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diff --git a/4516.txt b/4516.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5c4b210 --- /dev/null +++ b/4516.txt @@ -0,0 +1,13642 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Peter, by F. Hopkinson Smith + +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: Peter + A Novel of Which He is Not the Hero + +Author: F. Hopkinson Smith + +Release Date: October, 2003 [Etext #4516] +Posting Date: January 14, 2010 +Last Updated: June 20, 2016 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PETER *** + + + + +Produced by Robert Rowe, Charles Franks and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team + + + + + + +PETER + +A Novel of Which He is Not the Hero + +By F. Hopkinson Smith + + + + +CHAPTER I + + +Peter was still poring over his ledger one dark afternoon in December, +his bald head glistening like a huge ostrich egg under the flare of the +overhead gas jets, when Patrick, the night watchman, catching sight of +my face peering through the outer grating, opened the door of the Bank. + +The sight so late in the day was an unusual one, for in all the years +that I have called at the Bank--ten, now--no, eleven since we first knew +each other--Peter had seldom failed to be ready for our walk uptown when +the old moon-faced clock high up on the wall above the stove pointed at +four. + +"I thought there was something up!" I cried. "What is it, Peter--balance +wrong?" + +He did not answer, only waved his hand in reply, his bushy gray eyebrows +moving slowly, like two shutters that opened and closed, as he scanned +the lines of figures up and down, his long pen gripped tight between his +thin, straight lips, as a dog carries a bone. + +I never interrupt him when his brain is nosing about like this; it is +better to keep still and let him ferret it out. So I sat down outside +the curved rail with its wooden slats backed by faded green curtains, +close to the big stove screened off at the end of the long room, fixed +one eye on the moon-face and the other on the ostrich egg, and waited. + +There are no such banks at the present time--were no others then, and +this story begins not so very many years' ago--A queer, out-of-date, +mouldy old barn of a bank, you would say, this Exeter--for an +institution wielding its influence. Not a coat of paint for half a +century; not a brushful of whitewash for goodness knows how much longer. +As for the floor, it still showed the gullies and grooves, with here +and there a sturdy knot sticking up like a nut on a boiler, marking the +track of countless impatient depositors and countless anxious borrowers, +it may be, who had lock-stepped one behind the other for fifty years +or more, in their journey from the outer door to the windows where the +Peters of the old days, and the Peter of the present, presided over the +funds entrusted to their care. + +Well enough in its day, you might have said, with a shrug, as you looked +over its forlorn interior. Well enough in its day! Why, man, old John +Astor, James Beekman, Rhinelander Stewart, Moses Grinnell, and a lot of +just such worthies--men whose word was as good as their notes--and +whose notes were often better than the Government's, presided over its +destinies, and helped to stuff the old-fashioned vault with wads of +gilt-edged securities--millions in value if you did but know it--and +making it what it is to-day. If you don't believe the first part of my +statement, you've only to fumble among the heap of dusty ledgers piled +on top of the dusty shelves; and if you doubt the latter part, then try +to buy some of the stock and see what you have to pay for it. Although +the gas was turned off in the directors' room, I could still see +from where I sat the very mahogany table under which these same +ruffle-shirted, watch-fobbed, snuff-taking old fellows tucked their +legs when they decided on who should and who should not share the bank's +confidence. + +And the side walls and surroundings were none the less shabby and quite +as dilapidated. Even the windows had long since given up the fight +to maintain a decent amount of light, and as for the grated opening +protected by iron shutters which would have had barely room to swing +themselves clear of the building next door, no Patrick past or present +had ever dared loosen their bolts for a peep even an inch wide into the +canyon below, so gruesome was the collection of old shoes, tin cans, +broken bottles and battered hats which successive generations had +hurried into the narrow un-get-at-able space that lay between the two +structures. + +Indeed the only thing inside or out of this time-worn building which the +most fertile of imaginations could consider as being at all up to date +was the clock. Not its face--that was old-timey enough with its sun, +moon and stars in blue and gold, and the name of the Liverpool maker +engraved on its enamel; nor its hands, fiddle-shaped and stiff, nor +its case, which always reminded me of a coffin set up on end awaiting +burial--but its strike. Whatever divergences the Exeter allowed itself +in its youth, or whatever latitude or longitude it had given its +depositors, and that, we may be sure, was precious little so long as +that Board of Directors was alive, there was no wabbling or wavering, no +being behind time, when the hour hand of the old clock reached three and +its note of warning rang out. + +Peter obeyed the ominous sound and closed his Teller's window with a +gentle bang. Patrick took notice and swung to the iron grating of the +outer door. You might peer in and beg ever so hard--unless, of course, +you were a visitor like myself, and even then Peter would have to give +his consent--you might peer through, I say, or tap on the glass, or you +might plead that you were late and very sorry, but the ostrich egg never +turned in its nest nor did the eyebrows vibrate. Three o'clock was three +o'clock at the Exeter, and everybody might go to the devil--financially, +of course--before the rule would be broken. Other banks in panicky +times might keep a side door open until four, five or six--that is, the +bronze-rail, marble-top, glass-front, certify-your-checks-as-early-as- +ten-in-the-morning-without-a-penny-on-deposit kind of banks--but not the +Exeter--that is, not with Peter's consent--and Peter was the Exeter so +far as his department was concerned--and had been for nearly thirty +years--twenty as bookkeeper, five as paying teller and five as receiving +teller. + +And the regularity and persistency of this clock! Not only did it +announce the hours, but it sounded the halves and quarters, clearing its +throat with a whirr like an admonitory cough before each utterance. +I had samples of its entire repertoire as I sat there: + +One...two...three...four...five--then half an hour later a whir-r and a +single note. "Half-past five," I said to myself. "Will Peter never find +that mistake?" Once during the long wait the night watchman shifted his +leg--he was on the other side of the stove--and once Peter reached up +above his head for a pile of papers, spreading them out before him under +the white glare of the overhead light, then silence again, broken only +by the slow, dogged tock-tick, tock-tick, or the sagging of a hot coal +adjusting itself for the night. + +Suddenly a cheery voice rang out and Peter's hands shot up above his +head. + +"Ah, Breen & Co.! One of those plaguey sevens for a nine. Here we are! +Oh, Peter Grayson, how often have I told you to be careful! Ah, what +a sorry block of wood you carry on your shoulders. I won't be a minute +now, Major." A gratuitous compliment on the part of my friend, I being +a poor devil of a contractor without military aspirations of any kind. +"Well, well, how could I have been so stupid. Get ready to close up, +Patrick. No, thank you, Patrick, my coat's inside; I'll fetch it." + +He was quite another man now, closing the great ledger with a bang; +shouldering it as Moses did the Tables of the Law, and carrying it into +the big vault behind him--big enough to back a buggy into had the great +door been wider--shooting the bolts, whirring the combination into +so hopeless and confused a state that should even the most daring and +expert of burglars have tried his hand or his jimmy on its steel plating +he would have given up in despair (that is unless big Patrick fell +asleep--an unheard-of occurrence) and all with such spring and +joyousness of movement that had I not seen him like this many times +before I would have been deluded into the belief that the real Peter +had been locked up in the dismal vault with the musty books and that an +entirely different kind of Peter was skipping about outside. + +But that was nothing to the air with which he swept his papers into the +drawer of his desk, brushed away the crumpled sheets upon which he +had figured his balance, and darted to the washstand behind the narrow +partition. Nor could it be compared to the way in which he stripped +off his black bombazine office-coat with its baggy pockets--quite a +disreputable-looking coat I must say--taking it by the nape of the neck, +as if it were some loathsome object to be got rid of, and hanging it +upon a hook behind him; nor to the way in which he pulled up his shirt +sleeves and plunged his white, long-fingered, delicately modeled hands +into the basin, as if cleanliness were a thing to be welcomed as a +part of his life. These carefully dried, each finger by itself--not +forgetting the small seal ring on the little one--he gave an extra +polish to his glistening pate with the towel, patted his fresh, +smooth-shaven cheeks with an unrumpled handkerchief which he had +taken from his inside pocket, carefully adjusted his white neck-cloth, +refastening the diamond pin--a tiny one but clear as a baby's tear--put +on his frock-coat with its high collar and flaring tails, took down +his silk hat, gave it a flourish with his handkerchief, unhooked his +overcoat from a peg behind the door (a gray surtout cut something like +the first Napoleon's) and stepped out to where I sat. + +You would never have put him down as being sixty years of age had you +known him as well as I did--and it is a great pity you didn't. Really, +now that I come to think of it, I never did put him down as being of any +age at all. Peter Grayson and age never seemed to have anything to do +with each other. Sometimes when I have looked in through the Receiving +Teller's window and have passed in my book--I kept my account at the +Exeter--and he has lifted his bushy shutters and gazed at me suddenly +with his merry Scotch-terrier eyes, I have caught, I must admit, a line +of anxiety, or rather of concentrated cautiousness on his face, which +for the moment made me think that perhaps he was looking a trifle older +than when I last saw him; but all this was scattered to the winds when I +met him an hour afterward swinging up Wall Street with that cheery lift +of the heels so peculiarly his own, a lift that the occupants of every +office window on both sides of the street knew to be Peter's even when +they failed to recognize the surtout and straight-brimmed high hat. Had +any doubting Thomas, however, walked beside him on his way up Broadway +to his rooms on Fifteenth Street, and had the quick, almost boyish lift +of Peter's heels not entirely convinced the unbeliever of Peter's youth, +all questions would have been at once disposed of had the cheery bank +teller invited him into his apartment up three flights of stairs +over the tailor's shop--and he would have invited him had he been his +friend--and then and there forced him into an easy chair near the open +wood fire, with some such remark as: "Down, you rascal, and sit close +up where I can get my hands on you!" No--there was no trace of old age +about Peter. + +He was ready now--hatted, coated and gloved--not a hint of the ostrich +egg or shaggy shutters visible, but a well-preserved bachelor of forty +or forty-five; strictly in the mode and of the mode, looking more like +some stray diplomat caught in the wiles of the Street, or some retired +magnate, than a modest bank clerk on three thousand a year. The next +instant he was tripping down the granite steps between the rusty iron +railings--on his toes most of the way; the same cheery spring in his +heels, slapping his thin, shapely legs with his tightly rolled umbrella, +adjusting his hat at the proper angle so that the well-trimmed side +whiskers--the veriest little dabs of whiskers hardly an inch long--would +show as well as the fringes of his grey hair. + +Not that he was anxious to conceal these slight indications of advancing +years, nor did he have a spark of cheap personal vanity about him, but +because it was his nature always to put his best foot foremost and keep +it there; because, too, it behooved him in manner, dress and morals, to +maintain the standards he had set for himself, he being a Grayson, with +the best blood of the State in his veins, and with every table worth +dining at open to him from Fourteenth Street to Murray Hill, and beyond. + +"Now, it's all behind me, my dear boy," he cried, as we reached the +sidewalk and turned our faces up Wall Street toward Broadway. "Fifteen +hours to live my own life! No care until ten o'clock to-morrow. +Lovely life, my dear Major, when you think of it. Ah, old Micawber +was right--income one pound, expense one pound ten shillings; result, +misery: income one pound ten, expense one pound, outcome, happiness! +What a curse this Street is to those who abuse its power for good; half +of them trying to keep out of jail and the other half fighting to keep +out of the poor-house! And most of them get so little out of it. Just as +I can detect a counterfeit bill at sight, my boy, so can I put my ringer +on these money-getters when the poison of money-getting for money's sake +begins to work in their veins. I don't mean the laying up of money for a +rainy day, or the providing for one's family. Every man should lay up a +six-months' doctor's bill, just as every man should lay up money enough +to keep his body out of Potter's Field. It's laying up the SURPLUS that +hurts." + +Peter had his arm firmly locked in mine now. + +"Now that concern of Breen & Company, where I found my error, are no +better than the others. They are new to this whirlpool, but they will +soon get in over their heads. I think it is only the third or fourth +year since they started business, but they are already floating all +sorts of schemes, and some of them--if you will permit me in confidence, +strictly in confidence, my dear boy--are rather shady, I think: at least +I judge so from their deposits." + +"What are they, bankers?" I ventured. I had never heard of the firm; not +an extraordinary thing in my case when bankers were concerned. + +Peter laughed: + +"Yes, BANKERS--all in capital letters--the imitation kind. Breen +came from some place out of town and made a lucky hit in his first +year--mines or something--I forget what. Oh, but you must know that it +takes very little now-a-days to make a full-fledged banker. All you have +to do is to hoist in a safe--through the window, generally, with the +crowd looking on; rail off half the office; scatter some big ledgers +over two or three newly varnished desks; move in a dozen arm-chairs, get +a ticker, a black-board and a boy with a piece of chalk; be pleasant +to every fellow you meet with his own or somebody else's money in his +pocket, and there you are. But we won't talk of these things--it isn't +kind, and, really, I hardly know Breen, and I'm quite sure he wouldn't +know me if he saw me, and he's a very decent gentleman in many ways, I +hear. He never overdraws his account, any way--never tries--and that's +more than I can say for some of his neighbors." + +The fog, which earlier in the afternoon had been but a blue haze, +softening the hard outlines of the street, had now settled down in +earnest, choking up the doorways, wiping out the tops of the buildings, +their facades starred here and there with gas-jets, and making a smudged +drawing of the columns of the Custom House opposite. + +"Superb, are they not?" said Peter, as he wheeled and stood looking at +the row of monoliths supporting the roof of the huge granite pile, each +column in relief against the dark shadows of the portico. "And they +are never so beautiful to me, my boy, as when the ugly parts of the old +building are lost in the fog. Follow the lines of these watchmen of the +temple! These grave, dignified, majestic columns standing out in the +gloom keeping guard! But it is only a question of time--down they'll +come! See if they don't!" + +"They will never dare move them," I protested. "It would be too great a +sacrilege." The best way to get Peter properly started is never to agree +with him. + +"Not move them! They will break them up for dock-filling before ten +years are out. They're in the way, my boy; they shut out the light; +can't hang signs on them; can't plaster them over with theatre bills; no +earthly use. 'Wall Street isn't Rome or any other excavated ruin; it's +the centre of the universe'--that's the way the fellows behind these +glass windows talk." Here Peter pointed to the offices of some prominent +bankers, where other belated clerks were still at work under shaded +gas-jets. "These fellows don't want anything classic; they want +something that'll earn four per cent." + +We were now opposite the Sub-Treasury, its roof lost in the settling +fogs, the bronze figure of the Father of His Country dominating the +flight of marble steps and the adjacent streets. + +Again Peter wheeled; this time he lifted his hat to the statue. + +"Good evening, your Excellency," he said in a voice mellowed to the same +respectful tone with which he would have addressed the original in the +flesh. + +Suddenly he loosened his arm from mine and squared himself so he could +look into my face. + +"I notice that you seldom salute him, Major, and it grieves me," he said +with a grim smile. + +I broke into a laugh. "Do you think he would feel hurt if I didn't." + +"Of course he would, and so should you. He wasn't put there for +ornament, my boy, but to be kept in mind, and I want to tell you that +there's no place in the world where his example is so much needed as +right here in Wall Street. Want of reverence, my dear boy"--here he +adjusted his umbrella to the hollow of his arm--"is our national sin. +Nobody reveres anything now-a-days. Much as you can do to keep people +from running railroads through your family vaults, and, as to one's +character, all a man needs to get himself battered black and blue, is to +try to be of some service to his country. Even our presidents have to +be murdered before we stop abusing them. By Jove! Major, you've GOT to +salute him! You're too fine a man to run to seed and lose your respect +for things worth while. I won't have it, I tell you! Off with your hat!" + +I at once uncovered my head (the fog helped to conceal my own identity, +if it didn't Peter's) and stood for a brief instant in a respectful +attitude. + +There was nothing new in the discussion. Sometimes I would laugh at him; +sometimes I would only touch my hat in unison; sometimes I let him +do the bowing alone, an act on his part which never attracted +attention--looking more as if he had accosted some passing friend. + +We had reached Broadway by this time and were crossing the street +opposite Trinity Churchyard. + +"Come over here with me," he cried, "and let us look in through the iron +railings. The study of the dead is often more profitable than knowledge +of the living. Ah, the gate is open! It is not often I am here at this +time, and on a foggy afternoon. What a noble charity, my boy, is a +fog--it hides such a multitude of sins--bad architecture for one," and +he laughed softly. + +I always let Peter run on--in fact I always encourage him to run on. No +one I know talks quite in the same way; many with a larger experience +of life are more profound, but none have the personal note which +characterizes the old fellow's discussions. + +"And how do you suppose these by-gones feel about what is going on +around them?" he rattled on, tapping the wet slab of a tomb with the end +of his umbrella. "And not only these sturdy patriots who lie here, but +the queer old ghosts who live in the steeple?" he added, waving his hand +upward to the slender spire, its cross lost in the fog. "Yes, ghosts and +goblins, my boy. You don't believe it?--I do--or I persuade myself I +do, which is better. Sometimes I can see them straddling the chimes when +they ring out the hours, or I catch them peeping out between the slats +of the windows away up near the cross. Very often in the hot afternoons +when you are stretching your lazy body under the tents of the mighty--" +(Peter referred to some friends of mine who owned a villa down on Long +Island, and were good enough to ask me down for a week in August) "I +come up here out of the rush and sit on these old tombstones and talk +to these old fellows--both kinds--the steeple boys and the old cronies +under the sod. You never come, I know. You will when you're my age." + +I had it in my mind to tell him that the inside of a dry tent had some +advantages over the outside of a damp tomb, so far as entertaining one's +friends, even in hot weather, was concerned, but I was afraid it might +stop the flow of his thoughts, and checked myself. + +"It is not so much the rest and quiet that delights me, as the feeling +that I am walled about for the moment and protected; jerked out of the +whirlpool, as it were, and given a breathing spell. On these afternoons +the old church becomes a church once more--not a gate to bar out the +rush of commercialism. See where she stands--quite out to the very curb, +her warning finger pointing upward. 'Thus far shalt thou come, and no +farther,' she cries out to the Four Per Cents. 'Hug up close to me, you +old fellows asleep in your graves; get under my lea. Let us fight it out +together, the living and the dead!' And now hear these abominable Four +Per Cents behind their glass windows: 'No place for a church,' they say. +'No place for the dead! Property too valuable. Move it up town. Move it +out in the country--move it any where so you get it out of our way. We +are the Great Amalgamated Crunch Company. Into our maw goes respect for +tradition, reverence for the dead, decency, love of religion, sentiment, +and beauty. These are back numbers. In their place, we give you +something real and up-to-date from basement to flagstaff, with fifty +applicants on the waiting list. If you don't believe it read our +prospectus!'" + +Peter had straightened and was standing with his hand lifted above +his head, as if he were about to pronounce a benediction. Then he said +slowly, and with a note of sadness in his voice: + +"Do you wonder, now, my boy, why I touch my hat to His Excellency?" + + + +CHAPTER II + + +All the way up Broadway he kept up his good-natured tirade, railing at +the extravagance of the age, at the costly dinners, equipages, dress +of the women, until we reached the foot of the dilapidated flight of +brown-stone steps leading to the front door of his home on Fifteenth +Street. Here a flood of gas light from inside a shop in the basement +brought into view the figure of a short, squat, spectacled little man +bending over a cutting-table, a pair of shears in his hand. + +"Isaac is still at work," he cried. "If we were not so late we'd go in +and have a word with him. Now there's a man who has solved the problem, +my boy. Nobody will ever coax Isaac Cohen up to Fifth Avenue and into +a 'By appointment to His Majesty' kind of a tailor shop. Just pegs away +year after year--he was here long before I came--supporting his family, +storing his mind with all sorts of rare knowledge. Do you know he's one +of the most delightful men you will meet in a day's journey?" + +"No--never knew anything of the kind. Thought he was just plain tailor." + +"And an intimate friend of many of the English actors who come over +here?" continued Peter. + +"I never heard a word about it" I answered meekly; Peter's acquaintances +being too varied and too numerous for me to keep track of. That he +should have a tailor among them as learned and wise as Solomon, and with +friends all over the globe, was quite to be expected. + +"Well, he is," answered Peter. "They always hunt him up the first thing +they do. He lived in London for years and made their costumes. There's +no one, I assure you, I am more glad to see when he makes an excuse to +rap at my door. You'll come up, of course, until I read my letters." + +"No, I'll keep on to my rooms and meet you later at the club." + +"You'll do nothing of the kind, you restless mortal. You'll come +upstairs with me until I open my mail. It's really like touching the +spring of a Jack-in-the-box, this mail of mine--all sorts of things pop +out, generally the unexpected. Mighty interesting, I tell you," and +with a cheery wave of the hand to his friend Isaac, whose eyes had been +looking streetward at the precise moment, Peter pushed me ahead of him +up the worn marble steps flanked by the rust-eaten iron railing which +led to the hallway and stairs, and so on up to his apartment. + +It was just the sort of house Peter, of all men in the world, would have +picked out to live in--and he had been here for twenty years or more. +Not only did the estimable Isaac occupy the basement, but Madame +Montini, the dress-maker, had the first floor back; a real-estate agent +made free with the first floor front, and a very worthy teacher of +music, whose piano could be heard at all hours of the day, and far into +the night, was paying rent for the second, both front and back. Peter's +own apartments ran the whole length of the third floor, immediately +under the slanting, low-ceiled garret, which was inhabited by the good +Mrs. McGuffey, the janitress, who, in addition to her regular duties, +took especial care of Peter's rooms. Adjoining these was a small +apartment consisting of two rooms, connecting with Peter's suite by +a door cut through for some former lodger. These were also under +Mrs. McGuffey's special care and very good care did she take of them, +especially when Peter's sister, Miss Felicia Grayson, occupied them for +certain weeks in the year. + +These changes had all taken place in the time the old fellow had mounted +the quaint stairs with the thin mahogany banisters, and yet Peter stayed +on. "The gnarled pear tree in the back yard is so charming," he would +urge in excuse, "especially in the spring, when the perfume of its +blossoms fills the air," or, "the view overlooking Union Square is so +delightful," or, "the fireplace has such a good draught." What mattered +it who lived next door, or below, or overhead, for that matter, so that +he was not disturbed--and he never was. The property, of course, had +gone from bad to worse since the owner had died; the neighborhood had +run down, and the better class of tenants down, up, and even across the +street--had moved away, but none of these things had troubled Peter. + +And no wonder, when once you got inside the two rooms and looked about! + +There was a four-post bedstead with chintz curtains draped about +the posts, that Martha Washington might have slept in, and a chintz +petticoat which reached the floor and hid its toes of rollers, which the +dear lady could have made with her own hands; there was a most ancient +mahogany bureau to match, all brass fittings. There were easy chairs +with restful arms within reach of tables holding lamps, ash receivers +and the like; and rows and rows of books on open shelves edged with +leather; not to mention engravings of distinguished men and old +portraits in heavy gilt frames: one of his grandfather who fought in the +Revolution, and another of his mother--this last by Rembrandt Peale--a +dear old lady with the face of a saint framed in a head of gray hair, +the whole surmounted by a cluster of silvery curls. There were quaint +brass candelabra with square marble bases on each end of the mantel, +holding candles showing burnt wicks in the day time and cheery lights at +night; and a red carpet covering both rooms and red table covers and +red damask curtains, and a lounge with a red afghan thrown over it; and +last, but by no means least--in fact it was the most important thing +in the sitting-room, so far as comfort was concerned--there was a big +open-hearth Franklin, full of blazing red logs, with brass andirons and +fender, and a draught of such marvellous suction that stray scraps of +paper, to say nothing of uncommonly large sparks, had been known +more than once to have been picked up in a jiffy and whirled into its +capacious throat. + +Just the very background for dear old Peter, I always said, whenever +I watched him moving about the cheery interior, pushing up a chair, +lighting a fresh candle, or replacing a book on the shelf. What a +half-length the great Sully would have made of him, with his high +collar, white shirt-front and wonderful neck-cloth with its pleats and +counterpleats, to say nothing of his rosy cheeks and bald head, the +high light glistening on one of his big bumps of benevolence. And what a +background of deep reds and warm mahoganys with a glint of yellow brass +for contrast! + +Indeed, I have often thought that not only Peter's love of red, but much +of Peter's quaintness of dress, had been suggested by some of the old +portraits which lined the walls of his sitting-room--his grandfather, +by Sully, among them; and I firmly believe, although I assure you I have +never mentioned it to any human being before, that had custom permitted +(the directors of his bank, perhaps), Peter would not only have indulged +in the high coat-collar and quaint neck-cloths of his fathers, but would +also have worn a dainty cue tied with a flowing black ribbon, always +supposing, of course, that his hair had held out, and, what is more +important, always supposing, that the wisp was long enough to hold on. + +The one article, however, which, more than any other one thing in his +apartment, revealed his tastes and habits, was a long, wide, ample +mahogany desk, once the property of an ancestor, which stood under +the window in the front room. In this, ready to his hand, were drawers +little and big, full of miscellaneous papers and envelopes; pigeon-holes +crammed full of answered and unanswered notes, some with crests on them, +some with plain wax clinging to the flap of the broken envelopes; many +held together with the gum of the common world. Here, too, were bundles +of old letters tied with tape; piles of pamphlets, quaint trays holding +pens and pencils, and here too was always to be found, in summer or +in winter, a big vase full of roses or blossoms, or whatever was in +season--a luxury he never denied himself. + +To this desk, then, Peter betook himself the moment he had hung his gray +surtout on its hook in the closet and disposed of his hat and umbrella. +This was his up-town office, really, and here his letters awaited him. + +First came a notice of the next meeting of the Numismatic Society of +which he was an honored member; then a bill for his semi-annual dues at +the Century Club; next a delicately scented sheet inviting him to dine +with the Van Wormleys of Washington Square, to meet an English lord and +his lady, followed by a pressing letter to spend Sunday with friends +in the country. Then came a long letter from his sister, Miss Felicia +Grayson, who lived in the Genesee Valley and who came to New York every +winter for what she was pleased to call "The Season" (a very remarkable +old lady, this Miss Felicia Grayson, with a mind of her own, sections of +which she did not hesitate to ventilate when anybody crossed her or her +path, and of whom we shall hear more in these pages), together with the +usual assortment of bills and receipts, the whole an enlivening +record not only of Peter's daily life and range of taste, but of the +limitations of his purse as well. + +One letter was reserved for the last. This he held in his hand until he +again ran his eye over the pile before him. It was from Holker Morris +the architect, a man who stood at the head of his profession. + +"Yes, Holker's handwriting," he said as he inserted the end of the paper +cutter. "I wonder what the dear fellow wants now?" Here he ran his eye +over the first page. "Listen, Major. What an extraordinary man... He's +going to give a dinner, he says, to his draughtsmen... in his offices +at the top of his new building, six stories up. Does the rascal think I +have nothing to do but crawl up his stairs? Here, I'll read it to you." + +"'You, dear Peter:' That's just like Holker! He begins that way when he +wants me to do something for him. 'No use saying you won't come, for I +shall be around for you at seven o'clock with a club--'No, that's not +it--he writes so badly--'with a cab.' Yes, that's it--'with a cab.' I +wonder if he can drive me up those six flights of stairs? 'There'll +be something to eat, and drink, and there will be fifty or more of my +draughtsmen and former employees. I'm going to give them a dinner and a +house-warming. Bring the Major if you see him. I have sent a note to his +room, but it may not reach him. No dress suit, remember. Some of my men +wouldn't know one if they saw it." + +As the letter dropped from Peter's hand a scraping of feet was heard at +the hall door, followed by a cheery word from Mrs. McGuffey--she had her +favorites among Peter's friends--and Holker Morris burst into the room. + +"Ah, caught you both!" he cried, all out of breath with his run +upstairs, his hat still on his head. No one blew in and blew out +of Peter's room (literally so) with the breeze and dash of the +distinguished architect. "Into your coats, you two--we haven't a moment +to spare. You got my letter, of course," he added, throwing back the +cape of his raincoat. + +"Yes, Holker, just opened it!" cried Peter, holding out both hands to +his guest. "But I'm not going. I am too old for your young fellows--take +the Major and leave me behind." + +The architect grabbed Peter by the arm. "When did that mighty idea crack +its way through that shell of yours, you tottering Methusaleh! Old! +You're spryer than a frolicking lamb in March. You are coming, too, +Major. Get into your coats and things!" + +"But Isaac is pressing my swallow-tail." + +"I don't mean your dress-coat, man--your OVERCOAT! Now I am sure you +didn't read my letter? Some of my young fellows haven't got such a +thing--too poor." + +"But look at YOURS!" + +"Yes, I had to slip into mine out of respect to the occasion; my boys +wouldn't like it if I didn't. Sort of uniform to them, but they'd be +mighty uncomfortable if you wore yours. Hurry up, we haven't a minute to +lose." + +Peter had forced the architect into one of the big chairs by the fire +by this time, and stood bending over him, his hands resting on Morris's +broad shoulders. + +"Take the Major with you, that's a good fellow, and let me drop in about +eleven o'clock," he pleaded, an expression on his face seen only when +two men understand and love each other. "There's a letter from Felicia +to attend to; she writes she is coming down for a couple of weeks, and +then I've really had a devil of a day at the bank." + +"No, you old fraud, you can't wheedle me that way. I want you before +everybody sits down, so my young chaps can look you over. Why, Peter, +you're better than a whole course of lectures, and you mean something, +you beggar! I tell you" (here he lifted himself from the depths of the +chair and scrambled to his feet) "you've got to go if I have to tie +your hands and feet and carry you downstairs on my back! And you, too, +Major--both of you. Here's your overcoat--into it, you humbug!... the +other arm. Is this your hat? Out you go!" and before I had stopped +laughing--I had refused to crowd the cab--Morris had buttoned the +surtout over Peter's breast, crammed the straight-brimmed hat over his +eyes, and the two were clattering downstairs. + + + +CHAPTER III + + + +Long before the two had reached the top floor of the building in which +the dinner was to be given, they had caught the hum of the merrymakers, +the sound bringing a smile of satisfaction to Peter's face, but it was +when he entered the richly colored room itself, hazy with cigarette +smoke, and began to look into the faces of the guests grouped about him +and down the long table illumined by myriads of wax candles that all his +doubts and misgivings faded into thin air. Never since his school days, +he told me afterwards, had he seen so many boisterously happy young +fellows grouped together. And not only young fellows, with rosy +cheeks and bright eyes, but older men with thoughtful faces, who had +relinquished for a day the charge of some one of the important buildings +designed in the distinguished architect's office, and had spent the +night on the train that they might do honor to their Chief. + +But it was when Morris, with his arm fast locked in his, began +introducing him right and left as the "Guest of Honor of the Evening," +the two shaking hands first with one and then another, Morris breaking +out into joyous salvos of welcome over some arrival from a distant city, +or greeting with marked kindness and courtesy one of the younger +men from his own office, that the old fellow's enthusiasm became +uncontrollable. + +"Isn't it glorious, Holker!" he cried joyously, with uplifted hands. +"Oh, I'm so glad I came! I wouldn't have missed this for anything in the +world. Did you ever see anything like it? This is classic, my boy--it +has the tang and the spice of the ancients." + +Morris's greeting to me was none the less hearty, although he had left +me but half an hour before. + +"Late, as I expected, Major," he cried with out-stretched hand, "and +serves you right for not sitting in Peter's lap in the cab. Somebody +ought to sit on him once in a while. He's twenty years younger +already. Here, take this seat alongside of me where you can keep him +in order--they were at table when I entered. Waiter, bring back that +bottle--Just a light claret, Major--all we allow ourselves." + +As the evening wore away the charm of the room grew upon me. Vistas hazy +with tobacco smoke opened up; the ceiling lost in the fog gave one the +impression of out-of-doors--like a roof-garden at night; a delusion made +all the more real by the happy uproar. And then the touches here and +there by men whose life had been the study of color and effects; the +appointments of the table, the massing of flowers relieving the white +cloth; the placing of shaded candles, so that only a rosy glow filtered +through the room, softening the light on the happy faces--each scalp +crowned with chaplets of laurel tied with red ribbons: an enchantment +of color, form and light where but an hour before only the practical and +the commonplace had held sway. + +No vestige of the business side of the offices remained. Peter pointed +out to me a big plaster model of the State House, which filled one end +of the room, and two great figures, original plaster casts, heroic in +size, that Harding, the sculptor, had modelled for either side of the +entrance of the building; but everything that smacked of T-square or +scale was hidden from sight. In their place, lining the walls, stood a +row of standards of red and orange silk, stretched on rods and supported +by poles; the same patterns of banners which were carried before +Imperial Caesars when they took an airing; and now emblazoned with the +titles of the several structures conceived in the brain of Holker Morris +and executed by his staff: the Imperial Library in Tokio; the great +Corn Exchange covering a city block; the superb Art Museum crowning +the highest hill in the Park; the beautiful chateau of the millionaire +surrounded by thousands of acres of virgin forest; the spacious +warehouses on the water front, and many others. + +With the passing of the flagons an electric current of good fellowship +flashed around the circle. Stories that would have been received with +but a bare smile at the club were here greeted with shouts of laughter. +Bon-mots, skits, puns and squibs mouldy with age or threadbare with use, +were told with a new gusto and welcomed with delight. + +Suddenly, and without any apparent reason, these burst forth a roar +like that of a great orchestra with every instrument played at its +loudest--rounds of applause from kettle-drums, trombones and big horns; +screams of laughter from piccolos, clarionettes and flutes, buzzings of +subdued talk by groups of bass viols and the lesser strings, the whole +broken by the ringing notes of a song that soared for an instant clear +of the din, only to be overtaken and drowned in the mighty shout of +approval. This was followed by a stampede from the table; the banners +were caught up with a mighty shout and carried around the room; Morris, +boy for the moment, springing to his feet and joining in the uproar. + +The only guest who kept his chair, except Peter and myself, was a young +fellow two seats away, whose eyes, brilliant with excitement, followed +the merrymaking, but who seemed too much abashed, or too ill at ease, +to join in the fun. I had noticed how quiet he was and wondered at the +cause. Peter had also been watching the boy and had said to me that he +had a good face and was evidently from out of town. + +"Why don't you get up?" Peter called to him at last. "Up with you, my +lad. This is one of the times when every one of you young fellows should +be on your feet." He would have grabbed a banner himself had any one +given him the slightest encouragement. + +"I would, sir, but I'm out of it," said the young man with a deferential +bow, moving to the empty seat next to Peter. He too had been glancing at +Peter from time to time. + +"Aren't you with Mr. Morris?" + +"No, I wish I were. I came with my friend, Garry Minott, that young +fellow carrying the banner with 'Corn Exchange' marked on it." + +"And may I ask, then, what you do?" continued Peter. + +The young fellow looked into the older man's kindly eyes--something in +their expression implied a wish to draw him the closer--and said quite +simply: "I don't do anything that is of any use, sir. Garry says that I +might as well work in a faro bank." + +Peter leaned forward. For the moment the hubbub was forgotten as +he scrutinized the young man, who seemed scarcely twenty-one, his +well-knit, well-dressed body, his soft brown hair curled about his +scalp, cleanly modelled ears, steady brown eyes, white teeth--especially +the mobile lips which seemed quivering from some suppressed emotion--all +telling of a boy delicately nurtured. + +"And do you really work in a faro bank?" Peter's knowledge of human +nature had failed him for once. + +"Oh, no sir, that is only one of Garry's jokes. I'm clerk in a stock +broker's office on Wall Street. Arthur Breen & Company. My uncle is head +of the firm." + +"Oh, that's it, is it?" answered Peter in a relieved tone. + +"And now will you tell me what your business is, sir?" asked the young +man. "You seem so different from the others." + +"Me! Oh, I take care of the money your gamblers win," replied Peter, at +which they both laughed, a spark of sympathy being kindled between them. + +Then, seeing the puzzled expression on the boy's face, he added with +a smile: "I'm Receiving Teller in a bank, one of the oldest in Wall +Street." + +A look of relief passed over the young fellow's face. + +"I'm very glad, sir," he said, with a smile. "Do you know, sir, you look +something like my own father--what I can remember of him--that is, he +was--" The lad checked himself, fearing he might be discourteous. "That +is, he had lost his hair, sir, and he wore his cravats like you, too. I +have his portrait in my room." + +Peter leaned still closer to the speaker. This time he laid his hand on +his arm. The tumult around him made conversation almost impossible. "And +now tell me your name?" + +"My name is Breen, sir. John Breen. I live with my uncle." + +The roar of the dinner now became so fast and furious that further +confidences were impossible. The banners had been replaced and every one +was reseated, talking or laughing. On one side raged a discussion as to +how far the decoration of a plain surface should go--"Roughing it," some +of them called it. At the end of the table two men were wrangling as to +whether the upper or the lower half of a tall structure should have +its vertical lines broken; and, if so, by what. Further down high-keyed +voices were crying out against the abomination of the flat roof on the +more costly buildings; wondering whether some of their clients would +wake up to the necessity of breaking the sky-line with something less +ugly--even if it did cost a little more. Still a third group were in +shouts of laughter over a story told by one of the staff who had just +returned from an inspection trip west. + +Young Breen looked down the length of the table, watched for a moment +a couple of draughtsmen who stood bowing and drinking to each other +in mock ceremony out of the quaint glasses filled from the borrowed +flagons, then glanced toward his friend Minott, just then the centre of +a cyclone that was stirring the group midway the table. + +"Come over here, Garry," he called, half rising to his feet to attract +his friend's attention. + +Minott waved his hand in answer, waited until the point of the story had +been reached, and made his way toward Peter's end of the table. + +"Garry," he whispered, "I want to introduce you to Mr. Grayson--the very +dearest old gentleman you ever met in your whole life. Sits right next +to me." + +"What, that old fellow that looks like a billiard ball in a high +collar?" muttered Minott with a twinkle in his eye. "We've been +wondering where Mr. Morris dug him up." + +"Hush," said Breen--"he'll hear you." + +"All right, but hurry up. I must say he doesn't look near so bad when +you get close to him." + +"Mr. Grayson, I want you to know my friend Garry Minott." + +Peter rose to his feet. "I DO know him," he said, holding out his hand +cordially. "I've been knowing him all the evening. He's made most of +the fun at his end of the table. You seem to have flaunted your Corn +Exchange banner on the smallest provocation, Mr. Minott," and Peter's +fingers gripped those of the young man. + +"That's because I've been in charge of the inside work. Great dinner, +isn't it, Mr. Grayson. But it's Britton who has made the dinner. He's +more fun than a Harlem goat with a hoopskirt. See him--that's Brit with +a red head and blue neck-tie. He's been all winter in Wisconsin looking +after some iron work and has come back jam full of stories." The dignity +of Peter's personality had evidently not impressed the young man, +judging from the careless tone with which he addressed him. "And how are +you getting on, Jack--glad you came, ar'n't you?" As he spoke he laid his +hand affectionately on the boy's shoulder. "Didn't I tell you it would +be a corker? Out of sight, isn't it? Everything is out of sight around +our office." This last remark was directed to Peter in the same casual +way. + +"I should say that every stopper was certainly out," answered Peter +in graver tones. He detested slang and would never understand it. Then +again the bearing and air of Jack's friend jarred on him. "You know, of +course, the old couplet--'When the wine flows the--'" + +"No, I don't know it," interrupted Minott with an impatient glance. "I'm +not much on poetry--but you can bet your bottom dollar it's flowing all +right." Then seeing the shade of disappointment on Breen's face at the +flippant way in which he had returned Peter's courtesies, but without +understanding the cause, he added, tightening his arm around his +friend's neck, "Brace up, Jack, old man, and let yourself go. That's +what I'm always telling Jack, Mr. Grayson. He's got to cut loose from +a lot of old-fashioned notions that he brought from home if he wants to +get anywhere around here. I had to." + +"What do you want him to give up, Mr. Minott?" Peter had put on his +glasses now, and was inspecting Garry at closer range. + +"Oh, I don't know--just get into the swing of things and let her go." + +"That is no trouble for you to do," rejoined Jack, looking into his +friend's face. "You're doing something that's worth while." + +"Well, aren't you doing something that's worth while? Why you'll be +a millionaire if you keep on. First thing you know the lightning will +strike you just as it did your uncle." + +Morris leaned forward at the moment and called Minott by name. Instantly +the young man's manner changed to one of respectful attention as he +stepped to his Chief's side. + +"Yes, Mr. Morris." + +"You tell the men up your way to get ready to come to order, or we won't +get through in time--it's getting late." + +"All right, sir, I'll take care of 'em. Just as soon as you begin to +speak you won't hear a sound." + +As Minott moved from Morris's seat another and louder shout arose from +the other end of the table: + +"Garry, Garry, hurry up!" came the cry. It was evident the young man was +very popular. + +Peter dropped his glasses from his nose, and turning toward Morris said +in a low voice: + +"That's a very breezy young man, Holker, the one who has just left us. +Got something in him, has he, besides noise?" + +"Yes, considerable. Wants toning down once in a while, but there's no +question of his ability or of his loyalty. He never shirks a duty and +never forgets a kindness. Queer combination when you think of it, Peter. +What he will make of himself is another matter." + +Peter drew his body back and sent his thoughts out on an investigating +tour. He was wondering what effect the influence of a young man like +Minott would have on a young man like Breen. + +The waiters at this point brought in huge trays holding bowls of tobacco +and long white clay pipes, followed by even larger trays bearing coffee +in little cups. Morris waited a moment and then rapped for order. +Instantly a hush fell upon the noisy room; plates and glasses were +pushed back so as to give the men elbow room; pipes were hurriedly +lighted, and each guest turned his chair so as to face the Chief, who +was now on his feet. + +As he stood erect, one hand behind his back, the other stretched toward +the table in his appeal for silence, I thought for the hundredth time +how kind his fifty years had been to him; how tightly knit his figure; +how well his clothes became him. A handsome, well-groomed man at all +times and in any costume--but never so handsome or so well groomed as +in evening dress. Everything in his make-up helped: the broad, square +shoulders, arms held close to his side; flat waist; incurving back and +narrow hips. His well-modelled, aristocratic head, too, seemed to gain +increased distinction when it rose clear from a white shirt-front which +served as a kind of marble pedestal for his sculptured head. There +was, moreover, in his every move and look, that quality of transparent +sincerity which always won him friends at sight. "If men's faces are +clocks," Peter always said, "Holker's is fitted with a glass dial. You +can not only see what time it is, but you can see the wheels that move +his heart." + +He was about to speak now, his eyes roaming the room waiting for the +last man to be still. No fumbling of glasses or rearranging of napkin, +but erect, with a certain fearless air that was as much a part of his +nature as was his genius. Beginning in a clear, distinct voice which +reached every ear in the room, he told them first how welcome they were. +How great an honor it was for him to have them so close to him--so close +that he could look into all their faces with one glance; not only those +who came from a distance but those of his personal staff, to whom really +the success of the year's work had been due. As for himself, he was, as +they knew, only the lead horse in the team, going ahead to show them +the way, while they did the effective pulling that brought the load to +market! Here he slipped his hand in his pocket, took from it a small box +which he laid beside his plate, and continued: + +"At these festivals, as you know, and if my memory serves me this is our +third, it has always been our custom to give some slight token of our +appreciation to the man who has done most during the year to further the +work of the office. This has always been a difficult thing to decide, +because every one of you, without a single exception, has given the best +that is in you in the general result. Three years ago, you remember, it +was awarded to the man who by common consent had carried to completion, +and without a single error, the detailed drawings of the Museum which +was finished last year. I am looking at you, Mr. Downey, and again +congratulate you. Last year it was awarded to Mr. Buttrick for the +masterly way with which he put together the big arches of the Government +warehouses--a man whom it would have been my pleasure to congratulate +again to-night had it been possible for him to reach us. To-night I +think you will all agree with me that this small token, not only of my +own, but of your 'personal regard and appreciation'" (here he opened +the box and took from it a man's ring set with three jewels), "should +be given to the man who has carried out in so thorough a way the part +allotted to him in the Corn Exchange, and who is none other than Mr. +Garrison Minott, who for--" + +The rest of the sentence was lost in the uproar. + +"Garry! Garry! Garry Minott!" came from all parts of the room. "Bully +for Garry! You deserve it, old man! Three cheers for Garry Minott! +Hip... Hip...!" + +Morris's voice now dominated the room. + +"Come this way, Mr. Minott." + +The face of the young superintendent, which had been in a broad laugh +all the evening, grew white and red by turns. Out of pure astonishment +he could neither move nor speak. + +"All right--stay where you are!" cried Morris laughing. "Pass it up to +him, please." + +John Breen sprang from his chair with the alertness of a man who had +been accustomed to follow his impulse. In his joy over his friend's +good fortune he forgot his embarrassment, forgot that he was a stranger; +forgot that he alone, perhaps, was the only young man in the room whose +life and training had not fitted him for the fullest enjoyment of +what was passing around him; forgot everything, in fact, but that his +comrade, his friend, his chum, had won the highest honors his Chief +could bestow. + +With cheeks aflame he darted to Morris's chair. + +"Let me hand it to him, sir," he cried, all the love for his friend +in his eyes, seizing the ring and plunging toward Garry, the shouts +increasing as he neared his side and placed the prize in his hand. Only +then did Minott find his breath and his feet. + +"Why, Mr. Morris!--Why, fellows!--Why, there's plenty of men in the +office who have done more than I have to--" + +Then he sat down, the ring fast in his hand. + +When the applause had subside--the young fellow's modesty had caused a +fresh outburst--Morris again rose in his chair and once more the room +grew still. + +"Twelve o'clock, gentlemen," he said. "Mr. Downey, you are always our +stand-by in starting the old hymn." + +The diners--host and guests alike--rose to their feet as one man. Then +to Peter's and my own intense surprise that most impressive of all +chants, the Doxology in long metre, surged out, gaining in volume and +strength as its strains were caught up by the different voices. + +With the ending of the grand old hymn--it had been sung with every +mark of respect by every man in the room--John Breen walked back to his +chair, leaned toward Peter, and with an apologetic tone in his voice--he +had evidently noticed the unfavorable impression that Garry had made on +his neighbor--said: + +"Don't misjudge Garry, Mr. Grayson; he's the kindest hearted fellow in +the world when you know him. He's a little rough sometimes, as you can +see, but he doesn't mean it. He thinks his way of talking and acting is +what he calls 'up-to-date.'" Then he added with a sigh: "I wish I had a +ring like that--one that I had earned. I tell you, Mr. Grayson, THAT'S +something worth while." + +Peter laid his hand on the young man's shoulder and looked him straight +in the face, the same look in his eyes that a proud father would have +given a son who had pleased him. He had heard with delight the boy's +defence of his friend and he had read the boy's mind as he sang the +words of the hymn, his face grave, his whole attitude one of devotion. +"You'd think he was in his father's pew at home," Peter had whispered +to me with a smile. It was the latter outburst though--the one that came +with a sigh--that stirred him most. + +"And you would really have liked a ring yourself, my lad?" + +"Would I like it! Why, Mr. Grayson, I'd rather have had Mr. Morris give +me a thing like that and DESERVED IT, than have all the money you could +pile on this table." + +One of those sudden smiles which his friends loved so well irradiated +Peter's face. + +"Keep on the way you're going, my son," he said, seizing the boy's hand, +a slight tremble in his voice, "and you'll get a dozen of them." + +"How?" The boy's eyes were wide in wonderment. + +"By being yourself. Don't let go of your ideals no matter what Minott +or anybody else says. Let him go his way and do you keep on in yours. +Don't... but I can't talk here. Come and see me. I mean it." + +Breen's eyes glistened. "When?" + +"To-morrow night, at my rooms. Here's my card. And you, too, Mr. +Minott--glad to see both of you." Garry has just joined them. + +"Thanks awfully," answered Minott. "I'm very sorry, Mr. Grayson, but I'm +booked for a supper at the Magnolia. Lot of the fellows want to whoop +up this--" and he held the finger bearing the ring within an inch of +Peter's nose. "And they want you, too, Jack." + +"No, please let me have him," Peter urged. Minott, I could see, he did +not want; Breen he was determined to have. + +"I would love to come, sir, and it's very kind of you to ask me. There's +to be a dance at my uncle's tomorrow night, though I reckon I can be +excused. Would you--would you come to see me instead? I want you to see +my father's portrait. It's not you, and yet it's like you when you turn +your head; and there are some other things. I'd like--" Here the boy +stopped. + +Peter considered for a moment. Calling at the house of a man he did not +know, even to continue the acquaintance of so charming a young fellow +as his nephew, was not one of the things punctilious Mr. +Grayson--punctilious as to forms of etiquette--was accustomed to do. The +young man read his thoughts and added quickly: + +"Of course I'll do just as you say, but if you only would come we will +be entirely alone and won't see anybody else in the house." + +"But couldn't you possibly come to me?" Peter urged. The fact that young +Breen had a suite of rooms so sequestered as to be beyond the reach +even of a dance, altered the situation to some extent, but he was still +undecided. "I live all alone when my sister is not with me, and I, too, +have many things I am sure would interest you. Say you'll come now--I +shall expect you, shall I not?" + +The boy hesitated. "You may not know exactly what I mean," he said +slowly. "Maybe you can't understand, for everybody about here seems to +love you, and you must have lots of friends. The fact is, I feel out of +everything. I get pretty lonely sometimes. Garry, here, never stays five +minutes when he comes to see me, so many people are after him all the +time. Please say you'll come!" + +There was a note in the boy's voice that swept away all the older man's +scruples. + +"Come, my son! Of course I'll come," burst out Peter. "I'll be there at +nine o'clock." + +As Morris and the others passed between the table and the wall on +their way to the cloak-room, Minott, who had listened to the whole +conversation, waited until he thought Peter had gone ahead, and then, +with an impatient gesture, said: + +"What the devil, Jack, do you want to waste your time over an old fellow +like that for?" + +"Oh, Garry, don't--" + +"Don't! A bald-headed old pill who ought to have--" + +Then the two passed out of hearing. + + + +CHAPTER IV + + + +Breakfast--any meal for that matter--in the high-wainscoted, +dark-as-a-pocket dining-room of the successful Wall Street broker--the +senior member of the firm of A. Breen & Co., uncle, guardian and +employer of the fresh, rosy-cheeked lad who sat next to Peter on the +night of Morris's dinner, was never a joyous function. + +The room itself, its light shut out by the adjoining extensions, +prevented it; so did the glimpse of hard asphalt covering the scrap of a +yard, its four melancholy posts hung about with wire clothes-lines; and +so did the clean-shaven, smug-faced butler, who invariably conducted his +master's guests to their chairs with the movement of an undertaker, and +who had never been known to crack a smile of any kind, long or short, +during his five years' sojourn with the family of Breen. + +Not that anybody wanted Parkins to crack one, that is, not his master, +and certainly not his mistress, and most assuredly not his other +mistress, Miss Corinne, the daughter of the lady whom the successful +Wall Street broker had made his first and only wife. + +All this gloomy atmosphere might have been changed for the better had +there been a big, cheery open wood fire snapping and blazing away, +sputtering out its good morning as you entered--and there would have +been if any one of the real inmates had insisted upon it--fought for it, +if necessary; or if in summer one could have seen through the curtained +windows a stretch of green grass with here and there a tree, or one +or two twisted vines craning their necks to find out what was going on +inside; or if in any or all seasons, a wholesome, happy-hearted, sunny +wife looking like a bunch of roses just out of a bath, had sat behind +the smoking coffee-urn, inquiring whether one or two lumps of sugar +would be enough; or a gladsome daughter who, in a sudden burst of +affection, had thrown her arms around her father's neck and kissed him +because she loved him, and because she wanted his day and her day +to begin that way:--if, I say, there had been all, or one-half, or +one-quarter of these things, the atmosphere of this sepulchral interior +might have been improved--but there wasn't. + +There was a wife, of course, a woman two years older than Arthur +Breen--the relict of a Captain Barker, an army officer--who had spent +her early life in moving from one army post to another until she had +settled down in Washington, where Breen had married her, and where the +Scribe first met her. But this sharer of the fortunes of Breen preferred +her breakfast in bed, New York life having proved even more wearing than +military upheavals. And there was also a daughter, Miss Corinne Barker, +Captain and Mrs. Barker's only offspring, who had known nothing of army +posts, except as a child, but who had known everything of Washington +life from the time she was twelve until she was fifteen, and she was now +twenty; but that young woman, I regret to say, also breakfasted in bed, +where her maid had special instructions not to disturb her until my +lady's jewelled fingers touched a button within reach of her dainty +hand; whereupon another instalment of buttered rolls and coffee would be +served with such accessories of linen, porcelain and silver as befitted +the appetite and station of one so beautiful and so accomplished. + +These conditions never ceased to depress Jack. Fresh from a life out +of doors, accustomed to an old-fashioned dining-room--the living room, +really, of the family who had cared for him since his father's death, +where not only the sun made free with the open doors and windows, +but the dogs and neighbors as well--the sober formality of this early +meal--all of his uncle's meals, for that matter--sent shivers down his +back that chilled him to the bone. + +He had looked about him the first morning of his arrival, had noted the +heavy carved sideboard laden with the garish silver; had examined the +pictures lining the walls, separated from the dark background of leather +by heavy gold frames; had touched with his fingers the dial of the +solemn bronze clock, flanked by its equally solemn candelabra; had +peered between the steel andirons, bright as carving knives, and into +the freshly varnished, spacious chimney up which no dancing blaze had +ever whirled in madcap glee since the mason's trowel had left it and +never would to the end of time,--not as long as the steam heat held +out; had watched the crane-like step of Parkins as he moved about the +room--cold, immaculate, impassive; had listened to his "Yes, sir--thank +you, sir, very good, sir," until he wanted to take him by the throat and +shake something spontaneous and human out of him, and as each cheerless +feature passed in review his spirits had sunk lower and lower. + +This, then, was what he could expect as long as he lived under his +uncle's roof--a period of time which seemed to him must stretch out +into dim futurity. No laughing halloos from passing neighbors through +wide-open windows; no Aunt Hannahs running in with a plate of cakes +fresh from the griddle which would cool too quickly if she waited for +that slow-coach of a Tom to bring them to her young master. No sweep of +leaf-covered hills seen through bending branches laden with blossoms; no +stretch of sky or slant of sunshine; only a grim, funereal, artificial +formality, as ungenial and flattening to a boy of his tastes, education +and earlier environment as a State asylum's would have been to a red +Indian fresh from the prairie. + +On the morning after Morris's dinner (within eight hours really of the +time when he had been so thrilled by the singing of the Doxology), Jack +was in his accustomed seat at the small, adjustable accordion-built +table--it could be stretched out to accommodate twenty-four covers--when +his uncle entered this room. Parkins was genuflecting at the time with +his--"Cream, sir,--yes, sir. Devilled kidney, sir? Thank you, sir." +(Parkins had been second man with Lord Colchester, so he told Breen when +he hired him.) Jack had about made up his mind to order him out when +a peculiar tone in his uncle's "Good morning" made the boy scan that +gentleman's face and figure the closer. + +His uncle was as well dressed as usual, looking as neat and as smart +in his dark cut-away coat with the invariable red carnation in his +buttonhole, but the boy's quick eye caught the marks of a certain wear +and tear in the face which neither his bath nor his valet had been able +to obliterate. The thin lips--thin for a man so fat, and which showed, +more than any other feature, something of the desultory firmness of his +character--drooped at the corners. The eyes were half their size, +the snap all out of them, the whites lost under the swollen lids. His +greeting, moreover, had lost its customary heartiness. + +"You were out late, I hear," he grumbled, dropping into his chair. "I +didn't get in myself until two o'clock and feel like a boiled owl. +May have caught a little cold, but I think it was that champagne of +Duckworth's; always gives me a headache. Don't put any sugar and cream +in that coffee, Parkins--want it straight." + +"Yes, sir," replied the flunky, moving toward the sideboard. + +"And now, Jack, what did you do?" he continued, picking up his napkin. +"You and Garry made a night of it, didn't you? Some kind of an artist's +bat, wasn't it?" + +"No, sir; Mr. Morris gave a dinner to his clerks, and--" + +"Who's Morris?" + +"Why, the great architect." + +"Oh, that fellow! Yes, I know him, that is, I know who he is. Say the +rest. Parkins! didn't I tell you I didn't want any sugar or cream." + +Parkins hadn't offered any. He had only forgotten to remove them from +the tray. + +Jack kept straight on; these differences between the master and Parkins +were of daily occurrence. + +"And, Uncle Arthur, I met the most wonderful gentleman I ever saw; he +looked just as if he had stepped out of an old frame, and yet he is down +in the Street every day and--" + +"What firm?" + +"No firm, he is--" + +"Curbstone man, then?" Here Breen lifted the cup to his lips and as +quickly put it down. "Parkins!" + +"Yes, sir," came the monotone. + +"Why the devil can't I get my coffee hot?" + +"Is it cold, sir?"--slight modulation, but still lifeless. + +"IS IT COLD? Of course it's cold! Might have been standing in a morgue. +Take that down and have some fresh coffee sent up. Servants running +o'er each other and yet I can't get a--Go on, Jack! I didn't mean to +interrupt, but I'll clean the whole lot of 'em out of here if I don't +get better service." + +"No, Uncle Arthur, he isn't a banker--isn't even a broker; he's only a +paying teller in a bank," continued Jack. + +The older man turned his head and a look of surprise swept over his +round, fat face. + +"Teller in a BANK?" he asked in an altered tone. + +"Yes, the most charming, the most courteous old gentleman I have ever +met; I haven't seen anybody like him since I left home, and, just think, +he has promised to come and see me to-night." + +The drooping lips straightened and a shrewd, searching glance shot from +Arthur Breen's eyes. There was a brain behind this sleepy face--as many +of his competitors knew. It was not always in working order, but when it +was the man became another personality. + +"Jack--" The voice was now as thin as the drawn lips permitted, with +caution in every tone, "you stop short off. You mustn't cotton to +everybody you pick up in New York--it won't do. Get you into trouble. +Don't bring him here; your aunt won't like it. When you get into a hole +with a fellow and can't help yourself, take him to the club. That's one +of the things I got you into the Magnolia for; but don't ever bring 'em +here." + +"But he's a personal friend of Mr. Morris, and a friend of another +friend of Mr. Morris's they called 'Major.'" It was not the first time +he had heard such inhospitable suggestions from his uncle. + +"Oh, yes, I know; they've all got some old retainers hanging on that +they give a square meal to once a year, but don't you get mixed up with +'em." + +Parkins had returned by this time and was pouring a fresh cup of coffee. + +"Now, Parkins, that's something like--No, I don't want any kidneys--I +don't want any toast--I don't want anything, Parkins--haven't I told you +so?" + +"Yes, sir; thank you sir." + +"Black coffee is the only thing that'll settle this head. What you want +to do, Jack, is to send that old fossil word that you've got another +engagement, and... Parkins, is there anything going on here to-night?" + +"Yes, sir; Miss Cocinne is giving a small dance." + +"There, Jack--that's it. That'll let you out with a whole skin." + +"No, I can't, and I won't, Uncle Arthur," he answered in an indignant +tone. "If you knew him as I do, and had seen him last night, you +would--" + +"No, I don't want to know him and I don't want to see him. You are all +balled up, I see, and can't work loose, but take him upstairs; don't let +your aunt come across him or she'll have a fit." Here he glanced at the +bronze clock. "What!--ten minutes past nine! Parkins, see if my cab is +at the door.... Jack, you ride down with me. I walked when I was your +age, and got up at daylight. Some difference, Jack, isn't there, whether +you've got a rich uncle to look after you or not." This last came with a +wink. + +It was only one of his pleasantries. He knew he was not rich; not in +the accepted sense. He might be a small star in the myriads forming the +Milky-Way of Finance, but there were planets millions of miles beyond +him, whose brilliancy he was sure he could never equal. The fact was +that the money which he had accumulated had been so much greater sum +than he had ever hoped for when he was a boy in a Western State--his +father went to Iowa in '49--and the changes in his finances had come +with such lightning rapidity (half a million made on a tip given him by +a friend, followed by other tips more or less profitable) that he loved +to pat his pride, so to speak, in speeches like this. + +That he had been swept off his feet by the social and financial rush +about him was quite natural. His wife, whose early life had been one +long economy, had ambitions to which there was no limit and her escape +from her former thraldom had been as sudden and as swift as the upward +spring of a loosened balloon. Then again all the money needed to make +the ascension successful was at her disposal. Hence jewels, laces, and +clothes; hence elaborate dinners, the talk of the town: hence teas, +receptions, opera parties, week-end parties at their hired country +seat on Long Island; dances for Corinne; dinners for Corinne; birthday +parties for Corinne; everything, in fact, for Corinne, from manicures to +pug dogs and hunters. + +His two redeeming qualities were his affection for his wife and his +respect for his word. He had no child of his own, and Corinne, though +respectful never showed him any affection. He had sent Jack to a +Southern school and college, managing meanwhile the little property +his father had left him, which, with some wild lands in the Cumberland +Mountains, practically worthless, was the boy's whole inheritance, and +of late had treated him as if he had been his own son. + +As to his own affairs, close as he sailed to the wind in his money +transactions--so close sometimes that the Exchange had more than once +overhauled his dealings--it was generally admitted that when Arthur +Breen gave his WORD--a difficult thing often to get--he never broke it. +This was offset by another peculiarity with less beneficial results: +When he had once done a man a service only to find him ungrateful, +no amount of apologies or atonement thereafter ever moved him to +forgiveness. Narrow-gauge men are sometimes built that way. + +It was to be expected, therefore, considering the quality of Duckworth's +champagne and the impression made on Jack by his uncle's outburst, +that the ride down town in the cab was marked by anything but cheerful +conversation between Breen and his nephew, each of whom sat absorbed in +his own reflections. "I didn't mean to be hard on the boy," ruminated +Breen, "but if I had picked up everybody who wanted to know me, as Jack +has done, where would I be now?" Then, his mind still clouded by the +night at the club (he had not confined himself entirely to champagne), +he began, as was his custom, to concentrate his attention upon the +work of the day--on the way the market would open; on the remittance +a belated customer had promised and about which he had some doubt; the +meeting of the board of directors in the new mining company--"The Great +Mukton Lode," in which he had an interest, and a large one--etc. + +Jack looked out of the windows, his eyes taking in the remnants of +the autumnal tints in the Park, now nearly gone, the crowd filling +the sidewalks; the lumbering stages and the swifter-moving horse-cars +crammed with eager men anxious to begin the struggle of the day--not +with their hands--that mob had swept past hours before--but with their +brains--wits against wits and the devil take the man who slips and +falls. + +Nothing of it all interested him. His mind was on the talk at the +breakfast table, especially his uncle's ideas of hospitality, all of +which had appalled and disgusted him. With his father there had always +been a welcome for every one, no matter what the position in life, the +only standard being one of breeding and character--and certainly Peter +had both. His uncle had helped him, of course--put him under obligations +he could never repay. Yet after all, it was proved now to him that he +was but a guest in the house enjoying only such rights as any other +guest might possess, and with no voice in the welcome--a condition +which would never be altered, until he became independent himself--a +possibility which at the moment was too remote to be considered. Then +his mind reverted to his conversation the night before with Mr. Grayson +and with this change of thought his father's portrait--the one that hung +in his room--loomed up. He had the night before turned on the lights--to +their fullest--and had scanned the picture closely, eager to find some +trace of Peter in the counterfeit presentment of the man he loved best, +and whose memory was still almost a religion, but except that both Peter +and his father were bald, and that both wore high, old-fashioned collars +and neck-cloths, he had been compelled to admit with a sigh that there +was nothing about the portrait on which to base the slightest claim to +resemblance. + +"Yet he's like my father, he is, he is," he kept repeating to himself +as the cab sped on. "I'll find out what it is when I know him better. +To-night when Mr. Grayson comes I'll study it out," and a joyous smile +flashed across his features as he thought of the treat in store for him. + +When at last the boy reached his office, where, behind the mahogany +partition with its pigeon-hole cut through the glass front he sat every +day, he swung back the doors of the safe, took out his books and papers +and made ready for work. He had charge of the check book, and he alone +signed the firm's name outside of the partners. "Rather young," one of +them protested, until he looked into the boy's face, then he gave his +consent; something better than years of experience and discretion are +wanted where a scratch of a pen might mean financial ruin. + +Breen had preceded him with but a nod to his clerks, and had disappeared +into his private office--another erection of ground glass and mahogany. +Here the senior member of the firm shut the door carefully, and turning +his back fished up a tiny key attached to a chain leading to the rear +pocket of his trousers. With this he opened a small closet near his +desk--a mere box of a closet--took from it a squatty-shaped decanter +labelled "Rye, 1840," poured out half a glass, emptied it into his +person with one gulp, and with the remark in a low voice to himself that +he was now "copper fastened inside and out"--removed all traces of the +incident and took up his morning's mail. + +By this time the circle of chairs facing the huge blackboard in the +spacious outer office had begun to fill up. Some of the customers, +before taking their seats, hurried anxiously to the ticker, chattering +away in its glass case; others turned abruptly and left the room without +a word. Now and then a customer would dive into Breen's private room, +remain a moment and burst out again, his face an index of the condition +of his bank account. + +When the chatter of the ticker had shifted from the London quotations +to the opening sales on the Exchange, a sallow-faced clerk mounted a low +step-ladder and swept a scurry of chalk marks over the huge blackboard, +its margin lettered with the initials of the principal stocks. The +appearance of this nimble-fingered young man with his piece of chalk +always impressed Jack as a sort of vaudeville performance. On ordinary +days, with the market lifeless, but half of the orchestra seats would be +occupied. In whirl-times, with the ticker spelling ruin, not only were +the chairs full, but standing room only was available in the offices. + +Their occupants came from all classes; clerks from up-town dry-goods +houses, who had run down during lunch time to see whether U.P. or Erie, +or St. Paul had moved up an eighth, or down a quarter, since they had +devoured the morning papers on their way to town; old speculators who +had spent their lives waiting buzzard-like for some calamity, enabling +them to swoop down and make off with what fragments they could pick up; +well-dressed, well-fed club men, who had had a run of luck and who never +carried less than a thousand shares to keep their hands in; gray-haired +novices nervously rolling little wads of paper between their fingers and +thumbs--up every few minutes to listen to the talk of the ticker, too +anxious to wait until the sallow-faced young man with the piece of chalk +could make his record on the board. Some of them had gathered together +their last dollar. Two per cent. or one percent, or even one-half of one +per cent. rise or fall was all that stood between them and ruin. + +"Very sorry, sir, but you know we told you when you opened the account +that you must keep your margins up," Breen had said to an old man. The +old man knew; had known it all night as he lay awake, afraid to tell his +wife of the sword hanging above their heads. Knew it, too, when without +her knowledge he had taken the last dollar of the little nest-egg to +make good the deficit owed Breen & Co. over and above his margins, +together with some other things "not negotiable"--not our kind of +collateral but "stuff" that could "lie in the safe until he could make +some other arrangement," the cashier had said with the firm's consent. + +Queer safe, that of Breen & Co., and queer things went into it. Most of +them were still there. Jack thought some jeweller had sent part of his +stock down for safe-keeping when he first came across a tiny drawer of +which Breen alone kept the key. Each object could tell a story: a pair +of diamond ear-rings surely could, and so could four pearls on a gold +chain, and perhaps, too, a certain small watch, the case set with +jewels. One of these days they may be redeemed, or they may not, +depending upon whether the owners can scrape money enough together to +pay the balances owed in cash. But the four pearls on the gold chain are +likely to remain there--that poor fellow went overboard one morning off +Nantucket Light, and his secret went with him. + +During the six months Jack had stood at his desk new faces had filled +the chairs--the talk had varied; though he felt only the weary monotony +of it all. Sometimes there had been hours of tense excitement, when even +his uncle had stood by the ticker, and when every bankable security in +the box had been overhauled and sent post-haste to the bank or trust +company. Jack, followed by the porter with a self-cocking revolver in +his outside pocket, had more than once carried the securities himself, +returning to the office on the run with a small scrap of paper good +for half a million or so tucked away in his inside pocket. Then the old +monotony had returned with its dull routine and so had the chatter and +talk. "Buy me a hundred." "Yes, let 'em go." "No, I don't want to risk +it." "What's my balance?" "Thought you'd get another eighth for that +stock." "Sold at that figure, anyhow," etc. + +Under these conditions life to a boy of Jack's provincial training and +temperament seemed narrowed down to an arm-chair, a black-board, a piece +of chalk and a restless little devil sputtering away in a glass case, +whose fiat meant happiness or misery. Only the tongue of the demon +was in evidence. The brain behind it, with its thousand slender nerves +quivering with the energy of the globe, Jack never saw, nor, for that +matter, did nine-tenths of the occupants of the chairs. To them its +spoken word was the dictum of fate. Success meant debts paid, a balance +in the bank, houses, horses, even yachts and estates--failure meant +obscurity and suffering. The turn of the roulette wheel or the roll of +a cube of ivory they well knew brought the same results, but these +turnings they also knew were attended with a certain loss of prestige. +Taking a flier in the Street was altogether different--great financiers +were behind the fluctuations of values told by the tongue of the ticker, +and behind them was the wealth of the Republic and still in the far +distance the power of the American people. Few of them ever looked below +the grease paint, nor did the most discerning ever detect the laugh on +the clown's face. + +The boy half hidden by the glass screen, through which millions were +passed and repassed every month, caught now and then a glimpse. + +Once a faded, white-haired old man had handed Jack a check after banking +hours to make good an account--a man whose face had haunted him for +hours. His uncle told him the poor fellow had "run up solid" against a +short interest in a stock that some Croesus was manipulating to get even +with another Croesus who had manipulated HIM, and that the two +Croesuses had "buried the old man alive." The name of the stock Jack had +forgotten, but the suffering in the victim's face had made an indelible +impression. In reply to Jack's further inquiry, his uncle had spoken as +if the poor fellow had been wandering about on some unknown highway +when the accident happened, failing to add that he himself had led him +through the gate and started him on the road; forgetting, too, to say +that he had collected the toll in margins, a sum which still formed +a considerable portion of Breen & Co.'s bank account. One bit of +information which Breen had vouchsafed, while it did not relieve the +gloom of the incident, added a note of courage to the affair: + +"He was game, however, all the same, Jack. Had to go down into his +wife's stocking, I hear. Hard hit, but he took it like a man." + + + +CHAPTER V. + + + +While all this was going on downtown under the direction of the business +end of the house of Breen, equally interesting events were taking place +uptown under the guidance of its social head. Strict orders had +been given by Mrs. Breen the night before that certain dustings and +arrangings of furniture should take place, the spacious stairs swept, +and the hectic hired palms in their great china pots watered. I say "the +night before," because especial stress was laid upon the fact that on +no account whatever were either Mrs. Breen or her daughter Corinne to be +disturbed until noon--neither of them having retired until a late hour +the night before. + +So strictly were these orders carried out that all that did reach the +younger woman's ear--and this was not until long after mid-day--was a +scrap of news which crept upstairs from the breakfast table via Parkins +wireless, was caught by Corinne's maid and delivered in manifold with +that young lady's coffee and buttered rolls. This when deciphered meant +that Jack was not to be at the dance that evening--he having determined +instead to spend his time up stairs with a disreputable old fellow whom +he had picked up somewhere at a supper the preceding night. + +Corinne thought over the announcement for a moment, gazed into the +egg-shell cup that Hortense was filling from the tiny silver coffee-pot, +and a troubled expression crossed her face. "What has come over Jack?" +she asked herself. "I never knew him to do anything like this before. Is +he angry, I wonder, because I danced with Garry the other night? It +WAS his dance, but I didn't think he would care. He has always done +everything to please me--until now." Perhaps the boy was about to slip +the slight collar he had worn in her service--one buckled on by him +willingly because--though she had not known it--he was a guest in the +house. Heretofore she said to herself Jack had been her willing slave, +a feather in her cap--going everywhere with her; half the girls were +convinced he was in love with her--a theory which she had encouraged. +What would they say now? This prospect so disturbed the young woman that +she again touched the button, and again Hortense glided in. + +"Hortense, tell Parkins to let me know the moment Mr. John comes in--and +get me my blue tea-gown; I sha'n't go out to-day." This done she sank +back on her pillows. + +She was a slight little body, this Corinne--blue-eyed, fair-haired, with +a saucy face and upturned nose. Jack thought when he first saw her that +she looked like a wren with its tiny bill in the air--and Jack was not +far out of the way. And yet she was a very methodical, level-headed +little wren, with several positive convictions which dominated her +life--one of them being that everybody about her ought to do, not as +they, but as she, pleased. She had begun, and with pronounced success, +on her mother as far back as she could remember, and had then tried +her hand on her stepfather until it became evident that as her mother +controlled that gentleman it was a waste of time to experiment further. +All of which was a saving of stones without the loss of any birds. + +Where she failed--and she certainly had failed, was with Jack, who +though punctiliously polite was elusive and--never quite subdued. Yet +the discovery made, she neither pouted nor lost her temper, but merely +bided her time. Sooner or later, she knew, of course, this boy, who +had seen nothing of city life and who was evidently dazed with all the +magnificence of the stately home overlooking the Park, would find his +happiest resting-place beneath the soft plumage of her little wing. And +if by any chance he should fall in love with her--and what more natural; +did not everybody fall in love with her?