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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of At The Sign Of The Eagle, by Gilbert Parker
+
+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: At The Sign Of The Eagle
+
+Author: Gilbert Parker
+
+Release Date: October 18, 2006 [EBook #6218]
+Last Updated: August 27, 2016
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AT THE SIGN OF THE EAGLE ***
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+AT THE SIGN OF THE EAGLE
+
+By Gilbert Parker
+
+
+
+          “Life in her creaking shoes
+          Goes, and more formal grows,
+          A round of calls and cues:
+          Love blows as the wind blows.
+          Blows!...”
+
+
+
+“Well, what do you think of them, Molly?” said Sir Duke Lawless to his
+wife, his eyes resting with some amusement on a big man and a little one
+talking to Lord Hampstead.
+
+“The little man is affected, gauche, and servile. The big one
+picturesque and superior in a raw kind of way. He wishes to be rude
+to some one, and is disappointed because, just at the moment, Lord
+Hampstead is too polite to give him his cue. A dangerous person in a
+drawing-room, I should think; but interesting. You are a bold man to
+bring them here, Duke. Is it not awkward for our host?”
+
+“Hampstead did it with his eyes open. Besides, there is business behind
+it--railways, mines, and all that; and Hampstead’s nephew is going to
+the States fortune-hunting. Do you see?”
+
+Lady Lawless lifted her eyebrows. “‘To what base uses are we come,
+Horatio!’ You invite me to dinner and--‘I’ll fix things up right.’ That
+is the proper phrase, for I have heard you use it. Status for dollars.
+Isn’t it low? I know you do not mean what you say, Duke.”
+
+Sir Duke’s eyes were playing on the men with a puzzled expression, as
+though trying to read the subject of their conversation; and he did not
+reply immediately. Soon, however, he turned and looked down at his wife
+genially, and said: “Well, that’s about it, I suppose. But really there
+is nothing unusual in this, so far as Mr. John Vandewaters is concerned,
+for in his own country he travels ‘the parlours of the Four Hundred,’
+and is considered ‘a very elegant gentleman.’ We must respect a man
+according to the place he holds in his own community. Besides, as you
+suggest, Mr. Vandewaters is interesting. I might go further, and say
+that he is a very good fellow indeed.”
+
+“You will be asking him down to Craigruie next,” said Lady Lawless,
+inquisition in her look.
+
+“That is exactly what I mean to do, with your permission, my dear. I
+hope to see him laying about among the grouse in due season.”
+
+“My dear Duke, you are painfully Bohemian. I can remember when you were
+perfectly precise and exclusive, and--”
+
+“What an awful prig I must have been!”
+
+“Don’t interrupt. That was before you went aroving in savage countries,
+and picked up all sorts of acquaintances, making friends with the most
+impossible folk. I should never be surprised to see you drive Shon
+McGann--and his wife, of course--and Pretty Pierre--with some other
+man’s wife--up to the door in a dogcart; their clothes in a saddle-bag,
+or something less reputable, to stay a month. Duke, you have lost your
+decorum; you are a gipsy.”
+
+“I fear Shon McGann and Pierre wouldn’t enjoy being with us as I should
+enjoy having them. You can never understand what a life that is out in
+Pierre’s country. If it weren’t for you and the bairn, I should be
+off there now. There is something of primeval man in me. I am never so
+healthy and happy, when away from you, as in prowling round the outposts
+of civilisation, and living on beans and bear’s meat.”
+
+He stretched to his feet, and his wife rose with him. There was a fine
+colour on his cheek, and his eye had a pleasant fiery energy. His wife
+tapped him on the arm with her fan. She understood him very well, though
+pretending otherwise. “Duke, you are incorrigible. I am in daily dread
+of your starting off in the middle of the night, leaving me--”
+
+“Watering your couch with your tears?”
+
+“--and hearing nothing more from you till a cable from Quebec or
+Winnipeg tells me that you are on your way to the Arctic Circle with
+Pierre or some other heathen. But, seriously, where did you meet Mr.
+Vandewaters--Heavens, what a name!--and that other person? And what is
+the other person’s name?”
+
+“The other person carries the contradictory name of Stephen Pride.”
+
+“Why does he continually finger his face, and show his emotions so? He
+assents to everything said to him by an appreciative exercise of his
+features.”
+
+“My dear, you ask a great and solemn question. Let me introduce the
+young man, that you may get your answer at the fountain-head.”
+
+“Wait a moment, Duke. Sit down and tell me when and where you met these
+men, and why you have continued the acquaintance.”
+
+“Molly,” he said, obeying her, “you are a terrible inquisitor, and the
+privacy of one’s chamber were the kinder place to call one to account.
+But I bend to your implacability.... Mr. Vandewaters, like myself, has
+a taste for roving, though our aims are not identical. He has a
+fine faculty for uniting business and pleasure. He is not a thorough
+sportsman--there is always a certain amount of enthusiasm, even in the
+unrewarded patience of the true hunter; but he sufficeth. Well, Mr.
+Vandewaters had been hunting in the far north, and looking after a
+promising mine at the same time. He was on his way south at one angle,
+I at another angle, bound for the same point. Shon McGann was with me;
+Pierre with Vandewaters. McGann left me, at a certain point, to join his
+wife at a Barracks of the Riders of the Plains. I had about a hundred
+miles to travel alone. Well, I got along the first fifty all right.
+Then came trouble. In a bad place of the hills I fell and broke an ankle
+bone. I had an Eskimo dog of the right sort with me. I wrote a line on
+a bit of birch bark, tied it round his neck, and started him away,
+trusting my luck that he would pull up somewhere. He did. He ran into
+Vandewaters’s camp that evening. Vandewaters and Pierre started away at
+once. They had dogs, and reached me soon.
+
+“It was the first time I had seen Pierre for years. They fixed me up,
+and we started south. And that’s as it was in the beginning with Mr.
+John Vandewaters and me.”
+
+Lady Lawless had been watching the two strangers during the talk, though
+once or twice she turned and looked at her husband admiringly. When he
+had finished she said: “That is very striking. What a pity it is that
+men we want to like spoil all by their lack of form!”
+
+“Don’t be so sure about Vandewaters. Does he look flurried by these
+surroundings?”
+
+“No. He certainly has an air of contentment. It is, I suppose, the usual
+air of self-made Americans.”
+
+“Go to London, E.C., and you will find the same, plus smugness. Now, Mr.
+Vandewaters has real power--and taste too, as you will see. Would you
+think Mr. Stephen Pride a self-made man?”
+
+“I cannot think of any one else who would be proud of the patent. Please
+to consider the seals about his waistcoat, and the lady-like droop of
+his shoulders.”
+
+“Yet he is thought to be a young man of parts. He has money, made by
+his ancestors; he has been round the world; he belongs to societies for
+culture and--”
+
+“And he will rave of the Poet’s Corner, ask if one likes Pippa Passes,
+and expect to be introduced to every woman in the room at a tea-party,
+to say nothing of proposing impossible things, such as taking one’s girl
+friends to the opera alone, sending them boxes of confectionery, and
+writing them dreadfully reverential notes at the same time. Duke, the
+creature is impossible, believe me. Never, never, if you love me, invite
+him to Craigruie. I met one of his tribe at Lady Macintyre’s when I was
+just out of school; and at the dinner-table, when the wine went round,
+he lifted his voice and asked for a cup of tea, saying he never ‘drank.’
+Actually he did, Duke.”
+
+Her husband laughed quietly. He had a man’s enjoyment of a woman’s
+dislike of bad form. “A common criminal man, Molly. Tell me, which is
+the greater crime: to rob a bank or use a fish-knife for asparagus?”
+
+Lady Lawless fanned herself. “Duke, you make me hot. But if you will
+have the truth: the fish-knife business by all means. Nobody need feel
+uncomfortable about the burglary, except the burglar; but see what a
+position for the other person’s hostess.”
+
+“My dear, women have no civic virtues. Their credo is, ‘I believe in
+beauty and fine linen, and the thing that is not gauche.’”
+
+His wife was smiling. “Well, have it your own way. It is a creed of
+comfort, at any rate. And now, Duke, if I must meet the man of mines and
+railways and the spare person making faces at Lord Hampstead, let it be
+soon, that it may be done with; and pray don’t invite them to Craigruie
+till I have a chance to speak with you again. I will not have impossible
+people at a house-party.”
+
+“What a difficult fellow your husband is, Molly!”
+
+“Difficult; but perfectly possible. His one fault is a universal
+sympathy which shines alike on the elect--and the others.”
+
+“So. Well, this is our dance. After it is over, prepare for the
+Americanos.”
+
+Half-an-hour later Mr. Vandewaters was standing in a conspicuous corner
+talking to Lady Lawless.
+
+“It is, then, your first visit to England?” she asked. He had a dry,
+deliberate voice, unlike the smooth, conventional voices round him.
+“Yes, Lady Lawless,” he replied: “it’s the first time I’ve put my foot
+in London town, and--perhaps you won’t believe it of an American--I find
+it doesn’t take up a very conspicuous place.”
+
+The humour was slightly accentuated, and Lady Lawless shrank a little,
+as if she feared the depths of divertisement to which this speech might
+lead; but a quick look at the man assured her of his common-sense, and
+she answered: “It is of the joys of London that no one is so important
+but finds the space he fills a small one, which may be filled acceptably
+by some one else at any moment. It is easy for kings and princes
+even--we have secluded princes here now--to get lost and forgotten in
+London.” “Well, that leaves little chance for ordinary Americans, who
+don’t bank on titles.”
+
+She looked up, puzzled in spite of herself. But she presently said, with
+frankness and naivete: “What does ‘bank on titles’ mean?”
+
+He stroked his beard, smiling quaintly, and said: “I don’t know how to
+put the thing better-it seems to fill the bill. But, anyway, Americans
+are republicans; and don’t believe in titles, and--”
+
+“O, pardon me,” she interrupted: “of course, I see.”
+
+“We’ve got little ways of talking not the same as yours. You don’t seem
+to have the snap to conversation that we have in the States. But I’ll
+say here that I think you have got a better style of talking. It isn’t
+exhausting.”
+
+“Mr. Pride said to me a moment ago that they spoke better English in
+Boston than any other place in the world.”
+
+“Did he, though, Lady Lawless? That’s good. Well, I guess he was only
+talking through his hat.”
+
+She was greatly amused. Her first impressions were correct. The man was
+interesting. He had a quaint, practical mind. He had been thrown upon
+his own resources, since infancy almost, in a new country; and he
+had seen with his own eyes, nakedly, and without predisposition or
+instruction. From childhood thoroughly adaptable, he could get into
+touch with things quickly, and instantly like or dislike them. He had
+been used to approach great concerns with fearlessness and competency.
+He respected a thing only for its real value, and its intrinsic value
+was as clear to him as the market value. He had, perhaps, an exaggerated
+belief in the greatness of his own country, because he liked eagerness
+and energy and daring. The friction and hurry of American life added to
+his enjoyment. They acted on him like a stimulating air, in which he
+was always bold, collected, and steady. He felt an exhilaration in being
+superior to the rustle of forces round him. It had been his habit to
+play the great game of business with decision and adroitness. He had
+not spared his opponent in the fight; he had crushed where his interests
+were in peril and the sport played into his hands; comforting himself,
+if he thought of the thing, with the knowledge that he himself would
+have been crushed if the other man had not. He had never been wilfully
+unfair, nor had he used dishonourable means to secure his ends: his name
+stood high in his own country for commercial integrity; men said: he
+“played square.” He had, maybe, too keen a contempt for dulness and
+incompetency in enterprise, and he loathed red-tape; but this
+was racial. His mind was as open as his manners. He was utterly
+approachable. He was a millionaire, and yet in his own offices in New
+York he was as accessible as a President. He handled things without
+gloves, and this was not a good thing for any that came to him with a
+weak case. He had a penetrating intelligence; and few men attempted,
+after their first sophistical statements, to impose upon him: he sent
+them away unhappy. He did not like England altogether: first, because it
+lacked, as he said, enterprise; and because the formality, decorum and
+excessive convention fretted him. He saw that in many things the old
+land was backward, and he thought that precious time was being wasted.
+Still, he could see that there were things, purely social, in which
+the Londoners were at advantage; and he acknowledged this when he said,
+concerning Stephen Pride’s fond boast, that he was “talking through his
+hat.”
+
+Lady Lawless smiled, and after a moment rejoined:
+
+“Does it mean that he was mumming, as it were, like a conjurer?”
+
+“Exactly. You are pretty smart, Lady Lawless; for I can see that, from
+your stand-point, it isn’t always easy to catch the meaning of sayings
+like that. But they do hit the case, don’t they?”
+
+“They give a good deal of individuality to conversation,” was the vague
+reply. “What, do you think, is the chief lack in England?”
+
+“Nerve and enterprise. But I’m not going to say you ought to have the
+same kind of nerve as ours. We are a different tribe, with different
+surroundings, and we don’t sit in the same kind of saddle. We ride for
+all we’re worth all the time. You sit back and take it easy. We are
+never satisfied unless we are behind a fast trotter; you are
+content with a good cob that steps high, tosses its head, and has an
+aristocratic stride.”
+
+“Have you been in the country much?” she asked, without any seeming
+relevancy.
+
+He was keen enough. He saw the veiled point of her question. “No: I’ve
+never been in the country here,” he said. “I suppose you mean that I
+don’t see or know England till I’ve lived there.”
+
+“Quite so, Mr. Vandewaters.” She smiled to think what an undistinguished
+name it was. It suggested pumpkins in the front garden. Yet here its
+owner was perfectly at his ease, watching the scene before him
+with good-natured superiority. “London is English; but it is very
+cosmopolitan, you know,” she added; “and I fancy you can see it is not a
+place for fast trotters. The Park would be too crowded for that--even if
+one wished to drive a Maud S.”
+
+He turned his slow keen eyes on her, and a smile broadened into a low
+laugh, out of which he said:
+
+“What do you know of Maud S? I didn’t think you would be up in racing
+matters.”
+
+“You forget that my husband is a traveller, and an admirer of Americans
+and things American.”
+
+“That’s so,” he answered; “and a staving good traveller he is. You don’t
+catch him asleep, I can tell you, Lady Lawless. He has stuff in him.”
+
+“The stuff to make a good American?”
+
+“Yes; with something over. He’s the kind of Englishman that can keep
+cool when things are ticklish, and look as if he was in a parlour all
+the time. Americans keep cool, but look cheeky. O, I know that. We
+square our shoulders and turn out our toes, and push our hands into
+our pockets, and act as if we owned the world. Hello--by Jingo!” Then,
+apologetically: “I beg your pardon, Lady Lawless; it slipped.”
+
+Lady Lawless followed Mr. Vandewaters’s glance, and saw, passing on
+her husband’s arm, a tall, fascinating girl. She smiled meaningly to
+herself, as she sent a quick quizzical look at the American, and said,
+purposely misinterpreting his exclamation: “I am not envious, Mr.
+Vandewaters.”
+
+“Of course not. That’s a commoner thing with us than with you. American
+girls get more notice and attention from their cradles up, and they
+want it all along the line. You see, we’ve mostly got the idea that an
+Englishman expects from his wife what an American woman expects from her
+husband.”
+
+“How do Americans get these impressions about us?”
+
+“From our newspapers, I guess; and the newspapers take as the
+ground-work of their belief the Bow Street cases where Englishmen are
+cornered for beating their wives.”
+
+“Suppose we were to judge of American Society by the cases in a Chicago
+Divorce Court?”
+
+“There you have me on toast. That’s what comes of having a husband who
+takes American papers. Mind you, I haven’t any idea that the American
+papers are right. I’ve had a lot to do with newspapers, and they are
+pretty ignorant, I can tell you--cheap all round. What’s a newspaper,
+anyway, but an editor, more or less smart and overworked, with an owner
+behind him who has got some game on hand? I know: I’ve been there.”
+
+“How have you ‘been there’?”
+
+“I’ve owned four big papers all at once, and had fifty others under my
+thumb.”
+
+Lady Lawless caught her breath; but she believed him. “You must be very
+rich.”
+
+“Owning newspapers doesn’t mean riches. It’s a lever, though, for
+tipping the dollars your way.”
+
+“I suppose they have--tipped your way?”
+
+“Yes: pretty well. But, don’t follow this lead any farther, Lady
+Lawless, or you may come across something that will give you a start. I
+should like to keep on speaking terms with you.”
+
+“You mean that a man cannot hold fifty newspapers under his thumb, and
+live in the glare of a search-light also?”
+
+“Exactly. You can’t make millions without pulling wires.”
+
+She saw him watching the girl on her husband’s arm. She had the
+instinct of her sex. She glanced at the stately girl again; then at
+Mr. Vandewaters critically, and rejoined, quizzically: “Did you--make
+millions?”
+
+His eyes still watching, he replied abstractedly. “Yes: a few handfuls,
+and lost a few--‘that’s why I’m here.’”
+
+“To get them back on the London market?”
+
+“That’s why I am here.”
+
+“You have not come in vain?”
+
+“I could tell you better in a month or so from now. In any case, I don’t
+stand to lose. I’ve come to take things away from England.”
+
+“I hope you will take away a good opinion of it.”
+
+“If there’d been any doubt of it half an hour ago, it would be all gone
+this minute.”
+
+“Which is nice of you; and not in your usual vein, I should think. But,
+Mr. Vandewaters, we want you to come to Craigruie, our country place, to
+spend a week. Then you will have a chance to judge us better, or rather
+more broadly and effectively.” She was looking at the girl, and at that
+moment she caught Sir Duke’s eye. She telegraphed to him to come.
+
+“Thank you, Lady Lawless, I’m glad you have asked me. But--” He glanced
+to where Mr. Pride was being introduced to the young lady on Sir Duke’s
+arm, and paused.
+
+“We are hoping,” she added, interpreting his thought, and speaking a
+little dryly, “that your friend, Mr. Stephen Pride”--the name sounded so
+ludicrous--“will join us.”
+
+“He’ll be proud enough, you may be sure. It’s a singular combination,
+Pride and myself, isn’t it? But, you see, he has a fortune which, as
+yet, he has never been able to handle for himself; and I do it for him.
+We are partners, and, though you mightn’t think it, he has got more
+money now than when he put his dollars at my disposal to help me make a
+few millions at a critical time.”
+
+Lady Lawless let her fan touch Mr. Vandewaters’s arm. “I am going to
+do you a great favour. You see that young lady coming to us with
+my husband? Well, I am going to introduce you to her. It is such as
+she--such women--who will convince you--”
+
+“Yes?”
+
+“--that you have yet to make your--what shall I call it?--Ah, I have it:
+your ‘biggest deal,’--and, in truth, your best.”
+
+“Is that so?” rejoined Vandewaters musingly. “Is that so? I always
+thought I’d make my biggest deal in the States. Who is she? She is
+handsome.”
+
+“She is more than handsome, and she is the Honourable Gracia Raglan.”
+
+“I don’t understand about ‘The Honourable.’”
+
+“I will explain that another time.”
+
+A moment later Miss Raglan, in a gentle bewilderment, walked down the
+ballroom on the arm of the millionaire, half afraid that something
+gauche would happen; but by the time she had got to the other end was
+reassured, and became interested.
+
+Sir Duke said to his wife in an aside, before he left her with Mr.
+Vandewaters’s financial partner: “What is your pretty conspiracy,
+Molly?”
+
+“Do talk English, Duke, and do not interfere.”
+
+A few hours later, on the way home, Sir Duke said: “You asked Mr. Pride
+too?”
+
+“Yes; I grieve to say.”
+
+“Why grieve?”
+
+“Because his experiences with us seem to make him dizzy. He will be
+terribly in earnest with every woman in the house, if--”
+
+“If you do not keep him in line yourself?”
+
+“Quite so. And the creature is not even interesting.”
+
+“Cast your eye about. He has millions; you have cousins.”
+
+“You do not mean that, Duke? I would see them in their graves first. He
+says ‘My lady’ every other sentence, and wants to send me flowers, and a
+box for the opera, and to drive me in the Park.”
+
+Her husband laughed. “I’ll stake my life he can’t ride. You will have
+him about the place like a tame cat.” Then, seeing that his wife was
+annoyed: “Never mind, Molly, I will help you all I can. I want to be
+kind to them.”
+
+“I know you do. But what is your ‘pretty conspiracy,’ Duke?”
+
+“A well-stocked ranche in Colorado.” He did not mean it. And she knew
+it.
+
+“How can you be so mercenary?” she replied.
+
+Then they both laughed, and said that they were like the rest of the
+world.
+
+
+
+II
+
+Lady Lawless was an admirable hostess, and she never appeared to better
+advantage in the character than during the time when Miss Gracia Raglan,
+Mr. John Vandewaters, and Mr. Stephen Pride were guests at Craigruie.
+The men accepted Mr. Vandewaters at once as a good fellow and a very
+sensible man. He was a heavy-weight for riding; but it was not the
+hunting season, and, when they did ride, a big horse carried him very
+well. At grouse-shooting he showed to advantage. Mr. Pride never rode.
+He went shooting only once, and then, as Mr. Vandewaters told him, he
+got “rattled.” He was then advised by his friend to remain at home
+and cultivate his finer faculties. At the same time, Mr. Vandewaters
+parenthetically remarked to Sir Duke Lawless that Mr. Pride knew the
+poets backwards, and was smart at French. He insisted on bringing out
+the good qualities of his comrade; but he gave him much strong advice
+privately. He would have done it just the same at the risk of losing
+a fortune, were it his whim--he would have won the fortune back in due
+course.
