, as I was saying, Mr. Mathews called up somebody in the city +almost as soon as he got here--Now you've got to promise me you won't +tell a living soul about this." + +Mr. Opp promised. + +"He said to telegraph New York party that terms were agreed on, and to +mail check at once to Clark, and tell him to keep his mouth shut. Then +the other end said something, and Mr. Mathews said: 'We can't afford to +wait. You telegraph at once; I'll manipulate the crowd down here.' They +talked a lot more, then he said awful low, but I heard him: 'Well, damn +it! they've got to. There's too much at stake.'" + +The editor sat with his hat in his hand, and blinked at the operator: +"Manipulate," he said in a puzzled tone, "did he use that particular +word?" + +Mr. Gallop nodded. + +"He may have been referring to something else," said Mr. Opp, waiving +aside any disagreeable suspicion. "Mr. Mathews is a business gentleman. +He's involved in a great many ventures, something like myself. You +wouldn't think from what you heard that--er--that he was contemplating +not acting exactly--fair with us, would you?" + +Mr. Gallop, having delivered himself of his information, did not feel +called upon to express a personal opinion. + +"If you ever say I told you a word of this, I'll swear I didn't," he +said. "It was just because you were such a good friend, and--there's +that 'phone again!" + +During the early hours of the afternoon, Mr. Opp was oppressed with a +vague uneasiness. He made several attempts to see Mr. Mathews, but that +gentleman was closeted with his stenographer until five o'clock, the +hour named for the meeting. + +All feeling of distrust was banished, however, when Mr. Mathews made his +way through the crowd of stock-holders that filled the office of Your +Hotel, and took his stand by the desk. He was so bland and confident, so +satisfied with himself and the world and the situation, that, as Jimmy +Fallows remarked, "You kinder looked for him to purr when he wasn't +talking." + +He set forth at great length the undoubted oil wealth of the region, he +complimented them on their sagacity and foresight in buying up the +Turtle Creek ground, he praised the Cove in general and that +distinguished citizen, the editor of "The Opp Eagle," in particular. +The enterprise upon which they had embarked, he said, had grown to such +proportions that large capital was required to carry it on. Owing to the +recent depression in the money market, the Kentucky company did not feel +able properly to back the concern, so it had been agreed that if a good +offer was made to buy it, it should be accepted. It was with such an +offer, Mr. Mathews said, that he had come to them to-day. + +A stir of excitement met this announcement, and Miss Jim Fenton waved +her lace scarf in her enthusiasm. + +"Some time ago," went on Mr. Mathews, graciously acknowledging the +applause, "the Union Syndicate of New York sent an expert, Mr. Clark, +down here to report on the oil conditions in this region." Mr. Opp's +eyes became fixed on Mr. Mathews's face, and his lips parted. "The +report was so entirely satisfactory," continued Mr. Mathews, "that the +following offer has been made." + +Mr. Opp rose immediately. "Excuse me, sir, there is--er--rather, there +must be some little mistake just at this juncture." + +All eyes were turned upon him, and a murmur of dissent arose at an +interruption at such a critical point. + +Mr. Mathews gave him permission to proceed. + +"You see--I--Mr. Clark, that is,"--Mr. Opp's fingers were working +nervously on the back of the chair before him,--"him and myself went +over the ground together, and--I--well, I must say I don't consider him +a competent judge." + +Mr. Mathews smiled. "I am afraid, Mr. Opp, that your opinion is +overruled. Mr. Clark is a recognized authority, although," he added +significantly, "of course the most expert make mistakes at times." + +"That ain't the point," persisted Mr. Opp; "it's the conflicting +difference in what he said to me, and what he's reported to them. He +told me that he didn't consider our prospects was worth a picayune, and +if the wells were drilled, they probably wouldn't run a year. I didn't +believe him then; but you say now that he is a expert and that he +knows." + +Mr. Mathews's tolerance seemed limitless. He waited patiently for Mr. +Opp to finish, then he said smoothly: + +"Yes, yes; I understand your point perfectly, Mr. Opp. Mr. Clark's +remarks were injudicious, but he was looking at all sides of the +question. He saw me after he saw you, you know, and I was able to direct +his attention to the more favorable aspects of the case. His report was +entirely favorable, and I guess that is all that concerns us, isn't it?" +He embraced the room with his smile. + +During the next quarter of an hour Mr. Opp sat with his arms folded and +his eyes bent on the floor and bit his lips furiously. Something was +wrong. Again and again he fought his way back to this conclusion through +the enveloping mazes of Mr. Mathews's plausibility. Why had they waited +so long after drilling that first well? Why, after making elaborate +plans and buying machinery, had they suddenly decided to sell? Why had +Mr. Clark given such contradictory opinions? What did Mr. Mathews mean +by that message from Mr. Gallop's office? Mr. Opp's private affairs, +trembling in the balance, were entirely lost sight of in his +determination for fair play. + +Covering his eyes with his hand, and trying not to hear the flood of +argument which Mr. Mathews was bringing to bear upon his already +convinced audience, Mr. Opp attempted to recall all that Mr. Gallop had +told him. + +"He said 'manipulate,'" repeated Mr. Opp to himself. "I remember that, +and he said 'telegraph New York party that terms were agreed on.' Then +he said 'mail check to Clark; tell him to keep his mouth shut.' What's +_he_ paying Clark for? Why--" + +"The motion before the house," Mr. Tucker's piping voice broke in upon +his agitated reasoning, "is whether the stock-holders of the Turtle +Creek Land Company is willing to sell out at a rate of seven to one to +the Union Syndicate." + +In the buzz of delight that ensued, Mr. Opp found himself standing on a +chair and demanding attention. + +"Listen here," he cried, pounding on the wall with his hand, "I've got +important information that's got to be told: that man Clark is a rascal. +He's--he's deceiving his company. He's been paid to make a good report +of our ground. I can't prove it, but I know it. We're taking part in a +fraud; we're--we're being manipulated." + +Mr. Opp almost shrieked the last word in his agony of earnestness; but +before the crowd could fully apprehend his meaning, Mr. Mathews rose and +said somewhat sharply: + +"What the representative of the Union Syndicate is, or is not, doesn't +concern us in the least. I come to you with a gilt-edged proposition; +all I ask you is to sit tight, and take my advice, and I guarantee you +an immediate return of seven dollars to every one you put into this +concern. Mr. Chairman, will you put it to the vote?" + +But Mr. Opp again stopped proceedings. "As a director in this company I +won't stand for what's going on. I'll telegraph the syndicate. I'll +advertise the whole matter!" + +Mat Lucas pulled at his sleeve, and the preacher put a restraining arm +about his shoulder. The amazing rumor had become current that the Cove's +stanchest advocate for temperance had been indulging in drink, and there +was nothing in the editor's flushed face and excited manner to +contradict the impression. + +"If by any chance," Mr. Mathews went on in a steady voice, "there should +be a stock-holder who is unwilling to take advantage of this magnificent +offer, we need hardly say that we are prepared to buy his stock back at +the amount he gave for it." He smiled, as if inviting ridicule at the +absurdity of the proposition. + +"I am unwilling," cried Mr. Opp, tugging at the restraining hands. "I +have never yet in all the length and breadth of my experience been +associated with a dishonest act." + +"Don't! Mr. Opp, don't!" whispered Mat Lucas. "You're acting like a +crazy man. Don't you see you are losing the chance to make three +thousand dollars?" + +"That hasn't nothing to do with it," cried Mr. Opp, almost beside +himself. "I'll not be a party to the sale. I'll--" + +Mr. Mathews turned to his secretary. "Just fix up those papers for Mr. +Opp, and give him a check for what is coming to him. Now, Mr. Chairman, +will you put the matter to the vote?" + +Amid the hilarious confusion that succeeded the unanimous vote, and the +subsequent adjournment of the meeting, Mr. Opp pushed his way through +the crowd that surrounded Mr. Mathews. + +"You know what I was alluding at," he shouted through his chattering +teeth. "You've carried this through, but I'll blockade you. I am going +to tell the truth to the whole community. I am going to telegraph to +the syndicate and stop the sale." + +Mr. Mathews lifted his brows and smiled deprecatingly. + +"I am sorry you have worked yourself up to such a pitch, my friend," he +said. "Telegraph, by all means if it will ease your mind; but the fact +is, the deal was closed at noon to-day." + +The long, low whistle of the packet sounded, but Mr. Opp heeded it not. +He was flinging his way across to the telegraph office in a frenzy of +Quixotic impatience to right the wrong of which he had refused to be a +part. + + + + +XVI + + +Half an hour later, Mr. Opp dragged himself up the hill to his home. All +the unfairness and injustice of the universe seemed pressing upon his +heart. Every muscle in his body quivered in remembrance of what he had +been through, and an iron band seemed tightening about his throat. His +town had refused to believe his story! It had laughed in his face! + +With a sudden mad desire for sympathy and for love, he began calling +Kippy. He stumbled across the porch, and, opening the door with his +latch-key, stood peering into the gloom of the room. + +The draft from an open window blew a curtain toward him, a white +spectral, beckoning thing, but no sound broke the stillness. + +"Kippy!" he called again, his voice sharp with anxiety. + +From one room to another he ran, searching in nooks and