--would it not be wiser to let +him think she returned it, especially if she saw any disposition on the +young man's part to thwart her undisputed sway of the household? + +For months she had played her little game, yet to her amazement none of +the things she had anticipated had happened. Jack had treated her as +he would any other young woman of his acquaintance--always with +courtesy--always doing everything to oblige her, but never yielding to +her sway. He would laugh sometimes at her pretensions, just as he would +have laughed at similar self-assertiveness on the part of any one else +with whom he must necessarily be thrown, but never by thought, word +or deed had he ever given my Lady Wren the faintest suspicion that he +considered her more beautiful, better dressed, or more entertaining, +either in song, chirp, flight or plumage, than the flock of other birds +about her. Indeed, the Scribe knows it to be a fact that if Jack's +innate politeness had not forbidden, he would many times have told her +truths, some of them mighty unpleasant ones, to which her ears had been +strangers since her school-girl days. + +This unstudied treatment, strange to say--the result really, of the +boy's indifference--had of late absorbed her. What she could not have +she generally longed for, and there was not the slightest question up to +the present moment that Jack was still afield. + +Again the girl pressed the button of the cord within reach of her hand, +and for the third time Hortense entered. + +"Have you told Parkins I want to know the very instant Mr. John comes +in?" + +"Yes, miss." + +"And, Hortense, did you understand that Mr. John was to go out to meet +the gentleman, or was the gentleman to come to his rooms?" + +"To his rooms, I think, miss." + +She was wearing her blue tea-gown, stretched out on the cushions +of one of the big divans in the silent drawing-room, when she heard +Jack's night-key touch the lock. Springing to her feet she ran toward +him. + +"Why, Jack, what's this I hear about your not coming to my dance? It +isn't true, is it?" She was close to him now, her little head cocked on +one side, her thin, silken draperies dripping about her slender figure. + +"Who told you?" + +"Parkins told Hortense." + +"Leaky Parkins?" laughed Jack, tossing his hat on the hall table. + +"But you are coming, aren't you, Jack? Please do!" + +"Not to-night; you don't need me, Corinne." His voice told her at once +that not only was the leash gone but that the collar was off as well. + +"Yes, but I do." + +"Then please excuse me, for I have an old gentleman coming to pay me +a visit. The finest old gentleman, by the way, you ever saw! A regular +thoroughbred, Corinne--who looks like a magnificent portrait!" he added +in his effort to interest her. + +"But let him come some other time," she coaxed, holding the lapel of his +coat, her eyes searching his. + +"What, turn to the wall a magnificent old portrait!" This came with a +mock grimace, his body bent forward, his eyes brimming with laughter. + +"Be serious, Jack, and tell me if you think it very nice in you to stay +upstairs in your den when I am giving a dance? Everybody will know you +are at home, and we haven't enough men as it is. Garry can't come, he +writes me. He has to dine with some men at the club." + +"I really AM sorry, Corinne, but I can't this time." Jack had hold +of her hand now; for a brief moment he was sorry he had not postponed +Peter's visit until the next day; he hated to cause any woman a +disappointment. "If it was anybody else I might send him word to call +another night, but you don't know Mr. Grayson; he isn't the kind of a +man you can treat like that. He does me a great honor to come, anyhow. +Just think of his coming to see a boy like me--and he so--" + +"Well, bring him downstairs, then." Her eyes began to flash; she had +tried all the arts she knew--they were not many--but they had won +heretofore. "Mother will take care of him. A good many of the girls' +fathers come for them." + +"Bring him downstairs to a dance!" Jack answered with a merry laugh. "He +isn't that kind of an old gentleman, either. Why, Corinne, you ought to +see him! You might as well ask old Bishop Gooley to lead the german." + +Jack's foot was now ready to mount the lower step of the stairs. Corinne +bit her lip. + +"You never do anything to please me!" she snapped back. She knew she +was fibbing, but something must be done to check this new form of +independence--and then, now that Garry couldn't come, she really needed +him. "You don't want to come, that's it--" She facing him now, her +little nose high in the air, her cheeks flaming with anger. + +"You must not say that, Corinne," he answered in a slightly indignant +tone. + +Corinne drew herself up to her full height--toes included; not very +high, but all she could do--and said in a voice pitched to a high key, +her finger within a few inches of his nose: + +"It's true, and I will say it!" + +The rustle of silk was heard overhead, and a plump, tightly laced woman +in voluminous furs, her head crowned by a picture hat piled high with +plumes, was making her way down the stairs. Jack looked up and waved his +hand to his aunt, and then stood at mock attention, like a corporal on +guard, one hand raised to salute her as she passed. The boy, with the +thought of Peter coming, was very happy this afternoon. + +"What are you two quarrelling about?" came the voice. Rather a soft +voice with a thread of laziness running through it. + +"Jack's too mean for anything, mother. He knows we haven't men enough +without him for a cotillion, now that Garry has dropped out, and he's +been just stupid enough to invite some old man to come and see him this +evening." + +The furs and picture hat swept down and on, Jack standing at attention, +hands clasping an imaginary musket his face drawn down to its severest +lines, his cheeks puffed out to make him look the more solemn. When the +wren got "real mad" he would often say she was the funniest thing alive. + +"I'm a pig, I know, aunty" (here Jack completed his salute with a great +flourish), "but Corinne does not really want me, and she knows it. She +only wants to have her own way. They don't dance cotillions when they +come here--at least they didn't last time, and I don't believe they will +to-night. They sit around with each other in the corners and waltz with +the fellows they've picked out--and it's all arranged between them, and +has been for a week--ever since they heard Corinne was going to give a +dance." The boy spoke with earnestness and a certain tone of conviction +in his voice, although his face was still radiant. + +"Well, can't you sit around, too, Jack?" remarked his aunt, pausing in +her onward movement for an instant. "I'm sure there will be some lovely +girls." + +"Yes, but they don't want me. I've tried it too often, aunty--they've +all got their own set." + +"It's because you don't want to be polite to any of them," snapped +Corinne with a twist of her body, so as to face him again. + +"Now, Corinne, that isn't fair; I am never impolite to anybody in this +house, but I'm tired of--" + +"Well, Garry isn't tired." This last shot was fired at random. + +Again the aunt poured oil: "Come, children, come! Don't let's talk any +more about it. If Jack has made an engagement it can't be helped, I +suppose, but don't spoil your party, my dear. Find Parkins, Jack, and +send him to me.... Ah, Parkins--if any one calls say I'll be out until +six o'clock." + +"Yes, my Lady." Parkins knew on which side his bread was buttered. She +had reproved him at first, but his excuse was that she was so like his +former mistress, Lady Colchester, that he sometimes forgot himself. + +And again "my Lady" swept on, this time out of the door and into her +waiting carriage. + + + +CHAPTER VI + + + +Jack's impatience increased as the hour for Peter's visit approached. +Quarter of nine found him leaning over the banisters outside his small +suite of rooms, peering down between the hand-rails watching the top of +every head that crossed the spacious hall three flights below--he dare +not go down to welcome his guest, fearing some of the girls, many +of whom had already arrived, would know he was in the house. Fifteen +minutes later the flash of a bald head, glistening in the glare of the +lower hall lantern, told him that the finest old gentleman in the world +had arrived, and on the very minute. Parkins's special instructions, +repeated for the third time, were to bring Mr. Peter Grayson--it was +wonderful what an impressive note was in the boy's voice when he rolled +out the syllables--up at once, surtout, straight-brimmed hat, overshoes +(if he wore any), umbrella and all, and the four foot-falls--two +cat-like and wabbly, as befitted the obsequious flunky, and two firm and +decided, as befitted a grenadier crossing a bridge--could now be heard +mounting the stairs. + +"So here you are!" cried Peter, holding out both hands to the overjoyed +boy--"'way up near the sky. One flight less than my own. Let me get my +breath, my boy, before I say another word. No, don't worry, only Anno +Domini--you'll come to it some day. How delightfully you are settled!" + +They had entered the cosey sitting-room and Jack was helping with his +coat; Parkins, with his nose in the air (he had heard his master's +criticism), having already placed his hat on a side table and the +umbrella in the corner. + +"Where will you sit--in the big chair by the fire or in this long straw +one?" cried the boy, Peter's coat still in his hand. + +"Nowhere yet; let me look around a little." One of Peter's tests of a +man was the things he lived with. "Ah! books?" and he peered at a row +on the mantel. "Macaulay, I see, and here's Poe: Good, very good--why, +certainly it is--Where did you get this Morland?" and again Peter's +glasses went up. "Through that door is your bedroom--yes, and the bath. +Very charming, I must say. You ought to live very happily here; few +young fellows I know have half your comforts." + +Jack had interrupted him to say that the Morland print was one that he +had brought from his father's home, and that the books had come from the +same source, but Peter kept on in his tour around the room. Suddenly he +stopped and looked steadily at a portrait over the mantel. + +"Yes--your father--" + +"You knew!" cried Jack. + +"Knew! How could any one make a mistake? Fine head. About fifty I should +say. No question about his firmness or his kindness. Yes--fine head--and +a gentleman, that is best of all. When you come to marry always hunt up +the grandfather--saves such a lot of trouble in after life," and one of +Peter's infectious laughs filled the room. + +"Do you think he looks anything like Uncle Arthur? You have seen him, I +think you said." + +Peter scanned the portrait. "Not a trace. That may also be a question of +grandfathers--" and another laugh rippled out. "But just be thankful +you bear his name. It isn't always necessary to have a long line of +gentlemen behind you, and if you haven't any, or can't trace them, a +man, if he has pluck and grit, can get along without them; but it's very +comforting to know they once existed. Now let me sit down and listen to +you," added Peter, whose random talk had been inspired by the look of +boyish embarrassment on Jack's face. He had purposely struck many notes +in order to see which one would echo in the lad's heart, so that his +host might find himself, just as he had done when Jack with generous +impulse had sprang from his chair to carry Minott the ring. + +The two seated themselves--Peter in the easy chair and Jack opposite. +The boy's eyes roamed from the portrait, with its round, grave face, to +Peter's head resting on the cushioned back, illumined by the light +of the lamp, throwing into relief the clear-cut lips, little gray +side-whiskers and the tightly drawn skin covering his scalp, smooth as +polished ivory. + +"Am I like him?" asked Peter. He had caught the boy's glances and had +read his thoughts. + +"No--and yes. I can't see it in the portrait, but I do in the way you +move your hands and in the way you bow. I keep thinking of him when I am +with you. It may, as you say, be a good thing to have a gentleman for a +father, sir, but it is a dreadful thing, all the same, to lose him just +as you need him most. I wouldn't hate so many of the things about me if +I had him to go to now and then." + +"Tell me about him and your early life," cried Peter, crossing one leg +over the other. He knew the key had been struck; the boy might now play +on as he chose. + +"There is very little to tell. I lived in the old home with an aunt +after my father's death. And went to school and then to college at +Hagerstown--quite a small college--where uncle looked after me--he paid +the expenses really--and then I was clerk in a law office for a while, +and at my aunt's death about a year ago the old place was sold and I had +no home, and Uncle Arthur sent for me to come here." + +"Very decent in him, and you should never forget him for it," and again +Peter's eyes roamed around the perfectly appointed room. + +"I know it, sir, and at first the very newness and strangeness of +everything delighted me. Then I began to meet the people. They were so +different from those in my part of the country, especially the young +fellows--Garry is not so bad, because he really loves his work and is +bound to succeed--everybody says he has a genius for architecture--but +the others--and the way they treat the young girls, and what is more +unaccountable to me is the way the young girls put up with it." + +Peter had settled himself deeper in his chair, his eyes shaded with one +hand and looked intently at the boy. + +"Uncle Arthur is kind to me, but the life smothers me. I can't breathe +sometimes. Nothing my father taught me is considered worth while here. +People care for other things." + +"What, for instance?" Peter's hand never moved, nor did his body. + +"Why stocks and bonds and money, for instance," laughed Jack, beginning +to be annoyed at his own tirade--half ashamed of it in fact. "Stocks are +good enough in their way, but you don't want to live with them from ten +o'clock in the morning till four o'clock in the afternoon, and then hear +nothing else talked about until you go to bed. That's why that dinner +last night made such an impression on me. Nobody said money once." + +"But every one of those men had his own hobby--" + +"Yes, but in my uncle's world they all ride one and the same horse. +I don't want to be a pessimist, Mr. Grayson, and I want you to set me +straight if I am wrong, but Mr. Morris and every one of those men about +him were the first men I've seen in New York who appear to me to be +doing the things that will live after them. What are we doing down-town? +Gambling the most of us." + +"But your life here isn't confined to your uncle and his stock-gambling +friends. Surely these lovely young girls--two of them came in with me--" +and Peter smiled, "must make your life delightful." + +Jack's eyes sought the floor, then he answered slowly: + +"I hope you won't think me a cad, but--No, I'm not going to say a word +about them, only I can't get accustomed to them and there's no use of +my saying that I can. I couldn't treat any girl the way they are treated +here. And I tell you another thing--none of the young girls whom I +know at home would treat me as these girls treat the men they know. I'm +queer, I guess, but I might as well make a clean breast of it all. I am +an ingrate, perhaps, but I can't help thinking that the old life at home +was the best. We loved our friends, and they were welcome at our table +any hour, day or night. We had plenty of time for everything; we lived +out of doors or in doors, just as we pleased, and we dressed to suit +ourselves, and nobody criticised. Why, if I drop into the Magnolia on my +way up-town and forget to wear a derby hat with a sack coat, or a black +tie with a dinner-jacket, everybody winks and nudges his neighbor. Did +you ever hear of such nonsense in your life?" + +The boy paused as if the memory of some incident in which he was +ridiculed was alive in his mind. Peter's eyes were still fixed on his +face. + +"Go on--I'm listening; and what else hurts you? Pour it all out. That's +what I came for. You said last night nobody would listen--I will." + +"Well, then, I hate the sham of it all; the silly social distinctions; +the fits and starts of hospitality; the dinners given for show. Nothing +else going on between times; even the music is hired. I want to hear +music that bubbles out--old Hannah singing in the kitchen, and Tom, my +father's old butler, whistling to himself--and the dogs barking, and +the birds singing outside. I'm ashamed of myself making comparisons, but +that was the kind of life I loved, because there was sincerity in it." + +"No work?" There was a note of sly merriment in the inquiry, but Jack +never caught it. + +"Not much. My father was Judge and spent part of the time holding court, +and his work never lasted but a few hours a day, and when I wanted to go +fishing or shooting, or riding with the girls, Mr. Larkin always let me +off. And I had plenty of time to read--and for that matter I do here, if +I lock myself up in this room. That low library over there is full of my +father's books." + +Again Peter's voice had a tinge of merriment in it. + +"And who supported the family?" he asked in a lower voice. + +"My father." + +"And who supported him?" + +The question brought Jack to a full stop. He had been running on, +pouring out his heart for the first time since his sojourn in New York, +and to a listener whom he knew he could trust. + +"Why--his salary, of course," answered Jack in astonishment, after a +pause. + +"Anything else?" + +"Yes--the farm." + +"And who worked that?" + +"My father's negroes--some of them his former slaves." + +"And have you any money of your own--anything your father left you?" + +"Only enough to pay taxes on some wild lands up in Cumberland County, +and which I'm going to hold on to for his sake." + +Peter dropped his shading fingers, lifted his body from the depths of +the easy chair and leaned forward so that the light fell full on his +face. He had all the information he wanted now. + +"And now let me tell you my story, my lad. It is a very short one. I +had the same sort of a home, but no father--none that I remember--and no +mother, they both died before my sister Felicia and I were grown up. +At twelve I left school; at fifteen I worked in a country store--up at +daylight and to bed at midnight, often. From twenty to twenty-five I +was entry clerk in a hardware store; then book-keeper; then cashier in +a wagon factory; then clerk in a village bank--then book-keeper again +in my present bank, and there I have been ever since. My only advantages +were a good constitution and the fact that I came of gentle people. Here +we are both alike--you at twenty--how old?--twenty two?... Well, make +it twenty-two.... You at twenty-two and I at twenty-two seem to have +started out in life with the same natural advantages, so far as years +and money go, but with this difference--Shall I tell you what it is?" + +"Yes." + +"That I worked and loved it, and love it still, and that you are lazy +and love your ease. Don't be offended--" Here Peter laid his hand on the +boy's knee. He waited an instant, and not getting any reply, kept on: +"What you want to do is to go to work. It wouldn't have been honorable +in you to let your father support you after you were old enough to +earn your own living, and it isn't honorable in you, with your present +opinions, to live on your uncle's bounty, and to be discontented +and rebellious at that, for that's about what it all amounts to. You +certainly couldn't pay for these comforts outside of this house on what +Breen & Co. can afford to pay you. Half of your mental unrest, my lad, +is due to the fact that you do not know the joy and comfort to be got +out of plain, common, unadulterated work." + +"I'll do anything that is not menial." + +"What do you mean by 'menial'?" + +"Well, working like a day-laborer." + +"Most men who have succeeded have first worked with their hands." + +"Not my uncle." + +"No, not your uncle--he's an exception--one among a million, and then +again he isn't through." + +"But he's worth two million, they say." + +"Yes, but he never earned it, and he never worked for it, and he doesn't +now. Do you want to follow in his footsteps?" + +"No--not with all his money." This came in a decided tone. "But surely +you wouldn't want me to work with my hands, would you?" + +"I certainly should, if necessary." + +Jack looked at him, and a shade of disappointment crossed his face. + +"But I COULDN'T do anything menial." + +"There isn't anything menial in any kind of work from cleaning a stable +up! The menial things are the evasions of work--tricks by which men are +cheated out of their just dues." + +"Stock gambling?" + +"Yes--sometimes, when the truth is withheld." + +"That's what I think; that's what I meant last night when I told +you about the faro-bank. I laughed over it, and yet I can't see much +difference, although I have never seen one." + +"So I understood, but you were wrong about it. Your uncle bears a very +good name in the Street. He is not as much to blame as the system. +Perhaps some day the firm will become real bankers, than which there is +no more honorable calling." + +"But is it wrong to want to fish and shoot and have time to read." + +"No, it is wrong not to do it when you have the time and the money. I +like that side of your nature. My own theory is that every man should +in the twenty-four hours of the day devote eight to work, eight to sleep +and eight to play. But this can only be done when the money to support +the whole twenty-four hours is in sight, either in wages, or salary, or +invested securities. More money than this--that is the surplusage that +men lock up in their tin boxes, is a curse. But with that you have +nothing to do--not yet, anyhow. Now, if I catch your meaning, your idea +is to go back to your life at home. In other words you want to live the +last end of your life first--and without earning the right to it. +And because you cannot do this you give yourself up to criticising +everything about you. Getting only at the faults and missing all the +finer things in life. If you would permit me to advise you--" he still +had his hand on the lad's knee, searching the soft brown eyes--"I would +give up finding fault and first try to better things, and I would begin +right here where you are. Some of the great banking houses which keep +the pendulum of the world swinging true have grown to importance through +just such young men as yourself, who were honest and had high ideals +and who so impressed their own personalities upon everybody about +them--customers and employers--that the tone of the concern was raised +at once and with it came a world-wide success. I have been thirty years +on the Street and have watched the rise of half the firms about me, +and in every single instance some one of the younger men--boys, many of +them--has pulled the concern up and out of a quagmire and stood it on +its feet. And the reverse is true: half the downfalls have come from +those same juniors, who thought they knew some short road to success, +which half the time was across disreputable back lots. Why not give +up complaining and see what better things you can do? I'm not quite +satisfied about your having stayed upstairs even to receive me. +Your aunt loves society and the daughter--what did you say her name +was--Corinne? Yes, Miss Corinne being young, loves to have a good time. +Listen! do you hear?--there goes another waltz. Now, as long as you do +live here, why not join in it too and help out the best you can?--and +if you have anything of your own to offer in the way of good cheer, or +thoughtfulness, or kindness, or whatever you do have which they lack--or +rather what you think they lack--wouldn't it be wiser--wouldn't it--if +you will permit me, my lad--be a little BETTER BRED to contribute +something of your own excellence to the festivity?" + +It was now Jack's turn to lean back in his chair and cover his face, but +with two ashamed hands. Not since his father's death had any one talked +to him like this--never with so much tenderness and truth and with every +word meant for his good. All his selfrighteousness, his silly conceit +and vainglory stood out before him. What an ass he had been. What a +coxcomb. What a boor, really. + +"What would you have me do?" he asked, a tone of complete surrender in +his voice. The portrait and Peter were one and the same! His father had +come to life. + +"I don't know yet. We'll think about that another time, but we won't do +it now. I ought to be ashamed of myself for having spoiled your evening +by such serious talk (he wasn't ashamed--he had come for that very +purpose). Now show me some of your books and tell me what you read, and +what you love best." + +He was out of the chair before he ceased speaking, his heels striking +the floor, bustling about in his prompt, exact manner, examining the few +curios and keepsakes on the mantel and tables, running his eyes over the +rows of bindings lining the small bookcase; his hand on Jack's shoulder +whenever the boy opened some favorite author to hunt for a passage to +read aloud to Peter, listening with delight, whether the quotation was +old or new to him. + +Jack, suddenly remembering that his guest was standing, tried to lead +him back to his seat by the fire, but Peter would have none of it. + +"No--too late. Why, bless me, it's after eleven o'clock! Hear the +music--they are still at it. Now I'm going to insist that you go down +and have a turn around the room yourself; there were such a lot of +pretty girls when I came in." + +"Too late for that, too," laughed Jack, merry once more. "Corinne +wouldn't speak to me if I showed my face now, and then there will be +plenty more dances which I can go to, and so make it all up with her. +I'm not yet as sorry as I ought to be about this dance. Your being here +has been such a delight. May I--may--I come and see you some time?" + +"That's just what you will do, and right away. Just as soon as my dear +sister Felicia comes down, and she'll be here very soon. I'll send +for you, never fear. Yes, the right sleeve first, and now my hat and +umbrella. Ah, here they are. Now, good night, my boy, and thank you for +letting me come." + +"You know I dare not go down with you," explained Jack with a smile. + +"Oh, yes--I know--I know. Good night--" and the sharp, quick tread of +the old man grew fainter and fainter as he descended the stairs. + +Jack waited, craning his head, until he caught a glimpse of the +glistening head as it passed once more under the lantern, then he went +into his room and shut the door. + +Had he followed behind his guest he would have witnessed a little comedy +which would have gone far in wiping clean all trace of his uncle's +disparaging remarks of the morning. He would have enjoyed, too, +Parkins's amazement. As the Receiving Teller of the Exeter Bank +reached the hall floor the President of the Clearing House--the most +distinguished man in the Street and one to whom Breen kotowed with +genuflections equalling those of Parkins--accompanied by his daughter +and followed by the senior partner of Breen & Co., were making their +way to the front door. The second man in the chocolate livery with the +potato-bug waistcoat had brought the Magnate's coat and hat, and Parkins +stood with his hand on the door-knob. Then, to the consternation of +both master and servant, the great man darted forward and seized Peter's +hand. + +"Why, my dear Mr. Grayson! This is indeed a pleasure. I didn't see +you--were you inside?" + +"No--I've been upstairs with young Mr. Breen," replied Peter, with a +comprehensive bow to Host, Magnate and Magnate's daughter. Then, with +the grace and dignity of an ambassador quitting a salon, he passed out +into the night. + +Breen found his breath first: "And you know him?" + +"Know him!" cried the Magnate--"of course I know him! One of the most +delightful men in New York; and I'm glad that you do--you're luckier +than I--try as I may I can hardly ever get him inside my house." + +I was sitting up for the old fellow when he entered his cosey red room +and dropped into a chair before the fire. I had seen the impression the +young man had made upon him at the dinner and was anxious to learn the +result of his visit. I had studied the boy somewhat myself, noting +his bright smile, clear, open face without a trace of guile, and the +enthusiasm that took possession of him when his friend won the prize. +That he was outside the class of young men about him I could see from +a certain timidity of glance and gesture--as if he wanted to be kept in +the background. Would the old fellow, I wondered, burden his soul with +still another charge? + +Peter was laughing when he entered; he had laughed all the way +down-town, he told me. What particularly delighted him--and here he +related the Portman incident--was the change in Breen's face when old +Portman grasped his hand so cordially. + +"Made of pinchbeck, my dear Major, both of them, and yet how genuine it +looks on the surface, and what a lot of it is in circulation. Quite as +good as the real thing if you don't know the difference," and again he +laughed heartily. + +"And the boy," I asked, "was he disappointing?" + +"Young Breen?--not a bit of it. He's like all the young fellows who come +up here from the South--especially the country districts--and he's +from western Maryland, he says. Got queer ideas about work and what a +gentleman should do to earn his living--same old talk. Hot-house plants +most of them--never amount to anything, really, until they are pruned +and set out in the cold." + +"Got any sense?" I ventured. + +"No, not much--not yet--but he's got temperament and refinement and a +ten commandments' code of morals." + +"Rather rare, isn't it?" I asked. + +"Yes--perhaps so." + +"And I suppose you are going to take him up and do for him, like the +others." + +Peter picked up the poker and made a jab at the fire; then he answered +slowly: + +"Well, Major, I can't tell yet--not positively. But he's certainly worth +saving." + + + +CHAPTER VII + + + +With the closing of the front door upon the finest Old Gentleman in the +World, a marked change took place in the mental mechanism of several of +our most important characters. The head of the firm of Breen & Co. was +so taken aback that for the moment that shrewdest of financiers was +undecided as to whether he or Parkins should rush out into the night +after the departing visitor and bring him back, and open the best in the +cellar. "Send a man out of my house," he said to himself, "whom Portman +couldn't get to his table except at rare intervals! Well, that's one on +me!" + +The lid that covered the upper half of Parkins's intelligence also +received a jolt; it was a coal-hole lid that covered emptiness, but now +and then admitted the light. + +"Might 'ave known from the clothes 'e wore 'e was no common PUR-son," he +said to himself. "To tell you the truth--" this to the second man in the +potato-bug waistcoat, when they were dividing between them the bottle +of "Extra Dry" three-quarters full, that Parkins had smuggled into the +pantry with the empty bottles ("Dead Men," Breen called them)--"to tell +you the truth, Frederick, when I took 'is 'at and coat hupstairs 'e give +me a real start 'e looked that respectable" + +As to Jack, not only his mind but his heart were in a whirl. + +Half the night he lay awake wondering what he could do to follow Peter's +advice while preserving his own ideals. He had quite forgotten that part +of the older man's counsel which referred to the dignity of work, even +of that work which might be considered as menial. If the truth must be +told, it was his vanity alone which had been touched by the suggestion +that in him might lay the possibility of reforming certain conditions +around him. He was willing, even anxious, to begin on Breen & Co., +subjecting his uncle, if need be, to a vigorous overhauling. Nothing he +felt could daunt him in his present militant state, upheld, as he felt +that he was, by the approval of Peter. Not a very rational state of +mind, the Scribe must confess, and only to be accounted for by the fact +that Peter's talk, instead of clearing Jack's mind of old doubts, had +really clouded it the more--quite as a bottle of mixture when shaken +sends its insoluble particles whirling throughout the whole. + +It was not until the following morning, indeed, that the sediment began +to settle, and some of the sanity of Peter's wholesome prescription to +produce a clarifying effect. As long as he, Jack, lived upon his uncle's +bounty--and that was really what it amounted it--he must at least try to +contribute his own quota of good cheer and courtesy. This was what Peter +had done him the honor to advise, and he must begin at once if he wanted +to show his appreciation of the courtesy. + +His uncle opened the way: + +"Why, I didn't know until I saw him go out that he was a friend of Mr. +Portman's," he said as he sipped his coffee. + +"Neither did I. But does it make any difference?" answered Jack, +flipping off the top of his egg. + +"Well I should think so--about ninety-nine and nine-tenths percent," +replied the older man emphatically. "Let's invite him to dinner, Jack. +Maybe he'll come to one I'm giving next week and--" + +"I'll ask him--that is... perhaps, though, you might write him a note, +uncle, and--" + +"Of course," interrupted Breen, ignoring the suggestion, "when I wanted +you to take him to the club I didn't know who he was." + +"Of course you did not," echoed Jack, suppressing a smile. + +"The club! No, not by a damned sight!" exclaimed the head of the house +of Breen. As this latter observation was addressed to the circumambient +air, and not immediately to Jack, it elicited no response. Although +slightly profane, Jack was clever enough to read in its tones not +only ample apology for previous criticisms but a sort of prospective +reparation, whereupon our generous young gentleman forgave his uncle at +once, and thought that from this on he might like him the better. + +Even Parkins came in for a share of Jack's most gracious intentions, +and though he was as silent as an automaton playing a game of chess, a +slight crack was visible in the veneer of his face when Jack thanked him +for having brought Mr. Grayson--same reverential pronunciation--upstairs +himself instead of allowing Frederick or one of the maid-servants to +perform that service. + +As for his apologies to Corinne and his aunt for having remained in his +room after Mr. Grayson's departure, instead of taking part in the last +hours of the dance--one o'clock was the exact hour--these were reserved +until those ladies should appear at dinner, when they were made with +so penitential a ring in his voice that his aunt at once jumped to the +conclusion that he must have been bored to death by the old fellow, +while Corinne hugged herself in the belief that perhaps after all Jack +was renewing his interest in her; a delusion which took such possession +of her small head that she finally determined to send Garry a +note begging him to come to her at once, on business of the UTMOST +IMPORTANCE; two strings being better than one, especially when they were +to be played each against the other. + +As to the uplifting of the house of Breen & Co., and the possibility of +so small a tail as himself being able to wag so large a dog as his uncle +and his partners, that seemed now to be so chimerical an undertaking +that he laughed when he thought of it. + +This urbanity of mood was still with him when some days later he dropped +into the Magnolia Club on his way home, his purpose being to find Garry +and to hear about the supper which his club friends had given him to +celebrate his winning of the Morris ring. + +Little Biffton was keeping watch when Jack swung in with that free +stride of his that showed more than anything else his muscular body and +the way he had taken care of and improved it. No dumb-bells or clubs for +fifteen minutes in the morning--but astride a horse, his thighs gripping +a bare-back, roaming the hills day after day--the kind of outdoor +experience that hardens a man all over without specializing his biceps +or his running gear. Little Biff never had any swing to his gait--none +that his fellows ever noticed. Biff went in for repose--sometimes hours +at a time. Given a club chair, a package of cigarettes and some one to +talk to him and Biff could be happy a whole afternoon. + +"Ah, Breen, old man! Come to anchor." Here he moved back a chair an inch +or two with his foot, and pushed his silver cigarette-case toward the +newcomer. + +"Thank you," replied Jack. "I've just dropped in to look for Garry +Minott. Has he been in?" + +Biff was the bulletin-board of the Magnolia club. As he roomed upstairs, +he could be found here at any hour of the day or night. + +Biff did not reply at once; there was no use in hurrying--not about +anything. Besides, the connection between Biff's ears and his brain +was never very good. One had to ring him up several times before he +answered. + +Jack waited for an instant, and finding that the message was delayed +in transmission, helped himself to one of Biff's "Specials"--bearing in +gold letters his name "Brent Biffton" in full on the rice paper--dropped +into the proffered chair and repeated the question: + +"Have you seen Garry?" + +"Yes--upstairs. Got a deck in the little room. Been there all afternoon. +Might go up and butt in. Touch that bell before you go and say what." + +"No--I won't drink anything, if you don't mind. You heard about Garry's +winning the prize?" + +"No." Biffton hadn't moved since he had elongated his foot in search of +Jack's chair. + +"Why Garry got first prize in his office. I went with him to the supper; +he's with Holker Morris, you know." + +"Yes. Rather nice. Yes, I did hear. The fellows blew him off upstairs. +Kept it up till the steward shut 'em out. Awfully clever fellow, Minott. +My Governor wanted me to do something in architecture, but it takes +such a lot of time... Funny how a fellow will dress himself." Biffton's +sleepy eyes were sweeping the Avenue. "Pendergast just passed wearing +white spats--A month too late for spats--ought to know better. Touch the +bell, Breen, and say what." + +Again Jack thanked him, and again Biffton relapsed into silence. Rather +a damper on a man of his calibre, when a fellow wouldn't touch a bell +and say what. + +Jack having a certain timidity about "butting in"--outsiders didn't do +such things where he came from--settled himself into the depths of the +comfortable leather-covered arm-chair and waited for Garry to finish +his game. From where he sat he could not only overlook the small tables +holding a choice collection of little tear-bottles, bowls of crushed ice +and high-pressure siphons, but his eye also took in the stretch beyond, +the club windows commanding the view up and down and quite across the +Avenue, as well as the vista to the left. + +This outlook was the most valuable asset the Magnolia possessed. If the +parasol was held flat, with its back to the club-house, and no glimpse +of the pretty face possible, it was, of course, unquestionable evidence +to the member looking over the top of his cocktail that neither the +hour or the place was propitious. If, however, it swayed to the right or +left, or better still, was folded tight, then it was equally conclusive +that not only was the coast clear, but that any number of things might +happen, either at Tiffany's, or the Academy, or wherever else one of +those altogether accidental--"Why-who-would-have-thought-of-seeing-you- +here" kind of meetings take place--meetings so delightful in themselves +because so unexpected. + +These outlooks, too, were useful in solving many of the social problems +that afflicted the young men about town; the identity, for instance, +of the occupant of the hansom who had just driven past, heavily veiled, +together with her destination and her reason for being out at all; why +the four-in-hand went up empty and came back with a pretty woman beside +the "Tooler," and then turned up a side street toward the Park, instead +of taking the Avenue into its confidence; what the young wife of the old +doctor meant when she waved her hand to the occupant of a third-story +window, and who lived there, and why--None of their business, of +course--never could be--but each and every escapade, incident and +adventure being so much thrice-blessed manna to souls stranded in the +desert waste of club conversation. + +None of these things interested our hero, and he soon found himself +listening to the talk at an adjoining table. Topping, a young lawyer, +Whitman Bunce, a man of leisure--unlimited leisure--and one or two +others, were rewarming some of the day's gossip. + +"Had the gall to tell Bob's man he couldn't sleep in linen sheets; had +his own violet silk ones in his trunk, to match his pajamas. The goat +had 'em out and half on the bed when Bob came in and stopped him. Awful +row, I heard, when Mrs. Bob got on to it. He'll never go there again." + +"And I heard," broke in Bunce, "that she ordered the trap and sent him +back to the station." + +Other bits drifted Jack's way: + +"Why he was waiting at the stage-door and she slipped out somewhere in +front. Billy was with her, so I heard.... When they got to Delmonico's +there came near being a scrap.... No.... Never had a dollar on Daisy +Belle, or any other horse...." + +Loud laughter was now heard at the end of the hall. A party of young +men had reached the foot of the stairs and were approaching Biffton and +Jack. Garry's merry voice led the others. + +"Still hard at work, are you, Biffy? Why, hello, Jack!--how long have +you been here? Morlon, you know Mr. Breen, don't you?--Yes, of course +you do--new member--just elected. Get a move on that carcass of yours, +Biffy, and let somebody else get up to that table. Charles, take the +orders." + +Jack had shaken everybody's hand by this time, Biffton having moved back +a foot or two, and the circle had widened so that the poker party could +reach their cocktails. Garry extended his arm till his hand rested on +Jack's shoulder. + +"Nothing sets me up like a game of poker, old man. Been on the building +all day. You ought to come up with me some time--I'll show you the +greatest piece of steel construction you ever saw. Mr. Morris was all +over it to-day. Oh, by the way! Did that old chunk of sandstone come up +to see you last night? What did you say his name was?" + +Jack repeated Peter's cognomen--this time without rolling the syllables +under his tongue--said that Mr. Grayson had kept his promise; that the +evening had been delightful, and immediately changed the subject. There +was no use trying to convert Garry. + +"And now tell me about the supper," asked Jack. + +"Oh, that was all right. We whooped it up till they closed the bar and +then went home with the milk. Had an awful head on me next morning; +nearly fell off the scaffold, I was so sleepy. How's Miss Corinne? I'm +going to stop in on my way uptown this afternoon and apologize to her. +I have her note, but I haven't had a minute to let her know why I didn't +come. I'll show her the ring; then she'll know why. Saw it, didn't you?" + +Jack hadn't seen it. He had been too excited to look. Now he examined +it. With the flash of the gems Biffy sat up straight, and the others +craned their heads. Garry slipped it off his finger for the hundredth +time for similar inspections, and Jack utilized the pause in the +conversation to say that Corinne had received the note and that in reply +she had vented most of her disappointment on himself, a disclosure which +sent a cloud across Garry's face. + +The cocktail hour had now arrived--one hour before dinner, an hour which +was fixed by that distinguished compounder of herbs and spirits, Mr. +Biffton--and the room began filling up. Most of the members were young +fellows but a few years out of college, men who renewed their Society +and club life within its walls; some were from out of town--students in +the various professions. Here and there was a man of forty--one even +of fifty-five--who preferred the gayer and fresher life of the younger +generation to the more solemn conclaves of the more exclusive clubs +further up and further down town. As is usual in such combinations, the +units forming the whole sought out their own congenial units and were +thereafter amalgamated into groups, a classification to be found in all +clubs the world over. While Biffy and his chums could always be found +together, there were other less-fortunate young fellows, not only +without coupon shears, but sometimes without the means of paying their +dues--who formed a little coterie of their own, and who valued and used +the club for what it brought them, their election carrying with it +a certain social recognition: it also widened one's circle of +acquaintances and, perhaps, of clients. + +The sound of loud talking now struck upon Jack's ear. Something more +important than the angle of a parasol or the wearing of out-of-date +spats was engrossing the attention of a group of young men who had just +entered. Jack caught such expressions as--"Might as well have picked +his pocket...." "He's flat broke, anyhow...." "Got to sell his house, I +hear...." + +Then came a voice louder than the others. + +"There's Breen talking to Minott and Biffy. He's in the Street; he'll +know.... Say, Breen!" + +Jack rose to his feet and met the speaker half way. + +"What do you know, Breen, about that scoop in gold stock? Heard anything +about it? Who engineered it? Charley Gilbert's cleaned out, I hear." + +"I don't know anything," said Jack. "I left the office at noon and came +up town. Who did you say was cleaned out?" + +"Why, Charley Gilbert. You must know him." + +"Yes, I know him. What's happened to him?" + +"Flat broke--that's what happened to him. Got caught in that gold +swindle. The stock dropped out of sight this afternoon, I hear--went +down forty points." + +Garry crowded his way into the group: "Which Mr. Gilbert?--not Charley +M., the--" + +"Yes; Sam's just left him. What did he tell you, Sam?" + +"Just what you've said--I hear, too, that he has got to stop on his +house out in Jersey. Can't finish it and can't pay for what's been +done." + +Garry gave a low whistle and looked at Jack. + +"That's rough. Mr. Morris drew the plan of Gilbert's house himself. I +worked on the details." + +"Rough!" burst out the first speaker. "I should say it was--might as +well have burglared his safe. They have been working up this game for +months, so Charley told me. Then they gave out that the lode had petered +out and they threw it overboard and everybody with it. They said they +tried to find Charley to post him, but he was out of town." + +"Who tried?" asked Jack, with renewed interest, edging his way close to +the group. It was just as well to know the sheep from the goats, if he +was to spend the remainder of his life in the Street. + +"That's what we want to know. Thought you might have heard." + +Jack shook his head and resumed his seat beside Biffy, who had not moved +or shown the slightest interest in the affair. Nobody could sell Biff +any gold stock--nor any other kind of stock. His came on the first of +every month in a check from the Trust Company. + +For some moments Jack did not speak. He knew young Gilbert, and he knew +his young and very charming wife. He had once sat next to her at dinner, +when her whole conversation had been about this new home and the keen +interest that Morris, a friend of her father's, had taken in it. "Mr. +Breen, you and Miss Corinne must be among our earliest guests," she had +said, at which Corinne, who was next to Garry, had ducked her little +head in acceptance. This was the young fellow, then, who had been caught +in one of the eddies whirling over the sunken rocks of the Street. Not +very creditable to his intelligence, perhaps, thought Jack; but, then, +again, who had placed them there, a menace to navigation?--and why? +Certainly Peter could not have known everything that was going on around +him, if he thought the effort of so insignificant an individual as +himself could be of use in clearing out obstructions like these. + +Garry noticed the thoughtful expression settling over Jack's face, and +mistaking the cause called Charles to take the additional orders. + +"Cheer up--try a high-ball, Jack. It's none of your funeral. You didn't +scoop Gilbert; we are the worst sufferers. Can't finish his house now, +and Mr. Morris is just wild over the design. It's on a ledge of rock +overlooking the lake, and the whole thing goes together. We've got the +roof on, and from across the lake it looks as if it had grown there. Mr. +Morris repeated the rock forms everywhere. Stunning, I tell you!" + +Jack didn't want any high-ball, and said so. (Biffy didn't care if he +did.) The boy's mind was still on the scoop, particularly on the way in +which every one of his fellow-members had spoken of the incident. + +"Horrid business, all of it. Don't you think so, Garry?" Jack said after +a pause. + +"No, not if you keep your eyes peeled," answered Garry, emptying his +glass. "Never saw Gilbert but once, and then he looked to me like a +softy from Pillowville. Couldn't fool me, I tell you, on a deal like +that. I'd have had a 'stop order' somewhere. Served Gilbert right; no +business to be monkeying with a buzz-saw unless he knew how to throw off +the belt." + +Jack straightened his shoulders and his brows knit. The lines of the +portrait were in the lad's face now. + +"Well, maybe it's all right, Garry. My own opinion is that it's no +better than swindling. Anyway, I'm mighty glad Uncle Arthur isn't mixed +up in it. You heard what Sam and the other fellows thought, didn't you? +How would you like to have that said of you?" + +Garry tossed back his head and laughed. + +"Biffy, are you listening to his Reverence, the Bishop of Cumberland? +Here endeth the first lesson." + +Biff nodded over his high-ball. He wasn't listening--discussions of any +kind bored him. + +"But what do you care, Jack, what they say--what anybody says?" +continued Garry. "Keep right on. You are in the Street to make money, +aren't you? Everybody else is there for the same purpose. What goes up +must come down. If you don't want to get your head smashed, stand from +under. The game is to jump in, grab what you can, and jump out, dodging +the bricks as they come. Let's go up-town, old man." + +Neither of the young men was expressing his own views. Both were too +young and too inexperienced to have any fixed ideas on so vital a +subject. + +It was the old fellow in the snuff-colored coat, black stock and +dog-eared collar that was behind Jack. If he were alive to-day Jack's +view would have been his view, and that was the reason why it was Jack's +view. The boy could no more explain it than he could prove why his eyes +were brown and his hair a dark chestnut, or why he always walked with +his toes very much turned out, or made gestures with his hands when he +talked. Had any of the jury been alive--and some of them were--or the +prosecuting-attorney, or even any one of the old settlers who attended +court, they could have told in a minute which one of the two young men +was Judge Breen's son. Not that Jack looked like his father. No young +man of twenty-two looks like an old fellow of sixty, but he certainly +moved and talked like him--and had the same way of looking at things. +"The written law may uphold you, sir, and the jury may so consider, but +I shall instruct them to disregard your plea. There is a higher law, +sir, than justice--a law of mercy--That I myself shall exercise." The +old Judge had sat straight up on his bench when he said it, his face +cast-iron, his eyes burning. The jury brought in an acquittal without +leaving their seats. There was an outbreak, of course, but the man went +free. This young offshoot was from the same old stock, that was all; +same sap in his veins, same twist to his branch; same bud, same blossom +and--same fruit. + +And Garry! + +Not many years have elapsed since I watched him running in and out of +his father's spacious drawing-rooms on Fourteenth Street--the court +end of town in those days. In the days, I mean, when his father was +Collector of the Port, and his father's house with its high ceilings, +mahogany doors and wide hall, and the great dining-room overlooking a +garden with a stable in the rear. It had not been many years, I say, +since the Hon. Creighton Minott had thrown wide its doors to whoever +came--that is, whoever came properly accredited. It didn't last long, +of course. Politics changed; the "ins" became the "outs." And with the +change came the bridging-over period--the kind of cantilever which hope +thrusts out from one side of the bank of the swift-flowing stream of +adversity in the belief that somebody on the other side of the chasm +will build the other half, and the two form a highway leading to a +change of scene and renewed prosperity. + +The hospitable Collector continued to be hospitable. He had always +taken chances--he would again. The catch-terms of Garry's day, such as +"couldn't fool him," "keep your eye peeled," "a buzz-saw," etc., etc., +were not current in the father's day, but their synonyms were. He knew +what he was about. As soon as a particular member of the Board got back +from the other side the Honorable Collector would have the position +of Treasurer, and then it was only a question of time when he would be +President of the new corporation. I can see now the smile that lighted +up his rather handsome face when he told me. He was "monkeying with +a buzz-saw" all the same if he did but know it, and yet he always +professed to follow the metaphor that he could "throw off the belt" that +drove the pulley at his own good pleasure and so stop the connecting +machinery before the teeth of the whirling blade could reach his +fingers. Should it get beyond his control--of which there was not the +remotest possibility--he would, of course, rent his house, sell his +books and curtail. "In the meantime, my dear fellow, there is some of +the old Madeira left and a game of whist will only help to drive dull +care away." + +Garry never whimpered when the crash came. The dear mother died--how +patient and uncomplaining she was in all their ups and downs--and Garry +was all that was left. What he had gained since in life he had worked +for; first as office boy, then as draughtsman and then in charge of +special work, earning his Chief's approval, as the Scribe has duly +set forth. He got his inheritance, of course. Don't we all get ours? +Sometimes it skips a generation--some times two--but generally we are +wearing the old gentleman's suit of clothes cut down to fit our +small bodies, making believe all the time that they are our very own, +unconscious of the discerning eyes who recognize their cut and origin. + +Nothing tangible, it is safe to say, came with Garry's share of the +estate--and he got it all. That is, nothing he could exchange for value +received--no houses or lots, or stocks or bonds. It was the INTANGIBLE +that proved his richest possession, viz.:--a certain buoyancy of +spirits; a cheery, optimistic view of life; a winning personality and +the power of both making and holding friends. With this came another +asset--the willingness to take chances, and still a third--an absolute +belief in his luck. Down at the bottom of the box littered with old +papers, unpaid tax bills and protested notes--all valueless--was +a fourth which his father used to fish out when every other asset +failed--a certain confidence in the turn of a card. + +But the virtues and the peccadilloes of their ancestors, we may be sure, +were not interesting our two young men as they swung up the Avenue +arm in arm, this particular afternoon, the sidewalks crowded with the +fashion of the day, the roadway blocked with carriages. Nor did any +passing objects occupy their attention. + +Garry's mind was on Corinne, and what he would tell her, and how she +would look as she listened, the pretty head tucked on one side, her +sparkling eyes drinking in every word of his story, although he knew she +wouldn't believe one-half of it. Elusive and irritating as she sometimes +was, there was really nobody exactly like Miss Corinne. + +Jack's mind had resumed its normal tone. Garry's merry laugh and +good-natured ridicule had helped, so had the discovery that none of his +friends had had anything to do with Gilbert's fall. After all, he said +to himself, as he strode up the street beside his friend, it was "none +of his funeral," none of his business, really. Such things went on every +day and in every part of the world. Neither was it his Uncle Arthur's. +That was the most comforting part of all. + +Corinne's voice calling over the banisters: "Is that you, Jack?" met the +two young men as they handed their hats to the noiseless Frederick. Both +craned their necks and caught sight of the Wren's head framed by the +hand-rail and in silhouette against the oval sky-light in the roof +above. + +"Yes, and Garry's here, too. Come down." + +The patter of little feet grew louder, then the swish of silken skirts, +and with a spring she was beside them. + +"No, don't you say a word, Garry. I'm not going to listen and I won't +forgive you no matter what you say." She had both of his hands now. + +"Ah, but you don't know, Miss Corinne. Has Jack told you?" + +"Yes, told me everything; that you had a big supper and everybody +stamped around the room; that Mr. Morris gave you a ring, or something" +(Garry held up his finger, but she wasn't ready to examine it yet), "and +that some of the men wanted to celebrate it, and that you went to the +club and stayed there goodness knows how long--all night, so Mollie +Crane told me. Paul, her brother, was there--and you never thought a +word about your promise to me" (this came with a little pout, her chin +uplifted, her lips quite near his face), "and we didn't have half men +enough and our cotillion was all spoiled. I don't care--we had a lovely +time, even if you two men did behave disgracefully. No--I don't want +to listen to a thing. I didn't come down to see either of you." (She had +watched them both from her window as they crossed the street.) "What I +want to know, Jack, is, who is Miss Felicia Grayson?" + +"Why, Mr. Grayson's sister," burst out Jack--"the old gentleman who came +to see me." + +"That old fellow!" + +"Yes, that old fellow--the most charming--" + +"Not that remnant!" interrupted Garry. + +"No, Garry--not that kind of a man at all, but a most delightful old +gentleman by the name of Mr. Grayson," and Jack's eyes flashed. "He told +me his sister was coming to town. What do you know about her, Corinne?" +He was all excitement: Peter was to send for him when his sister +arrived. + +"Nothing--that's why I ask you. I've just got a note from her. She says +she knew mamma when she lived in Washington, and that her brother +has fallen in love with you, and that she won't have another happy +moment--or something like that--if you and I don't come to a tea she +is giving to a Miss Ruth MacFarlane; and that I am to give her love to +mamma, and bring anybody I please with me." + +"When?" asked Jack. He could hardly restrain his joy. + +"I think next Saturday--yes, next Saturday," consulting the letter in +her hand. + +"Where? At Mr. Grayson's rooms?" cried Jack. + +"Yes, at her brother's, she says. Here, Jack--you read it. Some number +in East Fifteenth Street--queer place for people to live, isn't it, +Garry?--people who want anybody to come to their teas. I've got a +dressmaker lives over there somewhere; she's in Fifteenth Street, +anyhow, for I always drive there." + +Jack devoured the letter. This was what he had been hoping for. He knew +the old gentleman would keep his word! + +"Well, of course you'll go, Corinne?" he cried eagerly. + +"Of course I'll do nothing of the kind. I think it's a great piece +of impudence. I've never heard of her. Because you had her brother +upstairs, that's no reason why--But that's just like these people. You +give them an inch and--" + +Jack's cheeks flushed: "But, Corinne! She's offered you a +courtesy--asked you to her house, and--" + +"I don't care; I'm not going! Would you, Garry?" + +The son of the Collector hesitated for a moment. He had his own ideas of +getting on in the world. They were not Jack's--his, he knew, would never +succeed. And they were not exactly Corinne's--she was too particular. +The fence was evidently the best place for him. + +"Would be rather a bore, wouldn't it?" he replied evasively, with a +laugh. "Lives up under the roof, I guess, wears a dyed wig, got +Cousin Mary Ann's daguerreotype on the mantle, and tells you how Uncle +Ephraim--" + +The door opened and Jack's aunt swept in. She never walked, or ambled, +or stepped jauntily, or firmly, or as if she wanted to get anywhere in +particular; she SWEPT in, her skirts following meekly behind--half a +yard behind, sometimes. + +Corinne launched the inquiry at her mother, even before she could return +Garry's handshake. "Who's Miss Grayson, mamma?" + +"I don't know. Why, my child?" + +"Well, she says she knows you. Met you in Washington." + +"The only Miss Grayson I ever met in Washington, my dear, was an old +maid, the niece of the Secretary of State. She kept house for him after +his wife died. She held herself very high, let me tell you. A very grand +lady, indeed. But she must be an old woman now, if she is still living. +What did you say her first name was?" + +Corinne took the open letter from Jack's hand. "Felicia... Yes, +Felicia." + +"And what does she want?--money for some charity?" Almost everybody +she knew, and some she didn't, wanted money for some charity. She was +loosening her cloak as she spoke, Frederick standing by to relieve my +lady of her wraps. + +"No; she's going to give a tea and wants us all to come. She's the +sister of that old man who came to see Jack the other night, and--" + +"Going to give a tea!--and the sister of--Well, then, she certainly +isn't the Miss Grayson I know. Don't you answer her, Corinne, until I +find out who she is." + +"I'll tell you who she is," burst out Jack. His face was aflame now. +Never had he listened to such discourtesy. He could hardly believe his +ears. + +"It wouldn't help me in the least, my dear Jack; so don't you begin. I +am the best judge of who shall come to my house. She may be all right, +and she may not, you can never tell in a city like New York, and you +can't be too particular. People really do such curious pushing things +now-a-days." This to Garry. "Now serve tea, Parkins. Come in all of +you." + +Jack was on the point of blazing out in indignation over the false +position in which his friend had been placed when Peter's warning voice +rang in his ears. The vulgarity of the whole proceeding appalled him, +yet he kept control of himself. + +"None for me, please, aunty," he said quietly. "I will join you later, +Garry," and he mounted the stairs to his room. + + + +CHAPTER VIII + + + +Peter was up and dressed when Miss Felicia arrived, despite the early +hour. Indeed that gay cavalier was the first to help the dear lady off +with her travelling cloak and bonnet, Mrs. McGuffey folding her veil, +smoothing out her gloves and laying them all upon the bed in the +adjoining room--the one she kept in prime order for Miss Grayson's use. + +The old fellow was facing the coffee-urn when he told her Jack's story +and what he himself had said in reply, and how fine the boy was in +his beliefs, and how well-nigh impossible it was for him to help him, +considering his environment. + +The dear lady had listened with her eyes fixed on Peter. It was but +another of his benevolent finds; it had been the son of an old music +teacher the winter before, and a boy struggling through college last +spring;--always somebody who wanted to get ahead in one direction or +another, no matter how impracticable his ambitions might be. This +young man, however, seemed different; certain remarks had a true ring. +Perhaps, after all, her foolish old brother--foolish when his heart +misled him--might have found somebody at last who would pay for the time +he spent upon him. The name, too, had a familiar sound. She was quite +sure the aunt must be the same rather over-dressed persistent young +widow who had flitted in and out of Washington society the last year of +her own stay in the capital. She had finally married a rich New York man +of the same name. So she had heard. + +The tea to which Jack and Corinne were invited was the result of this +conversation. Trust Miss Felicia for doing the right thing and in the +right way, whatever her underlying purpose might be; and then again she +must look this new protege over. + +Peter at once joined in the project. Nothing pleased him so much as +a function of any kind in which his dear sister was the centre of +attraction, and this was always the case. Was not Mrs. McGuffey put to +it, at these same teas, to know what to do with the hats and coats, +and the long and short cloaks and overshoes, and lots of other things +beside--umbrellas and the like--whenever Miss Felicia came to town? And +did not the good woman have many of the cards of the former function +hidden in her bureau drawer to show her curious friends just how grand +a lady Miss Felicia was? General Waterbury, U.S.A., commanding the +Department of the East, with headquarters at Governors Island, was one +of them. And so were Colonel Edgerton, Judge Lambert and Mrs. Lambert; +and His Excellency the French Ambassador, whom she had known as an +attache and who was passing through the city and had been overjoyed to +leave a card; as well as Sir Anthony Broadstairs, who expected to spend +a week with her in her quaint home in Geneseo, but who had made it +convenient to pay his respects in Fifteenth Street instead: to say +nothing of the Coleridges, Thomases, Bordeauxs and Worthingtons, +besides any number of people from Washington Square, with plenty more +from Murray Hill and beyond. + +Peter in his enthusiasm had made a mental picture of a repetition of all +this and had already voiced it in the suggestion of these and various +other prominent names, when Miss Felicia stopped him with: + +"No, Peter--No. It's not to be a museum of fossils, but a garden full of +rosebuds; nobody with a strand of gray hair will be invited. As for the +lame, the halt and the blind, they can come next week. I've just been +looking you over, Peter; you are getting old and wrinkled and pretty +soon you'll be as cranky as the rest of them, and there will be no +living with you. The Major, who is half your age"--I had come early, as +was my custom, to pay my respects to the dear woman--"is no better. You +are both of you getting into a rut. What you want is some young blood +pumped into your shrivelled veins. I am going to hunt up every girl I +know and all the boys, including that young Breen you are so wild over, +and then I'll send for dear Ruth MacFarlane, who has just come North +with her father to live, and who doesn't know a soul, and nobody over +twenty-five is to be admitted. So if you and the Major want to come to +Ruth's tea--Ruth's, remember; not yours or the Major's, or mine--you +will either have to pass the cake or take the gentlemen's hats. Do you +hear?" + +We heard, and we heard her laugh as she spoke, raising her gold lorgnon +to her eyes and gazing at us with that half-quizzical look which so +often comes over her face. + +She was older than Peter--must have been: I never knew exactly. It would +not have been wise to ask her, and nobody else knew but Peter, and he +never told. And yet there was no mark of real old age upon her. She and +Peter were alike in this. Her hair, worn Pompadour, was gray--an honest +black-and-white gray; her eyes were bright as needle points; the skin +slightly wrinkled, but fresh and rosy--a spare, straight, well-groomed +old lady of--perhaps sixty--perhaps sixty-five, depending on her dress, +or undress, for her shoulders were still full and well rounded. "The +most beautiful neck and throat, sir, in all Washington in her day," old +General Waterbury once told me, and the General was an authority. "You +should have seen her in her prime, sir. What the devil the men were +thinking of I don't know, but they let her go back to Geneseo, and there +she has lived ever since. Why, sir, at a ball at the German Embassy she +made such a sensation that--" but then the General always tells such +stories of most of the women he knows. + +There was but little left of that kind of beauty. She had kept her +figure, it is true--a graceful, easy moving figure, with the waist of a +girl; well-proportioned arms and small, dainty hands. She had kept, +too, her charm of manner and keen sense of humor--she wouldn't have +been Peter's sister otherwise--as well as her interest in her friend's +affairs, especially the love affairs of all the young people about her. + +Her knowledge of men and women had broadened. She read them more easily +now than when she was a girl--had suffered, perhaps, by trusting them +too much. This had sharpened the tip end of her tongue to so fine a +point that when it became active--and once in a while it did--it could +rip a sham reputation up the back as easily as a keen blade loosens the +seams of a bodice. + +Peter fell in at once with her plan for a "Rosebud Tea," in spite of her +raillery and the threatened possibility of our exclusion, promising not +only to assist her with the invitations, but to be more than careful at +the Bank in avoiding serious mistakes in his balances--so as to be on +hand promptly at four. Moreover, if Jack had a sweetheart--and there +was no question of it, or ought not to be--and Corinne had another, +what would be better than bringing them all down together, so that Miss +Felicia could look them over, and Miss Ruth and the Major could get +better acquainted, especially Jack and Miss Felicia; and more especially +Jack and himself. + +Miss Felicia's proposal having therefore been duly carried out, with +a number of others not thought of when the tea was first +discussed--including some pots of geraniums in the window, red, of +course, to match the color of Peter's room--and the freshening up of +certain swiss curtains which so offended Miss Felicia's ever-watchful +eyes that she burst out with: "It is positively disgraceful, Peter, to +see how careless you are getting--" At which Mrs. McGuffey blushed to +the roots of her hair, and washed them herself that very night before +she closed her eyes. The great day having arrived, I say the tea-table +was set with Peter's best, including "the dearest of silver teapots" +that Miss Felicia had given him for special occasions; the table covered +with a damask cloth and all made ready for the arrival of her guests. +This done, the lady returned to her own room, from which she emerged +an hour later in a soft gray silk relieved by a film of old lace at her +throat, blending into the tones of her gray hair brushed straight up +from her forehead and worn high over a cushion, the whole topped by a +tiny jewel which caught the light like a drop of dew. + +And a veritable grand dame she looked, and was, as she took her seat and +awaited the arrival of her guests--in bearing, in the way she moved her +head; in the way she opened her fan--in the selection of the fan itself, +for that matter. You felt it in the color and length of her gloves; the +size of her pearl ear rings (not too large, and yet not too small), in +the choice of the few rings that encircled her slender and now somewhat +shrunken fingers (one hoop of gold had a history that the old French +Ambassador could have told if he wanted to, so Peter once hinted to +me)--everything she did in fact betrayed a wide acquaintance with the +great world and its requirements and exactions. + +Other women of her age might of their choice drop into charities, or +cats, or nephews and nieces, railing against the present and living +only in the past; holding on like grim death to everything that made +it respectable, so that they looked for all the world like so many old +daguerreotypes pulled from the frames. Not so Miss Felicia Grayson of +Geneseo, New York. Her past was a flexible, india-rubber kind of a past +that she stretched out after her. She might still wear her hair as she +did when the old General raved over her, although the frost of many +winters had touched it; but she would never hold on to the sleeves of +those days or the skirts or the mantles: Out or in they must go, +be puffed, cut bias, or made plain, just as the fashion of the day +insisted. Oh! a most level-headed, common-sense, old aristocrat was Dame +Felicia! + +With the arrival of the first carriage old Isaac Cohen moved his seat +from the back to the front of his shop, so he could see everybody who +got out and went in, as well as everybody who walked past and gazed up +at the shabby old house and its shabbier steps and railings. Not that +the shabby surroundings ever made any difference whether the guests were +"carriage company" or not, to quote good Mrs. McGuffey. Peter would not +be Peter if he lived anywhere else, and Miss Felicia wouldn't be half +so quaint and charming if she had received her guests behind a marble +or brownstone front with an awning stretched to the curbstone and a +red velvet carpet laid across the sidewalk, the whole patrolled by a +bluecoat and two hired men. + +The little tailor had watched many such functions before. So had the +neighbors, who were craning their heads from the windows. They all knew +by the carriages when Miss Felicia came to town and when she left, and +by the same token for that matter. The only difference between this +reception and former receptions, or teas, or whatever the great people +upstairs called them, was in the ages of the guests; not any gray +whiskers and white heads under high silk hats, this time; nor any demure +or pompous, or gentle, or, perhaps, faded old ladies puffing up Peter's +stairs--and they did puff before they reached his door, where they +handed their wraps to Mrs. McGuffey in her brave white cap and braver +white apron. Only bright eyes and rosy faces today framed in tiny bon +nets, and well-groomed young fellows in white scarfs and black coats. + +But if anybody had thought of the shabby surroundings they forgot all +about it when they mounted the third flight of stairs and looked in +the door. Not only was Peter's bedroom full of outer garments, and +Miss Felicia's, too, for that matter--but the banisters looked like a +clothes-shop undergoing a spring cleaning, so thickly were the coats +slung over its hand rail. So, too, were the hall, and the hall chairs, +and the gas bracket, and even the hooks where Peter hung his clothes to +be brushed in the morning--every conceivable place, in fact, wherever +an outer wrap of any kind could be suspended, poked, or laid flat. That +Mrs. McGuffey was at her wits' end--only a short walk--was evident from +the way she grabbed my hat and coat and disappeared through a door which +led to her own apartments, returning a moment later out of breath and, I +fancied, a little out of temper. + +And that was nothing to the way in which the owners of all these several +habiliments were wedged inside. First came the dome of Peter's bald head +surmounting his merry face, then the top of Miss Felicia's pompadour, +with its tiny diamond spark bobbing about as she laughed and moved +her head in saluting her guests and then mobs and mobs of young people +packed tight, looking for all the world like a matinee crowd leaving +a theatre (that is when you crane your neck to see over their heads), +except that the guests were without their wraps and were talking sixteen +to the dozen, and as merry as they could be. + +"They are all here, Major," Peter cried, dragging me inside. It was +wonderful how young and happy he looked. "Miss Corinne, and that loud +Hullaballoo, Garry Minott, we saw prancing around at the supper--you +remember--Holker gave him the ring." + +"And Miss MacFarlane?" I asked. + +"Ruth! Turn your head, my boy, and take a look at her. Isn't she a +picture? Did you ever see a prettier girl in all your life, and one more +charmingly dressed? Ruth, this is the Major... nothing else... just the +Major. He is perfectly docile, kind and safe, and--" + +"--And drives equally well in single or double harness, I suppose," +laughed the girl, extending her hand and giving me the slightest dip of +her head and bend of her back in recognition, no doubt, of my advancing +years and dignified bearing--in apology, too, perhaps, for her metaphor. + +"In SINGLE--not double," rejoined Peter. "He's the sourest, crabbedest +old bachelor in the world--except myself." + +Again her laugh bubbled out--a catching, spontaneous kind of laugh, as +if there were plenty more packed away behind her lips ready to break +loose whenever they found an opening. + +"Then, Major, you shall have two lumps to sweeten you up," and down went +the sugar-tongs into the silver bowl. + +Here young Breen leaned forward and lifted the bowl nearer to her hand, +while I waited for my cup. He had not left her side since Miss +Felicia had presented him, so Peter told me afterward. I had evidently +interrupted a conversation, for his eyes were still fastened upon hers, +drinking in her every word and movement. + +"And is sugar your cure for disagreeable people, Miss MacFarlane?" I +heard him ask under his breath as I stood sipping my tea. + +"That depends on how disagreeable they are," she answered. This came +with a look from beneath her eyelids. + +"I must be all right, then, for you only gave me one lump--" still under +his breath. + +"Only one! I made a mistake--" Eyes looking straight into Jack's, with a +merry twinkle gathering around their corners. + +"Perhaps I don't need any at all." + +"Yes, I'm sure you do. Here--hold your cup, sir; I'll fill it full." + +"No, I'm going to wait and see what effect one lump has. I'm beginning +to get pleasant already--and I was cross as two sticks when I--" + +And then she insisted he should have at least three more to make him at +all bearable, and he said there would be no living with him he would be +so charming and agreeable, and so the talk ran on, the battledoor and +shuttlecock kind of talk--the same prattle that we have all listened +to dozens of times, or should have listened to, to have kept our hearts +young. And yet not a talk at all; a play, rather, in which words count +for little and the action is everything: Listening to the toss of a curl +or the lowering of an eyelid; answering with a lift of the hand--such +a strong brown hand, that could pull an oar, perhaps, or help her over +dangerous places! Then her white teeth, and the way the head bent; and +then his ears and how close they lay to his head; and the short, +glossy hair with the faintest bit of a curl in it. And then the sudden +awakening: Oh, yes--it was the sugar Mr. Breen wanted, of course. What +was I thinking of? + +And so the game went on, neither of them caring where the ball went so +that it could be hit again when it came their way. + +When it was about to stay its flight I ventured in with the remark that +she must not forget to give my kindest and best to her good father. I +think she had forgotten I was standing so near. + +"And you know daddy!" she cried--the real girl was shining in her eyes +now--all the coquetry had vanished from her face. + +"Yes--we worked together on the piers of the big bridge over the +Delaware; oh, long ago." + +"Isn't he the very dearest? He promised to come here today, but I know +he won't. Poor daddy, he gets home so tired sometimes. He has just +started on the big tunnel and there is so much to do. I have been +helping him with his papers every night. But when Aunt Felicia's note +came--she isn't my real aunt, you know, but I have called her so ever +since I was a little girl--daddy insisted on my coming, and so I have +left him for just a few days. He will be so glad when I tell him I have +met one of his old friends." There was no question of her beauty, or +poise, or her naturalness. + +"Been a lady all her life, my dear Major, and her mother before her," +Miss Felicia said when I joined her afterward, and Miss Felicia knew. +"She is not like any of the young girls about, as you can see for +yourself. Look at her now," she whispered, with an approving nod of her +head. + +Again my eyes sought the girl. The figure was willowy and graceful; the +shoulders sloping, the arms tapering to the wrists. The hair was jet +black--"Some Spanish blood somewhere," I suggested, but the dear lady +answered sharply, "Not a drop; French Huguenot, my dear Major, and I am +surprised you should have made such a mistake." This black hair parted +in the middle, lay close to her head--such a wealth and torrent of it; +even with tucking it behind her ears and gathering it in a coil in her +neck it seemed just ready to fall. The face was oval, the nose perfect, +the mouth never still for an instant, so full was it of curves and +twinkles and little quivers; the eyes big, absorbing, restful, with lazy +lids that lifted slowly and lay motionless as the wings of a resting +butterfly, the eyebrows full and exquisitely arched. Had you met her in +mantilla and high-heeled shoes, her fan half shading her face, you would +have declared, despite Miss Felicia's protest, that only the click of +the castanets was needed to send her whirling to their rhythm. Had she +tied that same mantilla close under her lovely chin, and passed you with +upturned eyes and trembling lips, you would have sworn that the Madonna +from the neighboring church had strayed from its frame in search of the +helpless and the unhappy; and had none of these disguises been hers, and +she had flashed by you in the open some bright morning mounted on her +own black mare, face aglow, eyes like stars, her wonderful hair waving +in the wind, you would have stood stock-still in admiration, fear +gripping your throat, a prayer in your heart for the safe home-coming of +one so fearless and so beautiful. + +There was, too, about her a certain gentleness, a certain disposition +to be kind, even when her inherent coquetry--natural in the Southern +girl--led her into deep waters; a certain tenderness that made friends +of even unhappy suitors (and I heard that she could not count them on +her fingers) who had asked for more than she could give--a tenderness +which healed the wound and made lovers of them all for life. + +And then her Southern speech, indescribable and impossible in cold type. +The softening of the consonants, the slipping away of the terminals, the +slurring of vowels, and all in that low, musical voice born out side of +the roar and crash of city streets and crowded drawing-rooms with each +tongue fighting for mastery. + +All this Jack had taken in, besides a thousand other charms visible only +to the young enthusiast, before he had been two minutes in her presence. +As to her voice, he knew she was one of his own people when she had +finished pronouncing his name. Somebody worthwhile had crossed his path +at last! + +And with this there had followed, even as he talked to her, the usual +comparisons made by all young fellows when the girl they don't like is +placed side by side with the girl they do. Miss MacFarlane was tall +and Corinne was short; Miss MacFarlane was dark, and he adored dark, +handsome people--and Corinne was light; Miss MacFarlane's voice was low +and soft, her movements slow and graceful, her speech gentle--as if she +were afraid she might hurt someone inadvertently; her hair and dress +were simple to severity. While Corinne--well, in every one of these +details Corinne represented the exact opposite. It was the blood! Yes, +that was it--it was her blood! Who was she, and where did she come from? +Would Corinne like her? What impression would this high bred Southern +beauty make upon the pert Miss Wren, whose little nose had gone down a +point or two when her mother had discovered, much to her joy, the week +before, that it was the REAL Miss Grayson and not an imitation Miss +Grayson who had been good enough to invite her daughter and any of her +daughter's friends to tea; and it had fallen another point when she +learned that Miss Felicia had left her card the next day, expressing to +the potato-bug how sorry she was to hear that the ladies were out, but +that she hoped it would only be a matter of a few days before "she +would welcome them" to her own apartments, or words to that effect, +Frederick's memory being slightly defective. + +It was in answer to this request that Mrs. Breen, after consulting +her husband, had written three acceptances before she was willing that +Frederick should leave it with his own hands in Fifteenth Street--one +beginning, "It certainly is a pleasure after all these years"--which +was discarded as being too familiar; another, "So good of you, dear +Miss Grayson," which had a similar fate; and the third, which ran, "My +daughter will be most happy, dear Miss Grayson, to be with you," etc., +which was finally sealed with the Breen crest--a four-legged beastie of +some kind on its hind legs, with a motto explanatory of the promptness +of his ancestors in times of danger. Even then Corinne had hesitated +about accepting until Garry said: "Well, let's take it in, anyhow--we +can skip out if they bore us stiff." + +Knowing these things, therefore, and fearing that after all something +would happen to mar the pleasant relations he had established with +Peter, and with the honor of his uncle's family in his keeping, so +to speak, Jack had awaited the arrival of Corinne and Garry with +considerable trepidation. What if, after all, they should stay +away, ignoring the great courtesy which this most charming of old +ladies--never had he seen one so lovable or distinguished--had extended +to them; and she a stranger, too, and all because her brother Peter had +asked her to be kind to a boy like himself. + +The entrance of Corinne and Garry, therefore, into the crowded room half +an hour after his own had brought a relief to Jack's mind (he had +been watching the door, so as to be ready to present them), which Miss +Felicia's gracious salutation only intensified. + +"I remember your dear mother perfectly," he heard the old lady say as +she advanced to Corinne and took both her hands. "And she was quite +lovely. And this I am very sure is Mr. Breen's friend, Mr. Minott, who +has carried off all the honors. I am delighted to see you both. Peter, +do you take these dear young people and present them to Ruth." + +The two had thereupon squeezed through to Ruth's side; Peter in his +formal introduction awarding to Garry all the honors to which he was +entitled, and then Ruth, remembering her duties, said how glad she was +to know them; and would they have lemon or sugar?