+
+At the present time Mr. Vandewaters was in the heat of some large
+commercial movements. No one would have supposed it, save for the fact
+that telegrams and cablegrams were brought to him day and night. He had
+liberally salaried the telegraph-clerk to work after hours, simply to
+be at his service. The contents of these messages never shook his
+equanimity. He was quiet, urbane, dry-mannered, at all times. Mr. Pride,
+however, was naturally excitable. He said of himself earnestly that he
+had a sensitive nature. He said it to Mrs. Gregory Thorne, whose reply
+was: “Dear me, and when things are irritating and painful to you do you
+never think of suicide?” Then she turned away to speak to some one, as
+if she had been interrupted, and intended to take up the subject again;
+but she never did. This remark caused Mr. Pride some nervous moments.
+He was not quite sure how she meant it. But it did not depress him as it
+might otherwise have done, for his thoughts were running much in another
+channel with a foolish sort of elation.
+
+As Lady Lawless had predicted, he was assiduously attentive to her, and
+it needed all her tact and cheerful frankness to keep him in line. She
+managed it very well: Mr. Pride’s devotion was not too noticeable to
+the other guests. She tried to turn his attentions to some pretty girls;
+but, although there were one or two who might, in some weak moments,
+have compromised with his millions, he did no more than saunter with
+them on the terrace and oppress them with his lisping egotism. Every one
+hinted that he seemed an estimable, but trying, young man; and, as Sir
+Duke said to his wife, the men would not have him at any price.
+
+As for Mr. Vandewaters and Gracia Raglan, Lady Lawless was not very sure
+that her delicate sympathy was certain of reward. The two were naturally
+thrown together a good deal; but Miss Raglan was a girl of singular
+individuality and high-mindedness, and she was keen enough to see from
+the start what Lady Lawless suspected might happen. She did not resent
+this,--she was a woman; but it roused in her a spirit of criticism, and
+she threw up a barrier of fine reserve, which puzzled Mr. Vandewaters.
+He did not see that Lady Lawless was making a possible courtship easy
+for him. If he had, it would have made no difference: he would have
+looked at it as at most things, broadly. He was not blind to the fact
+that his money might be a “factor”, but, as he said to himself, his
+millions were a part of him--they represented, like whist-counters, so
+much pluck and mother-wit. He liked the general appreciation of them: he
+knew very well that people saw him in them and them in him. Miss Raglan
+attracted him from the moment of meeting. She was the first woman of her
+class that he had ever met closely; and the possibility of having as his
+own so adorable a comrade was inspiring. He sat down sometimes as the
+days went on--it was generally when he was shaving--and thought upon his
+intention regarding Miss Raglan, in relation to his humble past; for
+he had fully made up his mind to marry her, if she would have him.
+He wondered what she would think when he told her of his life; and he
+laughed at the humour of the situation. He had been into Debrett, and he
+knew that she could trace her family back to the Crusades.
+
+He determined to make a clean breast of it. One day he was obliged to
+remain at the house in expectation of receiving important telegrams, and
+the only people who appeared at lunch were Lady Lawless, Mrs. Gregory
+Thorne (who was expecting her husband), Miss Raglan; Pride, and himself.
+While at luncheon he made up his mind to have a talk with Miss Raglan.
+In the library after luncheon the opportunity was given. It was a warm,
+pleasant day, and delightful in the grounds.
+
+After one or two vain efforts to escape, Mrs. Gregory Thorne and Lady
+Lawless resigned themselves to the attentions of Mr. Pride; and for
+once Lady Lawless did not check Mrs. Thorne’s irony. It was almost a
+satisfaction to see Mr. Pride’s bewildered looks, and his inability
+to know whether or not he should resent (whether it would be proper to
+resent) this softly-showered satire.
+
+Mr. Vandewaters and Gracia Raglan talked more freely than they had ever
+done before.
+
+“Do you really like England?” she said to him; then, waving her hand
+lightly to the beeches and the clean-cropped grass through the window,
+“I mean do you like our ‘trim parterres,’ our devotion to mere living,
+pleasure, sport, squiring, and that sort of thing?”
+
+He raised his head, glanced out, drew in a deep breath, thrust his hands
+down in the pockets of his coat, and looking at her with respectful good
+humour, said: “Like it? Yes, right down to the ground. Why shouldn’t
+I! It’s the kind of place I should like to come to in my old days. You
+needn’t die in a hurry here. See?”
+
+“Are you sure you would not be like the old sailors who must live where
+they can scent the brine? You have been used to an active, adventurous,
+hurried life. Do you think you could endure this humdrum of enjoyment?”
+
+It would be hard to tell quite what was running in Gracia Raglan’s mind,
+and, for the moment, she herself hardly knew; but she had a sudden,
+overmastering wish to make the man talk: to explore and, maybe, find
+surprising--even trying--things. She was astonished that she enjoyed his
+society so keenly. Even now, as she spoke, she remembered a day and a
+night since his coming, when he was absent in London; also how the party
+seemed to have lost its character and life, and how, when Mr. Pride
+condescended, for a few moments, to decline from Lady Lawless upon
+herself, she was even pleasant to him, making him talk about Mr.
+Vandewaters, and relishing the enthusiastic loyalty of the supine young
+man. She, like Lady Lawless, had learned to see behind the firm bold
+exterior, not merely a notable energy, force, self-reliance, and
+masterfulness, but a native courtesy, simplicity, and refinement
+which surprised her. Of all the men she knew not a half-dozen had an
+appreciation of nature or of art. They affected art, and some of them
+went to the Academy or the private views in Bond Street; but they had
+little feeling for the business. They did it in a well-bred way, with
+taste, but not with warmth.
+
+Mr. Vandewaters now startled her by quoting suddenly lines from an
+English poet unknown to her. By chance she was turning over the Academy
+pictures of the year, and came at last to one called “A Japanese Beauty
+of Old Days”--an exquisite thing.
+
+“Is it not fascinating?” she said. “So piquant and fresh.”
+
+He gave a silent laugh, as was his custom when he enjoyed anything, and
+then replied:
+
+“I came across a little book of verses one day in the States. A friend
+of mine, the president of a big railway, gave it to me. He does some
+painting himself when he travels in his Pullman in the Rockies. Well, it
+had some verses on just such a picture as that. Hits it off right, Miss
+Raglan.”
+
+“Verses?” she remarked, lifting her eyebrows. She expected something out
+of the “poet’s corner” of a country newspaper. “What are they?”
+
+“Well, one’s enough to show the style. This is it:
+
+       “‘Was I a Samurai renowned,
+        Two-sworded, fierce, immense of bow?
+        A histrion angular and profound?
+        A priest? or porter? Child, although
+        I have forgotten clean, I know
+        That in the shade of Fujisan,
+        What time the cherry-orchards blow,
+        I loved you once in old Japan.’”
+
+The verse on the lips of Mr. Vandewaters struck her strangely. He was
+not like any man she had known. Most self-made Englishmen, with such a
+burly exterior and energy, and engaged in such pursuits, could not, to
+save themselves from hanging, have impressed her as Mr. Vandewaters did.
+There was a big round sympathy in the tone, a timbre in the voice, which
+made the words entirely fitting. Besides, he said them without any kind
+of affectation, and with a certain turn of dry humour, as if he were
+inwardly laughing at the idea of the poem.
+
+“The verses are charming,” she said, musingly; “and the idea put that
+way is charming also. But do you think there would be much amusement
+in living half-a-dozen times, or even twice, unless you were quite sure
+that you remembered everything? This gentleman was peculiarly fortunate
+to recall Fujisan, and the orange orchards--and the girl.”
+
+“I believe you are right. One life is about enough for most of us.
+Memory is all very fine; but you’d want a life set apart for remembering
+the others after awhile.”
+
+“Why do you not add, ‘And that would bore one?’ Most of the men I know
+would say so.”
+
+“Well, I never used the word that way in my life. When I don’t like a
+thing, that ends it--it has got to go.”
+
+“You cannot do that with everything.”
+
+“Pretty much, if I set my mind to it. It is astonishing how things’ll
+come round your way if you keep on thinking and willing them so.”
+
+“Have you always got everything you wanted?” He had been looking off
+into the grounds through the open window. Now he turned slowly upon her.
+
+“So far I have got everything I set my mind to get. Little things don’t
+count. You lose them sometimes because you want to work at something
+else; sometimes because, as in cards, you are throwing a few away to
+save the whole game.”
+
+He looked at her, as she thought, curiously. In his mind he was
+wondering if she knew that he had made up his mind to marry her. She was
+suddenly made aware of the masterfulness of his spirit, which might, she
+knew, be applied to herself.
+
+“Let us go into the grounds,” he added, all at once. Soon after, in
+the shade of the trees, she broke in upon the thread of their casual
+conversation. “A few moments ago,” she murmured, “you said: ‘One life is
+about enough for most of us.’ Then you added a disparaging remark about
+memory. Well, that doesn’t seem like your usual point of view--more like
+that of Mr. Pride; but not so plaintive, of course. Pray do smoke,”
+ she added, as, throwing back his coat, he exposed some cigars in his
+waistcoat pocket. “I am sure you always smoke after lunch.”
+
+He took out a cigar, cut off the end, and put it in his mouth. But he
+did not light it. Then he glanced up at her with a grave quizzical look
+as though wondering what would be the effect of his next words, and a
+smile played at his lips.
+
+“What I meant was this. I think we get enough out of our life to last
+us for centuries. It’s all worth doing from the start, no matter what
+it is: working, fighting, marching and countermarching, plotting and
+counterplotting, backing your friends and hating your foes, playing
+big games and giving others a chance to, standing with your hand on the
+lynch-pin, or pulling your head safe out of the hot-pot. But I don’t
+think it is worth doing twice. The interest wouldn’t be fresh. For men
+and women and life, with a little different dress, are the same as they
+always were; and there’s only the same number of passions working now,
+as at the beginning. I want to live life up to the hilt; because it is
+all new as I go on; but never twice.”
+
+“Indeed?” She looked at him earnestly for a moment, and then added: “I
+should think you would have seen lost chances; and doing things a second
+time might do them better.”
+
+“I never missed chances,” he replied, simply: “never except twice, and
+then--”
+
+“And then?”
+
+“Then it was to give the other fellow a chance.”
+
+“Oh!” There was a kind of dubiousness in her tone. He noticed it. “You
+can hardly understand, Miss Raglan. Fact is, it was one of those deals
+when you can make a million, in a straight enough game; but it comes out
+of another man--one, maybe, that you don’t know; who is playing just the
+same as you are. I have had a lot of sport; but I’ve never crippled any
+one man, when my engine has been dead on him. I have played more against
+organisations than single men.”
+
+“What was the most remarkable chance you ever had to make a million, and
+did not?”
+
+He threw back his head, smiling shrewdly. “When by accident my enemy got
+hold of a telegram meant for me. I was standing behind a frosted glass
+door, and through the narrow bevel of clear glass I watched him read
+it. I never saw a struggle like that. At last he got up, snatched
+an envelope, put the telegram inside, wrote my name, and called a
+messenger. I knew what was in the message. I let the messenger go, and
+watched that man for ten minutes. It was a splendid sight. The telegram
+had given him a big chance to make a million or two, as he thought. But
+he backed himself against the temptation, and won. That day I could have
+put the ball into his wicket; but I didn’t. That’s a funny case of the
+kind.”
+
+“Did he ever know?”
+
+“He didn’t. We are fighting yet. He is richer than I am now, and at this
+moment he’s playing a hard game straight at several interests of mine.
+But I reckon I can stop him.”
+
+“You must get a great deal out of life,” she said. “Have you always
+enjoyed it so?” She was thinking it would be strange to live in contact
+with such events very closely. It was so like adventure.
+
+“Always--from the start.”
+
+“Tell me something of it all, won’t you?” He did not hesitate.
+
+“I was born in a little place in Maine. My mother was a good woman, they
+said--straight as a die all her life. I can only remember her in a
+kind of dream, when she used to gather us children about the big
+rocking-chair, and pray for us, and for my father, who was away most
+of the time, working in the timber-shanties in the winter, and at
+odd things in the summer. My father wasn’t much of a man. He was
+kind-hearted, but shiftless, but pretty handsome for a man from Maine.
+
+“My mother died when I was six years old. Things got bad. I was the
+youngest. The oldest was only ten years old. She was the head of the
+house. She had the pluck of a woman. We got along somehow, until one
+day, when she and I were scrubbing the floor, she caught cold. She died
+in three days.”
+
+Here he paused; and, without glancing at Miss Raglan, who sat very
+still, but looking at him, he lighted his cigar.
+
+“Then things got worse. My father took to drinking hard, and we had
+mighty little to eat. I chored around, doing odd things in the village.
+I have often wondered that people didn’t see the stuff that was in me,
+and give me a chance. They didn’t, though. As for my relatives: one was
+a harness-maker. He sent me out in the dead of winter to post bills for
+miles about, and gave me ten cents for it. Didn’t even give me a meal.
+Twenty years after he came to me and wanted to borrow a hundred dollars.
+I gave him five hundred on condition that he’d not come near me for the
+rest of his natural life.
+
+“The next thing I did was to leave home--‘run away,’ I suppose, is the
+way to put it. I got to Boston, and went for a cabin-boy on a steamer;
+travelled down to Panama, and from there to Brazil. At Brazil I got on
+another ship, and came round to San Francisco. I got into trouble in San
+Francisco with the chief mate of the Flying Polly, because I tried to
+teach him his business. One of the first things I learned in life was
+not to interfere with people who had a trade and didn’t understand
+it. In San Francisco I got out of the situation. I took to selling
+newspapers in the streets.
+
+“There wasn’t enough money in it. I went for a cabin-boy again, and
+travelled to Australia. There, once more, I resigned my position,
+chiefly because I wouldn’t cheerfully let the Mate bang me about the
+quarter-deck. I expect I was a precocious youth, and wasn’t exactly
+the kind for Sunday-school prizes. In Melbourne I began to speculate.
+I found a ticket for the theatre where an American actor--our biggest
+actor today--was playing, and I tried to sell it outside the door of the
+theatre where they were crowding to see him. The man who bought it was
+the actor himself. He gave me two dollars more than the regular price.
+I expect he knew from my voice I was an American. Is there anything
+peculiar about my voice, Miss Raglan?”
+
+She looked at him quickly, smiled, and said in a low tone: “Yes,
+something peculiar. Please go on.”
+
+“Well, anyway, he said to me: ‘Look here, where did you come from,
+my boy?’ I told him the State of Maine. ‘What are you doing here?’ he
+asked. ‘Speculating, said I, and seeing things.’ He looked me up and
+down. ‘How are you getting on?’ ‘Well. I’ve made four dollars to-day,’
+I answered. ‘Out of this ticket?’ I expect I grinned. He suddenly caught
+me by the arm and whisked me inside the theatre--the first time I’d ever
+been in a theatre in my life. I shall never forget it. He took me around
+to his dressing-room, stuck me in a corner, and prodded me with his
+forefinger. ‘Look here,’ he said, ‘I guess I’ll hire you to speculate
+for me.’ And that’s how I came to get twenty-five dollars a month and
+my living from a great American actor. When I got back to America--with
+him--I had two hundred and fifty dollars in cash, and good clothes.
+I started a peanut-stand, and sold papers and books, and became a
+speculator. I heard two men talking one day at my stall about a railway
+that was going to run through a certain village, and how they intended
+to buy up the whole place. I had four hundred and fifty dollars then.
+I went down to that village, and bought some lots myself. I made four
+thousand dollars. Then I sold more books, and went on speculating.”
+
+He paused, blew his cigar-smoke slowly from him a moment; then turned
+with a quick look to Miss Raglan, and smiled as at some incongruous
+thing. He was wondering what would be the effect of his next words.
+
+“When I was about twenty-two, and had ten thousand dollars, I fell
+in love. She was a bright-faced, smart girl. Her mother kept a
+boarding-house in New York; not an up-town boarding-house. She waited on
+table. I suppose a man can be clever in making money, and knowing how
+to handle men, and not know much about women. I thought she was worth
+a good deal more to me than the ten thousand dollars. She didn’t know
+I had that money. A drummer--that’s a commercial traveller--came along,
+who had a salary of, maybe, a thousand dollars a year. She jilted me.
+She made a mistake. That year I made twenty-five thousand dollars. I saw
+her a couple of years ago. She was keeping a boarding-house too, and her
+daughter was waiting on table. I’m sorry for that girl: it isn’t any fun
+being poor. I didn’t take much interest in women after that. I put my
+surplus affections into stocks and shares, and bulling and bearing...
+Well, that is the way the thing has gone till now.”
+
+“What became of your father and your brother?” she asked in a neutral
+tone.
+
+“I don’t know anything about my father. He disappeared after I left, and
+never turned up again. And Jim--poor Jim!--he was shiftless. Jim was a
+tanner. It was no good setting him up in business. Steady income was the
+cheapest way. But Jim died of too much time on his hands. His son is
+in Mexico somewhere. I sent him there, and I hope he’ll stay. If he
+doesn’t, his salary stops: he is shiftless too. That is not the kind of
+thing, and they are not the kind of people you know best, Miss Raglan.”
+
+He looked at her, eyes full-front, bravely, honestly, ready to face the
+worst. Her head was turned away.
+
+He nodded to himself. It was as he feared.
+
+At that moment a boy came running along the walk towards them, and
+handed Mr. Vandewaters a telegram. He gave the lad a few pence, then,
+with an apology, opened the telegram. Presently he whistled softly, in
+a quick surprised way. Then he stuffed the paper into his waistcoat
+pocket, threw away his cigar, and turned to Gracia Raglan, whose face as
+yet was only half towards him. “I hope your news is good,” she said very
+quietly.
+
+“Pretty bad, in a way,” he answered. “I have lost a couple of
+millions--maybe a little more.”
+
+She gasped, and turned an astonished face on him. He saw her startled
+look, and laughed.
+
+“Does it not worry you?” she asked.
+
+“I have got more important things on hand just now,” he answered. “Very
+much more important,” he added, and there was that in his voice which
+made her turn away her head again.
+
+“I suppose,” he went on, “that the story you have just heard is not
+the kind of an autobiography you would care to have told in your
+drawing-room?”
+
+Still she did not reply; but her hands were clasped tightly in front of
+her. “No: I suppose not,” he went on--“I--I suppose not. And yet, do you
+know, Miss Raglan, I don’t feel a bit ashamed of it, after all: which
+may be evidence of my lost condition.”
+
+Now she turned to him with a wonderful light in her eyes, her sweet,
+strong face rich with feeling. She put out her hand to his arm, and
+touched it quickly, nervously.
+
+“Your story has touched me inexpressibly,” she said. “I did not know
+that men could be so strong and frank and courageous as you. I did not
+know that men could be so great; that any man could think more of what
+a woman thought of--of his life’s story--than of”--she paused, and then
+gave a trembling little laugh--“of two millions or more.”
+
+He got to his feet, and faced her. “You--you are a woman, by heaven!” he
+said. “You are finer even than I thought you. I am not worthy to ask you
+what I had in my mind to ask you; but there is no man in God’s universe
+who would prize you as I do. I may be a poor man before sundown. If
+that happens, though, I shall remember the place where I had the biggest
+moment of my life, and the woman who made that moment possible.”
+
+Now she also rose. There was a brave high look in her face; but her
+voice shook a little as she said: “You have never been a coward, why be
+a coward now?”
+
+Smiling, he slowly answered: “I wouldn’t if I were sure about my
+dollars.”
+
+She did not reply, but glanced down, not with coquetry, but because she
+could not stand the furnace of his eyes.
+
+“You said a moment ago,” she ventured, “that you have had one big moment
+in your life. Oughtn’t it to bring you good fortune?”
+
+“It will--it will,” he said, reaching his hand towards hers.
+
+“No, no,” she rejoined archly. “I am going. Please do not follow me.”
+ Then, over her shoulder, as she left him: “If you have luck, I shall
+want a subscription for my hospital.”
+
+“As many thousands as you like,” he answered: then, as she sped away: “I
+will have her, and the millions too!” adding reminiscently: “Yes, Lady
+Lawless, this is my biggest deal.”
+
+He tramped to the stables, asked for and got a horse, and rode away to
+the railway station. It was dinner time when he got back. He came down
+to dinner late, apologising to Lady Lawless as he did so. Glancing
+across the table at Mr. Pride, he saw a peculiar excited look in the
+young man’s face.
+
+“The baby fool!” he said to himself. “He’s getting into mischief. I’ll
+startle him. If he knows that an army of his dollars is playing at
+fox-and-geese, he’ll not make eyes at Lady Lawless this way--little
+ass.”
+
+Lady Lawless appeared oblivious of the young man’s devotional exercises.
+She was engaged on a more congenial theme. In spite of Miss Raglan’s
+excellent acting, she saw that something had occurred. Mr. Vandewaters
+was much the same as usual, save that his voice had an added ring. She
+was not sure that all was right; but she was determined to know. Sir
+Duke was amused generally. He led a pretty by-play with Mrs. Gregory
+Thorne, of whom he asked the details of the day, much to the
+confusion, not admirably hid, of Mr. Pride; lamenting now and then Mr.
+Vandewaters’s absence from the shooting.
+
+Mr. Vandewaters was cool enough. He said that he had been playing at
+nine-pins with railways, which was good enough sport for him. Soon after
+dinner, he was handed two telegrams. He glanced slowly up at Pride, as
+if debating whether to tell him something. He evidently decided against
+it, and, excusing himself by saying he was off to take a little walk in
+Wall Street, went away to the telegraph office, where he stayed three
+hours.
+
+The magnitude of the concerns, the admirable stoicism with which
+he received alarming news, his dry humour while they waited between
+messages--all were so unlike anything the telegraph-clerk had ever seen,
+or imagined, that the thing was like a preposterous dream. Even when,
+at last, a telegram came which the clerk vaguely felt was, somehow, like
+the fall of an empire, Mr. Vandewaters remained unmoved. Then he sent
+one more telegram, gave the clerk a pound, asked that the reply be sent
+to him as soon as it came, and went away, calmly smoking his cigar.