corners, peering +under the beds and behind the doors, calling in a voice that was +sometimes a command, but oftener a plea: "Kippy! Kippy!" + +At last he came back to the dining-room and lighted the lamp with +shaking hands. On the hearth were the remains of a small bonfire, with +papers scattered about. He dropped on his knees and seized a bit of +charred cardboard. It was a corner of the hand-painted frame that had +incased the picture of Guinevere Gusty! Near it lay loose sheets of +paper, parts of that treasured package of letters she had written him +from Coreyville. + +As Mr. Opp gazed helplessly about the room, his eyes fell upon something +white pinned to the red table-cloth. He held it to the light. It was a +portion of one of Guinevere's letters, written in the girl's clear, +round hand: + + Mother says I can never marry you until Miss Kippy goes to the + asylum. + +Mr. Opp got to his feet. "She's read the letter," he cried wildly; +"she's learned out about herself! Maybe she's in the woods now, or down +on the bank!" He rushed to the porch. "Kippy!" he shouted. "Don't be +afraid! Brother D.'s coming to get you! Don't run away, Kippy! Wait for +me! Wait!" and leaving the old house open to the night, he plunged into +the darkness, beating through the woods and up and down the road, +calling in vain for Kippy, who lay cowering in the bottom of a leaking +skiff that was drifting down the river at the mercy of the current. + + * * * * * + +Two days later, Mr. Opp sat in the office of the Coreyville Asylum for +the Insane and heard the story of his sister's wanderings. Her boat had +evidently been washed ashore at a point fifteen miles above the town, +for people living along the river had reported a strange little woman, +without hat or coat, who came to their doors crying and saying her name +was "Oxety," and that she was crazy, and begging them to show her the +way to the asylum. On the second day she had been found unconscious on +the steps of the institution, and since then, the doctor said, she had +been wild and unmanageable. + +"Considering all things," he concluded, "it is much wiser for you not to +see her. She came of her own accord, evidently felt the attack coming +on, and wanted to be taken care of." + +He was a large, smooth-faced man, with the conciliatory manner of one +who regards all his fellow-men as patients in varying degrees of +insanity. + +"But I'm in the regular habit of taking care of her," protested Mr. Opp. +"This is just a temporary excitement for the time being that won't ever, +probably, occur again. Why, she's been improving all winter; I've +learnt her to read and write a little, and to pick out a number of +cities on the geographical atlas." + +"All wrong," exclaimed the doctor; "mistaken kindness. She can never be +any better, but she may be a great deal worse. Her mind should never be +stimulated or excited in any way. Here, of course, we understand all +these things and treat the patient accordingly." + +"Then I must just go back to treating her like a child again?" asked Mr. +Opp, "not endeavoring to improve her intellect, or help her grow up in +any way?" + +The doctor laid a kindly hand on his shoulder. + +"You leave her to us," he said. "The State provides this excellent +institution for just such cases as hers. You do yourself and your +family, if you have one, an injustice by keeping her at home. Let her +stay here for six months or so, and you will see what a relief it will +be." + +Mr. Opp sat with his elbow on the desk and his head propped in his +hand, and stared miserably at the floor. He had not had his clothes off +for two nights, and he had scarcely taken time from his search to eat +anything. His face looked old and wizened and haunted from the strain. +Yet here and now he was called upon to make his great decision. On the +one hand lay the old, helpless life with Kippy, and on the other a +future of dazzling possibility with Guinevere. All of his submerged self +suddenly rose and demanded happiness. He was ready to snatch it, at any +cost, regardless of everything and everybody--of Kippy; of Guinevere, +who, he knew, did not love him, but would keep her promise; of Hinton, +whose secret he had long ago guessed. And, as a running accompaniment to +his thoughts, was the quiet, professional voice of the doctor urging him +to the course that his heart prompted. For a moment the personal forces +involved trembled in equilibrium. + +After a long time he unknotted his fingers, and drew his handkerchief +across his brow. + +"I guess I'll go up and see her now," he said, with the gasping breath +of a man who has been under water. + +In vain the doctor protested. Mr. Opp was determined. + +As the door to the long ward was being unlocked, he leaned for a moment +dizzily against the wall. + +"You'd better let me give you a swallow of whisky," suggested the +doctor, who had noted his exhaustion. + +Mr. Opp raised his hand deprecatingly, with a touch of his old +professional pride. "I don't know as I've had occasion to mention," he +said, "that I am the editor and sole proprietor of 'The Opp Eagle'; and +that bird," he added, with a forced smile, "is, as everybody knows, a +complete teetotaler." + +At the end of the crowded ward, with her face to the wall, was a slight, +familiar figure. Mr. Opp started forward; then he turned fiercely upon +the attendant. + +"Her hands are tied! Who dared to tie her up like that?" + +"It's just a soft handkerchief," replied the matronly woman, +reassuringly. "We were afraid she would pull her hair out. She wants its +fixed a certain way; but she's afraid for any of us to touch her. She +has been crying about it ever since she came." + +In an instant Mr. Opp was on his knees beside her. "Kippy, Kippy +darling, here's brother D.; he'll fix it for you! You want it parted on +the side, don't you, tied with a bow, and all the rest hanging down? +Don't cry so, Kippy. I'm here now; brother D.'ll take care of you." + +She flung her loosened arms around him and clung to him in a passion of +relief. Her sobs shook them both, and his face and neck were wet with +her tears. + +As soon as they could get her sufficiently quiet, they took her into her +little bedroom. + +"You let the lady get you ready," urged Mr. Opp, still holding her hand, +"and I'll take you back home, and Aunt Tish will have a nice, hot supper +all waiting for us." + +But she would let nobody else touch her, and even then she broke forth +into piteous sobs and protests. Once she pushed him from her and looked +about wildly. "No, no," she cried, "I mustn't go; I am crazy!" But he +told her about the three little kittens that had been born under the +kitchen steps, and in an instant she was all a-tremble with eagerness to +go home to see them. + +An hour later, Mr. Opp and his charge sat on the river-bank and waited +for the little launch that was to take them back to the Cove. A curious +crowd had gathered at a short distance, for their story had gone the +rounds. + +Mr. Opp sat under the fire of curious glances, gazing straight in front +of him, and only his flushed face showed what he was suffering. Miss +Kippy, in her strange clothes and with her pale hair flying about her +shoulders, sat close by him, her hand in his. + +"D.," she said once in a high, insistent voice, "when will I be grown up +enough to marry Mr. Hinton?" + +Mr. Opp for a moment forgot the crowd. "Kippy," he said with all the +gentle earnestness that was in him, "you ain't never going to grow up at +all. You are just always going to be brother D.'s little girl. You see, +Mr. Hinton's too old for you, just like--" he paused, then finished it +bravely--"just like I am too old for Miss Guin-never. I wouldn't be +surprised if they got married with each other some day. You and me will +just have to take care of each other." + +She looked at him with the quick suspicion of the insane, but he was +ready for her with a smile. + +"Oh, D.," she cried, in a sudden rapture, "we are glad, ain't we?" + + + + +XVII + + +For the next four weeks there was no issue of "The Opp Eagle." When it +did make its appearance, it contained the following editorial: + + Ye editor has for several weeks been the victim of the La Grip which + eventuated into a rising in our left ear. Although we are still in + severe and continuous pain, we know that behind the clouds of + suffering the blue sky of health is still shining, and that a + brighter day is coming, as it were. + +The night of Mr. Opp's return from Coreyville, he had written a long +letter to Guinevere Gusty telling her of his final decision in regard to +Kippy, and releasing her from her promise. This having been +accomplished, he ceased to fight against the cold and exhaustion, and +went to bed with a hard chill. + +Aunt Tish, all contrition for the disasters she thought she had brought +upon the household, served him night and day, and even Miss Kippy, moved +by the unusual sight of her brother in bed, made futile efforts to +assist in the nursing. + +When at last he was able to crawl back to the office, he found startling +changes had taken place in the Cove. The prompt payment of the oil +stock-holders by the Union Syndicate had brought about such a condition +of prosperity and general satisfaction as had never before been known. +The civic spirit planted and carefully nourished by "The Opp Eagle" +burst into bloom under this sudden and unexpected warmth. Committees, +formed the year before, were called upon for reports, and gratifying +results were obtained. The Cove awoke to the fact that it had +lamp-posts, and side-walks and a post-office, with a possibility, +looming large, of a court house. + +Nor did this ambition for improvement stop short with the town: it +extended to individuals. Jimmy Fallows was going to build a new hotel; +Mr. Tucker was going to convert his hotel into a handsome private +residence, for which Mrs. Gusty had been asked to select the wall-paper; +Mat Lucas was already planning to build a large store on Main Street, +and had engaged Mr. Gallop to take charge of the dry-goods department. +The one person upon whom prosperity had apparently had a blighting +effect was Miss Jim Fenton. Soon after the receipt of her check, she