--and Corinne, with a +comprehensive glance of her rival, declined both, her excuse being that +she was nearly dead now with the heat and that a cup of tea would finish +her. Jack had winced when his ears caught the flippant answer, but +it was nothing to the way in which he shrivelled up when Garry, after +shaking Miss MacFarlane's hand as if it had been a pump-handle instead +of a thing so dainty that no boy had a right to touch it except with +reverence in his heart, had burst out with: "Glad to see you. From the +South, I hear--" as if she was a kangaroo or a Fiji Islander. He had +seen Miss MacFarlane give a little start at Garry's familiar way of +speaking, and had noticed how Ruth shrank behind the urn as if she +were afraid he would touch her again, although she had laughed quite +good-naturedly as she answered: + +"Not very far South; only from Maryland," and had then turned to Jack +and continued her talk with the air of one not wishing to be further +interrupted. + +The Scribe does not dare to relate what would have become of one so +sensitive as our hero could he have heard the discussion going on later +between the two young people when they were backed into one of Peter's +bookcases and stood surveying the room. "Miss MacFarlane isn't at all my +kind of a girl," Corinne had declared to Garry. "Really, I can't see why +the men rave over her. Pretty?--yes, sort of so-so; but no style, and +SUCH clothes! Fancy wearing a pink lawn and a sash tied around her waist +like a girl at a college commencement--and as to her hair--why no one +has ever THOUGHT of dressing her hair that way for AGES and AGES." + +Her mind thus relieved, my Lady Wren had made a survey of the rooms, +wondering what they wanted with so many funny old portraits, and whether +the old gentleman or his sister read the dusty books, Garry remarking +that there were a lot of "swells" among the young fellows, many of whom +he had heard of but had never met before. This done, the two wedged +their way out, without ever troubling Peter or Miss Felicia with their +good-bys, Garry telling Corinne that the old lady wouldn't know they +were gone, and Corinne adding under her breath that it didn't make any +difference to her if she did. + + + +CHAPTER IX + + + +But Jack stayed on. + +This was the atmosphere he had longed for. This, too, was where Peter +lived. Here were the chairs he sat in, the books he read, the pictures +he enjoyed. And the well-dressed, well-bred people, the hum of low +voices, the clusters of roses, the shaded candles, their soft rosy light +falling on the egg-shell cups and saucers and silver service, and the +lovely girl dispensing all this hospitality and cheer! Yes, here he +could live, breathe, enjoy life. Everything was worth while and just as +he had expected to find it. + +When the throng grew thick about her table he left Ruth's side, taking +the opportunity to speak to Peter or Miss Felicia (he knew few others), +but he was back again whenever the chance offered. + +"Don't send me away again," he pleaded when he came back for the +twentieth time, and with so much meaning in his voice that she looked at +him with wide-open eyes. It was not what he said--she had been brought +up on that kind of talk--it was the way he said it, and the inflection +in his voice. + +"I have been literally starving for somebody like you to talk to," he +continued, drawing up a stool and settling himself determinedly beside +her. + +"For me! Why, Mr. Breen, I'm not a piece of bread--" she laughed. "I'm +just girl." He had begun to interest her--this brown-eyed young fellow +who wore his heart on his sleeve, spoke her dialect and treated her as +if she were a duchess. + +"You are life-giving bread to me, Miss MacFarlane," answered Jack with a +smile. "I have only been here six months; I am from the South, too." And +then the boy poured out his heart, telling her, as he had told Peter, +how lonely he got sometimes for some of his own kind; and how the young +girl in the lace hat and feathers, who had come in with Garry, was his +aunt's daughter; and how he himself was in the Street, signing checks +all day--at which she laughed, saying in reply that nothing would give +her greater pleasure than a big book with plenty of blank checks--she +had never had enough, and her dear father had never had enough, either. +But he omitted all mention of the faro bank and of the gamblers--such +things not being proper for her ears, especially such little pink shells +of ears, nestling and half hidden in her beautiful hair. + +There was no knowing how long this absorbing conversation might have +continued (it had already attracted the attention of Miss Felicia) had +not a great stir taken place at the door of the outside hall. Somebody +was coming upstairs; or had come upstairs; somebody that Peter was +laughing with--great, hearty laughs, which showed his delight; somebody +that made Miss Felicia raise her head and listen, a light breaking over +her face. Then Peter's head was thrust in the door: + +"Here he is, Felicia. Come along, Holker--I have been wondering--" + +"Been wondering what, Peter? That I'd stay away a minute longer than I +could help after this dear lady had arrived?... Ah, Miss Felicia! Just +as magnificent and as young as ever. Still got that Marie Antoinette +look about you--you ought really--" + +"Stop that nonsense, Holker, right away," she cried, advancing a step to +greet him. + +"But it's all true, and--" + +"Stop, I tell you; none of your sugar-coated lies. I am seventy if I am +a day, and look it, and if it were not for these furbelows I would look +eighty. Now tell me about yourself and Kitty and the boys, and whether +the Queen has sent you the Gold Medal yet, and if the big Library is +finished and--" + +"Whew! what a cross examination. Wait--I'll draw up a set of +specifications and hand them in with a new plan of my life." + +"You will do nothing of the kind! You will draw up a chair--here, right +alongside of me, and tell me about Kitty and--No, Peter, he is not going +to be taken over and introduced to Ruth for at least five minutes. Peter +has fallen in love with her, Holker, and I do not blame him. One of +these young fellows--there he is still talking to her--hasn't left her +side since he put his eyes on her. Now begin--The Medal?-- + +"Expected by next steamer." + +"The Corn Exchange?" + +"All finished but the inside work." + +"Kitty?" + +"All finished but the outside work." + +Miss Felicia looked up. "Your wife, I mean, you stupid fellow." + +"Yes, I know. She would have come with me but her dress didn't arrive in +time." + +Miss Felicia laughed: "And the boys?" + +"Still in Paris--buying bric-a-brac and making believe they're studying +architecture and--But I'm not going to answer another question. +Attention! Miss Felicia Grayson at the bar!" + +The dear lady straightened her back, her face crinkling with merriment. + +"Present!" she replied, drawing down the corners of her mouth. + +"When did you leave home? How long will you stay? Can you come to +dinner--you and Methusaleh--on Wednesday night?" + +"I refuse to answer by advice of counsel. As to coming to dinner, I +am not going anywhere for a week--then I am coming to you and Kitty, +whether it is Wednesday or any other night. Now, Peter, take him away. +He's so puffed up with his Gold Medal he's positively unbearable." + +All this time Jack had been standing beside Ruth. He had heard the stir +at the door and had seen Holker join Miss Felicia, and while the +talk between the two lasted he had interspersed his talk to Ruth with +accounts of the supper, and Garry's getting the ring, to which was added +the boy's enthusiastic tribute to the architect himself. "The greatest +man I have met yet," he said in his quick, impulsive way. "We don't +have any of them down our way. I never saw one--nobody ever did. Here he +comes with Mr. Grayson. I hope you will like him." + +Ruth made a movement as if to start to her feet. To sit still and look +her best and attend to her cups and hot water and tiny wafers was all +right for men like Jack, but not with distinguished men like Mr. Morris. + +Morris had his hand on her chair before she could move it back. + +"No, my dear young lady--you'll please keep your seat. I've been +watching you from across the room and you make too pretty a picture as +you are. Tea?--Not a drop." + +"Oh, but it is so delicious--and I will give you the very biggest piece +of lemon that is left." + +"No--not a drop; and as to lemon--that's rank poison to me. You should +have seen me hobbling around with gout only last week, and all because +somebody at a reception, or tea, or some such plaguey affair, made me +drink a glass of lemonade. Give it to this aged old gentleman--it will +keep him awake. Here, Peter!" + +Up to this moment no word had been addressed to Jack, who stood outside +the half circle waiting for some sign of recognition from the great man; +and a little disappointed when none came. He did not know that one of +the great man's failings was his forgetting the names even of those of +his intimate friends--such breaks as "Glad to see you--I remember you +very well, and very pleasantly, and now please tell me your name," being +a common occurrence with the great architect--a failing that everybody +pardoned. + +Peter noticed the boy's embarrassment and touched Morris' arm. + +"You remember Mr. Breen, don't you, Holker? He was at your supper that +night--and sat next to me." + +Morris whirled quickly and held out his hand, all his graciousness in +his manner. + +"Yes, certainly. You took the ring to Minott, of course. Very glad to +meet you again--and what did you say his name was, Peter?" This in the +same tone of voice--quite as if Jack were miles away. + +"Breen--John Breen," answered Peter, putting his arm on Jack's shoulder, +to accentuate more clearly his friendship for the boy. + +"All the better, Mr. John Breen--doubly glad to see you, now that I know +your name. I'll try not to forget it next time. Breen! Breen! Peter, +where have I heard that name before? Breen--where the devil have I--Oh, +yes--I've got it now. Quite a common name, isn't it?" + +Jack assured him with a laugh that it was; there were more than a +hundred in the city directory. He wasn't offended at Morris forgetting +his name, and wanted him to see it. + +"Glad to know it; wouldn't like to think you were mixed up in the +swindle. You ought to thank your stars, my dear fellow, that you got +into architecture instead of into Wall--" + +"But I am in--" + +"Yes, I know--you're with Hunt--" (another instance of a defective +memory) "and you couldn't be with a better man--the best in the +profession, really. I'm talking of some scoundrels of your name--Breen +& Co., the firm is--who, I hear, have cheated one of my clients--young +Gilbert--fine fellow--just married--persuaded him to buy some gold +stock--Mukton Lode, I think they called it--and robbed him of all he +has. He must stop on his house I hear. And now, my dear Miss--" here he +turned to the young girl--"I really forget--" + +"Ruth," she answered with a smile. She had taken Morris's measure and +had already begun to like him as much as Jack did. + +"Yes--Miss Ruth--Now, please, my dear girl, keep on being young and very +beautiful and very wholesome, for you are every one of these things, and +I know you'll forgive me for saying so when I tell you that I have two +strapping young fellows for sons who are almost old enough to make love +to you. Come, Peter, show me that copy of Tacitus you wrote me about. +Is it in good condition?" They were out of Jack's hearing now, Morris +adding, "Fine type of Southern beauty, Peter. Big design, with broad +lines everywhere. Good, too--good as gold. Something about her forehead +that reminds me of the Italian school. Looks as if Bellini might have +loved her. Hello, Major! What are you doing here all by yourself?" + +Jack stood transfixed! + +Horror, anger, humiliation over the exposure (it was unheard, if he had +but known it, by anyone in the room except Peter and himself) rushed +over him in hot concurrent waves. It was his uncle, then, who had +robbed young Gilbert! The Mukton Lode! He had handled dozens of the +certificates, just as he had handled dozens of others, hardly glancing +at the names. He remembered overhearing some talk one day in which his +uncle had taken part. Only a few days before he had sent a bundle of +Mukton certificates to the transfer office of the company. + +Then a chill struck him full in the chest and he shivered to his +finger-tips. Had Ruth heard?--and if she had heard, would she +understand? In his talk he had given her his true self--his standards +of honor--his beliefs in what was true and worth having. When she knew +all--and she must know--would she look upon him as a fraud? That his +uncle had been accused of a shrewd scoop in the Street did not make his +clerk a thief, but would she see the difference? + +All these thoughts surged through his mind as he stood looking into +her eyes, her hand in his while he made his adieux. He had determined, +before Morris fired the bomb which shattered his hopes, to ask if he +might see her again, and where, and if there could be found no place +fitting and proper, she being motherless and Miss Felicia but a +chaperon, to write her a note inviting her to walk up through the Park +with him, and so on into the open where she really belonged. All this +was given up now. The best thing for him was to take his leave as +quietly as possible, without committing her to anything--anything which +he felt sure she would repudiate as soon as she learned--if she did not +know already--how undesirable an acquaintance John Breen, of Breen & +Co., was, etc. + +As to his uncle's share in the miserable transaction, there was but one +thing to do--to find out, and from his own lips, if possible, if the +story were true, and if so to tell him exactly what he thought of Breen +& Co. and the business in which they were engaged. Peter's advice was +good, and he wished he could follow it, but here was a matter in which +his honor was concerned. When this side of the matter was presented to +Mr. Grayson he would commend him for his course of action. To think that +his own uncle should be accused of a transaction of this kind--his own +uncle and a Breen! Could anything be more horrible! + +So sudden was his departure from the room--just "I must go now; I'm so +grateful to you all for asking me, and I've had such a good--Good-by--" +that Miss Felicia looked after him in astonishment, turning to Peter +with: + +"Why, what's the matter with the boy? I wanted him to dine with us. Did +you say anything to him, Peter, to hurt his feelings?" + +Peter shook his head. Morris, he knew, was the unconscious culprit, but +this was not for his sister's or Ruth's ears--not, at least, until he +could get at the exact facts for himself. + +"He is as sensitive as a plant," continued Peter; "he closes all up at +times. But he is genuine, and he is sincere--that's better than poise, +sometimes." + +"Well, then, maybe Ruth has offended him," suggested Miss Felicia. +"No--she couldn't. Ruth, what have you done to young Mr. Breen?" + +The girl threw back her head and laughed. + +"Nothing." + +"Well, he went off as if he had been shot from a gun. That is not like +him at all, I should say, from what I have seen of him. Perhaps I should +have looked after him a little more. I tried once, but I could not get +him away from you. His manner is really charming when he talks, and he +is so natural and so well bred; not at all like his friend, of whom he +seems to think so much. How did you like him, dear Ruth?" + +"Oh, I don't know." She knew, but she didn't intend to tell anybody. +"He's very shy and--" + +"--And very young." + +"Yes, perhaps." + +"And very much of a gentleman," broke in Peter in a decided tone. None +should misunderstand the boy if he could help it. + +Again Ruth laughed. Neither of them had touched the button which had +rung up her sympathy and admiration. + +"Of course he is a gentleman. He couldn't be anything else. He is from +Maryland, you know." + + + +CHAPTER X + + + +Reference has been made in these pages to a dinner to be given in the +house of Breen to various important people, and to which Mr. Peter +Grayson, the honored friend of the distinguished President of the +Clearing House, was to be invited. The Scribe is unable to say whether +the distinguished Mr. Grayson received an invitation or not. Breen may +have thought better of it, or Jack may have discouraged it after closer +acquaintance with the man who had delighted his soul as no other man +except his father had ever done--but certain it is that he was not +present, and equally certain is it that the distinguished Mr. Portman +was, and so were many of the directors of the Mukton Lode, not to +mention various others--capitalists whose presence would lend dignity to +the occasion and whose names and influence would be of inestimable value +to the future of the corporation. + +As fate would have it the day for assuaging the appetites of these +financial magnates was the same that Miss Felicia had selected for her +tea to Ruth, and the time at which they were to draw up their chairs but +two hours subsequent to that in which Jack, crushed and humiliated by +his uncle's knavery, had crept downstairs and into the street. + +In this frame of mind the poor boy had stopped at the Magnolia in the +hope of finding Garry, who must, he thought, have left Corinne at home, +and then retraced his steps to the club. He must explode somewhere and +with someone, and the young architect was the very man he wanted. Garry +had ridiculed his old-fashioned ideas and had advised him to let himself +go. Was the wiping out of Gilbert's fortune part of the System? he asked +himself. + +As he hunted through the rooms, almost deserted at this hour, his eyes +searching for his friend, a new thought popped into his head, and with +such force that it bowled him over into a chair, where he sat staring +straight in front of him. Tonight, he suddenly remembered, was the +night of the dinner his uncle was to give to some business friends--"A +Gold-Mine Dinner," his aunt had called it. His cheeks flamed again when +he thought that these very men had helped in the Mukton swindle. To +interrupt them, though, at their feast--or even to mention the subject +to his uncle while the dinner was in progress--was, of course, out of +the question. He would stay where he was; dine alone, unless Garry came +in, and then when the last man had left his uncle's house he would have +it out with him. + +Biffton was the only man who disturbed his solitude. Biffy was in full +evening dress--an enormous white carnation in his button-hole and a +crush hat under his arm. He was booked for a "Stag," he said with +a yawn, or he would stay and keep him company. Jack didn't want any +company--certainly not Biffy--most assuredly not any of the young +fellows who had asked him about Gilbert's failure. What he wanted was +to be left alone until eleven o'clock, during which time he would get +something to eat. + +Dinner over, he buried himself in a chair in the library and let his +mind roam. Angry as he was, Ruth's image still haunted him. How pretty +she was--how gracefully she moved her arm as she lifted the cups; +and the way the hair waved about her temples; and the tones of her +voice--and dear Peter, so kind and thoughtful of him, so careful that he +should be introduced to this and that person; and Miss Felicia! What a +great lady she was; and yet he was not a bit afraid of her. What would +they all think of him when the facts of his uncle's crime came to their +ears, and they MUST come sooner or later. What, too, would Peter think +of him for breaking out on his uncle, which he firmly intended to do as +soon as the hour hand reached eleven? Nor would he mince his words. That +an outrage of this kind could be committed on an unsuspecting man was +bad enough, but that it should have taken place in his own uncle's +office, bringing into disrepute his father's and his own good name, was +something he could not tolerate for a moment. This he intended saying to +his uncle in so many plain words; and so leaving our hero with his +soul on fire, his mind bent on inflammables, explosives, +high-pressures--anything in fact that once inserted under the solid body +of the senior Breen would blow that gentleman into space--we will betake +ourselves to his palatial home. The dinner being an important one, no +expense had been spared. + +All day long boys in white aprons had sprung from canvas-covered wagons, +dived in Arthur Breen's kitchen and dived out again after depositing +various eatables, drinkables and cookables--among them six pair +of redheads, two saddles of mutton, besides such uncanny things as +mushrooms, truffles and the like, all of which had been turned over to +the chef, who was expressly engaged for the occasion, and whose white +cap--to quote Parkins--"Gives a hair to the scullery which reminded +him more of 'ome than anything 'e 'ad seen since 'e left 'is lordship's +service." + +Upstairs more wonderful things had been done. The table of the +sepulchral dining-room was transformed into a bed of tulips, the mantel +a parterre of flowers, while the sideboard, its rear packed with the +family silver, was guarded by a row of bottles of various sizes, shapes +and colors; various degrees of cob webbed shabbiness, too--containing +the priceless vintages which the senior member of the firm of Breen & +Co. intended to set before his friends. + +Finally, as the dinner hour approached, all the gas jets were ablaze; +not only the side lights in the main hall, and the overhead lantern +which had shed its rays on Peter's bald head, but the huge glass +chandelier hung in the middle of the satin-upholstered drawing room, as +well as the candelabra on the mantel with their imitation wax candles +and brass wicks--everything, in fact, that could add to the brilliancy +of the occasion. + +All this, despite the orderly way in which the millionaire's house was +run, had developed a certain nervous anxiety in the host himself, the +effect of which had not yet worn off, although but a few minutes would +elapse before the arrival of the guests. This was apparent in the +rise and fall of Breen's heels, as he seesawed back and forth on the +hearth-rug in the satin-lined drawing-room, with his coattails spread to +the lifeless grate, and from the way he glanced nervously at the mirror +to see that his cravat was properly tied and that his collar did not +ride up in the back. + +The only calm person in the house was the ex-widow. With the eyes of a +major-general sweeping the field on the eve of an important battle, she +had taken in the disposition of the furniture, the hang of the curtains +and the placing of the cushions and lesser comforts. She had also +arranged with her own hands the masses of narcissus and jonquils on the +mantels, and had selected the exact shade of yellow tulips which centred +the dining-room table. It was to be a "Gold-Mine Dinner," so Arthur had +told her, "and everything must be in harmony." + +Then seeing Parkins, who had entered unexpectedly and caught her in the +act (it is bad form for a hostess to arrange flowers in some houses--the +butler does that), she asked in an indifferent tone: "And how many are +we to have for dinner, Parkins?" She knew, of course, having spent an +hour over a diagram placing the guests. + +"Fourteen, my lady." + +"Fourteen!--really, quite a small affair." And with the air of one +accustomed all her life to banquets in palaces of state, she swept out +of the room. + +The only time she betrayed herself was just before the arrival of the +guests, when her mind reverted to her daughter. + +"The Portmans are giving a ball next week, Arthur, and I want Corinne to +go. Are you sure he is coming?" + +"Don't worry, Kitty, Portman's coming; and so are the Colonel, and +Crossbin, and Hodges, and the two Chicago directors, and Mason, and a +lot more. Everybody's coming, I tell you. If Mukton Lode doesn't sit up +and take notice with a new lease of life after tonight, I'm a Dutchman. +Run, there's the bell." + +The merciful Scribe will spare the reader the details incident upon +the arrival of the several guests. These dinners are all alike: the +announcements by the butler; the passing of the cocktails on a +wine tray; the standing around until the last man has entered the +drawing-room; the perfunctory talk--the men who have met before +hobnobbing instantly with each other, the host bearing the brunt of the +strangers; the saunter into the dining-room, the reading of cards, +and the "Here you are, Mr. Portman, right alongside Mr. Hodges. And +Crossbin, you are down there somewhere"; the spreading of napkins and +squaring of everybody's elbow as each man drops into his seat. + +Neither will the reader be told of the various dishes or their +garnishings. These pages have so far been filled with little else beside +eating and drinking, and with reason, too, for have not all the great +things in life been begun over some tea-table, carried on at a luncheon, +and completed between the soup and the cordials? Kings, diplomats +and statesmen have long since agreed that for baiting a trap there is +nothing like a soup, an entree and a roast, the whole moistened by a +flagon of honest wine. The bait varies when the financier or promoter +sets out to catch a capitalist, just as it does when one sets out to +catch a mouse, and yet the two mammals are much alike--timid, one foot +at a time, nosing about to find out if any of his friends have had a +nibble; scared at the least disturbing echo--then the fat, toothsome +cheese looms up (Breen's Madeira this time), and in they go. + +But if fuller description of this special bait be omitted, there is no +reason why that of the baiters and the baited should be left out of the +narrative. + +Old Colonel Purviance, of the Chesapeake Club, for one--a big-paunched +man who always wore, summer and winter, a reasonably white waistcoat +and a sleazy necktie; swore in a loud voice and dropped his g's when +he talked. "Bit 'em off," his friends said, as he did the end of his +cigars. He had, in honor of the occasion so contrived that his black +coat and trousers matched this time, while his shoestring tie had been +replaced by a white cravat. But the waistcoat was of the old pattern +and the top button loose, as usual. The Colonel earned his living--and +a very comfortable one it was--by promoting various enterprises--some of +them rather shady. He had also a gift for both starting and maintaining +a boom. Most of the Mukton stock owned by the Southern contingent had +been floated by him. Another of his accomplishments was his ability +to label correctly, with his eyes shut, any bottle of Madeira from +anybody's cellar, and to his credit, be it said, he never lied about the +quality, be it good, bad or abominable. + +Next to him sat Mason, from Chicago--a Westerner who had made his money +in a sudden rise in real estate, and who had moved to New York to spend +it: an out-spoken, common-sense, plain man, with yellow eyebrows, yellow +head partly bald, and his red face blue specked with powder marks due +to a premature blast in his mining days. Mason couldn't tell the best +Tiernan Madeira from corner-grocery sherry, and preferred whiskey at any +and all hours--and what was more, never assumed for one instant that he +could. + +Then came Hodges, the immaculately dressed epicure--a pale, +clean-shaven, eye-glassed, sterilized kind of a man with a long neck +and skinny fingers, who boasted of having twenty-one different clarets +stored away under his sidewalk which were served to ordinary guests, and +five special vintages which he kept under lock and key, and which were +only uncorked for the elect, and who invariably munched an olive before +sampling the next wine. Then followed such lesser lights, as Nixon, +Leslie and the other guests. + +A most exacting group of bons vivants, these. The host had realized +it and had brought out his best. Most of it, to be sure, had come from +Beaver Street, something "rather dry, with an excellent bouquet," the +crafty salesman with gimlet eyes had said; but, then, most of the old +Madeira does come from Beaver Street, except Portman's, who has a fellow +with a nose and a palate hunting the auction rooms for that particular +Sunset of 1834 which had lain in old Mr. Grinnells cellar for twenty-two +years; and that other of 1839, once possessed by Colonel Purviance, +a wine which had so sharpened the Colonel's taste that he was always +uncomfortable when dining outside of his club or away from the tables of +one or two experts like himself. + +These, then, were the palates to which Breen catered. Back of them lay +their good-will and good feeling; still back of them, again, their bank +accounts and--another scoop in Mukton! Most of the guests had had a hand +in the last deal and they were ready to share in the next. Although this +particular dinner was supposed to be a celebration of the late victory, +two others, equally elaborate, had preceded it; both Crossbin and Hodges +having entertained nearly this same group of men at their own tables. +That Breen, with his reputation for old Madeira and his supposed +acquaintance with the intricacies of a Maryland kitchen, would outclass +them both, had been whispered a dozen times since the receipt of his +invitation, and he knew it. Hence the alert boy, the chef in the white +cap, and hence the seesawing on the hearth-rug. + +"Like it, Crossbin?" asked Breen. + +Parkins had just passed down the table with a dust covered bottle which +he handled with the care of a collector fingering a peachblow vase. +The precious fluid had been poured into that gentleman's glass and its +contents were now within an inch of his nose. + +The moment was too grave for instant reply; Mr. Crossbin was allowing +the aroma to mount to the innermost recesses of his nostrils. It had +only been a few years since he had performed this same trick with a +gourd suspended from a nail in his father's back kitchen, overlooking a +field of growing corn; but that fact was not public property--not here +in New York. + +"Yes--smooth, and with something of the hills in it. Chateau Lamont, is +it not, of '61?" It was Chateau of something-or-other, and of some +year, but Breen was too wise to correct him. He supposed it was Chateau +Lafitte--that is, he had instructed Parkins to serve that particular +wine and vintage. + +"Either '61 or '63," replied Breen with the air of positive certainty. +(How that boy in the white apron, who had watched the boss paste on the +labels, would have laughed had he been under the table.) + +Further down the cloth Hodges, the epicure, was giving his views as +to the proper way of serving truffles. A dish had just passed, with +an underpinning of crust. Hodges's early life had qualified him as an +expert in cooking, as well as in wines: Ten years in a country store +swapping sugar for sausages and tea for butter and eggs; five more +clerk in a Broadway cloth house, with varied boarding-house experiences +(boiled mutton twice a week, with pudding on Sundays); three years +junior partner, with a room over Delmonico's; then a rich wife and a +directorship in a bank (his father-in-law was the heaviest depositor); +next, one year in Europe and home, as vice-president, and at the +present writing president of one of the certify-as-early-as-ten +o'clock-in-the-morning kind of banks, at which Peter would so often laugh. +With these experiences there came the usual blooming and expanding--all +the earlier life forgotten, really ignored. Soon the food of the +country became unbearable. Even the canvasbacks must feed on a certain +kind of wild celery; the oysters be dredged from a particular cove, and +the terrapin drawn from their beds with the Hodges' coat of arms cut +in their backs before they would be allowed a place on the ex-clerk's +table. + +It is no wonder, then, that everybody listened when the distinguished +epicure launched out on the proper way to both acquire and serve so rare +and toothsome a morsel as a truffle. + +"Mine come by every steamer," Hodges asserted in a positive tone--not to +anybody in particular, but with a sweep of the table to attract enough +listeners to make it worthwhile for him to proceed. "My man is aboard +before the gang-plank is secure--gets my package from the chief steward +and is at my house with the truffles within an hour. Then I at once take +proper care of them. That is why my truffles have that peculiar +flavor you spoke of, Mr. Portman, when you last dined at my house. You +remember, don't you?" + +Portman nodded. He did not remember--not the truffles. He recalled some +white port--but that was because he had bought the balance of the lot +himself. + +"Where do they come from?" inquired Mason, the man from Chicago. He +wanted to know and wasn't afraid to ask. + +"All through France. Mine are rooted near a little village in the +Province of Perigord." + +"What roots 'em?" + +"Hogs--trained hogs. You are familiar, of course, with the way they are +secured?" + +Mason--plain man as he was--wasn't familiar with anything remotely +connected with the coralling of truffles, and said so. Hodges talked on, +his eye resting first on one and then another of the guests, his voice +increasing in volume whenever a fresh listener craned his neck, as if +the information was directed to him alone--a trick of Hodges' when he +wanted an audience. + +"And now a word of caution," he continued; "some thing that most of +you may not know--always root on a rainy day--sunshine spoils their +flavor--makes them tough and leathery." + +"Kind of hog got anything to do with the taste?" asked Mason in all +sincerity. He was learning New York ways--a new lesson each day, and +intended to keep on, but not by keeping his mouth shut. + +"Nothing whatever," replied Hodges. "They must never be allowed to bite +them, of course. You can wound a truffle as you can everything else." + +Mason looked off into space and the Colonel bent his ear. Purviance's +diet had been largely drawn from his beloved Chesapeake, and "dug-up +dead things"--as he called the subject under discussion--didn't interest +him. He wanted to laugh--came near it--then he suddenly remembered how +important a man Hodges might be and how necessary it was to give him air +space in which to float his pet balloons and so keep him well satisfied +with himself. + +Mason, the Chicago man, had no such scruples. He had twice as much money +as Hodges, four times his digestion and ten times his commonsense. + +"Send that dish back here, Breen," Mason cried out in a clear voice--so +loud that Parkins, winged by the shot, retraced his steps. "I want to +see what Mr. Hodges is talking about. Never saw a truffle that I know +of." Here he turned the bits of raw rubber over with his fork. "No. Take +it away. Guess I'll pass. Hog saw it first; he can have it." + +Hodges's face flushed, then he joined in the laugh. The Chicago man +was too valuable a would-be subscriber to quarrel with. And, then, how +impossible to expect a person brought up as Mason had been to understand +the ordinary refinements of civilization. + +"Rough diamond, Mason--Good fellow. Backbone of our country," Hodges +whispered to the Colonel, who was sore from the strain of repressed +hilarity. "A little coarse now and then--but that comes of his early +life, no doubt." + +Hodges waited his chance and again launched out; this time it was upon +the various kinds of wines his cellar contained--their cost--who had +approved of them--how impossible it was to duplicate some of them, +especially some Johannesburg of '74. + +"Forty-two dollars a bottle--not pressed in the ordinary way--just the +weight of the grapes in the basket in which they are gathered in the +vineyard, and what naturally drips through is caught and put aside," +etc. + +Breen winced. First his truffles were criticised, and now his pet +Johannesburg that Parkins was pouring into special glasses--cooled to an +exact temperature--part of a case, he explained to Nixon, who sat on his +right, that Count Mosenheim had sent to a friend here. Something must be +done to head Hodges off or there was no telling what might happen. The +Madeira was the thing. He knew that was all right, for Purviance had +found it in Baltimore--part of a private cellar belonging some time in +the past to either the Swan or Thomas families--he could not remember +which. + +The redheads were now in order, with squares of fried hominy, and for +the moment Hodges held his peace. This was Nixon's opportunity, and he +made the most of it. He had been born on the eastern shore of Maryland +and was brought up on canvasbacks, soft-shell crabs and terrapin--not to +mention clams and sheepshead. Nixon therefore launched out on the habits +of the sacred bird--the crimes committed by the swivel-gun in the hands +of the marketmen, the consequent scarcity of the game and the near +approach of the time when the only rare specimens would be found in the +glass cases of the museums, ending his talk with a graphic description +of the great wooden platters of boiling-hot terrapin which were served +to passengers crossing to Norfolk in the old days. The servants would +split off the hot shell--this was turned top side down, used as a dish +and filled with butter, pepper and salt, into which toothsome bits of +the reptile, torn out by the guests' forks, were dipped before being +eaten. + +The talk now caromed from birds, reptiles and fish to guns and tackles, +and then to the sportsmen who used them, and then to the millionaires +who owned the largest shares in the ducking clubs, and so on to the +stock of the same, and finally to the one subject of the evening--the +one uppermost in everybody's thoughts which so far had not been touched +upon--the Mukton Lode. There was no question about the proper mechanism +of the traps--the directors were attending to that; the quality of the +bait, too, seemed all that could be desired--that was Breen's part. How +many mice were nosing about was the question, and of the number how many +would be inside when the spring snapped? + +The Colonel, after a nod of his head and a reassuring glance from his +host, took full charge of the field, soaring away with minute accounts +of the last inspection of the mine. He told how the "tailings" at Mukton +City had panned out 30 per cent, to the ton--with two hundred thousand +tons in the dump thrown away until the new smelter was started and they +could get rid of the sulphides; of what Aetna Cobb's Crest had done +and Beals Hollow and Morgan Creek--all on the same ridge, and was about +launching out on the future value of Mukton Lode when Mason broke the +silence by asking if any one present had heard of a mine somewhere in +Nevada which an Englishman had bought and which had panned out $1,200 to +the ton the first week and not a cent to the square mile ever afterward? +The Chicago man was the most important mouse of the lot, and the tone of +his voice and his way of speaking seemed fraught with a purpose. + +Breen leaned forward in rapt attention, and even Hodges and Portman +(both of them were loaded to the scuppers with Mukton) stopped talking. + +"Slickest game I ever heard of," continued Mason. "Two men came into +town--two poor prospectors, remember--ran across the Englishman at the +hotel--told the story of their claim: 'Take it or leave it after you +look it over,' they said. Didn't want but sixty thousand for it; that +would give them thirty thousand apiece, after which they'd quit and live +on a ranch. No, they wouldn't go with him to inspect the mine; there +was the map. He couldn't miss it; man at the hotel would drive him out +there. There was, of course, a foot of snow on the ground, which +was frozen hard, but they had provided for that and had cut a lot of +cord-wood, intending to stay till spring. The Englishman could have the +wood to thaw out the ground." + +"The Englishman went and found everything as the two prospectors had +said; thawed out the soil in half a dozen places; scooped up the dirt +and every shovelful panned out about twelve hundred to the ton. Then +he came back and paid the money; that was the last of it. Began to dig +again in the spring--and not a trace of anything." + +"What was the matter?" asked Breen. So far his interest in mines had +been centred on the stock. + +"Oh, the same old swindle," said Mason, looking around the table, a grim +smile on his face--"only in a different way." + +"Was it salted?" called out a man from the lower end of the table. + +"Yes," replied Mason; "not the mine, but the cord-wood. The two poor +prospectors had bored auger holes in each stick, stuffed 'em full of +gold dust and plugged the openings. It was the ashes that panned out +$1,200 to the ton." + +Mason was roaring, as were one or two about him. Portman looked grave, +and so did Breen. Nothing of that kind had ever soiled their hands; +everything with them was open and above-board. They might start a +rumor that the Lode had petered out, throw an avalanche of stock on +the market, knock it down ten points, freezing out the helpless (poor +Gilbert had been one of them), buy in what was offered and then declare +an extra dividend, sending the stock skyward, but anything so low +as--"Oh, very reprehensible--scandalous in fact." + +Hodges was so moved by the incident that he asked Breen if he would not +bring back that Madeira (it had been served now in the pipe-stem glasses +which had been crossed in finger-bowls). This he sipped slowly and +thoughtfully, as if the enormity of the crime had quite appalled him. +Mason was no longer a "rough diamond," but an example of what a "Western +training will sometimes do for a man," he whispered under his breath to +Crossbin. + +With the departure of the last guest--one or two of them were a little +unsteady; not Mason, we may be sure--Jack, who had come home and was +waiting upstairs in his room for the feast to be over, squared his +shoulders, threw up his chin and, like many another crusader bent on +straightening the affairs of the world, started out to confront his +uncle. His visor was down, his lance in rest, his banner unfurled, the +scarf of the blessed damosel tied in double bow-knot around his trusty +right arm. Both knight and maid were unconscious of the scarf, and yet +if the truth be told it was Ruth's eyes that had swung him into battle. +Now he was ready to fight; to renounce the comforts of life and live +on a crust rather than be party to the crimes that were being daily +committed under his very eyes! + +His uncle was in the library, having just bowed out his last guest, +when the boy strode in. About him were squatty little tables holding the +remnants of the aftermath of the feast--siphons and decanters and the +sample boxes of cigars--full to the lid when Parkins first passed them +(why fresh cigars out of a full box should have a better flavor than +the same cigars from a half-empty one has always been a mystery to the +Scribe). + +That the dinner had been a success gastronomically, socially and +financially, was apparent from the beatific boozy smile that pervaded +Breen's face as he lay back in his easy-chair. To disturb a reverie +of this kind was as bad as riding rough-shod over some good father +digesting his first meal after Lent, but the boy's purpose was too lofty +to be blunted by any such considerations. Into the arena went his glove +and out rang his challenge. + +"What I have got to say to you, Uncle Arthur, breaks my heart, but you +have got to listen to me! I have waited until they were all gone to tell +you." + +Breen laid his glass on the table and straightened himself in his chair. +His brain was reeling from the wine he had taken and his hand unsteady, +but he still had control of his arms and legs. + +"Well, out with it! What's it all about, Jack?" + +"I heard this afternoon that my friend Gilbert was ruined in our office. +The presence of these men to-night makes me believe it to be true. If +it is true, I want to tell you that I'll never enter the office again as +long as I live!" + +Breen's eyes flashed: + +"You'll never enter!... What the devil is the matter with you, +Jack!--are you drunk or crazy?" + +"Neither! And I want to tell you, sir, too, that I won't be pointed out +as having anything to do with such a swindling concern as the Mukton +Lode Company. You've stopped the work on Gilbert's house--Mr. Morris +told me so--you've--" + +The older man sprang from his seat and lunged toward the boy. + +"Stop it!" he cried. "Now--quick!" + +"Yes--and you've just given a dinner to the very men who helped steal +his money, and they sat here and laughed about it! I heard them as I +came in!" The boy's tears were choking him now. + +"Didn't I tell you to stop, you idiot!" His fist was within an inch of +Jack's nose: "Do you want me to knock your head off? What the hell is it +your business who I invite to dinner--and what do you know about Mukton +Lode? Now you go to bed, and damn quick, too! Parkins, put out the +lights!" + +And so ended the great crusade with our knight unhorsed and floundering +in the dust. Routed by the powers of darkness, like many another gallant +youth in the old chivalric days, his ideals laughed at, his reforms +flouted, his protests ignored--and this, too, before he could fairly +draw his sword or couch his lance. + + + +CHAPTER XI + + + +That Jack hardly closed his eyes that night, and that the first thing he +did after opening them the next morning was to fly to Peter for comfort +and advice, goes without saying. Even a sensible, well-balanced young +man--and our Jack, to the Scribe's great regret, is none of these--would +have done this with his skin still smarting from an older man's verbal +scorching--especially a man like his uncle, provided, of course, he had +a friend like Peter within reach. How much more reasonable, therefore, +to conclude that a man so quixotic as our young hero would seek similar +relief. + +As to the correctness of the details of this verbal scorching, so +minutely described in the preceding chapter, should the reader ask how +it is possible for the Scribe to set down in exact order the goings-on +around a dinner-table to which he was not invited, as well as the +particulars of a family row where only two persons participated--neither +of whom was himself--and this, too, in the dead of night, with the +outside doors locked and the shades and curtains drawn--he must plead +guilty without leaving the prisoner's dock. + +And yet he asks in all humility--is the play not enough?--or must he +lift the back-drop and bring into view the net-work of pulleys and +lines, the tanks of moonlight gas and fake properties of papier-mache +that produce the illusion? As a compromise would it not be the better +way after this for him to play the Harlequin, popping in and out at +the unexpected moment, helping the plot here and there by a gesture, a +whack, or a pirouette; hobnobbing with Peter or Miss Felicia, and their +friends; listening to Jack's and Ruth's talk, or following them at +a distance, whenever his presence might embarrass either them or the +comedy? + +This being agreed upon, we will leave our hero this bright morning--the +one succeeding the row with his uncle--at the door of Peter's bank, +confident that Jack can take care of himself. + +And the confidence is not misplaced. Only once did the boy's glance +waver, and that was when his eyes sought the window facing Peter's desk. +Some egg other than Peter's was nesting on the open ledger spread out on +the Receiving Teller's desk--not an ostrich egg of a head at all, but an +evenly parted, well-combed, well-slicked brown wig, covering the careful +pate of one of the other clerks who, in the goodness of his heart, was +filling Peter's place for the day. + +Everybody being busy--too busy to answer questions outside of payments +and deposits--Patrick, the porter, must necessarily conduct the +negotiations. + +"No, sur; he's not down to-day--" was the ever-watchful Patrick's answer +to Jack's anxious inquiry. "His sister's come from the country and he +takes a day off now and thin when she's here. You'll find him up at his +place in Fifteenth Street, I'm thinkin'." + +Jack bit his lip. Here was another complication. Not to find Peter at +the Bank meant a visit to his rooms--on his holiday, too--and when he +doubtless wished to be alone with Miss Felicia. And yet how could he +wait a moment longer? He himself had sent word to the office of Breen +& Co. that he would not be there that day--a thing he had never done +before--nor did he intend to go on the morrow--not until he knew where +he stood. While his uncle had grossly misunderstood him, and, for that +matter, grossly insulted him, he had neither admitted nor denied the +outrage on Gilbert. + +When he did--this question had only now begun to loom up--where would +he go and what would he do? There was but little money due him at the +office--and none would come--until the next month's pay--hardly enough, +in any event, to take him back to his Maryland home, even if that refuge +were still open to him. What then would become of him? Peter was, in +fact, his main and only reliance. Peter he must see, and at once. + +Not that he wavered or grew faint at heart when he thought of his defeat +the night before. He was only thinking of his exit and the way to make +it. "Always take your leave like a gentleman," was one of his father's +maxims. This he would try his best to accomplish. + +Mrs. McGuffey, in white cap and snow-white apron, now that Miss Felicia +had arrived, was the medium of communication this time: + +"Indeed, they are both in--this way, sir, and let me have your hat and +coat." + +It was a delightful party that greeted the boy. Peter was standing on +the hearth-rug with his back to the fire, his coat-tails hooked over +his wrists. Miss Felicia sat by a small table pretending to sew. Holker +Morris was swallowed up in one of Peter's big easy-chairs, only the +top of his distinguished head visible, while a little chub of a man, +gray-haired, spectacled and plainly dressed, was seated behind him, the +two talking in an undertone. + +"Why, Breen!--why, my dear boy!--And you have a holiday, too? How did +you know I was home?" cried Peter, extending both hands in the joy of +his greeting. + +"I stopped at the Bank, sir." + +"Did you?--and who told you?" + +"The janitor, I suppose." + +"Oh, the good Patrick! Well, well! Holker, you remember young Breen." + +Holker did remember, for a wonder, and extended one hand to prove it, +and Felicia--but the boy was already bending over her, all his respect +and admiration in his eyes. The little chub of a man was now on his +feet, standing in an attentive attitude, ready to take his cue from +Peter. + +"And now, my boy, turn this way, and let me introduce you to my very +dear friend, Mr. Isaac Cohen." + +A pudgy hand was thrust out and the spectacled little man, his eyes +on the boy, said he was glad to know any friend of Mr. Grayson, and +resuming his seat continued his conversation in still lower tones with +the great architect. + +Jack stood irresolute for an instant, not knowing whether to make some +excuse for his evidently inopportune visit and return later, or to keep +his seat until the others had gone. Miss Felicia, who had not taken her +gaze from the lad since he entered the room, called him to her side. + +"Now, tell me what you are all doing at home, and how your dear aunt is, +and--Miss Corinne, isn't it? And that very bright young fellow who came +with you at Ruth's tea?" + +It was the last subject that Jack wanted to discuss, but he stumbled +through it as best he could, and ended in hoping, in a halting tone, +that Miss MacFarlane was well. + +"Ruth! Oh, she is a darling! Didn't you think so?" + +Jack blushed to the roots of his hair, but Miss Felicia's +all-comprehensive glance never wavered. This was the young man whom Ruth +had been mysterious about. She intended to know how far the affair +had gone, and it would have been useless, she knew, for Jack to try to +deceive her. + +"All our Southern girls are lovely," he answered in all sincerity. + +"And you like them better than the New York belles?" + +"I don't know any." + +"Then that means that you do." + +"Do what?" + +"Do like them better." + +The boy thought for a moment. + +"Yes, and Miss MacFarlane best of all; she is so--so--" the boy +faltered--"so sincere, and just the kind of girl you would trust with +anything. Why, I told her all about myself before I'd known her half an +hour." + +"Yes, she was greatly pleased." The match-making instinct was always +uppermost in Miss Felicia's moves, and then, again, this young man had +possibilities, his uncle being rich and he being his only nephew. + +"Oh, then she told you!" The boy's heart gave a great leap. Perhaps, +after all, Ruth had not heard--at all events she did not despise him. + +"No, I told her myself. The only thing that seemed to worry Ruth was +that you had not told her enough. If I remember right, she said you were +very shy." + +"And she did not say anything about--" Jack stopped. He had not intended +to put the question quite in this way, although he was still in doubt. +Give this keen-eyed, white-haired old lady but an inkling of what was +uppermost in his mind and he knew she would have its every detail. + +"About what?" Here Miss Felicia's eyes were suddenly diverted, and +became fastened on the short figure of Mr. Isaac Cohen, who had risen +to his feet and stood talking in the most confidential way with +Morris--Peter listening intently. Such phrases as "Better make the +columns of marble," from Morris, and, "Well, I will talk it over with +the Rabbi," from the tailor, reached his ears. Further relief came when +Miss Felicia rose from her chair with her hand extended to Morris, who +was already taking leave of Peter and all danger was passed when host +and hostess conducted the tailor and the architect to the door; Morris +bending over Miss Felicia's hand and kissing it with the air of a +courtier suddenly aroused by the appearance of royalty (he had been +completely immersed in Cohen's talk), and the tailor bowing to her on +his way out without even so much as touching the tips of her fingers. + +"There, my dear Breen," said Peter, when he had adjusted his cravat +before the glass and brushed a few stray hairs over his temples, "that's +a man it would do you an immense amount of good to know; the kind of a +man you call worthwhile. Not only does he speak three languages, Hebrew +being one of them, but he can talk on any subject from Greek temples to +the raising of violets. Morris thinks the world of him--So do I." + +"Yes, I heard him say something about columns." + +"Oh!--then you overheard! Yes, they are for the new synagogue that +Morris is building. Cohen is chairman of the committee." + +"And he is the banker, too, I suppose?" rejoined Jack, in a tone which +showed his lack of interest in both man and subject. It was Peter's ear +he wanted, and at once. + +The old man's eyes twinkled: "Banker!--not a bit of it. He's a tailor, +my dear boy--a most delightful gentleman tailor, who works in the +basement below us and who only yesterday pressed the coat I have on." +Here Peter surveyed himself with a comprehensive glance. "All the +respectable people in New York are not money mad." Then, seeing Jack's +look of astonishment over the announcement, he laid his hand on the +boy's shoulder and said with a twinkle of his eye and a little laugh: +"Only one tailor--not nine--my boy, was required to make Mr. Cohen a +man. And now about yourself. Why are you not at work? Old fellows like +me once in a while have a holiday--but young fellows! Come!--What is +it brings you here during business hours? Anything I can help you +in?--anything at home?" and Peter's eyes bored holes in the boy's brain. + +Jack glanced at Miss Felicia, who was arranging the roses Morris had +brought her, and then said in a half whisper: "I have had a row with my +uncle, sir. Maybe I had better come some other day, when--" + +"No--out with it! Row with your uncle, eh? Rows with one's uncles are +too commonplace to get mysterious over, and, then, we have no secrets. +Ten chances to one I shall tell Felicia every word you say after you've +gone, so she might as well hear it at first-hand. Felicia, this young +fellow is so thin-skinned he is afraid you will laugh at him." + +"Oh, he knows better. I have just been telling him how charming he must +be to have won Miss MacFarlane's good opinion," rejoined his sister as +she moved her work-basket nearer her elbow. + +And then, with mind at rest, now that he was sure Ruth had not heard, +and with eyes again blazing as his thoughts dwelt upon the outrage, +he poured out his story, Miss Felicia listening intently, a curious +expression on her face, Peter grave and silent, his gaze now on the boy, +now on the hearth-rug on which he stood. Only once did a flash illumine +his countenance; that was when Jack reached that part of his narrative +which told of the denunciation he had flung in his uncle's face +concerning the methods by which poor Gilbert had been ruined. + +"And you dared tell your uncle that, you young firebrand?" + +"Yes, Mr. Grayson, I had to; what else could I say? Don't you think it +cruel to cheat like that?" + +"And what did he say?" asked Peter. + +"He would not listen--he swore at me--told me--well, he ordered me out +of the room and had the lights put out." + +"And it served you right, you young dog! Well, upon my word! Here you +are without a dollar in the world except what your uncle pays you, and +you fly off at a tangent and insult him in his own house--and you his +guest, remember. Well! Well! What are we coming to? Felicia, did you +ever hear of such a performance?" + +Miss Felicia made no answer. She knew from her brother's tone that there +was not a drop of bitterness in any one of the words that fell from his +lips; she had heard him talk that way dozens of times before, when he +was casting about for some means of letting the culprit down the easier. +She even detected a slight wrinkling of the corners of his mouth as the +denunciation rolled out. + +Not so Jack: To him the end of the world had come. Peter was his last +resort--that one so good and so clear-headed had not flared up at +once over the villainy was the severest blow of all. Perhaps he WAS +a firebrand; perhaps, after all, it was none of his business; +perhaps--perhaps--now that Ruth would not blame him, knew nothing, in +fact, of the disgraceful episode, it would have been better for him to +have ignored the whole matter and taken Garry's advice. + +"Then I have done wrong again, Mr. Grayson?" he said at last, in so +pleading a tone that even Miss Felicia's reserve was on the point of +giving away. + +"Yes, in the manner in which you acted. Your father wouldn't have lost +his temper and called people names. Gentlemen, my dear boy, don't do +that sort of thing. They make up their minds about what they want to +do and then do it quietly, and, let me say, with a certain amount of +courtesy." + +"Then, what must I do?" All the fight was out of the lad now. + +"Why, go back to your desk in the office and your very delightful suite +of rooms at your uncle's. Tell him you are sorry you let your feelings +get the best of you; then, when you have entirely quieted down, you +and I will put our heads together and see what can be done to improve +matters. And that, let me tell you, my dear boy, is going to be rather +a difficult thing, for you see you are rather particular as to what you +should and should not do to earn your living." Peter's wrinkles had now +crept up his cheeks and were playing hide and seek with the twinkles in +his eyes. "Of course any kind of healthy work--such, for instance, as +hauling a chain through a swamp, carrying a level, prospecting for oil, +or copper, or gold--all very respectable occupations for some men--are +quite impossible in your case. But we will think it out and find +something easier--something that won't soil your hands, and--" + +"Please don't, Mr. Grayson," interrupted Jack. The boy had begun to see +through the raillery now. "I will do anything you want me to do." + +Peter burst into a laugh and grabbed him by both shoulders: "Of course, +my dear boy, you will do anything except what you believe to be wrong. +That's right--right as can be; nobody wants you to do any different, +and--" + +The opening of a door leading into the hall caused Peter to stop in his +harangue and turn his head. Mrs. McGuffey was ushering in a young woman +whose radiant face was like a burst of sunshine. Peter strained his eyes +and then sprang forward: + +"Why, Ruth!" + +There was no doubt about it! That young woman, her cheeks like two June +peonies, her eyes dancing, the daintiest and prettiest hat in the world +on her head, was already half across the room and close to Peter's rug +before Jack could even realize that he and she were breathing the same +air. + +"Oh! I just could not wait a minute longer!" she cried in a joyous tone. +"I had such a good time yesterday, dear aunt Felicia, and--Why!--it is +you, Mr. Breen, and have you come to tell aunty the same thing? Wasn't +it lovely?" + +Then Jack said that it was lovely, and that he hadn't come for any such +purpose--then that he had--and then Peter patted her hand and told her +she was the prettiest thing he had ever seen in all his life, and that +he was going to throw overboard all his other sweethearts at once and +cleave to her alone; and Miss Felicia vowed that she was the life of the +party; and Jack devoured her with his eyes, his heart thumping away at +high pressure; and so the moments fled until the blithesome young girl, +saying she had not a minute to spare, as she had to meet her father, +who would not wait, readjusted her wraps, kissed Miss Felicia on both +cheeks, sent another flying through the air toward Peter from the tips +of her fingers, and with Jack as escort--he also had to see a friend who +would not wait a minute--danced out of the room and so on down to the +street. + +The Scribe will not follow them very far in their walk uptown. Both were +very happy, Jack because the scandal he had been dreading, since he had +last looked into her eyes, had escaped her ears, and Ruth because of all +the young men she had met in her brief sojourn in New York this young +Mr. Breen treated her with most consideration. + +While the two were making their way through the crowded streets, Jack +helping her over the crossings, picking out the drier spots for her +dainty feet to step upon, shielding her from the polluting touch of the +passing throng, Miss Felicia had resumed her sewing--it was a bit of +lace that needed a stitch here and there--and Peter, dragging a chair +before the fire, had thrown himself into its depths, his long, thin +white fingers open fan-like to its blaze. + +"You are just wasting your time, Peter, over that young man," Miss +Felicia said at last, snipping the end of a thread with her scissors. +"Better buy him a guitar with a broad blue ribbon and start him off +troubadouring, or, better still, put him into a suit of tin armor and +give him a lance. He doesn't belong to this world. It's just as well +Ruth did not hear that rigmarole. Charming manners, I admit--lovely, +sitting on a cushion looking up into some young girl's eyes, but he will +never make his way here with those notions. Why he should want to anger +his uncle, who is certainly most kind to him, is past finding out. He's +stupid, that's what he is--just stupid!"--to break with your bread +and butter and to defy those who could be of service to you being an +unpardonable sin with Miss Felicia. No, he would not do at all for Ruth. + +Peter settled himself deeper in his chair and studied the cheery blaze +between his outspread fingers. + +"That's the very thing will save him, Felicia." + +"What--his manners?" + +"No--his adorable stupidity. I grant you he's fighting windmills, but, +then, my dear, don't forget that he's FIGHTING--that's something." + +"But they are only windmills, and, more extraordinary still, this one is +grinding corn to keep him from starving," and she folded up her sewing +preparatory to leaving the room. + +Peter's fingers closed tight: "I'm not so sure of that," he answered +gravely. + +Miss Felicia had risen from her seat and was now bending over the back +of his chair, her spare sharp elbows resting on its edge, her two hands +clasping his cheeks. + +"And are you really going to add this stupid boy to your string, +you goose of a Peter?" she asked in a bantering tone, as her fingers +caressed his temples. "Don't forget Mosenthal and little Perkins, and +the waiter you brought home and fed for a week, and sent away in your +best overcoat, which he pawned the next day; or the two boys at college. +Aren't you ever going to learn?" and she leaned forward and kissed the +top of his bald head. + +Peter's only reply was to reach up and smooth her jewelled fingers with +his own. He remembered them all; there was an excuse, of course, +he reminded her, for his action in each and every case. But for him +Mosenthal--really a great violinist--would have starved, little Perkins +would have been sent to the reformatory, and the waiter to the dogs. +That none of them, except the two college boys, had ever thanked him for +his assistance--a fact well known to Miss Felicia--never once crossed +his mind--wouldn't have made any difference if it had. + +"But this young Breen is worth saving, Felicia," he answered at last. + +"From what--the penitentiary?" she laughed--this time with a slight note +of anger in her voice. + +"No, you foolish thing--much worse." + +"From what, then?" + +"From himself." + +Long after his sister had left the room Peter kept his seat by the fire, +his eyes gazing into the slumbering coals. His holiday had been a happy +one until Jack's entrance: Morris had come to an early breakfast and +had then run down and dragged up Cohen so that he could talk with him in +comfort and away from the smell of the tailor's goose and the noise of +the opening and shutting of the shop door; Miss Felicia had summoned +all her good humor and patience (she did not always approve of Peter's +acquaintances--the little tailor being one), and had received Cohen as +she would have done a savant from another country--one whose personal +appearance belied his intellect but who on no account must be made aware +of that fact, and Peter himself had spent the hour before and after +breakfast--especially the hour after, when the Bank always claimed +him--in pulling out and putting back one book after another from the +shelves of his small library, reading a page here and a line there, the +lights and shadows that crossed his eager, absorbed face, an index of +his enjoyment. + +All this had been spoiled by a wild, untamed colt of a boy whom he could +not help liking in spite of his peculiarities. + +And yet, was his sister not right? Why bother himself any more about a +man so explosive and so tactless--and he WAS a man, so far as years and +stature went, who, no matter what he might attempt for his advancement, +would as surely topple it over as he would a house of cards. That the +boy's ideals were high, and his sincerity beyond question, was true, but +what use would these qualities be to him if he lacked the common-sense +to put them into practice? + +All this he told to the fire--first to one little heap of coals--then +another--snuggling together--and then to the big back-log scarred all +over in its fight to keep everybody warm and happy. + +Suddenly his round, glistening head ceased bobbing back and forth; his +lips, which had talked incessantly without a sound falling from them, +straightened; his gesticulating fingers tightened into a hard knot and +the old fellow rose from his easy-chair. He had made up his mind. + +Then began a search through his desk in and out of the pigeon-holes, +under a heap of letters--most of them unanswered; beneath a package +tied with tape, until his eyes fell upon an envelope sealed with wax, +in which was embedded the crest of the ancestors of the young gentleman +whose future had so absorbed his thoughts. It was Mrs. Breen's +acceptance of Miss Felicia's invitation to Miss MacFarlane's tea. + +"Ah, here it is! Now I'll find the number--yes, 864--I thought it was a +"4"--but I didn't want to make any mistake." + +This done, and the note with the number and street of Jack's uncle's +house spread out before him, Peter squared his elbows, took a sheet of +paper from a drawer, covered it with half a dozen lines beginning "My +dear Breen--" enclosed it in an envelope and addressed it to "Mr. John +Breen, care of Arthur Breen, Esq.," etc. This complete, he affixed the +stamp in the upper left-hand corner, and with the letter fast in his +hand disappeared in his bedroom, from which he emerged ten minutes later +in full walking costume, even to his buckskin gloves and shiny high +hat, not to mention a brand-new silk scarf held in place by his diamond +tear-drop, the two in high relief above the lapels of his tightly +buttoned surtout. + +"No, Mrs. McGuffey," he said with a cheery smile as he passed out of +the door (she had caught sight of the letter and had stretched out her +hand)--"No--I am going for a walk, and I'll mail it myself." + + + +CHAPTER XII + + + +Whatever the function--whether it was a cosey dinner for the congenial +few, a crowded reception for the uncongenial many, or a coming-out party +for some one of the eager-expectant buds just bursting into bloom--most +of whom he had known from babyhood--Peter was always ready with his "Of +course I'll come--" or "Nothing would delight me more--" or the formal +"Mr. Grayson accepts with great pleasure," etc., unless the event +should fall upon a Saturday night; then there was certain to be a prompt +refusal. + +Even Miss Felicia recognized this unbreakable engagement and made her +plans accordingly. So did good Mrs. McGuffey, who selected this night +for her own social outings; and so did most of his intimate friends who +were familiar with his habits. + +On any other night you might, or you might not, find Peter at home, +dependent upon his various engagements, but if you really wanted to +get hold of his hand, or his ear, or the whole or any other part of +his delightful body, and if by any mischance you happened to select a +Saturday night for your purpose, you must search for him at the Century. +To spend this one evening at his favorite club had been his custom for +years--ever since he had been elected to full membership--a date so far +back in the dim past that the oldest habitue had to search the records +to make sure of the year, and this custom he still regularly kept up. + +That the quaint old club-house was but a stone's throw from his own +quarters in Fifteenth Street made no difference; he would willingly have +tramped to Murray Hill and beyond--even as far as the big reservoir, had +the younger and more progressive element among the members picked the +institution up bodily and moved it that far--as later on they did. + +Not that he favored any such innovation: "Move up-town! Why, my dear +sir!" he protested, when the subject was first mentioned, "is there +nothing in the polish of these old tables and chairs, rubbed bright by +the elbows of countless good fellows, that appeals to you? Do you think +any modern varnish can replace it? Here I have sat for thirty years or +more, and--please God!--here I want to continue to sit." + +He was at his own small table in the front room overlooking the street +when he spoke--his by right of long use, as it was also of Morris, +MacFarlane, Wright, old Partridge the painter, and Knight the sculptor. +For years this group of Centurions, after circling the rooms on meeting +nights, criticising the pictures and helping themselves to the punch, +had dropped into these same seats by the side of Peter. + +And these were not the only chairs tacitly recognized as carrying +special privileges by reason of long usage. Over in the corner between +the two rooms could be found Bayard Taylor's chair--his for years, +from which he dispensed wisdom, adventure and raillery to a listening +coterie--King, MacDonough and Collins among them, while near the stairs, +his great shaggy head glistening in the overhead light, Parke Godwin +held court, with Sterling, Martin and Porter, to say nothing of still +older habitues who in the years of their membership were as much a part +of the fittings of the club as the smoke-begrimed portraits which lined +its walls. + +On this Saturday night he had stepped into the clubhouse with more +than his usual briskness. Sweeping a comprehensive glance around as +he entered, as if looking for some one in the hall, he slipped off his +overcoat and hat and handed both to the negro servant in charge of the +cloak-room. + +"George." + +"Yes, Mr. Grayson." + +"If anybody inquires for me you will find me either on this floor or in +the library above. Don't forget, and don't make any mistake. + +"No, suh--ain't goin' to be no mistake." + +This done, the old gentleman moved to the mirror, and gave a sidelong +glance at his perfectly appointed person--he had been dining at the +Portmans', had left the table early, and was in full evening dress. + +The inspection proved that the points of his collar wanted straightening +the thousandth part of an inch, and that his sparse gray locks needed +combing a wee bit further toward his cheek bones. These, with a certain +rebellious fold in his necktie, having been brought into place, the +guardian of the Exeter entered the crowded room, picked a magazine from +the shelves and dropped into his accustomed seat. + +Holker Morris and Lagarge now strolled in and drawing up to a small +table adjoining Peter's touched a tiny bell. This answered, and the +order given, the two renewed a conversation which had evidently been +begun outside, and which was of so absorbing a character that for a +moment Peter's face, half hidden by his book, was unnoticed. + +"Oh!--that's you, Methusaleh, is it!" cried Morris at last. "Move +over--have something?" + +Peter looked up smiling: "Not now, Holker. I will later." + +Morris kept on talking. Lagarge, his companion--a thin, +cadaverous-looking man with a big head and the general air of having +been carved out of an old root--a great expert in ceramics--listening +intently, bobbing his head in toy-mandarin fashion whenever one of +Holker's iconoclasms cleared the air. + +"Suppose they did pay thirty thousand dollars for it," Holker insisted, +slapping his knee with his outspread palm. "That makes the picture no +better and no worse. If it was mine, and I could afford it, I would sell +it to anybody who loved it for thirty cents rather than sell it to a man +who didn't, for thirty millions. When Troyon painted it he put his soul +into it, and you can no more tack a price to that than you can stick +an auction card on a summer cloud, or appraise the perfume from a rose +garden. It has no money value, Legarge, and never will have. You might +as well list sunsets on the Stock Exchange." + +"But Troyon had to live, Holker," chimed in Harrington, who, with +the freedom accorded every member of the club--one of its greatest +charms--had just joined the group and sat listening. + +"Yes," rejoined Morris, a quizzical expression crossing his face--"that +was the curse of it. He was born a man and had a stomach instead of +being born a god without one. As to living--he didn't really live--no +great painter really lives until he is dead. And that's the way it +should be--they would never have become immortal with a box full of +bonds among their assets. They would have stopped work. Now they can +rest in their graves with the consciousness that they have done their +level best." + +"There is one thing would lift him out of it, or ought to," remarked +Harrington, with a glance around the circle. "I am, of course, speaking +of Troyon." + +"What?" asked Morris. + +"The news that Roberts paid thirty thousand dollars for a picture for +which the painter was glad to get three thousand francs," a reply which +brought a roar from the group, Morris joining in heartily. + +The circle had now widened to the filling of a dozen chairs, Morris's +way of putting things being one of the features of club nights, he, as +usual, dominating the talk, calling out "Period"--his way of notifying +some speaker to come to a full stop, whenever he broke away from the +facts and began soaring into hyperbolics--Morgan, Harrington and the +others laughing in unison at his sallies. + +The clouds of tobacco smoke grew thicker. The hum of conversation +louder; especially at an adjoining table where one lean old Academician +in a velvet skull cap was discussing the new impressionistic craze which +had just begun to show itself in the work of the younger men. This had +gone on for some minutes when the old man turned upon them savagely and +began ridiculing the new departure as a cloak to hide poor drawing, an +outspoken young painter asserting in their defence, that any technique +was helpful if it would kill off the snuff-box school in which the man +under the skull cap held first place. + +Morris had lent an ear to the discussion and again took up the cudgels. + +"You young fellows are right," he cried, twisting his body toward their +table. The realists have had their day; they work a picture to death; +all of them. If you did but know it, it really takes two men to paint a +great picture--one to do the work and the other to kill him when he has +done enough." + +"Pity some of your murderers, Holker, didn't start before they stretched +their canvases," laughed Harrington. + +And so the hours sped on. + +All this time Peter had been listening with one ear wide open--the one +nearest the door--for any sound in that direction. French masterpieces, +Impressionism and the rest of it did not interest him to-night. +Something else was stirring him--something he had been hugging to his +heart all day. + +Only the big and little coals in his own fireplace in Fifteenth Street, +and perhaps the great back-log, beside himself, knew the cause. He +had not taken Miss Felicia into his confidence--that would never have +done--might, indeed, have spoilt everything. Even when he had risen from +Morris's coterie to greet Henry MacFarlane--Ruth's father--his intimate +friend for years, and who answered his hand-shake with--"Well, you +old rascal--what makes you look so happy?--anybody left you a +million?"