+
+It was a mild night. When he got to the house he found some of the
+guests walking on the veranda. He joined them; but Miss Raglan was not
+with them; nor were Lady Lawless and Mr. Pride. He wanted to see
+all three, and so he went into the house. There was no one in the
+drawing-room. He reached the library in time to hear Lady Lawless say
+to Mr. Pride, who was disappearing through another door: “You had better
+ask advice of Mr. Vandewaters.”
+
+The door closed. Mr. Vandewaters stepped forward.
+
+He understood the situation. “I guess I know how to advise him, Lady
+Lawless,” he said.
+
+She turned on him quietly, traces of hauteur in her manner. Her
+self-pride had been hurt. “You have heard?” she asked.
+
+“Only your last words, Lady Lawless. They were enough. I feel guilty in
+having brought him here.”
+
+“You need not. I was glad to have your friend. He is young and effusive.
+Let us say no more about it.
+
+“He is tragically repentant; which is a pity. There is no reason why he
+should not stay, and be sensible. Why should young men lose their heads,
+and be so absurdly earnest?”
+
+“Another poser, Lady Lawless.”
+
+“In all your life you never misunderstood things so, I am sure.”
+
+“Well, there is no virtue in keeping your head steady. I have spent most
+of my life wooing Madame Fortune; I find that makes a man canny.”
+
+“She has been very kind to you.”
+
+“Perhaps it would surprise you if I told you that at this moment I am
+not worth ten thousand dollars.” She looked greatly astonished. “I do
+not understand,” she said. She was thinking of what this might mean to
+Gracia Raglan.
+
+“You see I’ve been playing games at a disadvantage with some ruffians
+at New York. They have combined and got me into a corner. I have made my
+last move. If it comes out right I shall be richer than ever; if not I
+must begin all over again.”
+
+Lady Lawless looked at him curiously. She had never met a man like him
+before. His power seemed almost Napoleonic; his imperturbability was
+absolute. Yet she noticed something new in him. On one side a kind of
+grim forcefulness; on the other, a quiet sort of human sympathy. The
+one, no doubt, had to do with the momentous circumstances amid which he
+was placed; the other, with an event which she had, perhaps prematurely,
+anticipated.
+
+“I wonder--I wonder at you,” she said. “How do you keep so cool while
+such tremendous things are happening?”
+
+“Because I believe in myself, Lady Lawless. I have had to take my
+measure a good many times in this world. I never was defeated through my
+own stupidity. It has been the sheer luck of the game.”
+
+“You do not look like a gamester,” she said.
+
+“I guess it’s all pretty much a game in life, if you look at it right.
+It is only a case of playing fair or foul.”
+
+“I never heard any Englishmen talk as you do.”
+
+“Very likely not,” he responded. “I don’t want to be unpleasant; but
+most Englishmen work things out by the rule their fathers taught them,
+and not by native ingenuity. It is native wit that tells in the end, I’m
+thinking.”
+
+“Perhaps you are right,” she rejoined. “There must be a kind of genius
+in it.” Here her voice dropped a little lower. “I do not believe there
+are many Englishmen, even if they had your dollars--”
+
+“The dollars I had this morning,” he interposed.
+
+“--who could have so strongly impressed Gracia Raglan.”
+
+He looked thoughtfully on the ground; then raised his eyes to Lady
+Lawless, and said in a low, ringing tone:
+
+“Yes, I am going to do more than ‘impress’: I am going to convince her.”
+
+“When?” she asked.
+
+“To-morrow morning, I hope,” was the reply. “I believe I shall have my
+millions again.”
+
+“If you do,” she said slowly, “do you not think that you ought to run no
+more risks--for her sake?”
+
+“That is just what I mean to do, Lady Lawless. I’ll settle millions
+where they ought to be settled, drop Wall Street, and--go into
+training.”
+
+“Into training?” she asked.
+
+“Yes, for a house on the Hudson, a villa at Cannes, a residence in
+Grosvenor Square, and a place in Devonshire--or somewhere else. Then,”
+ he added, with a twinkle in his eye, “I shall need a good deal of time
+to cultivate accent.”
+
+“Don’t!” she said. “You are much more charming as you are.”
+
+They passed into the drawing-room.
+
+“Are these things to be told?” she asked, with a little suggestion in
+her voice.
+
+“I can trust your discretion.”
+
+“Even in such circumstances?” she asked. She paused, with a motion of
+her fan back towards the room they had left.
+
+“You have taught him a lesson, Lady Lawless. It is rough on him; but he
+needs it.”
+
+“I hope he will do nothing rash,” she said.
+
+“Perhaps he’ll write some poetry, and refuse to consider his natural
+appetite.”
+
+“Will you go and see him now?” she asked. “Immediately. Good night, Lady
+Lawless.” His big hand swallowed hers in a firm, friendly clasp, and
+he shook it once or twice before he parted from her. He met Sir Duke
+Lawless in the doorway. They greeted cheerfully, and then Lawless came
+up to his wife.
+
+“Well, my dear,” he said, with an amused look in his face, “well, what
+news?”
+
+She lifted her eyebrows at him.
+
+“Something has happened, Molly, I can see it in your face.”
+
+She was very brief. “Gracia Raglan has been conquered; the young man
+from Boston has been foolish; and Mr. Vandewaters has lost millions.”
+
+“Eh? That’s awkward,” said Sir Duke.
+
+“Which?” asked his wife.
+
+Vandewaters found Mr. Pride in his bedroom, a waif of melancholy. He
+drew a chair up, lighted a cigar, eyed the young man from head to foot,
+and then said: “Pride, have you got any backbone? If you have, brace up.
+You are ruined. That’s about as mild as I can put it.”
+
+“You know all?”--said the young man helplessly, his hands clasped
+between his knees in aesthetic agony.
+
+“Yes; I know more than you do, as you will find out. You’re a nice sort
+of man, to come into a man’s house, in a strange land, and make love
+to his wife. Now, what do you think of yourself? You’re a nice
+representative of the American, aren’t you?”
+
+“I--I didn’t mean any harm--I--couldn’t help it,” replied the stricken
+boy.
+
+“O, for God’s sake, drop that bib-and-tucker twaddle! Couldn’t help it!
+Every scoundrel, too weak to face the consequences of his sin, says he
+couldn’t help it. So help me, Joseph, I’d like to thrash you. Couldn’t
+help it! Now, sit up in your chair, take this cigar, drink this glass of
+whiskey I’m pouring for you, and make up your mind that you’re going to
+be a man and not a nincompoop--sit still! Don’t fly up. I mean what I
+say. I’ve got business to talk to you. And make up your mind that, for
+once, you have got to take life seriously.”
+
+“What right have you to speak to me like this?” demanded the young man
+with an attempt at dignity. Vandewaters laughed loudly.
+
+“Right? Great Scott! The right of a man who thinks a damned sight more
+of your reputation than you do yourself, and of your fortune than you
+would ever have wits to do. I am the best friend you’ve got, and not the
+less your friend because I feel like breaking your ribs. Now, enough of
+that. This is what I have to say, Pride: to-night you and I are beggars.
+You understand? Beggars. Out in the cold world, out in the street. Now,
+what do you think of that?”
+
+The shock to Mr. Pride was great. Mr. Vandewaters had exaggerated the
+disaster; but he had done it with a purpose. The youth gasped “My God!”
+ and dropped his glass. Vandewaters picked it up, and regarded him a
+moment in silence. Then he began to explain their financial position. He
+did not explain the one bold stroke which he was playing to redeem their
+fortunes: if possible. When he had finished the story, he said, “I guess
+that’s a bit more serious than the little affair in the library half an
+hour ago?”
+
+He rose to his feet. “Look here, Pride, be a man. You’ve never tried
+it yet. Let me teach you how to face the world without a dollar; how to
+make a fortune. Then, when you’ve made it, you’ll get what you’ve never
+had yet--the pleasure of spending money dug out of your own wits.”
+
+He carried conviction into a mind not yet all destroyed by effeminacy
+and indulgence of the emotions. Something of the iron of his own brain
+got into the brain of the young man, who came to his feet trembling a
+little, and said: “I don’t mind it so much, if you only stick to me,
+Vandewaters.”
+
+A smile flickered about the corners of Vandewaters’s mouth.
+
+“Take a little more whiskey,” he said; “then get into bed, and go to
+sleep. No nonsense, remember; go to sleep. To-morrow morning we will
+talk. And see here, my boy,”--he caught him by both arms and fastened
+his eyes,--“you have had a lesson: learn it backwards. Good night.”
+
+Next morning Mr. Vandewaters was early in the grounds. He chatted with
+the gardener, and discussed the merits of the horses with the groom,
+apparently at peace with the world. Yet he was watching vigilantly
+the carriage-drive from the public-road. Just before breakfast-time a
+telegraph messenger appeared. Vandewaters was standing with Sir Duke
+Lawless when the message was handed to him. He read it, put it into his
+pocket, and went on talking. Presently he said: “My agent is coming
+from town this morning, Sir Duke. I may have to leave to-night.” Then he
+turned, and went to his room.
+
+Lady Lawless had heard his last words.
+
+“What about your ranche in Colorado, Duke?”
+
+“About as sure, I fancy, as your millionaire for Gracia.”
+
+Miss Raglan did not appear at breakfast with the rest. Neither did Mr.
+Pride, who slept late that morning. About ten o’clock Mr. Vandewaters’s
+agent arrived. About twelve o’clock Mr. Vandewaters saw Miss Raglan
+sitting alone in the library. He was evidently looking for her. He came
+up to her quietly, and put a piece of paper in her lap.
+
+“What is this?” she asked, a little startled.
+
+“A thousand for your hospital,” was the meaning reply.
+
+She flushed, and came to her feet.
+
+“I have won,” he said.
+
+And then he reached out and took both her hands.
+
+
+   ETEXT EDITOR’S BOOKMARKS:
+
+   But I don’t think it is worth doing twice
+   He wishes to be rude to some one, and is disappointed
+   I--couldn’t help it
+   Interfere with people who had a trade and didn’t understand it
+   Lose their heads, and be so absurdly earnest
+   Scoundrel, too weak to face the consequences of his sin
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg’s At The Sign Of The Eagle, by Gilbert Parker
+
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+    <title>
+      At the Sign of The Eagle, by Gilbert Parker
+    </title>
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+  <body>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of At The Sign Of The Eagle, by Gilbert Parker
+
+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: At The Sign Of The Eagle
+
+Author: Gilbert Parker
+
+
+Release Date: October 18, 2006 [EBook #6218]
+Last Updated: August 27, 2016
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AT THE SIGN OF THE EAGLE ***
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+    <h1>
+      AT THE SIGN OF THE EAGLE
+    </h1>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      By Gilbert Parker
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+                                  &ldquo;Life in her creaking shoes
+                                  Goes, and more formal grows,
+                                  A round of calls and cues:
+                                  Love blows as the wind blows.
+                                  Blows!...&rdquo;
+ 
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, what do you think of them, Molly?&rdquo; said Sir Duke Lawless to his
+      wife, his eyes resting with some amusement on a big man and a little one
+      talking to Lord Hampstead.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The little man is affected, gauche, and servile. The big one picturesque
+      and superior in a raw kind of way. He wishes to be rude to some one, and
+      is disappointed because, just at the moment, Lord Hampstead is too polite
+      to give him his cue. A dangerous person in a drawing-room, I should think;
+      but interesting. You are a bold man to bring them here, Duke. Is it not
+      awkward for our host?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hampstead did it with his eyes open. Besides, there is business behind it&mdash;railways,
+      mines, and all that; and Hampstead&rsquo;s nephew is going to the States
+      fortune-hunting. Do you see?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Lady Lawless lifted her eyebrows. &ldquo;&lsquo;To what base uses are we come,
+      Horatio!&rsquo; You invite me to dinner and&mdash;&lsquo;I&rsquo;ll fix things up right.&rsquo; 
+      That is the proper phrase, for I have heard you use it. Status for
+      dollars. Isn&rsquo;t it low? I know you do not mean what you say, Duke.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir Duke&rsquo;s eyes were playing on the men with a puzzled expression, as
+      though trying to read the subject of their conversation; and he did not
+      reply immediately. Soon, however, he turned and looked down at his wife
+      genially, and said: &ldquo;Well, that&rsquo;s about it, I suppose. But really there is
+      nothing unusual in this, so far as Mr. John Vandewaters is concerned, for
+      in his own country he travels &lsquo;the parlours of the Four Hundred,&rsquo; and is
+      considered &lsquo;a very elegant gentleman.&rsquo; We must respect a man according to
+      the place he holds in his own community. Besides, as you suggest, Mr.
+      Vandewaters is interesting. I might go further, and say that he is a very
+      good fellow indeed.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You will be asking him down to Craigruie next,&rdquo; said Lady Lawless,
+      inquisition in her look.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is exactly what I mean to do, with your permission, my dear. I hope
+      to see him laying about among the grouse in due season.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My dear Duke, you are painfully Bohemian. I can remember when you were
+      perfectly precise and exclusive, and&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What an awful prig I must have been!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t interrupt. That was before you went aroving in savage countries,
+      and picked up all sorts of acquaintances, making friends with the most
+      impossible folk. I should never be surprised to see you drive Shon McGann&mdash;and
+      his wife, of course&mdash;and Pretty Pierre&mdash;with some other man&rsquo;s
+      wife&mdash;up to the door in a dogcart; their clothes in a saddle-bag, or
+      something less reputable, to stay a month. Duke, you have lost your
+      decorum; you are a gipsy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I fear Shon McGann and Pierre wouldn&rsquo;t enjoy being with us as I should
+      enjoy having them. You can never understand what a life that is out in
+      Pierre&rsquo;s country. If it weren&rsquo;t for you and the bairn, I should be off
+      there now. There is something of primeval man in me. I am never so healthy
+      and happy, when away from you, as in prowling round the outposts of
+      civilisation, and living on beans and bear&rsquo;s meat.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He stretched to his feet, and his wife rose with him. There was a fine
+      colour on his cheek, and his eye had a pleasant fiery energy. His wife
+      tapped him on the arm with her fan. She understood him very well, though
+      pretending otherwise. &ldquo;Duke, you are incorrigible. I am in daily dread of
+      your starting off in the middle of the night, leaving me&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Watering your couch with your tears?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&mdash;and hearing nothing more from you till a cable from Quebec or
+      Winnipeg tells me that you are on your way to the Arctic Circle with
+      Pierre or some other heathen. But, seriously, where did you meet Mr.
+      Vandewaters&mdash;Heavens, what a name!&mdash;and that other person? And
+      what is the other person&rsquo;s name?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The other person carries the contradictory name of Stephen Pride.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why does he continually finger his face, and show his emotions so? He
+      assents to everything said to him by an appreciative exercise of his
+      features.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My dear, you ask a great and solemn question. Let me introduce the young
+      man, that you may get your answer at the fountain-head.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wait a moment, Duke. Sit down and tell me when and where you met these
+      men, and why you have continued the acquaintance.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Molly,&rdquo; he said, obeying her, &ldquo;you are a terrible inquisitor, and the
+      privacy of one&rsquo;s chamber were the kinder place to call one to account. But
+      I bend to your implacability.... Mr. Vandewaters, like myself, has a taste
+      for roving, though our aims are not identical. He has a fine faculty for
+      uniting business and pleasure. He is not a thorough sportsman&mdash;there
+      is always a certain amount of enthusiasm, even in the unrewarded patience
+      of the true hunter; but he sufficeth. Well, Mr. Vandewaters had been
+      hunting in the far north, and looking after a promising mine at the same
+      time. He was on his way south at one angle, I at another angle, bound for
+      the same point. Shon McGann was with me; Pierre with Vandewaters. McGann
+      left me, at a certain point, to join his wife at a Barracks of the Riders
+      of the Plains. I had about a hundred miles to travel alone. Well, I got
+      along the first fifty all right. Then came trouble. In a bad place of the
+      hills I fell and broke an ankle bone. I had an Eskimo dog of the right
+      sort with me. I wrote a line on a bit of birch bark, tied it round his
+      neck, and started him away, trusting my luck that he would pull up
+      somewhere. He did. He ran into Vandewaters&rsquo;s camp that evening.
+      Vandewaters and Pierre started away at once. They had dogs, and reached me
+      soon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was the first time I had seen Pierre for years. They fixed me up, and
+      we started south. And that&rsquo;s as it was in the beginning with Mr. John
+      Vandewaters and me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Lady Lawless had been watching the two strangers during the talk, though
+      once or twice she turned and looked at her husband admiringly. When he had
+      finished she said: &ldquo;That is very striking. What a pity it is that men we
+      want to like spoil all by their lack of form!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t be so sure about Vandewaters. Does he look flurried by these
+      surroundings?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No. He certainly has an air of contentment. It is, I suppose, the usual
+      air of self-made Americans.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Go to London, E.C., and you will find the same, plus smugness. Now, Mr.
+      Vandewaters has real power&mdash;and taste too, as you will see. Would you
+      think Mr. Stephen Pride a self-made man?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I cannot think of any one else who would be proud of the patent. Please
+      to consider the seals about his waistcoat, and the lady-like droop of his
+      shoulders.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yet he is thought to be a young man of parts. He has money, made by his
+      ancestors; he has been round the world; he belongs to societies for
+      culture and&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And he will rave of the Poet&rsquo;s Corner, ask if one likes Pippa Passes, and
+      expect to be introduced to every woman in the room at a tea-party, to say
+      nothing of proposing impossible things, such as taking one&rsquo;s girl friends
+      to the opera alone, sending them boxes of confectionery, and writing them
+      dreadfully reverential notes at the same time. Duke, the creature is
+      impossible, believe me. Never, never, if you love me, invite him to
+      Craigruie. I met one of his tribe at Lady Macintyre&rsquo;s when I was just out
+      of school; and at the dinner-table, when the wine went round, he lifted
+      his voice and asked for a cup of tea, saying he never &lsquo;drank.&rsquo; Actually he
+      did, Duke.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Her husband laughed quietly. He had a man&rsquo;s enjoyment of a woman&rsquo;s dislike
+      of bad form. &ldquo;A common criminal man, Molly. Tell me, which is the greater
+      crime: to rob a bank or use a fish-knife for asparagus?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Lady Lawless fanned herself. &ldquo;Duke, you make me hot. But if you will have
+      the truth: the fish-knife business by all means. Nobody need feel
+      uncomfortable about the burglary, except the burglar; but see what a
+      position for the other person&rsquo;s hostess.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My dear, women have no civic virtues. Their credo is, &lsquo;I believe in
+      beauty and fine linen, and the thing that is not gauche.&rsquo;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      His wife was smiling. &ldquo;Well, have it your own way. It is a creed of
+      comfort, at any rate. And now, Duke, if I must meet the man of mines and
+      railways and the spare person making faces at Lord Hampstead, let it be
+      soon, that it may be done with; and pray don&rsquo;t invite them to Craigruie
+      till I have a chance to speak with you again. I will not have impossible
+      people at a house-party.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What a difficult fellow your husband is, Molly!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Difficult; but perfectly possible. His one fault is a universal sympathy
+      which shines alike on the elect&mdash;and the others.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So. Well, this is our dance. After it is over, prepare for the
+      Americanos.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Half-an-hour later Mr. Vandewaters was standing in a conspicuous corner
+      talking to Lady Lawless.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is, then, your first visit to England?&rdquo; she asked. He had a dry,
+      deliberate voice, unlike the smooth, conventional voices round him. &ldquo;Yes,
+      Lady Lawless,&rdquo; he replied: &ldquo;it&rsquo;s the first time I&rsquo;ve put my foot in London
+      town, and&mdash;perhaps you won&rsquo;t believe it of an American&mdash;I find
+      it doesn&rsquo;t take up a very conspicuous place.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The humour was slightly accentuated, and Lady Lawless shrank a little, as
+      if she feared the depths of divertisement to which this speech might lead;
+      but a quick look at the man assured her of his common-sense, and she
+      answered: &ldquo;It is of the joys of London that no one is so important but
+      finds the space he fills a small one, which may be filled acceptably by
+      some one else at any moment. It is easy for kings and princes even&mdash;we
+      have secluded princes here now&mdash;to get lost and forgotten in London.&rdquo;
+       &ldquo;Well, that leaves little chance for ordinary Americans, who don&rsquo;t bank on
+      titles.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She looked up, puzzled in spite of herself. But she presently said, with
+      frankness and naivete: &ldquo;What does &lsquo;bank on titles&rsquo; mean?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He stroked his beard, smiling quaintly, and said: &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know how to put
+      the thing better-it seems to fill the bill. But, anyway, Americans are
+      republicans; and don&rsquo;t believe in titles, and&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;O, pardon me,&rdquo; she interrupted: &ldquo;of course, I see.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got little ways of talking not the same as yours. You don&rsquo;t seem to
+      have the snap to conversation that we have in the States. But I&rsquo;ll say
+      here that I think you have got a better style of talking. It isn&rsquo;t
+      exhausting.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mr. Pride said to me a moment ago that they spoke better English in
+      Boston than any other place in the world.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did he, though, Lady Lawless? That&rsquo;s good. Well, I guess he was only
+      talking through his hat.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She was greatly amused. Her first impressions were correct. The man was
+      interesting. He had a quaint, practical mind. He had been thrown upon his
+      own resources, since infancy almost, in a new country; and he had seen
+      with his own eyes, nakedly, and without predisposition or instruction.