had +appeared in the Cove in a plain, black tailor suit, and a small, severe +felt hat innocent of adornment. The French-heeled slippers had been +replaced by heavy walking shoes, and the lace scarf was discarded for a +stiff linen collar. + +But the state of Miss Jim's mind was not to be judged by the somberness +of her raiment. The novelty of selecting her own clothes, of consulting +her own taste, of being rid of the entangling dangers of lace ruffles +and flying furbelows, to say nothing of unwelcome suitors, gave her a +sense of exhilaration and independence which she had not enjoyed for +years. + +In the midst of all these tangible evidences of success, Mr. Opp found +himself indulging in a hand-to-hand struggle with failure. As a hunter +aims at a point well in advance of the flying bird, so he had aimed at +possibilities ahead of the facts, and when events took an unexpected +turn, he was left stranded, his ammunition gone, his judgment +questioned, and his hands empty. He had been conducting his affairs not +on the basis of his present income, but in reference to the large sums +which he confidently believed would accrue from the oil-wells. + +The circulation of "The Opp Eagle" was increasing steadily, but the +growing bird must be fed, and the editor, struggling to meet daily +pressing obligations, was in no condition to furnish the steady demand +for copy. + +All unnecessary diversions were ruthlessly foregone. He resigned with a +pang the leadership of the Union Orchestra, he gave up his membership +with the Odd Fellows. Even his more important duties, as president of +the Town Improvement League, and director in the bank, were +relinquished. For, in addition to his editorials, he had undertaken to +augment his slender income by selling on subscription the "Encyclopedia +of Wonder, Beauty, and Wisdom." + +It was at this low ebb of Mr. Opp's fortunes that Willard Hinton +returned to the Cove. He was still pale from his long confinement, but +there was an unusual touch of animation about him, the half-surprised +interest of one who has struck bottom, and found it not so bad as he had +expected. + +One dark afternoon in November he made his way over to the office of +"The Opp Eagle," and stood irresolute in the door. + +"That you, Mr. Opp? Or is it Nick?" He blinked uncertainly. + +"Why, it is me," said Mr. Opp. "Come right in. I've been so occupied +with engagements that I haven't scarcely had occasion to see anything of +you since you come back. You are getting improved all the time, ain't +you? I thought I saw you writing on a type-writer when I passed this +morning." + +"Yes," said Hinton; "it's a little machine I got before I came down, +with raised letters on the keyboard. If I progress at the rapid pace I +have started, I'll be an expert before long. Mrs. Gusty was able to read +five words out of ten this morning!" + +"Hope you'll do us an article or two," said Mr. Opp. "I don't mind +telling you that things has been what you might name as pressing ever +since that trouble about the oil-wells. I'm not regretting any step that +I taken, and I am endeavoring not to harbor any feelings against those +that went on after I give my word it wasn't a fair transaction. But if +what that man Clark said is true, Mr. Hinton, the Union Syndicate will +never open up another well in this community." + +"Your conscience proved rather an expensive luxury that time, didn't it, +Mr. Opp?" asked Hinton, who had heard as many versions of the affair as +there were citizens in the Cove. + +Mr. Opp shrugged his shoulders, and pursed his lips. "It's a matter that +I cannot yet bring myself to talk about. After a whole year and more of +associating with me in business and social ways, to think they wouldn't +be willing to take my word for what I said." + +"But it wasn't to their advantage," said Hinton, smiling. "You forget +the amount of money involved." + +"No," declared Mr. Opp with some heat, "you do those gentlemen a +injustice. There ain't a individual of them that is capable of a +dishonest act, any more than you or me. They just lacked the experience +in dealing with a man like Mr. Mathews." + +Hinton's smile broadened; he reached over and grasped Mr. Opp's hand. + +"Do you know you are a rattling good fellow? I am sorry things have +gotten so balled up with you." + +"I'll pay out," said the editor. "It'll take some time, but I've got a +remarkable ability for work in me. I don't mind telling you, though I'll +have to ask you not to mention the fact to no one at present, that I am +considering inventing a patent. It's a sort of improved type-setter, one +of the most remarkable things you ever witnessed. I never knew till +about six months ago what a scientific turn my mind could take. I've +worked this whole thing out in my brain without the aid of a model of +any sort." + +"In the meanwhile," said Hinton, "I hear you will have to sell your +paper." + +Mr. Opp winced, and the lines in his face deepened. "Well, yes," he +said, "I have about decided to sell, provided I keep the editorship, of +course. After my patent gets on the market I will soon be in