--even then he gave no inkling of the amount of bottled +sunshine he was at the precise moment carrying inside his well-groomed +body, except to remark with all his twinkles and wrinkles scampering +loose: + +"Seeing you, Henry--" an answer which, while it only excited derision +and a sly thrust of his thumb into Peter's ribs, was nevertheless +literally true if the distinguished engineer did but know it. + +It was only when the hours dragged on and his oft-consulted watch marked +ten o'clock that the merry wrinkles began to straighten and the eyes to +wander. + +When an additional ten minutes had ticked themselves out, and then a +five and then a ten more, the old fellow became so nervous that he began +to make a tour of the club-house, even ascending the stairs, searching +the library and dining-room, scanning each group and solitary individual +he passed, until, thoroughly discouraged, he regained his seat only to +press a bell lying among some half-empty glasses. The summoned waiter +listened attentively, his head bent low to catch the whispered order, +and then disappeared noiselessly in the direction of the front door, +Peter's fingers meanwhile beating an impatient staccato on the arm of +his chair. + +Nothing resulting from this experiment he at last gave up all hope +and again sought MacFarlane who was trying to pound into the head of a +brother engineer some new theory of spontaneous explosions. + +Hardly had he drawn up a chair to listen--he was a better listener +to-night, somehow, than a talker, when a hand was laid on his shoulder, +and looking up, he saw Jack bending over him. + +With a little cry of joy Peter sprang to his feet, both palms +outstretched: "Oh!--you're here at last! Didn't I say nine o'clock, my +dear boy, or am I wrong? Well, so you are here it's all right." Then +with face aglow he turned to MacFarlane: "Henry, here's a young fellow +you ought to know; his name's John Breen, and he's from your State." + +The engineer stopped short in his talk and absorbed Jack from his neatly +brushed hair, worn long at the back of his neck, to his well-shod feet, +and held out his hand. + +"From Maryland? So am I; I was raised down in Prince George County. Glad +to know you. Are you any connection of the Breens of Ann Arundle?" + +"Yes, sir--all my people came from Ann Arundle. My father was Judge +Breen," answered Jack with embarrassment. He had not yet become +accustomed to the novelty of the scene around him. + +"Now I know just where you belong. My father and yours were friends. +I have often heard him speak of Judge Breen. And did you not meet my +daughter at Miss Grayson's the other day? She told me she had met a Mr. +Breen from our part of the country." + +Jack's eyes danced. Was this what Peter had invited him to the club for? +Now it was all clear. And then again he had not said a word about his +being in the Street, or connected with it in any way. Was there ever +such a good Peter? + +"Oh, yes, sir!--and I hope she is very well." + +The engineer said she was extremely well, never better in her life, and +that he was delighted to meet a son of his old friend--then, turning to +the others, immediately forgot Jack's existence, and for the time being +his daughter, in the discussion still going on around him. + +The young fellow settled himself in his seat and looked about him--at +the smoke-stained ceiling, the old portraits and quaint fittings and +furniture--more particularly at the men. He would have liked to talk to +Ruth's father a little longer, but he felt dazed and ill at ease--out of +his element, somehow--although he remembered the same kind of people at +his father's house, except that they wore different clothes. + +But Peter did not leave him long in meditation. There were other +surprises for him upstairs, in the small dining-room opening out of +the library, where a long table was spread with eatables and +drinkables--salads, baby sausages, escaloped oysters, devilled crabs and +other dishes dear to old and new members. Here men were met standing in +groups, their plates in their hands, or seated at the smaller tables, +when a siphon and a beer bottle, or a mug of Bass would be added to +their comfort. + +It was there the Scribe met him for the second time, my first being the +Morris dinner, when he sat within speaking distance. I had heard of him, +of course, as Peter's new protege--indeed, the old fellow had talked of +nothing else, and so I was glad to renew the acquaintance. I found him +to be like all other young fellows of his class--I had lived among his +people, and knew--rather shy, with a certain deferential air toward +older people--but with the composure belonging to unconscious youth--no +fidgeting or fussing--modest, unassertive--his big brown eyes under +their heavy lashes studying everything about him, his face brightening +when you addressed him. I discovered, too, a certain indefinable charm +which won me to him at once. Perhaps it was his youth; perhaps it was a +certain honest directness, together with a total lack of all affectation +that appealed to me, but certain it is that not many minutes had passed +before I saw why Peter liked him, and I saw, too, why he liked Peter. + +When I asked him--we had found three empty seats at a table--what +impressed him most in the club, it being his first visit, he answered +in his simple, direct way, that he thought it was the note of +good-fellowship everywhere apparent, the men greeting each other as if +they really meant it. Another feature was the dress and faces of the +members--especially the authors, to whom Peter had introduced him, whose +books he had read, and whose personalities he had heard discussed, +and who, to his astonishment, had turned out to be shabby-looking old +fellows who smoked and drank, or played chess, like other ordinary +mortals, and without pretence of any kind so far as he could detect. + +"Just like one big family, isn't it, Mr. Grayson?" the boy said. "Don't +you two gentlemen love to come here?" + +"Yes." + +"They don't look like very rich men." + +"They're not. Now and then a camel crawls through but it is a tight +squeeze," remarked Peter arching his gray, bushy eyebrows, a smile +hovering about his lips. + +The boy laughed: "Well, then, how did they get here?" + +"Principally because they lead decent lives, are not puffed up with +conceit, have creative brains and put them to some honest use," answered +Peter. + +The boy looked away for a moment and remarked quietly that about +everybody he knew would fail in one or more of these qualifications. +Then he added: + +"And now tell me, Mr. Grayson, what most of them do--that gentleman, for +instance, who is talking to the old man in the velvet cap." + +"That is General Norton, one of our most distinguished engineers. He is +Consulting Engineer in the Croton Aqueduct Department, and his opinion +is sought all over the country. He started life as a tow-boy on the Erie +Canal, and when he was your age he was keeping tally of dump-cars from a +cut on the Pennsylvania Railroad." + +Jack looked at the General in wonderment, but he was too much interested +in the other persons about him to pursue the inquiry any further. + +"And the man next to him--the one with his hand to his head?" + +"I don't recall him, but the Major may." + +"That is Professor Hastings of Yale," I replied--"perhaps the most +eminent chemist in this or any other country." + +"And what did he do when he was a boy?" asked young Breen. + +"Made pills, I expect, and washed out test tubes and retorts," +interrupted Peter, with a look on his face as if the poor professor were +more to be pitied than commended. + +"Did any of them dig?" asked the boy. + +"What kind of digging?" inquired Peter. + +"Well, the kind you spoke of the night you came to see me." + +"Oh, with their hands?" cried Peter with a laugh. "Well, now, let me +see--" and his glance roved about the room. "There is Mr. Schlessinger, +the Egyptologist, but of course he was after mummies, not dirt; and then +there is--yes--that sun-burned young fellow of forty, talking to Mr. +Eastman Johnson; he has been at work in Yucatan looking for Toltec +ruins, because he told me his experience only a few nights ago; but +then, of course, that can hardly be said to be--Oh!--now I have it. +You see that tall man with side-whiskers, looking like a young bank +president--my kind--my boy--well, he started life with a pick and +shovel. The steel point of the pick if I remember rightly, turned up a +nugget of gold that made him rich, but he DUG all the same, and he may +again some day--you can't tell." + +It had all been a delightful experience for Jack and his face showed it, +but it was not until after I left that the story of why he had come +late was told. He had started several times to explain but the constant +interruption of members anxious to shake Peter's hand, had always +prevented. + +"I haven't apologized for being late, sir," Jack had said at last. "It +was long after ten, I am afraid, but I could not help it." + +"No; what was the matter?" + +"I didn't get the letter until half an hour before I reached here." + +"Why, I sent it to your uncle's house, and mailed it myself, just after +you had gone out with Miss MacFarlane." + +"Yes, sir; but I am not at my uncle's house any more. I am staying with +Garry Minott in his rooms; I have the sofa." + +Peter gave a low whistle. + +"And you have given up your desk at the office as well?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"Bless my soul, my boy! And what are you going to do now?" + +"I don't know; but I will not go on as I have been doing. I can't, Mr. +Grayson, and you must not ask it. I would rather sweep the streets. +I have just seen poor Charley Gilbert and Mrs. Gilbert. He has not a +dollar in the world, and is going West, he tells me." + +Peter reflected for a moment. It was all he could do to hide his +delight. + +"And what do your people say?" + +"My aunt says I am an idiot, and Corinne won't speak to me." + +"And your uncle?" + +"Nothing, to me. He told Garry that if I didn't come back in three days +I should never enter his house or his office again." + +"But you are going back? Are you not?" + +"No,--never. Not if I starve!" + +Peter's eyes were twinkling when he related the conversation to me the +next day. + +"I could have hugged him, Major," he said, when he finished, "and I +would if we had not been at the club." + + + +CHAPTER XIII + + + +The Scribe is quite positive that had you only heard about it as he +had, even with the details elaborated, not only by Peter, who was +conservatism itself in his every statement, but by Miss Felicia as +well--who certainly ought to have known--you would not have believed +it possible until you had seen it. Even then you would have had to drop +into one of Miss Felicia's cretonne-upholstered chairs--big easy-chairs +that fitted into every hollow and bone in your back--looked the length +of the uneven porch, run your astonished eye down the damp, water-soaked +wooden steps to the moist brick pavement below, and so on to the beds of +crocuses blooming beneath the clustering palms and orange trees, before +you could realize (in spite of the drifting snow heaped up on the +door-steps of her house outside--some of it still on your shoes) that +you were in Miss Felicia's tropical garden, attached to Miss Felicia's +Geneseo house, and not in the back yard of some old home in the far-off +sunny South. + +It was an old story, of course, to Peter, who had the easy-chair beside +me, and so it was to Morris, who had helped Miss Felicia carry out so +Utopian a scheme, but it had come to me as a complete surprise, and I +was still wide-eyed and incredulous. + +"And what keeps out the cold?" I asked Morris, who was lying back +blowing rings into the summer night, the glow of an overhead lantern +lighting up his handsome face. + +"Glass," he laughed. + +"Where?" + +"There, just above the vines, my dear Major," interrupted Miss Felicia, +pointing upward. "Come and let me show you my frog pond--" and away we +went along the brick paths, bordered with pots of flowers, to a tiny +lake covered with lily-pads and circled by water-plants. + +"I did not want a greenhouse--I wanted a back yard," she continued, +"and I just would have it. Holker sent his men up, and on three sides +we built a wall that looked a hundred years old--but it is not five--and +roofed it over with glass, and just where you see the little flight +of stairs is the heat. That old arbor in the corner has been here ever +since I was a child, and so have the syringa bushes and the green box +next the wall. I wanted them all the year round--not just for three or +four months in the year--and that witch Holker said he could do it, and +he has. Half the weddings in town have been begun right on that bench, +and when the lanterns are lighted and the fountain turned on outside, no +gentleman ever escapes. You and Peter are immune, so I sha'n't waste +any of my precious ammunition on you. And now what will you wear in your +button-hole--a gardenia, or some violets? Ruth will be down in a minute, +and you must look your prettiest." + +But if the frog pond, damp porch and old-fashioned garden had come as a +surprise, what shall I say of the rest of Miss Felicia's house which I +am now about to inspect under Peter's guidance. + +"Here, come along," he cried, slipping his arm through mine. "You have +had enough of the garden, for between you and me, my dear Major"--here +he looked askance at Miss Felicia--"I think it an admirable place in +which to take cold, and that's why--" and he passed his hand over +his scalp--"I always insist on wearing my hat when I walk here. Mere +question of imagination, perhaps, but old fellows like you and me should +take no chances--" and he laughed heartily. + +"This room was my father's," continued Peter. "The bookcases have still +some of the volumes he loved; he liked the low ceiling and the big +fireplace, and always wrote here--it was his library, really. There +opens the old drawing-room and next to it is Felicia's den, where she +concocts most of her deviltry, and the dining-room beyond--and that's +all there is on this floor, except the kitchen, which you'll hear from +later." + +And as Peter rattled on, telling me the history of this and that piece +of old furniture, or portrait, or queer clock, my eyes were absorbing +the air of cosey comfort that permeated every corner of the several +rooms. Everything had the air of being used. In the library the chairs +were of leather, stretched into saggy folds by many tired backs; the +wide, high fender fronting the hearth, though polished so that you could +see your face in it, showed the marks of many a drying shoe, while on +the bricks framing the fireplace could still be seen the scratchings of +countless matches. + +The drawing-room, too--although, as in all houses of its class and +period, a thing of gilt frames, high mirrors and stiff furniture--was +softened by heaps of cushions, low stools and soothing arm-chairs, +while Miss Felicia's own particular room was so veritable a symphony +in chintz, white paint and old mahogany, with cubby-holes crammed +with knickknacks, its walls hung with rare etchings; pots of flowers +everywhere and the shelves and mantels crowded with photographs of +princes, ambassadors, grand dukes, grand ladies, flossy-headed children, +chubby-cheeked babies (all souvenirs of her varied and busy life), that +it was some minutes before I could throw myself into one of her heavenly +arm-chairs, there to be rested as I had never been before, and never +expect to be again. + +It being Peter's winter holiday, he and Morris had stopped over on their +way down from Buffalo, where Holker had spoken at a public dinner. The +other present and expected guests were Ruth MacFarlane, who was already +upstairs; her father, Henry MacFarlane, who was to arrive by the next +train, and last and by no means lest, his confidential clerk, Mr. John +Breen, now two years older and, it is to be hoped, with considerable +more common-sense than when he chucked himself neck and heels out into +the cold world. Whether the expected arrival of this young gentleman had +anything to do with the length of time it took Ruth to dress, the Scribe +knoweth not. There is no counting upon the whims and vagaries of even +the average young woman of the day, and as Ruth was a long way above +that medium grade, and with positive ideas of her own as to whom she +liked and whom she did not like, and was, besides, a most discreet and +close-mouthed young person, it will be just as well for us to watch the +game of battledoor and shuttlecock still being played between Jack and +herself, before we arrive at any fixed conclusions. + +Any known and admitted facts connected with either one of the +contestants are, however, in order, and so while we are waiting for old +Moggins, who drives the village 'bus, and who has been charged by +Miss Felicia on no account to omit bringing in his next load a certain +straight, bronzed-cheeked, well-set-up young man with a springy step, +accompanied by a middle-aged gentleman who looked like a soldier, and +deliver them both with their attendant baggage at her snow-banked door, +any data regarding this same young man's movements since the night Peter +wanted to hug him for leaving his uncle's service, cannot fail to be of +interest. + +To begin then with the day on which Jack, with Frederick, the second +man's assistance, packed his belongings and accepted Garry's invitation +to make a bed of his lounge. + +The kind-hearted Frederick knew what it was to lose a place, and so his +sympathies had been all the more keen. Parkins's nose, on the contrary, +had risen a full degree and stood at an angle of 45 degrees, for he had +not only heard the ultimatum of his employer, but was rather pleased +with the result. As for the others, no one ever believed the boy really +meant it, and everybody--even the maids and the high-priced chef--fully +expected Jack would turn prodigal as soon as his diet of husks had +whetted his appetite for dishes more nourishing and more toothsome. But +no one of them took account of the quality of the blood that ran in the +young man's veins. + +It was scheming Peter who saved the day. + +"Put that young fellow to work, Henry," he had said to MacFarlane the +morning after the three had met at the Century Club. + +"What does he know, Peter?" + +"Nothing, except to speak the truth." + +And thus it had come to pass that within twenty-four hours thereafter +the boy had shaken the dust of New York from his feet--even to resigning +from the Magnolia, and a day later was found bending over a pine desk +knocked together by a hammer and some ten-penny nails in a six-by-nine +shanty, the whole situated at the mouth of a tunnel half a mile from +Corklesville, where he was at work on the pay-roll of the preceding +week. + +Many things had helped in deciding him to take the proffered place. +First, Peter had wanted it; second, his uncle did not want it, Corinne +and his aunt being furious that he should go to work like a common +laborer, or--as Garry had put it--"a shovel-spanked dago." Third, Ruth +was within calling distance, and that in itself meant Heaven. Once +installed, however, he had risen steadily, both in MacFarlane's +estimation and in the estimation of his fellow-workers; especially the +young engineers who were helping his Chief in the difficult task before +him. Other important changes had also taken place in the two years: his +body had strengthened, his face had grown graver, his views of life had +broadened and, best of all, his mind was at rest. Of one thing he +was sure--no confiding young Gilberts would be fleeced in his present +occupation--not if he knew anything about it. + +Moreover, the outdoor life which he had so longed for was his again. +On Saturday afternoons and Sundays he tramped the hills, or spent hours +rowing on the river. His employer's villa was also always open to him--a +privilege not granted to the others in the working force. The old tie +of family was the sesame. Judge Breen's son was, both by blood and +training, the social equal of any man, and although the distinguished +engineer, being well born himself, seldom set store on such things, +he recognized his obligation in Jack's case and sought the first +opportunity to tell him so. + +"You will find a great change in your surroundings, Mr. Breen," he had +said. "The little hotel where you will have to put up is rather rough +and uncomfortable, but you are always welcome at my home, and this I +mean, and I hope you will understand it that way without my mentioning +it again." + +The boy's heart leaped to his throat as he listened, and a dozen +additional times that day his eyes had rested on the clump of trees +which shaded the roof sheltering Ruth. + +That the exclusive Miss Grayson should now have invited him to pass some +days at her home had brought with it a thrill of greater delight. Her +opinion of the boy had changed somewhat. His willingness to put up with +the discomforts of the village inn--"a truly dreadful place," to quote +one of Miss Felicia's own letters--and to continue to put up with them +for more than two years, while losing nothing of his good-humor and good +manners, had shaken her belief in the troubadour and tin-armor theory, +although nothing in Jack's surroundings or in his prospects for the +future fitted him, so far as she could see, to life companionship with +so dear a girl as her beloved Ruth--a view which, of course, she kept +strictly to herself. + +But she still continued to criticise him, at which Peter would rub his +hands and break out with: + +"Fine fellow!--square peg in a square hole this time. Fine fellow, I +tell you, Felicia!" + +He receiving in reply some such answer as: + +"Yes, quite lovely in fairy tales, Peter, and when you have taught +him--for you did it, remember--how to shovel and clean up underbrush +and split rocks--and that just's what Ruth told me he was doing when she +took a telegram to her father which had come to the house--and he in +a pair of overalls, like any common workman--what, may I ask, will you +have him doing next? Is he to be an engineer or a clerk all his life? +He might have had a share in his uncle's business by this time if he had +had any common-sense;" Peter retorting often with but a broad smile +and that little gulp of satisfaction--something between a chuckle and a +sigh--which always escaped him when some one of his proteges were living +up to his pet theories. + +And yet it was Miss Felicia herself who was the first to welcome the +reprobate, even going to the front door and standing in the icy draught, +with the snowflakes whirling about her pompadoured head, until Jack had +alighted from the tail-end of Moggins's 'bus and, with his satchel in +his hand, had cleared the sidewalk with a bound and stood beside her. + +"Oh, I'm so glad to be here," Jack had begun, "and it was so good of you +to want me," when a voice rang clear from the top of the stairs: + +"And where's daddy--isn't he coming?" + +"Oh!--how do you do, Miss Ruth? No; I am sorry to say he could not +leave--that is, we could not persuade him to leave. He sent you all +manner of messages, and you, too, Miss--" + +"He isn't coming? Oh, I am so disappointed! What is the matter, is he +ill?" She was half-way down the staircase now, her face showing how keen +was her disappointment. + +"No--nothing's the matter--only we are arranging for an important blast +in a day or two, and he felt he couldn't be away. I can only stay the +night." Jack had his overcoat stripped from his broad shoulders now and +the two had reached each other's hands. + +Miss Felicia watched them narrowly out of her sharp, kindly eyes. This +love-affair--if it were a love-affair--had been going on for years now +and she was still in the dark as to the outcome. There was no question +that the boy was head over heels in love with the girl--she could see +that from the way the color mounted to his cheeks when Ruth's voice rang +out, and the joy in his eyes when they looked into hers. How Ruth felt +toward her new guest was what she wanted to know. This was, perhaps, the +only reason why she had invited him--another thing she kept strictly to +herself. + +But the two understood it--if Miss Felicia did not. There may be shrewd +old ladies who can read minds at a glance, and fussy old men who can see +through blind millstones, and who know it all, but give me two lovers to +fool them both to the top of their bent, be they so minded. + +"And now, dear, let Mr. Breen go to his room, for we dine in an hour, +and Holker will be cross as two sticks if we keep it waiting a minute." + +But Holker was not cross--not when dinner was served; nobody was +cross--certainly not Peter, who was in his gayest mood; and certainly +not Ruth or Jack, who babbled away next to each other. Peter's heart +swelled with pride and satisfaction as he saw the change which two years +of hard work had made in Jack--not only in his bearing and in a certain +fearless independence which had become a part of his personality, but in +the unmistakable note of joyousness which flowed out of him, so marked +in contrast to the depression which used to haunt him like a spectre. +Stories of his life at his boarding-house--vaguely christened a hotel by +its landlady, Mrs. Hicks--bubbled out of the boy as well as accounts of +various escapades among the men he worked with--especially the younger +engineers and one of the foremen who had rooms next his own--all told +with a gusto and ring that kept the table in shouts of merriment--Morris +laughing loudest and longest, Peter whispering behind his hand to Miss +Felicia: + +"Charming, isn't he?--and please note, my dear, that none of the dirt +from his shovel seems to have clogged his wit--" at which there was +another merry laugh--Peter's, this time, his being the only voice in +evidence. + +"And she is such fun, Miss Felicia" (Mrs. Hicks was under +discussion), called out Jack, realizing that he had, perhaps--although +unconsciously--failed to include his hostess in his coterie of +listeners. "You should see her caps, and the magnificent airs she puts +on when we come down late to breakfast on Sunday mornings." + +"And tell them about the potatoes," interrupted Ruth. + +"Oh, that was disgraceful, but it really could not be helped--we had +greasy fried potatoes until we could not stand them another day, and +Bolton found them in the kitchen late one night ready for the skillet +the next morning, and filled them with tooth powder, and that ended it." + +"I'd have set you fellows out on the sidewalk if I'd been Mrs. Hicks," +laughed Morris. "I know that old lady--I used to stop with her myself +when I was building the town hall--and she's good as gold. And now tell +me how MacFarlane is getting on--building a railroad, isn't he? He told +me about it, but I forget." + +"No," replied Jack, his face growing suddenly serious as he turned +toward the speaker; "the company is building the road. We have only got +a fill of half a mile and then a tunnel of a mile more." + +Miss Felicia beamed sententiously when Jack said "we," but she did not +interrupt the speaker. + +"And what sort of cutting?" continued the architect in a tone that +showed his entire familiarity with work of the kind. + +"Gneiss rock for eleven hundred feet and then some mica schist that +we have had to shore up every time we move our drills," answered Jack +quietly. + +"Any cave-ins?" Morris was leaning forward now, his eyes riveted on the +boy's. What information he wanted he felt sure he now could get. + +"Not yet, but plenty of water. We struck a spring last week" (this time +the "we" didn't seem so preposterous) "that came near drowning us out, +but we managed to keep it under with a six-inch centrifugal; but it +meant pumping night and day." + +"And when is he going to get through?" + +"That depends on what is ahead of us. Our borings show up all +right--most of it is tough gneiss--but if we strike gravel or shale +again it means more timbering, of course. Perhaps another year--perhaps +a few months. I am not giving you my own opinion, for I've had very +little experience, but that is what Bolton thinks--he's second in +command next to Mr. MacFarlane--and so do the other fellows at our +boarding house." + +And then followed a discussion on "struts," roof timbers and tie-rods, +Jack describing in a modest, impersonal way the various methods used by +the members of the staff with which he was connected, Morris, as usual, +becoming so absorbed in the warding off of "cave-ins" that for the +moment he forgot the table, his hostess and everybody about him, a +situation which, while it delighted Peter, who was bursting with pride +over Jack, was beginning to wear upon Miss Felicia, who was entirely +indifferent as to whether the top covering of MacFarlane's underground +hole fell in or not. + +"There, now, Holker," she said with a smile as she laid her hand on his +coat sleeve--"not another word. Tunnels are things everybody wants to +get through with as quick as possible--and I'm not going to spend all +night in yours--awful damp places full of smoke--No--not another word. +Ruth, ask that young Roebling next you to tell us another story--No, +wait until we have our coffee and you gentlemen have lighted your +cigars. Perhaps, Ruth, you had better take Mr. Breen into the +smoking-room. Now, give me your arm, Holker, and you come, too, Major, +and bring Peter with you to my boudoir. I want to show you the most +delicious copy of Shelley you ever saw. No, Mr. Breen, Ruth wants you; +we will be with you in a few minutes--" Then after the two had passed +on ahead--"Look at them, Major--aren't they a joy, just to watch?--and +aren't you ashamed of yourself that you have wasted your life? No arbor +for you! What would you give if a lovely girl like that wanted you all +to herself by the side of my frog pond?" + +A shout ahead from Jack, and a rippling laugh from Ruth now floated our +way. + +"Oh!--OH!--" and "Yes--isn't it wonderful--come and see the arbor--" and +then a clatter of feet down the soggy steps and fainter footfalls on the +moist bricks, ending in silence. + +"There!" laughed Miss Felicia, turning toward us and clapping her +hands--"they have reached the arbor and it's all over, and now we will +all go out on the porch for our coffee. I haven't any Shelley that you +have not seen a dozen times--I just intended that surprise to come to +the boy and in the way Ruth wanted it--she has talked of nothing else +since she knew he was coming. Mighty dangerous, I can tell you, that old +bench. Ruth can take care of herself, but that poor fellow will be in +a dreadful state if we leave them alone too long. Sit here, Holker, +and tell me about the dinner and what you said. All that Peter could +remember was that you never did better, and that everybody cheered, and +that the squabs were so dry he couldn't eat them." + +But the Scribe refuses to be interested in Holker's talk, however +brilliant, or in Miss Felicia's crisp repartee. His thoughts are down +among the palms, where the two figures are entering the arbor, the +soft glow of half a dozen lanterns falling upon the joyous face of the +beautiful girl, as, with hand in Jack's, she leads him to a seat beside +her on the bench. + +"But it's like home," Jack gasped. "Why, you must remember your own +garden, and the porch that ran alongside of the kitchen, and the brick +walls--and just see how big it is and you never told me a word about it! +Why?" + +"Oh, because it would have spoiled all the fun; I was so afraid daddy +would tell you that I made him promise not to say a word; and nobody +else had seen it except Mr. Morris, and he said torture couldn't drag it +out of him. That old Major that Uncle Peter thinks so much of came near +spoiling the surprise, but Aunt Felicia said she would take care of him +in the back of the house--and she did; and I mounted guard at the top +of the stairs before anybody could get hold of you. Isn't it too +lovely?--and, do you know, there are real live frogs in that pond and +you can hear them croak? And now tell me about daddy, and how he gets on +without me." + +But Jack was not ready yet to talk about daddy, or the work, or anything +that concerned Corklesville and its tunnel--the transition had been too +sudden and too startling. To be fired from a gun loaded with care, hard +work and anxiety--hurled through hours of winter travel and landed at a +dinner-table next some charming young woman, was an experience which had +occurred to him more than once in the past two years. But to be thrust +still further into space until he reached an Elysium replete with +whispering fountains, flowering vines and the perfume of countless +blossoms--the whole tucked away in a cosey arbor containing a seat for +two--AND NO MORE--and this millions of miles away, so far as he could +see, from the listening ear or watchful eye of mortal man or woman--and +with Ruth, too--the tips of whose fingers were so many little shrines +for devout kisses--that was like having been transported into Paradise. + +"Oh, please let me look around a little," he begged at last. "And this +is why you love to come here?" + +"Yes--wouldn't you?" + +"I would not live anywhere else if I could--and it has just the air +of summer--and it feels like a summer's night, too--as if the moon was +coming up somewhere." + +Ruth's delight equalled his own; she must show him the new tulips just +sprouting, taking down a lantern so that he could see the better; and he +must see how the jessamine was twisted in and out the criss-cross slats +of the trellis, so that the flowers bloomed both outside and in; and +the little gully in the flagging of the pavement through which ran the +overflow of the tiny pond--till the circuit of the garden was made and +they were again seated on the dangerous bench, with a cushion tucked +behind her beautiful shoulders. + +They talked of the tunnel and when it would be finished; and of the +village people and whom they liked and whom they didn't--and why--and of +Corinne, whose upturned little nose and superior, dominating airs +Ruth thought were too funny for words; and of her recently announced +engagement to Garry Minott, who had started for himself in business and +already had a commission to build a church at Elm Crest--known to +all New Jersey as Corklesville until the real-estate agencies +took possession of its uplands--Jack being instrumental, with Mr. +MacFarlane's help, in securing him the order; and of the dinner to be +given next week at Mrs. Brent Foster's on Washington Square, to which +they were both invited, thanks to Miss Felicia for Ruth's invitation, +and thanks to Peter for that of Jack, who, at Peter's request, had +accompanied him one afternoon to one of Mrs. Foster's receptions, where +he had made so favorable an impression that he was at once added to Mrs. +Foster's list of eligible young men--the same being a scarce article. +They had discussed, I say, all these things and many more, in sentences, +the Scribe devoutly hopes, much shorter than the one he has just +written--when in a casual--oh, so casual a way--merely as a matter of +form--Ruth asked him if he really must go back to Corklesville in the +morning. + +"Yes," answered Jack--"there is no one to take charge of the new battery +but myself, and we have ten holes already filled for blasting." + +"But isn't it only to put the two wires together? Daddy explained it to +me." + +"Yes--but at just the right moment. Half a minute too early might ruin +weeks of work. We have some supports to blow out. Three charges are at +their bases--everything must go off together." + +"But it is such a short visit." + +Some note in her voice rang through Jack's ears and down into his heart. +In all their intercourse--and it had been a free and untrammelled one +so far as their meetings and being together were concerned--there was +invariably a barrier which he could never pass, and one that he was +always afraid to scale. This time her face was toward him, the rosy +light bathing her glorious hair and the round of her dimpled cheek. For +an instant a half-regretful smile quivered on her lips, and then faded +as if some indrawn sigh had strangled it. + +Jack's heart gave a bound. + +"Are you really sorry to have me go, Miss Ruth?" he asked, searching her +eyes. + +"Why should I not be? Is not this better than Mrs. Hicks's, and Aunt +Felicia would love to have you stay--she told me so at dinner." + +"But you, Miss Ruth?" He had moved a trifle closer--so close that his +eager fingers almost touched her own: "Do you want me to stay?" + +"Why, of course, we all want you to stay. Uncle Peter has talked of +nothing else for days." + +"But do you want me to stay, Miss Ruth?" + +She lifted her head and looked him fearlessly in the eyes: + +"Yes, I do--now that you will have it that way. We are going to have a +sleigh-ride to-morrow, and I know you would love the open country, it is +so beautiful, and so is--" + +"Ruth! Ruth! you dear child," came a voice--"are you two never coming +in?--the coffee is stone cold." + +"Yes, Aunt Felicia, right away. Run, Mr. Breen--" and she flew up the +brick path. + +For the second time Miss Felicia's keen, kindly eyes scanned the young +girl's face, but only a laugh, the best and surest of masks, greeted +her. + +"He thinks it all lovely," Ruth rippled out. "Don't you, Mr. Breen?" + +"Lovely? Why, it is the most wonderful place I ever saw; I could hardly +believe my senses. I am quite sure old Aunt Hannah is cooking behind +that door--" here he pointed to the kitchen--"and that poor old Tom will +come hobbling along in a minute with 'dat mis'ry' in his back. How in +the world you ever did it, and what--" + +"And did you hear my frogs?" interrupted his hostess. + +"Of course he didn't, Felicia," broke in Peter. "What a question to +ask a man! Listen to the croakings of your miserable tadpoles with +the prettiest girl in seven counties--in seven States, for that +matter--sitting beside him! Oh!--you needn't look, you minx! If he +heard a single croak he ought to be ducked in the puddle--and then +packed off home soaking wet." + +"And that is what he is going to do himself," rejoined Ruth, dropping +into a chair which Peter had drawn up for her. + +"Do what!" cried Peter. + +"Pack himself off--going by the early train--nothing I can do or say has +made the slightest impression on him," she said with a toss of her head. + +Jack raised his hands in protest, but Peter wouldn't listen. + +"Then you'll come back, sir, on Saturday and stay until Monday, and then +we'll all go down together and you'll take Ruth across the ferry to her +father's. + +"Thank you, sir, but I am afraid I can't. You see, it all depends on the +work--" this last came with a certain tone of regret. + +"But I'll send MacFarlane a note, and have you detailed as an escort of +one to bring his only daughter----" + +"It would not do any good, Mr. Grayson." + +"Stop your nonsense, Jack--" Peter called him so now--"You come back for +Sunday." These days with the boy were the pleasantest of his life. + +"Well, I would love to--" Here his eyes sought, Ruth--"but we have an +important blast to make, and we are doing our best to get things into +shape before the week is out." + +"Well, but suppose it isn't ready?" demanded Peter. + +"But it will be," answered Jack in a more positive tone; this part of +the work was in his hands. + +"Well, anyhow, send me a telegram." + +"I will send it, sir, but I am afraid it won't help matters. Miss Ruth +knows how delighted I would be to return here and see her safe home." + +"Whether she does or whether she doesn't," broke in Miss Felicia, +"hasn't got a single thing to do with it, Peter. You just go back to +your work, Mr. Breen, and look after your gunpowder plots, or +whatever you call them, and if some one of these gentlemen of elegant +leisure--not one of whom so far has offered his services--cannot manage +to escort you to your father's house, Ruth, I will take you myself. Now +come inside the drawing-room, every one of you, or you will all blame me +for undermining your precious healths--you, too, Major, and bring your +cigars with you. So you don't drop your ashes into my tea-caddy, I don't +care where you throw them." + +It was late in the afternoon of the second day when the telegram +arrived, a delay which caused no apparent suffering to any one except, +perhaps, Peter, who wandered about with a "Nothing from Jack yet, eh?" +A question which no one answered, it being addressed to nobody in +particular, unless it was to Ruth, who had started at every ring of the +door-bell. As to Miss Felicia--she had already dismissed the young man +from her mind. + +When it did arrive there was a slight flutter of interest, but nothing +more; Miss Felicia laying down her book, Ruth asking in indifferent +tones--even before the despatch was opened--"Is he coming?" and Morris, +who was playing chess with Peter, holding his pawn in mid-air until the +interruption was over. + +Not so Peter--who with a joyous "Didn't I tell you the boy would keep +his promise--" sprang from his chair, nearly upsetting the chess-board +in his eagerness to hear from Jack, an eagerness shared by Ruth, whose +voice again rang out, this time in an anxious tone, + +"Hurry up, Uncle Peter--is he coming?" + +Peter made no answer; he was staring straight at the open slip, his face +deathly pale, his hand trembling. + +"I'll tell you all about it in a minute, dear," he said at last with a +forced smile. Then he touched Morris's arm and the two left the room. + + + +CHAPTER XIV + + + +The Scribe would willingly omit this chapter. Dying men, hurrying +doctors, improvised stretchers made of wrenched fence rails; silent, +slow-moving throngs following limp, bruised bodies,--are not pleasant +objects to write about and should be disposed of as quickly as possible. + +Exactly whose fault it was nobody knew; if any one did, no one ever +told. Every precaution had been taken each charge had been properly +placed and tamped; all the fulminates inspected and the connections made +with the greatest care. As to the battery--that was known to be half a +mile away in the pay shanty, lying on Jack Breen's table. + +Nor was the weather unfavorable. True, there had been rain the day +before, starting a general thaw, but none of the downpour had soaked +through the outer crust of the tunnel to the working force inside and +no extra labor had devolved on the pumps. This, of course, upset +all theories as to there having been a readjustment of surface rock, +dangerous sometimes, to magnetic connections. + +Then again, no man understood tunnel construction better than Henry +MacFarlane, C.E., Member of the American Society of Engineers, Fellow +of the Institute of Sciences, etc., etc. Nor was there ever an engineer +more careful of his men. Indeed, it was his boast that he had never lost +a life by a premature discharge in the twenty years of his experience. +Nor did the men, those who worked under him--those who escaped +alive--come to any definite conclusion as to the cause of the +catastrophe: the night and day gang, I mean,--those who breathed the +foul air, who had felt the chill of the clammy interior and who were +therefore familiar with the handling of explosives and the proper +tamping of the charges--a slip of the steel meaning instantaneous +annihilation. + +The Beast knew and could tell if he chose. + +I say "The Beast," for that is what MacFarlane's tunnel was to me. To +the passer-by and to the expert, it was, of course, merely a short cut +through the steep hills flanking one end of the huge "earth fill" which +MacFarlane was constructing across the Corklesville brook, and which, +when completed would form a road-bed for future trains; but to me it was +always The Beast. + +This illusion was helped by its low-browed, rocky head, crouching close +to the end of the "fill," its length concealed in the clefts of the +rocks--as if lying in wait for whatever crossed its path--as well as its +ragged, half-round, catfish gash of a mouth from out of which poured at +regular intervals a sickening breath--yellow, blue, greenish often--and +from which, too, often came dulled explosions, followed by belchings of +debris which centipedes of cars dragged clear of its slimy lips. + +So I reiterate, The Beast knew. + +Every day the gang had bored and pounded and wrenched, piercing his +body with nervous, nagging drills; propping up his backbone, cutting +out tender bits of flesh, carving--bracing--only to carve again. He had +tried to wriggle and twist, but the mountain had held him fast. Once he +had straightened out, smashing the tiny cars and the tugging locomotive; +breaking a leg and an arm, and once a head, but the devils had begun +again, boring and digging and the cruel wound was opened afresh. Another +time, after a big rain, with the help of some friendly rocks who had +rushed down to his help, he had snapped his jaws tight shut, penning the +devils up inside, but a hundred others had wrenched them open, breaking +his teeth, shoring up his lips with iron beams, tearing out what was +left of his tongue. He could only sulk now, breathing hard and grunting +when the pain was unbearable. One thought comforted him, and one only: +Far back in his bulk he knew of a thin place in his hide,--so thin, +owing to a dip in the contour of the hill,--that but a few yards of +overlying rock and earth lay between it and the free air. + +Here his tormentors had stopped; why, he could not tell until he began +to keep tally of what had passed his mouth: The long trains of cars +had ceased; so had the snorting locomotives; so had the steam drills. +Curious-looking boxes and kegs were being passed in, none of which +ever came back; men with rolls of paper on which were zigzag markings +stumbled inside, stayed an hour and stumbled out again; these men wore +no lamps in their hats and were better dressed than the others. Then a +huge wooden drum wrapped with wire was left overnight outside his lips +and unrolled the next morning, every yard of it being stretched so far +down his throat that he lost all track of it. + +On the following morning work of every kind ceased; not a man with a +lamp anywhere--and these The Beast hated most; that is, none that he +could see or feel. After an hour or more the head man arrived and with +two others went inside. The head man was tall and fair, had gray side +whiskers and wore a slouch hat; the second man was straight and well +built, with a boyish face tanned by the weather. The third man was short +and fat: this one carried a plan. Behind the three walked five other +men. + +All were talking. + +"The dip is to the eastward," the head man said. "The uplift ought to +clear things so we won't have to handle the stuff twice. Hard to rig +derricks on that slope. Let's have powder enough, anyhow, Bolton." + +The fat man nodded and consulted his plan with the help of his +eye-glasses. Then the three men and the five men passed in out of +hearing. + +The Beast was sure now. The men were going to blow out the side of the +hill where his hide was thinnest so as to make room for an air-shaft. + +An hour later a gang in charge of a red-shirted foreman who were +shifting a section of toy track on the "fill" felt the earth shake under +them. Then came a dull roar followed by a cloud of yellow smoke mounting +skyward from an opening high up on the hillside. Flashing through this +cloud leaped tongues of flame intermingled with rocks and splintered +trees. From the tunnel's mouth streamed a thin, steel-colored gas that +licked its way along the upper edges of the opening and was lost in the +underbrush fringing its upper lip. + +"What's that?" muttered the red-shirted foreman--"that ain't no +blast--My God!--they're blowed up!" + +He sprang on a car and waved his arms with all his might: "Drop them +shovels! Git to the tunnel, every man of ye: here,--this way!" and he +plunged on, the men scrambling after him. + +The Beast was a magnet now, drawing everything to its mouth. Gangs +of men swarmed up the side of the hill; stumbling, falling; picking +themselves up only to stumble and fall again. Down the railroad tracks +swept a repair squad who had been straightening a switch, their foreman +in the lead. From out of the cabins bareheaded women and children ran +screaming. + +The end of the "fill" nearest the tunnel was now black with people; +those nearest to the opening were shielding their faces from the +deadly gas. The roar of voices was incessant; some shouted from sheer +excitement; others broke into curses, shaking their fists at The Beast; +blaming the management. All about stood shivering women with white +faces, some chewing the corners of their shawls in their agony. + +Then a cry clearer than the others soared above the heads of the +terror-stricken mob as a rescue gang made ready to enter the tunnel: + +"Water! Water! Get a bucket, some of ye! Ye can't live in that smoke +yet! Tie your mouth up if you're going in! Wet it, damn ye!--do ye want +to be choked stiff!" + +A shrill voice now cut the air. + +"It's the boss and the clerk and Mr. Bolton that's catched!" + +"Yes--and a gang from the big shanty; I seen 'em goin' in," shouted back +the red-shirted foreman. + +The volunteers--big, brawny men, who, warned by the foreman, had been +binding wet cloths over their mouths, now sprang forward, peering +into the gloom. Then the sound of footsteps was heard--nearer--nearer. +Groping through the blue haze stumbled a man, his shirt sleeve shielding +his mouth. On he came, staggering from side to side, reached the edge of +the mouth and pitched head-foremost as the fresh air filled his lungs. A +dozen hands dragged him clear. It was Bolton. + +His clothes were torn and scorched; his face blackened; his left hand +dripping blood. Two of the shanty gang were next hauled out and laid on +the back of an overturned dirt car. They had been near the mouth when +the explosion came, and throwing themselves flat had crawled toward the +opening. + +Bolton was still unconscious, but the two shanty men gasped out the +terrible facts: "The boss and the clerk, was jes' starting out when +everything let go"; they choked; "ther' ain't nothing left of the other +men. We passed the boss and the clerk; they was blowed agin a car; the +boss was stove up, the clerk was crawlin' toward him. They'll never git +out alive: none on 'em. We fellers was jes' givin' up when we see the +daylight and heared you a-yellin'." + +A hush now fell on the mass of people, broken by the piercing shriek +of a woman,--the wife of a shanty man. She would have rushed in had not +some one held her. + +Bolton sat up, gazing stupidly about him. Part of the story of the +escaped men had reached his ears. He struggled to his feet and staggerd +toward the opening of the tunnel. The red-shirted foreman caught him +under the armpits and whirled him back. + +"That ain't no place for you!" he cried--"I'll go!" + +A muffled cry was heard. It came from a bystander lying flat on his +belly inside the mouth: he had crawled in as far as he could. + +"Here they come!" + +New footfalls grew distinct, whether one or more the listeners could not +make out. Under the shouts of the red-shirted foreman to give them air, +the throng fell back. + +Out of the grimy smoke two figures slowly loomed up; one carried the +other on his back; whether shanty men or not, no one could tell. + +The crowd, no longer controlled by the foreman, surged about the +opening. Ready hands were held out, but the man carrying his comrade +waved them aside and staggered on, one hand steadying his load, the +other hanging loose. The big foreman started to rush in, but stopped. +Something in the burdened man's eye had checked him, it was as if a team +were straining up a steep hill, making any halt fatal. + +"It's the boss and the clerk!" shouted the foreman. "Fall back, +men,--fall back, damn ye!" + +The man came straight on, reached the lips of the opening, lunged +heavily to the right, tried to steady his burden and fell headlong. + + + +CHAPTER XV + + + +The street lamps were already lighted on the following afternoon--when +Ruth, with Peter and Miss Felicia, alighted at the small station of +Corklesville. All through the day she had gone over in her mind the +words of the despatch: + +Explosion in tunnel. MacFarlane hurt--serious--will recover. Break news +gently to daughter. + +Bolton Asst. Engineer + +Other despatches had met the party on the way down; one saying, "No +change," signed by the trained nurse, and a second one from Bolton +in answer to one of Peter's: "Three men killed--others escaped. +MacFarlane's operation successful. Explosion premature." + +Their anxiety only increased: Why hadn't Jack telegraphed? Why leave it +to Bolton? Why was there no word of him,--and yet how could Bolton have +known that Peter was with Ruth, except from young Breen. In this mortal +terror Peter had wired from Albany: "Is Breen hurt?" but no answer had +been received at Poughkeepsie. There had not been time for it, perhaps, +but still there was no answer, nor had his name been mentioned in any of +the other telegrams. That in itself was ominous. + +This same question Ruth had asked herself a dozen times. Jack was to +have had charge of the battery--he had told her so. Was he one of the +killed?--why didn't somebody tell her?--why hadn't Mr. Bolton said +something?--why--why--Then the picture of her father's mangled body +would rise before her and all thought of Jack pass out of her mind. + +As the train rolled into the grimy station she was the first to spring +from the car; she knew the way best, and the short cut from the station +to where her father lay. Her face was drawn; her eyes bloodshot from +restrained tears--all the color gone from her cheeks. + +"You bring Aunt Felicia, Uncle Peter,--and the bags;--I will go ahead," +she said, tying her veil so as to shield her face. "No, I won't wait for +anything." + +News of Ruth's expected arrival had reached the village, and the crowd +at the station had increased. On its inner circle, close to a gate +leading from the platform, stood a young man in a slouch hat, with his +left wrist bandaged. The arm had hung in a sling until the train rolled +in, then the silk support had been slipped and hidden in his pocket. +Under the slouch hat, the white edge of a bandage was visible which +the wearer vainly tried to conceal by pulling the hat further on +his head,--this subterfuge also concealed a dark scar on his temple. +Whenever the young man pressed closer to the gate, the crowd would fall +back as if to give him room. Now and then one would come up, grab his +well hand and pat his shoulder approvingly. He seemed to be as much an +object of interest as the daughter of the injured boss. + +When Ruth gained the gate the wounded man laid his fingers on her gloved +wrist. The girl started back, peered into his face, and uttered a cry of +relief. + +"Mr. Breen!" For one wild moment a spirit of overwhelming joy welled up +in her heart and shone out of her eyes. Thank God he was not dead! + +"Yes, Miss Ruth,--what is left of me. I wanted to see you as soon as you +reached here. You must not be alarmed about your father." The voice did +not sound like Jack's. + +"Is he worse? Tell me quick!" she exclaimed, the old fear confronting +her. + +"No. He is all right," he wheezed, "and is going to get well. His left +arm is broken and his head badly cut, but he is out of danger. The +doctor told me so an hour ago." + +"And you?" she pleaded, clinging to his proffered hand. + +"Oh! I am all right, too. The smoke got into my throat so I croak, but +that is nothing. Why, Mr. Grayson,--and Miss Felicia! I am so glad, Miss +Ruth, that you did not have to come alone! This way, everybody." + +Without other words they hurried into the carriage, driving like mad for +the cottage, a mile away; all the worn look gone from Ruth's face. + +"And you're not hurt, my boy?" asked Peter in a trembling voice--Jack's +well hand in his own. + +"No, only a few scratches, sir; that's all. Bolton's hand's in a bad +way, though; lose two of his fingers, I'm afraid." + +"And how did you escape?" + +"I don't know. I got out the best way I could. First thing I knew I was +lying on the grass and some one was pouring water over my head; then +they got me home and put me to bed." + +"And MacFarlane?" + +"Oh, he came along with me. I had to help him some." + +Peter heaved a sigh of relief, then he asked: + +"How did it happen?" + +"Nobody knows. One of the shanty men might have dropped a box of +fulminates. Poor fellow,--he never knew; they could find nothing of +him," Jack whispered behind his hand so Ruth would not hear. + +"But when did you get out of bed?" continued Peter. He was less anxious +now. + +Jack looked at Ruth and again lowered his voice; the sound of the +carriage preventing its hoarse notes from reaching her ears. + +"About half an hour ago, sir; they don't know I have gone, but I didn't +want anybody to frighten Miss Ruth. I don't look so bad, do I? I fixed +myself up as well as I could. I have got on Bolton's hat; I couldn't +get mine over the bandages. My wrist is the worst--sprained badly, the +doctor says." + +If Ruth heard she made no answer, nor did she speak during the ride. Now +and then she would gaze out of the window and once her fingers tightened +on Miss Felicia's arm as she passed in full view of the "fill" with the +gaping mouth of the tunnel beyond. Miss Felicia was occupied in watching +Jack. In fact, she had not taken her eyes from him since they entered +the carriage. She saw what neither Peter nor Ruth had seen;--that the +boy was suffering intensely from hidden wounds and that the strain was +so great he was verging on a collapse. No telling what these foolish +Southerners will do, she said to herself, when a woman is to be looked +after,--but she said nothing of all this to Ruth. + +When the carriage stopped and Ruth with a spring leaped from her seat +and bounded upstairs to her father's bedside, Miss Felicia holding +Jack's hand, her eyes reading the boy's face, turned and said to Peter: + +"Now you take him home where he belongs and put him to bed; and don't +you let him get up until I see him. No--" she continued in a more +decided tone, in answer to Jack's protest--"I won't have it. You go to +bed just as I tell you--you can hardly stand now." + +"Perhaps I had better, Miss Felicia. I am a little shaky," replied +Jack, in a faint voice, and the carriage kept on its way to Mrs. Hicks's +leaving the good lady on MacFarlane's porch. + +MacFarlane was asleep when Ruth, trembling with excitement, reached the +house. Outside the sick room, lighted by a single taper, she met the +nurse whose few hurried words, spoken with authority, calmed her, as +Jack had been unable to do, and reassured her mind. "Compound fracture +of the right arm, Miss," she whispered, "and badly bruised about the +head, as they all were. Poor Mr. Breen was the worst." + +Ruth looked at her in astonishment. That was why he had not lifted his +hat, she thought to herself, as she tiptoed into the sick room and sank +to her knees beside her father's bed. + +The injured man opened his eyes, and his free hand moved slowly till it +rested on his daughter's head. + +"I got an awful crack, Ruth, but I am all right now. Too bad to bring +you home. Who came with you?" + +"Aunt Felicia and Uncle Peter," she whispered as she stroked his +uninjured hand. + +"Mighty good of them--just like old Peter. Send the old boy up--I want +to see him." + +Ruth made no answer; her heart was too full. That her father was alive +was enough. + +"I'm not pretty to look at, am I, child, but I'll pull out; I have been +hurt before--had a leg broken once in the Virginia mountains when you +were a baby. The smoke was the worst; I swallowed a lot of it; and I am +sore now all over my chest. Poor Bolton's badly crippled, I hear--and +Breen--they've told you about Breen, haven't they, daughter?" His voice +rose as he mentioned the boy's name. + +Ruth shook her head. + +"Well, I wouldn't be here but for him! He's a plucky boy. I will never +forget him for it; you mustn't either," he continued in a more positive +tone. + +The nurse now moved to the bed. + +"I would not talk any more, Mr. MacFarlane. Miss Ruth is going to be at +home now right along and she will hear the story." + +"Well, I won't, nurse, if you don't want me to--but they won't be able +to tell her what a fix we were in--I remember everything up to the time +Breen dragged me from under the dirt car. I knew right away what had +happened and what we had to do; I've been there before, but--" + +"There,--that will do, Mr. MacFarlane," interrupted the nurse. "Come, +Miss Ruth, suppose you go to your room for a while." + +The girl rose to her feet. + +"You can come back as soon as I fix your father for the night." She +pointed significantly to the patient's head, whispering, "He must not +get excited." + +"Yes, dear daddy--I will come back just as soon as I can get the dust +out of my hair and get brushed up a little," cried Ruth bravely, in the +effort to hide her anxiety, "and then Aunt Felicia is downstairs." + +Once outside she drew the nurse, who had followed her, to the window so +as to be out of hearing of the patient and then asked breathlessly: + +"What did Mr. Breen do?" + +"I don't know exactly, but everybody is talking about him." + +At this moment Miss Felicia arrived at the top of the stairs: she had +heard Ruth's question and had caught the dazed expression on the girl's +face. + +"I will tell you, my dear, what he did, for I have heard every word of +it from the servants. The blast went off before he and your father had +reached the opening of the tunnel. They left your father for dead, then +John Breen crawled back on his hands and knees through the dreadful +smoke until he reached him, lifted him up on his shoulders and carried +him out alive. That's what he did; and he is a big, fine, strong, noble +fellow, and I am going to tell him so the moment I get my eyes on him. +And that is not all. He got out of bed this afternoon, though he could +hardly stand, and covered up all his bruises and his broken wrist so you +couldn't see them, and then he limped down to the station so you would +get the truth about your father and not be frightened. And now he is in +a dead faint." + +Ruth's eyes flamed and the color left her cheeks. She stretched out both +hands as if to keep from falling. + +"Saved daddy!" she gasped--"Carried him out on--Oh! Aunt Felicia!--and I +have been so mean! To think he got up out of bed and--and--" Everything +swam before her eyes. + +Miss Felicia sprang forward and caught her in her arms. + +"Come!--none of this, Child. Pull yourself together right away. Get +her some water, nurse,--she has stood all she can. There now, dearie--" +Ruth's head was on her breast now. "There--there--Such a poor darling, +and so many things coming all at once. There, darling, put your head on +my shoulder and cry it all out." + +The girl sobbed on, the wrinkled hand patting her cheek. + +"Oh, but you don't know, aunty--" she crooned. + +"Yes, but I do--you blessed child. I know it all." + +"And won't somebody go and help him? He is all alone, he told me so." + +"Uncle Peter is with him, dearie.'" + +"Yes,--but some one who can--" she straightened up--"I will go, aunty--I +will go now." + +"You will do nothing of the kind, you little goose; you will stay just +where you are." + +"Well, won't you go, then? Oh, please--please--aunty." Peter's bald head +now rose above the edge of the banisters. Miss Felicia motioned him to +go back, but Ruth heard his step and raised her tear-drenched face half +hidden in her dishevelled hair. + +"Oh, Uncle Peter, is Jack--is Mr. Breen--" + +Miss Felicia's warning face behind Ruth's own, for once reached Peter in +time. + +"In his bed and covered up, and his landlady, Mrs. Hicks, sitting beside +him," responded Peter in his cheeriest tones. + +"But he fainted from pain--and--" + +"Yes, but that's all over now, my dear," broke in Miss Felicia. + +"But you will go, anyhow--won't you, aunty?" pleaded Ruth. + +"Certainly--just as soon as I put you to bed, and that is just where you +have got to go this very minute," and she led the overwrought trembling +girl into her room and shut the door. + +Peter stood for an instant looking about him, his mind taking in the +situation. Ruth was being cared for now, and so was MacFarlane--the +white cap and apron of the noiseless nurse passing in and out of the +room in which he lay, assured him of that. Bolton, too, in the room next +to Jack's, was being looked after by his sister who had just arrived. +He, too, was fairly comfortable, though a couple of his fingers had been +shortened. But there was nobody to look after Jack--no father, mother, +sister--nobody. To send for the boy's uncle, or Corinne, or his aunt, +was out of the question, none of them having had more than a word with +him since his departure. Yet Jack needed attention. The doctor had just +pulled him out of one fainting spell only to have him collapse again +when his coat was taken off, and the bandages were loosened. He was +suffering greatly and was by no means out of danger. + +If for the next hour or two there was anything to be done at +MacFarlane's, Peter was ready to do it, but this accomplished, he would +shoulder his bag and camp out for the night beside the boy's bed. He had +come, indeed, to tell Felicia so, and he meant to sleep there whatever +her protests. He was preparing himself for her objections, when she +reentered the room. + +"How is young Breen?" Miss Felicia asked in a whisper, closing the door +behind her. She had put Ruth to bed, where she had again given way to an +uncontrollable fit of weeping. + +"Pretty weak. The doctor is with him now." + +"What did the fool get up for?" She did not mean to surrender too +quickly about Jack despite his heroism--not to Peter, at any rate. Then, +again, she half suspected that Ruth's tears were equally divided between +the rescuer and the rescued. + +"He couldn't help it, I suppose," answered Peter, with a gleam in his +eyes--"he was born that way." + +"Born! What stuff, Peter--no man of any common-sense would have--" + +"I quite agree with you, my dear--no man except a gentleman. There is +no telling what one of that kind might do under such circumstances." And +with a wave of his hand and a twinkle in his merry scotch-terrier eyes, +the old fellow disappeared below the handrail. + +Miss Felicia leaned over the banisters: + +"Peter, PETER," she called after him, "where are you going?" + +"To stay all night with Jack." + +"Well, that's the most sensible thing I have heard of yet. Will you take +him a message from me?" + +Peter looked up: "Yes, Felicia, what is it?" + +"Give him my love." + + + +CHAPTER XVI + + + +Miss Felicia kept her promise to Ruth. Before that young woman, indeed, +tired out with anxiety, had opened her beautiful eyes the next morning +and pushed back her beautiful hair from her beautiful face--and it was +still beautiful, despite all the storms it had met and weathered, the +energetic, old lady had presented herself at the front door of Mrs. +Hicks's Boarding Hotel (it was but a step from MacFarlane's) and had +sent her name to the young man in the third floor back. + +A stout person, with a head of adjustable hair held in place by a +band of black velvet skewered by a gold pin, the whole surmounted by a +flaring mob-cap of various hues and dyes, looked Miss Felicia all over +and replied in a dubious tone: + +"He's had a bad mash-up, and I don't think--" + +"I am quite aware of it, my dear madam, or I would not be here. Now, +please show me the way to Mr. Breen's room--my brother was here last +night and--" + +"Oh, the bald-headed gentleman?" exclaimed Mrs. Hicks. "Such a dear, +kind man; and it was as much as I could do to get him to bed and he a--" + +But Miss Felicia was already inside the sitting-room, her critical eyes +noting its bare, forbidding furnishing and appointment--she had not +yet let down her skirts, the floor not being inviting. As each article +passed in review--the unsteady rocking-chairs upholstered in haircloth +and protected by stringy tidies, the disconsolate, almost bottomless +lounge, fly-specked brass clock and mantel ornaments, she could not +but recall the palatial entrance, drawing-room, and boudoir into which +Parkins had ushered her on that memorable afternoon when she had paid +a visit to Mrs. Arthur Breen--(her "last visit" the old lady would +say with a sly grimace at Holker, who had never forgiven "that pirate, +Breen," for robbing Gilbert of his house). + +"And this is what this idiot has got in exchange," she said to herself +as she peered into the dining-room beyond, with its bespattered +table-cloth flanked by cheap china plates and ivory napkin rings--the +castors mounting guard at either end. + +The entrance of the lady with the transferable hair cut short her +revery. + +"Mr. Breen says come up, ma'am," she said in a subdued voice. It was +astonishing how little time it took for Miss Felicia's personality to +have its effect. + +Up the uncarpeted stairs marched the great lady, down an equally bare +hall lined on either side by bedroom doors, some marked by unblacked +shoes others by tin trays holding fragments of late or early breakfasts, +the flaring cap obsequiously pointing the way until the two had reached +a door at the end of the corridor. + +"Now I won't bother you any more," said Miss Felicia. "Thank you very +much. Are you in here Mr. Breen?" she called in a cheery voice as +she pushed open the door, and advanced to his bedside:--"Oh, you poor +fellow! Oh, I AM so sorry!" + +The boy lay on a cot-bed pushed close to the wall. His face was like +chalk; his eyes deep set in his head; his scalp one criss-cross of +bandages, and his right hand and wrist a misshapen lump of cotton +wadding and splints. + +"No, don't move. Why, you did not look as bad as this yesterday," she +added in sympathetic tones, patting his free hand with her own, +her glance wandering over the cramped little room with its meagre +appointments. + +Jack smiled faintly and a light gleamed in his eyes. The memory of +yesterday evidently brought no regrets. + +"I dared not look any other way," he answered faintly; "I was so afraid +of alarming Miss Ruth." Then after a pause in which the smile and +the gleam flickered over his pain-tortured face, he added in a more +determined voice: "I am glad I went, though the doctor was furious. He +says it was the worst thing I could have done--and thought I ought to +have had sense enough to--But don't let's talk any more about it, Miss +Felicia. It was so good of you to come. Mr. Grayson has just left. You'd +think he was a woman, he is so gentle and tender. But I'll be around in +a day or two, and as soon as I can get on my feet and look less like a +scarecrow than I do, I am coming over to see you and Miss Ruth and--yes, +and UNCLE PETER--" Miss Felicia arched her eyebrows: "Oh, you needn't +look!--that's what I am going to call him after this; we settled all +that last night." + +A smile overspread Miss Felicia's face. "Uncle Peter, is it? And I +suppose you will be calling me Aunt Felicia next?" + +Jack turned his eyes: "That was just what I was trying to screw up my +courage to do. Please let me, won't you?" Again Miss Felicia lifted her +eyebrows, but she did not say she would. + +"And Ruth--what do you intend to call that young lady? Of course, +without her permission, as that seems to be the fashion." And the old +lady's eyes danced in restrained merriment. + +The sufferer's face became suddenly grave; for an instant he did not +answer, then he said slowly: + +"But what can I call her except Miss Ruth?" + +Miss Felicia laughed. Nothing was so delicious as a love affair which +she could see into. This boy's heart was an open book. Besides, this +kind of talk would take his mind from his miseries. + +"Oh, but I am not so sure of that," she rejoined, in an encouraging +tone. + +A light broke out in Jack's eyes: "You mean that she WOULD let me call +her--call her Ruth?" + +"I don't mean anything of the kind, you foolish fellow. You have got to +ask her yourself; but there's no telling what she would not do for you +now, she's so grateful to you for saving her father's life." + +"But I did not," he exclaimed, an expression as of acute pain crossing +his brows. "I only helped him along. But she must not be grateful. I +don't like the word. Gratitude hasn't got anything to do with--" he did +not finish the sentence. + +"But you DID save his life, and you know it, and I just love you for +it," she insisted, ignoring his criticism as she again smoothed his +hand. "You did a fine, noble act, and I am proud of you and I came to +tell you so." Then she added suddenly: "You received my message last +night, didn't you? Now, don't tell me that that good-for-nothing Peter +forgot it." + +"No, he gave it to me, and it was so kind of you." + +"Well, then I forgive him. And now," here she made a little salaam with +both her hands--"now you have Ruth's message." + +"I have what?" he asked in astonishment. + +"Ruth's message." She still kept her face straight although her lips +quivered with merriment. + +Jack tried to lift his head: "What is her message?" he asked with +expectant eyes--perhaps she had sent him a letter! + +Miss Felicia tapped her bosom with her forefinger. + +"ME!" she cried, "I am her message. She was so worried last night when +she found out how ill you were that I promised her to come and comfort +you; that is why it is ME. And now, don't you think you ought to get +down on your knees and thank her? Why, you don't seem a bit pleased!" + +"And she sent you to me--because--because--she was GRATEFUL that I saved +her father's life?" he asked in a bewildered tone. + +"Of course--why shouldn't she be; is there anything else you can give +her she would value as much as her father's life, you conceited young +Jackanapes?" + +She had the pin through the butterfly now and was watching it squirm; +not maliciously--she was never malicious. He would get over the prick, +she knew. It might help him in the end, really. + +"No, I suppose not," he replied simply, as he sank back on his pillow +and turned his bruised face toward the wall. + +For some moments he lay in deep thought. The last half-hour in the arbor +under the palms came back to him; the tones of Ruth's voice; the casual +way in which she returned his devouring glance. She didn't love him; +never had loved him; wouldn't ever love him. Anybody could carry +another fellow out on his back; was done every day by firemen and +life-savers,--everybody, in fact, who happened to be around when their +services were most needed. Grateful! Of course the rescued people and +their friends were grateful until they forgot all about it, as they were +sure to do the next day, or week, or month. Gratitude was not what he +wanted. It was love. That was the way he felt; that was the way he would +always feel. He who loved every hair on Ruth's beautiful head, loved her +wonderful hands, loved her darling feet, loved the very ground on which +she walked "Gratitude!" eh! That was the word his uncle had used the +day he slammed the door of his private office in his face. "Common +gratitude, damn you, Jack, ought to put more sense in your head," as +though one ought to have been "grateful" for a seat at a gambling +table and two rooms in a house supported by its profits. Garry had said +"gratitude," too, and so had Corinne, and all the rest of them. Peter +had never talked gratitude; dear Peter, who had done more for him than +anybody in the world except his own father. Peter wanted his love if he +wanted anything, and that was what he was going to give him--big, broad, +all-absorbing LOVE. And he did love him. Even his wrinkled hands, so +soft and white, and his glistening head, and his dabs of gray whiskers, +and his sweet, firm, human mouth were precious to him. Peter--his +friend, his father, his comrade! Could he ever insult him by such a +mean, cowardly feeling as gratitude? And was the woman he loved as he +loved nothing else in life--was she--was Ruth going to belittle their +relations with the same substitute? It was a big pin, that which Miss +Felicia had impaled him on, and it is no wonder the poor fluttering +wings were nigh exhausted in the struggle! + +Relief came at last. + +"And now what shall I tell her?" asked Miss Felicia. "She worries more +over you than she does over her father; she can get hold of him any +minute, but you won't be presentable for a week. Come, what shall I tell +her?" + +Jack shifted his shoulders so that he could move the easier and with +less pain, and raised himself on his well elbow. There was no use of his +hoping any more; she had evidently sent Miss Felicia to end the matter +with one of her polite phrases,--a weapon which she, of all women, knew +so well how to use. + +"Give Miss Ruth my kindest regards," he said in a low voice, still husky +from the effects of the smoke and the strain of the last half-hour--"and +say how thankful I am for her gratitude, and--No,--don't tell her +anything of the kind. I don't know what you are to tell her." The words +seemed to die in his throat. + +"But she will ask me, and I have got to say something. Come,--out with +it." Her eyes were still on his face; not a beat of his wings or a +squirm of his body had she missed. + +"Well just say how glad I am she is at home again and that her father +is getting on so well, and tell her I will be up and around in a day +or two, and that I am not a bit worse off for going to the station +yesterday." + +"Anything else?" + +"No,--unless you can think of something." + +"And if I do shall I add it?" + +"Yes." + +"Oh,--then I know exactly what to do,--it will be something like this: +'Please, Ruth, take care of your precious self, and don't be worried +about me or anything else, and remember that every minute I am away from +you is misery, for I love you to distraction and--'" + +"Oh, Miss Felicia!" + +"No--none of your protests, sir!" she laughed. "That is just what I +am going to tell her. And now don't you dare to move till Peter comes +back," and with a toss of her aristocratic head the dear lady left the +room, closing the door behind her. + +And so our poor butterfly was left flat against the wall--all his +flights ended. No more roaming over honeysuckles, drinking in the honey +of Ruth's talk; no more soaring up into the blue, the sunshine of hope +dazzling his wings. It made no difference what Miss Felicia might say +to Ruth. It was what she had said to HIM which made him realize the +absurdity of all his hopes. Everything that he had longed for, worked +for, dreamed about, was over now--the long walks in the garden, her dear +hand in his, even the song of the choir boys, and the burst of joyous +music as they passed out of the church door only to enter their own for +life. All this was gone--never to return--never had existed, in fact, +except in his own wild imagination. And once more the disheartened boy +turned his tired pain-racked face toward the bare wall. + +Miss Felicia tripped downstairs with an untroubled air, extended two +fingers to Mrs. Hicks, and without more ado passed out into the morning +air. No thought of the torment she had inflicted affected the dear +woman. What were pins made for except to curb the ambitious wings of +flighty young men who were soaring higher than was good for them. She +would let him know that Ruth was a prize not to be too easily won, +especially by penniless young gentlemen, however brave and heroic they +might be. + +Hardly had she crossed the dreary village street encumbered with piles +of half-melted snow and mud, than she espied Peter picking his way +toward her, his silk hat brushed to a turn, his gray surtout buttoned +close, showing but the edge of his white silk muffler, his carefully +rolled umbrella serving as a divining rod the better to detect the +water holes. No one who met him and looked into his fresh, rosy face, +or caught the merry twinkle of his eyes, would ever have supposed he had +been pouring liniment over broken arms and bandaged fingers until +two o'clock in the morning of the night before. It had only been when +Bolton's sister had discovered an empty "cell," as Jack called the +bedroom next to his, that he had abandoned his intention of camping out +on Jack's disheartened lounge, and had retired like a gentleman carrying +with him all his toilet articles, ready to be set out in the morning. + +Long before that time he had captured everybody in the place: from Mrs. +Hicks, who never dreamed that such a well of tenderness over suffering +could exist in an old fellow's heart, down to the freckled-faced boy who +came for his muddy shoes and who, after a moment's talk with Peter as to +how they should be polished, retired later in the firm belief that they +belonged to "a gent way up in G," as he expressed it, he never having +waited on "the likes of him before." As to Bolton, he thought he was +the "best ever," and as to his prim, patient sister who had closed her +school to be near her brother--she declared to Mrs. Hicks five minutes +after she had laid her eyes on him, that Mr. Breen's uncle was "just too +dear for anything,"--to which the lady with the movable hair and mob-cap +not only agreed, but added the remark of her own, "that folks like him +was a sight better than the kind she was a-gettin'." + +All these happenings of the night and early hours of this bright, +beautiful morning--and it was bright and sunny overhead despite the old +fellow's precautionary umbrella--had helped turn out the spick and span +gentleman who was now making his way carefully over the unpaved road +which stood for Corklesville's principal street. + +Miss Felicia saw him first. + +"Oh! there you are!" she cried before he could raise his eyes. "Did you +ever see anything so disgraceful as this crossing--not a plank--nothing. +No--get out of my way, Peter; you will just upset me, and I would rather +help myself." + +In reply Peter, promptly ignoring her protest, stepped in front of her, +poked into several fraudulent solidities covering unfathomable depths, +found one hard enough to bear the weight of Miss Felicia's dainty +shoe--it was about as long as a baby's hand--and holding out his own +said, in his most courtly manner: + +"Be very careful now, my dear: put your foot on mine; so! now give me +your hand and jump. There--that's it." To see Peter help a lady across +a muddy street, Holker Morris always said, was a lesson in all the finer +virtues. Sir Walter was a bungler beside him. But then Miss Felicia +could also have passed muster as the gay gallant's companion. + +And just here the Scribe remarks, parenthetically, that there is nothing +that shows a woman's refinement more clearly than the way she crosses a +street. + +Miss Felicia, for instance, would no more have soiled the toes of her +shoes in a puddle than a milk-white pussy would have dampened its feet +in the splash of an overturned bowl: a calm survey up and down; a taking +in of the dry and wet spots; a careful gathering up of her skirts, +and over skimmed the slender, willowy old lady with a one--two--and +three--followed by a stamp of her absurd feet and the shaking out of +ruffle and pleat. When a woman strides through mud without a shiver +because she has plenty of dry shoes and good ones at home, there are +other parts of her make-up, inside and out, that may want a looking +after. + +Miss Felicia safely landed on the dry and comparatively clean sidewalk, +Peter put the question he had been framing in his mind since he first +caught sight of that lady picking her way among the puddles. + +"Well, how is he now?" + +"His head, or his heart?" she asked with a knowing smile, dropping her +still spotless skirts. "Both are broken; the last into smithereens. It +is hopeless. He will never be any better. Oh, Peter, what a mess you +have made of things!" + +"What have I done?" he laughed. + +"Got these two people dead in love with each other,--both of them--Ruth +is just as bad--and no more chance of their ever being married than you +or I. Perfectly silly, Peter, and I have always told you so--and now you +will have to take the consequences." + +"Beautiful--beautiful!" chuckled Peter; "everything is coming my way. I +was sure of Jack, for he told me so, but Ruth puzzled me. Did she tell +you she loved him?" + +"No, stupid, of course she did not. But have I not a pair of eyes in my +head? What do you suppose I got up for this morning at such an unearthly +hour and went over to--Oh, such an awful place!--to see that idiot? Just +to tell him I was sorry? Not a bit of it! I went to find out what was +going on, and now I know; and what is to become of it all nobody can +tell. Here is her father with every penny he has in the world in this +work--so Holker tells me--and here are a lot of damages for dead men and +Heaven knows what else; and there is Jack Breen with not a penny to his +name except his month's wages; and here is Ruth who can marry anybody +she chooses, bewitched by that boy--and I grant you she has every reason +for he is as brave as he can be, and what is better he is a gentleman. +And there lies Henry MacFarlane blind as a bat as to what is going on! +Oh!