+      From childhood thoroughly adaptable, he could get into touch with things
+      quickly, and instantly like or dislike them. He had been used to approach
+      great concerns with fearlessness and competency. He respected a thing only
+      for its real value, and its intrinsic value was as clear to him as the
+      market value. He had, perhaps, an exaggerated belief in the greatness of
+      his own country, because he liked eagerness and energy and daring. The
+      friction and hurry of American life added to his enjoyment. They acted on
+      him like a stimulating air, in which he was always bold, collected, and
+      steady. He felt an exhilaration in being superior to the rustle of forces
+      round him. It had been his habit to play the great game of business with
+      decision and adroitness. He had not spared his opponent in the fight; he
+      had crushed where his interests were in peril and the sport played into
+      his hands; comforting himself, if he thought of the thing, with the
+      knowledge that he himself would have been crushed if the other man had
+      not. He had never been wilfully unfair, nor had he used dishonourable
+      means to secure his ends: his name stood high in his own country for
+      commercial integrity; men said: he &ldquo;played square.&rdquo; He had, maybe, too
+      keen a contempt for dulness and incompetency in enterprise, and he loathed
+      red-tape; but this was racial. His mind was as open as his manners. He was
+      utterly approachable. He was a millionaire, and yet in his own offices in
+      New York he was as accessible as a President. He handled things without
+      gloves, and this was not a good thing for any that came to him with a weak
+      case. He had a penetrating intelligence; and few men attempted, after
+      their first sophistical statements, to impose upon him: he sent them away
+      unhappy. He did not like England altogether: first, because it lacked, as
+      he said, enterprise; and because the formality, decorum and excessive
+      convention fretted him. He saw that in many things the old land was
+      backward, and he thought that precious time was being wasted. Still, he
+      could see that there were things, purely social, in which the Londoners
+      were at advantage; and he acknowledged this when he said, concerning
+      Stephen Pride&rsquo;s fond boast, that he was &ldquo;talking through his hat.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Lady Lawless smiled, and after a moment rejoined:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Does it mean that he was mumming, as it were, like a conjurer?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Exactly. You are pretty smart, Lady Lawless; for I can see that, from
+      your stand-point, it isn&rsquo;t always easy to catch the meaning of sayings
+      like that. But they do hit the case, don&rsquo;t they?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They give a good deal of individuality to conversation,&rdquo; was the vague
+      reply. &ldquo;What, do you think, is the chief lack in England?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nerve and enterprise. But I&rsquo;m not going to say you ought to have the same
+      kind of nerve as ours. We are a different tribe, with different
+      surroundings, and we don&rsquo;t sit in the same kind of saddle. We ride for all
+      we&rsquo;re worth all the time. You sit back and take it easy. We are never
+      satisfied unless we are behind a fast trotter; you are content with a good
+      cob that steps high, tosses its head, and has an aristocratic stride.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have you been in the country much?&rdquo; she asked, without any seeming
+      relevancy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was keen enough. He saw the veiled point of her question. &ldquo;No: I&rsquo;ve
+      never been in the country here,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I suppose you mean that I don&rsquo;t
+      see or know England till I&rsquo;ve lived there.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Quite so, Mr. Vandewaters.&rdquo; She smiled to think what an undistinguished
+      name it was. It suggested pumpkins in the front garden. Yet here its owner
+      was perfectly at his ease, watching the scene before him with good-natured
+      superiority. &ldquo;London is English; but it is very cosmopolitan, you know,&rdquo;
+       she added; &ldquo;and I fancy you can see it is not a place for fast trotters.
+      The Park would be too crowded for that&mdash;even if one wished to drive a
+      Maud S.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He turned his slow keen eyes on her, and a smile broadened into a low
+      laugh, out of which he said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What do you know of Maud S? I didn&rsquo;t think you would be up in racing
+      matters.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You forget that my husband is a traveller, and an admirer of Americans
+      and things American.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That&rsquo;s so,&rdquo; he answered; &ldquo;and a staving good traveller he is. You don&rsquo;t
+      catch him asleep, I can tell you, Lady Lawless. He has stuff in him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The stuff to make a good American?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes; with something over. He&rsquo;s the kind of Englishman that can keep cool
+      when things are ticklish, and look as if he was in a parlour all the time.
+      Americans keep cool, but look cheeky. O, I know that. We square our
+      shoulders and turn out our toes, and push our hands into our pockets, and
+      act as if we owned the world. Hello&mdash;by Jingo!&rdquo; Then, apologetically:
+      &ldquo;I beg your pardon, Lady Lawless; it slipped.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Lady Lawless followed Mr. Vandewaters&rsquo;s glance, and saw, passing on her
+      husband&rsquo;s arm, a tall, fascinating girl. She smiled meaningly to herself,
+      as she sent a quick quizzical look at the American, and said, purposely
+      misinterpreting his exclamation: &ldquo;I am not envious, Mr. Vandewaters.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of course not. That&rsquo;s a commoner thing with us than with you. American
+      girls get more notice and attention from their cradles up, and they want
+      it all along the line. You see, we&rsquo;ve mostly got the idea that an
+      Englishman expects from his wife what an American woman expects from her
+      husband.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How do Americans get these impressions about us?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;From our newspapers, I guess; and the newspapers take as the ground-work
+      of their belief the Bow Street cases where Englishmen are cornered for
+      beating their wives.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Suppose we were to judge of American Society by the cases in a Chicago
+      Divorce Court?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There you have me on toast. That&rsquo;s what comes of having a husband who
+      takes American papers. Mind you, I haven&rsquo;t any idea that the American
+      papers are right. I&rsquo;ve had a lot to do with newspapers, and they are
+      pretty ignorant, I can tell you&mdash;cheap all round. What&rsquo;s a newspaper,
+      anyway, but an editor, more or less smart and overworked, with an owner
+      behind him who has got some game on hand? I know: I&rsquo;ve been there.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How have you &lsquo;been there&rsquo;?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve owned four big papers all at once, and had fifty others under my
+      thumb.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Lady Lawless caught her breath; but she believed him. &ldquo;You must be very
+      rich.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Owning newspapers doesn&rsquo;t mean riches. It&rsquo;s a lever, though, for tipping
+      the dollars your way.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I suppose they have&mdash;tipped your way?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes: pretty well. But, don&rsquo;t follow this lead any farther, Lady Lawless,
+      or you may come across something that will give you a start. I should like
+      to keep on speaking terms with you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You mean that a man cannot hold fifty newspapers under his thumb, and
+      live in the glare of a search-light also?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Exactly. You can&rsquo;t make millions without pulling wires.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She saw him watching the girl on her husband&rsquo;s arm. She had the instinct
+      of her sex. She glanced at the stately girl again; then at Mr. Vandewaters
+      critically, and rejoined, quizzically: &ldquo;Did you&mdash;make millions?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      His eyes still watching, he replied abstractedly. &ldquo;Yes: a few handfuls,
+      and lost a few&mdash;&lsquo;that&rsquo;s why I&rsquo;m here.&rsquo;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To get them back on the London market?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That&rsquo;s why I am here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have not come in vain?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I could tell you better in a month or so from now. In any case, I don&rsquo;t
+      stand to lose. I&rsquo;ve come to take things away from England.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I hope you will take away a good opinion of it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If there&rsquo;d been any doubt of it half an hour ago, it would be all gone
+      this minute.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Which is nice of you; and not in your usual vein, I should think. But,
+      Mr. Vandewaters, we want you to come to Craigruie, our country place, to
+      spend a week. Then you will have a chance to judge us better, or rather
+      more broadly and effectively.&rdquo; She was looking at the girl, and at that
+      moment she caught Sir Duke&rsquo;s eye. She telegraphed to him to come.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thank you, Lady Lawless, I&rsquo;m glad you have asked me. But&mdash;&rdquo; He
+      glanced to where Mr. Pride was being introduced to the young lady on Sir
+      Duke&rsquo;s arm, and paused.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We are hoping,&rdquo; she added, interpreting his thought, and speaking a
+      little dryly, &ldquo;that your friend, Mr. Stephen Pride&rdquo;&mdash;the name sounded
+      so ludicrous&mdash;&ldquo;will join us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He&rsquo;ll be proud enough, you may be sure. It&rsquo;s a singular combination,
+      Pride and myself, isn&rsquo;t it? But, you see, he has a fortune which, as yet,
+      he has never been able to handle for himself; and I do it for him. We are
+      partners, and, though you mightn&rsquo;t think it, he has got more money now
+      than when he put his dollars at my disposal to help me make a few millions
+      at a critical time.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Lady Lawless let her fan touch Mr. Vandewaters&rsquo;s arm. &ldquo;I am going to do
+      you a great favour. You see that young lady coming to us with my husband?
+      Well, I am going to introduce you to her. It is such as she&mdash;such
+      women&mdash;who will convince you&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&mdash;that you have yet to make your&mdash;what shall I call it?&mdash;Ah,
+      I have it: your &lsquo;biggest deal,&rsquo;&mdash;and, in truth, your best.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is that so?&rdquo; rejoined Vandewaters musingly. &ldquo;Is that so? I always thought
+      I&rsquo;d make my biggest deal in the States. Who is she? She is handsome.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She is more than handsome, and she is the Honourable Gracia Raglan.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t understand about &lsquo;The Honourable.&rsquo;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will explain that another time.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A moment later Miss Raglan, in a gentle bewilderment, walked down the
+      ballroom on the arm of the millionaire, half afraid that something gauche
+      would happen; but by the time she had got to the other end was reassured,
+      and became interested.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir Duke said to his wife in an aside, before he left her with Mr.
+      Vandewaters&rsquo;s financial partner: &ldquo;What is your pretty conspiracy, Molly?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do talk English, Duke, and do not interfere.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A few hours later, on the way home, Sir Duke said: &ldquo;You asked Mr. Pride
+      too?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes; I grieve to say.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why grieve?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because his experiences with us seem to make him dizzy. He will be
+      terribly in earnest with every woman in the house, if&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you do not keep him in line yourself?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Quite so. And the creature is not even interesting.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Cast your eye about. He has millions; you have cousins.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You do not mean that, Duke? I would see them in their graves first. He
+      says &lsquo;My lady&rsquo; every other sentence, and wants to send me flowers, and a
+      box for the opera, and to drive me in the Park.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Her husband laughed. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll stake my life he can&rsquo;t ride. You will have him
+      about the place like a tame cat.&rdquo; Then, seeing that his wife was annoyed:
+      &ldquo;Never mind, Molly, I will help you all I can. I want to be kind to them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know you do. But what is your &lsquo;pretty conspiracy,&rsquo; Duke?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A well-stocked ranche in Colorado.&rdquo; He did not mean it. And she knew it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How can you be so mercenary?&rdquo; she replied.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then they both laughed, and said that they were like the rest of the
+      world.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      II
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lady Lawless was an admirable hostess, and she never appeared to better
+      advantage in the character than during the time when Miss Gracia Raglan,
+      Mr. John Vandewaters, and Mr. Stephen Pride were guests at Craigruie. The
+      men accepted Mr. Vandewaters at once as a good fellow and a very sensible
+      man. He was a heavy-weight for riding; but it was not the hunting season,
+      and, when they did ride, a big horse carried him very well. At
+      grouse-shooting he showed to advantage. Mr. Pride never rode. He went
+      shooting only once, and then, as Mr. Vandewaters told him, he got
+      &ldquo;rattled.&rdquo; He was then advised by his friend to remain at home and
+      cultivate his finer faculties. At the same time, Mr. Vandewaters
+      parenthetically remarked to Sir Duke Lawless that Mr. Pride knew the poets
+      backwards, and was smart at French. He insisted on bringing out the good
+      qualities of his comrade; but he gave him much strong advice privately. He
+      would have done it just the same at the risk of losing a fortune, were it
+      his whim&mdash;he would have won the fortune back in due course.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the present time Mr. Vandewaters was in the heat of some large
+      commercial movements. No one would have supposed it, save for the fact
+      that telegrams and cablegrams were brought to him day and night. He had
+      liberally salaried the telegraph-clerk to work after hours, simply to be
+      at his service. The contents of these messages never shook his equanimity.
+      He was quiet, urbane, dry-mannered, at all times. Mr. Pride, however, was
+      naturally excitable. He said of himself earnestly that he had a sensitive
+      nature. He said it to Mrs. Gregory Thorne, whose reply was: &ldquo;Dear me, and
+      when things are irritating and painful to you do you never think of
+      suicide?&rdquo; Then she turned away to speak to some one, as if she had been
+      interrupted, and intended to take up the subject again; but she never did.
+      This remark caused Mr. Pride some nervous moments. He was not quite sure
+      how she meant it. But it did not depress him as it might otherwise have
+      done, for his thoughts were running much in another channel with a foolish
+      sort of elation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As Lady Lawless had predicted, he was assiduously attentive to her, and it
+      needed all her tact and cheerful frankness to keep him in line. She
+      managed it very well: Mr. Pride&rsquo;s devotion was not too noticeable to the
+      other guests. She tried to turn his attentions to some pretty girls; but,
+      although there were one or two who might, in some weak moments, have
+      compromised with his millions, he did no more than saunter with them on
+      the terrace and oppress them with his lisping egotism. Every one hinted
+      that he seemed an estimable, but trying, young man; and, as Sir Duke said
+      to his wife, the men would not have him at any price.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As for Mr. Vandewaters and Gracia Raglan, Lady Lawless was not very sure
+      that her delicate sympathy was certain of reward. The two were naturally
+      thrown together a good deal; but Miss Raglan was a girl of singular
+      individuality and high-mindedness, and she was keen enough to see from the
+      start what Lady Lawless suspected might happen. She did not resent this,&mdash;she
+      was a woman; but it roused in her a spirit of criticism, and she threw up
+      a barrier of fine reserve, which puzzled Mr. Vandewaters. He did not see
+      that Lady Lawless was making a possible courtship easy for him. If he had,
+      it would have made no difference: he would have looked at it as at most
+      things, broadly. He was not blind to the fact that his money might be a
+      &ldquo;factor&rdquo;, but, as he said to himself, his millions were a part of him&mdash;they
+      represented, like whist-counters, so much pluck and mother-wit. He liked
+      the general appreciation of them: he knew very well that people saw him in
+      them and them in him. Miss Raglan attracted him from the moment of
+      meeting. She was the first woman of her class that he had ever met
+      closely; and the possibility of having as his own so adorable a comrade
+      was inspiring. He sat down sometimes as the days went on&mdash;it was
+      generally when he was shaving&mdash;and thought upon his intention
+      regarding Miss Raglan, in relation to his humble past; for he had fully
+      made up his mind to marry her, if she would have him. He wondered what she
+      would think when he told her of his life; and he laughed at the humour of
+      the situation. He had been into Debrett, and he knew that she could trace
+      her family back to the Crusades.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He determined to make a clean breast of it. One day he was obliged to
+      remain at the house in expectation of receiving important telegrams, and
+      the only people who appeared at lunch were Lady Lawless, Mrs. Gregory
+      Thorne (who was expecting her husband), Miss Raglan; Pride, and himself.
+      While at luncheon he made up his mind to have a talk with Miss Raglan. In
+      the library after luncheon the opportunity was given. It was a warm,
+      pleasant day, and delightful in the grounds.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After one or two vain efforts to escape, Mrs. Gregory Thorne and Lady
+      Lawless resigned themselves to the attentions of Mr. Pride; and for once
+      Lady Lawless did not check Mrs. Thorne&rsquo;s irony. It was almost a
+      satisfaction to see Mr. Pride&rsquo;s bewildered looks, and his inability to
+      know whether or not he should resent (whether it would be proper to
+      resent) this softly-showered satire.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Vandewaters and Gracia Raglan talked more freely than they had ever
+      done before.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you really like England?&rdquo; she said to him; then, waving her hand
+      lightly to the beeches and the clean-cropped grass through the window, &ldquo;I
+      mean do you like our &lsquo;trim parterres,&rsquo; our devotion to mere living,
+      pleasure, sport, squiring, and that sort of thing?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He raised his head, glanced out, drew in a deep breath, thrust his hands
+      down in the pockets of his coat, and looking at her with respectful good
+      humour, said: &ldquo;Like it? Yes, right down to the ground. Why shouldn&rsquo;t I!
+      It&rsquo;s the kind of place I should like to come to in my old days. You
+      needn&rsquo;t die in a hurry here. See?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are you sure you would not be like the old sailors who must live where
+      they can scent the brine? You have been used to an active, adventurous,
+      hurried life. Do you think you could endure this humdrum of enjoyment?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It would be hard to tell quite what was running in Gracia Raglan&rsquo;s mind,
+      and, for the moment, she herself hardly knew; but she had a sudden,
+      overmastering wish to make the man talk: to explore and, maybe, find
+      surprising&mdash;even trying&mdash;things. She was astonished that she
+      enjoyed his society so keenly. Even now, as she spoke, she remembered a
+      day and a night since his coming, when he was absent in London; also how
+      the party seemed to have lost its character and life, and how, when Mr.
+      Pride condescended, for a few moments, to decline from Lady Lawless upon
+      herself, she was even pleasant to him, making him talk about Mr.
+      Vandewaters, and relishing the enthusiastic loyalty of the supine young
+      man. She, like Lady Lawless, had learned to see behind the firm bold
+      exterior, not merely a notable energy, force, self-reliance, and
+      masterfulness, but a native courtesy, simplicity, and refinement which
+      surprised her. Of all the men she knew not a half-dozen had an
+      appreciation of nature or of art. They affected art, and some of them went
+      to the Academy or the private views in Bond Street; but they had little
+      feeling for the business. They did it in a well-bred way, with taste, but
+      not with warmth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Vandewaters now startled her by quoting suddenly lines from an English
+      poet unknown to her. By chance she was turning over the Academy pictures
+      of the year, and came at last to one called &ldquo;A Japanese Beauty of Old
+      Days&rdquo;&mdash;an exquisite thing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is it not fascinating?&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;So piquant and fresh.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He gave a silent laugh, as was his custom when he enjoyed anything, and
+      then replied:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I came across a little book of verses one day in the States. A friend of
+      mine, the president of a big railway, gave it to me. He does some painting
+      himself when he travels in his Pullman in the Rockies. Well, it had some
+      verses on just such a picture as that. Hits it off right, Miss Raglan.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Verses?&rdquo; she remarked, lifting her eyebrows. She expected something out
+      of the &ldquo;poet&rsquo;s corner&rdquo; of a country newspaper. &ldquo;What are they?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, one&rsquo;s enough to show the style. This is it:
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+       &ldquo;&lsquo;Was I a Samurai renowned,
+        Two-sworded, fierce, immense of bow?
+        A histrion angular and profound?