a position +to buy it back." + +"Mr. Opp," said Hinton, "I've got a proposition to make to you. I have +a moderate sum of money in bank which I want to invest in business. How +would you like to sell out the paper to me, lock, stock, and barrel?" + +Mr. Opp, whose eyes had been resting on the bills that strewed his +table, looked up eagerly. + +"You to own it, and me to run it?" he asked hopefully. + +"No," said Hinton; "you would help me to run it, I hope, but I would be +the editor. I have thought the matter over seriously, and I believe, +with competent help, I can make the paper an up-to-date, self-supporting +newspaper, in spite of my handicap." + +Mr. Opp sat as if stunned by a blow. He had known for some time that he +must sell the paper in order to meet his obligations, but the thought of +relinquishing his control of it never dawned upon him. It was the pride +of his heart, the one tangible achievement in a wilderness of dreams. +Life without Guinevere had seemed a desert; life without "The Opp +Eagle" seemed chaos. He looked up bewildered. + +"We'd continue on doing business here in the regular way?" he asked. + +"No," said Hinton; "I would build a larger office uptown, and put in new +presses; we could experiment with your new patent type-setter as soon as +you got it ready." + +But Mr. Opp was beyond pleasantries. "You'd keep Nick?" he asked. "I +wouldn't consider anything that would cut Nick out." + +"By all means," said Hinton. "I'm counting on you and Nick to initiate +me into the mysteries of the profession. You could be city editor, and +Nick--well, we could make him foreman." + +One last hope was left to Mr. Opp, and he clung to it desperately, not +daring to voice it until the end. + +"The name," he said faintly, "would of course remain 'The Opp Eagle'?" + +Hinton dropped his eyes; he could not stand the wistful appeal in the +drawn face opposite. + +"No," he said shortly; "that's a--little too personal. I think I should +call my paper 'The Weekly News.'" + +Mr. Opp could never distinctly remember what happened after that. He +knew that he had at first declined the offer, that he had been argued +with, had reconsidered, and finally accepted a larger sum than he had +asked for; but the details of the transaction were like the setting of +bones after an accident. + +He remembered that he had sat where Hinton left him, staring at the +floor until Nick came to close the office; then he had a vague +impression of crossing the fields and standing with his head against the +old sycamore-tree where the birds had once whispered of love. After that +he knew that he had met Hinton and Guinevere coming up the river road +hand in hand, that he had gotten home after supper was over, and had +built a bridge of blocks for Miss Kippy. + +Then suddenly he had wakened to full consciousness, staggered out of the +house to the woodshed, and shivered down into a miserable heap. There +in the darkness he seemed to see things, for the first time in his life, +quite as they were. His gaze, accustomed to the glittering promise of +the future, peered fearfully into the past, and reviewed the long line +of groundless hopes, of empty projects, of self-deceptions. Shorn of its +petty shams and deceits, and stripped of its counterfeit armor of +conceit, his life lay naked before him, a pitiful, starved, futile +thing. + +"I've just been similar to Kippy," he sobbed, with his face in his +hands, "continually pretending what wasn't so. I acted like I was young, +and good-looking, and--and highly educated; and look at me! Look at me!" +he demanded fiercely of the kindling-wood. + +Mr. Opp had been fighting a long duel--a duel with Circumstance, and Mr. +Opp was vanquished. The acknowledgment of defeat, even to himself, gave +it the final stamp of verity. He had fought valiantly, with what poor +weapons he had, but the thrusts had been too many and too sure. He lay +clothed in his strange new garment of humility, and wondered why he did +not want to die. He did not realize that in losing everything else, he +had won the greater stake of character for which he had been +unconsciously fighting all along. + +The kitchen door opened, and he saw Miss Kippy's figure silhouetted +against the light. + +"Brother D.," she called impatiently, "ain't you coming back to play +with me?" + +He scrambled to his feet and made a hasty and somewhat guilty effort to +compose himself. + +"Yes, I'm a-coming," he answered briskly, as he smoothed his scant locks +and straightened his tie. "You go on ahead and gather up the blocks; I +only stopped playing for a little spell." + + + + +XVIII + + +The marriage of Guinevere Gusty and Willard Hinton took place in +mid-winter, and the account of it, published in the last issue of "The +Opp Eagle," proved that the eagle, like the swan, has its death-song. + +Like many of the masterpieces of literature, the article had been +written in anguish of spirit; but art, like nature, ignores the process, +and reckons only the result, and the result, in Mr. Opp's opinion at +least, more than justified the effort. + +"In these strenuous, history-making