--really, Peter, there cannot be anything more absurd." + +During the outbreak Peter stood leaning on his umbrella, a smile playing +over his smooth-shaven face, his eyes snapping as if at some inwardly +suppressed fun. These were the kind of outbursts Peter loved. It was +only when Felicia was about to come over to your way of thinking that +she talked like this. It was her way of hearing the other side. + +"Dreadful!--dreadful!" sighed Peter, looking the picture of woe. "Love +in a garret--everybody in rags,--one meal a day--awful situation! +Something's got to be done at once. I'll begin by taking up a collection +this very day. In the meantime, Felicia, I'll just keep on to Jack's and +see how his arm's getting on and his head. As to his heart,--I'll talk +to Ruth and see--" + +"Are you crazy, Peter? You will do nothing of the kind. If you do, I +will--" + +But Peter, his hat in the air, was now out of hearing. When he reached +the mud line he turned, drew his umbrella as if from an imaginary +scabbard, made a military salute, and, with a suppressed gurgle in his +throat, kept on to Jack's room. + +Somehow the sunshine had crept into the old fellow's veins this morning. +None of Miss Felicia's pins for him! + +Ruth, from her place by the sitting-room window, had seen the two +talking and had opened the front door, before Miss Felicia's hand +touched the bell. She had already subjected Peter to a running fire +of questions while he was taking his coffee and thus had the latest +intelligence down to the moment when Peter turned low Jack's light and +had tucked him in. He was asleep when Peter had peered into his cramped +room early this morning, and the bulletin therefore could go no further. + +"And how is he, aunty?" Ruth asked in a breathless tone before the front +door could be closed. + +"Getting on splendidly, my dear. Slept pretty well. It is a dreadful +place for any one to be in, but I suppose he is accustomed to it by this +time." + +"And is he no worse for coming to meet us, Aunt Felicia?" Ruth asked, +her voice betraying her anxiety. She had relieved the old lady of her +cloak now, and had passed one arm around her slender waist. + +"No, he doesn't seem to be, dearie. Tired, of course--and it may keep +him in bed a day or two longer, but it won't make any difference in his +getting well. He will be out in a week or so." + +Ruth paused for a moment and then asked in a hesitating way, all her +sympathy in her eyes: + +"And I don't suppose there is anybody to look after him, is there?" + +"Oh, yes, plenty: Mrs. Hicks seems a kind, motherly person, and then Mr. +Bolton's sister runs in and out." It was marvellous how little interest +the dear woman took in the condition of the patient. Again the girl +paused. She was sorry now she had not braved everything and gone with +her. + +"And did he send me any message, aunty?" This came quite as a matter of +form--merely to learn all the details. + +"Oh, yes,--I forgot: he told me to tell you how glad he was to hear your +father was getting well," replied Miss Felicia searching the mantel for +a book she had placed there. + +Ruth bit her lips and a certain dull feeling crept about her heart. +Jack, with his broken arm and bruised head rose before her. Then another +figure supplanted it. + +"And what sort of a girl is that Miss Bolton?" There was no +curiosity--merely for information. "Uncle Peter was so full of her +brother and how badly he had been hurt he hardly mentioned her name" + +"I did not see her very well; she was just coming out of her brother's +room, and the hall was dark. Oh, here's my book--I knew I had left it +here." + +"Pretty?" continued Ruth, in a slightly anxious tone. + +"No,--I should say not," replied the old lady, moving to the door. + +"Then you don't think there is anything I can do?" Ruth called after +her. + +"Not now." + +Ruth picked up Miss Felicia's wrap from the chair where that lady had +thrown it, mounted the stairs, peered from between the pots of geraniums +screening a view of the street with the Hicks Hotel dominating one +corner, wondered which window along the desolate front gave Jack light +and air, and with whispered instructions to the nurse to be sure and let +her know when her father awoke, shut herself in her room. + +As for the horrible old ogre who had made all the trouble, nipping off +buds, skewering butterflies and otherwise disporting herself after the +manner of busybodies who are eternally and forever poking their thin, +pointed noses into what doesn't concern them, no hot, scalding tears, +the Scribe regrets to say, dimmed her knowing eyes, nor did any unbidden +sigh leap from her old heart. Foolish young people ought to thank her +really for what she had done--what she would still try to do--and they +would when they were a year older. + +Poor, meddling Miss Felicia! Have you forgotten that night thirty years +ago when you stood in a darkened room facing a straight, soldierly +looking man, and listened to the slow dropping of words that scalded +your heart like molten metal? Have you forgotten, too, the look on +his handsome face when he uttered his protest at the persistent +intermeddling of another, and the square of his broad shoulders as he +disappeared through the open door never to return again? + + + +CHAPTER XVII + + + +Some of the sunshine that had helped dry the muddy road, making possible +the path between Jack's abode and MacFarlane's hired villa--where there +was only room for Miss Felicia, Peter still occupying his cell at Mrs. +Hicks's, but taking his meals with Ruth, so that he could be within call +of MacFarlane when needed--some of this same sunshine, I say, may have +been responsible for the temporary drying up of Ruth's tears and the +establishing of various ways of communication between two hearts that +had for some days been floundering in the deeps. Or, perhaps, the +rebound may have been due to the fact that Peter had whispered something +in Jack's ear, or that Ruth had overheard Miss Felicia praising Jack's +heroism to her father--it was common talk everywhere--or it may +have been that the coming of spring which always brings hope and +cheer--making old into new, may have led to the general lighting up +of the gloom that had settled over the house of MacFarlane and its +dependents; but certain it is that such was the case. + +MacFarlane began by taking a sudden change for the better--so decided +a change that he was out of his room and dressed on the fifth day +(although half his coat hid his broken arm, tightly bandaged to his +side). He had even talked as far as the geraniums in the window, through +which he could not only see Jack's hotel, but the big "earth fill" and +mouth of The Beast beyond. + +Then Bolton surprised everybody by appearing outdoors, his hand alone in +a sling. What was left of the poor shanty men, too, had been buried, +the dreadful newspaper articles had ceased, and work was again in full +blast. + +Jack, to be sure, was still in his room, having swallowed more gas and +smoke than the others, badly scorching his insides, as he had panted +under the weight of MacFarlane's body. The crisis, however, brought on +by his imprudence in meeting Ruth at the station, had passed, and even +he was expected to be out in a few days. + +As for Miss Felicia, although she had blown hot and blown cold on Ruth's +heart, until that delicate instrument stood at zero one day and at fever +heat the next, she had, on the whole, kept up an equable temperature, +and meant to do so until she shook the dust of Corklesville from her +dainty feet and went back to the clean, moist bricks of her garden. + +And as for Peter! Had he not been a continuous joy; cheering everybody; +telling MacFarlane funny stories until that harassed invalid laughed +himself, unconscious of the pain to his arm; bringing roses for the +prim, wizened-up Miss Bolton, that she might have a glimpse of something +fresh and alive while she sat by her brother's bed. And last, and by +no means least, had he not the morning he had left for New York, his +holiday being over, taken Ruth in his arms and putting his lips close +to her ear, whispered something into its pink shell that had started +northern lights dancing all over her cheeks and away up to the roots of +her hair; and had she not given him a good hug and kissed him in return, +a thing she had never done in her whole life before? And had he not +stopped on his way to the station for a last hand-shake with Jack and +to congratulate him for the hundredth time for his plucky rescue of +MacFarlane--a subject he never ceased to talk about--and had he not at +the very last moment, told Jack every word of what he and Ruth talked +about, with all the details elaborated, even to the hug, which was no +sooner told than another set of northern lights got into action at once, +and another hug followed; only this time it took the form of a hearty +hand-shake and a pat on Peter's back, followed by a big tear which the +boy tried his best to conceal? Peter had no theories detrimental to +penniless young gentlemen, pursued by intermeddling old ladies. + +And yet with all this there was one corner deep down in Ruth's heart so +overgrown with "wonderings" and "whys," so thick with tangled doubts +and misgivings, that no cheering ray of certainty had yet been able +to pierce it. Nor had any one tried. Miss Felicia, good as she was and +loving as she had been, had done nothing in the pruning way--that is, +nothing which would let in any sunshine radiating from Jack. She had +talked about him, it is true; not to her, we may be sure, but to her +father, saying how handsome he had grown and what a fine man he was +making of himself. She had, too, more than once commented--and this +before everybody--on his good manners and his breeding, especially on +the way he had received her the first morning she called, and to +his never apologizing for his miserable surroundings, meagre as they +were--just a theodolite, his father's portrait and half a dozen books +alone being visible, the white walls covered with working plans. +But when the poor girl had tried to draw from her some word that was +personal to himself, or one that might become personal--and she did +try even to the verge of betraying herself, which would never have +done--Miss Felicia had always turned the subject at once or had pleaded +forgetfulness. Not a word could she drag out of this very perverse and +determined old lady concerning the state of the patient, nothing except +that he was "better," or "doing nicely," or that the bandage was being +shortened, or some other commonplace. Uncle Peter had been kinder. He +understood--she saw that in his eyes. Still even Uncle Peter had not +told her all that she wanted to know, and of course she could not ask +him. + +Soon a certain vague antagonism began to assert itself toward the old +lady who knew so much and yet who said so little! who was too old really +to understand--no old person, in fact, could understand--that is, no old +woman. This proved, too, that this particular person could never have +loved any other particular person in her life. Not that she, Ruth, loved +Jack--by no manner of means--not in that way, at least. But she would +have liked to know what he said, and how he said it, and whether his +eyes had lost that terrible look which they wore when he turned away +at the station to go back to his sick bed in the dingy hotel. All these +things her Aunt Felicia knew about and yet she could not drag a word out +of her. + +What she ought to have done was to go herself that first night, bravely, +honestly, fearlessly as any friend had a right to do; go to him in his +miserable little hotel and try to cheer him up as Miss Felicia, and +perhaps Miss Bolton, had done. Then she might have found out all about +it. Exactly what it was that she wanted to find out all about--and this +increased her perplexity--she could not formulate, although she was +convinced it would help her to bear the anxiety she was suffering. Now +it was too late; more than a week had passed, and no excuse for going +was possible. + +It was not until the morning after Peter's departure,--she, sitting +alone, sad and silent in her chair at the head of her father's breakfast +table (Miss Felicia, as was her custom, had her coffee in her room), +that the first ray of light had crept into her troubled brain. It had +only shone a brief moment,--and had then gone out in darkness, but it +held a certain promise for better days, and on this she had built her +hopes. + +"I am going to send for Breen to-morrow, Ruth," her father had said as +he kissed her good-night. "There are some things I want to talk over +with him, and then I want to thank him for what he did for me. He's +a man, every inch of him; I haven't told him so yet,--not to his +face,--but I will to-morrow. Fine fellow is Breen; blood will always +tell in the end, my daughter, and he's got the best in the country in +his veins. Looks more like his father every day he lives." + +She had hardly slept all night, thinking of the pleasure in store +for her. She had dressed herself, too, in her most becoming breakfast +gown--one she had worn when Jack first arrived at Corklesville, and +which he said reminded him of a picture he had seen as a boy. There +were pink rosebuds woven in its soft texture, and the wide peach-blossom +ribbon that bound her dainty waist contrasted so delightfully, as he had +timidly hinted, with the tones of her hair and cheeks. + +It was the puffy, bespectacled little doctor who shut out the light. + +"No, your father has still one degree of fever," he grumbled, with a +wise shake of his bushy head. "No--nobody, Miss MacFarlane,--do you +understand? He can see NOBODY--or I won't be responsible," and with this +the crabbed old fellow climbed into his gig and drove away. + +She looked after him for a moment and two hot tears dropped from her +eyes and dashed themselves to pieces on the peach-blossom ribbon. + +But the sky was clearing again--she didn't realize it,--but it was. +April skies always make alternate lights and darks. The old curmudgeon +had gone, but the garden gate was again a-swing. + +Ruth heard the tread on the porch and drawing back the curtains looked +out. The most brilliant sunbeams were but dull rays compared with what +now flashed from her eyes. Nor did she wait for any other hand than her +own to turn the knob of the door. + +"Why, Mr. Breen!" + +"Yes, Miss Ruth," Jack answered, lifting his hat, an unrestrained +gladness at the sight of her beauty and freshness illumining his face. +"I have come to report for duty to your father." + +"But you cannot see him. You must report to me," she laughed gayly, her +heart brimming over now that he was before her again. "Father was going +to send for you to-day, but the doctor would not let him. Hush! he +musn't hear us." + +"He would not let me go out either, but as I am tired to death of being +cooped up in my room, I broke jail. Can't I see him?" he continued in +a lower key. He had his coat off and had hung it on the rack, she +following him into the sitting-room, absorbing every inch of his strong, +well-knit body from his short-cropped hair where the bandages had been +wound, down to the sprained wrist which was still in splints. She noted, +too, with a little choke in her throat, the shadows under the cheek +bones and the thinness of the nose. She could see plainly how he had +suffered. + +"I am sorry you cannot see father." She was too moved to say more. "He +still has one degree of fever." + +"I have two degrees myself," Jack laughed softly,--"one records how +anxious I was to get out of my cell and the other how eager I was to get +here. And now I suppose I can't stay." + +"Oh, yes, you can stay if you will keep as still as a mouse so father +can't hear you," she whispered, a note of joy woven in her tones. + +She was leading him to the sofa as she spoke. He placed a cushion for +her, and took his place beside her, resting his injured hand, which was +in a sling, on the arm. He was still weak and shaking. + +"Daddy is still in his room," she rattled on nervously, "but he may be +out and prowling about the upstairs hall any minute. He has a heap of +things to talk over with you--he told me so last night--and if he knew +you were here nothing would stop him. Wait till I shut the door. And now +tell me about yourself," she continued in a louder voice, regaining her +seat. "You have had a dreadful time, I hear--it was the wrist, wasn't +it?" She felt she was beginning badly; although conscious of her nervous +joy and her desire to conceal it, somehow it seemed hard for her to say +the right thing. + +"Oh, I reckon it was everything, Miss Ruth, but it's all over now." He +was not nervous. He was in an ecstasy. His eyes were drinking in the +round of her throat and the waves of glorious hair that crowned her +lovely head. He noticed, too, some tiny threads that lay close to her +ears: he had been so hungry for a glimpse of them! + +"Oh, I hope so, but you shouldn't have come to the station that day," +she struggled on. "We had Uncle Peter with us, and only a hand-bag, each +of us,--we came away so suddenly." + +"I didn't want you to be frightened about your father. I didn't know +that Uncle Peter was with you; in fact, I didn't know much of anything +until it was all over. Bolton sent the telegram as soon as he got his +breath." + +"That's what frightened us. Why didn't YOU send it?" she was gaining +control of herself now and something of her old poise had returned. + +"I hadn't got MY breath,--not all of it. I remember his coming into my +room where they were tying me up and bawling out something about how +to reach you by wire, and he says now that I gave him Mr. Grayson's +address. I cannot remember that part of it, except that I--Well, never +mind about that--" he hesitated turning away his gaze--the memory seemed +to bring with it a certain pain. + +"Yes,--tell me," she pleaded. She was too happy. This was what she had +been waiting for. There was no detail he must omit. + +"It was nothing, only I kept thinking it was you who were hurt," he +stammered. + +"Me!" she cried, her eyes dancing. The ray of light was breaking--one +with a promise in it for the future! + +"Yes,--you, Miss Ruth! Funny, isn't it, how when you are half dead you +get things mixed up." Oh, the stupidity of these lovers! Not a thing +had he seen of the flash of expectation in her eyes or of the hot color +rising to her cheeks. "I thought somebody was trying to tell your father +that you were hurt, and I was fighting to keep him from hearing it. But +you must thank Bolton for letting you know." + +Ruth's face clouded and the sparkle died out in her eyes. What was Mr. +Bolton to her, and at a time like this? + +"It was most kind of Mr. Bolton," she answered in a constrained voice. +"I only wish he had said something more; we had a terrible day. Uncle +Peter was nearly crazy about you; he telegraphed and telegraphed, but we +could get no answer. That's why it was such a relief to find you at the +station." + +But the bat had not finished banging his head against the wall. "Then I +did do some good by going?" he asked earnestly. + +"Oh, indeed you did." If he did not care whether she had been hurt or +not, even in his delirium, she was not going to betray herself. "It was +the first time anybody had seen Uncle Peter smile; he was wretched all +day. He loves you very dearly, Mr. Breen." + +Jack's hand dropped so suddenly to his side that the pain made him +tighten his lips. For a moment he did not answer. + +"Then it was only Uncle Peter who was anxious, was it? I am glad he +loves me. I love him, too," he said at last in a perfunctory tone--"he's +been everything to me." + +"And you have been everything to him." She determined to change the +subject now. "He told me only--well,--two days ago--that you had made him +ten years younger." + +"Me?--Miss Ruth!" Still the same monotonous cadence. + +"Yes." + +"How?" + +"Well,--maybe because he is old and you are young." As she spoke her +eyes measured the width of his shoulders and his broad chest--she saw +now to what her father owed his life--"and another thing; he said that +he would always thank you for getting out alive. And I owe you a debt of +gratitude, too, Mr. Breen;--you gave me back my dear daddy," she added +in a more assured tone. Here at last was something she could talk +unreservedly about. Something that she had wanted to say ever since he +came. + +Jack straightened and threw back his shoulders: that word again! Was +that all that Ruth had to say? + +"No, Miss Ruth, you don't." There was a slight ring of defiance +now. "You do not owe me anything, and please don't think so, and +please--please--do not say so!" + +"I don't owe you anything! Not for saving my father's life?" This came +with genuine surprise. + +"No! What would you have thought of me, what would I have thought +of myself had I left him to suffocate when I could just as well have +brought him out? Do you think I could ever have looked you in the face +again? You might not have ever known I could have saved him--but I +should have hated myself every hour of my life. Men are not to be +thanked for these things; they are to be despised if they don't do them. +Can't you see the difference?" + +"But you might have been killed, too!" she exclaimed. Her own voice was +rising, irritation and disappointment swaying it. "Everybody says it was +a miracle you were not." + +"Not a miracle at all. All I was afraid of was stumbling over something +in the dark--and it was nearly dark--only a few of the rock lights +burning--and not be able to get on my feet again. But don't let us talk +about it any more." + +"Yes--but I will, I MUST. I must feel right about it all, and I cannot +unless you listen. I shall never forget you for it as long as I live." +There was a note of pathos in her voice. Why did he make it so hard for +her, she thought. Why would he not look in her face and see? Why would +he not let her thank him? "Nothing in the world is so precious to me +as daddy, and never will be," she went on resolutely, driving back the +feeling of injustice that surged up in her heart at his attitude--"and +it is you, Mr. Breen, who have given him back to me. And daddy feels +the same way about it; and he is going to tell you so the minute he sees +you," she insisted. "He has sent you a lot of messages, he says, but +they do not count. Please, now won't you let me thank you?" + +Jack raised his head. He had been fingering a tassel on the end of the +sofa, missing all the play of feeling in her eyes, taking in nothing but +the changes that she rang on that one word "gratitude." Gratitude!--when +he loved the ground she stepped on. But he must face the issue fairly +now: + +"No,--I don't want you to thank me," he answered simply. + +"Well, what do you want, then?" She was at sea now,--compass and rudder +gone,--wind blowing from every quarter at once,--she trying to reach the +harbor of his heart while every tack was taking her farther from port. +If the Scribe had his way the whole coast of love would be lighted and +all rocks of doubt and misunderstanding charted for just such hapless +lovers as these two. How often a twist of the tiller could send them +into the haven of each other's arms, and yet how often they go ashore +and stay ashore and worse still, stay ashore all their lives. + +Jack looked into her eyes and a hopeless, tired expression crossed his +face. + +"I don't know," he said in a barely audible voice:--"I just--please, +Miss Ruth, let us talk of something else; let me tell you how lovely +your gown is and how glad I am you wore it to-day. I always liked it, +and--" + +"No,--never mind about my gown; I would rather you did not like +anything about me than misunderstand me!" The tears were just under the +lids;--one more thrust like the last and they would be streaming down +her cheeks. + +"But I haven't misunderstood you." He saw the lips quiver, but it was +anger, he thought, that caused it. + +"Yes, you have!"--a great lump had risen in her throat. "You have done a +brave, noble act,--everybody says so; you carried my dear father out on +your back when there was not but one chance in a thousand you would ever +get out alive; you lay in a faint for hours and once they gave you up +for dead; then you thought enough of Uncle Peter and all of us to get +that telegram sent so we wouldn't be terrified to death and then at the +risk of your life you met us at the station and have been in bed ever +since, and yet I am to sit still and not say a word!" It was all she +could do to control herself. "I do feel grateful to you and I always +shall feel grateful to you as long as I live. And now will you take my +hand and tell me you are sorry, and let me say it all over again, and +with my whole heart? for that's the way I mean it." + +She was facing him now, her hand held out, her head thrown back, her +dark eyes flashing, her bosom heaving. Slowly and reverently, as a +devotee would kiss the robe of a passing priest, Jack bent his head and +touched her fingers with his lips. + +Then, raising his eyes to hers, he asked, "And is that all, Miss +Ruth? Isn't there something more?" Not once had she mentioned his +own safety--not once had she been glad over him--"Something more?" he +repeated, an ineffable tenderness in his tones--"something--it isn't +all, is it?" + +"Why, how can I say anything more?" she murmured in a lowered voice, +withdrawing her hand as the sound of a step in the hall reached her ear. + +The door swung wide: "Well, what are you two young people quarrelling +about?" came a soft, purring voice. + +"We weren't quarrelling, Aunty. Mr. Breen is so modest he doesn't want +anybody to thank him, and I just would." + +Miss Felicia felt that she had entered just in time. Scarred and +penniless heroes fresh from battle-fields of glory and desirable young +women whose fathers have been carried bodily out of burning death pits +must never be left too long together. + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + + + +As the weeks rolled by, two questions constantly rose in Ruth's mind: +Why had he not wanted her to thank him?--and what had he meant by--"And +is that all?" + +Her other admirers--and there had been many in her Maryland home--had +never behaved like this. Was it because they liked her better than +she liked them? The fact was--and she might as well admit it once for +all--that Jack did not like her at all, he really DISliked her, and only +his loyalty to her father and that inborn courtesy which made him polite +to every woman he met--young or old--prevented his betraying himself. +She tried to suggest something like this to Miss Felicia, but that good +woman had only said: "Men are queer, my dear, and these Southerners are +the queerest of them all. They are so chivalrous that at times they get +tiresome. Breen is no better than the rest of them." This had ended it +with Miss Felicia. Nor would she ever mention his name to her again. +Jack was not tiresome; on the contrary, he was the soul of honor and +as brave as he could be--a conclusion quite as illogical as that of her +would-be adviser. + +If she could only have seen Peter, the poor child thought,--Peter +understood--just as some women not as old as her aunt would have +understood. Dear Uncle Peter! He had told her once what Jack had said +about her--how beautiful he thought her and how he loved her devotion to +her father. Jack MUST have said it, for Uncle Peter never spoke anything +but the exact truth. Then why had Jack, and everything else, changed +so cruelly? she would say--talking to herself, sometimes aloud. For the +ring had gone from his voice and the tenderness from his touch. Not that +he ever was tender, not that she wanted him to be, for that matter; and +then she would shut her door and throw herself on her bed in an agony of +tears--pleading a headache or fatigue that she might escape her father's +inquiry, and often his anxious glance. + +The only ray of light that had pierced her troubled heart--and this only +flashed for a brief moment--was the glimpse she had had of Jack's mind +when he and her father first met. The boy had called to inquire after +his Chief's health and for any instructions he might wish to give, when +MacFarlane, hearing the young hero's voice in the hall below, hurried +down to greet him. Ruth was leaning over the banister at the time and +saw all that passed. Once within reach MacFarlane strode up to Jack, and +with the look on his face of a man who had at last found the son he had +been hunting for all his life, laid his hand on the lad's shoulder. + +"I think we understand each other, Breen,--don't we?" he said simply, +his voice breaking. + +"I think so, sir," answered Jack, his own eyes aglow, as their hands +met. + +Nothing else had followed. There was no outburst. Both were men; in the +broadest and strongest sense each had weighed the other. The eyes and +the quivering lips and the lingering hand-clasp told the rest. A sudden +light broke in on Ruth. Her father's quiet words, and his rescuer's +direct answer came as a revelation. Jack, then, did want to be thanked! +Yes, but not by her! Why was it? Why had he not understood? And why had +he made her suffer, and what had she done to deserve it? + +If Jack suspected any of these heartaches and misgivings, no one would +have surmised it. He came and went as usual, passing an hour in the +morning and an hour at night with his Chief, until he had entirely +recovered his strength--bringing with him the records of the work; the +number of feet drilled in a day; cost of maintenance; cubic contents of +dump; extent and slope and angles of "fill"--all the matters which since +his promotion (Jack now had Bolton's place) came under his immediate +supervision. Nor had any word passed between himself and Ruth, other +than the merest commonplace. He was cheery, buoyant, always ready to +help,--always at her service if she took the train for New York or +stayed after dark at a neighbor's house, when he would insist on +bringing her home, no matter how late he had been up the night before. + +If the truth were known, he neither suspected nor could he be made to +believe that Ruth had any troubles. The facts were that he had given her +all his heart and had been ready to lay himself at her feet, that being +the accepted term in his mental vocabulary--and she would have none of +him. She had let him understand so--rebuffed him--not once, but every +time he had tried to broach the subject of his devotion;--once in the +Geneseo arbor, and again on that morning when he had really crawled to +her side because he could no longer live without seeing her. The manly +thing to do now was to accept the situation: to do his work; look after +his employer's interests, read, study, run over whenever he could to see +Peter--and these were never-to-be-forgotten oases in the desert of his +despair--and above all never to forget that he owed a duty to Miss Ruth +in which no personal wish of his own could ever find a place. She was +alone and without an escort except her father, who was often so absorbed +in his work, or so tired at night, as to be of little help to her. +Moreover, his Chief had, in a way, added his daughter's care to his +other duties. "Can't you take Ruth to-night--" or "I wish you'd meet +her at the ferry," or "if you are going to that dinner in New York, at +so-and-so's, would you mind calling for her--" etc., etc. Don't start, +dear reader. These two came of a breed where the night key and the +daughter go together and where a chaperon would be as useless as a +policeman locked inside a bank vault. + +And so the boy struggled on, growing in bodily strength and mental +experience, still the hero among the men for his heroic rescue of the +"Boss"--a reputation which he never lost; making friends every day both +in the village and in New York and keeping them; absorbed in his slender +library, and living within his means, which small as they were, now +gave him two rooms at Mrs. Hicks's,--one of which he had fitted up as a +little sitting-room and in which Ruth had poured the first cup of tea, +her father and some of the village people being guests. + +His one secret--and it was his only one--he kept locked up in his heart, +even from Peter. Why worry the dear old fellow, he had said to himself a +dozen times, since nothing would ever come of it. + +While all this had been going on in the house of MacFarlane, much more +astonishing things had been developing in the house of Breen. + +The second Mukton Lode scoop,--the one so deftly handled the night of +Arthur Breen's dinner to the directors,--had somehow struck a snag +in the scooping with the result that most of the "scoopings" had been +spilled over the edge there to be gathered up by the gamins of the +Street, instead of being hived in the strong boxes of the scoopers. Some +of the habitues in the orchestra chairs in Breen's office had cursed +loud and deep when they saw their margins melt away; and one or two of +the directors had broken out into open revolt, charging Breen with the +fiasco, but most of the others had held their peace. It was better to +crawl away into the tall grass there to nurse their wounds than to +give the enemy a list of the killed and wounded. Now and then an +outsider--one who had watched the battle from afar--saw more of the +fight than the contestants themselves. Among these was Garry Minott. + +"You heard how Mason, the Chicago man, euchred the Mukton gang, didn't +you?" he had shouted to a friend one night at the Magnolia--"Oh, listen! +boys. They set up a job on him,--he's a countryman, you know a poor +little countryman--from a small village called Chicago--he's got three +millions, remember, all in hard cash. Nice, quiet motherly old gentleman +is Mr. Mason--butter wouldn't melt in his mouth. Went into Mukton with +every dollar he had--so kind of Mr. Breen to let him in--yes, put him +down for 2,000 shares more. Then Breen & Co. began to hoist her up--five +points--ten points--twenty points. At the end of the week they had, +without knowing it, bought every share of Mason's stock." Here Garry +roared, as did the others within hearing. "And they've got it yet. Next +day the bottom dropped out. Some of them heard Mason laugh all the way +to the bank. He's cleaned up half a million and gone back home--'so +afraid his mother would spank him for being out late o' nights without +his nurse,'" and again Garry's laugh rang out with such force and +earnestness that the glasses on Biffy's table chinked in response. + +This financial set-back, while it had injured, for the time, Arthur +Breen's reputation for being "up and dressed," had not, to any +appreciable extent, curtailed his expenditures or narrowed the area of +his social domain. Mrs. Breen's dinners and entertainments had been as +frequent and as exclusive, and Miss Corinne had continued to run the +gamut of the gayest and best patronized functions without, the Scribe +is pained to admit, bringing home with her for good and all both her +cotillion favors and the gentleman who had bestowed them. Her little +wren-like head had moved from side to side, and she had sung her +sweetest and prettiest, but somehow, when the song was over and the +crumbs all eaten (and there were often two dinners a week and at least +one dance), off went the male birds to other and more captivating +roosts. + +Mrs. Breen, of course, raved when Corinne at last opened the door of her +cage for Garry,--went to bed, in fact, for the day, to accentuate her +despair and mark her near approach to death because of it--a piece of +inconsistency she could well have spared herself, knowing Corinne as she +had, from the day of her birth, and remembering as she must have done, +her own escapade with the almost penniless young army officer who +afterward became Corinne's father. + +Breen did not rave; Breen rather liked it. Garry had no money, it is +true, except what he could earn,--neither had Corinne. Garry seemed to +do as he darned pleased,--so did Corinne;--Garry had no mother,--neither +had Corinne so far as yielding to any authority was concerned. +"Yes,--let 'em marry,--good thing--begin at the bottom round and work +up--" all of which meant that the honorable banker was delighted over +the prospect of considerable more freedom for himself and considerable +less expense in the household. + +And so the wedding had taken place with all the necessary trimmings: +awning over the carpeted sidewalk; four policemen on the curb; +detectives in the hall and up the staircase and in the front bedroom +where the jewels were exposed (all the directors of the Mukton Lode +were represented); crowds lining the sidewalk; mob outside the church +door--mob inside the church door and clear up to the altar; flowers, +palms, special choir, with little bank-notes to the boys and a big +bank-note to the leader; checks for the ranking clergyman and the two +assistant clergymen, not forgetting crisp bills for the sexton and the +janitor and the policemen and the detectives and everybody else who +could hold out a hand and not be locked up in jail for highway robbery. +Yes, a most fashionable and a most distinguished and a most exclusive +wedding--there was no mistake about that. + +No one had ever seen anything like it before; some hoped they never +would again, so great was the crush in the drawing-room. And not only +in the drawing-room, but over every square inch of the house for that +matter, from the front door where Parkins's assistant (an extra man from +Delmonico's) shouted out--"Third floor back for the gentlemen and second +floor front for the ladies"--to the innermost recesses of the library +made over into a banquet hall, where that great functionary himself +was pouring champagne into batteries of tumblers as if it were so much +water, and distributing cuts of cold salmon and portions of terrapin +with the prodigality of a charity committee serving a picnic. + +And then the heartaches over the cards that never came; and the presents +that were never sent, and the wrath of the relations who got below the +ribbon in the church and the airs of the strangers who got above it; and +the tears over the costly dresses that did not arrive in time and the +chagrin over those they had to wear or stay at home--and the heat and +the jam and tear and squeeze--and the aftermath of wet glasses on +inlaid tables and fine-spun table-cloths burnt into holes with careless +cigarettes; and the little puddles of ice cream on the Turkish rugs and +silk divans and the broken glass and smashed china!--No--there never had +been such a wedding! + +This over, Corinne and Garry had gone to housekeeping in a dear little +flat, to which we may be sure Jack was rarely ever invited (he had only +received "cards" to the church, an invitation which he had religiously +accepted, standing at the door so he could bow to them both as they +passed)--the two, I say, had gone to a dear little flat--so dear, in +fact, that before the year was out Garry's finances were in such a +deplorable condition that the lease could not be renewed, and another +and a cheaper nest had to be sought for. + +It was at this time that the new church to be built at Corklesville +needed an architect--a fact which Jack communicated to Garry. Then +it happened that with the aid of MacFarlane and Holker Morris the +commission was finally awarded to that "rising young genius who had +so justly distinguished himself in the atelier of America's greatest +architect--Holker Morris--" all of which Garry wrote himself and had +inserted in the county paper, he having called upon the editor for that +very purpose. This service--and it came at a most critical time in the +young man's affairs--the Scribe is glad to say, Garry, with his old-time +generous spirit suddenly revived, graciously acknowledged thanking +Jack heartily and with meaning in his voice, as well as MacFarlane--not +forgetting Ruth, to whom he sent a mass of roses as big as a bandbox. + +The gaining of this church building--the largest and most important +given the young architect since he had left Morris's protection and +guidance--decided Garry to give up at once his expensive quarters in +New York and move to Corklesville. So far as any help from the house +of Breen was concerned, all hope had ended with the expensive and +much-advertised wedding (a shrewd financial move, really, for a firm +selling shady securities). Corinne had cooed, wept, and then succumbed +into an illness, but Breen had only replied: "No, let 'em paddle their +own canoe." + +This is why the sign "To Let," on one of the new houses built by the Elm +Crest Land and Improvement Company--old Tom Corkle who owned the market +garden farms that gave the village of Corklesville its name, would have +laughed himself sore had he been alive--was ripped off and various teams +loaded with all sorts of furniture, some very expensive and showy and +some quite the contrary--especially that belonging to the servants' +rooms--were backed up to the newly finished porch with its second coat +of paint still wet, and their contents duly distributed upstairs and +downstairs and in my lady Corinne's chamber. + +"Got to put on the brakes, old man," Garry had said one day to Jack. The +boy had heard of the expected change in the architect's finances before +the villa was rented, and so Garry's confidential communication was not +news to him. + +"Been up to look at one of those new houses. Regular bird cage, but we +can get along. Besides, this town is going to grow and I'm going to help +it along. They are all dead out here--embalmed, some of them--but dead." +Here he opened the pamphlet of the company--"See this house--an hour +from New York; high ground; view of the harbor--(all a lie, Jack, but it +goes all the same); sewers, running water, gas (lot of the last,--most +of it in the prospectus) It's called Elm Crest--beautiful, isn't +it,--and not a stump within half a mile." + +Jack always remembered the interview. That Garry should help along +anything that he took an interest in was quite in the line of his +ambition and ability. Minott was as "smart as a steel trap," Holker +Morris had always said of him, "and a wonderful fellow among the men. +He can get anything out of them; he would really make a good politician. +His handling of the Corn Exchange showed that." + +And so it was not surprising,--not to Jack,--that when a new village +councilman was to be elected, Garry should have secured votes enough to +be included among their number. Nor was it at all wonderful that after +taking his seat he should have been placed in charge of the village +funds so far as the expenditures for contract work went. The prestige +of Morris's office settled all doubts as to his fitness in construction; +and the splendor of the wedding--there could still be seen posted in +the houses of the workmen the newspaper cuts showing the bride and groom +leaving the church--silenced all opposition to "our fellow townsman's" +financial responsibility, even when that opposition was led by so +prominent a ward heeler as Mr. Patrick McGowan, who had planned to get +the position himself--and who became Garry's arch enemy thereafter. + +In these financial and political advancements Corinne helped but little. +None of the village people interested her, nor did she put herself out +in the least to be polite to them. Ruth had called and had brought her +hands full of roses--and so had her father. Garry had continued to thank +them both for their good word to the church wardens--and he himself now +and then spent an evening at MacFarlane's house without Corinne, who +generally pleaded illness; but the little flame of friendship which had +flashed after their arrival in Corklesville had died down again. + +This had gone on until the acquaintance had practically ended, except +when they met on the trains or in crossing the ferry. Then again, Ruth +and her father lived at one end of the village known as Corklesville, +and Garry and Corinne lived at the other end, known as Elm Crest, the +connecting link being the railroad, a fact which Jack told Garry with a +suggestive laugh, made them always turn their backs on each other when +they parted to go to their respective homes, to which Garry would reply +that it was an outrage and that he was coming up that very night--all +of which he failed to do when the proposed visit was talked over with +Corinne. + +None of this affected Jack. He would greet Corinne as affectionately and +cordially as he had ever done. He had taken her measure years before, +but that made no difference to him, he never forgetting that she was his +uncle's nominal daughter; that they had been sheltered by the same roof +and that she therefore in a way belonged to his people. Moreover, he +realized, that like himself, she had been compelled to give up many of +the luxuries and surroundings to which she had been accustomed and which +she loved,--worthless now to Jack in his freedom, but still precious +to her. This in itself was enough to bespeak his sympathy. Not that she +valued it;--she rather sniffed at it. + +"I wish Jack wouldn't stand with his hat off until I get aboard the +train," she had told Garry one day shortly after their arrival--"he +makes me so conspicuous. And he wears such queer clothes. He was in +his slouch hat and rough flannel shirt and high boots the other day and +looked like a tramp." + +"Better not laugh at Jack, Cory," Garry had replied; "you'll be taking +your own hat off to him one of these days; we all shall. Arthur Breen +missed it when he let him go. Jack's queer about some things, but he's a +thoroughbred and he's got brains!" + +"He insulted Mr. Breen in his own house, that's why he let him +go," snapped Corinne. The idea of her ever taking off her hat, even +figuratively, to John Breen, was not to be brooked,--not for an instant. + +"Yes, that's one way of looking at it, Cory, but I tell you if Arthur +Breen had had Jack with him these last few months--ever since he left +him, in fact,--and had listened once in a while to what Jack thought +was fair and square, the firm of A. B. & Co. would have a better hold on +things than they've got now; and he wouldn't have dropped that million +either. The cards don't always come up the right way, even when they're +stacked." + +"It just served my stepfather right for not giving us some of it, and +I'm glad he lost it," Corinne rejoined, her anger rising again. "I have +never forgiven him for not making me an allowance after I married, and +I never will. He could, at least, have continued the one he always gave +me." + +Garry winked sententiously, and remarked in reply that he might be +making the distinguished money-bags an allowance himself one of these +fine days, and he could if some of the things he was counting on came +out top side up, but Corinne's opinions did not change either toward +Jack or her stepfather. + + + +CHAPTER XIX + + + +When the pain in Jack's heart over Ruth became unbearable, there was +always one refuge left--one balm which never failed to soothe, and that +was Peter. + +For though he held himself in readiness for her call, being seldom +absent lest she might need his services, their constrained intercourse +brought with it more pain than pleasure. It was then that he longed for +the comfort which only his dear mentor could give. + +On these occasions Mrs. McGuffey would take the lace cover off Miss +Felicia's bureau, as a matter of precaution, provided that lady was +away and the room available, and roll in a big tub for the young +gentleman--"who do be washin' hisself all the time and he that sloppy +that I'm afeared everything will be spi'lt for the mistress," and Jack +would slip out of his working clothes (he would often come away in his +flannel shirt and loose tie, especially when he was late in paying off) +and shed his heavy boots with the red clay of Jersey still clinging to +their soles, and get into his white linen and black clothes and dress +shoes, and then the two chums would lock arms and saunter up Fifth +Avenue to dine either at one of Peter's clubs or at some house where +he and that "handsome young ward of yours, Mr. Grayson--do bring him +again," were so welcome. + +If Miss Felicia was in town and her room in use, there was never any +change in the programme, Mrs. McGuffey rising to the emergency and +discovering another and somewhat larger apartment in the next house +but two--"for one of the finest gintlemen ye ever saw and that quiet," +etc.--into which Jack would move and which the good woman would insist +on taking full charge of herself. + +It was on one of these blessed and always welcome nights, after the +two had been dining at "a little crack in the wall," as Peter called a +near-by Italian restaurant, that he and Jack stopped to speak to Isaac +Cohen whom they found closing his shop for the night. Cohen invited +them in and Jack, after following the little tailor through the +deserted shop--all the work people had left--found himself, to his great +surprise, in a small room at the rear, which Isaac opened with a key +taken from his vest pocket, and which even in the dim light of a single +gas jet had more the appearance of the den of a scholar, or the workshop +of a scientist, than the private office of a fashioner of clothes. + +Peter only stayed a moment--long enough to borrow the second volume of +one of Isaac's books, but the quaint interior and what it contained +made a great impression on Jack,--so much so that when the two had +said good-night and mounted the stairs to Peter's rooms, it was with +increased interest that the boy listened to the old fellow who stopped +on every landing to tell him some incident connected with the little +tailor and his life: How after his wife's death some years before, and +his only daughter's marriage--"and a great affair it was, my boy, I was +there and know,"--Cohen had moved down to his shop and fitted up the +back room for a little shelter of his own, where he had lived with his +books and his personal belongings and where he had met the queerest +looking people--with big heads and bushy beards--foreigners, some of +them--speaking all kinds of languages, as well as many highly educated +men in town. + +Once inside his own cosey rooms Peter bustled about, poking the fire +into life, drawing the red curtains closer, moving a vase of roses so he +could catch their fragrance from where he sat, wheeling two big, easy, +all-embracing arm-chairs to the blaze, rolling a small table laden +with various burnables and pourables within reach of their elbows, and +otherwise disporting himself after the manner of the most cheery +and lovable of hosts. This done, he again took up the thread of his +discourse. + +"Yes! He's a wonderful old fellow, this Isaac Cohen," he rattled on when +the two were seated. "You had only a glimpse of that den of his, but you +should see his books on costumes,--he's an authority, you know,--and +his miniatures,--Oh, a Cosway, which he keeps in his safe, that is a +wonder!--and his old manuscripts. Those are locked up too. And he's a +gentleman, too, Jack; not once in all the years I have known him have +I ever heard him mention the word money in an objectionable way, and he +has plenty of it even if he does press off my coat with his own hands. +Can you recall anybody you know, my boy--even in the houses where you +and I have been lately, who doesn't let the word slip out in a dozen +different ways before the evening is over? And best of all, he's +sane,--one of the few men whom it is safe to let walk around loose." + +"And you like him?" + +"Immensely." + +"And you never remember he is a Jew?" This was one of the things Jack +had never understood. + +"Never;--that's not his fault,--rather to his credit." + +"Why?" + +"Because the world is against both him and his race, and yet in all the +years I have known him, nothing has ever soured his temper." + +Jack struck a match, relit his cigar and settling himself more +comfortably in his chair, said in a positive tone: + +"Sour or sweet,--I don't like Jews,--never did." + +"You don't like him because you don't know him. That's your fault, not +his. But you would like him, let me tell you, if you could hear him +talk. And now I think of it, I am determined you shall know him, and +right away. Not that he cares--Cohen's friends are among the best men in +London, especially the better grade of theatrical people, whose +clothes he has made and whose purses he has kept full--yes--and whom he +sometimes had to bury to keep them out of Potter's field; and those he +knows here--his kind of people, I mean, not yours." + +"All in his line of business, Uncle Peter," Jack laughed. "How much +interest did they pay,--cent per cent?" + +"I am ashamed of you, Jack. Not a penny. Don't let your mind get clogged +up, my boy, with such prejudices,--keep the slate of your judgment +sponged clean." + +"But you believe everybody is clean, Uncle Peter." + +"And so must you, until you prove them dirty. Now, will you do me a very +great kindness and yourself one as well? Please go downstairs, rap three +times at Mr. Cohen's shutters--hard, so that he can hear you--that's my +signal--present my compliments and ask him to be kind enough to come up +and have a cigar with us." + +Jack leaned forward in his seat, his face showing his astonishment. + +"You don't mean it?" + +"I do." + +"All right." + +The boy was out of his chair and clattering down-stairs before Peter +could add another word to his message. If he had asked him to crawl out +on the roof and drop himself into the third-story window of the next +house, he would have obeyed him with the same alacrity. + +Peter wheeled up another chair; added some small and large glasses to +the collection on the tray and awaited Jack's return. The experience +was not new. The stupid, illogical prejudice was not confined to +inexperienced lads. + +He had had the same thing to contend with dozens of times before. Even +Holker had once said: "Peter, what the devil do you find in that little +shrimp of a Hebrew to interest you? Is he cold that you warm him, or +hungry that you feed him,--or lonely that--" + +"Stop right there, Holker! You've said it,--lonely--that's it--LONELY! +That's what made me bring him up the first time he was ever here. +It seemed such a wicked thing to me to have him at one end of the +house--the bottom end, too--crooning over a fire, and I at the top end +crooning over another, when one blaze could warm us both. So up he came, +Holker, and now it is I who am lonely when a week passes and Isaac does +not tap at my door, or I tap at his." + +The distinguished architect understood it all a week later when the +new uptown synagogue was being talked of and he was invited to meet the +board, and found to his astonishment that the wise little man with the +big gold spectacles, occupying the chair was none other than Peter's +tailor. + +"Our mutual friend Mr. Grayson, of the Exeter Bank, spoke to me about +you, Mr. Morris," said the little man without a trace of foreign accent +and with all the composure of a great banker making a government loan; +rising at the same time, with great dignity introducing Morris to his +brother trustees and then placing him in the empty seat next his own. +After that, and on more than one occasion, there were three chairs +around Peter's blaze, with Morris in one of them. + +All these thoughts coursed through Peter's head as Jack and Cohen were +mounting the three flights of stairs. + +"Ah, Isaac," he cried at first sight of his friend, "I just wanted you +to know my boy, Jack Breen, better, and as his legs are younger than +mine, I sent him down instead of going myself--you don't mind, do you?" + +"Mind!--of course I do not mind,--but I do know Mr. Breen. I first met +him many months ago--when your sister was here--and then I see him going +in and out all the time--and--" + +"Stop your nonsense, Isaac;--that's not the way to know a man; that's +the way not to know him, but what's more to the point is, I want Jack to +know you. These young fellows have very peculiar ideas about a good many +things,--and this boy is like all the rest--some of which ought to +be knocked out of his head,--your race, for one thing. He thinks that +because you are a Jew that you--" + +Jack uttered a smothered, "Oh, Uncle Peter!" but the old fellow who now +had the tailor in one of his big chairs and was filling a thin wineglass +with a brown liquid (ten years in the wood)--Holker sent it--kept +straight on. "Jack's all right inside, or I wouldn't love him, but there +are a good many things he has got to learn, and you happen to be one of +them." + +Cohen lay back in his chair and laughed heartily. + +"Do not mind him, Mr. Breen,--do not mind a word he says. He mortifies +me that same way. And now--" here he turned his head to Peter--"what +does he think of my race?" + +"Oh! He thinks you are a lot of money-getters and pawnbrokers, gouging +the poor and squeezing the rich." + +Jack broke out into a cold perspiration: "Really, Uncle Peter! Now, +Mr. Cohen, won't you please believe that I never said one word of it," +exclaimed Jack in pleading tones, his face expressing his embarrassment. + +"I never said you did, Jack," rejoined Peter with mock solemnity in his +voice. "I said you THOUGHT so. And now here he is,--look at him. Does he +look like Scrooge or Shylock or some old skinflint who--" here he faced +Cohen, his eyes brimming with merriment--"What are we going to do with +this blasphemer, Isaac? Shall we boil him in oil as they did that old +sixteenth-century saint you were telling me about the other night, or +shall we--?" + +The little tailor threw out his hands--each finger an exclamation +point--and laughed heartily, cutting short Peter's tirade. + +"No--no--we do none of these dreadful things to Mr. Breen; he is too +good to be a saint," and he patted Jack's knees--"and then again it +is only the truth. Mr. Breen is quite right; we are a race of +money-getters, and we are also the world's pawnbrokers and will always +be. Sometimes we make a loan on a watch or a wedding ring to keep +some poor soul from starving; sometimes it is a railroad to give a +millionaire a yacht, or help buy his wife a string of pearls. It is +quite the same, only over one shop we hang three gilt balls: on the +other we nail a sign which reads: 'Financial Agents.' And it is the +same Jew, remember, who stands behind both counters. The first Jew is +overhauled almost every day by the police; the second Jew is regarded +as our public-spirited citizen. So you see, my young friend, that it is +only a question of the amount of money you have got whether you loan on +rings or railroads." + +"And whether the Christian lifts his hat or his boot," laughed Peter. + +Cohen leaned his elbows on his plump knees and went on, the slender +glass still in his hand, from which now and then he took a sip. Peter +sat buried in his chair, his cigar between his fingers. Jack held his +peace; it was not for him to air his opinions in the presence of the two +older men, and then again the tailor had suddenly become a savant. + +"Of course, there are many things I wish were different," the tailor +continued in a more thoughtful tone. "Many of my people forget their +birthright and force themselves on the Christian, trying to break down +the fence which has always divided us, and which is really our +best protection. As long as we keep to ourselves we are a power. +Persecution,--and sometimes it amounts to that--is better than +amalgamation; it brings out our better fighting qualities and makes us +rely on ourselves. This is the view of our best thinkers, and they are +right. Just hear me run on! Why talk about these things? They are +for graybeards, not young fellows with the world before them." Cohen +straightened up--laid his glass on the small table, waved his hand in +denial to Peter who started to refill it, and continued, turning to +Jack: "And now let me hear something about your own work, Mr. Breen," he +said in his kindest and most interested voice. "Mr. Grayson tells me you +are cutting a great tunnel. Under a mountain, is it not? Ah!--that is +something worth doing. And here is this old uncle of yours with his +fine clothes and his old wine, who does nothing but pore over his musty +bank-books, and here am I in the cellar below, who can only sew on +buttons, and yet we have the impudence to criticise you. Really, I never +heard of such conceit!" + +"Oh!--but it isn't my tunnel," Jack eagerly protested, greatly amused +at the Jew's talk; "I am just an assistant, Mr. Cohen." Somehow he had +grown suddenly smaller since the little man had been talking. + +"Yes,--of course, we are all assistants; Mr. Grayson assists at the +bank, and I assist my man, Jacob, who makes such funny mistakes in the +cut of his trousers. Oh, yes, that is quite the way life is made up. But +about this tunnel? It is part of this new branch, is it not? Some of +my friends have told me about it. And it is going straight through the +mountain." + +And then before Jack or Peter could reply the speaker branched out into +an account of the financing of the great Mt. Cenis tunnel, and why +the founder of the house of Rothschild, who had "assisted" in its +construction, got so many decorations from foreign governments; the talk +finally switching off to the enamelled and jewelled snuff boxes of Baron +James Rothschild, whose collection had been the largest in Europe; and +what had become of it; and then by one of those illogical jumps--often +indulged in by well-informed men discussing any subject that absorbs +them--brought up at Voltaire and Taine and the earlier days of the +Revolution in which one of the little tailor's ancestors had suffered +spoliation and death. + +Jack sat silent--he had long since found himself out of his +depth--drinking in every word of the talk, his wonderment increasing +every moment, not only over Cohen, but over Peter as well, whom he had +never before heard so eloquent or so learned, or so entertaining. +When at last the little man rose to go, the boy, with one of those +spontaneous impulses which was part of his nature, sprang from his seat, +found the tailor's hat himself, and conducting him to the door, wished +him good-night with all the grace and well-meant courtesy he would show +a prince of the blood, should he ever be fortunate enough to meet one. + +Peter was standing on the mat, his back to the fire, when the boy +returned. + +"Jack, you delight me!" the old fellow cried. "Your father couldn't have +played host better. Really, I am beginning to believe I won't have to +lock you up in an asylum. You're getting wonderfully sane, my boy,--real +human. Jack, do you know that if you keep on this way I shall really +begin to love you!" + +"But what an extraordinary man," exclaimed Jack, ignoring Peter's +compliment and badinage. "Is there anything he does not know?" + +"Yes,--many things. Oh! a great many things. He doesn't know how to be +rude, or ill bred, or purse-proud. He doesn't know how to snub people +who are poorer than he is, or to push himself in where he isn't +wanted; or to talk behind people's backs after he has accepted their +hospitality. Just plain gentleman journeyman tailor, Jack. And now, my +boy, be honest. Isn't he a relief after some of the people you and I +meet every day?" + +Jack settled again in his chair. His mind was not at all easy. + +"Yes, he is, and that makes me afraid I was rude. I didn't mean to be." + +"No,--you acted just right. I wanted to draw him out so you could hear, +and you must say that he was charming. And the best of it is that he +could have talked equally well on a dozen other subjects." + +For some time Jack did not answer. Despite Peter's good opinion of him, +he still felt that he had either said or done something he should be +ashamed of. He knew it was his snap judgment about Cohen that had been +the cause of the object lesson he had just received. Peter had not +said so in so many words--it was always with a jest or a laugh that he +corrected his faults, but he felt their truth all the same. + +For some minutes he leaned back in his chair, his eyes on the ceiling; +then he said in a tone of conviction: + +"I WAS wrong about Mr. Cohen, Uncle Peter. I am always putting my +foot in it. He is an extraordinary man. He certainly is, to listen to, +whatever he is in his business." + +"No, Jack, my boy--you were only honest," Peter rejoined, passing over +the covert allusion to the financial side of the tailor. "You didn't +like his race and you said so. Act first. Then you found out you were +wrong and you said so. Act second. Then you discovered you owed him an +ample apology and you bowed him out as if he had been a duke. Act third. +And now comes the epilogue--Better be kind and human than be king! Eh, +Jack?" and the old gentleman threw back his head and laughed heartily. + +Jack made no reply. He was through with Cohen;--something else was on +his mind of far more importance than the likes and dislikes of all the +Jews in Christendom. Something he had intended to lay before Peter at +the very moment the old fellow had sent him for Isaac--something he had +come all the way to New York to discuss with him; something that had +worried him for days. There was but half an hour left; then he must get +his bag and say good-night and good-by for another week or more. + +Peter noticed the boy's mood and laid his hand on his wrist. Somehow +this was not the same Jack. + +"I haven't hurt you, my son, have I?" he asked with a note of tenderness +in his voice. + +"Hurt me! You couldn't hurt me, Uncle Peter!" There was no question of +his sincerity as he spoke. It sprang straight from his heart. + +"Well, then, what's the matter?--out with it. No secrets from blundering +old Peter," he rejoined in a satisfied tone. + +Jack laughed gently: "Well, sir, it's about the work." It wasn't; but it +might lead to it later on. + +"Work!--what's the matter with the work! Anything wrong?" There was a +note of alarm now that made Jack reply hastily: + +"No, it will be finished next month: we are lining up the arches this +week and the railroad people have already begun to dump their cross ties +along the road bed. It's about another job. Mr. MacFarlane, I am afraid, +hasn't made much money on the fill and tunnel, but he has some other +work offered him up in Western Maryland, which he may take, and which, +if he does, may pay handsomely. He wants me to go with him. It means +a shanty and a negro cook, as near as I can figure it, but I shall get +used to that, I suppose. What do you think about it?" + +"Well," chuckled Peter--it was not news; MacFarlane had told him all +about it the week before at the Century--"if you can keep the shanty +tight and the cook sober you may weather it. It must be great fun living +in a shanty. I never tried it, but I would like to." + +"Yes, perhaps it is,--but it has its drawbacks. I can't come to see you +for one thing, and then the home will be broken up. Miss Ruth will go +back to her grandmother's for a while, she says, and later on she +will visit the Fosters at Newport and perhaps spend a month with Aunt +Felicia." He called her so now. + +Jack paused for some further expression of opinion from his always ready +adviser, but Peter's eyes were still fixed on the slow, dying fire. + +"It will be rather a rough job from what I saw of it," Jack went on. "We +are to run a horizontal shaft into some ore deposits. Mr. MacFarlane and +I have been studying the plans for some time; we went over the ground +together last month. That's why I didn't come to you last week." + +Peter twisted his head: "What's the name of the nearest town?" +MacFarlane had told him but he had forgotten. + +"Morfordsburg. I was there once with my father when I was a boy. He had +some ore lands near where these are;--those he left me. The Cumberland +property we always called it. I told you about it once. It will never +amount to anything,--except by expensive boring. That is also what hurts +the value of this new property the Maryland Mining Company owns. That's +what they want Mr. MacFarlane for. Now, what would you do if you were +me?" + +"What sort of a town is Morfordsburg?" inquired Peter, ignoring Jack's +question, his head still buried between his shoulders. + +"Oh, like all other country villages, away from railroad connection." + +"Any good houses,--any to rent?" + +"Yes,--I saw two." + +"And you want my advice, do you, Jack?" he burst out, rising erect in +his seat. + +"Yes." + +"Well, I'd stick to MacFarlane and take Ruth with me." + +Jack broke out into a forced laugh. Peter had arrived by a short cut! +Now he knew, he was a mind reader. + +"She won't go," he answered in a voice that showed he was open to +conviction. Peter, perhaps, had something up his sleeve. + +"Have you asked her?" The old fellow's eyes were upon him now. + +"No,--not in so many words." + +"Well, try it. She has always gone with her father; she loves the +outdoor life and it loves her. I never saw her look as pretty as she is +now, and she has her horse too. Try asking her yourself, beg her to come +along and keep house and make a home for the three of you." + +Jack leaned back in his seat, his face a tangle of hopes and fears. What +was Uncle Peter driving at, anyhow? + +"I have tried other things, and she would not listen," he said in a more +positive tone. Again the two interviews he had had with Ruth came into +his mind; the last one as if it had been yesterday. + +"Try until she DOES listen," continued Peter. "Tell her you will be +very lonely if she doesn't go, and that she is the one and only thing +in Corklesville that interests you outside of your work--and be sure you +mention the dear girl first and the work last--and that you won't have +another happy hour if she leaves you in the--" + +"Oh!--Uncle Peter!" + +"And why not? It's a fact, isn't it? You were honest about Isaac; why +not be honest with Ruth?" + +"I am." + +"No, you're not,--you only tell her half what's in your heart. Tell +her all of it! The poor child has been very much depressed of late, so +Felicia tells me, over something that troubles her, and I wouldn't be +at all surprised if you were at the bottom of it. Give yourself an +overhauling and find out what you have said or done to hurt her. She +will never forget you for pulling her father out of that hole, nor will +he." + +Jack bristled up: "I don't want her to think of me in that way!" + +"Oh, you don't! don't you? Oh, of course not! You want her to think of +you as a great and glorious young knight who goes prancing about +the world doing good from habit, and yet you are so high and mighty +that--Jack, you rascal, do you know you are the stupidest thing that +breathes? You're like a turkey, my boy, trying to get over the top rail +of a pen with its head in the air, when all it has to do is to stoop a +little and march out on its toes." + +Jack rose from his seat and walked toward the fire, where he stood with +one hand on the mantel. He knew Peter had a purpose in all his raillery +and yet he dared not voice the words that trembled on his lips; he could +tell the old fellow everything in his life except his love for Ruth +and her refusal to listen to him. This was the bitterest of all his +failures, and this he would not and could not pour into Peter's ears. +Neither did he want Ruth to have Peter's help, nor Miss Felicia's; nor +MacFarlane's; not anybody's help where her heart was concerned. If Ruth +loved him that was enough, but he wouldn't have anybody persuade her to +love him, or advise with her about loving him. How much Peter knew he +could not say. Perhaps!--perhaps Ruth told him something!--something he +was keeping to himself! + +As this last thought forced itself into his brain a great surge of joy +swept over him. For a brief moment he stood irresolute. One of Peter's +phrases now rang clear: "Stoop a little!" Stoop?--hadn't he done +everything a man could do to win a woman, and had he not found the bars +always facing him? + +With this his heart sank again. No, there was no use of thinking +anything more about it, nor would he tell him. There were some things +that even Peter couldn't understand,--and no wonder, when you think how +many years had gone by since he loved any woman. + +The chime of the little clock rang out. + +Jack turned quickly: "Eleven o'clock, Uncle Peter, and I must go; time's +up. I hate to leave you." + +"And what about the shanty and the cook?" said Peter, his eyes searching +Jack's. + +"I'll go,--I intended to go all the time if you approved." + +"And what about Ruth?" + +"Don't ask me, Uncle Peter, not now." And he hurried off to pack his +bag. + + + +CHAPTER XX + + + +If Jack, after leaving Peter and racing for the ferry, had, under +Peter's advice, formulated in his mind any plan by which he could break +down Ruth's resolve to leave both her father and himself in the lurch +and go out in the gay world alone, there was one factor which he must +have left out of his calculations--and that was the unexpected. + +One expression of Peter's, however, haunted him all the way home:--that +Ruth was suffering and that he had been the cause of it. Had he hurt +her?--and if so, how and when? With this, the dear girl's face, with +the look of pain on it which Miss Felicia had noticed, rose before him. +Perhaps Peter was right. He had never thought of Ruth's side of the +matter--had never realized that she, too, might have suffered. To-morrow +he would go to her. If he could not win her for himself he could, at +least, find out the cause and help relieve her pain. + +This idea so possessed him that it was nearly dawn before he dropped to +sleep. + +With the morning everything changed. + +Such a rain had never been known to fall--not in the memory of the +oldest moss-back in the village--if any such ancient inhabitant existed. +Twelve hours of it had made rivers of the streets, quagmires of the +roads, and covered the crossings ankle-deep with mud. It had begun in +the night while Isaac was expounding his views on snuff boxes, tunnels, +and Voltaire to Peter and Jack, had followed Jack across the river and +had continued to soak into his clothes until he opened Mrs. Hicks's +front door with his private key. It was still pelting away the next +morning, when Jack, alarmed at its fury, bolted his breakfast, and, +donning his oilskins and rubber boots, hurried to the brick office from +whose front windows he could get a view of the fill, the culvert, and +the angry stream, and from whose rear windows could be seen half a mile +up the raging torrent, the curve of the unfinished embankment flanking +one side of the new boulevard which McGowan was building under a +contract with the village. + +Hardly had he slipped off his boots and tarpaulins when MacFarlane, in +mackintosh and long rubber boots, splashed in: + +"Breen," said his Chief, loosening the top button of his storm coat and +threshing the water from his cap: + +Jack was on his feet in an instant: + +"Yes, sir." + +"I wish you would take a look at the boulevard spillway. I know +McGowan's work and how he skins it sometimes, and I'm getting worried. +Coggins says the water is backing up, and that the slopes are giving +way. You can see yourself what a lot of water is coming down--" here +they both gazed through the open window. "I never saw that stream look +like that since I've been here; there must be a frightful pressure now +on McGowan's retaining walls. We should have a close shave if anything +gave way above us. Our own culvert's working all right, but it's taxed +now to its utmost." + +Jack unhooked his water-proof from a nail behind the door--he had began +putting on his rubber boots again before MacFarlane finished speaking. + +"He will have to pay the bills, sir, if anything gives way--" Jack +replied in a determined voice. "Garry told me only last week that +McGowan had to take care of his own water; that was part of his +contract. It comes under Garry's supervision, you know." + +"Yes, I know, and that may all be so, Breen," he replied with a +flickering smile, "but it won't do us any good,--or the road either. +They want to run cars next month." + +The door again swung wide, and a man drenched to the skin, the water +glistening on his bushy gray beard stepped in. + +"I heard you were here, sir, and had to see you. There's only four +feet lee-way in our culvert, sir, and the scour's eating into the +underpinning; I am just up from there. We are trying bags of cement, but +it doesn't do much good." + +MacFarlane caught up his hat and the two hurried down stream to the +"fill," while Jack, buttoning his oilskin jacket over his chest, and +crowding his slouch hat close to his eyebrows and ears strode out into +the downpour, his steps bent in the opposite direction. + +The sight that met his eyes was even more alarming. The once quiet +little stream, with its stretch of meadowland reaching to the foot of +the steep hills, was now a swirl of angry reddish water careering toward +the big culvert under the "fill." There it struck the two flanking walls +of solid masonry, doubled in volume and thus baffled, shot straight into +and under the culvert and so on over the broad fields below. + +Up the stream toward the boulevard on the other side of its sky line, +groups of men were already engaged carrying shovels, or lugging pieces +of timber as they hurried along its edge, only to disappear for an +instant and reappear again empty-handed. Shouts could be heard, as if +some one were giving orders. Against the storm-swept sky, McGowan's +short, squat figure was visible, his hands waving wildly to other gangs +of men who were running at full speed toward where he stood. + +Soon a knife-edge of water glistened along the crest of the earth +embankment supporting the roadway of the boulevard, scattered into a +dozen sluiceways, gashing the sides of the slopes, and then, before +Jack could realize his own danger, the whole mass collapsed only to be +swallowed up in a mighty torrent which leaped straight at him. + +Jack wheeled suddenly, shouted to a man behind him to run for his life, +and raced on down stream toward the "fill" a mile below where MacFarlane +and his men, unconscious of their danger, were strengthening the culvert +and its approaches. + +On swept the flood, tearing up trees, cabins, shanties, fences; swirling +along the tortuous bed only to leap and swirl again, its solid front +bristling with the debris it had wrenched loose in its mad onslaught, +Jack in his line of flight keeping abreast of its mighty thrust, +shouting as he ran, pressing into service every man who could help in +the rescue. + +But MacFarlane had already been forewarned. The engineer of the morning +express, who had crossed close to the boulevard at the moment the break +occurred, had leaned far out of his cab as the train thundered by at +right angles to the "fill," and with cupped hands to his mouth, had +hurled this yell into the ravine: + +"Water! Look out! Everything busted up above! Water! Water! Run, for +God's sake!" + +The men stood irresolute, but MacFarlane sprang to instant action. +Grabbing the man next him,--an Italian who understood no English--he +dragged him along, shouting to the others, the crowd swarming up, +throwing away their shovels in their flight until the whole posse +reached a point of safety near the mouth of the tunnel. + +There he turned and braced himself for the shock. He realized fully what +had happened: McGowan's ill-constructed culvert had sagged and choked; +a huge basin of water had formed behind it; the retaining walls had been +undermined and the whole mass was sweeping down upon him. Would there be +enough of it to overflow the crest line of his own "fill" or not? If it +could stand the first on-thrust there was one chance in a hundred of its +safety, provided the wing-walls and the foundations of the culvert held +up its arch, thus affording gradual relief until the flood should have +spent its force. + +It was but a question of minutes. He could already see the trees sway as +the mad flood struck them, the smaller ones rebounding, the large ones +toppling over. Then came a dull roar like that of a tram through a +covered bridge, and then a great wall of yellow suds, boiling, curling, +its surface covered with sticks, planks, shingles, floating barrels, +parts of buildings, dashed itself against the smoothed earth slopes +of his own "fill," surged a third of its height, recoiled on itself, +swirled furiously again, and then inch by inch rose toward the top. +Should it plunge over the crest, the "fill" would melt away as a +rising tide melts a sand fort, the work of months be destroyed, and his +financial ruin be a certainty. + +But the man who had crawled out on the shore end of the great cantilever +bridge over the Ohio, and who had with his own hands practically set the +last rebellious steel girder one hundred feet above the water level, had +still some resources left. Grabbing a shovel from a railroad employee, +he called to his men and began digging a trench on the tunnel end of the +"fill" to form a temporary spillway should the top of the flood reach +the crest of the road bed. + +Fifty or more men sprang to his assistance with pick and shovel wherever +one could stand and dig. The water had now reached within five feet of +the top: the rise was slower, showing that the volume had lessened; the +soakage, too, was helping, but the water still gained. The bottom of the +trench, cut transversely across the road bed of the "fill," out of which +the dirt was still flying from scores of willing shovels, had reached +the height of the flood line. It was wide enough and deep enough to take +care of the slowly rising overflow and would relieve the pressure on the +whole structure; but the danger was not there. What was to be feared was +the scour on the down-stream--far side--slope of the "fill." This also, +was of loose earth: too great a gulch might mean total collapse. + +To lessen this scour MacFarlane had looted a carload of plank switched +on to a siding, and a gang of men in charge of Jack,--who had now +reached his Chief's side,--were dragging them along the downstream slope +to form sluices with which to break the force of the scour. + +The top of the flood now poured into the mouth of the newly dug trench, +biting huge mouthfuls of earth from its sides in its rush; spreading the +reddish water fan-like over the down-stream slope: first into gullies; +then a broad sluiceway that sunk out of sight in the soft earth; then +crumblings, slidings of tons of sand and gravel, with here and there +a bowlder washed clean; the men working like beavers,--here to free a +rock, there to drive home a plank, the trench all the while deepening, +widening--now a gulch ten feet across and as deep, now a canon through +which surged a solid mass of frenzied water. + +With the completion of the first row of planking MacFarlane took up a +position where he could overlook all parts of the work. Every now and +then his eyes would rest on a water-gauge which he had improvised from +the handle of a pick; the rise and fall of the wet mark showing him both +the danger and the safety lines. He seemed the least interested man +in the group. Once in a while he would consult his watch, counting the +seconds, only to return to the gauge. + +That thousands of dollars' damage had so far been done did not seem to +affect him in the least. Only when Jack would call out that everything +so far was solid on the main "fill" did his calm face light up. + +Tightening his wide slouch hat farther down on his head, he drew up +the tops of his high-water boots and strode through the slush to the +pick-handle. His wooden record showed that half an hour before the water +had been rising at the rate of an inch every three minutes; that it had +then taken six, and now required eight! He glanced at the sky; it had +stopped raining and a light was breaking in the West. + +Pocketing his watch he beckoned to Jack: + +"The worst is over, Breen," he said in a voice of perfect calmness--the +tone of a doctor after feeling a patient's pulse. "Our culvert is doing +its work and relieving the pressure. This water will be out of here by +morning. Tell the foreman to keep those planks moving wherever they do +any good, but they won't count much longer. You can see the difference +already in the overflow. And now go up to the house and tell Ruth. She +may not know we are all right and will be worrying." + +Jack's heart gave a bound. No more delightful duty could devolve on him. + +"What shall I tell her about the damage if she asks me, sir?" he +demanded, hiding his pleasure in a perfunctory, businesslike tone, "and +she will." + +"Tell her it means all summer here for me and no new bonnets for her +until next winter," replied MacFarlane with a grim smile. + +"Yes, I suppose, but I referred to the money loss," Jack laughed in +reply. "There is no use worrying her if we are not to blame for this." +He didn't intend to worry her. He was only feeling about for some topic +which would prolong his visit and encourage conversation. + +"If we are, it means some thousands of dollars on the wrong side of the +ledger," answered MacFarlane after a pause, a graver tone in his +voice. "But don't tell Ruth that. Just give her my message about the +bonnet--she will understand." + +"But not if McGowan is liable," argued Jack. If Ruth was to hear bad +news it could at least be qualified. + +"That depends somewhat on the wording of his contract, Breen, and a good +deal on whether this village wants to hold him to it. I'm not crossing +any bridges of that kind, and don't you. What I'm worrying about is the +number of days and nights it's going to take to patch this work so they +can get trains through our tunnel--And, Breen--" + +"Yes, sir," answered Jack, as he stopped and looked over his shoulder. +There were wings on his feet now. + +"Get into some dry clothes before you come back." + +While all this had been going on Ruth had stood at the window in the +upper hall opposite the one banked with geraniums, too horrified to +move. She had watched with the aid of her opera-glass the wild torrent +rushing through the meadow, and she had heard the shouts of the people +in the streets and the prolonged roar when the boulevard embankment gave +way. + +The hurried entrance and startled cry of the grocer's boy in the kitchen +below, and the loud talk that followed, made her move to the head of +the stairs. There she stood listening, her heart in her mouth, her knees +trembling. Such expressions as "drownded,"--"more'n a hundred of 'em--" +reached her ears. Then came the words--"de boss's work busted; ain't +nobody seen him alive, so dey say." + +For an instant she clutched the hand rail to keep her from falling, then +with a cry of terror she caught up an old cloth cape, bound a hat to her +head with a loose veil, and was downstairs and into the street before +the boy had reached the curb. + +"Yes, mum," he stammered, breathlessly, his eyes bulging from his +head,--"Oh! it's awful, mum! Don't know how many's drownded! Everybody's +shovelin' on de railroad dump, but dere ain't nothin' kin save it, dey +say!" + +She raced on--across the long street, avoiding the puddles as best she +could; past the Hicks Hotel--no sign of Jack anywhere--past the factory +fence, until she reached the railroad, where she stopped, gathered her +bedraggled skirts in her hand and then sped on over the cross-ties like +a swallow, her little feet scarce touching the cinders. + +Jack had caught sight of the flying girl as she gained the railroad +and awaited her approach; he supposed she was the half-crazed wife or +daughter of some workman, bringing news of fresh disaster, until she +approached near enough for him to note the shape and size of her boots +and the way the hat and veil framed her face. But it was not until +she uttered a cry of agony and ran straight toward him, that he sprang +forward to meet her and caught her in his aims to keep her from falling. + +"Oh, Jack!