+        A priest? or porter? Child, although
+        I have forgotten clean, I know
+        That in the shade of Fujisan,
+        What time the cherry-orchards blow,
+        I loved you once in old Japan.&rsquo;&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      The verse on the lips of Mr. Vandewaters struck her strangely. He was not
+      like any man she had known. Most self-made Englishmen, with such a burly
+      exterior and energy, and engaged in such pursuits, could not, to save
+      themselves from hanging, have impressed her as Mr. Vandewaters did. There
+      was a big round sympathy in the tone, a timbre in the voice, which made
+      the words entirely fitting. Besides, he said them without any kind of
+      affectation, and with a certain turn of dry humour, as if he were inwardly
+      laughing at the idea of the poem.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The verses are charming,&rdquo; she said, musingly; &ldquo;and the idea put that way
+      is charming also. But do you think there would be much amusement in living
+      half-a-dozen times, or even twice, unless you were quite sure that you
+      remembered everything? This gentleman was peculiarly fortunate to recall
+      Fujisan, and the orange orchards&mdash;and the girl.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I believe you are right. One life is about enough for most of us. Memory
+      is all very fine; but you&rsquo;d want a life set apart for remembering the
+      others after awhile.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why do you not add, &lsquo;And that would bore one?&rsquo; Most of the men I know
+      would say so.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, I never used the word that way in my life. When I don&rsquo;t like a
+      thing, that ends it&mdash;it has got to go.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You cannot do that with everything.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pretty much, if I set my mind to it. It is astonishing how things&rsquo;ll come
+      round your way if you keep on thinking and willing them so.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have you always got everything you wanted?&rdquo; He had been looking off into
+      the grounds through the open window. Now he turned slowly upon her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So far I have got everything I set my mind to get. Little things don&rsquo;t
+      count. You lose them sometimes because you want to work at something else;
+      sometimes because, as in cards, you are throwing a few away to save the
+      whole game.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He looked at her, as she thought, curiously. In his mind he was wondering
+      if she knew that he had made up his mind to marry her. She was suddenly
+      made aware of the masterfulness of his spirit, which might, she knew, be
+      applied to herself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let us go into the grounds,&rdquo; he added, all at once. Soon after, in the
+      shade of the trees, she broke in upon the thread of their casual
+      conversation. &ldquo;A few moments ago,&rdquo; she murmured, &ldquo;you said: &lsquo;One life is
+      about enough for most of us.&rsquo; Then you added a disparaging remark about
+      memory. Well, that doesn&rsquo;t seem like your usual point of view&mdash;more
+      like that of Mr. Pride; but not so plaintive, of course. Pray do smoke,&rdquo;
+       she added, as, throwing back his coat, he exposed some cigars in his
+      waistcoat pocket. &ldquo;I am sure you always smoke after lunch.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He took out a cigar, cut off the end, and put it in his mouth. But he did
+      not light it. Then he glanced up at her with a grave quizzical look as
+      though wondering what would be the effect of his next words, and a smile
+      played at his lips.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What I meant was this. I think we get enough out of our life to last us
+      for centuries. It&rsquo;s all worth doing from the start, no matter what it is:
+      working, fighting, marching and countermarching, plotting and
+      counterplotting, backing your friends and hating your foes, playing big
+      games and giving others a chance to, standing with your hand on the
+      lynch-pin, or pulling your head safe out of the hot-pot. But I don&rsquo;t think
+      it is worth doing twice. The interest wouldn&rsquo;t be fresh. For men and women
+      and life, with a little different dress, are the same as they always were;
+      and there&rsquo;s only the same number of passions working now, as at the
+      beginning. I want to live life up to the hilt; because it is all new as I
+      go on; but never twice.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Indeed?&rdquo; She looked at him earnestly for a moment, and then added: &ldquo;I
+      should think you would have seen lost chances; and doing things a second
+      time might do them better.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I never missed chances,&rdquo; he replied, simply: &ldquo;never except twice, and
+      then&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And then?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then it was to give the other fellow a chance.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh!&rdquo; There was a kind of dubiousness in her tone. He noticed it. &ldquo;You can
+      hardly understand, Miss Raglan. Fact is, it was one of those deals when
+      you can make a million, in a straight enough game; but it comes out of
+      another man&mdash;one, maybe, that you don&rsquo;t know; who is playing just the
+      same as you are. I have had a lot of sport; but I&rsquo;ve never crippled any
+      one man, when my engine has been dead on him. I have played more against
+      organisations than single men.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What was the most remarkable chance you ever had to make a million, and
+      did not?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He threw back his head, smiling shrewdly. &ldquo;When by accident my enemy got
+      hold of a telegram meant for me. I was standing behind a frosted glass
+      door, and through the narrow bevel of clear glass I watched him read it. I
+      never saw a struggle like that. At last he got up, snatched an envelope,
+      put the telegram inside, wrote my name, and called a messenger. I knew
+      what was in the message. I let the messenger go, and watched that man for
+      ten minutes. It was a splendid sight. The telegram had given him a big
+      chance to make a million or two, as he thought. But he backed himself
+      against the temptation, and won. That day I could have put the ball into
+      his wicket; but I didn&rsquo;t. That&rsquo;s a funny case of the kind.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did he ever know?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He didn&rsquo;t. We are fighting yet. He is richer than I am now, and at this
+      moment he&rsquo;s playing a hard game straight at several interests of mine. But
+      I reckon I can stop him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You must get a great deal out of life,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;Have you always
+      enjoyed it so?&rdquo; She was thinking it would be strange to live in contact
+      with such events very closely. It was so like adventure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Always&mdash;from the start.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tell me something of it all, won&rsquo;t you?&rdquo; He did not hesitate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I was born in a little place in Maine. My mother was a good woman, they
+      said&mdash;straight as a die all her life. I can only remember her in a
+      kind of dream, when she used to gather us children about the big
+      rocking-chair, and pray for us, and for my father, who was away most of
+      the time, working in the timber-shanties in the winter, and at odd things
+      in the summer. My father wasn&rsquo;t much of a man. He was kind-hearted, but
+      shiftless, but pretty handsome for a man from Maine.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My mother died when I was six years old. Things got bad. I was the
+      youngest. The oldest was only ten years old. She was the head of the
+      house. She had the pluck of a woman. We got along somehow, until one day,
+      when she and I were scrubbing the floor, she caught cold. She died in
+      three days.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Here he paused; and, without glancing at Miss Raglan, who sat very still,
+      but looking at him, he lighted his cigar.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then things got worse. My father took to drinking hard, and we had mighty
+      little to eat. I chored around, doing odd things in the village. I have
+      often wondered that people didn&rsquo;t see the stuff that was in me, and give
+      me a chance. They didn&rsquo;t, though. As for my relatives: one was a
+      harness-maker. He sent me out in the dead of winter to post bills for
+      miles about, and gave me ten cents for it. Didn&rsquo;t even give me a meal.
+      Twenty years after he came to me and wanted to borrow a hundred dollars. I
+      gave him five hundred on condition that he&rsquo;d not come near me for the rest
+      of his natural life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The next thing I did was to leave home&mdash;&lsquo;run away,&rsquo; I suppose, is
+      the way to put it. I got to Boston, and went for a cabin-boy on a steamer;
+      travelled down to Panama, and from there to Brazil. At Brazil I got on
+      another ship, and came round to San Francisco. I got into trouble in San
+      Francisco with the chief mate of the Flying Polly, because I tried to
+      teach him his business. One of the first things I learned in life was not
+      to interfere with people who had a trade and didn&rsquo;t understand it. In San
+      Francisco I got out of the situation. I took to selling newspapers in the
+      streets.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There wasn&rsquo;t enough money in it. I went for a cabin-boy again, and
+      travelled to Australia. There, once more, I resigned my position, chiefly
+      because I wouldn&rsquo;t cheerfully let the Mate bang me about the quarter-deck.
+      I expect I was a precocious youth, and wasn&rsquo;t exactly the kind for
+      Sunday-school prizes. In Melbourne I began to speculate. I found a ticket
+      for the theatre where an American actor&mdash;our biggest actor today&mdash;was
+      playing, and I tried to sell it outside the door of the theatre where they
+      were crowding to see him. The man who bought it was the actor himself. He
+      gave me two dollars more than the regular price. I expect he knew from my
+      voice I was an American. Is there anything peculiar about my voice, Miss
+      Raglan?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She looked at him quickly, smiled, and said in a low tone: &ldquo;Yes, something
+      peculiar. Please go on.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, anyway, he said to me: &lsquo;Look here, where did you come from, my
+      boy?&rsquo; I told him the State of Maine. &lsquo;What are you doing here?&rsquo; he asked.
+      &lsquo;Speculating, said I, and seeing things.&rsquo; He looked me up and down. &lsquo;How
+      are you getting on?&rsquo; &lsquo;Well. I&rsquo;ve made four dollars to-day,&rsquo; I answered.
+      &lsquo;Out of this ticket?&rsquo; I expect I grinned. He suddenly caught me by the arm
+      and whisked me inside the theatre&mdash;the first time I&rsquo;d ever been in a
+      theatre in my life. I shall never forget it. He took me around to his
+      dressing-room, stuck me in a corner, and prodded me with his forefinger.
+      &lsquo;Look here,&rsquo; he said, &lsquo;I guess I&rsquo;ll hire you to speculate for me.&rsquo; And
+      that&rsquo;s how I came to get twenty-five dollars a month and my living from a
+      great American actor. When I got back to America&mdash;with him&mdash;I
+      had two hundred and fifty dollars in cash, and good clothes. I started a
+      peanut-stand, and sold papers and books, and became a speculator. I heard
+      two men talking one day at my stall about a railway that was going to run
+      through a certain village, and how they intended to buy up the whole
+      place. I had four hundred and fifty dollars then. I went down to that
+      village, and bought some lots myself. I made four thousand dollars. Then I
+      sold more books, and went on speculating.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He paused, blew his cigar-smoke slowly from him a moment; then turned with
+      a quick look to Miss Raglan, and smiled as at some incongruous thing. He
+      was wondering what would be the effect of his next words.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;When I was about twenty-two, and had ten thousand dollars, I fell in
+      love. She was a bright-faced, smart girl. Her mother kept a boarding-house
+      in New York; not an up-town boarding-house. She waited on table. I suppose
+      a man can be clever in making money, and knowing how to handle men, and
+      not know much about women. I thought she was worth a good deal more to me
+      than the ten thousand dollars. She didn&rsquo;t know I had that money. A drummer&mdash;that&rsquo;s
+      a commercial traveller&mdash;came along, who had a salary of, maybe, a
+      thousand dollars a year. She jilted me. She made a mistake. That year I
+      made twenty-five thousand dollars. I saw her a couple of years ago. She
+      was keeping a boarding-house too, and her daughter was waiting on table.
+      I&rsquo;m sorry for that girl: it isn&rsquo;t any fun being poor. I didn&rsquo;t take much
+      interest in women after that. I put my surplus affections into stocks and
+      shares, and bulling and bearing... Well, that is the way the thing has
+      gone till now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What became of your father and your brother?&rdquo; she asked in a neutral
+      tone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know anything about my father. He disappeared after I left, and
+      never turned up again. And Jim&mdash;poor Jim!&mdash;he was shiftless. Jim
+      was a tanner. It was no good setting him up in business. Steady income was
+      the cheapest way. But Jim died of too much time on his hands. His son is
+      in Mexico somewhere. I sent him there, and I hope he&rsquo;ll stay. If he
+      doesn&rsquo;t, his salary stops: he is shiftless too. That is not the kind of
+      thing, and they are not the kind of people you know best, Miss Raglan.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He looked at her, eyes full-front, bravely, honestly, ready to face the
+      worst. Her head was turned away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He nodded to himself. It was as he feared.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At that moment a boy came running along the walk towards them, and handed
+      Mr. Vandewaters a telegram. He gave the lad a few pence, then, with an
+      apology, opened the telegram. Presently he whistled softly, in a quick
+      surprised way. Then he stuffed the paper into his waistcoat pocket, threw
+      away his cigar, and turned to Gracia Raglan, whose face as yet was only
+      half towards him. &ldquo;I hope your news is good,&rdquo; she said very quietly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pretty bad, in a way,&rdquo; he answered. &ldquo;I have lost a couple of millions&mdash;maybe
+      a little more.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She gasped, and turned an astonished face on him. He saw her startled
+      look, and laughed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Does it not worry you?&rdquo; she asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have got more important things on hand just now,&rdquo; he answered. &ldquo;Very
+      much more important,&rdquo; he added, and there was that in his voice which made
+      her turn away her head again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I suppose,&rdquo; he went on, &ldquo;that the story you have just heard is not the
+      kind of an autobiography you would care to have told in your
+      drawing-room?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Still she did not reply; but her hands were clasped tightly in front of
+      her. &ldquo;No: I suppose not,&rdquo; he went on&mdash;&ldquo;I&mdash;I suppose not. And
+      yet, do you know, Miss Raglan, I don&rsquo;t feel a bit ashamed of it, after
+      all: which may be evidence of my lost condition.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Now she turned to him with a wonderful light in her eyes, her sweet,
+      strong face rich with feeling. She put out her hand to his arm, and
+      touched it quickly, nervously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your story has touched me inexpressibly,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;I did not know that
+      men could be so strong and frank and courageous as you. I did not know
+      that men could be so great; that any man could think more of what a woman
+      thought of&mdash;of his life&rsquo;s story&mdash;than of&rdquo;&mdash;she paused, and
+      then gave a trembling little laugh&mdash;&ldquo;of two millions or more.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He got to his feet, and faced her. &ldquo;You&mdash;you are a woman, by heaven!&rdquo;
+       he said. &ldquo;You are finer even than I thought you. I am not worthy to ask
+      you what I had in my mind to ask you; but there is no man in God&rsquo;s
+      universe who would prize you as I do. I may be a poor man before sundown.
+      If that happens, though, I shall remember the place where I had the
+      biggest moment of my life, and the woman who made that moment possible.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Now she also rose. There was a brave high look in her face; but her voice
+      shook a little as she said: &ldquo;You have never been a coward, why be a coward
+      now?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Smiling, he slowly answered: &ldquo;I wouldn&rsquo;t if I were sure about my dollars.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She did not reply, but glanced down, not with coquetry, but because she
+      could not stand the furnace of his eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You said a moment ago,&rdquo; she ventured, &ldquo;that you have had one big moment
+      in your life. Oughtn&rsquo;t it to bring you good fortune?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It will&mdash;it will,&rdquo; he said, reaching his hand towards hers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, no,&rdquo; she rejoined archly. &ldquo;I am going. Please do not follow me.&rdquo;
+       Then, over her shoulder, as she left him: &ldquo;If you have luck, I shall want
+      a subscription for my hospital.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As many thousands as you like,&rdquo; he answered: then, as she sped away: &ldquo;I
+      will have her, and the millions too!&rdquo; adding reminiscently: &ldquo;Yes, Lady
+      Lawless, this is my biggest deal.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He tramped to the stables, asked for and got a horse, and rode away to the
+      railway station. It was dinner time when he got back. He came down to
+      dinner late, apologising to Lady Lawless as he did so. Glancing across the
+      table at Mr. Pride, he saw a peculiar excited look in the young man&rsquo;s
+      face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The baby fool!&rdquo; he said to himself. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s getting into mischief. I&rsquo;ll
+      startle him. If he knows that an army of his dollars is playing at
+      fox-and-geese, he&rsquo;ll not make eyes at Lady Lawless this way&mdash;little
+      ass.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Lady Lawless appeared oblivious of the young man&rsquo;s devotional exercises.
+      She was engaged on a more congenial theme. In spite of Miss Raglan&rsquo;s
+      excellent acting, she saw that something had occurred. Mr. Vandewaters was
+      much the same as usual, save that his voice had an added ring. She was not
+      sure that all was right; but she was determined to know. Sir Duke was
+      amused generally. He led a pretty by-play with Mrs. Gregory Thorne, of
+      whom he asked the details of the day, much to the confusion, not admirably
+      hid, of Mr. Pride; lamenting now and then Mr. Vandewaters&rsquo;s absence from
+      the shooting.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Vandewaters was cool enough. He said that he had been playing at
+      nine-pins with railways, which was good enough sport for him. Soon after
+      dinner, he was handed two telegrams. He glanced slowly up at Pride, as if
+      debating whether to tell him something. He evidently decided against it,
+      and, excusing himself by saying he was off to take a little walk in Wall
+      Street, went away to the telegraph office, where he stayed three hours.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The magnitude of the concerns, the admirable stoicism with which he
+      received alarming news, his dry humour while they waited between messages&mdash;all
+      were so unlike anything the telegraph-clerk had ever seen, or imagined,
+      that the thing was like a preposterous dream. Even when, at last, a
+      telegram came which the clerk vaguely felt was, somehow, like the fall of
+      an empire, Mr. Vandewaters remained unmoved. Then he sent one more
+      telegram, gave the clerk a pound, asked that the reply be sent to him as
+      soon as it came, and went away, calmly smoking his cigar.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was a mild night. When he got to the house he found some of the guests
+      walking on the veranda. He joined them; but Miss Raglan was not with them;
+      nor were Lady Lawless and Mr. Pride. He wanted to see all three, and so he
+      went into the house. There was no one in the drawing-room. He reached the
+      library in time to hear Lady Lawless say to Mr. Pride, who was
+      disappearing through another door: &ldquo;You had better ask advice of Mr.
+      Vandewaters.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The door closed. Mr. Vandewaters stepped forward.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He understood the situation. &ldquo;I guess I know how to advise him, Lady
+      Lawless,&rdquo; he said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She turned on him quietly, traces of hauteur in her manner. Her self-pride
+      had been hurt. &ldquo;You have heard?&rdquo; she asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Only your last words, Lady Lawless. They were enough. I feel guilty in
+      having brought him here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You need not. I was glad to have your friend. He is young and effusive.
+      Let us say no more about it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He is tragically repentant; which is a pity. There is no reason why he
+      should not stay, and be sensible. Why should young men lose their heads,
+      and be so absurdly earnest?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Another poser, Lady Lawless.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In all your life you never misunderstood things so, I am sure.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, there is no virtue in keeping your head steady. I have spent most
+      of my life wooing Madame Fortune; I find that makes a man canny.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She has been very kind to you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps it would surprise you if I told you that at this moment I am not
+      worth ten thousand dollars.&rdquo; She looked greatly astonished. &ldquo;I do not
+      understand,&rdquo; she said. She was thinking of what this might mean to Gracia
+      Raglan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You see I&rsquo;ve been playing games at a disadvantage with some ruffians at
+      New York. They have combined and got me into a corner. I have made my last
+      move. If it comes out right I shall be richer than ever; if not I must
+      begin all over again.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Lady Lawless looked at him curiously. She had never met a man like him
+      before. His power seemed almost Napoleonic; his imperturbability was
+      absolute. Yet she noticed something new in him. On one side a kind of grim
+      forcefulness; on the other, a quiet sort of human sympathy. The one, no
+      doubt, had to do with the momentous circumstances amid which he was
+      placed; the other, with an event which she had, perhaps prematurely,
+      anticipated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wonder&mdash;I wonder at you,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;How do you keep so cool while
+      such tremendous things are happening?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because I believe in myself, Lady Lawless. I have had to take my measure
+      a good many times in this world. I never was defeated through my own
+      stupidity. It has been the sheer luck of the game.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You do not look like a gamester,&rdquo; she said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I guess it&rsquo;s all pretty much a game in life, if you look at it right. It
+      is only a case of playing fair or foul.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I never heard any Englishmen talk as you do.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very likely not,&rdquo; he responded. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t want to be unpleasant; but most
+      Englishmen work things out by the rule their fathers taught them, and not
+      by native ingenuity. It is native wit that tells in the end, I&rsquo;m
+      thinking.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps you are right,&rdquo; she rejoined. &ldquo;There must be a kind of genius in
+      it.&rdquo; Here her voice dropped a little lower. &ldquo;I do not believe there are
+      many Englishmen, even if they had your dollars&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The dollars I had this morning,&rdquo; he interposed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&mdash;who could have so strongly impressed Gracia Raglan.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He looked thoughtfully on the ground; then raised his eyes to Lady
+      Lawless, and said in a low, ringing tone:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, I am going to do more than &lsquo;impress&rsquo;: I am going to convince her.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;When?&rdquo; she asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To-morrow morning, I hope,&rdquo; was the reply. &ldquo;I believe I shall have my
+      millions again.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you do,&rdquo; she said slowly, &ldquo;do you not think that you ought to run no
+      more risks&mdash;for her sake?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is just what I mean to do, Lady Lawless. I&rsquo;ll settle millions where
+      they ought to be settled, drop Wall Street, and&mdash;go into training.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Into training?&rdquo; she asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, for a house on the Hudson, a villa at Cannes, a residence in
+      Grosvenor Square, and a place in Devonshire&mdash;or somewhere else.
+      Then,&rdquo; he added, with a twinkle in his eye, &ldquo;I shall need a good deal of
+      time to cultivate accent.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t!&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;You are much more charming as you are.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      They passed into the drawing-room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are these things to be told?&rdquo; she asked, with a little suggestion in her
+      voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can trust your discretion.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Even in such circumstances?&rdquo; she asked. She paused, with a motion of her
+      fan back towards the room they had left.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have taught him a lesson, Lady Lawless. It is rough on him; but he
+      needs it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I hope he will do nothing rash,&rdquo; she said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps he&rsquo;ll write some poetry, and refuse to consider his natural
+      appetite.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Will you go and see him now?&rdquo; she asked. &ldquo;Immediately. Good night, Lady
+      Lawless.&rdquo; His big hand swallowed hers in a firm, friendly clasp, and he
+      shook it once or twice before he parted from her. He met Sir Duke Lawless
+      in the doorway. They greeted cheerfully, and then Lawless came up to his
+      wife.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, my dear,&rdquo; he said, with an amused look in his face, &ldquo;well, what
+      news?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She lifted her eyebrows at him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Something has happened, Molly, I can see it in your face.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She was very brief. &ldquo;Gracia Raglan has been conquered; the young man from
+      Boston has been foolish; and Mr. Vandewaters has lost millions.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Eh? That&rsquo;s awkward,&rdquo; said Sir Duke.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Which?&rdquo; asked his wife.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Vandewaters found Mr. Pride in his bedroom, a waif of melancholy. He drew
+      a chair up, lighted a cigar, eyed the young man from head to foot, and
+      then said: &ldquo;Pride, have you got any backbone? If you have, brace up. You
+      are ruined. That&rsquo;s about as mild as I can put it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You know all?&rdquo;&mdash;said the young man helplessly, his hands clasped
+      between his knees in aesthetic agony.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes; I know more than you do, as you will find out. You&rsquo;re a nice sort of
+      man, to come into a man&rsquo;s house, in a strange land, and make love to his
+      wife. Now, what do you think of yourself? You&rsquo;re a nice representative of
+      the American, aren&rsquo;t you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&mdash;I didn&rsquo;t mean any harm&mdash;I&mdash;couldn&rsquo;t help it,&rdquo; replied
+      the stricken boy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;O, for God&rsquo;s sake, drop that bib-and-tucker twaddle! Couldn&rsquo;t help it!
+      Every scoundrel, too weak to face the consequences of his sin, says he
+      couldn&rsquo;t help it. So help me, Joseph, I&rsquo;d like to thrash you. Couldn&rsquo;t
+      help it! Now, sit up in your chair, take this cigar, drink this glass of
+      whiskey I&rsquo;m pouring for you, and make up your mind that you&rsquo;re going to be
+      a man and not a nincompoop&mdash;sit still! Don&rsquo;t fly up. I mean what I
+      say. I&rsquo;ve got business to talk to you. And make up your mind that, for
+      once, you have got to take life seriously.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What right have you to speak to me like this?&rdquo; demanded the young man
+      with an attempt at dignity. Vandewaters laughed loudly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Right? Great Scott! The right of a man who thinks a damned sight more of
+      your reputation than you do yourself, and of your fortune than you would
+      ever have wits to do. I am the best friend you&rsquo;ve got, and not the less
+      your friend because I feel like breaking your ribs. Now, enough of that.
+      This is what I have to say, Pride: to-night you and I are beggars. You
+      understand? Beggars. Out in the cold world, out in the street. Now, what
+      do you think of that?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The shock to Mr. Pride was great. Mr. Vandewaters had exaggerated the
+      disaster; but he had done it with a purpose. The youth gasped &ldquo;My God!&rdquo;
+       and dropped his glass. Vandewaters picked it up, and regarded him a moment
+      in silence. Then he began to explain their financial position. He did not
+      explain the one bold stroke which he was playing to redeem their fortunes:
+      if possible. When he had finished the story, he said, &ldquo;I guess that&rsquo;s a
+      bit more serious than the little affair in the library half an hour ago?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He rose to his feet. &ldquo;Look here, Pride, be a man. You&rsquo;ve never tried it
+      yet. Let me teach you how to face the world without a dollar; how to make
+      a fortune. Then, when you&rsquo;ve made it, you&rsquo;ll get what you&rsquo;ve never had yet&mdash;the
+      pleasure of spending money dug out of your own wits.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He carried conviction into a mind not yet all destroyed by effeminacy and
+      indulgence of the emotions. Something of the iron of his own brain got
+      into the brain of the young man, who came to his feet trembling a little,
+      and said: &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t mind it so much, if you only stick to me, Vandewaters.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A smile flickered about the corners of Vandewaters&rsquo;s mouth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Take a little more whiskey,&rdquo; he said; &ldquo;then get into bed, and go to
+      sleep. No nonsense, remember; go to sleep. To-morrow morning we will talk.