meanderings of the sands of life," +it ran, "we sometimes overlook or neglect particulars in events which +prove of larger importance than appears on the surface. The case to +which we have allusion to is the wedding which was solemnized at +eventide at the residence of the bride's mother. The Gustys may be +justly considered one of the best-furnished families in the county, and +the parlors were only less beautiful than the only daughter there +presiding. The collation served therein was of such a liberal nature +that every guest, we might venture to say, took dinner enough home for +supper. It has seldom been our fate to meet a gentleman of such +intelligent attainments as Mr. Hinton, and his entire future existence, +be it long or short, cannot fail of being thrice blessed by the +companionship of the one who has confided her trust to him,--her choice, +world-wide. Although a bachelor ourself, we know what happiness must be +theirs, and with all our heart we vouchsafe them a joyful voyage across +the uncertain billows of Time until their nuptial or matrimonial bark +shall have been safely moored in the haven of everlasting bliss, where +the storms of this life spread not their violence." + +Some men spend their lives in the valley, and some are born and die on +the heights; but it was Mr. Opp's fate to climb from the valley to his +own little mountain-top of prosperity, only to have to climb down on the +other side. It was evidence of his genius that in time he persuaded +himself and his fellow-citizens that it was exactly what he wanted to +do. + +"That there life of managing and promoting was all right in its way," he +said one day to a group of men at the post-office, "but a man owes +something to himself, don't he? Now that the town has got well started, +and Mr. Hinton is going to take main charge of the paper, I'll be freer +than I been for years to put some of my ideas into practice." + +"We are counting on getting you back in the orchestra," said Mr. Gallop, +whose admiration for Mr. Opp retained its pristine bloom. + +Mr. Opp shook his head regretfully. "No, I'm going to give all my +evenings over to study. This present enterprise I am engaged on +requires a lot of personal application. I sometimes think that I have in +the past scattered my forces too much, in a way." + +So persistently did Mr. Opp refer to the mysterious work that was +engrossing him that he reduced Mr. Gallop's curiosity to the +saturation-point. + +When he was no longer able to stand it, the telegraph operator +determined upon a tour of investigation. The projected presentation of a +new cornet by the Unique Orchestra to its erstwhile leader proved a +slender excuse for a call, and while he knew that, with the exception of +Willard Hinton, no visitor had ever been known to cross the Opp +threshold, yet he permitted desire to overrule delicacy. + +It was a blustery December night when he climbed the hill, and he had to +pause several times during the ascent to gain sufficient breath to +proceed. By the time he reached the house he was quite speechless, and +he dropped on the steps to rest a moment before knocking. As he sat +there trying to imagine the flying-machine or torpedo-boat upon which he +felt certain Mr. Opp was engaged, he became aware of voices from within, +and looking up, he saw the window above him was slightly raised. +Overcome by his desire to see his friend at work upon his great +invention, he cautiously tiptoed across the porch and peeped in. + +The low-ceilinged old room was bright with firelight, and in the center +of it, with his knees drawn up, his toes turned in, and his tongue +thrust out, sat Mr. Opp, absorbed in an object which he held between his +knees. Miss Kippy knelt before him, eagerly watching proceedings. + +Mr. Gallop craned his neck to see what it was that held their interest, +and at last discovered that they were fitting a dress on a large china +doll. + +Miss Kippy's voice broke the silence. "You can sew nice," she was +saying; "you can sew prettier than Aunt Tish." + +[Illustration: "'Can't nobody beat me making skirts'"] + +"Can't nobody beat me making skirts," said Mr. Opp, and Mr. Gallop saw +him push his needle through a bit of cloth, with the handle of the +shovel; "but sleeves is a more particular proposition. Why, I'd rather +thread three needles than to fix in one sleeve! Why don't you make like +it's summer-time and let her go without any?" + +Miss Kippy's lips trembled. "I want sleeves, D.