--where is daddy--where--" she gasped. + +"Why, he is all right, Miss Ruth,--everybody's all right! Why did +you come here? Oh! I am so sorry you have had this fright! Don't +answer,--just lean on me until you get your breath." + +"Yes--but are you sure he is safe? The grocer's boy said nobody had seen +him alive." + +"Of course I am sure! Just look across--there he is; nobody could ever +mistake that old slouch hat of his. And look at the big 'fill.' It +hasn't given an inch, Miss Ruth--think of it! What a shame you have had +such a fright," he continued as he led her to a pile of lumber beside +the track and moved out a dry plank where he seated her as tenderly as +if she had been a frightened child, standing over her until she breathed +easier. + +"But then, if he is safe, why did you leave daddy? You are not hurt +yourself, are you?" she exclaimed suddenly, reaching up her hand and +catching the sleeve of his tarpaulin, a great lump in her throat. + +"Me, hurt!--not a bit of it,--not a scratch of any kind,--see!" As an +object-lesson he stretched out his arm and with one clenched hand smote +his chest gorilla fashion. + +"But you are all wet--" she persisted, in a more reassured tone. "You +must not stand here in this wind; you will get chilled to the bone. You +must go home and get into dry clothes;--please say you will go?" + +Something warm and scintillating started from Jack's toes as the words +left her lips, surged along his spinal column, set his finger tips +tingling and his heart thumping like a trip hammer. She had called him +"Jack!" She had run a mile to rescue him and her father, and she was +anxious lest he should endanger his precious life by catching cold. +Cold!--had he been dragged through the whirlpool of Niagara in the +dead of winter with the thermometer at zero and then cast on a stranded +iceberg he would now be sizzling hot. + +Again she repeated her command,--this time in a more peremptory tone, +the same anxious note in her voice. + +"Please come, if daddy doesn't want you any more you must go home +at once. I wouldn't have you take cold for--" she did not finish the +sentence; something in his face told her that her solicitude might +already have betrayed her. + +"Of course, I will go just as soon as you are rested a little, but you +mustn't worry about me, Miss Ruth, I am as wet as a rat, I know, but I +am that way half the time when it rains. These tarpaulins let in a +lot of water--" here he lifted his arms so she could see the openings +herself--"and then I got in over my boots trying to plug the holes in +the sluiceway with some plank." He was looking down into her eyes now. +Never had he seen her so pretty. The exercise had made roses of her +cheeks, and the up-turned face framed by the thatch of a bonnet bound +with the veil, reminded him of a Madonna. + +"And is everything all right with daddy? And was there nobody in the +shanties?" she went on. "Perhaps I might better try to get over where he +is;--do you think I can? I would just like to tell him how glad I am it +is no worse." + +"Yes, if you change boots with me," laughed Jack, determined to divert +her mind; "I was nearly swamped getting back here. That is where most of +this mud came from--" and Jack turned his long, clay-encrusted boot so +that Ruth could see how large a section of the "fill" he had brought +with him. + +Ruth began to laugh. There was no ostensible reason why she should +laugh; there was nothing about Jack's make-up to cause it. Indeed, she +thought he had never looked so handsome, even if his hair were plastered +to his temples under his water-soaked hat and his clothes daubed with +mud. + +And yet she did laugh:--At the way her veil got knotted under her +chin,--so tightly knotted that Jack had to take both hands to loosen it, +begging pardon for touching her throat, and hoping all the while that +his clumsy fingers had not hurt her;--at the way her hat was crumpled, +the flowers "never,--never, being of the slightest use to anybody +again"; at her bedraggled skirts--"such a sight, and sopping wet." + +And Jack laughed, too,--agreeing to everything she said, until she +reached that stage in the conversation, never omitted on occasions of +this kind, when she declared, arching her head, that she must look like +a perfect fright, which Jack at once refuted exclaiming that he had +never seen her look so--he was going to say "pretty," but checked +himself and substituted "well," instead, adding, as he wiped off +her ridiculously small boots, despite her protests, with his wet +handkerchief,--that cloud-bursts were not such bad things, after all, +now that he was to have the pleasure of escorting her home. + +And so the two walked back to the village, the afternoon sun, which +had now shattered the lowering clouds, gilding and glorifying their +two faces, Jack stopping at Mrs. Hicks's to change his clothes and Ruth +keeping on to the house, where he was to join her an hour later, when +the two would have a cup of tea and such other comforts as that young +lady might prepare for her water-soaked lover. + + + +CHAPTER XXI + + + +If ten minutes make half an hour, then it took Jack that long to rush +upstairs, two steps at a time, burst into his room, strip off his boots, +tear off his wet clothes, struggle into others jerked from his wardrobe, +tie a loose, red-silk scarf under the rolling collar of his light-blue +flannel shirt, slip into a grey pea-jacket and unmentionables, give his +hair a brush and a promise, tilt a dry hat on one side of his head and +skip down-stairs again. + +Old Mrs. Hicks had seen him coming and had tried to catch him as he +flew out the door, hoping to get some more definite news of the calamity +which had stirred the village, but he was gone before she could reach +the front hall. + +He had not thought of his better clothes; there might still be work to +do, and his Chief might again need his services. Ruth would understand, +he said to himself--all of which was true. Indeed, she liked him better +in his high-water rubber boots, wide slouch hat and tarpaulins than in +the more conventional suit of immaculate black with which he clothed his +shapely body whenever he took her to one of the big dinners at one of +the great houses on Washington Square. + +And she liked this suit best of all. She had been peeping through the +curtains and her critical admiring eyes had missed no detail. She +saw that the cavalier boots were gone, but she recognized the short +pea-jacket and the loose rolling collar of the soft flannel shirt +circling the strong, bronzed throat, and the dash of red in the silken +scarf. + +And so it is not surprising that when he got within sight of her +windows, his cheeks aflame with the crisp air, his eyes snapping with +the joy of once more hearing her voice, her heart should have throbbed +with an undefinable happiness and pride as she realized that for a time, +at least, he was to be all her own. And yet when he had again taken her +hand--the warmth of his last pressure still lingered in her palm--and +had looked into her eyes and had said how he hoped he had not kept her +waiting, all she could answer in reply was the non-committal remark: + +"Well, now you look something like"--at which Jack's heart gave a great +bound, any compliment, however slight, being so much manna to his hungry +soul; Ruth adding, as she led the way into the sitting-room, "I lighted +the wood fire because I was afraid you might still be cold." + +And ten minutes had been enough for Ruth. + +It had been one of those lightning changes which a pretty girl can +always make when her lover is expected any instant and she does not want +to lose a moment of his time, but it had sufficed. Something soft and +clinging it was now; her lovely, rounded figure moving in its folds as +a mermaid moves in the surf; her hair shaken cut and caught up again in +all its delicious abandon; her cheeks, lips, throat, rose-color in the +joy of her expectancy. + +He sat drinking it all in. Had a mass of outdoor roses been laid by +his side, their fragrance filling the air, the beauty of their coloring +entrancing his soul, he could not have been more intoxicated by their +beauty. + +And yet, strange to say, only commonplaces rose to his lips. All the +volcano beneath, and only little spats of smoke and dying bits of ashes +in evidence! Even the message of his Chief about her not getting a new +bonnet all summer seemed a godsend under the circumstances. Had there +been any basis for her self-denial he would not have told her, knowing +how much anxiety she had suffered an hour before. But there was no real +good reason why she should economize either in bonnets or in anything +else she wanted. McGowan, of course, would be held responsible; for +whatever damage had been done he would have to pay. He had been present +when the young architect's watchful and trained eye had discovered some +defects in the masonry of the wing walls of the McGowan culvert bridging +the stream, and had heard him tell the contractor, in so many words that +if the water got away and smashed anything below him he would charge the +loss to his account. McGowan had groveled in dissent, but it had made no +impression on Garry, whose duty it was to see that the work was properly +carried out and whose signature loosened the village purse strings. + +None of these details would interest Ruth; nor was it necessary that +they should. The bonnet, however, was another matter. Bonnets were +worn over pretty heads and framed lovely hair and faces and eyes--one +especially! And then again any pleasantry of her father's would tend to +relieve her mind after the anxiety of the morning. Yes, the bonnet by +all means! + +"Oh, I never gave you your father's message," he began, laying aside +his cup, quite as if he had just remembered it. "I ought to have done so +before you hung up the hat you wore a while ago." + +Ruth looked up, smiling: "Why?" There was a roguish expression about her +mouth as she spoke. She was very happy this afternoon. + +"He says you won't get a new bonnet all summer," continued Jack, toying +with the end of the ribbon that floated from her waist. + +Ruth put down her cup and half rose from her chair All the color had +faded from her cheeks. + +"Did he tell you that?" she cried, her eyes staring into his, her voice +trembling as if from some sudden fright. + +Jack gazed at her in wonderment: + +"Yes--of course he did and--Why, Miss Ruth!--Why, what's the matter! +Have I said anything that--" + +"Then something serious has happened," she interrupted in a decided +tone. "That is always his message to me when he is in trouble. That is +what he telegraphed me when he lost the coffer-dam in the Susquehanna. +Oh!--he did not really tell you that, did he, Mr. Breen?" The old +anxious note had returned--the one he had heard at the "fill." + +"Yes--but nothing serious HAS happened, Miss Ruth," Jack persisted, his +voice rising in the intensity of his conviction, his earnest, truthful +eyes fixed on hers--"nothing that will not come out all right in the +end. Please, don't be worried, I know what I am talking about." + +"Oh, yes, it is serious," she rejoined with equal positiveness. "You do +not know daddy. Nothing ever discourages him, and he meets everything +with a smile--but he cannot stand any more losses. The explosion was bad +enough, but if this 'fill' is to be rebuilt, I don't know what will be +the end of it. Tell me over again, please--how did he look when he said +it?--and give me just the very words. Oh, dear, dear daddy! What will he +do?" The anxious note had now fallen to one of the deepest suffering. + +Jack repeated the message word for word, all his tenderness in his +tones--patting her shoulder in his effort to comfort her--ending with +a minute explanation of what Garry had told him: but Ruth would not be +convinced. + +"But you don't know daddy," she kept repeating "You don't know him. +Nobody does but me. He would not have sent that message had he not meant +it. Listen! There he is now!" she cried, springing to her feet. + +She had her arms around her father's neck, her head nestling on his +shoulder before he had fairly entered the door. "Daddy, dear, is it very +bad?" she murmured. + +"Pretty bad, little girl," he answered, smoothing her cheek tenderly +with his chilled fingers as he moved with her toward the fire, "but it +might have been worse but for the way Breen handled the men." + +"And will it all have to be rebuilt?" + +She was glad for Jack, but it was her father who now filled her mind. + +"That I can't tell, Puss"--one of his pet names for her, particularly +when she needed comforting--"but it's safe for the night, anyway." + +"And you have worked so hard--so hard!" Her beautiful arms, bare from +the elbow, were still around his neck, her cheek pressed close--her +lovely, clinging body in strong contrast to the straight, gray, forceful +man in the wet storm-coat, who stood with arms about her while he +caressed her head with his brown fingers. + +"Well, Puss, we have one consolation--it wasn't our fault--the 'fill' +is holding splendidly although it has had a lively shaking up. The worst +was over in ten minutes, but it was pretty rough while it lasted. I +don't think I ever saw water come so fast. I saw you with Breen, but I +couldn't reach you then. Look out for your dress, daughter. I'm pretty +wet." + +He released her arms from his neck and walked toward the fire, stripping +off his gray mackintosh as he moved. There he stretched his hands to the +blaze sod went on: "As I say, the 'fill' is safe and will stay so, for +the water is going down rapidly; dropped ten feet, Breen, since you +left. My!--but this fire feels good! Got into something dry--did +you, Breen? That's right. But I am not satisfied about the way the +down-stream end of the culvert acts"--this also was addressed to +Jack--"I am afraid some part of the arch has caved in. It will be bad if +it has--we shall know in the morning. You weren't frightened, Puss, were +you?" + +She did not answer. She had heard that cheery, optimistic note in her +father's voice before; she knew how much of it was meant for her ears. +None of his disasters were ever serious, to hear daddy talk--"only the +common lot of the contracting engineer, little girl," he would say, +kissing her good-night, while he again pored over his plans, sometimes +until daylight. + +She crept up to him the closer and nestled her fingers inside his +collar--an old caress of hers when she was a child, then looking up into +his eyes she asked with almost a throb of suffering in her voice, "Is it +as bad as the coffer-dam, daddy?" + +Jack looked on in silence. He dared not add a word of comfort of his own +while his Chief held first place in soothing her fears. + +MacFarlane passed his hand over her forehead--"Don't ask me, child! Why +do you want to bother your dear head over such things, Puss?" he asked, +as he stroked her hair. + +"Because I must and will know. Tell me the truth," she demanded, lifting +her head, a note of resolve in her voice. "I can help you the +better if I know it all." Some of the blood of one of her +great-great-grandmothers, who had helped defend a log-house in Indian +times, was asserting itself. She could weep, but she could fight, too, +if necessary. + +"Well, then, I'm afraid it is worse than the coffer-dam," he answered +in all seriousness. "It may be a matter of twelve or fifteen thousand +dollars--maybe more, if we have to rebuild the 'fill.' I can't tell +yet." + +Ruth released her grasp, moved to the sofa and sank down, her chin +resting on her hand. Twelve or fifteen thousand dollars! This meant +ruin to everybody--to her father, to--a new terror now flashed into +her mind--to Jack--yes, Jack! Jack would have to go away and find other +work--and just at the time, too, when he was getting to be the old Jack +once more. With this came another thought, followed by an instantaneous +decision--what could she do to help? Already she had determined on her +course. She would work--support herself--relieve her father just that +much. + +An uncomfortable silence followed. For some moments no one spoke. Her +father, stifling a sigh, turned slowly, pushed a chair to the fire and +settled into it, his rubber-encased knees wide apart, so that the warmth +of the blaze could reach most of his body. Jack found a seat beside him, +his mind on Ruth and her evident suffering, his ears alert for any fresh +word from his Chief. + +"I forgot to tell you, Breen," MacFarlane said at last, "that I came up +the track just now as far as the round-house with the General Manager of +the Road. He has sent one of his engineers to look after that Irishman's +job before he can pull it to pieces to hide his rotten work--that is, +what is left of it. Of course it means a lawsuit or a fight in the +Village Council. That takes time and money, and generally costs more +than you get. I've been there before, Breen, and know." + +"Does he understand about McGowan's contract?" inquired Jack +mechanically, his eyes on Ruth. Her voice still rang in his ears--its +pathos and suffering stirred him to his very depths. + +"Yes--I told him all about it," MacFarlane replied. "The Road will stand +behind us--so the General Manager says--but every day's delay is ruinous +to them. It will be night-and-day work for us now, and no let-up. I have +notified the men." He rose from his seat and crossed to his daughter's +side, and leaning over, drew her toward him: "Brace up, little girl," +there was infinite tenderness in his cadences--"it's all in a lifetime. +There are only two of us, you know--just you and me, daughter--just you +and me--just two of us. Kiss me, Puss." + +Regaining his full height he picked up his storm-coat from the chair +where he had flung it, and with the remark to Jack, that he would change +his clothes, moved toward the door. There he beckoned to him, waited +until he had reached his side, and whispering in his ear: "Talk to her +and cheer her up, Breen. Poor little girl--she worries so when anything +like this happens"--mounted the stairs to his room. + +"Don't worry, Miss Ruth," said Jack in comforting tones as he returned +to where she sat. "We will all pull out yet." + +"It is good of you to say so," she replied, lifting her head and leaning +back so that she could look into his eyes the better, "but I know +you don't think so. Daddy was just getting over his losses on the +Susquehanna bridge. This work would have set him on his feet. Those were +his very words--and he was getting so easy in his mind, too--and we had +planned so many things!" + +"But you can still go to Newport," Jack pleaded. "We will be here some +months yet, and--" + +"Oh--but I won't go a step anywhere. I could not leave him now--that is, +not as long as I can help him." + +"But aren't you going to the Fosters' and Aunt Felicia's?" She might not +be, but it was good all the same to hear her deny it. + +"Not to anybody's!" she replied, with an emphasis that left no doubt in +his mind. + +Jack's heart gave a bound. + +"But you were going if we went to Morfordsburg," he persisted. He was +determined to get at the bottom of all his misgivings. Perhaps, after +all, Peter was right. + +Ruth caught her breath. The name of the town had reopened a vista which +her anxiety over her father's affairs had for the moment shut out. + +"Well, but that is over now. I am going to stay here and help daddy." +Again the new fear tugged at her heart. "You are going to stay, too, +aren't you, Mr. Breen?" she added in quick alarm. "You won't leave him, +will you?--not if--" again the terrible money loss rose before her. What +if there should not be money enough to pay Jack? + +"Me! Why, Miss Ruth!" + +"But suppose he was not able to--" she could not frame the rest of the +sentence. + +"You can't suppose anything that would make me leave him, or the work." +This also came with an emphasis of positive certainty. "I have never +been so happy as I have been here. I never knew what it was to be +myself. I never knew," he added in softened tones, "what it was to +really live until I joined your father. Only last night Uncle Peter and +I were talking about it. 'Stick to Mac,' the dear old fellow said." It +was to Ruth, but he dared not express himself, except in parables. "Then +you HAD thought of going?" she asked quickly, a shadow falling across +her face. + +"No--" he hesitated--"I had only thought of STAYING. It was you who were +going--I was all broken up about being left here alone, and Uncle Peter +wanted to know why I did not beg you to stay, and I--" + +Ruth turned her face toward him. + +"Well, I am going to stay," she answered simply. She did not dare to +trust herself further. + +"Yes!--and now I don't care what happens!" he exclaimed with a thrill +in his voice. "If you will only trust me, Miss Ruth, and let me come in +with you and your father. Let me help! Don't let there be only two--let +us be three! Don't you see what a difference it would make? I will work +and save every penny I can for him and take every bit of the care from +his shoulders; but can't you understand how much easier it would be if +you would only let me help you too? I could hardly keep the tears back +a moment ago when I saw you sink down here. I can't see you unhappy like +this and not try to comfort you." + +"You do help me," she murmured softly. Her eyes had now dropped to the +cushion at her side. + +"Yes, but not--Oh, Ruth, don't you see how I love you! What difference +does this accident make--what difference does anything make if we have +each other?" He had his hand on hers now, and was bending over, his eyes +eager for some answer in her own. "I have suffered so," he went on, "and +I am so tired and so lonely without you. When you wouldn't understand me +that time when I came to you after the tunnel blew up, I went about like +one in a dream--and then I determined to forget it all, and you, and +everything--but I couldn't, and I can't now. Maybe you won't listen--but +please--" + +Ruth withdrew her hand quickly and straightened her shoulders. The +mention of the tunnel and what followed had brought with it a rush of +memories that had caused her the bitterest tears of her life. And then +again what did he mean by "helping"? + +"Jack," she said slowly, as if every word gave her pain, "listen to +me. When you saved my father's life and I wanted to tell you how much I +thanked you for it, you would not let me tell you. Is not that true?" + +"I did not want your gratitude, Ruth," he pleaded in excuse, his lips +quivering, "I wanted your love." + +"And why, then, should I not say to you now that I do not want your +pity? Is it because you are--" her voice sank to a whisper, every note +told of her suffering--"you are--sorry for me, Jack, that you tell me +you love me?" + +Jack sprang to his feet and stood looking down upon her. The cruelty of +her injustice smote his heart. Had a man's glove been dashed in his face +he could not have been more incensed. For a brief moment there surged +through him all he had suffered for her sake; the sleepless nights, the +days of doubts and misunderstandings! And it had come to this! Again he +was treated with contempt--again his heart and all it held was trampled +on. A wild protest rose in his throat and trembled on his lips. + +At that instant she raised her eyes and looked into his. A look so +pleading--so patient--so weary of the struggle--so ready to receive the +blow--that the hot words recoiled in his throat. He bent his head to +search her eyes the better. Down in their depths, as one sees the bottom +of a clear pool he read the truth, and with it came a reaction that sent +the hot blood rushing through his veins. + +"Sorry for you, my darling!" he burst out joyously--"I who love you like +my own soul! Oh, Ruth!--Ruth!--my beloved!" + +He had her in his arms now, her cheek to his, her yielding body held +close. + +Then their lips met. + +The Scribe lays down his pen. This be holy ground on which we tread. All +she has she has given him: all the fantasies of her childhood, all the +dreams of her girlhood, all her trust, her loyalty--her reverence--all +to the very last pulsation of her being. + +And this girl he holds in his arms! So pliant, so yielding, so pure and +undefiled! And the silken sheen and intoxicating perfume of her hair, +and the trembling lashes shading the eager, longing, soul-hungry eyes; +and the way the little pink ears nestle; and the fair, white, dovelike +throat, with its ripple of lace. And then the dear arms about his neck +and the soft clinging fingers that are intertwined with his own! And +more wonderful still, the perfect unison, the oneness, the sameness; no +jar, no discordant note; mind, soul, desire--a harmony. + +The wise men say there are no parallels in nature; that no one thing in +the wide universe exactly mates and matches any other one thing; that +each cloud has differed from every other cloud-form in every hour of the +day and night, to-day, yesterday and so on back through the forgotten +centuries; that no two leaves in form, color, or texture, lift the same +faces to the sun on any of the million trees; that no wave on any beach +curves and falls as any wave has curved and fallen before--not since the +planet cooled. And so it is with the drift of wandering winds; with the +whirl and crystals of driving snow, with the slant and splash of rain. +And so, too, with the flight of birds; the dash and tumble of restless +brooks; the roar of lawless thunder and the songs of birds. + +The one exception is when we hold in our arms the woman we love, and +for the first time drink in her willing soul through her lips. Then, +and only then, does the note of perfect harmony ring true through the +spheres. + +For a long time they sat perfectly still. Not many words had passed, and +these were only repetitions of those they had used before. "Such dear +hands," Jack would say, and kiss them both up and down the fingers, +and then press the warm, pink shell palm to his lips and kiss it again, +shutting his eyes, with the reverence of a devotee at the feet of the +Madonna. + +"And, Jack dear," Ruth would murmur, as if some new thought had welled +up in her heart--and then nothing would follow, until Jack would loosen +his clasp a little--just enough to free the dear cheek and say: + +"Go on, my darling," and then would come-- + +"Oh, nothing, Jack--I--" and once more their lips would meet. + +It was only when MacFarlane's firm step was heard on the stairs outside +that the two awoke to another world. Jack reached his feet first. + +"Shall we tell him?" he asked, looking down into her face. + +"Of course, tell him," braved out Ruth, uptilting her head with the +movement of a fawn surprised in the forest. + +"When?" asked Jack, his eager eyes on the opening door. + +"Now, this very minute. I never keep anything from daddy." + +MacFarlane came sauntering in, his strong, determined, finely cut +features illumined by a cheery smile. He had squared things with himself +while he had been dressing: "Hard lines, Henry, isn't it?" he had asked +of himself, a trick of his when he faced any disaster like the present. +"Better get Ruth off somewhere, Henry, don't you think so? Yes, get her +off to-morrow. The little girl can't stand everything, plucky as she +is." It was this last thought of his daughter that had sent the cheery +smile careering around his firm lips. No glum face for Ruth! + +They met him half-way down the room, the two standing together, Jack's +arm around her waist. + +"Daddy!" + +"Yes, dear." He had not yet noted the position of the two, although he +had caught the joyous tones in her voice. + +"Jack and I want to tell you something. You won't be cross, will you?" + +"Cross, Puss!" He stopped and looked at her wonderingly. Had Jack +comforted her? Was she no longer worried over the disaster? + +Jack released his arm and would have stepped forward, but she held him +back. + +"No, Jack,--let me tell him. You said a while ago, daddy, that there +were only two of us--just you and I--and that it had always been so +and--" + +"Well, isn't it true, little girl?" It's extraordinary how blind and +stupid a reasonably intelligent father can be on some occasions, and +this one was as blind as a cave-locked fish. + +"Yes, it WAS true, daddy, when you went upstairs, but--but--it isn't +true any more! There are three of us now!" She was trembling all over +with uncontrollable joy, her voice quavering in her excitement. + +Again Jack tried to speak, but she laid her hand on his lips with-- + +"No, please don't, Jack--not yet--you will spoil everything." + +MacFarlane still looked on in wonderment. She was much happier, he could +see, and he was convinced that Jack was in some way responsible for the +change, but it was all a mystery yet. + +"Three of us!" MacFarlane repeated mechanically--"well, who is the +other, Puss?" + +"Why, Jack, of course! Who else could it be but Jack? Oh! +Daddy!--Please--please--we love each other so!" + +That night a telegram went singing down the wires leaving a trail of +light behind. A sleepy, tired girl behind an iron screen recorded it +on a slip of yellow paper, enclosed it in an envelope, handed it to a +half-awake boy, who strolled leisurely up to Union Square, turned into +Fifteenth Street, mounted Peter's front stoop and so on up three flights +of stairs to Peter's door. There he awoke the echoes into life with his +knuckles. + +In answer, a charming and most courtly old gentleman in an embroidered +dressing-gown and slippers, a pair of gold spectacles pushed high up on +his round, white head, his index finger marking the place in his book, +opened the door. + +"Telegram for Mr. Grayson," yawned the boy. + +Ah! but there were high jinks inside the cosey red room with its low +reading lamp and easy chairs, when Peter tore that envelope apart. + +"Jack--Ruth--engaged!" he cried, throwing down his book. "MacFarlane +delighted--What!--WHAT? Oh, Jack, you rascal!--you did take my advice, +did you? Well I--well! I'll write them both--No, I'll telegraph +Felicia--No, I won't!--I'll--Well!--well!--WELL! Did you ever hear +anything like that?" and again his eyes devoured the yellow slip. + +Not a word of the freshet; of the frightful loss; of the change of +plans for the summer; of the weeks of delay and the uncertain financial +outlook! And alas, dear reader--not a syllable, as you have perhaps +noticed, of poor daddy tottering on the brink of bankruptcy; nor the +slightest reference to brave young women going out alone in the cold, +cold world to earn their bread! What were floods, earthquakes, cyclones, +poverty, debt--what was anything that might, could, would or should +happen, compared to the joy of their plighted troth! + + + +CHAPTER XXII + + + +Summer has come: along the banks of the repentant stream the willows are +in full leaf; stretches of grass, braving the coal smoke and dust hide +the ugly red earth. The roads are dry again; the slopes of the "fill" +once more are true; all the arches in the mouth of the tunnel are +finished; the tracks have been laid and the first train has crawled out +on the newly tracked road where it haggled, snorted and stopped, only to +crawl back and be swallowed by The Beast. + +And with the first warm day came Miss Felicia. "When your wretched, +abominable roads, my dear, dry up so that a body can walk without +sinking up to their neck in mud--" ran Miss Felicia's letter in answer +to Ruth's invitation,--"I'll come down for the night," and she did, +bringing Ruth half of her laces, now that she was determined to throw +herself away on "that good-for nothing--Yes, Jack, I mean you and nobody +else, and you needn't stand there laughing at me, for every word of it's +true; for what in the world you two babes in the wood are going to live +on no mortal man knows;" Ruth answering with her arm tight around +the dear lady's neck,--a liberty nobody,--not even Peter, ever dared +take--and a whisper in her ear that Jack was the blessedest ever, +and that she loved him so sometimes she was well-nigh distracted--a +statement which the old lady remarked was literally true. + +And we may be sure that Peter came too--and we may be equally positive +that no impassable roads could have held him back. Indeed, on the very +afternoon of the very day following the receipt of the joyful telegram, +he had closed his books with a bang, performed the Moses act until he +had put them into the big safe, slipped on his coat, given an extra +brush to his hat and started for the ferry. All that day his face had +been in a broad smile; even the old book-keeper noticed it and so did +Patrick, the night-watchman and sometimes porter; and so did the line +of depositors who inched along to his window and were greeted with a +flash-light play of humor on his face instead of the more sedate, though +equally kindly expression which always rested on his features when +at work. But that was nothing to the way he hugged Jack and +Ruth--separately--together--then Ruth, then Jack--and then both together +again, only stopping at MacFarlane, whose hand he grabbed with a "Great +day! hey? Great day! By Cricky, Henry, these are the things that put new +wine into old leather bottles like you and me." + +And this was not all that the spring and summer had brought. Fresh sap +had risen in Jack's veins. This girl by his side was his own--something +to work for--something to fight for. MacFarlane felt the expansion and +put him in full charge of the work, relieving him often in the night +shifts, when the boy would catch a few hours' sleep, and when, you may +be sure, he stopped long enough at the house to get his arms around Ruth +before he turned in for the night or the morning, or whenever he did +turn in. + +As to the injury which McGowan's slipshod work had caused to the "fill," +the question of damages and responsibility for the same still hung in +the air. The "fill" did not require rebuilding--nor did any part of the +main work--a great relief. The loss had not, therefore, been as great as +MacFarlane had feared. Moreover, the scour and slash of the down-stream +slope, thanks to Jack's quick work, required but few weeks to repair; +the culvert, contrary to everybody's expectation, standing the test, and +the up-stream slope showing only here and there marks of the onslaught. +The wing walls were the worst; these had to be completely rebuilt, +involving an expense of several thousands of dollars, the exact amount +being one point in the discussion. + +Garry, to his credit, had put his official foot down with so strong +a pressure that McGowan, fearing that he would have to reconstruct +everything from the bed of the stream up, if he held out any longer, +agreed to arbitrate the matter, he selecting one expert and MacFarlane +the other; and the Council--that is, Garry--the third. MacFarlane had +chosen the engineer of the railroad who had examined McGowan's masonry +an hour after the embankment had given way. McGowan picked out a brother +contractor and Garry wrote a personal letter to Holker Morris, following +it up by a personal visit to the office of the distinguished architect, +who, when he learned that not only Garry, MacFarlane, and Jack were +concerned in the outcome of the investigation, but also Ruth--whose +marriage might depend on the outcome,--broke his invariable rule of +never getting mixed up in anybody's quarrels, and accepted the position +without a murmur. + +This done everybody interested sat down to await the result of the +independent investigations of each expert, Garry receiving the reports +in sealed envelopes and locking them in the official safe, to be opened +in full committee at its next monthly meeting, when a final report, with +recommendations as to liability and costs, would be drawn up; the same, +when adopted by a majority of the Council the following week, to be +binding. + +It was during this suspense--it happened really on the morning +succeeding the one on which Garry had opened the official +envelopes--that an envelope of quite a different character was laid on +Jack's table by the lady with the adjustable hair, who invariably made +herself acquainted with as much of that young gentleman's mail as could +be gathered from square envelopes sealed in violet wax, or bearing +family crests in low relief, or stamped with monograms in light blue +giving out delicate perfumes, each one of which that lady sniffed +with great satisfaction; to say nothing of business addresses and +postal-cards,--the latter being readable, and, therefore, her delight. + +This envelope, however, was different from any she had ever fumbled, +sniffed at, or pondered over. It was not only of unusual size, but it +bore in the upper left-hand corner in bold black letters the words: + +ARTHUR BREEN & COMPANY, BANKERS. + +It was this last word which set the good woman to thinking. Epistles +from banks were not common,--never found at all, in fact, among the +letters of her boarders. + +Jack was even more astonished. + +"Call at the office," the letter ran, "the first time you are in New +York,--the sooner the better. I have some information regarding the ore +properties that may interest you." + +As the young fellow had not heard from his uncle in many moons, the +surprise was all the greater. Nor, if the truth be known, had he laid +eyes on that gentleman since he left the shelter of his home, except at +Corinne's wedding,--and then only across the church, and again in +the street, when his uncle stopped and shook his hand in a rather +perfunctory way, complimenting him on his bravery in rescuing +MacFarlane, an account of which he had seen in the newspapers, and +ending by hoping that his new life would "drop some shekels into his +clothes." Mrs. Breen, on the contrary, while she had had no opportunity +of expressing her mental attitude toward the exile, never having seen +him since he walked out of her front door, was by no means oblivious to +Jack's social and business successes. "I hear Jack was at Mrs. Portman's +last night," she said to her husband the morning after one of the +ex-Clearing House Magnate's great receptions. "They say he goes +everywhere, and that Mr. Grayson has adopted him and is going to leave +him all his money," to which Breen had grunted back that Jack was +welcome to the Portmans and the Portmans to Jack, and that if old +Grayson had any money, which he very much doubted, he'd better hoist +it overboard than give it to that rattlebrain. Mrs. Breen heaved a deep +sigh. Neither she nor Breen had been invited to the Portmans', nor +had Corinne (the Scribe has often wondered whether the second scoop +in Mukton was the cause)--and yet Ruth MacFarlane, and Jack and Miss +Felicia Grayson, and a lot more out-of-town people--so that insufferable +Mrs. Bennett had told her--had come long distances to be present, the +insufferable adding significantly that "Miss MacFarlane looked too +lovely and was by all odds the prettiest girl in the room, and as for +young Breen, really she could have fallen in love with him herself!" + +Jack tucked his uncle's letter in his pocket, skipped over to read it to +Ruth and MacFarlane, in explanation of his enforced absence for the +day, and kept on his way to the station. The missive referred to the +Morfordsburg contract, of course, and was evidently an attempt to gain +information regarding the proposed work, Arthur Breen & Co. being the +financial agents of many similar properties. + +"I will take care of him, sir," Jack had said as he left his Chief. "My +uncle, no doubt, means all right, and it is just as well to hear what +he says--besides he has been good enough to write to me, and of course I +must go, but I shall not commit myself one way or the other--" and with +a whispered word in Ruth's ear, a kiss and a laugh, he left the house. + +As he turned down the short street leading to the station, he caught +sight of Garry forging ahead on his way to the train. That rising young +architect, chairman of the Building Committee of the Council, trustee of +church funds, politician and all-round man of the world--most of which +he carried in a sling--seemed in a particularly happy frame of mind +this morning judging from the buoyancy with which he stepped. This had +communicated itself to the gayety of his attire, for he was dressed in a +light-gray check suit, and wore a straw hat (the first to see the light +of summer) with a green ribbon about the crown,--together with a white +waistcoat and white spats, the whole enriched by a red rose bud which +Corinne had with her own hands pinned in his buttonhole. + +"Why, hello! Jack, old man! just the very fellow I'm looking for," cried +the joyous traveller. "You going to New York?--So am I,--go every day +now,--got something on ice,--the biggest thing I've ever struck. I'll +show that uncle of yours that two can play at his game. He hasn't lifted +his hand to help us, and I don't want him to,--Cory and I can get along; +but you'd think he'd come out and see us once in a while, wouldn't you, +or ask after the baby; Mrs. Breen comes, but not Breen. We live in the +country and have tar on our heels, he thinks. Here,--sit by the window! +Now let's talk of something else. How's Miss Ruth and the governor? He's +a daisy;--best engineer anywhere round here. Yes, Cory's all right. Baby +keeps her awake half the night; I've moved out and camp upstairs; +can't stand it. Oh, by the way, I see you are about finishing up on the +railroad work. I'll have something to say to you next week on the damage +question. Got all the reports in last night. I tell you, my old chief, +Mr. Morris, is a corker! What he doesn't know about masonry isn't worth +picking up;--can't fool him! That's what's the matter with half of our +younger men; they sharpen lead-pencils, mix ink, and think they are +drawing; or they walk down a stone wall and don't know any more what's +behind it and what holds it up than a child. Mr. Morris can not only +design a wall, but he can teach some first-class mechanics how to lay +it." + +Jack looked out the window and watched the fences fly past. For the +moment he made no reply to Garry's long harangue--especially the part +referring to the report. Anxious as he was to learn the result of the +award, he did not want the facts from the chairman of the committee in +advance of the confirmation by the Council. + +"What is it you have on ice, Garry?" he asked at last with a laugh, +yielding to an overpowering conviction that he must change the +subject--"a new Corn Exchange? Nobody can beat you in corn exchanges." + +"Not by a long shot, Jack,--got something better; I am five thousand +ahead now, and it's all velvet." + +"Gold-mine, Garry?" queried Jack, turning his head. "Another Mukton +Lode? Don't forget poor Charlie Gilbert; he's been clerking it ever +since, I hear." + +"No, a big warehouse company; I'll get the buildings later on. That +Mukton Lode deal was a clear skin game, Jack, if it is your uncle, and +A. B. & Co. got paid up for it--downtown and uptown. You ought to hear +the boys at the Magnolia talk about it. My scheme is not that kind; +I'm on the ground floor; got some of the promoter's stock. When you are +through with your railroad contract and get your money, let me know. +I can show you a thing or two;--open your eyes! No Wall Street racket, +remember,--just a plain business deal." + +"There won't be much money left over, Garry, from the 'fill' and tunnel +work, if we keep on. We ought to have a cyclone next to finish up with; +we've had about everything else." + +"You're all through, Jack," replied Garry with emphasis. + +"I'll believe that when I see it," said Jack with a smile. + +"I tell you, Jack, YOU ARE ALL THROUGH. Do you understand? Don't ask +me any questions and I won't tell you any lies. The first thing that +strikes you will be a check, and don't you forget it!" + +Jack's heart gave a bound. The information had come as a surprise and +without his aid, and yet it was none the less welcome. The dreaded +anxiety was over; he knew now what the verdict of the Council would +be. He had been right from the first in this matter, and Garry had +not failed despite the strong political pressure which must have been +brought against him. The new work now would go on and he and Ruth could +go to Morfordsburg together! He could already see her trim, lovely +figure in silhouette against the morning light, her eyes dancing, her +face aglow in the crisp air of the hills. + +Garry continued to talk on as they sped into the city, elaborating the +details of the warehouse venture in which he had invested his present +and some of his future commissions, but his words fell on stony ground. +The expected check was the only thing that filled Jack's thoughts. There +was no doubt in his mind now that the decision would be in MacFarlane's +favor, and that the sum, whether large or small, would be paid without +delay,--Garry being treasurer and a large amount of money being still +due McGowan on the embankment and boulevard. It would be joyous news to +Ruth, he said to himself, with a thrill surging through his heart. + +Jack left Garry on the Jersey side and crossed alone. The boy loved +the salt air in his face and the jewelled lights flashed from the +ever-restless sea. He loved, too, the dash and vim of it all. Forcing +his way through the crowds of passengers to the forward part of the +boat, he stood where he could get the full sweep of the wonderful +panorama: + +The jagged purple line of the vast city stretching as far as the eye +could reach; with its flat-top, square-sided, boxlike buildings, with +here and there a structure taller than the others; the flash of light +from Trinity's spire, its cross aflame; the awkward, crab-like movements +of innumerable ferry-boats, their gaping alligator mouths filled with +human flies; the impudent, nervous little tugs, spitting steam in every +passing face; the long strings of sausage-linked canalers kept together +by grunting, slow-moving tows; the great floating track-yards bearing +ponderous cars--eight days from the Pacific without break of bulk; the +skinny, far-reaching fingers of innumerable docks clutching prey +of barge, steamer, and ship; the stately ocean-liner moving to sea, +scattering water-bugs of boats, scows and barges as it glided on its +way:--all this stirred his imagination and filled him with a strange +resolve. He, too, would win a place among the masses--Ruth's hand fast +in his. + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + + + +When Jack, in reply to Breen's note, stepped into his uncle's office, no +one would have recognized in the quick, alert, bronze-faced young fellow +the retiring, almost timid, boy who once peered out of the port-hole of +the cashier's desk. Nor did Jack's eyes fall on any human being he had +ever seen before. New occupants filled the chairs about the ticker. A +few lucky ones--very few--had pulled out and stayed out, and could now +be found at their country seats in various parts of the State, or on the +Riviera, or in Egypt; but by far the larger part had crawled out of the +fight to nurse their wounds within the privacy of their own homes where +the outward show had to be kept up no matter how stringent the inside +economies, or how severe the privations. Others, less fortunate, had +disappeared altogether from their accustomed haunts and were to be found +filling minor positions in some far Western frontier town or camp, or +menial berths on a railroad, while at least one victim, too cowardly +to leave the field, had haunted the lunch counters, hotel lobbies, and +race-tracks for months, preying on friends and acquaintances alike until +dire poverty forced him into crime, and a stone cell and a steel grille +had ended the struggle. + +Failing to find any face he recognized, Jack approached a group around +the ticker, and inquired for the head of the firm. The answer came from +a red-cheeked, clean-shaven, bullet-headed, immaculately upholstered +gentleman--(silk scarf, diamond horse-shoe stick-pin, high collar, +cut-away coat, speckled-trout waistcoat--everything perfect)--who stood, +paring his nails in front of the plate-glass window overlooking the +street, and who conveyed news of the elder Breen's whereabouts by a bob +of his head and a jerk of his fat forefinger in the direction of the +familiar glass door. + +Breen sat at his desk when Jack entered, but it was only when he spoke +that his uncle looked up;--so many men swung back that door with favors +to ask, that spontaneous affability was often bad policy. + +"I received your letter, Uncle Arthur," Jack began. + +Breen raised his eyes, and a deep color suffused his face. In his heart +he had a sneaking admiration for the boy. He liked his pluck. Strange, +too, he liked him the better for having left him and striking out for +himself, and stranger still, he was a little ashamed for having brought +about the revolt. + +"Why, Jack!" He was on his feet now, his hand extended, something of his +old-time cordiality in his manner. "You got my letter, did you? Well, I +wanted to talk to you about that ore property. You own it still, don't +you?" The habit of his life of going straight at the business in hand, +precluded every other topic. Then again he wanted a chance to look the +boy over under fire,--"size him up," in his own vocabulary. He might +need his help later on. + +"Oh, we don't own a foot of it,--don't want to. If Mr. MacFarlane +decides to--" + +"I'm not talking about MacFarlane's job; I'm talking about your own +property,--the Cumberland ore property,--the one your father left you. +You haven't sold it, have you?" This came in an anxious tone. + +"No," answered Jack simply, wondering what his father's legacy had to do +with his Chief's proposed work. + +"Have you paid the taxes?" Arthur's eyes were now boring into his. + +"Yes, every year; they were not much. Why do you ask?" + +"I'll tell you that later on," answered his uncle with a more satisfied +air. "You were up there with MacFarlane, weren't you?--when he went to +look over the ground of the Maryland Mining Company where he is to cut +the horizontal shaft?" Jack nodded. "So I heard. Well, it may interest +you to learn that some of our Mukton people own the property. It was I +who sent MacFarlane up, really, although he may not know it." + +"That was very kind of you, sir," rejoined Jack, without a trace of +either gratitude or surprise. + +"Well, I'm glad you think so. Some of our directors also own a block of +that new road MacFarlane is finishing. They wouldn't hire anybody else +after they had gone up to Corklesville and had seen how he did his work, +so I had the secretary of the company write MacFarlane, and that's how +it came about." + +Jack nodded and waited; his uncle's drift was not yet apparent. + +"Well, what I wanted to see you about, Jack, is this:" here he settled +his fat back into the chair. "All the ore in that section of the +county,--so our experts say, dips to the east. They've located the vein +and they think a horizontal shaft and gravity will get the stuff to +tide water much cheaper than a vertical shaft and hoist. Now if the +ore should peter out--and the devil himself can't tell always about +that--we've got to get some ore somewhere round there to brace up and +make good our prospectus, even if it does cost a little more, and that's +where your Cumberland property might come in,--see? One of our lawyers +looked over a record of your deed in the town hall of Mulford--" here +he bent forward and consulted a paper on his desk--"No,--that's not +it,--Morfordsburg,--yes, that's it,--Morfordsburg,--looked up the deed, +I say, Jack, and from what he says I don't believe your property is +more than a quarter of a mile, as the crow flies, from where they want +MacFarlane to begin cutting. If the lawyer's right there may be a few +dollars in it for you--not much, but something; and if there is,--of +course, I don't want to commit myself, and I don't want to encourage you +too much--but if he's right I should advise your bringing me what papers +you've got and have our attorney look them over, and if everything's +O.K. in the title, your property might be turned over to the new company +and form part of the deal. You can understand, of course, that we don't +want any other deposits in that section but our own." + +Breen's meaning was clear now. So was the purpose of the letter. + +Jack leaned back in his chair, an expression first of triumph and then +of disgust crossing his face. That his uncle should actually want him +back in his business in any capacity was as complimentary as it was +unexpected. That the basis of the copartnership--and it was this that +brought the curl to his lip--was such that neither a quarter of a mile +nor two miles would stand in the way of a connecting vein of ore on +paper, was to be expected by any one at all familiar with his uncle's +methods. + +"Thank you, Uncle Arthur," he answered simply, "but there's nothing +decided yet about the Morfordsburg work. I heard a bit of news coming +down on the train this morning that may cause Mr. MacFarlane to look +upon the proposed work more favorably, but that is for him to say. As +to my own property, when I am there again, if I do go,--I will look +over the ground myself and have Mr. MacFarlane go with me and then I can +decide." + +Breen knitted his brows. It was not the answer he had expected. In fact, +he was very much astonished both at the reply and the way in which it +was given. He began to be sorry he had raised the question at all. He +would gladly have helped Jack in getting a good price for his property, +provided it did not interfere with his own plans, but to educate him up +to the position of an obstructionist, was quite another matter. + +"Well, think it over," he replied in a tone that was meant to show his +entire indifference to the whole affair,--"and some time when you are in +town drop in again. And now tell me about Ruth, as we must call her, +I suppose. Your aunt just missed her at the Cosgroves' the other day." +Then came a short disquisition on Garry and Corinne and their life at +Elm Crest, followed by an embarrassing pause, during which the head of +the house of Breen lowered the flow line on a black bottle which he took +from a closet behind his desk,--"his digestion being a little out that +morning," he explained. And so with renewed thanks for the interest he +had taken in his behalf, and with his whole mind now concentrated on +Peter and the unspeakable happiness in store for him when he poured +into the old gentleman's willing and astonished ears the details of the +interview, Mr. John Breen, Henry MacFarlane's Chief Assistant in Charge +of Outside Work, bowed himself out. + +He had not long to wait. + +Indeed, that delightful old gentleman had but a short time before called +to a second old gentleman, a more or less delightful fossil in black wig +and spectacles, to take his place at the teller's window, and the first +delightful old gentleman was at the precise moment standing on the top +step of the Exeter, overlooking the street, where he had caught sight of +Jack wending his way toward him. + +"Jack! JACK!" Peter cried, waving his hand at the boy. + +"Oh! that's you, Uncle Peter, is it? Shall I--?" + +"No, Jack, stay where you are until I come to you." + +"And where are you going now?" burst out Jack, overjoyed at reaching his +side. + +"To luncheon, my dear boy! We'll go to Favre's, and have a stuffed +pepper and a plate of spaghetti an inch deep, after my own +receipt. Botti cooks it deliciously;--and a bottle of red wine, my +boy,--WINE,--not logwood and vinegar. No standing up at a trough, or +sitting on a high stool, or wandering about with a sandwich between your +fingers,--ruining your table manners and your digestion. And now tell +me about dear Ruth, and what she says about coming down to dinner next +week?" + +It was wonderful how young he looked, and how happy he was, and how spry +his step, as the two turned into William Street and so on to the cheap +little French restaurant with its sanded floor, little tables for two +and four, with their tiny pots of mustard and flagons of oil and +red vinegar,--this last, the "left-overs" of countless bottles of +Bordeaux,--to say nothing of the great piles of French bread weighing +down a shelf beside the proprietor's desk, racked up like cordwood, and +all of the same color, length, and thickness. + +Every foot of the way through the room toward his own table--his for +years, and which was placed in the far corner overlooking the doleful +little garden with its half-starved vine and hanging baskets--Peter had +been obliged to speak to everybody he passed (some of the younger men +rose to their feet to shake his hand)--until he reached the proprietor +and gave his order. + +Auguste, plump and oily, his napkin over his arm, drew out his chair (it +was always tipped back in reserve until he arrived), laid another plate +and accessories for his guest, and then bent his head in attention until +Peter indicated the particular brand of Bordeaux--the color of the wax +sealing its top was the only label--with which he proposed to entertain +his friend. + +All this time Jack had been on the point of bursting. Once he had +slipped his hand into his pocket for Breen's letter, in the belief that +the best way to get the most enjoyment out of the incident of his visit +and the result,--for it was still a joke to Jack,--would be to lay the +half sheet on Peter's plate and watch the old fellow's face as he read +it. Then he decided to lead gradually up to it, concealing the best +part of the story--the prospectus and how it was to be braced--until the +last. + +But the boy could not wait; so, after he had told Peter about +Ruth,--and that took ten minutes, try as hard as he could to shorten the +telling,--during which the stuffed peppers were in evidence,--and after +Peter had replied with certain messages to Ruth,--during which the +spaghetti was served sizzling hot, with entrancing frazzlings of brown +cheese clinging to the edges of the tin plate--the Chief Assistant +squared his elbows and plunged head-foremost into the subject. + +"And now, I have got a surprise for you, Uncle Peter," cried Jack, +smothering his eagerness as best he could. + +The old fellow held up his hand, reached for the shabby, dust-begrimed +bottle, that had been sound asleep under the sidewalk for years; filled +Jack's glass, then his own; settled himself in his chair and said with a +dry smile: + +"If it's something startling, Jack, wait until we drink this," and he +lifted the slender rim to his lips. "If it's something delightful, you +can spring it now." + +"It is both," answered Jack. "Listen and doubt your ears. I had a letter +from Uncle Arthur this morning asking me to come and see him about my +Cumberland ore property, and I have just spent an hour with him." + +Peter put down his glass: + +"You had a letter from Arthur Breen--about--what do you mean, Jack." + +"Just what I say." + +Peter moved close to the table, and looked at the boy in wonderment. + +"Well, what did he want?" He was all attention now. Arthur Breen sending +for Jack!--and after all that had happened! Well--well! + +"Wants me to put the Cumberland ore property father left me into one of +his companies." + +"That fox!" The explosion cleared the atmosphere for an instant. + +"That fox!" answered Jack, in a confirmatory tone; and then followed an +account of the interview, the boy chuckling at the end of every sentence +in his delight over the situation. + +"And what are YOU going to do?" asked Peter in an undecided tone. He had +heard nothing so comical as this for years. + +"Going to do nothing,--that is, nothing with Uncle Arthur. In the first +place, the property is worthless, unless half a million of money is +spent upon it." + +"Or is SAID to have been spent upon it," rejoined Peter with a smile, +remembering the Breen methods. + +"Exactly so;--and in the second place, I would rather tear up the deed +than have it added to Uncle Arthur's stock of balloons." + +Peter drummed on the table-cloth and looked out of the window. The boy +was right in principle, but then the property might not be a balloon at +all; might in fact be worth a great deal more than the boy dreamed of. +That Arthur Breen had gone out of his way to send for Jack--knowing, +as Peter did, how systematically both he and his wife had abused and +ridiculed him whenever his name was mentioned--was positive evidence +to Peter's mind not only that the property had a value of some kind but +that the discovery was of recent origin. + +"Would you know yourself, Jack, what the property was worth,--that is, +do you feel yourself competent to pass upon its value?" asked Peter, +lifting his glass to his lips. He was getting back to his normal +condition now. + +"Yes, to a certain extent, and if I fail, Mr. MacFarlane will help me +out. He was superintendent of the Rockford Mines for five years. He +received his early training there,--but there is no use talking about +it, Uncle Peter. I only told you to let you see how the same old thing +is going on day after day at Uncle Arthur's. If it isn't Mukton, it's +Ginsing, or Black Royal, or some other gas bag." + +"What did you tell him?" + +"Nothing,--not in all the hour I talked with him. He did the talking; I +did the listening." + +"I hope you were courteous to him, my boy?" + +"I was,--particularly so." + +"He wants your property, does he?" ruminated Peter, rolling a crumb of +bread between his thumb and forefinger. "I wonder what's up? He has made +some bad breaks lately and there were ugly rumors about the house for +a time. He has withdrawn his account from the Exeter and so I've lost +sight of all of his transactions." Here a new idea seemed to strike him: +"Did he seem very anxious about getting hold of the land?" + +A queer smile played about Jack's lips: + +"He seemed NOT to be, but he was" + +"You're sure?" + +"Very sure; and so would you be if you knew him as well as I do. I have +heard him talk that way to dozens of men and then brag how he'd 'covered +his tracks,' as he used to call it." + +"Then, Jack," exclaimed Peter in a decided tone, "there is something +in it. What it is you will find out before many weeks, but something. I +will wager you he has not only had your title searched but has had test +holes driven all over your land. These fellows stop at nothing. Let him +alone for a while and keep him guessing. When he writes to you again to +come and see him, answer that you are too busy, and if he adds a word +about the ore beds tell him you have withdrawn them from the market. +In the meantime I will have a talk with one of our directors who has +an interest, so he told me, in a new steel company up in the Cumberland +Mountains, somewhere near your property, I believe. He may know +something of what's going on, if anything is going on." + +Jack's eyes blazed. Something going on! Suppose that after all he and +Ruth would not have to wait. Peter read his thoughts and laid his hand +on Jack's wrist: + +"Keep your toes on the earth, my boy:--no balloon ascensions and no +bubbles,--none of your own blowing. They are bad things to have burst in +your hands--four hands now, remember, with Ruth's. If there's any money +in your Cumberland ore bank, it will come to light without your help. +Keep still and say nothing, and don't you sign your name to a piece of +paper as big as a postage stamp until you let me see it." + +Here Peter looked at his watch and rose from the table. + +"Time's up, my boy. I never allow myself but an hour at luncheon, and +I am due at the bank in ten minutes. Thank you, Auguste,--and Auguste! +please tell Botti the spaghetti was delicious. Come, Jack." + +It was when he held Ruth in his arms that same afternoon--behind the +door, really,--she couldn't wait until they reached the room,--that +Jack whispered in her astonished and delighted ears the good news of the +expected check from Garry's committee. + +"And daddy won't lose anything; and he can take the new work!" she +cried joyously. "And we can all go up to the mountains together! Oh, +Jack!--let me run and tell daddy!" + +"No, my darling,--not a word, Garry had no business to tell me what he +did; and it might leak out and get him into trouble:--No, don't say a +word. It is only a few days off. We shall all know next week." + +He had led her to the sofa, their favorite seat. + +"And now I am going to tell you something that would be a million times +better than Garry's check if it were only true,--but it isn't." + +"Tell me, Jack,--quick!" Her lips were close to his. + +"Uncle Arthur wants to buy my ore lands." + +"Buy your--And we are going to be--married right away! Oh, you darling +Jack!" + +"Wait,--wait, my precious, until I tell you!" She did not wait, and he +did not want her to. Only when he could loosen her arms from his neck +did he find her ear again, then he poured into it the rest of the story. + +"But, oh, Jack!--wouldn't it be lovely if it were true,--and just think +of all the things we could do." + +"Yes,--but it Isn't true." + +"But just suppose it WAS, Jack! You would have a horse of your own and +we'd build the dearest little home and--" + +"But it never can be true, blessed,--not out of the Cumberland +property--" protested Jack. + +"But, Jack! Can't we SUPPOSE? Why, supposing is the best fun in the +world. I used to suppose all sorts of things when I was a little girl. +Some of them came true, and some of them didn't, but I had just as much +fun as if they HAD all come true." + +"Did you ever suppose ME?" asked Jack. He knew she never had,--he wasn't +worth it;--but what difference did it make what they talked about! + +"Yes,--a thousand times. I always knew, my blessed, that there was +somebody like you in the world somewhere,--and when the girls would +break out and say ugly things of men,--all men,--I just knew they were +not true of everybody. I knew that you would come--and that I should +always look for you until I found you! And now tell me! Did you suppose +about me, too, you darling Jack?" + +"No,--never. There couldn't be any supposing;--there isn't any now. It's +just you I love, Ruth,--you,--and I love the 'YOU' in you--That's the +best part of you." + +And so they talked on, she close in his arms, their cheeks together; +building castles of rose marble and ivory, laying out gardens with +vistas ending in summer sunsets; dreaming dreams that lovers only dream. + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + + + +The check "struck" MacFarlane just as the chairman had said it would, +wiping out his losses by the flood with something ahead for his next +undertaking. + +That the verdict was a just one was apparent from the reports of both +McGowan's and the Railroad Company's experts. These showed that the +McGowan mortar held but little cement, and that not of the best; that +the backing of the masonry was composed of loose rubble instead of split +stone, and that the collapse of his structure was not caused by the +downpour, but by the caving in of culverts and spillways, which +were built of materials in direct violation of the provisions of the +contract. Even then there might have been some doubt as to the outcome +but for Holker Morris's testimony. He not only sent in his report, but +appeared himself, he told the Council, so as to answer any questions Mr. +McGowan or his friends might ask. He had done this, as he said openly at +the meeting, to aid his personal friend, Mr. MacFarlane, and also that +he might raise his voice against the slipshod work that was being done +by men who either did not know their business or purposely evaded their +responsibilities. "This construction of McGowan's," he continued, "is +especially to be condemned, as there is not the slightest doubt that the +contractor has intentionally slighted his work--a neglect which, but +for the thorough manner in which MacFarlane had constructed the lower +culvert, might have resulted in the loss of many lives." + +McGowan snarled and sputtered, denouncing Garry and his "swallow-tails" +in the bar rooms and at the board meetings, but the decision was +unanimous, two of his friends concurring, fearing, as they explained +afterward, that the "New York crowd" might claim even a larger sum in a +suit for damages. + +The meeting over, Morris and Jack dined with MacFarlane and again +the distinguished architect won Ruth's heart by the charm of his +personality, she telling Jack the next day that he was the only OLD +MAN--fifty was old for Ruth--she had ever seen with whom she could have +fallen in love, and that she was not sure after all but that Jack +was too young for her, at which there was a great scrimmage and a +blind-man's-buff chase around the table, up the front stairs and into +the corner by the window, where she was finally caught, smothered in +kisses and made to correct her arithmetic. + +This ghost of damages having been laid--it was buried the week after +Jack had called on his uncle--the Chief, the First Assistant, and +Bangs, the head foreman, disappeared from Corklesville and reappeared at +Morfordsburg. + +The Chief came to select a site for the entrance of the shaft; the First +Assistant came to compare certain maps and documents, which he had taken +from the trunk he had brought with him from his Maryland home, with the +archives resting in the queer old courthouse; while Foreman Bangs was to +help with the level and target, should a survey be found necessary. + +The faded-out old town clerk looked Jack all over when he asked to see +the duplicate of a certain deed, remarking, as he led the way to the +Hall of Records,--it was under a table in the back room,--"Reckon +there's somethin' goin' on jedgin' from the way you New Yorkers is +lookin' into ore lands up here. There come a lawyer only last month from +a man named Breen, huntin' up this same property." + +The comparisons over and found to be correct, "starting from a certain +stone marked 'B' one hundred and eighty-seven feet East by South," etc., +etc., the whole party, including a small boy to help carry the level +and target and a reliable citizen who said he could find the property +blindfold--and who finally collapsed with a "Goll darn!--if I know where +I'm at!"--the five jumped onto a mud-encrusted vehicle and started for +the site. + +Up hill and down hill, across one stream and then another; through +the dense timber and into the open again. Here their work began, Jack +handling the level (his Chief had taught him), Bangs holding the target, +MacFarlane taking a squint now and then so as to be sure,--and then the +final result,--to wit:--First, that the Maryland Company's property, +Arthur Breen & Co., agents, lay under a hill some two miles from +Morfordsburg; that Jack's lay some miles to the south of Breen's. +Second, that outcroppings showed the Maryland Mining Company's ore +dipped, as the Senior Breen had said, to the east, and third, that +similar outcroppings showed Jack's dipped to the west. + +And so the airy bubble filled with his own and Ruth's iridescent +hopes,--a bubble which had floated before him as he tramped through the +cool woods, and out upon the hillside, vanished into thin air. + +For with Ruth's arms around him, her lips close to his, her boundless +enthusiasm filling his soul, the boy's emotions had for the time +overcome his judgment. So much so that all the way up in the train he +had been "supposing" and resupposing. Even the reply of the town clerk +had set his heart to thumping; his uncle had sent some one then! Then +came the thought,--Yes, to boom one of his misleading prospectuses--and +for a time the pounding had ceased: by no possible combination now, +either honest or dishonest, could the two properties be considered one +and the same mine. + +Again his thoughts went back to Ruth. He knew how keenly she would be +disappointed. She had made him promise to telegraph her at once if his +own and her father's inspection of the ore lands should hold out any +rose-colored prospects for the future. This he had not now the heart to +do. One thing, however, he must do, and at once, and that was to write +to Peter, or see him immediately on his return. There was no use now +of the old fellow talking the matter over with the director; there was +nothing to talk over, except a bare hill three miles from anywhere, +covering a possible deposit of doubtful richness and which, whether good +or bad, would cost more to get to market than it was worth. + +They were on the extreme edge of the forest when the final decision was +reached, MacFarlane leaning against a rock, the level and tripod tilted +against his arm, Jack sitting on a fallen tree, the map spread out on +his knees. + +For some minutes Jack sat silent, his eyes roaming over the landscape. +Below him stretched an undulating mantle of velvet, laid loosely over +valley, ravine and hill, embroidered in tints of corn-yellow, purplings +of full-blossomed clover and the softer greens of meadow and swamp. In +and out, now straight, now in curves and bows, was threaded a ribbon +of silver, with here and there a connecting mirror in which flashed the +sun. Bordering its furthermost edge a chain of mountains lost themselves +in low, rolling clouds, while here and there, in its many crumplings, +were studded jewels of barn stack and house, their facets aflame in the +morning light. + +Jack absorbed it all, its beauty filling his soul, the sunshine bathing +his cheeks. Soon all trace of his disappointment vanished: with Ruth +here,--with his work to occupy him,--and this mighty, all-inspiring, +all-intoxicating sweep of loveliness spread out, his own and Ruth's +every hour of the day and night, what did ore beds or anything else +matter? + +MacFarlane's voice woke him to consciousness. He had called to him +before, but the boy had not heard. + +"As I have just remarked, Jack," MacFarlane began again, "there is +nothing but an earthquake will make your property of any use. It is a +low-grade ore, I should say, and tunnelling and shoring would eat it up. +Wipe it off the books. There are thousands of acres of this kind of land +lying around loose from here to the Cumberland Valley. It may get better +as you go down--only an assay can tell about that--but I don't think +it will. To begin sinking shafts might mean sinking one or a dozen; and +there's nothing so expensive. I am sorry, Jack, but wipe it out. Some +bright scoundrel might sell stock on it, but they'll never melt any of +it up into stove plate." + +"All right, sir," Jack said at last, with a light laugh. "It is the same +old piece of bread, I reckon, and it has fallen on the same old buttered +side. Uncle Peter told me to beware of bubbles--said they were hard +to carry around. This one has burst before I got my hand on it. All +right--let her go! I hope Ruth won't take it too much to heart. Here, +boy, get hold of this map and put it with the other traps in the wagon. +And now, Mr. MacFarlane, what comes next?" + +Before the day was over MacFarlane had perfected his plans. The town was +to be avoided as too demoralizing a shelter for the men, and barracks +were to be erected in which to house them. Locations of the principal +derricks were selected and staked, as well as the sites for the entrance +to the shaft, for the machine and blacksmith's shops and for a storage +shanty for tools: the Maryland Mining Company's work would require +at least two years to complete, and a rational, well-studied plan of +procedure was imperative. + +"And now, Jack, where are you going to live,--in the village?" asked his +Chief, resting the level and tripod carefully against a tree trunk and +seating himself beside Jack on a fallen log. + +"Out here, if you don't mind, sir, where I can be on top of the work all +the time. It's but a short ride for Ruth and she can come and go all the +time. I am going to drop some of these trees; get two or three choppers +from the village and knock up a log-house like the one I camped in when +I was a boy." + +"Where will you put it?" asked MacFarlane with a smile, as he turned +his head as if in search of a site. It was just where he wanted Jack to +live, but he would not have suggested it. + +"Not a hundred yards from where we sit, sir--a little back of those +two big oaks. There's a spring above on the hill and sloping ground for +drainage; and shade, and a great sweep of country in front. I've been +hungry for this life ever since I left home; now I am going to have it." + +"It will be rather lonely, won't it?" The engineer's eyes softened as +they rested on the young fellow, his face flushed with the enthusiasm of +his new resolve. He and Ruth's mother had lived in just such a shanty, +and not so very long ago, either, it seemed,--those were the happiest +years of his life. + +"No!" exclaimed Jack. "It's only a step to the town; I can walk it in +half an hour. No, it won't be lonely. I will fix up a room for Uncle +Peter somewhere, so he can be comfortable,--he would love to come here +on his holidays; and Ruth can come out for the day,--she will be crazy +about it when I tell her. No, I will get along. If the lightning had +struck my ore beds I would probably have painted and papered some musty +back room in the village and lived a respectable life. Now I am going to +turn savage." + +The next day the contracts were signed: work to commence in three +months. Henry MacFarlane, Engineer-in-Chief, John Breen in charge of +construction. + +It was on that same sofa in the far corner of the sitting-room that +Jack told Ruth,--gently, one word at a time,--making the best of it, but +telling her the exact truth. + +"And then we are not going to have any of the things we dreamed about, +Jack," she said with a sigh. + +"I am afraid not, my darling,--not now, unless the lightning strikes us, +which it won't." + +She looked out of the window for a moment, and her eyes filled with +tears. Then she thought of her father, and how hard he had worked, +and what disappointments he had suffered, and yet how, with all his +troubles, he had always put his best foot foremost--always encouraging +her. She would not let Jack see her chagrin. This was part of Jack's +life, just as similar disappointments had been part of her father's. + +"Never mind, blessed. Well, we had lots of fun 'supposing,' didn't we, +Jack. This one didn't come true, but some of the others will and what +difference does it make, anyway, as long as I have you," and she nestled +her face in his neck. "And now tell me what sort of a place it is and +where daddy and I are going to live, and all about it." + +And then, to soften the disappointment the more and to keep a new bubble +afloat, Jack launched out into a description of the country and how +beautiful the view was from the edge of the hill overlooking the valley, +with the big oaks crowning the top and the lichen-covered rocks and +fallen timber blanketed with green moss, and the spring of water that +gushed out of the ground and ran laughing down the hillside, and the +sweep of mountains losing themselves in the blue haze of the distance, +and then finally to the log-cabin he was going to build for his own +especial use. + +"And only two miles away," she cried in a joyous tone,--"and I can ride +out every day! Oh, Jack!