+      And see here, my boy,&rdquo;&mdash;he caught him by both arms and fastened his
+      eyes,&mdash;&ldquo;you have had a lesson: learn it backwards. Good night.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Next morning Mr. Vandewaters was early in the grounds. He chatted with the
+      gardener, and discussed the merits of the horses with the groom,
+      apparently at peace with the world. Yet he was watching vigilantly the
+      carriage-drive from the public-road. Just before breakfast-time a
+      telegraph messenger appeared. Vandewaters was standing with Sir Duke
+      Lawless when the message was handed to him. He read it, put it into his
+      pocket, and went on talking. Presently he said: &ldquo;My agent is coming from
+      town this morning, Sir Duke. I may have to leave to-night.&rdquo; Then he
+      turned, and went to his room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lady Lawless had heard his last words.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What about your ranche in Colorado, Duke?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;About as sure, I fancy, as your millionaire for Gracia.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Miss Raglan did not appear at breakfast with the rest. Neither did Mr.
+      Pride, who slept late that morning. About ten o&rsquo;clock Mr. Vandewaters&rsquo;s
+      agent arrived. About twelve o&rsquo;clock Mr. Vandewaters saw Miss Raglan
+      sitting alone in the library. He was evidently looking for her. He came up
+      to her quietly, and put a piece of paper in her lap.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is this?&rdquo; she asked, a little startled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A thousand for your hospital,&rdquo; was the meaning reply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She flushed, and came to her feet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have won,&rdquo; he said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And then he reached out and took both her hands.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+   ETEXT EDITOR&rsquo;S BOOKMARKS:
+
+   But I don&rsquo;t think it is worth doing twice
+   He wishes to be rude to some one, and is disappointed
+   I&mdash;couldn&rsquo;t help it
+   Interfere with people who had a trade and didn&rsquo;t understand it
+   Lose their heads, and be so absurdly earnest
+   Scoundrel, too weak to face the consequences of his sin
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg&rsquo;s At The Sign Of The Eagle, by Gilbert Parker
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AT THE SIGN OF THE EAGLE ***
+
+***** This file should be named 6218-h.htm or 6218-h.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        https://www.gutenberg.org/6/2/1/6218/
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
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+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </p>
+  </body>
+</html>
diff --git a/6218.txt b/6218.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..33a6a6b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/6218.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,1601 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of At The Sign Of The Eagle, by Gilbert Parker
+
+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: At The Sign Of The Eagle
+
+Author: Gilbert Parker
+
+Last Updated: March 13, 2009
+Release Date: October 18, 2006 [EBook #6218]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AT THE SIGN OF THE EAGLE ***
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+AT THE SIGN OF THE EAGLE
+
+By Gilbert Parker
+
+
+
+          "Life in her creaking shoes
+          Goes, and more formal grows,
+          A round of calls and cues:
+          Love blows as the wind blows.
+          Blows!..."
+
+
+
+"Well, what do you think of them, Molly?" said Sir Duke Lawless to his
+wife, his eyes resting with some amusement on a big man and a little one
+talking to Lord Hampstead.
+
+"The little man is affected, gauche, and servile. The big one
+picturesque and superior in a raw kind of way. He wishes to be rude
+to some one, and is disappointed because, just at the moment, Lord
+Hampstead is too polite to give him his cue. A dangerous person in a
+drawing-room, I should think; but interesting. You are a bold man to
+bring them here, Duke. Is it not awkward for our host?"
+
+"Hampstead did it with his eyes open. Besides, there is business behind
+it--railways, mines, and all that; and Hampstead's nephew is going to
+the States fortune-hunting. Do you see?"
+
+Lady Lawless lifted her eyebrows. "'To what base uses are we come,
+Horatio!' You invite me to dinner and--'I'll fix things up right.' That
+is the proper phrase, for I have heard you use it. Status for dollars.
+Isn't it low? I know you do not mean what you say, Duke."
+
+Sir Duke's eyes were playing on the men with a puzzled expression, as
+though trying to read the subject of their conversation; and he did not
+reply immediately. Soon, however, he turned and looked down at his wife
+genially, and said: "Well, that's about it, I suppose. But really there
+is nothing unusual in this, so far as Mr. John Vandewaters is concerned,
+for in his own country he travels 'the parlours of the Four Hundred,'
+and is considered 'a very elegant gentleman.' We must respect a man
+according to the place he holds in his own community. Besides, as you
+suggest, Mr. Vandewaters is interesting. I might go further, and say
+that he is a very good fellow indeed."
+
+"You will be asking him down to Craigruie next," said Lady Lawless,
+inquisition in her look.
+
+"That is exactly what I mean to do, with your permission, my dear. I
+hope to see him laying about among the grouse in due season."
+
+"My dear Duke, you are painfully Bohemian. I can remember when you were
+perfectly precise and exclusive, and--"
+
+"What an awful prig I must have been!"
+
+"Don't interrupt. That was before you went aroving in savage countries,
+and picked up all sorts of acquaintances, making friends with the most
+impossible folk. I should never be surprised to see you drive Shon
+McGann--and his wife, of course--and Pretty Pierre--with some other
+man's wife--up to the door in a dogcart; their clothes in a saddle-bag,
+or something less reputable, to stay a month. Duke, you have lost your
+decorum; you are a gipsy."
+
+"I fear Shon McGann and Pierre wouldn't enjoy being with us as I should
+enjoy having them. You can never understand what a life that is out in
+Pierre's country. If it weren't for you and the bairn, I should be
+off there now. There is something of primeval man in me. I am never so
+healthy and happy, when away from you, as in prowling round the outposts
+of civilisation, and living on beans and bear's meat."
+
+He stretched to his feet, and his wife rose with him. There was a fine
+colour on his cheek, and his eye had a pleasant fiery energy. His wife
+tapped him on the arm with her fan. She understood him very well, though
+pretending otherwise. "Duke, you are incorrigible. I am in daily dread
+of your starting off in the middle of the night, leaving me--"
+
+"Watering your couch with your tears?"
+
+"--and hearing nothing more from you till a cable from Quebec or
+Winnipeg tells me that you are on your way to the Arctic Circle with
+Pierre or some other heathen. But, seriously, where did you meet Mr.
+Vandewaters--Heavens, what a name!--and that other person? And what is
+the other person's name?"
+
+"The other person carries the contradictory name of Stephen Pride."
+
+"Why does he continually finger his face, and show his emotions so? He
+assents to everything said to him by an appreciative exercise of his
+features."
+
+"My dear, you ask a great and solemn question. Let me introduce the
+young man, that you may get your answer at the fountain-head."
+
+"Wait a moment, Duke. Sit down and tell me when and where you met these
+men, and why you have continued the acquaintance."
+
+"Molly," he said, obeying her, "you are a terrible inquisitor, and the
+privacy of one's chamber were the kinder place to call one to account.
+But I bend to your implacability.... Mr. Vandewaters, like myself, has
+a taste for roving, though our aims are not identical. He has a
+fine faculty for uniting business and pleasure. He is not a thorough
+sportsman--there is always a certain amount of enthusiasm, even in the
+unrewarded patience of the true hunter; but he sufficeth. Well, Mr.
+Vandewaters had been hunting in the far north, and looking after a
+promising mine at the same time. He was on his way south at one angle,
+I at another angle, bound for the same point. Shon McGann was with me;
+Pierre with Vandewaters. McGann left me, at a certain point, to join his
+wife at a Barracks of the Riders of the Plains. I had about a hundred
+miles to travel alone. Well, I got along the first fifty all right.
+Then came trouble. In a bad place of the hills I fell and broke an ankle
+bone. I had an Eskimo dog of the right sort with me. I wrote a line on
+a bit of birch bark, tied it round his neck, and started him away,
+trusting my luck that he would pull up somewhere. He did. He ran into
+Vandewaters's camp that evening. Vandewaters and Pierre started away at
+once. They had dogs, and reached me soon.
+
+"It was the first time I had seen Pierre for years. They fixed me up,
+and we started south. And that's as it was in the beginning with Mr.
+John Vandewaters and me."
+
+Lady Lawless had been watching the two strangers during the talk, though
+once or twice she turned and looked at her husband admiringly. When he
+had finished she said: "That is very striking. What a pity it is that
+men we want to like spoil all by their lack of form!"
+
+"Don't be so sure about Vandewaters. Does he look flurried by these
+surroundings?"
+
+"No. He certainly has an air of contentment. It is, I suppose, the usual
+air of self-made Americans."
+
+"Go to London, E.C., and you will find the same, plus smugness. Now, Mr.
+Vandewaters has real power--and taste too, as you will see. Would you
+think Mr. Stephen Pride a self-made man?"
+
+"I cannot think of any one else who would be proud of the patent. Please
+to consider the seals about his waistcoat, and the lady-like droop of
+his shoulders."
+
+"Yet he is thought to be a young man of parts. He has money, made by
+his ancestors; he has been round the world; he belongs to societies for
+culture and--"
+
+"And he will rave of the Poet's Corner, ask if one likes Pippa Passes,
+and expect to be introduced to every woman in the room at a tea-party,
+to say nothing of proposing impossible things, such as taking one's girl
+friends to the opera alone, sending them boxes of confectionery, and
+writing them dreadfully reverential notes at the same time. Duke, the
+creature is impossible, believe me. Never, never, if you love me, invite
+him to Craigruie. I met one of his tribe at Lady Macintyre's when I was
+just out of school; and at the dinner-table, when the wine went round,
+he lifted his voice and asked for a cup of tea, saying he never 'drank.'
+Actually he did, Duke."
+
+Her husband laughed quietly. He had a man's enjoyment of a woman's
+dislike of bad form. "A common criminal man, Molly. Tell me, which is
+the greater crime: to rob a bank or use a fish-knife for asparagus?"
+
+Lady Lawless fanned herself. "Duke, you make me hot. But if you will
+have the truth: the fish-knife business by all means. Nobody need feel
+uncomfortable about the burglary, except the burglar; but see what a
+position for the other person's hostess."
+
+"My dear, women have no civic virtues. Their credo is, 'I believe in
+beauty and fine linen, and the thing that is not gauche.'"
+
+His wife was smiling. "Well, have it your own way. It is a creed of
+comfort, at any rate. And now, Duke, if I must meet the man of mines and
+railways and the spare person making faces at Lord Hampstead, let it be
+soon, that it may be done with; and pray don't invite them to Craigruie
+till I have a chance to speak with you again. I will not have impossible
+people at a house-party."
+
+"What a difficult fellow your husband is, Molly!"
+
+"Difficult; but perfectly possible. His one fault is a universal
+sympathy which shines alike on the elect--and the others."
+
+"So. Well, this is our dance. After it is over, prepare for the
+Americanos."
+
+Half-an-hour later Mr. Vandewaters was standing in a conspicuous corner
+talking to Lady Lawless.
+
+"It is, then, your first visit to England?" she asked. He had a dry,
+deliberate voice, unlike the smooth, conventional voices round him.
+"Yes, Lady Lawless," he replied: "it's the first time I've put my foot
+in London town, and--perhaps you won't believe it of an American--I find
+it doesn't take up a very conspicuous place."
+
+The humour was slightly accentuated, and Lady Lawless shrank a little,
+as if she feared the depths of divertisement to which this speech might
+lead; but a quick look at the man assured her of his common-sense, and
+she answered: "It is of the joys of London that no one is so important
+but finds the space he fills a small one, which may be filled acceptably
+by some one else at any moment. It is easy for kings and princes
+even--we have secluded princes here now--to get lost and forgotten in
+London." "Well, that leaves little chance for ordinary Americans, who
+don't bank on titles."
+
+She looked up, puzzled in spite of herself. But she presently said, with
+frankness and naivete: "What does 'bank on titles' mean?"
+
+He stroked his beard, smiling quaintly, and said: "I don't know how to
+put the thing better-it seems to fill the bill. But, anyway, Americans
+are republicans; and don't believe in titles, and--"
+
+"O, pardon me," she interrupted: "of course, I see."
+
+"We've got little ways of talking not the same as yours. You don't seem
+to have the snap to conversation that we have in the States. But I'll
+say here that I think you have got a better style of talking. It isn't
+exhausting."
+
+"Mr. Pride said to me a moment ago that they spoke better English in
+Boston than any other place in the world."
+
+"Did he, though, Lady Lawless? That's good. Well, I guess he was only
+talking through his hat."
+
+She was greatly amused. Her first impressions were correct. The man was
+interesting. He had a quaint, practical mind. He had been thrown upon
+his own resources, since infancy almost, in a new country; and he
+had seen with his own eyes, nakedly, and without predisposition or
+instruction. From childhood thoroughly adaptable, he could get into
+touch with things quickly, and instantly like or dislike them. He had
+been used to approach great concerns with fearlessness and competency.
+He respected a thing only for its real value, and its intrinsic value
+was as clear to him as the market value. He had, perhaps, an exaggerated
+belief in the greatness of his own country, because he liked eagerness
+and energy and daring. The friction and hurry of American life added to
+his enjoyment. They acted on him like a stimulating air, in which he
+was always bold, collected, and steady. He felt an exhilaration in being
+superior to the rustle of forces round him. It had been his habit to
+play the great game of business with decision and adroitness. He had
+not spared his opponent in the fight; he had crushed where his interests
+were in peril and the sport played into his hands; comforting himself,
+if he thought of the thing, with the knowledge that he himself would
+have been crushed if the other man had not. He had never been wilfully
+unfair, nor had he used dishonourable means to secure his ends: his name
+stood high in his own country for commercial integrity; men said: he
+"played square." He had, maybe, too keen a contempt for dulness and
+incompetency in enterprise, and he loathed red-tape; but this
+was racial. His mind was as open as his manners. He was utterly
+approachable. He was a millionaire, and yet in his own offices in New
+York he was as accessible as a President. He handled things without
+gloves, and this was not a good thing for any that came to him with a
+weak case. He had a penetrating intelligence; and few men attempted,
+after their first sophistical statements, to impose upon him: he sent
+them away unhappy. He did not like England altogether: first, because it
+lacked, as he said, enterprise; and because the formality, decorum and
+excessive convention fretted him. He saw that in many things the old
+land was backward, and he thought that precious time was being wasted.
+Still, he could see that there were things, purely social, in which
+the Londoners were at advantage; and he acknowledged this when he said,
+concerning Stephen Pride's fond boast, that he was "talking through his
+hat."
+
+Lady Lawless smiled, and after a moment rejoined:
+
+"Does it mean that he was mumming, as it were, like a conjurer?"
+
+"Exactly. You are pretty smart, Lady Lawless; for I can see that, from
+your stand-point, it isn't always easy to catch the meaning of sayings
+like that. But they do hit the case, don't they?"
+
+"They give a good deal of individuality to conversation," was the vague
+reply. "What, do you think, is the chief lack in England?"
+
+"Nerve and enterprise. But I'm not going to say you ought to have the
+same kind of nerve as ours. We are a different tribe, with different
+surroundings, and we don't sit in the same kind of saddle. We ride for
+all we're worth all the time. You sit back and take it easy. We are
+never satisfied unless we are behind a fast trotter; you are
+content with a good cob that steps high, tosses its head, and has an
+aristocratic stride."
+
+"Have you been in the country much?" she asked, without any seeming
+relevancy.
+
+He was keen enough. He saw the veiled point of her question. "No: I've
+never been in the country here," he said. "I suppose you mean that I
+don't see or know England till I've lived there."
+
+"Quite so, Mr. Vandewaters." She smiled to think what an undistinguished
+name it was. It suggested pumpkins in the front garden. Yet here its
+owner was perfectly at his ease, watching the scene before him
+with good-natured superiority. "London is English; but it is very
+cosmopolitan, you know," she added; "and I fancy you can see it is not a
+place for fast trotters. The Park would be too crowded for that--even if
+one wished to drive a Maud S."
+
+He turned his slow keen eyes on her, and a smile broadened into a low
+laugh, out of which he said:
+
+"What do you know of Maud S? I didn't think you would be up in racing
+matters."
+
+"You forget that my husband is a traveller, and an admirer of Americans
+and things American."
+
+"That's so," he answered; "and a staving good traveller he is. You don't
+catch him asleep, I can tell you, Lady Lawless. He has stuff in him."
+
+"The stuff to make a good American?"
+
+"Yes; with something over. He's the kind of Englishman that can keep
+cool when things are ticklish, and look as if he was in a parlour all
+the time. Americans keep cool, but look cheeky. O, I know that. We
+square our shoulders and turn out our toes, and push our hands into
+our pockets, and act as if we owned the world. Hello--by Jingo!" Then,
+apologetically: "I beg your pardon, Lady Lawless; it slipped."
+
+Lady Lawless followed Mr. Vandewaters's glance, and saw, passing on
+her husband's arm, a tall, fascinating girl. She smiled meaningly to
+herself, as she sent a quick quizzical look at the American, and said,
+purposely misinterpreting his exclamation: "I am not envious, Mr.
+Vandewaters."
+
+"Of course not. That's a commoner thing with us than with you. American
+girls get more notice and attention from their cradles up, and they
+want it all along the line. You see, we've mostly got the idea that an
+Englishman expects from his wife what an American woman expects from her
+husband."
+
+"How do Americans get these impressions about us?"
+
+"From our newspapers, I guess; and the newspapers take as the
+ground-work of their belief the Bow Street cases where Englishmen are
+cornered for beating their wives."
+
+"Suppose we were to judge of American Society by the cases in a Chicago
+Divorce Court?"
+
+"There you have me on toast. That's what comes of having a husband who
+takes American papers. Mind you, I haven't any idea that the American
+papers are right. I've had a lot to do with newspapers, and they are
+pretty ignorant, I can tell you--cheap all round. What's a newspaper,
+anyway, but an editor, more or less smart and overworked, with an owner
+behind him who has got some game on hand? I know: I've been there."
+
+"How have you 'been there'?"
+
+"I've owned four big papers all at once, and had fifty others under my
+thumb."
+
+Lady Lawless caught her breath; but she believed him. "You must be very
+rich."
+
+"Owning newspapers doesn't mean riches. It's a lever, though, for
+tipping the dollars your way."
+
+"I suppose they have--tipped your way?"
+
+"Yes: pretty well. But, don't follow this lead any farther, Lady
+Lawless, or you may come across something that will give you a start. I
+should like to keep on speaking terms with you."
+
+"You mean that a man cannot hold fifty newspapers under his thumb, and
+live in the glare of a search-light also?"
+
+"Exactly. You can't make millions without pulling wires."
+
+She saw him watching the girl on her husband's arm. She had the
+instinct of her sex. She glanced at the stately girl again; then at
+Mr. Vandewaters critically, and rejoined, quizzically: "Did you--make
+millions?"
+
+His eyes still watching, he replied abstractedly. "Yes: a few handfuls,
+and lost a few--'that's why I'm here.'"
+
+"To get them back on the London market?"
+
+"That's why I am here."
+
+"You have not come in vain?"
+
+"I could tell you better in a month or so from now. In any case, I don't
+stand to lose. I've come to take things away from England."
+
+"I hope you will take away a good opinion of it."
+
+"If there'd been any doubt of it half an hour ago, it would be all gone
+this minute."
+
+"Which is nice of you; and not in your usual vein, I should think. But,
+Mr. Vandewaters, we want you to come to Craigruie, our country place, to
+spend a week. Then you will have a chance to judge us better, or rather
+more broadly and effectively." She was looking at the girl, and at that
+moment she caught Sir Duke's eye. She telegraphed to him to come.
+
+"Thank you, Lady Lawless, I'm glad you have asked me. But--" He glanced
+to where Mr. Pride was being introduced to the young lady on Sir Duke's
+arm, and paused.
+
+"We are hoping," she added, interpreting his thought, and speaking a
+little dryly, "that your friend, Mr. Stephen Pride"--the name sounded so
+ludicrous--"will join us."
+
+"He'll be proud enough, you may be sure. It's a singular combination,
+Pride and myself, isn't it? But, you see, he has a fortune which, as
+yet, he has never been able to handle for himself; and I do it for him.
+We are partners, and, though you mightn't think it, he has got more
+money now than when he put his dollars at my disposal to help me make a
+few millions at a critical time."
+
+Lady Lawless let her fan touch Mr. Vandewaters's arm. "I am going to
+do you a great favour. You see that young lady coming to us with
+my husband? Well, I am going to introduce you to her. It is such as
+she--such women--who will convince you--"
+
+"Yes?"
+
+"--that you have yet to make your--what shall I call it?--Ah, I have it:
+your 'biggest deal,'--and, in truth, your best."
+
+"Is that so?" rejoined Vandewaters musingly. "Is that so? I always
+thought I'd make my biggest deal in the States. Who is she? She is
+handsome."
+
+"She is more than handsome, and she is the Honourable Gracia Raglan."
+
+"I don't understand about 'The Honourable.'"
+
+"I will explain that another time."
+
+A moment later Miss Raglan, in a gentle bewilderment, walked down the
+ballroom on the arm of the millionaire, half afraid that something
+gauche would happen; but by the time she had got to the other end was
+reassured, and became interested.