--two of them, and a +lady's hat, with roses on it. We can let _her_ be grown up, can't we, +D.?" + +Mr. Gallop beat a hasty and shame-faced retreat. Though his idol had +fallen from its pedestal, he determined to stand guard over the +fragments, and from that night on, he constituted himself Mr. Opp's +loyal defender. + +And Mr. Gallop was not the only one who came forth boldly in expressions +of sympathy and respect for the ex-editor. It was especially easy for +those who had prospered by the oil boom to express unbounded admiration +for the conscientious stand he had taken in the late transaction. They +had done him a grave injustice, they acknowledged. The wells had been +reinvestigated and proved of small value. The fact that the truth was +discovered too late to affect their luck deepened their appreciation of +Mr. Opp. + +Willard Hinton, seeing what balm these evidences of approval brought to +Mr. Opp's wounded spirit, determined to arrange for a banquet to the +retiring editor, at which he planned to bring forth as many testimonials +of friendship and good-will as was possible. + +The affair was to take place New Year's night, in the dining-room of +Fallows's new Your Hotel. The entire masculine contingent of the Cove +was invited, and the feminine element prepared the supper. There had +never been a social event of such an ambitious nature attempted in the +Cove before, and each citizen took a personal pride in its success. + +For a week in advance the town was in violent throes of speech-writing, +cake-baking, salad-mixing, and decorating. Even Mrs. Fallows warmed to +the occasion, and crocheted a candlestick, candle, flame, and all, to +grace the table. + +When the night arrived, Jimmy Fallows did the honors. He was resplendent +in his dress-suit, which consisted of a black sateen shirt and a brown +suit of clothes. + +When the guests were all seated, Willard Hinton rose, and in a few +brief, pointed remarks, called the attention of the town to the changes +that had been wrought by the indefatigable efforts of one citizen in +particular. He spoke of the debt of gratitude they owed, collectively +and individually, to the late editor of "The Opp Eagle," and added that +after Mr. Opp's response, the guests desired, each in turn, to voice his +sentiments upon the subject. + +Mr. Opp then rose amid a thunder of applause, and stood for a moment in +pleased but overwhelming embarrassment. Then he put forward one foot +inflated his chest, and began: + +"Valued brother fellow-beings, I come before you to-night to express +that which there is no words in the English vocabulary to express. +Whatever you may have to say concerning me, or my part in the awakening +of this our native city, I shall listen at with a grateful heart. I +believe in a great future for Cove City. We may not live to see it, but +I believe that the day will arrive when our city shall be the gateway to +the South, when the river front will be not dissimilar to Main Street, +New York. I predict that it reaches a pivot of prominence of which we +wot not of. As for Mr. Hinton, one and all we welcome him amid our +mongst. 'The Opp Eagle' strikes palms with 'The Weekly News,' and wishes +it a lasting and eternal success." + +A burst of applause interrupted the flow of his eloquence, and as he +glanced around the room, he saw there was some commotion at the door. A +turbaned head caught his eye, then Aunt Tish's beckoning hand. + +Hastily excusing himself, he made his way through the crowd, and bent to +hear her message. + +"Hit's Miss Kippy," she whispered. "I hate to 'sturb you, but she done +crack her doll's head, an' she's takin' on so, I can't do nuffin 't all +wif her." + +"Couldn't you contrive to get her quiet no way at all?" asked Mr. Opp, +anxiously. + +"Naw, sir. She mek like dat doll her shore 'nough baby, and she 'low she +gwine die, too, furst chanct she gits. I got Val's mother to stay wif +her till I git back." + +"All right," said Mr. Opp, hastily. "You go right on and tell her I'm +coming." + +When he reëntered the dining-room, he held his hat in his hand. + +"I find a urgent matter of business calls me back home; for only a few +moments, I trust," he said apologetically, with bows and smiles. "If the +banquet will kindly proceed, I will endeavor to return in ample time for +the final speeches." + +With the air of a monarch taking temporary leave of his subjects, he +turned his back upon the gay, protesting crowd, upon the feast prepared +in his honor, upon the speech-making, so dear to his heart. Tramping +through the snow of the deserted street, through the lonely graveyard, +and along the river road, he went to bind up the head of a china doll, +and to wipe away the tears of a little half-crazed sister. + +He wears the same checked suit as when we saw him first, worn and +frayed, to be sure, but carefully pressed for the occasion, the same +brave scarf and pin, and watch fob, though the watch is missing. + +Passing out of sight with the sleet in his face, and the wind cutting +through his finery, he whistles as he goes, such a plucky, sturdy, +hopeful whistle as calls to arms the courage that lies slumbering in the +hearts of men. + + +THE END + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Mr. Opp, by Alice Hegan Rice + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MR. OPP *** + +***** This file should be named 25070-8.txt or 25070-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/5/0/7/25070/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, David Wilson and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +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. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. 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