--just think of it!" And so, with the breath +of this new enthusiasm filling their souls, a new bubble of hope +and gladness was floated, and again the two fell to planning, and +"supposing," the rose-glow once more lightening up the peaks. + +For days nothing else was talked of. An onslaught was at once made on +Carry's office, two doors below Mrs. Hicks, for photographs, plans +of bungalows, shanties, White Mountain lean-tos, and the like, and +as quickly tucked under Ruth's arm and carried off, with only the +permission of the office boy,--Garry himself being absent owing to +some matters connected with a big warehouse company in which he was +interested, the boy said, and which took him to New York on the early +train and did not allow his return sometimes, until after midnight. + +These plans were spread out under the lamp on the sitting-room table, +the two studying the details, their heads together, MacFarlane sitting +beside them reading or listening,--the light of the lamp falling on his +earnest, thoughtful face,--Jack consulting him now and then as to the +advisability of further extensions, the same being two rooms shingled +inside and out, with an annex of bark and plank for Ruth's horse, and a +kitchen and laundry and no end of comforts, big and little,--all to be +occupied whenever their lucky day would come and the merry bells ring +out the joyful tidings of their marriage. + +Nor was this all this particularly radiant bubble contained. Not only +was there to be a big open fireplace built of stone, and overhead +rafters of birch, the bark left on and still glistening,--but there +were to be palms, ferns, hanging baskets, chintz curtains, rugs, pots of +flowers, Chinese lanterns, hammocks, easy chairs; and for all Jack knew, +porcelain tubs, electric bells, steam heat and hot and cold water, so +enthusiastic had Ruth become over the possibilities lurking in the 15 +X 20 log-hut which Jack proposed to throw together as a shelter in his +exile. + + + +CHAPTER XXV + + + +The news of MacFarlane's expected departure soon became known in the +village. There were not many people to say good-by, the inhabitants +having seen but little of the engineer and still less of his daughter, +except as she flew past, in a mad gallop, on her brown mare, her hair +sometimes down her back. The pastor of the new church came, however, to +express his regrets, and to thank Mr. MacFarlane for his interest in the +church building. He also took occasion to say many complimentary things +about Garry, extolling him for the wonderful manner in which that +brilliant young architect had kept within the sum set apart by the +trustees for its construction, and for the skill with which the work was +being done, adding that as a slight reward for such devotion the church +trustees had made Mr. Minott treasurer of the building fund, believing +that in this way all disputes could the better be avoided,--one of some +importance having already arisen (here the reverend gentleman lowered +his voice) in which Mr. McGowan, he was sorry to say, who was building +the masonry, had attempted an overcharge which only Mr. Minott's +watchful eye could have detected, adding, with a glance over his +shoulder, that the collapse of the embankment had undermined the +contractor's reputation quite as much as the freshet had his culvert, at +which MacFarlane smiled but made no reply. + +Corinne also came to express her regrets, bringing with her a scrap of +an infant in a teetering baby carriage, the whole presided over by a +nurse in a blue dress, white cap, and white apron, the ends reaching to +her feet: not the Corinne, the Scribe is pained to say, who, in the old +days would twist her head and stamp her little feet and have her way in +everything. But a woman terribly shrunken, with deep lines in her face +and under her eyes. Jack, man-like, did not notice the change, but Ruth +did. + +After the baby had been duly admired, Ruth tossing it in her arms until +it crowed, Corinne being too tired for much enthusiasm, had sent it +home, Ruth escorting it herself to the garden gate. + +"I am sorry you are going," Corinne said in Ruth's absence. "I suppose +we must stay on here until Garry finishes the new church. I haven't seen +much of Ruth,--or of you, either, Jack. But I don't see much of anybody +now,--not even of Garry. He never gets home until midnight, or even +later, if the train is behind time, and it generally is." + +"Then he must have lots of new work," cried Jack in a cheerful tone. "He +told me the last time I saw him on the train that he expected some big +warehouse job." + +Corinne looked out of the window and fingered the handle of her parasol. + +"I don't believe that is what keeps him in town, Jack," she said slowly. +"I hoped you would come and see him last Sunday. Did Garry give you my +message? I heard you were at home to-day, and that is why I came." + +"No, he never said a single word about it or I would have come, of +course. What do you think, then, keeps him in town so late?" Something +in her voice made Jack leave his own and take a seat beside her. "Tell +me, Corinne. I'll do anything I can for Garry and you too. What is it?" + +"I don't know, Jack,--I wish I did. He has changed lately. When I +went to his room the other night he was walking the floor; he said +he couldn't sleep, and the next morning when he didn't come down to +breakfast I went up and found him in a half stupor. I had hard work to +wake him. Don't tell Ruth,--I don't want anybody but you to know, but +I wish you'd come and see him. I've nobody else to turn to,--won't you, +Jack?" + +"Come! of course I'll come, Corinne,--now,--this minute, if he's home, +or to-night, or any time you say. Suppose I go back with you and wait. +Garry's working too hard, that's it,--he was always that way, puts his +whole soul into anything he gets interested in and never lets up until +it's accomplished." He waited for some reply, but she was still toying +with the handle of her parasol. Her mind had not been on his proffered +help,--she had not heard him, in fact. + +"And, Jack," she went on in the same heart-broken tone through which an +unbidden sob seemed to struggle. + +"Yes, I am listening, Corinne,--what is it?" + +"I want you to forgive me for the way I have always treated you. I +have--" + +"Why, Corinne, what nonsense! Don't you bother your head about such--" + +"Yes, but I do, and it is because I have never done anything but be ugly +to you. When you lived with us I--" + +"But we were children then, Corinne, and neither of us knew any better. +I won't hear one word of such nonsense. Why, my dear girl--"he had +taken her hand as she spoke and the pair rested on his knee--"do you +think I am--No--you are too sensible a woman to think anything of the +kind. But that is not it, Corinne--something worries you;" he asked +suddenly with a quick glance at her face. "What is it? You shall have +the best in me, and Ruth will help too." + +Her fingers closed over his. The touch of the young fellow, so full of +buoyant strength and hope and happiness, seemed to put new life into +her. + +"I don't know, Jack." Her voice fell to a whisper. "There may not be +anything, yet I live under an awful terror. Don't ask me;--only tell me +you will help me if I need you. I have nobody else--my stepfather almost +turned me out of his office when I went to see him the other day,--my +mother doesn't care. She has only been here half a dozen times, and that +was when baby was born. Hush,--here comes Ruth,--she must not know." + +"But she MUST know, Corinne. I never have any secrets from Ruth, and +don't you have any either. Ruth couldn't be anything but kind to you +and she never misunderstands, and she is so helpful. Here she is. Ruth, +dear, we were just waiting for you. Corinne is nervous and depressed, +and imagines all sorts of things, one of which is that we don't care for +her: and I've just told her that we do?" + +Ruth looked into Jack's eyes as if to get his meaning--she must always +get her cue from him now--she was entirely unconscious of the cause of +it all, or why Corinne should feel so, but if Jack thought Corinne was +suffering and that she wanted comforting, all she had was at Corinne's +and Jack's disposal. With a quick movement she leaned forward and laid +her hand on Corinne's shoulder. + +"Why, you dear Corinne,--Jack and I are not like that. What has gone +wrong,--tell me," she urged. + +For a brief instant Corinne made no answer. Once she tried to speak but +the words died in her throat. Then, lifting up her hands appealingly, +she faltered out: + +"I only said that I--Oh, Ruth!--I am so wretched!" and sank back on the +lounge in an agony of tears. + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + + + +At ten o'clock that same night Jack went to the station to meet Garry. +He and Ruth had talked over the strange scene--unaccountable to both of +them--and had determined that Jack should see Garry at once. + +"I must help him, Ruth, no matter at what cost. Garry has been my friend +for years; he has been taken up with his work, and so have I, and +we have drifted apart a little, but I shall never forget him for his +kindness to me when I first came to New York. I would never have known +Uncle Peter but for Garry, or Aunt Felicia, or--you, my darling." + +Jack waited under the shelter of the overhanging roof until the young +architect stepped from the car and crossed the track. Garry walked with +the sluggish movement of a tired man--hardly able to drag his feet after +him. + +"I thought I'd come down to meet you, Garry," Jack cried in his old +buoyant tone. "It's pretty rough on you, old fellow, working so hard." + +Garry raised his head and peered into the speaker's face. + +"Why, Jack!" he exclaimed in a surprised tone; the voice did not sound +like Garry's. "I didn't see you in the train. Have you been in New York +too?" He evidently understood nothing of Jack's explanation. + +"No, I came down to meet you. Corinne was at Mr. MacFarlane's to-day, +and said you were not well,--and so I thought I'd walk home with you." + +"Oh, thank you, old man, but I'm all right. Corinne's nervous;--you +mustn't mind her. I've been up against it for two or three weeks +now,--lot of work of all kinds, and that's kept me a good deal from +home. I don't wonder Cory's worried, but I can't help it--not yet." + +They had reached an overhead light, and Jack caught a clearer view of +the man. What he saw sent a shiver through him. A great change had come +over his friend. His untidy dress,--always so neat and well kept; +his haggard eyes and shambling, unsteady walk, so different from his +springy, debonair manner, all showed that he had been and still was +under some terrible mental strain. That he had not been drinking was +evident from his utterance and gait. This last discovery when his +condition was considered, disturbed him most of all, for he saw that +Garry was going through some terrible crisis, either professional or +financial. + +As the two advanced toward the door of the station on their way to the +street, the big, burly form of McGowan, the contractor, loomed up. + +"I heard you wouldn't be up till late, Mr. Minott," he exclaimed +gruffly, blocking Garry's exit to the street. "I couldn't find you at +the Council or at your office, so I had to come here. We haven't had +that last payment on the church. The vouchers is all ready for your +signature, so the head trustee says,--and the money's where you can git +at it." + +Garry braced his shoulders and his jaw tightened. One secret of the +young architect's professional success lay in his command over his men. +Although he was considerate, and sometimes familiar, he never permitted +any disrespect. + +"Why, yes, Mr. McGowan, that's so," he answered stiffly. "I've been in +New York a good deal lately and I guess I've neglected things here. I'll +try to come up in the morning, and if everything's all right I'll get a +certificate and fill it up and you'll get a check in a few days." + +"Yes, but you said that last week." There was a sound of defiance in +McGowan's voice. + +"If I did I had good reason for the delay," answered Garry with a flash +of anger. "I'm not running my office to suit you." + +"Nor for anybody else who wants his money and who's got to have it, and +I want to tell you, Mr. Minott, right here, and I don't care who hears +it, that I want mine or I'll know the reason why." + +Garry wheeled fiercely and raised his hand as if to strike the speaker, +then it dropped to his side. + +"I don't blame you, Mr. McGowan," he said in a restrained, even voice. +"I have no doubt that it's due you and you ought to have it, but I've +been pretty hard pressed lately with some matters in New York; so much +so that I've been obliged to take the early morning train,--and you can +see yourself what time I get home. Just give me a day or two longer and +I'll examine the work and straighten it out. And then again, I'm not +very well." + +The contractor glared into the speaker's face as if to continue the +discussion, then his features relaxed. Something in the sound of Carry's +voice, or perhaps some line of suffering in his face must have touched +him. + +"Well, of course, I ain't no hog," he exclaimed in a softer tone, which +was meant as an apology, "and if you're sick that ends it, but I've got +all them men to pay and--" + +"Yes, I understand and I won't forget. Thank you, Mr. McGowan, and +good-night. Come along, Jack,--Corinne's worrying, and will be till I +get home." + +The two kept silent as they walked up the hill Garry, because he was too +tired to discuss the cowardly attack; Jack, because what he had to say +must be said when they were alone,--when he could get hold of Garry's +hand and make him open his heart. + +As they approached the small house and mounted the steps leading to the +front porch, Corinne's face could be seen pressed against a pane in one +of the dining-room windows. Garry touched Jack's arm and pointed ahead: + +"Poor Cory!" he exclaimed with a deep sigh, "that's the way she is every +night. Coming home is sometimes the worst part of it all, Jack." + +The door flew open and Corinne sprang out: "Are you tired, dear?" she +asked, peering into his face and kissing him. Then turning to Jack: +"Thank you, Jack!--It was so good of you to go. Ruth sent me word you +had gone to meet him." + +She led the way into the house, relieving Garry of his hat, and moving +up an easy chair stood beside it until he had settled himself into its +depths. + +Again she bent over and kissed him: "How are things to-day, dear?--any +better?" she inquired in a quavering voice. + +"Some of them are better and some are worse, Cory; but there's nothing +for you to worry about. That's what I've been telling Jack. How's baby? +Anybody been here from the board?--Any letters?" + +"Baby's all right," the words came slowly, as if all utterance gave her +pain. "No, there are no letters. Mr. McGowan was here, but I told him +you wouldn't be home till late." + +"Yes, I saw him," replied Garry, dropping his voice suddenly to a +monotone, an expression of pain followed by a shade of anxiety settling +on his face: McGowan and his affairs were evidently unpleasant subjects. +At this instant the cry of a child was heard. Garry roused himself and +turned his head. + +"Listen--that's baby crying! Better go to her, Cory." + +Garry waited until his wife had left the room, then he rose from, his +chair, crossed to the sideboard, poured out three-quarters of a glass of +raw whiskey and drank it without drawing a breath. + +"That's the first to-day, Jack. I dare not touch it when I'm on a strain +like this. Can't think clearly, and I want my head,--all of it. There's +a lot of sharks down in New York,--skin you alive if they could. I beg +your pardon, old man,--have a drop?" + +Jack waved his hand in denial, his eyes still on his friend: "Not now, +Garry, thank you." + +Garry dropped the stopper into the decanter, pushed back the empty +tumbler and began pacing the floor, halting now and then to toe some +pattern in the carpet, talking all the time to himself in broken +sentences, like one thinking aloud. All Jack's heart went out to his +friend as he watched him. He and Ruth were so happy. All their future +was so full of hope and promise, and Garry--brilliant, successful +Garry,--the envy of all his associates, so harassed and so wretched! + +"Garry, sit down and listen to me," Jack said at last. "I am your oldest +friend; no one you know thinks any more of you than I do, or will be +more ready to help. Now, what troubles you?" + +"I tell you, Jack, I'm not troubled!"--something of the old bravado +rang in his voice,--"except as everybody is troubled when he's trying to +straighten out something that won't straighten. I'm knocked out, that's +all,--can't you see it?" + +"Yes, I see it,--and that's not all I see. Is it your work here or in +New York? I want to know, and I'm going to know, and I have a right to +know, and you are not going to bed until you tell me,--nor will I. I +can and will help you, and so will Mr. MacFarlane, and Uncle Peter, and +everybody I ask. What's gone wrong?--Tell me!" + +Garry continued to walk the floor. Then he wheeled suddenly and threw +himself into his chair. + +"Well, Jack," he answered with an indrawn sigh,--"if you must know, I'm +on the wrong side of the market." + +"Stocks?" + +"Not exactly. The bottom's fallen out of the Warehouse Company." + +Jack's heart gave a rebound. After all, it was only a question of money +and this could be straightened out. He had begun to fear that it might +be something worse; what, he dared not conjecture. + +"And you have lost money?" Jack continued in a less eager tone. + +"A whole lot of money." + +"How much?" + +"I don't know, but a lot. It went up three points to-day and so I am +hanging on by my eyelids." + +"Well, that's not the first time men have been in that position," Jack +replied in a hopeful tone. "Is there anything more,--something you are +keeping back?" + +"Yes,--a good deal more. I'm afraid I'll have to let go. If I do I'm +ruined." + +Jack kept silent for a moment. Various ways of raising money to help his +friend passed in review, none of which at the moment seemed feasible or +possible. + +"How much will make your account good?" he asked after a pause. + +"About ten thousand dollars." + +Jack leaned forward in his chair. "Ten thousand dollars!" he exclaimed +in a startled tone. "Why, Garry--how in the name of common-sense did you +get in as deep as that?" + +"Because I was a damned fool!" + +Again there was silence, during which Garry fumbled for a match, opened +his case and lighted a cigarette. Then he said slowly, as he tossed the +burnt end of the match from him: + +"You said something, Jack, about some of your friends helping. Could Mr. +MacFarlane?" + +"No,--he hasn't got it,--not to spare. I was thinking of another kind of +help when I spoke. I supposed you had got into debt, or something, and +were depending on your commissions to pull you out, and that some new +job was hanging fire and perhaps some of us could help as we did on the +church." + +"No," rejoined Garry, in a hopeless tone, "nothing will help but a +certified check. Perhaps your Mr. Grayson might do something," he +continued in the same voice. + +"Uncle Peter! Why, Garry, he doesn't earn ten thousand dollars in three +years." + +Again there was silence. + +"Well, would it be any use for you to ask Arthur Breen? He wouldn't give +me a cent, and I wouldn't ask him. I don't believe in laying down +on your wife's relations, but he might do it for you now that you're +getting up in the world." + +Jack bent his head in deep thought. The proposal that his uncle had +made him for the ore lands passed in review. At that time he could have +turned over the property to Breen. But it was worthless now. He shook +his head: + +"I don't think so." Then he added quickly--"Have you been to Mr. +Morris?" + +"No, and won't. I'd die first!" this came in a sharp, determined voice, +as if it had jumped hot from his heart. + +"But he thinks the world of you; it was only a week ago that he told Mr. +MacFarlane that you were the best man he ever had in his office." + +"Yes,--that's why I won't go, Jack. I'll play my hand alone and take +the consequences, but I won't beg of my friends; not a friend like Mr. +Morris; any coward can do that. Mr. Morris believes in me,--I want him +to continue to believe in me. That's worth twenty times ten thousand +dollars." His eyes flashed for the first time. Again the old Garry shone +out. + +"When must you have this money?" + +"By the end of the week,--before next Monday, anyhow." + +"Then the situation is not hopeless?" + +"No, not entirely. I have one card left;--I'll play it to-morrow, then +I'll know." + +"Is there a chance of its winning?" + +"Yes and no. As for the 'yes,' I've always had my father's luck. Minotts +don't go under and I don't believe I shall, we take risks and we win. +That's what brought me to Corklesville, and you see what I have made of +myself. Just at present I've got my foot in a bear trap, but I'll pull +out somehow. As for the 'no' part of it,--I ought to tell you that the +warehouse stock has been knocked endways by another corporation which +has a right of way that cuts ours and is going to steal our business. +I think it's a put-up job to bear our stock so they can scoop it and +consolidate; that's why I am holding on. I've flung in every dollar I +can rake and scrape for margin and my stocking's about turned inside +out. I got a tip last week that I thought would land us all on our feet, +but it worked the other way." Something connected with the tip must have +stirred him for his face clouded as he rose to his feet, exclaiming: +"Have a drop, Jack?--that last one braced me up." + +Again Jack shook his head, and again Garry settled himself back in his +chair. + +"I am powerless, Garry," said Jack. "If I had the money you should have +it. I have nothing but my salary and I have drawn only a little of that +lately, so as to help out in starting the new work. I thought I had +something in an ore bank my father left me, but it is valueless, I find. +I suppose I could put some life in it if I would work it along the lines +Uncle Arthur wants me to, but I can't and won't do that. Somehow, Garry, +this stock business follows me everywhere. It drove me out of Uncle +Arthur's office and house, although I never regretted that,--and now +it hits you. I couldn't do anything to help Charlie Gilbert then and I +can't do anything to help you now, unless you can think of some way. Is +there any one that I can see except Uncle Arthur,--anybody I can talk +to?" + +Garry shook his head. + +"I've done that, Jack. I've followed every lead, borrowed every dollar +I could,--been turned down half a dozen times, but I kept on. Got it in +the neck twice to-day from some fellows I thought would help push." + +Jack started forward, a light breaking over his face. + +"I have it, Garry! Suppose that I go to Mr. Morris. I can talk to him, +maybe, in a way you would not like to." + +Garry lifted his head and sat erect. + +"No, by God!--you'll do nothing of the kind!" he cried, as he brought +his fist down on the arm of his chair. "That man I love as I love +nothing else in this world--wife--baby--nothing! I'll go under, but I'll +never let him see me crawl. I'll be Garry Minott to him as long as I +breathe. The same man he trusted,--the same man he loved,--for he does +love me, and always did!" He hesitated and his voice broke, as if a sob +clogged it. After a moment's struggle he went on: "I was a damned fool +to leave him or I wouldn't be where I am. 'Garry,' he said to me that +last day when he took me into his office and shut the door,--'Garry, +stay on here a while longer; wait till next year. If it's more pay you +want, fix it to suit yourself. I've got two boys coming along; they'll +both be through the Beaux Arts in a year or so. I'm getting on and I'm +getting tired. Stay on and go in with them.' And what did I do? Well, +what's the use of talking?--you know it all." + +Jack moved his chair and put his arm over his shoulder as a woman would +have done. He had caught the break in his voice and knew how manfully he +was struggling to keep up. + +"Garry, old man." + +"Yes, Jack." + +"If Mr. Morris thought that way, then, why won't he help you now? What's +ten thousand to him?" + +"Nothing,--not a drop in the bucket! He'd begin drawing the check before +I'd finished telling him what I wanted it for. I'm in a hole and don't +know which way to turn, but when I think of what he's done for me I'll +rot in hell before I'll take his money." Again his voice had the old +ring. + +"But, Garry," insisted Jack, "if I can see Morris in the morning and lay +the whole matter before him--" + +"You'll do nothing of the kind, do you hear!--keep still--somebody's +coming downstairs. Not a word if it is Corinne. She is carrying now all +she can stand up under." + +He passed his hand across his face with a quick movement and brushed the +tears from his cheeks. + +"Remember, not a word. I haven't told her everything. I tried to, but I +couldn't." + +"Tell her now, Garry," cried Jack. "Now--to-night," his voice rising on +the last word. "Before you close your eyes. You never needed her help as +you do now." + +"I can't--it would break her heart. Keep still!--that's her step." + +Corinne entered the room slowly and walked to Garry's chair. + +"Baby's asleep now," she said in a subdued voice, "and I'm going to take +you to bed. You won't mind, Jack, will you? Come, dear," and she slipped +her hand under his arm to lift him from his chair. + +Garry rose from his seat. + +"All right," he answered assuming his old cheerful tone, "I'll go. I AM +tired, I guess, Cory, and bed's the best place for me. Good-night, old +man,--give my love to Ruth," and he followed his wife out of the room. + +Jack waited until the two had turned to mount the stairs, caught a +significant flash from Garry's dark eyes as a further reminder of his +silence, and, opening the front door, closed it softly behind him. + +Ruth was waiting for him. She had been walking the floor during the last +half hour peering out now and then into the dark, with ears wide open +for his step. + +"I was so worried, my precious," she cried, drawing his cheek down to +her lips. "You stayed so long. Is it very dreadful?" + +Jack put his arm around her, led her into the sitting-room and shut the +door. Then the two settled beside each other on the sofa. + +"Pretty bad,--my darling--" Jack answered at last,--"very bad, really." + +"Has he been drinking?" + +"Worse,--he has been dabbling in Wall Street and may lose every cent he +has." + +Ruth leaned her head on her hand: "I was afraid it was something awful +from the way Corinne spoke. Oh, poor dear,--I'm so sorry! Does she know +now?" + +"She knows he's in trouble, but she doesn't know how bad it is. I +begged him to tell her, but he wouldn't promise. He's afraid of hurting +her--afraid to trust her, I think, with his sufferings. He's making an +awful mistake, but I could not move him. He might listen to you if you +tried." + +"But he must tell her, Jack," Ruth cried in an indignant tone. "It +is not fair to her; it is not fair to any woman,--and it is not kind. +Corinne is not a child any longer;--she's a grown woman, and a mother. +How can she help him unless she knows? Jack, dear, look into my eyes;" +her face was raised to his;--"Promise me, my darling, that no matter +what happens to you you'll tell me first." + +And Jack promised. + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + + + +When Jack awoke the next morning his mind was still intent on helping +Garry out of his difficulties. Where the money was to come from, and how +far even ten thousand dollars would go in bridging over the crisis, even +should he succeed in raising so large a sum, were the questions which +caused him the most anxiety. + +A letter from Peter, while it did not bring any positive relief, shed a +ray of light on the situation: + +I have just had another talk with the director of our bank--the one I +told you was interested in steel works in Western Maryland. He by no +means agrees with either you or MacFarlane as to the value of the ore +deposits in that section, and is going to make an investigation of your +property and let me know. You may, in fact, hear from him direct as I +gave him your address. + +Dear love to Ruth and your own good self. + +This was indeed good news if anything came of it, but it wouldn't help +Garry. Should he wait till Garry had played that last card he had spoken +of, which he was so sure would win, or should he begin at once to try +and raise the money? + +This news at any other time would have set his hopes to fluttering. If +Peter's director was made of money and intent on throwing it away; and +if a blast furnace or a steel plant, or whatever could turn worthless +rock into pruning-hooks and ploughshares, should by some act of folly +be built in the valley at the foot of the hill he owned, why something +might come of it. But, then, so might skies fall and everybody have +larks on toast for breakfast. Until then his concern was with Garry. + +He realized that the young architect was too broken down physically and +mentally to decide any question of real moment. His will power was gone +and his nerves unstrung. The kindest thing therefore that any friend +could do for him, would be to step in and conduct the fight without him. +Garry's wishes to keep the situation from Corinne would be respected, +but that did not mean that his own efforts should be relaxed. Yet where +would he begin, and on whom? MacFarlane had just told him that Morris +was away from home and would not be back for several days. Peter was +out of the question so far as his own means--or lack of means--was +concerned, and he could not, of course, ask him to go into debt for a +man who had never been his friend, especially when neither he nor Garry +had any security to offer. + +He finally decided to talk the whole matter over with MacFarlane and +act on his advice. The clear business head of his Chief cleared the +situation as a north-west wind blows out a fog. + +"Stay out of it, Jack," he exclaimed in a quick, positive voice that +showed he had made up his mind long before Jack had finished his +recital. "Minott is a gambler, and so was his father before him. He has +got to take his lean with his fat. If you pulled him out of this hole he +would be in another in six months. It's in his blood, just as much as it +is in your blood to love horses and the woods. Let him alone;--Corinne's +stepfather is the man to help; that's his business, and that's where +Minott wants to go. If there is anything of value in this Warehouse +Company, Arthur Breen & Co. can carry the certificates for Minott until +they go up and he can get out. If there is nothing, then the sooner +Garry sells out and lets it go the better. Stay out, Jack. It's not in +the line of your duty. It's hard on his wife and he is having a devil of +a row to hoe, but it will be the best thing for him in the end." + +Jack listened in respectful silence, as he always did, to MacFarlane's +frank outburst, but it neither changed his mind nor cooled his ardor. +Where his heart was concerned his judgment rarely worked. Then, loyalty +to a friend in distress was the one thing his father had taught him. He +did not agree with his Chief's view of the situation. If Garry was born +a gambler, he had kept that fact concealed from him and from his wife. +He recalled the conversation he had had with him some weeks before, when +he was so enthusiastic over the money he was going to make in the +new Warehouse deal. He had been selected as the architect for the +new buildings, and it was quite natural that he should have become +interested in the securities of the company. This threatened calamity +was one that might overtake any man. Get Garry out of this hole and he +would stay out; let him sink, and his whole career would be ruined. And +then there was a sentimental side to it even if Garry was a gambler--one +that could not be ignored when he thought of Corinne and the child. + +Late in the afternoon, his mind still unsettled, he poured out his +anxieties to Ruth. She did not disappoint him. Her big heart swelled +only with sympathy for the wife who was suffering. It made no difference +to her that Corinne had never been even polite, never once during the +sojourn of the Minotts in the village having manifested the slightest +interest either in her own or Jack's affairs--not even when MacFarlane +was injured, nor yet when the freshet might have ruined them all. Ruth's +generous nature had no room in it for petty rancors or little hurts. +Then, too, Jack was troubled for his friend. What was there for her to +do but to follow the lamp he held up to guide her feet--the lamp which +now shed its glad effulgence over both? So they talked on, discussing +various ways and means, new ties born of a deeper understanding binding +them the closer--these two, who, as they sometimes whispered to each +other, were "enlisted for life," ready to meet it side by side, whatever +the day developed. + +Before they parted, she promised again to go and see Corinne and cheer +her up. "She cannot be left alone, Jack, with this terrible thing +hanging over her," she urged, "and you must meet Garry when he returns +to-night. Then we can learn what he has done--perhaps he will have fixed +everything himself." But though Jack went to the station and waited +until the arrival of the last train had dropped its passengers, there +was no sign of Garry. Nor did Ruth find Corinne. She had gone to the +city, so the nurse said, with Mr. Minott by the early train and would +not be back until the next day. Until their return Jack and Ruth found +their hands tied. + +On the afternoon of the second day a boy called at the brick office +where Jack was settling up the final accounts connected with the "fill" +and the tunnel, preparatory to the move to Morfordsburg, and handed him +a note. It was from Corinne. + +"I am in great trouble. Please come to me at once," it read. "I am here +at home." + +Corinne was waiting for him in the hall. She took his hand without a +word of welcome, and drew him into the small room where she had seen him +two nights before. This time she shut and locked the door. + +"Mr. McGowan has just been here," she moaned in a voice that showed how +terrible was the strain. "He tried to force his way up into Garry's +room but I held him back. He is coming again with some one of the church +trustees. Garry had a bad turn in New York and we came home by the noon +train, and I have made him lie down and sent for the doctor. McGowan +must not see him; it will kill him if he does. Don't leave us, Jack!" + +"But how dare he come here and try to force his--" + +"He will dare. He cursed and went on dreadfully. The door was shut, but +Garry heard him. Oh, Jack!--what are we to do?" + +"Don't worry, Corinne; I'll take care of Mr. McGowan. I myself heard +Garry tell him that he would attend to his payments in a few days, and +he went away satisfied." + +"Yes, but McGowan says he has been to the bank and has also seen the +Rector, and will stop at nothing." + +Jack's fingers tightened and his lips came together. + +"He will stop on that threshold," he said in a low, determined voice, +"and never pass it--no matter what he wants. I will go up and tell Garry +so." + +"No, not yet--wait," she pleaded, in nervous twitching tones--with +pauses between each sentence. "You must hear it all first. Garry had not +told me all when you were here two nights ago; he did not tell me until +after you left. Then I knelt down by his bed and put my arms +around him and he told me everything--about the people he had +seen--and--McGowan--everything." She ceased speaking and hid her eyes +with the back of one hand as if to shut out some spectre, then she +stumbled on. "We took the early train for New York, and I waited until +my stepfather was in his office and went into his private room. It was +Garry's last hope. He thought Mr. Breen would listen to me on account +of mother. I told him of our dreadful situation; how Garry must have ten +thousand dollars, and must have it in twenty-four hours, to save us all +from ruin. Would you believe, Jack--that he laughed and said it was an +old story; that Garry had no business to be speculating; that he had +told him a dozen times to keep out of the Street; that if Garry had any +collaterals of any kind, he would loan him ten thousand dollars or any +other sum, but that he had no good money to throw after bad. I did all I +could; I almost went down on my knees to him; I begged for myself and my +mother, but he only kept saying--'You go home, Corinne, and look after +your baby--women don't understand these things.' Oh, Jack!--I could not +believe that he was the same man who married my mother--and he isn't. +Every year he has grown harder and harder; he is a thousand times worse +than when you lived with him. Garry was waiting outside for me, and when +I told him he turned as white as a sheet, and had to hold on to the iron +railing for a moment. It was all I could do to get him home. If he sees +Mr. McGowan now it will kill him; he can't pay him and he must tell him +so, and it will all come out." + +"But he will pay him, Corinne, when he gets well." + +There came a pause. Then she said slowly as if each word was wrung from +her heart: + +"There is no money. Garry took the trust funds from the church." + +"No money, Corinne! You don't mean--you can't--Oh! My God! Not Garry! +No--not Garry!" + +"Yes! I mean it. He expected to pay it back, but the people he is with +in New York lied to him, and now it is all gone." There was no change in +her voice. + +She stood gazing into his face; not a tear in her eyes; no quiver of her +lips. She had passed that stage; she was like a victim led to the stake +in whom nothing but dull endurance is left. + +Jack backed into a chair and sat with bowed head, his cheeks in his +hands. Had the earth opened under him he could not have been more +astounded. Garry Minott a defaulter! Garry a thief! Everything seemed +to whirl about him--only the woman remained quiet--still standing--her +calm, impassive eyes fixed on his bowed head; her dry, withering, +soulless words still vibrating in the hushed room. + +"When did this happen, Corinne--this--this taking of Mr. McGowan's +money?" The words came between his closed fingers, as if he, too, would +shut out some horrible shape. + +"Some two weeks ago." + +"When did you know of it?" + +"Night before last, after you left him. I knew he was in trouble, but +I did not know it was as bad as this. If Mr. Breen had helped me +everything would have been all right, for Garry sold out all the stock +he had in the Warehouse Company, and this ten thousand dollars is all he +owes." She shivered as she spoke, and her pale, tired eyes closed as if +in pain. Nothing was said between them for a while, and neither of them +stirred. During the silence the front door was heard to open, letting in +the village doctor, who mounted the stairs, his footfalls reverberating +in Garry's room overhead. + +Jack raised his eyes at last and studied her closely. The frail body +seemed more crumpled and forlorn in the depths of the chair, where she +had sunk, than when she had been standing before him. The blonde hair, +always so glossy, was dry as hemp; the small, upturned nose, once +so piquant and saucy, was thin and pinched--almost transparent; the +washed-out, colorless eyes, which in her girlhood had flashed and +sparkled so roguishly, were half hidden under swollen lids. The arms +were flat, the hands like bird claws. The white heat of a furnace of +agony had shrivelled her poor body, drying up all the juices of its +youth. + +And yet with the scorching there had crept into the wan face, and into +the tones of her tired, heart-broken voice something Jack had never +found in her as a girl--something of tenderness, unselfishness--of +self-sacrifice for another and with it there flamed up in his own heart +a determination to help--to wipe out everything--to sponge the record, +to reestablish the man who in a moment of agony had given way to an +overpowering temptation and brought his wife to this condition. A +lump rose in his throat, and a look of his old father shone out of his +face--that look with which in the years gone by he had defied jury, +district attorney, and public opinion for what he considered mercy. And +mercy should be exercised now. Garry had never done one dishonest act +before, and never, God helping, should he be judged for this. + +He, John Breen, let Garry be called a common thief! Garry whose every +stand in Corklesville had been for justice; Garry whom Morris loved, +whose presence brought a cheery word of welcome from every room he +entered! Let him be proclaimed a defaulter, insulted by ruffians like +McGowan, and treated like a felon--brilliant, lovable, forceful Garry! +Never, if he had to go down on his knees to Holker Morris or any other +man who could lend him a dollar. + +Corinne must have seen the new look in his face, for her own eyes +brightened as she asked: + +"Have you thought of something that can help him?" + +Jack did not answer. His mind was too intent on finding some thread +which would unravel the tangle. + +"Does anybody else know of this, Corinne?" he asked at last in a +low-pitched voice. + +"Nobody." + +"Nobody must," he exclaimed firmly. Then he added gently--"Why did you +tell me?" + +"He asked me to. It would all have come out in the end, and he didn't +want you to see McGowan and not know the truth. Keep still--some one is +knocking," she whispered, her fingers pressed to her lips in her fright. +"I know it is McGowan, Jack. Shall I see him, or will you?" + +"I will--you stay here." + +Jack lifted himself erect and braced back his shoulders. He intended to +be polite to McGowan, but he also intended to be firm. He also intended +to refuse him any information or promise of any kind until the regular +monthly meeting of the Church Board which would occur on Monday. This +would give him time to act, and perhaps to save the situation, desperate +as it looked. + +With this in his mind he turned the key and threw wide the door. It +was the doctor who stood outside. He seemed to be laboring under some +excitement. + +"I heard you were here, Mr. Breen--come upstairs." + +Jacked obeyed mechanically. Garry had evidently heard of his being +downstairs and had some instructions to give, or some further confession +to make. He would save him now from that humiliation; he would get his +arms around him, as Corinne had done, and tell him he was still his +friend and what he yet intended to do to pull him through, and that +nothing which he had done had wrecked his affection for him. + +As these thoughts rushed over him his pace quickened, mounting the +stairs two steps at a time so that he might save his friend even a +moment of additional suffering. The doctor touched Jack on the shoulder, +made a sign for him to moderate his steps, and the two moved to where +his patient lay. + +Garry was on the bed, outside the covering, when they entered. He was +lying on his back, his head and neck flat on a pillow, one foot resting +on the floor. He was in his trousers and shirt; his coat and waistcoat +lay where he had thrown them. + +"Garry," began Jack in a low voice--"I just ran in to say that--" + +The sick man did not move. + +Jack stopped, and turned his head to the doctor. + +"Asleep?" he whispered. + +"No;--drugged. That's why I wanted you to see him before I called his +wife. Is he accustomed to this sort of thing?" and he picked up a bottle +from the table. + +Jack took the phial in his hand; it was quite small, and had a glass +stopper. + +"What is it, doctor?" + +"I don't know. Some preparation of chloral, I should think; smells and +looks like it. I'll take it home and find out. If he's been taking this +right along he may know how much he can stand, but if he's experimenting +with it, he'll wake up some fine morning in the next world. What do you +know about it?" + +"Only what I have heard Mrs. Minott say," Jack whispered behind his +hand. "He can't sleep without it, she told me. He's been under a +terrible business strain lately and couldn't stand the pressure, I +expect." + +"Well, that's a little better," returned the doctor, moving the +apparently lifeless arm aside and placing his ear close to the patient's +breast. For a moment he listened intently, then he drew up a chair and +sat down beside him, his fingers on Garry's pulse. + +"You don't think he's in danger, do you, doctor?" asked Jack in an +anxious tone. + +"No--he'll pull through. His breathing is bad, but his heart is doing +fairly well. But he's got to stop this sort of thing." Here the old +doctor's voice rose as his indignation increased (nothing would wake +Garry). "It's criminal--it's damnable! Every time one of you New York +people get worried, or short of money or stocks, or what not, off you +go to a two-cent drug shop and buy enough poison to kill a family. It's +damnable, Breen--and you must tell Minott so when he wakes up." + +Jack made no protest against being included in the denunciation. He was +too completely absorbed in the fate of the man who lay in a stupor. + +"Is there anything can be done for him?" he asked. + +"I can't tell yet. He may only have taken a small dose. I will watch him +for a while. But if his pulse weakens we must shake him awake somehow. +You needn't wait I'll call you if I want you, You've told me what I +wanted to know." + +Again Jack bent over Garry, his heart wrung with pity and dismay. He was +still there when the door opened softly and a servant entered, tiptoed +to where he stood, and whispered in his ear: + +"Mrs. Minott says, sir, that Mr. McGowan and another man are +downstairs." + +The contractor was standing in the hall, his hat still on his head. +The other man Jack recognized as Murphy, one of the church building +trustees. That McGowan was in an ugly mood was evident from the +expression on his face, his jaw setting tighter when he discovered +that Jack and not Garry was coming down to meet him; Jack having been +associated with MacFarlane, who had "robbed him of damages" to the +"fill." + +"I came to see Mr. Minott," McGowan blurted out before Jack's feet had +touched the bottom step of the stairs. "I hear he's in--come home at +dinner time." + +Jack continued his advance without answering until he had reached their +side. Then with a "Good-evening, gentlemen," he said in a perfectly even +voice: + +"Mr. Minott is ill and can see no one. I have just left the doctor +sitting beside his bed. If there is anything I can do for either of you +I will do it with pleasure." + +McGowan shoved his hat back on his forehead as if to give himself more +air. + +"That kind of guff won't go with me no longer," he snarled, his face +growing redder every instant. "This ill business is played out. He +promised me three nights ago he'd make out a certificate next day--you +heard him say it--and I waited for him all the morning and he never +showed up. And then he sneaks off to New York at daylight and stays away +for two nights more, and then sneaks home again in the middle of the day +when you don't expect him, and goes to bed and sends for the doctor. +How many kinds of a damned fool does he take me for? That work's been +finished three weeks yesterday; the money is all in the bank to pay +for it just as soon as he signs the check, and he don't sign it, and ye +can't get him to sign it. Ain't that so, Jim Murphy?" + +Murphy nodded, and McGowan blazed on: "If you want to know what I think +about it--there's something crooked about the whole business, and it +gets crookeder all the time. He's drunk, if he's anything--boiling drunk +and--" + +Jack laid the full weight of his hand on the speaker's shoulder: + +"Stop short off where you are, Mr. McGowan." The voice came as if +through tightly clenched teeth. "If you have any business that I can +attend to I am here to do it, but you can't remain here and abuse Mr. +Minott. My purpose in coming downstairs was to help you if I could, but +you must act like a man, not like a ruffian." + +Murphy stepped quickly between the two men: + +"Go easy, Mac," he cried in a conciliatory tone. "If the doctor's with +him ye can't see him. Hear what Mr. Breen has to say; ye got to wait +anyhow. Of course, Mr. Breen, Mr. McGowan is het up because the men is +gettin' ugly, and he ain't got money enough for his next pay-roll, and +the last one ain't all paid yit." + +McGowan again shifted his hat--this time he canted it on one side. His +companion's warning had had its effect, for his voice was now pitched in +a lower key. + +"There ain't no use talking pay-roll to Mr. Breen, Jim," he growled. "He +knows what it is; he gits up agin' it once in a while himself. If he'll +tell me just when I'm going to get my money I'll wait like any decent +man would wait, but I want to know, and I want to know now." + +At that instant the door of the sitting-room opened, and Corinne, +shrinking as one in mortal fright, glided out and made a hurried escape +upstairs. Murphy sagged back against the wall and waited respectfully +for her to disappear. McGowan did not alter his position nor did he +remove his hat, though he waited until she had reached the landing +before speaking again: + +"And now, what are you going to do, Mr. Breen?" he demanded in +threatening tones. + +"Nothing," said Jack in his same even voice, his eyes never moving from +the contractor's. "Nothing, until you get into a different frame of +mind." Then he turned to Murphy: "When Mr. McGowan removes his hat, Mr. +Murphy, and shows some sign of being a gentleman I will take you both +into the next room and talk this matter over." + +McGowan flushed scarlet and jerked his hat from his head. + +"Well she come on me sudden like and I didn't see her till she'd got by. +Of course, if you've got anything to say, I'm here to listen, Where'll +we go?" + +Jack turned and led the way into the sitting-room, where he motioned +them both to seats. + +"And now what is the exact amount of your voucher?" he asked, when he +had drawn up a chair and sat facing them. + +McGowan fumbled in his inside pocket and drew forth a slip of paper. + +"A little short of ten thousand dollars," he answered in a business-like +tone of voice. "There's the figures," and he handed the slip to Jack. + +"When is this payment to be made?" continued Jack, glancing at the slip. + +"Why, when the money is due, of course," he cried in a louder key. +"Here's the contract--see--read it; then you'll know." + +Jack ran his eye over the document until it fell on the payment clause. +This he read twice, weighing each word. + +"It says at the monthly meeting of the Board of Trustees, does it not?" +he answered, smothering all trace of the relief the words brought him. + +McGowan changed color. "Well, yes--but that ain't the way the payments +has always been made," he stammered out. + +"And if I am right, the meeting takes place on Monday next?" continued +Jack in a decided tone, not noticing the interruption. + +"Yes, I suppose so." + +"Well, then, Monday night, Mr. McGowan, either Mr. Minott or I will be +on hand. You must excuse me now. Mrs. Minott wants me, I think," and he +handed McGowan the contract and walked toward the door, where he stood +listening. Something was happening upstairs. + +McGowan and his friend looked at each other in silence. The commotion +overhead only added to their discomfiture. + +"Well, what do you think, Jim?" McGowan said at last in a subdued, +baffled voice. + +"Well, there ain't no use thinkin', Mac. If it's writ that way, it's +writ that way; that's all there is to it--" and the two joined Jack +who had stepped into the hall, his eyes up the stairway as if he was +listening intensely. + +"Then you say, Mr. Breen, that Mr. Minott will meet us at the Board +meeting on Monday?" + +Jack was about to reply when he caught sight of the doctor, his hand +sliding rapidly down the stair-rail as he approached. + +McGowan, fearing to be interrupted, repeated his question in a louder +voice: + +"Then you say I'll see Mr. Minott on Monday?" + +The doctor crossed to Jack's side. He was breathing heavily, his lips +quivering; he looked like a man who had received some sudden shock. + +"Go up to Mrs. Minott," he gasped. "It's all over, Breen. He's dying. He +took the whole bottle." + +At this instant an agonizing shriek cut the air. It was the voice of +Corinne. + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + + + +No one suspected that the young architect had killed himself. Garry was +known to have suffered from insomnia, and was supposed to have taken an +overdose of chloral. The doctor so decided, and the doctor's word was +law in such MATTERS, and so there was no coroner's inquest. Then again, +it was also known that he was doing a prosperous business with +several buildings still in course of construction, and that his wife's +stepfather was a prominent banker. + +McGowan and his friends were stupefied. One hope was left, and that was +Jack's promise that either he or Garry would be at the trustees' meeting +on Monday night. + +Jack had not forgotten. Indeed nothing else filled his mind. There were +still three days in which to work. The shock of his friend's death, +tremendous as it was, had only roused him to a greater need of action. +The funeral was to take place on Sunday, but he had Saturday and Monday +left. What he intended to do for Garry and his career he must now do +for Garry's family and Garry's reputation. The obligation had really +increased, because Garry could no longer fight his battles himself; +nor was there a moment to lose. The slightest spark of suspicion would +kindle a flame of inquiry, and the roar of an investigation would +follow. McGowan had already voiced his own distrust of Garry's methods. +No matter what the cost, this money must be found before Monday night. + +The secret of both the suicide and the defalcation was carefully guarded +from MacFarlane, who, with his daughter, went at once to Minott's house, +proffering his services to the stricken widow, but nothing was withheld +from Ruth. The serious financial obligations which Jack was about to +undertake would inevitably affect their two lives; greater, therefore, +than the loyalty he owed to the memory of his dead friend, was the +loyalty which he owed to the woman who was to be his wife, and from whom +he had promised to hide no secrets. Though he felt sure what her answer +would be, his heart gave a great bound of relief when she answered +impulsively, without a thought for herself or their future: + +"You are right, dearest. These things make me love you more. You are so +splendid, Jack. And you never disappoint me. It is Garry's poor little +boy who must be protected. Everybody would pity the wife, but nobody +would pity the child. He will always be pointed at when he grows up. +Dear little tot! He lay in my arms so sweet and fresh this morning, +and put his baby hands upon my cheek, and looked so appealingly into my +face. Oh, Jack, we must help him. He has done nothing." + +They were sitting together as she spoke, her head on his shoulder, her +fingers held tight in his strong, brown hand. She could get closer to +him in this position, she always told him: these hands and cheeks were +the poles of a battery between which flowed and flashed the vitality of +two sound bodies, and through which quivered the ecstasy of two souls. + +Suddenly the thought of Garry and what he had been, in the days of his +brilliancy, and of what he had done to crush the lives about him came to +her. Could she not find some excuse for him, something which she might +use as her own silent defence of him in the years that were to come? + +"Do you think Garry was out of his mind, Jack? He's been so depressed +lately?" she asked, all her sympathy in her voice. + +"No, my blessed, I don't think so. Everybody is more or less insane who +succumbs to a crisis. Garry believed absolutely in himself and his luck, +and when the cards went against him he collapsed. And yet he was no +more a criminal at heart than I am. But that is all over now. He has his +punishment, poor boy, and it is awful when you think of it. How he could +bring himself to prove false to his trust is the worst thing about it. +This is a queer world, my darling, in which we live. I never knew much +about it until lately. It is not so at home, or was not when I was a +boy--but here you can take away a man's character, rob him of his +home, corrupt his children. You can break your wife's heart, be cruel, +revengeful; you can lie and be tricky, and no law can touch you--in +fact, you are still a respectable citizen. But if you take a dollar-bill +out of another man's cash drawer, you are sent to jail and branded as a +thief. And it is right--looked at from one standpoint--the protection +of society. It is the absence of all mercy in the enforcement of the law +that angers me." + +Ruth moved her head and nestled the closer. How had she lived all the +years of her life, she thought to herself, without this shoulder to lean +on and this hand to guide her? She made no answer. She had never thought +about these things in that way before, but she would now. It was so +restful and so blissful just to have him lead her, he who was so strong +and self-reliant, and whose vision was so clear, and who never dwelt +upon the little issues. And it was such a relief to reach up her arms +and kiss him and say, "Yes, blessed," and to feel herself safe in his +hands. She had never been able to do that with her father. He had always +leaned on her when schemes of economies were to be thought out, or +details of their daily lives planned. All this was changed now. She had +found Jack's heart wide open and had slipped inside, his strong will +henceforth to be hers. + +Still cuddling close, her head on his shoulder, her heart going out +to him as she thought of the next morning and the task before him, she +talked of their coming move to the mountains, and of the log-cabin +for which Jack had already given orders; of the approaching autumn and +winter and what they would make of it, and of dear daddy's plans and +profits, and of how long they must wait before a larger log-cabin--one +big enough for two--would be theirs for life--any and every topic which +she thought would divert his mind--but Garry's ghost would not down. + +"And what are you going to do first, my darling?" she asked at last, +finding that Jack answered only in monosyllables or remained silent +altogether. + +"I am going to see Uncle Arthur in the morning," he answered quickly, +uncovering his brooding thoughts. "It won't do any good, perhaps, but I +will try it. I have never asked him for a cent for myself, and I won't +now. He may help Corinne this time, now that Garry is dead. There +must be some outside money due Garry that he has not been able to +collect--commissions on unfinished work. This can be turned in when it +is due. Then I am going to Uncle Peter, and after that to some of the +people we trade with." + +Breen was standing by the ticker when Jack entered. It was a busy day in +the Street and values were going up by leaps and bounds. The broker was +not in a good humor; many of his customers were short of the market. + +He followed Jack into his private office and faced him. + +"Funeral's at one o'clock Sunday, I see," he said in a sharp voice, as +if he resented the incident. "Your aunt and I will be out on the noon +train. She got back this morning, pretty well bunged up. Killed himself, +didn't he?" + +"That is not the doctor's opinion, sir, and he was with him when he +died." + +"Well, it looks that way to me. He's busted--and all balled up in the +Street. If you know anybody who will take the lease off Corinne's hands, +let me know. She and the baby are coming to live with us." + +Jack replied that he would make it his business to do so, with pleasure, +and after giving his uncle the details of Garry's death he finally +arrived at the tangled condition of his affairs. + +Breen promptly interrupted him. + +"Yes, so Corinne told me. She was in here one day last week and wanted +to borrow ten thousand dollars. I told her it didn't grow on trees. +Suppose I had given it to her? Where would it be now. Might as well have +thrown it in the waste-basket. So I shut down on the whole business--had +to." + +Jack waited until his uncle had relieved his mind. The state of the +market had something to do with his merciless point of view; increasing +irritability, due to loss of sleep, and his habits had more. The +outburst over, Jack said in a calm direct voice, watching the effect of +the words as a gunner watches a shell from his gun: + +"Will you lend it to me, sir?" + +Arthur was pacing his private office, casting about in his mind how to +terminate the interview, when Jack's shot overhauled him. Garry's sudden +death had already led him to waste a few more minutes of his time than +he was accustomed to on a morning like this, unless there was business +in it. + +He turned sharply, looked at Jack for an instant, and dropped into the +revolving chair fronting his desk. + +Then he said in a tone of undisguised surprise: + +"Lend you ten thousand dollars! What for?" + +"To clear up some matters of Garry's at Corklesville. The Warehouse +matter has been closed out, so Corinne tells me." + +"Oh, that's it, is it? I thought you wanted it for yourself. Who signs +for it?" + +"I do." + +"On what collateral?" + +"My word." + +Breen leaned back in his chair. The unsophisticated innocence of this +boy from the country would be amusing if it were not so stupid. + +"What are you earning, Jack?" he said at last, with a half-derisive, +half-humorous expression on his face. + +"A thousand dollars a year." Jack had never taken his eyes from his +uncle's face, nor had he moved a muscle of his body. + +"And it would take you ten years to pay it if you dumped it all in?" + +"Yes." + +"Got anything else to offer?" This came in a less supercilious tone. The +calm, direct manner of the young man had begun to have its effect. + +"Nothing but my ore property." + +"That's good for nothing. I made a mistake when I wanted you to put it +in here. Glad you didn't take me up." + +"So am I. My own investigation showed the same thing." + +"And the ore's of poor quality," continued Breen in a decided tone. + +"Very poor quality, what I saw of it," rejoined Jack. + +"Well, we will check that off. MacFarlane got any thing he could turn +in?" + +"No--and I wouldn't ask him." + +"And you mean to tell me, Jack, that you are going broke yourself to +help a dead man pay his debts?" + +"If you choose to put it that way." + +"Put it that way? Why, what other way is there to put it? You'll excuse +me, Jack--but you always were a fool when your damned idiotic notions +of what is right and wrong got into your head--and you'll never get over +it. You might have had an interest in my business by this time, and be +able to write your check in four figures; and yet here you are cooped up +in a Jersey village, living at a roadside tavern, and getting a thousand +dollars a year. That's what your father did before you; went round +paying everybody's debts; never could teach him anything; died poor, +just as I told him he would." + +Jack had to hold on to his chair to keep his mouth closed. His father's +memory was dangerous ground for any man to tread on--even his father's +brother; but the stake for which he was playing was too great to be +risked by his own anger. + +"No, Jack," Breen continued, gathering up a mass of letters and jamming +them into a pigeon-hole in front of him, as if the whole matter was set +forth in their pages and he was through with it forever. "No--I guess +I'll pass on that ten thousand-dollar loan. I am sorry, but A. B. & +Co, haven't any shekels for that kind of tommy-rot. As to your helping +Minott, what I've got to say to you is just this: let the other fellow +walk--the fellow Garry owes money to--but don't you butt in. They'll +only laugh at you. Now you will have to excuse me--the market's kiting, +and I've got to watch it. Give my love to Ruth. Your aunt and I will be +out on the noon train for the funeral. Good-by." + +It was what he had expected. He would, perhaps, have stood a better +chance if he had read him Peter's encouraging letter of the director's +opinion of his Cumberland property, and he might also have brought him +up standing (and gone away with the check in his pocket) if he had told +him that the money was to save his own wife's daughter and grandchild +from disgrace--but that secret was not his. Only as a last, desperate +resource would he lay that fact bare to a man like Arthur Breen, and +perhaps not even then. John Breen's word was, or ought to be, sacred +enough on which to borrow ten thousand dollars or any other sum. That +meant a mortgage on his life until every cent was paid. + +Do not smile, dear reader. He is only learning his first lesson in +modern finance. All young men "raised" as Jack had been--and the Scribe +is one of them--would have been of the same mind at his age. In a great +city, when your tea-kettle starts to leaking, you never borrow a whole +one from your neighbor; you send to the shop at the corner and buy +another. In the country--Jack's country, I mean--miles from a store, you +borrow your neighbor's, who promptly borrows your saucepan in return. +And it was so in larger matters: the old Chippendale desk with its +secret drawer was often the bank--the only one, perhaps, in a week's +journey. It is astonishing in these days to think how many dingy, +tattered or torn bank-notes were fished out of these same receptacles +and handed over to a neighbor with the customary--"With the greatest +pleasure, my dear sir. When you can sell your corn or hogs, or that +mortgage is paid off, you can return it." A man who was able to lend, +and who still refused to lend, to a friend in his adversity, was a +pariah. He had committed the unpardonable sin. And the last drop of the +best Madeira went the same way and with equal graciousness! + +Peter, at Jack's knock, opened the door himself. Isaac Cohen had just +come in to show him a new book, and Peter supposed some one from the +shop below had sent upstairs for him. + +"Oh! it's you, my boy!" Peter cried in his hearty way, his arms around +Jack's shoulders as he drew him inside the room. Then something in the +boy's face checked him, bringing to mind the tragedy. "Yes, I read it +all in the papers," he exclaimed in a sympathetic voice. "Terrible, +isn't it! Poor Minott. How are his wife and the poor little baby--and +dear Ruth. The funeral is to-morrow I see by the papers. Yes, of course +I'm going." As he spoke he turned his head and scanned Jack closely. + +"Are you ill, my boy?" he asked in an anxious tone, leading him to a +seat on the sofa. "You look terribly worn." + +"We all have our troubles, Uncle Peter," Jack replied with a glance at +Cohen, who had risen from his chair to shake his hand. + +"Yes--but not you. Out with it! Isaac doesn't count. Anything you can +tell me you can tell him. What's the matter?--is it Ruth?" + +Jack's face cleared. "No, she is lovely, and sent you her dearest love." + +"Then it's your work up in the valley?" + +"No--we begin in a month. Everything's ready--or will be." + +"Oh! I see, it's the loss of Minott. Oh, yes, I understand it all now. +Forgive me, Jack. I did not remember how intimate you and he were once. +Yes, it is a dreadful thing to lose a friend. Poor boy!" + +"No--it's not that altogether, Uncle Peter." + +He could not tell him. The dear old gentleman was ignorant of everything +regarding Garry and his affairs, except that he was a brilliant young +architect, with a dashing way about him, of whom Morris was proud. This +image he could not and would not destroy. And yet something must be +done to switch Peter from the main subject--at least until Cohen should +leave. + +"The fact is I have just had an interview with Uncle Arthur, and he has +rather hurt my feelings," Jack continued in explanation, a forced smile +on his face. "I wanted to borrow a little money. All I had to offer as +security was my word." + +Peter immediately became interested. Nothing delighted him so much as to +talk over Jack's affairs. Was he not a silent partner in the concern? + +"You wanted it, of course, to help out on the new work," he rejoined. +"Yes, it always takes money in the beginning. And what did the old fox +say?" + +Jack smiled meaningly. "He said that what I called 'my word' wasn't +a collateral. Wanted something better. So I've got to hunt for it +somewhere else." + +"And he wouldn't give it to you?" cried Peter indignantly. "No, of +course not! A man's word doesn't count with these pickers and stealers. +Half--three-quarters--of the business of the globe is done on a man's +word. He writes it on the bottom or on the back of a slip of paper small +enough to light a cigar with--but it's only his word that counts. +In these mouse-traps, however, these cracks in the wall, they want +something they can get rid of the moment somebody else says it is not +worth what they loaned on it; or they want a bond with the Government +behind it. Oh, I know them!" + +Cohen laughed--a dry laugh--in compliment to Peter's way of putting +it--but there was no ring of humor in it. He had been reading Jack's +mind. There was something behind the forced smile that Peter had +missed--something deeper than the lines of anxiety and the haunted look +in the eyes. This was a different lad from the one with whom he had +spent so pleasant an evening some weeks before. What had caused the +change? + +"Don't you abuse them, Mr. Grayson--these pawn-brokers," he said in his +slow, measured way. "If every man was a Turk we could take his word, but +when they are Jews and Christians and such other unreliable people, of +course they want something for their ducats. It's the same old pound +of flesh. Very respectable firm this, Mr. Arthur Breen & Co.--VERY +respectable people. I used to press off the elder gentleman's coat--he +had only two--one of them I made myself when he first came to New +York--but he has forgotten all about it now," and the little tailor +purred softly. + +"If you had pressed out his morals, Isaac, it would have helped some." + +"They didn't need it. He was a very quiet young man and very polite; not +so fat, or so red or so rich, as he is now. I saw him the other day in +our bank. You see," and he winked slyly at Jack, "these grand people +must borrow sometimes, like the rest of us; but he never remembers me +any more." Isaac paused for a moment as if the reminiscence had +recalled some amusing incident. When he continued his face had a broad +smile--"and I must say, too, that he always paid his bills. Once, when +he was afraid he could not pay, he wanted to bring the coat back, but I +wouldn't let him. Oh, yes, a very nice young man, Mr. Arthur Breen," and +the tailor's plump body shook with suppressed laughter. + +"You know, of course, that he is this young man's uncle," said Peter, +laying his hand affectionately on Jack's shoulder. + +"Oh, yes, I know about it. I saw the likeness that first day you came +in," he continued, nodding to Jack. "It was one of the times when your +sister, the magnificent Miss Grayson was here, Mr. Grayson." Isaac +always called her so, a merry twinkle in his eye when he said it, but +with a face and voice showing nothing but the deepest respect; at +which Peter would laugh a gentle laugh in apology for his sister's +peculiarities, a dislike of little tailors being one of them--this +little tailor especially. + +"And now, Mr. Breen, I hope you will have better luck," Isaac said, +rising from his chair and holding out his hand. + +"But you are not going, Isaac," protested Peter. + +"Yes, this young gentleman, I see, is in a good deal of trouble and I +cannot help him much, so I will go away," and with a wave of his pudgy +hand he shut the door behind him and trotted downstairs to his shop. + +Jack waited until the sound of his retreating footsteps assured the +Jew's permanent departure, then he turned to Peter. + +"I did not want to say too much before Mr. Cohen, but Uncle Arthur's +refusal has upset me completely. I could not have believed it of him. +You must help me somehow, Uncle Peter. I don't mean with your own money; +you have not got it to spare--but so I can get it somewhere. I must have +it, and I can't rest until I do get it." + +"Why, my dear boy! Is it so bad as that? I thought you were joking." + +"I tried to joke about it while Mr. Cohen was here, but he saw through +it, I know, from the way he spoke: but this really is a very serious +matter; more serious than anything that ever happened to me." + +Peter walked to the sofa and sat down. Jack's manner and the tone of his +voice showed that a grave calamity had overtaken the boy. He sat looking +into Jack's eyes. + +"Go on," he said, his heart in his mouth. + +"I must have ten thousand dollars. How and where can I borrow it?" + +Peter started. "Ten thousand dollars!" he repeated in undisguised +surprise. "Whew! Why, Jack, that's a very large sum of money for you to +want. Why, my dear boy, this is--well--well!" + +"It is not for me, Uncle Peter--or I would not come to you for it." + +"For whom is it, then?" Peter asked, in a tone that showed how great was +his relief now that Jack was not involved. + +"Don't ask me, please." + +Peter was about to speak, but he checked himself. He saw it all now. +The money was for MacFarlane, and the boy did not like to say so. He had +heard something of Henry's financial difficulties caused by the damage +to the "fill." He thought that this had been made good; he saw now that +he was misinformed. + +"When do you want it, Jack?" he resumed. He was willing to help, no +matter who it was for. + +"Before Monday night." + +Peter drew out his watch as if to find some relief from its dial, and +slipped it into his pocket again. It was not yet three o'clock and his +bank was still open, but it did not contain ten thousand dollars or +any other sum that he could draw upon. Besides, neither Jack, nor +MacFarlane, nor anybody connected with Jack, had an account at the +Exeter. The discounting of their notes was, therefore, out of the +question. + +"To-day is a short business day, Jack, being Saturday," he said with a +sigh. "If I had known of this before I might have--and yet to tell you +the simple truth, my boy, I don't know a human being in the world who +would lend me that much money, or whom I could ask for it." + +"I thought maybe Mr. Morris might, if you went to him, but I understand +he is out of town," returned Jack. + +"Yes," answered Peter in a perplexed tone--"yes--Holker has gone to +Chicago and won't be back for a week." He, too, had thought of Morris +and the instantaneous way in which he would have reached for his +check-book. + +"And you must have it by Monday night?" Peter continued, his thoughts +bringing into review one after the other all the moneyed men he knew. +"Well--well--that IS a very short notice. It means Monday to hunt in, +really--to-morrow being Sunday." + +He leaned back and sat in deep thought, Jack watching every expression +that crossed his face. Perhaps Ruth was mixed up in it in some +way. Perhaps their marriage depended upon it--not directly, but +indirectly--making a long postponement inevitable. Perhaps MacFarlane +had some old score to settle. This contracting was precarious business. +Once before he had known Henry to be in just such straits. Again he +consulted his watch. + +Then a new and cheering thought struck him. He rose quickly from his +seat on the sofa and crossed the room to get his hat. + +"It is a forlorn hope, Jack, but I'll try it. Come back here in an +hour--or stay here and wait." + +"No, I'll keep moving," replied Jack. "I have thought of some supply +men who know me; our account is considerable; they would lend it to Mr. +MacFarlane, but that's not the way I want it. I'll see them and get back +as soon as I can--perhaps in a couple of hours." + +"Then make it eight o'clock, so as to be sure. I have thought +of something else. Ten thousand dollars," he kept muttering to +himself--"ten thousand dollars"--as he put on his hat and moved to the +door. There he stopped and faced about--his bushy brows tightening as +a new difficulty confronted him. "Well, but for how long?" That part of +the transaction Jack had forgotten to mention. + +"I can't tell; maybe a year--maybe more." + +Peter advanced a step as if to return to the room and give up the whole +business. + +"But Jack, my boy, don't you see how impossible a loan of that kind is?" + +Jack stood irresolute. In his mad desire to save Garry he had not +considered that phase of the matter. + +"Yes--but I've GOT TO HAVE IT," he cried in a positive tone. "You would +feel just as I do, if you knew the circumstances." + +Peter turned without a word and opened the door leading into the hall. +"Be back here at eight," was all he said as he shut the door behind him +and clattered down the uncarpeted stairs. + +Shortly before the appointed hour Jack again mounted the three flights +of steps to Peter's rooms. He had had a queer experience--queer for him. +The senior member of one supply firm had looked at him sharply, and +had then said with a contemptuous smile, "Well, we are looking for +ten thousand dollars ourselves, and will pay a commission to get it." +Another had replied that they were short, or would be glad to oblige +him, and as soon as Jack left the office had called to their bookkeeper +to "send MacFarlane his account, and say we have some heavy payments +to meet, and will he oblige us with a check"--adding to his +partner--"Something rotten in Denmark, or that young fellow wouldn't +be looking around for a wad as big as that." A third merchant heard +him out, and with some feeling in his voice said: "I'm sorry for you, +Breen"--Jack's need of money was excuse enough for the familiarity--"for +Mr. MacFarlane thinks everything of you, he's told me so a dozen +times--and there isn't any finer man living than Henry MacFarlane. But, +just as your friend, let me tell you to stay out of the Street; it's +no place for a young man like you. No--I don't mean any offence. If I +didn't believe in you myself, I wouldn't say it. Take my advice and stay +out." + +And so footsore and heart-sore, his face haggard from hunger, for he +had eaten nothing since breakfast, his purpose misunderstood, his own +character assailed, his pride humiliated, and with courage almost gone, +he strode into Peter's room and threw himself into a chair. + +Peter heard his step and entered from his bedroom, where he had finished +dressing for dinner. The old fellow seemed greatly troubled. One glance +at Jack's face told the story of the afternoon. + +"You have done nothing, Jack?" he asked in a despondent tone. + +"No--have you?" + +"Nothing. Portman has gone to his place on Long Island, the others were +out. Whom did you see?" + +"Some people we do business with; some of them laughed at me; some gave +me advice; none of them had any money." + +"I expected it. I don't think you are quite aware of what you ask, my +dear boy." + +"Perhaps I am not, but I am beginning to see. It is a new experience for +me. If my father had wanted the money for the same purpose for which I +want this, he would not have had to drive a mile from his house before +he would have had it." + +"Your father lived in a different atmosphere, my boy; in another age, +really. In his environment money meant the education of children, the +comfort of women, and the hospitalities that make up social life." + +"Well, is not that true now, among decent people?" protested Jack, his +mind going back to some homes he remembered. + +"No--not generally--not here in New York. Money here means the right to +exist on the planet; we fight for it as we do for our lives. Your own +need of this ten thousand dollars proves it. The men I tried to find +this afternoon have more than they need or ever will need; that's why +I called on them. If I lost it, it wouldn't matter to them, but I would +never hear the last of it all the same," and a shudder ran through him. + +Peter did not tell Jack that had Portman been at home and, out of +friendship for him, had agreed to his request, he would have required +the old fellow's name on a demand note for the amount of the loan; and +that he would willingly have signed it, to relieve the boy's mind and +ward off the calamity that threatened those he loved and those who loved +him--not one cent of which, the Scribe adds in all positiveness, would +the boy have taken had he known that the dear fellow had in any way +pledged himself for its return. + +For some minutes Jack sat stretched out in his chair, his body aslant; +Peter still beside him. All the events of the day and night passed in +review before him; Garry's face and heavy breathing; McGowan's visit +and defiance; Corinne's agonized shriek--even the remembrance made him +creep--then Ruth's voice and her pleading look: "The poor little boy. +Jack. He has done no wrong--all his life he must be pointed at." + +He dragged himself to his feet. + +"I will go back to Ruth now, Uncle Peter. Thank you for trying. I +know it is a wild goose chase, but I must keep moving. You will be +out to-morrow; we bury poor Garry at one o'clock. I still have all day +Monday. Good-night." + +"Come out and dine with me, my boy--we will go to--" + +"No, Ruth is worrying. I will get something to eat when I get home. +Good-night!" + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + + + +Jack descended Peter's stairs one step at a time, Each seemed to plunge +him the deeper into some pit of despair. Before he reached the bottom he +began to realize the futility of his efforts. He began to realize, too, +that both he and Ruth had been swept off their feet by their emotions. +MacFarlane, the elder Breen, and now Peter, had all either openly +condemned his course or had given it scant encouragement. There was +nothing to go new but go home and tell Ruth. Then, after the funeral was +over, he would have another talk with MacFarlane. + +He had reached the cool air of the street, and stood hesitating whether +to cross the Square on his way to the ferry, or to turn down the avenue, +when the door of Isaac Cohen's shop opened, and the little tailor put +out his head. + +"I have been waiting for you." he said in a measured voice. "Come +inside." + +Jack was about to tell him that he must catch a train, when something +in the tailor's manner and the earnestness with which he spoke, made the +young fellow alter his mind and follow him. + +The little man led the way through the now darkened and empty shop, +lighted by one gas jet--past the long cutting counter flanked by shelves +bearing rolls of cloth and paper patterns, around the octagon stove +where the irons were still warm, and through the small door which led +into his private room. There he turned up a reading lamp, its light +softened by a green shade, and motioning Jack to a seat, said abruptly, +but politely--more as a request than a demand: + +"I have a question to ask you, and you will please tell me the truth. +How much money do you want, and what do you want it for?" + +Jack bit his lip. He wanted money, and he wanted it badly, but the +tailor had no right to pry into his private affairs--certainly not in +this way. + +"Well, that was something I was talking to Uncle Peter about," he +rejoined stiffly. "I suppose you must have overheard." + +"Yes, I did. Go on--how much money do you want, and what do you want it +for?" + +"But, Mr. Cohen, I don't think I ought to bother you with my troubles. +They wouldn't interest you." + +"Now, my dear young man, you will please not misunderstand me. You are +very intelligent, and you are very honest, and you always say what is in +your heart; I have heard you do it many times. Now say it to me." + +There was no mistaking the tailor's earnestness. It evidently was not +mere curiosity which prompted him. It was something else. Jack wondered +vaguely if the Jew wanted to turn money-lender at a big percentage. + +"Why do you want to know?" he asked; more to gain time to fathom his +purpose than with any intention of giving him the facts. + +Isaac went to his desk, opened with great deliberation an ebony box, +took out two cigars, offered one to Jack, leaned over the lamp until his +own was alight, and took the chair opposite Jack's. All this time Jack +sat watching him as a child does a necromancer, wondering what he meant +to do next. + +"Why do I want to know, Mr. Breen? Well, I will tell you. I have loved +Mr. Grayson for a great many years. When he goes out in the morning he +always looks through the glass window and waves his hand. If I am not in +sight, he opens the door and calls inside, 'Ah, good-morning, Isaac.' At +night, when he comes home, he waves his hand again. I know every line in +his face, and it is always a happy face. Once or twice a week he comes +in here, and we talk. That is his chair--the one you are sitting in. +Once or twice a week I go up and sit in his chair and talk. In all the +years I have known him I have only seen him troubled once or twice. Then +I asked him the reason, and he told me. To-day I heard you speak about +some money you wanted, and then I saw that something had gone wrong. +After I left he came downstairs and passed my window and did not look +in. I watched him go up the street, he walked very slow, and his head +was down on his chest. I did not like it. A little while ago he came +back; I went out to meet him. I said, 'Mr. Grayson, what troubles you?' +And he said--'Nothing, Isaac, thank you,' and went upstairs. That is the +first time in all the years I know him that he answered me like that. +So now I ask you once more--how much money do you want, and what do +you want it for? When I know this, then I will know what troubles Mr. +Grayson. There is always a woman or a sum of money at the bottom of +every complication. Mr. Grayson never worries over either. I do not +believe you do, but I have had many surprises in my life." + +Jack had heard him through without interruption. Most of it--especially +Cohen's affection for Peter--he had known before. It was the last +statement that roused him. + +"Well, if you must know, Mr. Cohen--it is not for myself, but for a +friend." + +The Jew smiled. He saw that the young man had told the truth. Peter's +confidence in the boy, then, need not be shaken. + +"And how much money do you need for your friend?" His eyes were still +reading Jack. + +"Well, a very large sum." Jack did not like the cross-examination, but +somehow he could not resent it. + +"But, my dear young man, will you not tell me? If you buy a coat, do you +not want to know the price? If you pay for an indiscretion, is not the +sum named in the settlement?" + +"Ten thousand dollars." + +There was no change in the Jew's face. The smile did not alter. + +"And this is the money that Mr. Grayson tried to borrow for you, and +failed? Is it not so?" + +Jack nodded. + +"And you have tried everywhere to get it yourself? All the afternoon you +have been at it?" Still the same queer smile--one of confirmation, as if +he had known it all the time. + +Again Jack nodded. Isaac was either a mind reader or he must have been +listening at the keyhole when he poured out his heart to Peter. + +"Yes, that is what I thought when I saw you come in a little while ago, +dragging your feet as if they were lead, and your eyes on the ground. +The step and the eye, Mr. Breen, if you did but know it, make a very +good commercial agency. When the eye is bright and the walk is quick, +your customer has the money to pay either in his pocket or in his bank; +when the step is dull and sluggish, you take a risk; when the eye looks +about with an anxious glance and the step is stealthy, and then when you +take the measure for the coat, both go out dancing, you may never get +a penny. But that is only to tell you how I know," the tailor chuckled +softly. "And now one thing more"--he was serious now--"when must you +have this ten thousand dollars?" + +"Before Monday night." + +"In cash?" + +"In cash or something I can get cash on." + +The tailor rose from his seat with a satisfied air--he had evidently +reached the point he had been striving for--laid the stump of his cigar +on the edge of the mantel, crossed the room, fumbled in the side pocket +of a coat which hung on a nail in an open closet; drew out a small +key; sauntered leisurely to his desk, all the while crooning a tune to +himself--Jack following his every movement, wondering what it all meant, +and half regretting that he had not kept on to the ferry instead of +wasting his time. Here he unlocked a drawer, took out a still smaller +key--a flat one this time--removed some books and a small Barye bronze +tiger from what appeared to be a high square table, rolled back the +cloth, bringing into view an old-fashioned safe, applied the key and +swung back a heavy steel door. Here, still crooning his song in a low +key, dropping it and picking it up again as he moved--quite as does the +grave-digger in "Hamlet"--he drew forth a long, flat bundle and handed +it to Jack. + +"Take them, Mr. Breen, and put them in your inside pocket. There are ten +United States Government bonds. If these Breen people will not lend you +the amount of money you want, take them to Mr. Grayson's bank. Only do +not tell him I gave them to you. I bought them yesterday and was going +to lock them up in my safe deposit vault, only I could not leave my +shop. Oh, you needn't look so scared. They are good," and he loosened +the wrapper. + +Jack sprang from his seat. For a moment he could not speak. + +"But, Mr. Cohen! Do you know I haven't any security to offer you, and +that I have only my salary and--" + +"Have I asked you for any?" Isaac replied with a slight shrug, a +quizzical smile crossing his face. + +"No--but--" + +"Ah, then, we will not talk about it. You are young--you are +hard-working; you left a very rich home on Fifth Avenue to go and live +in a dirty hotel in a country village--all because you were honest; you +risked your life to save your employer; and now you want to go into debt +to save a friend. Ah--you see, I know all about you, my dear Mr. John +Breen. Mr. Grayson has told me, and if he had not, I could read your +face. No--no--no--we will not talk about such things as cent per cent +and security. No--no--I am very glad I had the bonds where I could get +at them quick. There now--do you run home as fast as you can and tell +your friend. He is more unhappy than anybody." + +Jack had his breath now and he had also made up his mind. Every drop of +blood in his body was in revolt. Take money from a Jew tailor whom he +had not seen half a dozen times; with whom he had no business relations +or dealings, or even social acquaintance? + +He laid the bonds back on the desk. + +"I cannot take them, Mr. Cohen. I thank you most sincerely, but--no--you +must not give them to me. I--" + +Isaac wheeled suddenly and drew himself up. His little mouse eyes were +snapping, and his face fiery red. + +"You will not take them! Why?" + +"I don't know--I can't!" + +"I know!" he cried angrily, but with a certain dignity. "It is because +I am a Jew. Not because I am a tailor--you have too much sense for +that--but because I am a Jew!" + +"Oh, Mr. Cohen!" + +"Yes--I know--I see inside of you. I read you just as if you were a page +in a book. Who taught you to think that? Not your Uncle Peter; he loves +me--I love him. Who taught you such nonsense?" His voice had risen with +every sentence. In his indignation he looked twice his size. "Is not +my money as good as that man Breen's--who insults you when you go to +him?