+
+Sir Duke said to his wife in an aside, before he left her with Mr.
+Vandewaters's financial partner: "What is your pretty conspiracy,
+Molly?"
+
+"Do talk English, Duke, and do not interfere."
+
+A few hours later, on the way home, Sir Duke said: "You asked Mr. Pride
+too?"
+
+"Yes; I grieve to say."
+
+"Why grieve?"
+
+"Because his experiences with us seem to make him dizzy. He will be
+terribly in earnest with every woman in the house, if--"
+
+"If you do not keep him in line yourself?"
+
+"Quite so. And the creature is not even interesting."
+
+"Cast your eye about. He has millions; you have cousins."
+
+"You do not mean that, Duke? I would see them in their graves first. He
+says 'My lady' every other sentence, and wants to send me flowers, and a
+box for the opera, and to drive me in the Park."
+
+Her husband laughed. "I'll stake my life he can't ride. You will have
+him about the place like a tame cat." Then, seeing that his wife was
+annoyed: "Never mind, Molly, I will help you all I can. I want to be
+kind to them."
+
+"I know you do. But what is your 'pretty conspiracy,' Duke?"
+
+"A well-stocked ranche in Colorado." He did not mean it. And she knew
+it.
+
+"How can you be so mercenary?" she replied.
+
+Then they both laughed, and said that they were like the rest of the
+world.
+
+
+
+II
+
+Lady Lawless was an admirable hostess, and she never appeared to better
+advantage in the character than during the time when Miss Gracia Raglan,
+Mr. John Vandewaters, and Mr. Stephen Pride were guests at Craigruie.
+The men accepted Mr. Vandewaters at once as a good fellow and a very
+sensible man. He was a heavy-weight for riding; but it was not the
+hunting season, and, when they did ride, a big horse carried him very
+well. At grouse-shooting he showed to advantage. Mr. Pride never rode.
+He went shooting only once, and then, as Mr. Vandewaters told him, he
+got "rattled." He was then advised by his friend to remain at home
+and cultivate his finer faculties. At the same time, Mr. Vandewaters
+parenthetically remarked to Sir Duke Lawless that Mr. Pride knew the
+poets backwards, and was smart at French. He insisted on bringing out
+the good qualities of his comrade; but he gave him much strong advice
+privately. He would have done it just the same at the risk of losing
+a fortune, were it his whim--he would have won the fortune back in due
+course.
+
+At the present time Mr. Vandewaters was in the heat of some large
+commercial movements. No one would have supposed it, save for the fact
+that telegrams and cablegrams were brought to him day and night. He had
+liberally salaried the telegraph-clerk to work after hours, simply to
+be at his service. The contents of these messages never shook his
+equanimity. He was quiet, urbane, dry-mannered, at all times. Mr. Pride,
+however, was naturally excitable. He said of himself earnestly that he
+had a sensitive nature. He said it to Mrs. Gregory Thorne, whose reply
+was: "Dear me, and when things are irritating and painful to you do you
+never think of suicide?" Then she turned away to speak to some one, as
+if she had been interrupted, and intended to take up the subject again;
+but she never did. This remark caused Mr. Pride some nervous moments.
+He was not quite sure how she meant it. But it did not depress him as it
+might otherwise have done, for his thoughts were running much in another
+channel with a foolish sort of elation.
+
+As Lady Lawless had predicted, he was assiduously attentive to her, and
+it needed all her tact and cheerful frankness to keep him in line. She
+managed it very well: Mr. Pride's devotion was not too noticeable to
+the other guests. She tried to turn his attentions to some pretty girls;
+but, although there were one or two who might, in some weak moments,
+have compromised with his millions, he did no more than saunter with
+them on the terrace and oppress them with his lisping egotism. Every one
+hinted that he seemed an estimable, but trying, young man; and, as Sir
+Duke said to his wife, the men would not have him at any price.
+
+As for Mr. Vandewaters and Gracia Raglan, Lady Lawless was not very sure
+that her delicate sympathy was certain of reward. The two were naturally
+thrown together a good deal; but Miss Raglan was a girl of singular
+individuality and high-mindedness, and she was keen enough to see from
+the start what Lady Lawless suspected might happen. She did not resent
+this,--she was a woman; but it roused in her a spirit of criticism, and
+she threw up a barrier of fine reserve, which puzzled Mr. Vandewaters.
+He did not see that Lady Lawless was making a possible courtship easy
+for him. If he had, it would have made no difference: he would have
+looked at it as at most things, broadly. He was not blind to the fact
+that his money might be a "factor", but, as he said to himself, his
+millions were a part of him--they represented, like whist-counters, so
+much pluck and mother-wit. He liked the general appreciation of them: he
+knew very well that people saw him in them and them in him. Miss Raglan
+attracted him from the moment of meeting. She was the first woman of her
+class that he had ever met closely; and the possibility of having as his
+own so adorable a comrade was inspiring. He sat down sometimes as the
+days went on--it was generally when he was shaving--and thought upon his
+intention regarding Miss Raglan, in relation to his humble past; for
+he had fully made up his mind to marry her, if she would have him.
+He wondered what she would think when he told her of his life; and he
+laughed at the humour of the situation. He had been into Debrett, and he
+knew that she could trace her family back to the Crusades.
+
+He determined to make a clean breast of it. One day he was obliged to
+remain at the house in expectation of receiving important telegrams, and
+the only people who appeared at lunch were Lady Lawless, Mrs. Gregory
+Thorne (who was expecting her husband), Miss Raglan; Pride, and himself.
+While at luncheon he made up his mind to have a talk with Miss Raglan.
+In the library after luncheon the opportunity was given. It was a warm,
+pleasant day, and delightful in the grounds.
+
+After one or two vain efforts to escape, Mrs. Gregory Thorne and Lady
+Lawless resigned themselves to the attentions of Mr. Pride; and for
+once Lady Lawless did not check Mrs. Thorne's irony. It was almost a
+satisfaction to see Mr. Pride's bewildered looks, and his inability
+to know whether or not he should resent (whether it would be proper to
+resent) this softly-showered satire.
+
+Mr. Vandewaters and Gracia Raglan talked more freely than they had ever
+done before.
+
+"Do you really like England?" she said to him; then, waving her hand
+lightly to the beeches and the clean-cropped grass through the window,
+"I mean do you like our 'trim parterres,' our devotion to mere living,
+pleasure, sport, squiring, and that sort of thing?"
+
+He raised his head, glanced out, drew in a deep breath, thrust his hands
+down in the pockets of his coat, and looking at her with respectful good
+humour, said: "Like it? Yes, right down to the ground. Why shouldn't
+I! It's the kind of place I should like to come to in my old days. You
+needn't die in a hurry here. See?"
+
+"Are you sure you would not be like the old sailors who must live where
+they can scent the brine? You have been used to an active, adventurous,
+hurried life. Do you think you could endure this humdrum of enjoyment?"
+
+It would be hard to tell quite what was running in Gracia Raglan's mind,
+and, for the moment, she herself hardly knew; but she had a sudden,
+overmastering wish to make the man talk: to explore and, maybe, find
+surprising--even trying--things. She was astonished that she enjoyed his
+society so keenly. Even now, as she spoke, she remembered a day and a
+night since his coming, when he was absent in London; also how the party
+seemed to have lost its character and life, and how, when Mr. Pride
+condescended, for a few moments, to decline from Lady Lawless upon
+herself, she was even pleasant to him, making him talk about Mr.
+Vandewaters, and relishing the enthusiastic loyalty of the supine young
+man. She, like Lady Lawless, had learned to see behind the firm bold
+exterior, not merely a notable energy, force, self-reliance, and
+masterfulness, but a native courtesy, simplicity, and refinement
+which surprised her. Of all the men she knew not a half-dozen had an
+appreciation of nature or of art. They affected art, and some of them
+went to the Academy or the private views in Bond Street; but they had
+little feeling for the business. They did it in a well-bred way, with
+taste, but not with warmth.
+
+Mr. Vandewaters now startled her by quoting suddenly lines from an
+English poet unknown to her. By chance she was turning over the Academy
+pictures of the year, and came at last to one called "A Japanese Beauty
+of Old Days"--an exquisite thing.
+
+"Is it not fascinating?" she said. "So piquant and fresh."
+
+He gave a silent laugh, as was his custom when he enjoyed anything, and
+then replied:
+
+"I came across a little book of verses one day in the States. A friend
+of mine, the president of a big railway, gave it to me. He does some
+painting himself when he travels in his Pullman in the Rockies. Well, it
+had some verses on just such a picture as that. Hits it off right, Miss
+Raglan."
+
+"Verses?" she remarked, lifting her eyebrows. She expected something out
+of the "poet's corner" of a country newspaper. "What are they?"
+
+"Well, one's enough to show the style. This is it:
+
+       "'Was I a Samurai renowned,
+        Two-sworded, fierce, immense of bow?
+        A histrion angular and profound?
+        A priest? or porter? Child, although
+        I have forgotten clean, I know
+        That in the shade of Fujisan,
+        What time the cherry-orchards blow,
+        I loved you once in old Japan.'"
+
+The verse on the lips of Mr. Vandewaters struck her strangely. He was
+not like any man she had known. Most self-made Englishmen, with such a
+burly exterior and energy, and engaged in such pursuits, could not, to
+save themselves from hanging, have impressed her as Mr. Vandewaters did.
+There was a big round sympathy in the tone, a timbre in the voice, which
+made the words entirely fitting. Besides, he said them without any kind
+of affectation, and with a certain turn of dry humour, as if he were
+inwardly laughing at the idea of the poem.
+
+"The verses are charming," she said, musingly; "and the idea put that
+way is charming also. But do you think there would be much amusement
+in living half-a-dozen times, or even twice, unless you were quite sure
+that you remembered everything? This gentleman was peculiarly fortunate
+to recall Fujisan, and the orange orchards--and the girl."
+
+"I believe you are right. One life is about enough for most of us.
+Memory is all very fine; but you'd want a life set apart for remembering
+the others after awhile."
+
+"Why do you not add, 'And that would bore one?' Most of the men I know
+would say so."
+
+"Well, I never used the word that way in my life. When I don't like a
+thing, that ends it--it has got to go."
+
+"You cannot do that with everything."
+
+"Pretty much, if I set my mind to it. It is astonishing how things'll
+come round your way if you keep on thinking and willing them so."
+
+"Have you always got everything you wanted?" He had been looking off
+into the grounds through the open window. Now he turned slowly upon her.
+
+"So far I have got everything I set my mind to get. Little things don't
+count. You lose them sometimes because you want to work at something
+else; sometimes because, as in cards, you are throwing a few away to
+save the whole game."
+
+He looked at her, as she thought, curiously. In his mind he was
+wondering if she knew that he had made up his mind to marry her. She was
+suddenly made aware of the masterfulness of his spirit, which might, she
+knew, be applied to herself.
+
+"Let us go into the grounds," he added, all at once. Soon after, in
+the shade of the trees, she broke in upon the thread of their casual
+conversation. "A few moments ago," she murmured, "you said: 'One life is
+about enough for most of us.' Then you added a disparaging remark about
+memory. Well, that doesn't seem like your usual point of view--more like
+that of Mr. Pride; but not so plaintive, of course. Pray do smoke,"
+she added, as, throwing back his coat, he exposed some cigars in his
+waistcoat pocket. "I am sure you always smoke after lunch."
+
+He took out a cigar, cut off the end, and put it in his mouth. But he
+did not light it. Then he glanced up at her with a grave quizzical look
+as though wondering what would be the effect of his next words, and a
+smile played at his lips.
+
+"What I meant was this. I think we get enough out of our life to last
+us for centuries. It's all worth doing from the start, no matter what
+it is: working, fighting, marching and countermarching, plotting and
+counterplotting, backing your friends and hating your foes, playing
+big games and giving others a chance to, standing with your hand on the
+lynch-pin, or pulling your head safe out of the hot-pot. But I don't
+think it is worth doing twice. The interest wouldn't be fresh. For men
+and women and life, with a little different dress, are the same as they
+always were; and there's only the same number of passions working now,
+as at the beginning. I want to live life up to the hilt; because it is
+all new as I go on; but never twice."
+
+"Indeed?" She looked at him earnestly for a moment, and then added: "I
+should think you would have seen lost chances; and doing things a second
+time might do them better."
+
+"I never missed chances," he replied, simply: "never except twice, and
+then--"
+
+"And then?"
+
+"Then it was to give the other fellow a chance."
+
+"Oh!" There was a kind of dubiousness in her tone. He noticed it. "You
+can hardly understand, Miss Raglan. Fact is, it was one of those deals
+when you can make a million, in a straight enough game; but it comes out
+of another man--one, maybe, that you don't know; who is playing just the
+same as you are. I have had a lot of sport; but I've never crippled any
+one man, when my engine has been dead on him. I have played more against
+organisations than single men."
+
+"What was the most remarkable chance you ever had to make a million, and
+did not?"
+
+He threw back his head, smiling shrewdly. "When by accident my enemy got
+hold of a telegram meant for me. I was standing behind a frosted glass
+door, and through the narrow bevel of clear glass I watched him read
+it. I never saw a struggle like that. At last he got up, snatched
+an envelope, put the telegram inside, wrote my name, and called a
+messenger. I knew what was in the message. I let the messenger go, and
+watched that man for ten minutes. It was a splendid sight. The telegram
+had given him a big chance to make a million or two, as he thought. But
+he backed himself against the temptation, and won. That day I could have
+put the ball into his wicket; but I didn't. That's a funny case of the
+kind."
+
+"Did he ever know?"
+
+"He didn't. We are fighting yet. He is richer than I am now, and at this
+moment he's playing a hard game straight at several interests of mine.
+But I reckon I can stop him."
+
+"You must get a great deal out of life," she said. "Have you always
+enjoyed it so?" She was thinking it would be strange to live in contact
+with such events very closely. It was so like adventure.
+
+"Always--from the start."
+
+"Tell me something of it all, won't you?" He did not hesitate.
+
+"I was born in a little place in Maine. My mother was a good woman, they
+said--straight as a die all her life. I can only remember her in a
+kind of dream, when she used to gather us children about the big
+rocking-chair, and pray for us, and for my father, who was away most
+of the time, working in the timber-shanties in the winter, and at
+odd things in the summer. My father wasn't much of a man. He was
+kind-hearted, but shiftless, but pretty handsome for a man from Maine.
+
+"My mother died when I was six years old. Things got bad. I was the
+youngest. The oldest was only ten years old. She was the head of the
+house. She had the pluck of a woman. We got along somehow, until one
+day, when she and I were scrubbing the floor, she caught cold. She died
+in three days."
+
+Here he paused; and, without glancing at Miss Raglan, who sat very
+still, but looking at him, he lighted his cigar.
+
+"Then things got worse. My father took to drinking hard, and we had
+mighty little to eat. I chored around, doing odd things in the village.
+I have often wondered that people didn't see the stuff that was in me,
+and give me a chance. They didn't, though. As for my relatives: one was
+a harness-maker. He sent me out in the dead of winter to post bills for
+miles about, and gave me ten cents for it. Didn't even give me a meal.
+Twenty years after he came to me and wanted to borrow a hundred dollars.
+I gave him five hundred on condition that he'd not come near me for the
+rest of his natural life.
+
+"The next thing I did was to leave home--'run away,' I suppose, is the
+way to put it. I got to Boston, and went for a cabin-boy on a steamer;
+travelled down to Panama, and from there to Brazil. At Brazil I got on
+another ship, and came round to San Francisco. I got into trouble in San
+Francisco with the chief mate of the Flying Polly, because I tried to
+teach him his business. One of the first things I learned in life was
+not to interfere with people who had a trade and didn't understand
+it. In San Francisco I got out of the situation. I took to selling
+newspapers in the streets.
+
+"There wasn't enough money in it. I went for a cabin-boy again, and
+travelled to Australia. There, once more, I resigned my position,
+chiefly because I wouldn't cheerfully let the Mate bang me about the
+quarter-deck. I expect I was a precocious youth, and wasn't exactly
+the kind for Sunday-school prizes. In Melbourne I began to speculate.
+I found a ticket for the theatre where an American actor--our biggest
+actor today--was playing, and I tried to sell it outside the door of the
+theatre where they were crowding to see him. The man who bought it was
+the actor himself. He gave me two dollars more than the regular price.
+I expect he knew from my voice I was an American. Is there anything
+peculiar about my voice, Miss Raglan?"
+
+She looked at him quickly, smiled, and said in a low tone: "Yes,
+something peculiar. Please go on."
+
+"Well, anyway, he said to me: 'Look here, where did you come from,
+my boy?' I told him the State of Maine. 'What are you doing here?' he
+asked. 'Speculating, said I, and seeing things.' He looked me up and
+down. 'How are you getting on?' 'Well. I've made four dollars to-day,'
+I answered. 'Out of this ticket?' I expect I grinned. He suddenly caught
+me by the arm and whisked me inside the theatre--the first time I'd ever
+been in a theatre in my life. I shall never forget it. He took me around
+to his dressing-room, stuck me in a corner, and prodded me with his
+forefinger. 'Look here,' he said, 'I guess I'll hire you to speculate
+for me.' And that's how I came to get twenty-five dollars a month and
+my living from a great American actor. When I got back to America--with
+him--I had two hundred and fifty dollars in cash, and good clothes.
+I started a peanut-stand, and sold papers and books, and became a
+speculator. I heard two men talking one day at my stall about a railway
+that was going to run through a certain village, and how they intended
+to buy up the whole place. I had four hundred and fifty dollars then.
+I went down to that village, and bought some lots myself. I made four
+thousand dollars. Then I sold more books, and went on speculating."
+
+He paused, blew his cigar-smoke slowly from him a moment; then turned
+with a quick look to Miss Raglan, and smiled as at some incongruous
+thing. He was wondering what would be the effect of his next words.
+
+"When I was about twenty-two, and had ten thousand dollars, I fell
+in love. She was a bright-faced, smart girl. Her mother kept a
+boarding-house in New York; not an up-town boarding-house. She waited on
+table. I suppose a man can be clever in making money, and knowing how
+to handle men, and not know much about women. I thought she was worth
+a good deal more to me than the ten thousand dollars. She didn't know
+I had that money. A drummer--that's a commercial traveller--came along,
+who had a salary of, maybe, a thousand dollars a year. She jilted me.
+She made a mistake. That year I made twenty-five thousand dollars. I saw
+her a couple of years ago. She was keeping a boarding-house too, and her
+daughter was waiting on table. I'm sorry for that girl: it isn't any fun
+being poor. I didn't take much interest in women after that. I put my
+surplus affections into stocks and shares, and bulling and bearing...
+Well, that is the way the thing has gone till now."
+
+"What became of your father and your brother?" she asked in a neutral
+tone.
+
+"I don't know anything about my father. He disappeared after I left, and
+never turned up again. And Jim--poor Jim!--he was shiftless. Jim was a
+tanner. It was no good setting him up in business. Steady income was the
+cheapest way. But Jim died of too much time on his hands. His son is
+in Mexico somewhere. I sent him there, and I hope he'll stay. If he
+doesn't, his salary stops: he is shiftless too. That is not the kind of
+thing, and they are not the kind of people you know best, Miss Raglan."
+
+He looked at her, eyes full-front, bravely, honestly, ready to face the
+worst. Her head was turned away.
+
+He nodded to himself. It was as he feared.
+
+At that moment a boy came running along the walk towards them, and
+handed Mr. Vandewaters a telegram. He gave the lad a few pence, then,
+with an apology, opened the telegram. Presently he whistled softly, in
+a quick surprised way. Then he stuffed the paper into his waistcoat
+pocket, threw away his cigar, and turned to Gracia Raglan, whose face as
+yet was only half towards him. "I hope your news is good," she said very
+quietly.
+
+"Pretty bad, in a way," he answered. "I have lost a couple of
+millions--maybe a little more."
+
+She gasped, and turned an astonished face on him. He saw her startled
+look, and laughed.
+
+"Does it not worry you?" she asked.
+
+"I have got more important things on hand just now," he answered. "Very
+much more important," he added, and there was that in his voice which
+made her turn away her head again.
+
+"I suppose," he went on, "that the story you have just heard is not
+the kind of an autobiography you would care to have told in your
+drawing-room?"
+
+Still she did not reply; but her hands were clasped tightly in front of
+her. "No: I suppose not," he went on--"I--I suppose not. And yet, do you
+know, Miss Raglan, I don't feel a bit ashamed of it, after all: which
+may be evidence of my lost condition."
+
+Now she turned to him with a wonderful light in her eyes, her sweet,
+strong face rich with feeling. She put out her hand to his arm, and
+touched it quickly, nervously.
+
+"Your story has touched me inexpressibly," she said. "I did not know
+that men could be so strong and frank and courageous as you. I did not
+know that men could be so great; that any man could think more of what
+a woman thought of--of his life's story--than of"--she paused, and then
+gave a trembling little laugh--"of two millions or more."
+
+He got to his feet, and faced her. "You--you are a woman, by heaven!" he
+said. "You are finer even than I thought you. I am not worthy to ask you
+what I had in my mind to ask you; but there is no man in God's universe
+who would prize you as I do. I may be a poor man before sundown. If
+that happens, though, I shall remember the place where I had the biggest
+moment of my life, and the woman who made that moment possible."
+
+Now she also rose. There was a brave high look in her face; but her
+voice shook a little as she said: "You have never been a coward, why be
+a coward now?"
+
+Smiling, he slowly answered: "I wouldn't if I were sure about my
+dollars."
+
+She did not reply, but glanced down, not with coquetry, but because she
+could not stand the furnace of his eyes.
+
+"You said a moment ago," she ventured, "that you have had one big moment
+in your life. Oughtn't it to bring you good fortune?"
+
+"It will--it will," he said, reaching his hand towards hers.