--and who laughed at you? Have I laughed at you? Does Mr. Grayson +laugh?" + +Jack tried to interrupt, but the tailor's words poured on. + +"And now let me tell you one thing more, Mr. John Breen. I do not give +you the bonds. I give them to Mr. Grayson. Never once has he insulted me +as you do now. All these years--fifteen years this winter--he has been +my friend. And now when the boy whom he loves wants some money for +a friend, and Mr. Grayson has none to give him, and I, who am +Mr. Grayson's friend, come to help that boy out of his trouble, +you--you--remember, you who have nothing to do with it--you turn up your +nose and stop it all. Are you not ashamed of yourself?" + +Jack's eyes blazed. He was not accustomed to be spoken to in that way by +anybody; certainly not by a tailor. + +"Then give them to Uncle Peter," Jack flung back. "See what he will +say." + +"No, I will not give them to your Uncle Peter. It will spoil everything +with me if he knows about it. He always does things for me behind my +back. He never lets me know. Now I shall do something for him behind his +back and not let him know." + +"But--" + +"There are no buts! Listen to me, young man. I have no son; I have no +grandchild; I live here alone--you see how small it is? Do you know +why?--because I am happiest here. I know what it is to suffer, and I +know what it is for other people to suffer. I have seen more misery in +London in a year than you will see in your whole life. Those ten bonds +there are of no more use to me than an extra coat of paint on that door. +I have many more like them shut up in a box. Almost every day people +come to me for money--sometimes they get it--oftener they do not. I have +no money for beggars, or for idlers, or for liars. I have worked all +my life, and shall to the end--and so must they. Now and then something +happens like this. Now do you understand?" + +Again Jack tried to speak. His anger was gone; the pathos in the +Jew's voice had robbed him of all antagonism, but Cohen would allow no +interruptions. + +"And now one thing more before I let you speak, And then I am through. +In all the years I have known Mr. Grayson, this is the first time I +have ever been able to help him with the only thing I have that can help +him--my money. If it was five times what you want, he should have it. Do +you hear? Five times!" + +Isaac threw himself into his chair and sat with his chin in his hand. +The last few words had come in a dry, choking whisper--as if they had +been pumped from the depths of his heart. + +Jack instinctively put out his hand and touched the Jew's knee. + +"Will you please forgive me, Mr. Cohen--and will you please listen to +me. I won't tell you a lie. I did feel that way at first--I do not now. +I will take the bonds, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart for +them. You will never know how much good they will do; I have hardly +slept since I knew I had to get this money. I am, perhaps, too tired to +think straight, but you must do something for me--you must make it right +with my own conscience. I want to sign something--give you something +as security. I have only one thing in the world and that is some ore +property my father left me in Maryland. At present it is worthless and +may always be, but still it is all I have. Let me give you this. If it +turns out to be of value you can take out your loan with interest and +give me the rest; if it does not, I will pay it back as I can; it may be +ten years or it may be less, but I will pay it if I live." + +Isaac raised his head. "Well, that is fair." His voice was again under +control. "Not for me--but for you. Yes, that is quite right for you to +feel that way. Next week you can bring in the papers." He picked up the +bonds. "Now put these in your inside pocket and look out for them as you +cross the ferry. Good-by." + + + +CHAPTER XXX + + + +Jack strode out into the night, his mind in a whirl. No sense of elation +over the money had possession of him. All his thoughts were on Isaac. +What manner of man was this Jew? he kept asking himself in a sort of +stunned surprise, who could handle his shears like a journeyman, talk +like a savant, spend money like a prince, and still keep the heart of a +child? Whoever heard of such an act of kindness; and so spontaneous and +direct; reading his heart, sympathizing with him in his troubles--as his +friend would have done--as his own father might have done. + +And with the thought of Cohen's supreme instantaneous response there +followed with a rush of shame and self-humiliation that of his own +narrow-mindedness, his mean prejudices, his hatred of the race, his +questionings of Peter's intimacy, and his frequent comments on their +acquaintance--the one thing he could never understand in his beloved +mentor. Again Isaac's words rang in his ears. "Is it because I am a Jew? +Who taught you such nonsense? Not your Uncle Peter--he loves me. I love +him." And with them arose the vision of the man stretched to his full +height, the light of the lamp glinting on his moist forehead, his +bead-like eyes flashing in the rush of his anger. + +As to the sacrifice both he and Ruth had just made, and it was now +final, this no longer troubled him. He had already weighed for her every +side of the question, taking especial pains to discuss each phase of the +subject, even going so far as to disagree with MacFarlane's opinion +as to the worthlessness of the ore lands. But the dear child had never +wavered. + +"No!--I don't care," she had answered with a toss of her head. "Let the +land go if there is no other way. We can get on without it, my darling, +and these poor people cannot." She had not, of course, if the truth must +be told, weighed any of the consequences of what their double sacrifice +might entail, nor had she realized the long years of work which might +ensue, or the self-denial and constant anxiety attending its repayment. +Practical questions on so large a scale had been outside the range of +her experience. Hers was the spirit of Joan of old, who reckoned nothing +of value but her ideal. + +Nor can we blame her. When your cheeks are twin roses; your hair black +as a crow's wing and fine as silk; and your teeth--not one missing--so +many seed pearls peeping from pomegranate lips; when your blood goes +skipping and bubbling through your veins; when at night you sleep like +a baby, and at morn you spring from your bed in the joy of another day; +when there are two strong brown hands and two strong arms, and a great, +loving, honest heart every bit your own; and when, too, there are crisp +autumn afternoons to come, with gold and brown for a carpet, and long +winter evenings, the fire-light dancing on the overhead rafters; and +'way--'way--beyond this--somewhere in the far future there rises a +slender spire holding a chime of bells, and beneath it a deep-toned +organ--when this, I say, is, or will be, your own--the gold of the +Indies is but so much tinkling brass, and Cleopatra's diadem a mere +bauble with which to quiet a child. + +It was not until he was nearing Corklesville that the sense of the money +really came to him. He knew what it would mean to Ruth and what her eyes +would hold of gladness and relief. Suddenly there sprang to his lips an +unbidden laugh, a spontaneous overflow from the joy of his heart; the +first he had uttered for days. Ruth should know first. He would take her +in his arms and tell her to hunt in all his pockets, and then he would +kiss her and place the package in her hands. And then the two would go +to Corinne. It would be late, and she would be in bed, perhaps, but that +made no difference. Ruth would steal noiselessly upstairs; past where +Garry lay, the flowers heaped upon his coffin, and Corinne would learn +the glad tidings before to-morrow's sun. At last the ghost which had +haunted them all these days was banished; her child would be safe, and +Corinne would no longer have to hide her head. + +Once more the precious package became the dominant thought. Ten bonds! +More than enough! What would McGowan say now? What would his Uncle +Arthur say? He slipped his hand under his coat fondling the wrapper, +caressing it as a lover does a long-delayed letter, as a prisoner does a +key which is to turn darkness into light, as a hunted man a weapon which +may save his life. + +It did not take Jack many minutes we may be sure to hurry from the +station to Ruth's home. There it all happened just as he had planned and +schemed it should--even to the kiss and the hunting for the package of +bonds, and Ruth's cry of joy, and the walk through the starlight night +to Corinne's, and the finding her upstairs; except that the poor woman +was not yet in bed. + +"Who gave it to you, Jack?" Corinne asked in a tired voice. + +"A friend of Uncle Peter's." + +"You mean Mr. Grayson?" + +"Yes." + +There was no outburst, no cry of gratitude, no flood of long-pent-up +tears. The storm had so crushed and bruised this plant that many days +must elapse before it would again lift its leaves from the mud. + +"It was very good of Mr. Grayson, Jack," was all she said in answer, and +then relapsed into the apathy which had been hers since the hour when +the details of her husband's dishonesty had dropped from his lips. + +Poor girl! she had no delusions to sustain her. She knew right from +wrong. Emotions never misled her. In her earlier years she and her +mother had been accustomed to look things squarely in the face, and +to work out their own careers; a game of chance, it is true, until her +mother's marriage with the elder Breen; but they had both been honest +careers, and they had owed no man a penny. Garry had fought the battle +for her within the last few years, and in return she had loved him as +much as she was able to love anybody but she had loved him as a man of +honor, not as a thief. Now he had lied to her, had refused to listen to +her pleadings, and the end had come. What was there left, and to whom +should she now turn--she without a penny to her name--except to her +stepfather, who had insulted and despised her. She had even been +compelled to seek help from Ruth and Jack; and now at last to accept it +from Mr. Grayson--he almost a stranger. These were the thoughts which, +like strange nightmares, swept across her tired brain, taking grewsome +shapes, each one more horrible than its predecessor. + +At the funeral, next day, she presented the same impassive front. Breen +and her mother rode with her in the carriage to the church, and Jack and +Ruth helped her alight, but she might have been made of stone so far +as she evinced either sorrow or interest in what was taking place about +her. And yet nothing had been omitted by friend or foe expressive of the +grief and heart-felt sorrow the occasion demanded. Holker Morris sent a +wreath of roses with a special letter to her, expressing his confidence +in and respect for the man he had brought up from a boy. A committee was +present from the Society of Architects to which Garry belonged; half +a dozen of his old friends from the Magnolia were present, Biffy among +them; the village Council and the Board of Church Trustees came in a +body, and even McGowan felt it incumbent upon him to stand up during the +service and assume the air of one who had been especially bereft. Nor +were the notices in the country and city papers wanting in respect. "One +of our most distinguished citizens--a man who has reached the topmost +round of the ladder," etc., etc., one editorial began. + +It was only when the funeral was over, and she was once more at home, +that she expressed the slightest concern. Then she laid her hand in +Peter's and threw back her heavy crepe veil: "You have saved me from +disgrace, Mr. Grayson," she said, in a low, monotonous voice, "and my +little boy as well. I try to think that Garry must have been out of his +mind when he took the money. He would not listen to me, and he would not +tell me the truth. Jack is going to pay it back to-morrow, and nobody +will ever know that my husband did wrong; but I couldn't let you go +away without thanking you for having saved us. My stepfather wouldn't +help--nobody would help but you. I don't know why you did it. It seems +so strange. I had given up all hope when Jack came back last night." + +Peter sat perfectly still, his hand on her wrist, where he had placed +it to show by a kindly touch his sympathy for her. Not knowing what her +lips would tell, he had begun to pat the back of her black glove when +she started to speak, as one would quiet a child who pours out its +troubles, but he stopped in amazement as she proceeded. He had not +loaned her a dollar, nor had Jack, as he knew, succeeded in getting a +penny, unless by a miracle he had met some one on the train who had come +to his rescue. + +What did the poor woman mean? Disgrace! Trouble! Garry taking money, and +Jack paying it back on Monday! The horror of her husband's sudden +death had undoubtedly turned her mind, distorting some simple business +transaction into a crime, or she would not be thanking him for something +that he had never done. This talk of Jack's could only have been a ruse +to keep up her spirits and give her false strength until she had passed +through the agonizing ordeal of the funeral--he accepting all her +delusions as true--as one does when an insane person is to be coaxed +back into a cell. These thoughts went whirling through his mind, as +Peter watched her face closely, wondering what would be his course. He +had not met her often, yet he could see that she was terribly changed. +He noticed, too, that all through the interview she had not shed a tear. +Yes--there was no question that her mind was unbalanced. The best plan +would be to bring the interview to an end as quickly as possible, so she +should not dwell too long on her sorrow. + +"If I have done anything to help you, my dear lady," he said with gentle +courtesy, rising from his chair and taking her hand again, "or can do +anything for you in the future, I shall be most happy, and you must +certainly let me know. And now, may I not ask you to go upstairs and +lie down. You are greatly fatigued--I assure you I feel for you most +deeply." + +But his mind was still disturbed. Ruth and Jack wondered at his quiet +as he sat beside them on the way back to MacFarlane's--gazing out of +the carriage window, his clean-shaven, placid face at rest, his straight +thin lips close shut. He hardly spoke until they reached the house, +and then it was when he helped Ruth alight. Once inside, however, +he beckoned Jack, and without a word led him alone into MacFarlane's +study--now almost dismantled for the move to Morfordsburg--and closed +the door. + +"Mrs. Minott has just told me the most extraordinary thing, Jack--an +unbelievable story. Is she quite sane?" + +Jack scanned Peter's face and read the truth. Corinne had evidently told +him everything. This was the severest blow of all. + +"She supposed you knew, sir;" answered Jack quietly, further concealment +now being useless. + +"Knew what?" Peter was staring at him with wide-open eyes. + +"What she told you, sir," faltered Jack. + +The old man threw up his hands in horror. + +"What! You really mean to tell me, Jack, that Minott has been stealing?" + +Jack bent his head and his eyes sought the floor. He could hardly have +been more ashamed had he himself been the culprit. + +"God bless my soul! From whom?" + +"The church funds--he was trustee. The meeting is to-morrow, and it +would all have come out." + +A great light broke over Peter--as when a window is opened in a darkened +room in which one has bees stumbling. + +"And you have walked the streets trying to beggar yourself, not to help +MacFarlane but to keep Minott out of jail!" Amazement had taken the +place of horror. + +"He was my friend, sir--and there are Corinne and the little boy. It is +all over now. I have the money--that is, I have got something to raise +it on." + +"Who gave it to you?" He was still groping, blinded by the revelations, +his gray eyes staring at Jack, his voice trembling, beads of +perspiration moistening his forehead. + +"Isaac Cohen. He has given me ten Government bonds. They are in that +drawer behind you. He overheard what I said to you yesterday about +wanting some money, and was waiting for me when I went downstairs. He +gave them to me because he loved you, he said. I am to give him my ore +property as security, although I told him it was of no value." + +Peter made a step forward, stretching out a hand as if to steady +himself. His face grew white then suddenly flushed. His breath seemed to +have left him. + +"And Cohen did this!" he gasped--"and you for Minott! Why--why--" + +Jack caught him in his arms, thinking he was about to fall. + +"No! No! I'm all right," he cried, patting Jack's shoulder. "It's +you!--you--YOU, my splendid boy! Oh!--how I love you!" + + + +CHAPTER XXXI + + + +The following morning Jack walked into Arthur Breen's private office +while his uncle was reading his mail, and laid the package containing +the ten bonds on his desk. So far as their borrowing capacity was +concerned, he could have walked up the marble steps of any broker's +office or bank on either side of the street--that is, wherever he was +known, and he was still remembered by many of them--thrust the package +through the cashier's window, and walked down again with a certified +check for their face value in his pocket. + +But the boy had other ends in view. Being human, and still smarting +under his uncle's ridicule and contempt, he wanted to clear his own +name and character; being loyal to his friend's memory and feeling that +Garry's reputation must be at least patched up--and here in Breen's +place and before the man who had so bitterly denounced it; and being +above all tender-hearted and gallant where a woman, and a sorrowing +one, was concerned, he must give Corinne and the child a fair and square +start in the house of Breen, with no overdue accounts to vex her +except such petty ones as a small life insurance and a few uncollected +commissions could liquidate. + +These much-to-be-desired results could only be attained when the senior +member of the firm was made acquainted with the fact that, after all, +Garry's debts could be paid and his reputation saved. The money must, +therefore, be borrowed of Arthur Breen & Co. His uncle would know then +beyond doubt; his axiom being that the only thing that talked loud +enough ever to make him listen was "money." + +It was therefore with a sense of supreme satisfaction, interwoven with +certain suppressed exuberance born of freedom and self-reliance, that +Jack, in answer to Breen's "What's this?" when his eyes rested on the +bundle of bonds, replied in an off-hand but entirely respectful manner: + +"Ten United States Government bonds, sir; and will you please give me +a check drawn to my order for this amount?" and he handed the astounded +broker the slip of paper McGowan had given him, on which was scrawled +the total of the overdue vouchers. + +Breen slipped off the rubber band, spread out the securities as a +lady opens a fan, noted the title, date, and issue, and having assured +himself of their genuineness, asked in a confused, almost apologetic +way, as he touched a bell to summon the cashier: + +"Where did you get these? Did MacFarlane give them to you?" + +"No--a friend," answered Jack casually, and without betraying a trace of +either excitement or impatience. + +"On what?" snapped Breen, something of his old dictatorial manner +asserting itself. + +"On my word," replied Jack, with a note of triumph, which he could not +wholly conceal. + +The door opened and the cashier entered. Breen handed him the bonds, +gave instructions about the drawing of the check, and turned to Jack +again. He was still suffering from amazement, the boy's imperturbable +manner being responsible for most of it. + +"And does this pay Minott's debts?" he asked in a more conciliatory +tone. + +"Every dollar," replied Jack. + +Breen looked up. Where had the boy got this poise and confidence, he +asked himself, as a flush of pride swept through him; after all, Jack +was of his own blood, his brother's son. + +"And I suppose now that it's you who will be doing the walking instead +of Minott's creditors?" Breen inquired with a frown that softened into a +smile as he gazed the longer into Jack's calm eyes. + +"Yes, for a time," rejoined Jack in the same even, unhurried voice. + +The clerk brought in the slip of paper, passed it to his employer, who +examined it closely, and who then affixed his signature. + +"If you get any more of that kind of stuff and want help in the new +work, let me know." + +"Thank you, sir," said Jack, folding up the precious scrap and slipping +it into his pocket. + +Breen waited until Jack had closed the door, pulled from a pigeon-hole +a bundle of papers labelled Maryland Mining Company, touched another +button summoning his stenographer, and said in a low voice to himself: + +"Yes, I have it! Something is going on in that ore property. I'll write +and find out." + + + +CHAPTER XXXII + + + +The Board of Church Trustees met, as customary, on Monday night, but +there was no business transacted except the passing of a resolution +expressing its deep regret over the loss of "our distinguished +fellow-townsman, whose genius has added so much to the beautifying of +our village, and whose uprightness of character will always be," etc., +etc. + +Neither Jack nor McGowan, nor any one representing their interests, was +present. A hurried glance over Garry's check and bank-books showed that +the money to pay McGowan's vouchers--the exact sum--had been drawn from +the fund and deposited to Garry's personal credit in his own bank in New +York. Former payments to McGowan had been made in this way. There was +therefore no proof that this sum had been diverted into illegitimate +channels. + +McGowan was paid that same Monday afternoon, Jack bringing the papers +to the contractor's office, where they were signed in the presence of +Murphy and his clerk. + +And so the matter was closed, each and every one concerned being +rejoiced over the outcome. + +"Mr. Minott (it was 'Mr.' now) had a big stack of money over at his +stepfather's bank," was Murphy's statement to a group around a table +in one of the bar-rooms of the village. "He was in a big deal, so Mac +thinks, and didn't want to haul any of it out. So when he died Mr. Breen +never squawked--just went over and told the old man that Mac wanted the +money and to fork out; and he did, like a good one. I seen the check, I +tell ye. Oh! they're all in together. Mr. Breen's kin to them New York +folks, and so is Mrs. Minott. He's her father, I hear. I think Mac shot +off his mouth too quick, and I told him so, but he was so het up he +couldn't keep still. Why, them fellers has got more money than they can +throw away. Mac sees his mistake now. Heard him tell Mr. Breen that Mr. +Minott was the whitest man he ever knowed; and you bet yer life he's +right." + +Nor was Murphy's eulogium the only one heard in the village. Within a +week after the funeral a committee was appointed to gather funds for +the placing of a stained-glass window in the new church in memory of the +young architect who had designed and erected it; with the result +that Holker Morris headed the subscription list, an example which was +followed by many of the townspeople, including McGowan and Murphy and +several others of their class, as well as various members of the Village +Council, together with many of Garry's friends in New York, all of which +was duly set forth in the county and New York papers; a fact which so +impressed the head of the great banking firm of Arthur Breen & Co. +that he immediately sent his personal check for a considerable amount, +desiring, as he stated at a club dinner that same night, to pay some +slight tribute to that brilliant young fellow, Minott, who, you know, +married Mrs. Breen's daughter--a lovely girl, brought up in my own +house, and who has now come home again to live with us. + +Peter listened attentively while Jack imparted these details, a peculiar +smile playing about the corners of his eyes and mouth, his only comment +at the strangeness of such posthumous honors to such a man, but he +became positively hilarious when Jack reached that part in the narrative +in which the head of the house of Breen figured as chief contributor. + +"And you mean to tell me, Jack," he roared, "that Breen has pushed +himself into poor Minott's stained-glass window, with the saints and the +gold crowns, and--oh, Jack, you can't be serious!" + +"That's what the Rector tells me, sir." + +"But, Jack--forgive me, my boy, but I have never in all my life heard +anything so delicious. Don't you think if Holker spoke to the artist +that Mr. Iscariot, or perhaps the estimable Mr. Ananias, or Mr. +Pecksniff, or Uriah Heep might also be tucked away in the background?" +And with this the old fellow, in spite of his sympathy for Jack and the +solemnity of the occasion, threw back his head and laughed so long and +so heartily that Mrs. McGuffey made excuse to enter the room to find out +what it was all about. + +With the subletting of Garry's house and the shipping of his +furniture--that which was not sold--to her step-father's house, Jack's +efforts on behalf of his dead friend and his family came to a close. +Ruth helped Corinne pack her personal belongings, and Jack found a +tenant who moved in the following week. Willing hands are oftenest +called upon, and so it happened that the two lovers bore all the brunt +of the domestic upheaval. + +Their own packing had long since been completed; not a difficult matter +in a furnished house; easy always to Ruth and her father, whose nomadic +life was marked by constant changes. Indeed, the various boxes, cases, +crates, and barrels containing much of the linen, china, and glass, to +say nothing of the portieres, rugs and small tables, and the whole of +Ruth's bedroom furniture, had already been loaded aboard a box car +and sent on its way to Morfordsburg, there to await the arrival of the +joyous young girl, whose clear brain and competent hands would bring +order out of chaos, no matter how desolate the interior and the +environment. + +For these dainty white hands with their pink nails and soft palms, so +wonderfully graceful over teapot or fan, could wield a broom or even +a dust-pan did necessity require. Ruth in a ball gown, all frills and +ruffles and lace, was a sight to charm the eye of any man, but Ruth in +calico and white apron, her beautiful hair piled on top of her still +more beautiful head; her skirts pinned up and her dear little feet +pattering about, was a sight not only for men but for gods as well. Jack +loved her in this costume, and so would you had you known her. I myself, +old and wrinkled as I am, have never forgotten how I rapped at the wrong +door one morning--the kitchen door--and found her in that same costume, +with her arms bare to the elbows and covered with flour, where she had +been making a "sally lunn" for daddy. Nor can I forget her ringing laugh +as she saw the look of astonishment on my face, or my delight when she +ordered me inside and made me open the oven door so that she could slide +in the finished product without burning her fingers. + +The packing up of their own household impedimenta complete, there came a +few days of leisure--the first breathing spell that either MacFarlane or +Jack, or Ruth, too, for that matter, had had for weeks. MacFarlane, in +view of the coming winter--a long and arduous one, took advantage of the +interim and went south, to his club, for a few days' shooting--a rare +luxury for him of late years. Jack made up his mind to devote every +one of his spare hours to getting better acquainted with Ruth, and that +young woman, not wishing to be considered either neglectful or selfish, +determined to sacrifice every hour of the day and as much of the night +as was proper and possible to getting better acquainted with Jack; and +the two had a royal time in the doing. + +Jack, too, had another feeling about it all. It seemed to him that +he had a debt of gratitude--the rasping word had long since lost its +edge--to discharge; and that he owed her every leisure hour he could +steal from his work. He had spent days and nights in the service of his +friends, and had, besides, laid the burden of their anxieties upon her. +He would pay her in return twice as many days of gladness to make up +for the pain she had so cheerfully borne. What could he do to thank +her?--how discharge the obligation? Every hour he would tell her, and +in different ways--by his tenderness, by his obedience to her slightest +wish, anticipating her every want--how much he appreciated her +unselfishness, and how much better, if that were possible, he loved her +for her sacrifice. Nor was there, when the day came, any limit to his +devotion or to her enjoyment. There were rides over the hills in the +soft September mornings--Indian summer in its most dreamy and summery +state; there were theatre parties of two and no more; when they sat in +the third row in the balcony, where it was cheaper, and where, too, they +wouldn't have to speak to anybody else. There were teas in Washington +Square, where nobody but themselves and their hostess were present, as +well as other unexpected outings, in which all the rest of the world was +forgotten. + +The house, too, was all their own. Nobody upstairs; nobody downstairs +but the servants; even the emptiness of daddy's room, so grewsome in the +old days, brought a certain feeling of delight. "Just you and me," as +they said a dozen times a day to each other. And then the long talks on +that blessed old sofa with its cushions--(what a wonderful old sofa it +was, and how much it had heard); talks about when she was a girl--as +if she had ever passed the age; and when he was a boy; and of what +they both thought and did in that blissful state of innocence and +inexperience. Talks about the bungalow they would build some day--that +bungalow which Garry had toppled over--and how it would be furnished; +and whether they could not persuade the landlord to sell them the dear +sofa and move it out there bodily; talks about their life during the +coming winter, and whether she should visit Aunt Felicia's--and if so, +whether Jack would come too; and if she didn't, wouldn't it be just as +well for Jack to have some place in Morfordsburg where he could find a +bed in case he got storm-bound and couldn't get back to the cabin that +same night. All kinds and conditions and sorts of talks that only two +lovers enjoy, and for which only two lovers can find the material. + +Sometimes she thought he might be too lonely and neglected at the +log-cabin. Then she would make believe she was going to ask daddy to +let them be married right away, insisting that two rooms were enough +for them, and that she herself would do the washing and ironing and the +cooking, at which Jack would laugh over the joy of it all, conjuring up +in his mind the pattern of apron she would wear and how pretty her bare +arms would be bending over the tub, knowing all the time that he would +no more have allowed her to do any one of these things than he would +have permitted her to chop the winter's wood. + +Most of these day dreams, plots, and imaginings were duly reported by +letter to Miss Felicia to see what she thought of them all. For the +dear lady's opposition had long since broken down. In these letters +Ruth poured out her heart as she did to no one except Jack; each missive +interspersed with asides as to how dear Jack was, and how considerate, +and how it would not be a very long time before she would soon get the +other half of the dear lady's laces, now that daddy and Jack (the boy +had been given an interest in the business) were going to make lots of +money on the new work--to all of which Miss Felicia replied that love +in a garret was what might be expected of fools, but that love in a +log-cabin could only be practised by lunatics. + +It was toward the close of this pre-honey-moon--it lasted only ten +days, but it was full moon every hour and no clouds--when, early one +morning--before nine o'clock, really--a night message was handed to +Jack. It had been sent to the brick office, but the telegraph boy, +finding that building closed and abandoned, had delivered it to Mrs. +Hicks, who, discovering it to be sealed, forwarded it at once, and by +the same hand, to the MacFarlane house, known now to everybody as +the temporary headquarters, especially in the day time, of the young +superintendent who was going to marry the daughter--"and there ain't a +nicer, nor a better, nor a prettier." + +On this morning, then, the two had planned a day in the woods back of +the hills; Ruth's mare was to be hooked up to a hired buggy, and such +comforts as a bucket of ice, lettuce sandwiches thin as wafers, a cold +chicken, a spirit lamp, teapot, and cups and saucers, not to mention a +big shawl for my sweetheart to sit on, and another smaller one for her +lovely shoulders when the cool of the evening came on, were to be stowed +away under the seat. + +"That telegram is from Aunt Felicia, I know," said Ruth. "She has set +her heart on my coming up to Geneseo, but I cannot go, Jack. I don't +want to be a minute away from you." + +Jack had now broken the seal and was scanning the contents. Instantly +his face grew grave. + +"No--it's not from Aunt Felicia," he said in a thoughtful tone, his eyes +studying the despatch. "I don't know whom it's from; it is signed T. +Ballantree; I never heard of him before. He wants me to meet him at the +Astor House to-day at eleven o'clock. Some business of your father's, I +expect--see, it's dated Morfordsburg. Too bad, isn't it, blessed--but +I must go. Here, boy"--this to the messenger, who was moving out of the +door--"stop at the livery stable as you go by and tell them I won't want +the horse and wagon, that I'm going to New York. All in a life-time, my +blessed--but I'm dreadfully sorry." + +"And you MUST go? Isn't it mean, Jack--and it's such a lovely day." + +"Yes--but it can't be helped. What are you going to do with the +sandwiches and chicken and things? And you had so much trouble making +them. And you will be lonely, too." + +"Why, I shall keep them till you come back, and we'll have a lovely +feast at home," she said with a light laugh in her effort to hide her +feelings. "Oh, no, I shan't be lonely. You won't be gone long, Jack, +will you, dear?" + +"I hope not." His mind must no longer rest on the outing. There was work +to do for Ruth as well as himself. His play time had come to a sudden +end; the bell had rung and recess was over. He looked at his watch; +there was just time to catch the train. + +She followed him to the door and kissed her hand as he swung down the +path and through the gate, and watched him until he had disappeared +behind the long wall of the factory; then she went in, put away the +sandwiches and chicken, and the teapot and the cups and saucers, and +emptied the ice. + +Yes, the day was spoiled, she said to herself--part of it anyway; but +the night would come, and with it Jack would burst in with news of all +he had seen and done, and they would each have an end of the table; +their last dinner in the old home, where everything on which her eyes +rested revived some memory of their happiness. But then there would be +other outings at Morfordsburg, and so what mattered one day when there +were so many left? And with this thought her tears dried up and she +began to sing again as she busied herself about the house--bursting +into a refrain from one of the operas she loved, or crooning some of the +old-time melodies which her black mammy had taught her when a child. + +But now for Jack and what the day held for him of wonders and surprises. + +Some pessimistic wiseacre has said that all the dire and dreadful things +in life drop out of a clear sky; that it is the unexpected which is to +be feared, and that the unknown bridges are the ones in which dangers +lurk and where calamity is to be feared. + +The optimistic Scribe bites his derisive thumb at such ominous +prophecies. Once in a while some rain does fall, and now and then a +roar of thunder, or sharp slash of sleet will split the air during our +journey through life, but the blue is always above, and the clouds but +drifting ships that pass and are gone. In and through them all the warm, +cheery sun fights on for joyous light and happy endings, and almost +always wins. + +This time the unexpected took shape in the person of T. Ballantree, from +Morfordsburg--a plain, direct, straight-to-the-point kind of a man, +whom Jack found in the corridor of the Astor House with his eyes on the +clock. + +"You are very prompt, Mr. Breen," he said in clear-cut tones, "so am I. +What I wanted to see you about is just this: You own some ore property +three miles east of the Maryland Mining Company's lay-out. Am I right?" + +"Yes, you are right," answered Jack with a comprehensive glance which +began at the speaker's black derby hat, traversed his suit of store +clothes, and ended in a pair of boots which still showed some traces of +yellow clay, as if their wearer had been prospecting the day before. + +"Are there any encumbrances on the property--any mortgages or liens not +yet recorded? I don't mean taxes; I find they have been paid," continued +Ballantree. + +Jack shifted his seat so he could get a better view of the speaker's +face, and said in answer: + +"Why do you ask?" + +"Because," said the man with entire frankness, "we understand that the +Maryland Mining Company have an option on it. If that is so, I'll stop +where I am. We don't care to buck up against Breen & Co." + +"No," answered Jack, now convinced of the man's sincerity; "no--it's +free and clear except for a loan of ten thousand dollars held by a +friend, which can be paid off at any time." + +Ballantree ducked his head in token of his satisfaction over the +statement and asked another question--this time with his eyes straight +on Jack. + +"Is it for sale--now--for money?" + +It was Jack's turn to focus his gaze. This was the first time any one +had asked that question in the memory of the oldest inhabitant. + +"Well, that depends on what it is wanted for, Mr. Ballantree," laughed +Jack. He had already begun to like the man. "And perhaps, too, on who +wants it. Is it for speculation?" + +Ballantree laughed in return. "No--not a square foot of it. I am the +general manager of the Guthrie Steel Company with head-quarters here +in New York. We have been looking for mineral up in that section of +the State, and struck yours. I might as well tell you that I made the +borings myself." + +"Are you an expert?" asked Jack. The way people searched his title, +examined his tax receipts and rammed hypodermics into his property +without permission was, to say the least, amusing. + +"Been at it thirty years," replied Ballantree in a tone that settled all +doubt on the subject. + +"It is a low-grade ore, you know," explained Jack, feeling bound to +express his own doubts of its value. + +"No, it's a high-grade ore," returned Ballantree with some positiveness; +"that is, it was when we got down into it. But I'm not here to talk +about percentage--that may come in later. I came to save Mr. Guthrie's +time. I was to bring you down to see him if you were the man and +everything was clean, and if you'll go--and I wouldn't advise you to +stay away--I'll meet you at his office at twelve o'clock sharp; there's +his card. It isn't more than four blocks from here." + +Jack took the card, looked on both sides of it, tucked it in his +inside pocket, and said he would come, with pleasure. Ballantree nodded +contentedly, pulled a cigar from his upper breast pocket, bit off one +end, slid a match along his trousers until it burst into flame, held it +to the unbitten end until it was a-light, blew out the blaze, adjusted +his derby and with another nod to Jack--and the magic words--"Twelve +sharp"--passed out into Broadway. + +Ten minutes later--perhaps five, for Jack arrived on the run--Jack +bounded into Peter's bank, and slipping ahead of the line of depositors, +thrust his overheated face into the opening. There he gasped out a bit +of information that came near cracking the ostrich egg in two, so wide +was the smile that overspread Peter's face. + +"What--really! You don't say so! Telegraphed you? Who?" + +"A Mr. Ballantree," panted Jack. "I have just left him at the Astor +House." + +"I never heard of him. Look out, my boy--don't sign anything until +you--" + +"Oh, he is only the general manager. It's a Mr. Guthrie--Robert A. +Guthrie--who wants it. He sent Mr. Ballantree." + +"Robert Guthrie! The banker! That's our director; that's the man I told +you of. I gave him your address. Go and see him by all means and tell +him everything. Talk just as you would to me. One of the best men in the +Street. Not a crooked hair on his head, Jack. Well--well--this does look +like business." + +"Pardon me, sir, one minute, if you please--" interpolated Peter to an +insistent depositor whom Jack in his impatience had crowded out. "Now +your book--thank you--And Jack"--this over the hat of the depositor, his +face a marvel of delight--"come to my rooms at four--wait for me--I'll +be there." + +Out again and around the block; anything to kill time until the precious +hour should arrive. Lord!--how the minutes dragged. The hands of the old +clock of Trinity spire must be stuck together. Any other day it would +take him at least half an hour to walk up Wall Street, down Broadway to +the Battery and back again--now ten minutes was enough. Would the minute +hand never climb up the face to the hour hand and the two get together +at twelve, and so end his impatience. He wished now he had telegraphed +to Ruth not to expect him until the late afternoon train. He thought +he would do it now. Then he changed his mind. No; it would be better to +await the result of his interview. Yet still the clock dragged on, and +still he waited for the magic hour. Ten minutes to twelve--five--then +twelve precisely--but by this time he was closeted inside Mr. Guthrie's +private office. + +Peter also found the hours dragging. What could it all mean? he kept +asking himself as he handed back the books through his window, his eyes +wandering up to the old-fashioned clock. Robert Guthrie the banker--a +REAL banker--had sent for the boy--Guthrie, who never made a too hurried +move. Could it be possible that good fortune was coming to Jack?--that +he and Ruth--that--Ah! old fellow, you nearly made a mistake with the +amount of that check! No--there was no use in supposing. He would just +wait for Jack's story. + +When he reached home he was still in the same overwrought, anxious +state--hoping against hope. When would the boy come? he asked himself a +hundred times as he fussed about his room, nipping off the dead leaves +from his geraniums, drawing the red curtains back; opening and shutting +the books, only to throw himself into his chair at last. Should he smoke +until four?--should he read? What a fool he was making of himself! It +was astonishing that one of his age should be so excited over a mere +business proposition--really not a proposition at all, when he came to +think of it--just an ordinary question asked. He must compose himself. +It was quite absurd for him to go on this way. But would the boy NEVER +come? It was four o'clock now--or would be in ten minutes, and--and-- + +Yes! + +He sprang toward the door and caught the young fellow in his arms. + +"Oh! such good news! Mr. Guthrie's bought the property!" roared Jack. + +He had made one long spring from the sidewalk up three flights of steps +to the old-fashioned door, but he still had breath to gasp the glad +tidings. + +"Bought!--Who?--Not Guthrie!" + +"Yes--I am to sign the papers to-morrow. Oh!--Uncle Peter, I am half +crazy with delight!" + +"Hurrah," shouted Peter. "HURRAH, I say! This IS good news! +Well!--Well!" He was still bending over him, his eyes blinking in his +joy, scurries of irradiating smiles chasing each other over his face. +Never had the old gentleman been in such a state. + +"And how much, Jack?" + +"Guess." + +"Will there be enough to pay Isaac's ten thousand?" + +"More!" Jack was nearly bursting, but he still held in. + +"Twenty thousand?" This came timidly, fearing that it was too much, and +yet hoping that it might be true. + +"More!" The strain on Jack was getting dangerous. + +"Twenty-five thousand?" Peter's voice now showed that he was convinced +that this sum was too small. + +"More! Go on, Uncle Peter! Go on!" + +"Thirty-five thousand, Jack?" It was getting hot; certainly this was the +limit. Was there ever such luck? + +"Yes!--and five thousand more! Forty thousand dollars and one-fifth +interest in the output! Just think what Ruth will say. I've just sent +her a telegram. Oh!--what a home-coming!" + +And then, with Peter drawn up beside him, his face radiant and his eyes +sparkling with joy, he poured out the story of the morning. How he had +begun by telling Mr. Guthrie of his own and Mr. MacFarlane's opinion of +the property, as he did not want to sell anything he himself considered +worthless. How he had told him frankly what Peter had said of his--Mr. +Guthrie's--fairness and honesty; how he was at work for his prospective +father-in-law, the distinguished engineer of whom Mr. Guthrie had no +doubt heard--at which the gentleman nodded. How this property had been +given him by his father, and was all he had in the world except what he +could earn; how he already owed ten thousand dollars and had pledged the +property as part payment, and how, in view of these facts, he would +take any sum over ten thousand dollars that Mr. Guthrie would give him, +provided Mr. Guthrie thought it was worth that much. + +"But I am buying, not selling, your land, young man," the banker had +said. "I know it, sir, and I am willing to take your own figures," Jack +replied--at which Mr. Guthrie had laughed in a kindly way, and had then +called in Mr. Ballantree and another man how the three had then talked +in a corner, and how he had heard Mr. Guthrie say, "No, that is not +fair--add another five thousand and increase the interest to one-fifth"; +whereupon the two men went out and came back later with a letter in +duplicate, one of which Mr. Guthrie had signed, and the other which he, +Jack, signed--and here was Mr., Guthrie's letter to prove it. With this +Jack took out the document and laid it before Peter's delighted eyes; +adding that the deeds and Isaac's release were to be signed in the +morning, and that Mr. Guthrie had sent a special message by him to the +effect that he very much wished Mr. Grayson would also be present when +the final transfers would be signed and the money paid. + +Whereupon the Scribe again maintains--and he is rubbing his hands with +the joy of it all as he does it--that there was more sunshine than +clouds in this particular Unexpected, and that if all the boys in +the world were as frank and sincere as young Jack Breen, and all the +grown-ups as honest as old Robert Guthrie, the REAL banker, the jails +would be empty and the millennium knocking at our doors. + +Peter had drunk in every word of the story, bowing his head, fanning out +his fingers, or interrupting with his customary "Well, well!" whenever +some particular detail seemed to tend toward the final success. + +And then, the story over, there came the part that Peter never forgot; +that he has told me a dozen times, and always with the same trembling +tear under the eyelids, and the same quivering of his lower lip. + +Jack had drawn his chair nearer the old gentleman, and had thrown one +arm over the shoulder of his dearest friend in the world. There was +a moment's silence as they sat there, and then Jack began. "There is +something I want you to do for me, Uncle Peter," he said, drawing his +arm closer till his own fresh cheek almost touched the head of the older +man. "Please, don't refuse." + +"Refuse, my dear boy! I am too happy to-day to refuse anything. Come, +out with it." + +"I am going to give you half of this money. I love you better than any +one in this world except Ruth, and I want you to have it." + +Peter threw up his hands and sprang to his feet. + +"What!--You want to--Why, Jack! Are you crazy! Me! My dear boy, it's +very lovely of you to wish to do it, but just think. Oh, you dear +Jack! No!--no, no!" He was beating the air now deprecatingly with his +outspread fingers as he strode around the room, laughing short laughs in +his effort to keep back the tears. + +Jack followed him in his circuit, talking all the while, until he had +penned the old gentleman in a corner between the open desk and the +window. + +"But, Uncle Peter--think what you have done for me! Do you suppose for +one moment that I don't know that it was you and not I who sold the +property? Do you think Mr. Guthrie would have added that five thousand +dollars to the price if he hadn't wanted to help you as well as me?" + +"Five thousand dollars, my dear Jack, is no more to Robert Guthrie than +a ferry ticket is to you or me. He gave you the full price because +you trusted to his honesty and told him the truth, and he saw your +inexperience." + +"No--it was YOU he was thinking of, I tell you," protested Jack, with +eager emphasis. "He would never have sent Ballantree for me had you not +talked to him--and it has been so with everything since I knew you. You +have been father, friend, everybody to me. You gave me Ruth and my work. +Everything I am I owe to you. You must--you SHALL have half of this +money! Ruth and I can be married, and that is all we want, and what is +left I can put into our new work to help Mr. MacFarlane. Please, Uncle +Peter!--we will both be so much happier if we know you share it with +us." Here his voice rose and a strain of determination rang through it. +"And, by George!--Uncle Peter, the more I think of it, the more I am +convinced that it is fair. It's yours--not mine. I WILL have it that +way--you are getting old, and you need it." + +Peter broke into a laugh. It was the only way he could keep down the +tears. + +"What a dear boy you are, Jack," he said, backing toward the sofa and +regaining his seat. "You've got a heart as big as a house, and I'm proud +of you, but no--not a penny of your money. Think a moment! Your father +didn't leave the property to me--not any part of it--he left it to you, +you spendthrift! When I get too old to work I am going up to Felicia's +and pick out an easy-chair and sit in a corner and dry up gradually and +be laid away in lavender. No, my lad, not a penny! Gift money should go +to cripples and hypochondriacs, not to spry old gentlemen. I would not +take it from my own father's estate when I was your age, and I certainly +won't take it now from you. I made Felicia take it all." Jack opened +his eyes. He had often wondered why Peter had so little and she so much. +"Oh, yes, nearly forty years ago! But I have never regretted it since! +And you must see how just it was, for there wasn't enough for two, and +Felicia was a woman. No--be very careful of gift money, my boy, and be +very careful, also, of too much of anybody's money--even your own. What +makes me most glad in this whole affair is that Guthrie didn't give you +a million--that might have spoilt you. This is just enough. You and +Ruth can start square. You can help Henry--and you ought to, he has been +mighty good to you. And, best of all, you can keep at work. Yes--that's +the best part of it--that you can keep at work. Go right on as you are; +work every single day of your life, and earn your bread as you have done +ever since you left New York, and, one thing more, and don't you ever +forget it: Be sure you take your proper share of fun and rest as you +go. Eight hours' work, eight hours' play, eight hours' sleep--that's the +golden rule and the only one to live by. Money will never get its +grip on you if you keep this up. This fortune hasn't yet tightened its +fingers around your throat, or you would never have come up here to give +me half of it--and never let it! Money is your servant, my boy, not your +master. And now go home and kiss Ruth for me, and tell her that I love +her dearly. Wait a moment. I will go with you as far as Isaac's. I am +going to tell him the good news. Then I'll have him measure me for a +coat to dance at your wedding." + +And the Unexpecteds are not yet over. There was still another, of quite +a different character, about to fall--and out of another clear sky, +too--a sort of April-shower sky, where you get wet on one side of the +street and keep dry on the other. Jack had the dry side this time, and +went on his way rejoicing, but the head of the house of Breen caught the +downpour, and a very wet downpour it was. + +It all occurred when Jack was hurrying to the ferry and when he ran +into the senior member of the firm, who was hurrying in the opposite +direction. + +"Ah, Jack!--the very man I wanted to see," cried Breen. "I was going to +write you. There's something doing up in that ore country. Better drop +in to-morrow, I may be able to handle it for you, after all." + +"I am sorry, sir, but it's not for sale," said Jack, trying to smother +his glee. + +"Why?" demanded Breen bluntly. + +"I have sold it to Mr. Robert Guthrie." + +"Guthrie! The devil you say!--When?" + +"To-day. The final papers are signed to-morrow. Excuse me, I must catch +my boat--" and away he went, his cup now brimming over, leaving Breen +biting his lips and muttering to himself as he gazed after him. + +"Guthrie!--My customer! Damn that boy--I might have known he would land +on his feet." + +But Jack kept on home to his sweetheart, most of the way in the air. + +Down in the little room all this time in the rear of the tailor's shop +the two old men sat talking. Peter kept nothing back; his lips quivering +again and another unbidden tear peeping over the edge of his eyelid when +he told of Jack's offer. + +"A dear boy, Isaac--yes, a dear boy. He never thinks with his head--only +with his heart. Never has since I knew him. Impulsive, emotional, +unpractical, no doubt--and yet somehow he always wins. Queer--very +queer! He comes upstairs to me and I start out on a fool's errand. He +goes down to you, and you hand him out your money. He gives it all away +the next day, and then we have Guthrie doubling the price. Queer, I tell +you, Isaac--extraordinary, that's what it is--almost uncanny." + +The Jew threw away his cigar, rested his short elbows on the arms of +his chair, and made a basket of his hands, the tips of all his fingers +touching. + +"No, you are wrong, my good friend. It is not extraordinary and it is +not uncanny. It is very simple--exceedingly simple. Nobody runs over +a child if he can help it. Even a thief will bring you back your +pocket-book if you trust him to take care of it. It is the trusting that +does it. Few men, no matter how crooked, can resist the temptation of +reaching, if only for a moment, an honest man's level." + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII + + + +Peter's coat was finished in time for the wedding--trust Isaac for +that--and so was his double-breasted white waistcoat--he had not changed +the cut in twenty years; and so were his pepper-and-salt trousers and +all his several appointments, little and big, even to his polka-dot +scarf of blue silk, patent-leather shoes and white gaiters. Quite the +best-dressed man in the room, everybody said, and they of all the people +in the world should have known. + +And the wedding! + +And all that went before it, and all that took place on that joyous day; +and all that came after that happiest of events! + +Ruth and Jack, with Peter's covert endorsement, had wanted to slip into +the village church some afternoon at dusk, with daddy and Peter and Miss +Felicia, and one or two more, and then to slip out again and disappear. +MacFarlane had been in favor of the old Maryland home, with Ruth's +grandmother in charge, and the neighbors driving up in mud-encrusted +buggies and lumbering coaches, their inmates warmed by roaring fires and +roaring welcomes--fat turkeys, hot waffles, egg-nogg, apple-toddy, and +the rest of it. The head of the house of Breen expressed the opinion +(this on the day Jack gave his check for the bonds prior to returning +them to Isaac, who wouldn't take a cent of interest) that the ceremony +should by all means take place in Grace Church, after which everybody +would adjourn to his house on the Avenue, where the wedding-breakfast +would be served, he being nearest of kin to the groom, and the bride +being temporarily without a home of her own--a proposition which, it is +needless to say, Jack declined on the spot, but in terms so courteous +and with so grand and distinguished an air that the head of the house of +Breen found his wonder increasing at the change that had come over the +boy since he shook the dust of the Breen home and office from his feet. + +The Grande Dame of Geneseo did not agree with any of these makeshifts. +There would be no Corklesville wedding if she could help it, with gaping +loungers at the church door; nor would there be any Maryland wedding +with a ten-mile ride over rough roads to a draughty country-house, where +your back would freeze while your cheeks burned up; nor yet again any +city wedding, with an awning over the sidewalk, a red carpet and squad +of police, with Tom, Dick, and Harry inside the church, and Harry, Dick +and Tom squeezed into an oak-panelled dining-room at high noon with +every gas-jet blazing. + +And she did not waste many seconds coming to this conclusion. Off went a +telegram, after hearing the various propositions, followed by a letter, +that might have melted the wires and set fire to the mail-sack, so +fervid were the contents. + +"Nonsense! My dear Ruth, you will be married in my house and the +breakfast will be in the garden. If Peter and your father haven't got +any common sense, that's no reason why you and Jack should lose your +wits." + +This, of course, ended the matter. No one living or dead had ever been +found with nerve enough to withstand Felicia Grayson when she had once +made up her mind. + +And then, again, there was no time to lose in unnecessary discussions. +Were not Ruth and her father picnicking in a hired villa, with half +their household goods in a box-car at Morfordsburg?--and was not Jack +still living in his two rooms at Mrs. Hicks's? The only change suggested +by the lovers was in the date of the wedding, Miss Felicia having +insisted that it should not take place until November, "FOUR WHOLE +WEEKS AWAY." But the old lady would not budge. Four weeks at least, she +insisted, would be required for the purchase and making of the wedding +clothes, which, with four more for the honeymoon (at this both Jack and +Ruth shouted with laughter, they having determined on a honeymoon +the like of which had never been seen since Adam and Eve went to +housekeeping in the Garden). These eight weeks, continued the practical +old lady, would be required to provide a suitable home for them both; +now an absolute necessity, seeing that Mr. Guthrie had made extensive +contracts with MacFarlane, which, with Jack's one-fifth interest in the +ore banks was sure to keep Jack and MacFarlane at Morfordsburg for some +years to come. + +So whizz went another telegram--this time from Jack--there was no time +for letters these days--stopping all work on the nearly completed log +cabin which the poor young superintendent had ordered, and which was all +he could afford, before the sale of the ore lands. But then THAT seemed +ages and ages ago. + +"Don't tell me what I want, sir," roared Mr. Golightly at the waiter, +in "Lend Me Five Shillings," when he brought a crust of bread and cheese +and a pickle with which to entertain Mrs. Phobbs; Golightly in the +meantime having discovered a purse full of sovereigns in the coat the +waiter had handed him by mistake. "Don't tell me what I said, sir. +I know what I said, sir! I said champagne, sir, and plenty of +it, sir!--turkeys, and plenty of them! + +Burgundy--partridges--lobsters--pineapple punch--pickled +salmon--everything! Look sharp, Be off!" (Can't you hear dear Joe +Jefferson's voice, gentle reader, through it all?) + +And now listen to our proud Jack, with the clink of his own gold in his +own pocket. + +"What did you say? A six by nine log hut, with a sheet-iron stove in one +corner and a cast-iron bedstead in another, and a board closet, and +a table and two chairs--and this, too, for a princess of quality and +station? Zounds, sirrah!--" (Holker Morris was the "Sirrah")--"I +didn't order anything of the kind. I ordered a bungalow all on one +floor--that's what I ordered--with a boudoir and two bedrooms, and +an extra one for my honored father-in-law, and still another for my +thrice-honored uncle, Mr. Peter Grayson, when he shall come to stay o' +nights; and porches front and back where my lady's hammock may be slung: +and a fireplace big enough to roll logs into as thick around as your +body and wide enough to warm every one all over; and a stable for my +lady's mare, with a stall for my saddle-horse. Out upon you, you Dago!" + +Presto, what a change! Away went the completed roof of the modest cabin +and down tumbled the sides. More post-holes were dug; more trenches +excavated; more great oaks toppled over to be sliced into rafters, +joists and uprights; more shingles--two carloads; more brick; more +plaster; more everything, including nails, locks, hinges, sash; +bath-tubs--two; lead pipe, basins, kitchen range--and so the new +bungalow was begun. + +Neither was there any time to be lost over the invitations. Miss +Felicia, we may be sure, prepared the list. It never bothered her head +whether the trip to Geneseo--and that, too, in the fall of the year, +when early snows were to be expected--might prevent any of the invited +guests from witnessing the glad ceremony. Those who loved Ruth she knew +would come even if they had to be accompanied by St. Bernard dogs with +kegs of brandy tied to their necks to get them across the glaciers, +including Uncle Peter, of course; as would also Ruth's dear grandmother, +who was just Miss Felicia's age, and MacFarlane's saintly sister Kate, +who had never taken off her widow's weeds since the war, and two of +her girl friends, with whom Ruth went to school, and who were to be her +bridesmaids. + +Then there were those who might or might not struggle through the +drifts, if there happened to be any--the head of the house of Breen, +for instance, and Mrs. B., and lots and lots of people of whom Jack had +never heard, aunts and uncles and cousins by the dozens; and lots +and lots of people of whom Ruth had never heard, of the same blood +relationship; and lots more of people from Washington Square and Murray +Hill, who loved the young people, and Peter, and his outspoken sister, +all of whom must be invited to the ceremony; including the Rector and +his wife from Corklesville, and--(no--that was all from Corklesville) +together with such selected inhabitants of Geneseo as dame Felicia +permitted inside of her doors. As for the several ambassadors, generals, +judges, dignitaries, attaches, secretaries, and other high and mighty +folks forming the circle of Miss Felicia's acquaintance, both here +and abroad, they were only to receive "announcement" cards, just as a +reminder that Miss Grayson of Geneseo was still in and of the world. + +The hardest nut of all to crack was given to Jack. They had all talked +it over, the dear girl saying "of course he shall come, Jack, if you +would like to have him." Jack adding that he should "never forget his +generosity," and MacFarlane closing the discussion by saying: + +"Go slow, Jack. I'd say yes in a minute. I am past all those foolish +prejudices, but it isn't your house, remember. Better ask Peter--he'll +tell you." + +Peter pursed his mouth when Jack laid the matter before him in Peter's +room the next day, tipped his head so far on one side that it looked as +if it might roll off any minute and go smash, and with an arching of his +eyebrows said: + +"Well, but why NOT invite Isaac? Has anybody ever been as good to you?" + +"Never any one, Uncle Peter--and I think as you do, and so does Ruth and +Mr. MacFarlane, but--" The boy hesitated and looked away. + +"But what?" queried Peter. + +"Well--there's Aunt Felicia. You know how particular she is; and she +doesn't know how splendid Mr. Cohen has been, and if he came to the +wedding she might not like it." + +"But Felicia is not going to be married, my boy," remarked Peter, with a +dry smile wrinkling the corners of his eyes. + +Jack laughed. "Yes--but it's her house." + +"Yes--and your wedding. Now go down and ask Mr. Cohen yourself. +You'll send him a card, of course, but do more than that. Call on him +personally and tell you want him to come, and why--and that I want him, +too. That will please him still more. The poor fellow lives a great deal +alone. Whether he will come or not, I don't know--but ask him. You owe +it to yourself as much as you do to him." + +"And you don't think Aunt Felicia will--" + +"Hang Felicia! You do what you think is right; it does not matter what +Felicia or anybody else thinks." + +Jack wheeled about and strode downstairs and into the back room where +the little man sat at his desk looking over some papers. Isaac's hand +was out and he was on his feet before Jack had reached his side. + +"Ah!--Mr. Millionaire. And so you have come to tell me some more good +news. Have you sold another mine? I should have looked out to see +whether your carriage did not stop at my door; and now sit down and tell +me what I can do for you. How well you look, and how happy. Ah, it is +very good to be young!" + +"What you can do for me is this, Mr. Cohen. I want you to come to our +wedding--will you? I have come myself to ask you," said Jack in all +sincerity. + +"So! And you have come yourself." He was greatly pleased; his +face showed it. "Well, that is very kind of you, but let me first +congratulate you. Yes--Mr. Grayson told me all about it, and how lovely +the young lady is. And now tell me, when is your wedding?" + +"Next month." + +"And where will it be?" + +"At Uncle Peter's old home up at Geneseo." + +"Oh, at that grand lady's place--the magnificent Miss Grayson." "Yes, +but it is only one night away. I will see that you are taken care of." + +The little man paused and toyed with the papers on his desk. His black, +diamond-pointed eyes sparkled and an irrepressible smile hung around his +lips. + +"Thank you very much, Mr. Breen--and thank your young lady too. You are +very kind and you are very polite. Yes--I mean it--very polite. And you +are sincere in what you say; that is the best of all. But I cannot go. +It is not the travelling at night--that is nothing. You and your +lady would be glad to see me and that would be worth it all, but the +magnificent Miss Grayson, she would not be glad to see me. You see, +my dear young man"--here the smile got loose and scampered up to his +eyelids--"I am a most unfortunate combination--oh, most unfortunate--for +the magnificent Miss Grayson. If I was only a tailor I might be +forgiven; if I was just a Jew I might be forgiven; but when I am both +a tailor and a Jew"--here the irrepressible went to pieces in a merry +laugh--"don't you see how impossible it is? And you--you, Mr. Breen! She +would never forgive you. 'My friend, Mr. Cohen,' you would have to say, +and she could do nothing. She must answer that she is most glad to see +me--or she might NOT answer, which would be worse. And it is not +her fault. You can't break down the barriers of centuries in a day. +No--no--I will not compromise you in that way. Let me come to see you +some time when it is all over, when your good uncle can come too. He +will bring me; perhaps. And now give my best respects to the lady--I +forget her name, and say to her for me, that if she is as thoughtful of +other people as you are, you deserve to be a very happy couple." + +Jack shook the little man's hand and went his way. He was sorry and +he was glad. He was also somewhat ashamed in his heart. It was not +altogether himself who had been thoughtful of other people. But for +Peter, perhaps, he might never have paid the visit. + +As the blissful day approached Geneseo was shaken to its centre, the +vibrations reaching to the extreme limits of the town. Not only was +Moggins who drove the village 'bus and tucked small packages under the +seat on the sly, overworked, but all the regular and irregular express +companies had to put on extra teams. Big box, little box, band box, +bundle, began to pour in, to say nothing of precious packages that +nobody but "Miss Grayson" could sign for. And then such a litter of cut +paper and such mounds of pasteboard boxes poked under Miss Felicia's +bed, so she could defend them in the dead of night, and with her life +if necessary, each one containing presents, big and little; the very +biggest being a flamboyant service of silver from the head of the house +of Breen and his wife, and the smallest a velvet-bound prayer-book from +Aunt Kate with inter-remembrances from MacFarlane (all the linen, glass, +and china); from Peter (two old decanters with silver coasters); from +Miss Felicia (the rest of her laces, besides innumerable fans and some +bits of rare jewelry); besides no end of things from the Holker Morrises +and the Fosters and dozens of others, who loved either Ruth or Jack, or +somebody whom each one or both of them loved, or perhaps their fathers +and mothers before them. The Scribe has forgotten the list and the +donors, and really it is of no value, except as confirmation of the fact +that they are still in the possession of the couple, and that none of +them was ever exchanged for something else nor will be until the end of +time. + +One curious-looking box, however, smelling of sandalwood and dried +cinnamon, and which arrived the day the ceremony took place, is worthy +of recall, because of the universal interest which it excited. It was +marked "Fragile" on the outside, and was packed with extraordinary care. +Miss Felicia superintended the unrolling and led the chorus of "Oh, how +lovely!" herself, when an Imari jar, with carved teakwood stand, was +brought to light. So exquisite was it in glaze, form, and color that +for a moment no one thought of the donor. Then their curiosity got the +better of them and they began to search through the wrappings for +the card. It wasn't in the box; it wasn't hidden in the final bag; +it wasn't--here a bright thought now flashed through the dear lady's +brain--down went her shapely hand into the depths of the tall jar, and +up came an envelope bearing Ruth's name and enclosing a card which made +the grande dame catch her breath. + +"Mr. Isaac Cohen! What--the little tailor!" she gasped out. "The Jew! +Well, upon my word--did you ever hear of such impudence!" + +Isaac would have laughed the harder could he have seen her face. + +Jack caught up the vase and ran with it to Ruth, who burst out with +another: "Oh, what a beauty!" followed by "Who sent it?" + +"A gentleman journeyman tailor, my darling," said Jack, with a flash of +his eye at Peter, his face wreathed in smiles. + +And with the great day--a soft November day--summer had lingered on +a-purpose--came the guests: the head of the house of Breen and his +wife--not poor Corinne, of course, who poured out her heart in a letter +instead, which she entrusted to her mother to deliver; and Holker Morris +and Mrs. Morris, and the Fosters and the Granthams and Wildermings and +their wives and daughters and sons, and one stray general, who stopped +over on his way to the West, and who said when he entered, looking +so very grand and important, that he didn't care whether he had been +invited to the ceremony or not, at which Miss Felicia was delighted, +he being a major-general on the retired list, and not a poor tailor +who--no, we won't refer to that again; besides a very, VERY select +portion of the dear lady's townspeople--the house being small, as she +explained, and Miss MacFarlane's intimates and acquaintances being both +importunate and numerous. + +And with the gladsome hour came the bride. + +None of us will ever forget her. Not only was she a vision of rare +loveliness, but there was in her every glance and movement that +stateliness and grace that poise and sureness of herself that marks the +high-born woman the world over when she finds herself the cynosure of +all eyes. + +All who saw her descend Miss Felicia's stairs held their breath in +adoration: Not a flight of steps at all, but a Jacob's ladder down which +floated a company of angels in pink and ivory--one all in white, her +lovely head crowned by a film of old lace in which nestled a single +rose. + +On she came--slowly--proudly--her slippered feet touching the carpeted +steps as daintily as treads a fawn; her gown crinkling into folds of +silver about her knees, one fair hand lost in a mist of gauze, the +other holding the blossoms which Jack had pressed to his lips--until she +reached her father's side. + +"Dear daddy," I heard her whisper as she patted his sleeve with her +fingers. + +Ah! but it was a proud day for MacFarlane. I saw his bronzed and +weather-beaten face flush when he caught sight of her in all her +gracious beauty; but it was when she reached his side and laid her hand +on his arm, as he told me afterward, that the choke came. She was so +like her mother. + +The two swept past me into the old-fashioned parlor, now a bower of +roses, where Jack and Peter and Felicia, with the elect, waited their +coming, and I followed, halting at the doorway. From this point of +vantage I peered in as best I could over and between the heads of the +more fortunate, but I heard all that went on; the precise, sonorous +voice of the bishop--(catch Miss Felicia having anybody but a bishop); +the clear responses--especially Jack's--as if he had been waiting all +his life to say those very words and insisted on being heard; the soft +crush of satin as Ruth knelt; the rustle of her gown when she regained +her feet; the measured words: "Whom God hath joined together, let no +man put asunder"--and then the outbreak of joyous congratulations. As I +looked in upon them all--old fellow as I am--listening to their joyous +laughter; noting the wonderful toilettes, the festoons and masses of +flowers; watching Miss Felicia as she moved about the room (and never +had I seen her more the "Grande Dame" than she was that day), welcoming +her guests with a graciousness that must have opened some of their +eyes--even fat, red-faced Arthur Breen, perspiring in pearl-colored +gloves and a morning frock coat that fitted all sides of him except the +front, and Mrs. Arthur in moire antique and diamonds, were enchanted; +noting, too, Peter's perfectly appointed dress and courtly manners, +he taking the whole responsibility of the occasion on his own +shoulders--head of the house, really, for the time; receiving people at +the door; bowing them out again; carrying glasses of punch--stopping to +hobnob with this or that old neighbor: "Ah, my dear Mrs. Townehalle, how +young and well you look; and you tell me this is your daughter. I +knew your mother, my dear, when she was your age, and she was the very +prettiest girl in the county. And now let me present you to a most +charming woman, Mrs. Foster, of New York, who--" etc., etc. Or greeting +some old gray-head with: "Well, well--of coarse it is--why, Judge, +I haven't seen you since you left the bench which you graced so +admirably," etc, etc.; watching, too, Ruth and Jack as they stood +beneath a bower of arching roses--(Miss Felicia had put it together with +her own hands)--receiving the congratulations and good wishes of those +they knew and those they did not know; both trying to remember the names +of strangers; both laughing over their mistakes, and both famished for +just one kiss behind some door or curtain where nobody could see. As I +looked on, I say, noting all these and a dozen other things, it was +good to feel that there was yet another spot in this world of care where +unbridled happiness held full sway and joy and gladness were contagious. + +But it was in the tropical garden, with its frog pond, climbing roses in +full bloom, water-lilies, honeysuckle, and other warm-weather shrubs and +plants (not a single thing was a-bloom outside, even the chrysanthemums +had been frost-bitten), that the greatest fun took place. That was a +sight worth ten nights on the train to see. + +Here the wedding breakfast was spread, the bride's table being placed +outside that same arbor where Jack once tried so hard to tell Ruth he +loved her (how often have they laughed over it since); a table with +covers for seven, counting the two bridesmaids and the two gallants +in puffy steel-gray scarfs and smooth steel-gray gloves. The other +guests--the relations and intimate friends who had been invited to +remain after the ceremony--were to find seats either at the big or +little tables placed under the palms or beneath the trellises of +jasmine, or upon the old porch overlooking the tropical garden. + +It was Jack's voice that finally caught my attention. I could not see +clearly on account of the leaves and tangled vines, but I could hear. + +"But we want you, and you must." + +"Oh, please, do," pleaded Ruth; there was no mistaking the music of her +tones, or the southern accent that softened them. + +"But what nonsense--an old duffer like me!" This was Peter's voice--no +question about it. + +"We won't any of us sit down if you don't," Jack was speaking now. + +"And it will spoil everything," cried Ruth. "Jack and I planned it long +ago; and we have brought you out a special chair; and see your card--see +what it says: 'Dear Uncle Peter--'" + +"Sit down with you young people at your wedding breakfast!" cried Peter, +"and--" He didn't get any farther. Ruth had stopped what was to follow +with a kiss. I know, for I craned my neck and caught the flash of the +old fellow's bald head with the fair girl's cheek close to his own. + +"Well, then--just as you want it--but there's the Major and Felicia and +your father." + +But they did not want any of these people, Ruth cried with a ringing +laugh; didn't want any old people; they just wanted their dear Uncle +Peter, and they were going to have him; a resolution which was put +to vote and carried unanimously, the two pink bridesmaids and the two +steel-gray gentlemen voting the loudest. + +The merriment ceased when Ruth disappeared and came back in a dark-blue +travelling dress and Jack in a brown suit. We were all in the doorway, +our hands filled with rose petals--no worn-out slippers or hail of +rice for this bride--when she tried to slip through in a dash for the +carriage, but the dear lady caught and held her, clasping the girl to +her heart, kissing her lips, her forehead, her hands--she could be very +tender when she loved anybody; and she loved Ruth as her life; Peter and +her father going ahead to hold open the door where they had their kisses +and handshakes, their blessings, and their last words all to themselves. + +The honeymoon slipped away as do all honeymoons, and one crisp, cool +December day a lumbering country stage containing two passengers +struggled up a steep hill and stopped before a long, rambling building +nearing completion. All about were piles of partly used lumber, broken +bundles of shingles, empty barrels, and abandoned mortar beds. Straight +from the low slanting roof with its queer gables, rose a curl of blue +smoke, telling of comfort and cheer within. Back of it towered huge +trees, and away off in the distance swept a broad valley hazy in the +morning light. + +"Oh, Jack--what a love!" cried one passenger--she had alighted with a +spring, her cheeks aglow with the bracing mountain air, and was standing +taking it all in. "And, oh--see the porch!--and the darling windows and +the dear little panes of glass! And, Jack--" she had reached the open +door now, and was sweeping her eyes around the interior--"Oh!--oh!--what +a fireplace!--and such ducky little shelves--and the flowers, and the +table and the big easy chairs and rugs! ISN'T it lovely!!" + +And then the two, hand in hand, stepped inside and shut the door. + +THE END. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Peter, by F. 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