+
+"No, no," she rejoined archly. "I am going. Please do not follow me."
+Then, over her shoulder, as she left him: "If you have luck, I shall
+want a subscription for my hospital."
+
+"As many thousands as you like," he answered: then, as she sped away: "I
+will have her, and the millions too!" adding reminiscently: "Yes, Lady
+Lawless, this is my biggest deal."
+
+He tramped to the stables, asked for and got a horse, and rode away to
+the railway station. It was dinner time when he got back. He came down
+to dinner late, apologising to Lady Lawless as he did so. Glancing
+across the table at Mr. Pride, he saw a peculiar excited look in the
+young man's face.
+
+"The baby fool!" he said to himself. "He's getting into mischief. I'll
+startle him. If he knows that an army of his dollars is playing at
+fox-and-geese, he'll not make eyes at Lady Lawless this way--little
+ass."
+
+Lady Lawless appeared oblivious of the young man's devotional exercises.
+She was engaged on a more congenial theme. In spite of Miss Raglan's
+excellent acting, she saw that something had occurred. Mr. Vandewaters
+was much the same as usual, save that his voice had an added ring. She
+was not sure that all was right; but she was determined to know. Sir
+Duke was amused generally. He led a pretty by-play with Mrs. Gregory
+Thorne, of whom he asked the details of the day, much to the
+confusion, not admirably hid, of Mr. Pride; lamenting now and then Mr.
+Vandewaters's absence from the shooting.
+
+Mr. Vandewaters was cool enough. He said that he had been playing at
+nine-pins with railways, which was good enough sport for him. Soon after
+dinner, he was handed two telegrams. He glanced slowly up at Pride, as
+if debating whether to tell him something. He evidently decided against
+it, and, excusing himself by saying he was off to take a little walk in
+Wall Street, went away to the telegraph office, where he stayed three
+hours.
+
+The magnitude of the concerns, the admirable stoicism with which
+he received alarming news, his dry humour while they waited between
+messages--all were so unlike anything the telegraph-clerk had ever seen,
+or imagined, that the thing was like a preposterous dream. Even when,
+at last, a telegram came which the clerk vaguely felt was, somehow, like
+the fall of an empire, Mr. Vandewaters remained unmoved. Then he sent
+one more telegram, gave the clerk a pound, asked that the reply be sent
+to him as soon as it came, and went away, calmly smoking his cigar.
+
+It was a mild night. When he got to the house he found some of the
+guests walking on the veranda. He joined them; but Miss Raglan was not
+with them; nor were Lady Lawless and Mr. Pride. He wanted to see
+all three, and so he went into the house. There was no one in the
+drawing-room. He reached the library in time to hear Lady Lawless say
+to Mr. Pride, who was disappearing through another door: "You had better
+ask advice of Mr. Vandewaters."
+
+The door closed. Mr. Vandewaters stepped forward.
+
+He understood the situation. "I guess I know how to advise him, Lady
+Lawless," he said.
+
+She turned on him quietly, traces of hauteur in her manner. Her
+self-pride had been hurt. "You have heard?" she asked.
+
+"Only your last words, Lady Lawless. They were enough. I feel guilty in
+having brought him here."
+
+"You need not. I was glad to have your friend. He is young and effusive.
+Let us say no more about it.
+
+"He is tragically repentant; which is a pity. There is no reason why he
+should not stay, and be sensible. Why should young men lose their heads,
+and be so absurdly earnest?"
+
+"Another poser, Lady Lawless."
+
+"In all your life you never misunderstood things so, I am sure."
+
+"Well, there is no virtue in keeping your head steady. I have spent most
+of my life wooing Madame Fortune; I find that makes a man canny."
+
+"She has been very kind to you."
+
+"Perhaps it would surprise you if I told you that at this moment I am
+not worth ten thousand dollars." She looked greatly astonished. "I do
+not understand," she said. She was thinking of what this might mean to
+Gracia Raglan.
+
+"You see I've been playing games at a disadvantage with some ruffians
+at New York. They have combined and got me into a corner. I have made my
+last move. If it comes out right I shall be richer than ever; if not I
+must begin all over again."
+
+Lady Lawless looked at him curiously. She had never met a man like him
+before. His power seemed almost Napoleonic; his imperturbability was
+absolute. Yet she noticed something new in him. On one side a kind of
+grim forcefulness; on the other, a quiet sort of human sympathy. The
+one, no doubt, had to do with the momentous circumstances amid which he
+was placed; the other, with an event which she had, perhaps prematurely,
+anticipated.
+
+"I wonder--I wonder at you," she said. "How do you keep so cool while
+such tremendous things are happening?"
+
+"Because I believe in myself, Lady Lawless. I have had to take my
+measure a good many times in this world. I never was defeated through my
+own stupidity. It has been the sheer luck of the game."
+
+"You do not look like a gamester," she said.
+
+"I guess it's all pretty much a game in life, if you look at it right.
+It is only a case of playing fair or foul."
+
+"I never heard any Englishmen talk as you do."
+
+"Very likely not," he responded. "I don't want to be unpleasant; but
+most Englishmen work things out by the rule their fathers taught them,
+and not by native ingenuity. It is native wit that tells in the end, I'm
+thinking."
+
+"Perhaps you are right," she rejoined. "There must be a kind of genius
+in it." Here her voice dropped a little lower. "I do not believe there
+are many Englishmen, even if they had your dollars--"
+
+"The dollars I had this morning," he interposed.
+
+"--who could have so strongly impressed Gracia Raglan."
+
+He looked thoughtfully on the ground; then raised his eyes to Lady
+Lawless, and said in a low, ringing tone:
+
+"Yes, I am going to do more than 'impress': I am going to convince her."
+
+"When?" she asked.
+
+"To-morrow morning, I hope," was the reply. "I believe I shall have my
+millions again."
+
+"If you do," she said slowly, "do you not think that you ought to run no
+more risks--for her sake?"
+
+"That is just what I mean to do, Lady Lawless. I'll settle millions
+where they ought to be settled, drop Wall Street, and--go into
+training."
+
+"Into training?" she asked.
+
+"Yes, for a house on the Hudson, a villa at Cannes, a residence in
+Grosvenor Square, and a place in Devonshire--or somewhere else. Then,"
+he added, with a twinkle in his eye, "I shall need a good deal of time
+to cultivate accent."
+
+"Don't!" she said. "You are much more charming as you are."
+
+They passed into the drawing-room.
+
+"Are these things to be told?" she asked, with a little suggestion in
+her voice.
+
+"I can trust your discretion."
+
+"Even in such circumstances?" she asked. She paused, with a motion of
+her fan back towards the room they had left.
+
+"You have taught him a lesson, Lady Lawless. It is rough on him; but he
+needs it."
+
+"I hope he will do nothing rash," she said.
+
+"Perhaps he'll write some poetry, and refuse to consider his natural
+appetite."
+
+"Will you go and see him now?" she asked. "Immediately. Good night, Lady
+Lawless." His big hand swallowed hers in a firm, friendly clasp, and
+he shook it once or twice before he parted from her. He met Sir Duke
+Lawless in the doorway. They greeted cheerfully, and then Lawless came
+up to his wife.
+
+"Well, my dear," he said, with an amused look in his face, "well, what
+news?"
+
+She lifted her eyebrows at him.
+
+"Something has happened, Molly, I can see it in your face."
+
+She was very brief. "Gracia Raglan has been conquered; the young man
+from Boston has been foolish; and Mr. Vandewaters has lost millions."
+
+"Eh? That's awkward," said Sir Duke.
+
+"Which?" asked his wife.
+
+Vandewaters found Mr. Pride in his bedroom, a waif of melancholy. He
+drew a chair up, lighted a cigar, eyed the young man from head to foot,
+and then said: "Pride, have you got any backbone? If you have, brace up.
+You are ruined. That's about as mild as I can put it."
+
+"You know all?"--said the young man helplessly, his hands clasped
+between his knees in aesthetic agony.
+
+"Yes; I know more than you do, as you will find out. You're a nice sort
+of man, to come into a man's house, in a strange land, and make love
+to his wife. Now, what do you think of yourself? You're a nice
+representative of the American, aren't you?"
+
+"I--I didn't mean any harm--I--couldn't help it," replied the stricken
+boy.
+
+"O, for God's sake, drop that bib-and-tucker twaddle! Couldn't help it!
+Every scoundrel, too weak to face the consequences of his sin, says he
+couldn't help it. So help me, Joseph, I'd like to thrash you. Couldn't
+help it! Now, sit up in your chair, take this cigar, drink this glass of
+whiskey I'm pouring for you, and make up your mind that you're going to
+be a man and not a nincompoop--sit still! Don't fly up. I mean what I
+say. I've got business to talk to you. And make up your mind that, for
+once, you have got to take life seriously."
+
+"What right have you to speak to me like this?" demanded the young man
+with an attempt at dignity. Vandewaters laughed loudly.
+
+"Right? Great Scott! The right of a man who thinks a damned sight more
+of your reputation than you do yourself, and of your fortune than you
+would ever have wits to do. I am the best friend you've got, and not the
+less your friend because I feel like breaking your ribs. Now, enough of
+that. This is what I have to say, Pride: to-night you and I are beggars.
+You understand? Beggars. Out in the cold world, out in the street. Now,
+what do you think of that?"
+
+The shock to Mr. Pride was great. Mr. Vandewaters had exaggerated the
+disaster; but he had done it with a purpose. The youth gasped "My God!"
+and dropped his glass. Vandewaters picked it up, and regarded him a
+moment in silence. Then he began to explain their financial position. He
+did not explain the one bold stroke which he was playing to redeem their
+fortunes: if possible. When he had finished the story, he said, "I guess
+that's a bit more serious than the little affair in the library half an
+hour ago?"
+
+He rose to his feet. "Look here, Pride, be a man. You've never tried
+it yet. Let me teach you how to face the world without a dollar; how to
+make a fortune. Then, when you've made it, you'll get what you've never
+had yet--the pleasure of spending money dug out of your own wits."
+
+He carried conviction into a mind not yet all destroyed by effeminacy
+and indulgence of the emotions. Something of the iron of his own brain
+got into the brain of the young man, who came to his feet trembling a
+little, and said: "I don't mind it so much, if you only stick to me,
+Vandewaters."
+
+A smile flickered about the corners of Vandewaters's mouth.
+
+"Take a little more whiskey," he said; "then get into bed, and go to
+sleep. No nonsense, remember; go to sleep. To-morrow morning we will
+talk. And see here, my boy,"--he caught him by both arms and fastened
+his eyes,--"you have had a lesson: learn it backwards. Good night."
+
+Next morning Mr. Vandewaters was early in the grounds. He chatted with
+the gardener, and discussed the merits of the horses with the groom,
+apparently at peace with the world. Yet he was watching vigilantly
+the carriage-drive from the public-road. Just before breakfast-time a
+telegraph messenger appeared. Vandewaters was standing with Sir Duke
+Lawless when the message was handed to him. He read it, put it into his
+pocket, and went on talking. Presently he said: "My agent is coming
+from town this morning, Sir Duke. I may have to leave to-night." Then he
+turned, and went to his room.
+
+Lady Lawless had heard his last words.
+
+"What about your ranche in Colorado, Duke?"
+
+"About as sure, I fancy, as your millionaire for Gracia."
+
+Miss Raglan did not appear at breakfast with the rest. Neither did Mr.
+Pride, who slept late that morning. About ten o'clock Mr. Vandewaters's
+agent arrived. About twelve o'clock Mr. Vandewaters saw Miss Raglan
+sitting alone in the library. He was evidently looking for her. He came
+up to her quietly, and put a piece of paper in her lap.
+
+"What is this?" she asked, a little startled.
+
+"A thousand for your hospital," was the meaning reply.
+
+She flushed, and came to her feet.
+
+"I have won," he said.
+
+And then he reached out and took both her hands.
+
+
+   ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
+
+   But I don't think it is worth doing twice
+   He wishes to be rude to some one, and is disappointed
+   I--couldn't help it
+   Interfere with people who had a trade and didn't understand it
+   Lose their heads, and be so absurdly earnest
+   Scoundrel, too weak to face the consequences of his sin
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's At The Sign Of The Eagle, by Gilbert Parker
+
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook At The Sign Of The Eagle by G. Parker
+#45 in our series by Gilbert Parker
+
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+copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing
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+Title: At The Sign Of The Eagle
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+Author: Gilbert Parker
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+Release Date: August, 2004  [EBook #6218]
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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SIGN OF THE EAGLE, BY PARKER ***
+
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+This eBook was produced by David Widger <widger@cecomet.net>
+
+
+
+[NOTE: There is a short list of bookmarks, or pointers, at the end of the
+file for those who may wish to sample the author's ideas before making an
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+
+
+
+
+
+AT THE SIGN OF THE EAGLE
+
+By Gilbert Parker
+
+
+
+
+                   "Life in her creaking shoes
+                    Goes, and more formal grows,
+                    A round of calls and cues:
+                    Love blows as the wind blows.
+                    Blows!  .  .  .  "
+
+"Well, what do you think of them, Molly?" said Sir Duke Lawless to his
+wife, his eyes resting with some amusement on a big man and a little one
+talking to Lord Hampstead.
+
+"The little man is affected, gauche, and servile.  The big one
+picturesque and superior in a raw kind of way.  He wishes to be rude to
+some one, and is disappointed because, just at the moment, Lord Hampstead
+is too polite to give him his cue.  A dangerous person in a drawing-room,
+I should think; but interesting.  You are a bold man to bring them here,
+Duke.  Is it not awkward for our host?"
+
+"Hampstead did it with his eyes open.  Besides, there is business behind
+it--railways, mines, and all that; and Hampstead's nephew is going to the
+States fortune-hunting.  Do you see?"
+
+Lady Lawless lifted her eyebrows.  "'To what base uses are we come,
+Horatio!' You invite me to dinner and--'I'll fix things up right.'  That
+is the proper phrase, for I have heard you use it.  Status for dollars.
+Isn't it low?  I know you do not mean what you say, Duke."
+
+Sir Duke's eyes were playing on the men with a puzzled expression, as
+though trying to read the subject of their conversation; and he did not
+reply immediately.  Soon, however, he turned and looked down at his wife
+genially, and said: "Well, that's about it, I suppose.  But really there
+is nothing unusual in this, so far as Mr. John Vandewaters is concerned,
+for in his own country he travels 'the parlours of the Four Hundred,'
+and is considered 'a very elegant gentleman.'  We must respect a man
+according to the place he holds in his own community.  Besides, as you
+suggest, Mr. Vandewaters is interesting.  I might go further, and say
+that he is a very good fellow indeed."
+
+"You will be asking him down to Craigruie next," said Lady Lawless,
+inquisition in her look.
+
+"That is exactly what I mean to do, with your permission, my dear.  I
+hope to see him laying about among the grouse in due season."
+
+"My dear Duke, you are painfully Bohemian.  I can remember when you were
+perfectly precise and exclusive, and--"
+
+"What an awful prig I must have been!"
+
+"Don't interrupt.  That was before you went aroving in savage countries,
+and picked up all sorts of acquaintances, making friends with the most
+impossible folk.  I should never be surprised to see you drive Shon
+McGann--and his wife, of course--and Pretty Pierre--with some other
+man's wife--up to the door in a dogcart; their clothes in a saddle-bag,
+or something less reputable, to stay a month.  Duke, you have lost your
+decorum; you are a gipsy."
+
+"I fear Shon McGann and Pierre wouldn't enjoy being with us as I should
+enjoy having them.  You can never understand what a life that is out in
+Pierre's country.  If it weren't for you and the bairn, I should be off
+there now.  There is something of primeval man in me.  I am never so
+healthy and happy, when away from you, as in prowling round the outposts
+of civilisation, and living on beans and bear's meat."
+
+He stretched to his feet, and his wife rose with him.  There was a fine
+colour on his cheek, and his eye had a pleasant fiery energy.  His wife
+tapped him on the arm with her fan.  She understood him very well, though
+pretending otherwise.  "Duke, you are incorrigible.  I am in daily dread
+of your starting off in the middle of the night, leaving me--"
+
+"Watering your couch with your tears?"
+
+"--and hearing nothing more from you till a cable from Quebec or Winnipeg
+tells me that you are on your way to the Arctic Circle with Pierre or
+some other heathen.  But, seriously, where did you meet Mr. Vandewaters
+--Heavens, what a name!--and that other person?  And what is the other
+person's name?"
+
+"The other person carries the contradictory name of Stephen Pride."
+
+"Why does he continually finger his face, and show his emotions so?  He
+assents to everything said to him by an appreciative exercise of his
+features."
+
+"My dear, you ask a great and solemn question.  Let me introduce the
+young man, that you may get your answer at the fountain-head."
+
+"Wait a moment, Duke.  Sit down and tell me when and where you met these
+men, and why you have continued the acquaintance."
+
+"Molly," he said, obeying her, "you are a terrible inquisitor, and the
+privacy of one's chamber were the kinder place to call one to account.
+But I bend to your implacability.  .  .  .  Mr. Vandewaters, like myself,
+has a taste for roving, though our aims are not identical.  He has a fine
+faculty for uniting business and pleasure.  He is not a thorough
+sportsman--there is always a certain amount of enthusiasm, even in the
+unrewarded patience of the true hunter; but he sufficeth.  Well, Mr.
+Vandewaters had been hunting in the far north, and looking after a
+promising mine at the same time.  He was on his way south at one angle,
+I at another angle, bound for the same point.  Shon McGann was with me;
+Pierre with Vandewaters.  McGann left me, at a certain point, to join his
+wife at a Barracks of the Riders of the Plains.  I had about a hundred
+miles to travel alone.  Well, I got along the first fifty all right.
+Then came trouble.  In a bad place of the hills I fell and broke an ankle
+bone.  I had an Eskimo dog of the right sort with me.  I wrote a line on
+a bit of birch bark, tied it round his neck, and started him away,
+trusting my luck that he would pull up somewhere.  He did.  He ran into
+Vandewaters's camp that evening.  Vandewaters and Pierre started away at
+once.  They had dogs, and reached me soon.
+
+"It was the first time I had seen Pierre for years.  They fixed me up,
+and we started south.  And that's as it was in the beginning with
+Mr. John Vandewaters and me."
+
+Lady Lawless had been watching the two strangers during the talk, though
+once or twice she turned and looked at her husband admiringly.  When he
+had finished she said: "That is very striking.  What a pity it is that
+men we want to like spoil all by their lack of form!"
+
+"Don't be so sure about Vandewaters.  Does he look flurried by these
+surroundings?"
+
+"No.  He certainly has an air of contentment.  It is, I suppose, the
+usual air of self-made Americans."
+
+"Go to London, E.C., and you will find the same, plus smugness.  Now,
+Mr. Vandewaters has real power--and taste too, as you will see.  Would
+you think Mr. Stephen Pride a self-made man?"
+
+"I cannot think of any one else who would be proud of the patent.  Please
+to consider the seals about his waistcoat, and the lady-like droop of his
+shoulders."
+
+"Yet he is thought to be a young man of parts.  He has money, made by his
+ancestors; he has been round the world; he belongs to societies for
+culture and--"
+
+"And he will rave of the Poet's Corner, ask if one likes Pippa Passes,
+and expect to be introduced to every woman in the room at a tea-party,
+to say nothing of proposing impossible things, such as taking one's girl
+friends to the opera alone, sending them boxes of confectionery, and
+writing them dreadfully reverential notes at the same time.  Duke, the
+creature is impossible, believe me.  Never, never, if you love me, invite
+him to Craigruie.  I met one of his tribe at Lady Macintyre's when I was
+just out of school; and at the dinner-table, when the wine went round,
+he lifted his voice and asked for a cup of tea, saying he never 'drank.'
+Actually he did, Duke."
+
+Her husband laughed quietly.  He had a man's enjoyment of a woman's
+dislike of bad form.  "A common criminal man, Molly.  Tell me, which is
+the greater crime: to rob a bank or use a fish-knife for asparagus?"
+
+Lady Lawless fanned herself.  "Duke, you make me hot.  But if you will
+have the truth: the fish-knife business by all means.  Nobody need feel
+uncomfortable about the burglary, except the burglar; but see what a
+position for the other person's hostess."
+
+"My dear, women have no civic virtues.  Their credo is, 'I believe in
+beauty and fine linen, and the thing that is not gauche.'"
+
+His wife was smiling.  "Well, have it your own way.  It is a creed of
+comfort, at any rate.  And now, Duke, if I must meet the man of mines and
+railways and the spare person making faces at Lord Hampstead, let it be
+soon, that it may be done with; and pray don't invite them to Craigruie
+till I have a chance to speak with you again.  I will not have impossible
+people at a house-party."
+
+"What a difficult fellow your husband is, Molly!"
+
+"Difficult; but perfectly possible.  His one fault is a universal
+sympathy which shines alike on the elect--and the others."
+
+"So.  Well, this is our dance.  After it is over, prepare for the
+Americanos."
+
+Half-an-hour later Mr. Vandewaters was standing in a conspicuous corner
+talking to Lady Lawless.
+
+"It is, then, your first visit to England?" she asked.  He had a dry,
+deliberate voice, unlike the smooth, conventional voices round him.
+"Yes, Lady Lawless," he replied: "it's the first time I've put my foot in
+London town, and--perhaps you won't believe it of an American--I find it
+doesn't take up a very conspicuous place."
+
+The humour was slightly accentuated, and Lady Lawless shrank a little,
+as if she feared the depths of divertisement to which this speech might
+lead; but a quick look at the man assured her of his common-sense, and
+she answered: "It is of the joys of London that no one is so important
+but finds the space he fills a small one, which may be filled acceptably
+by some one else at any moment.  It is easy for kings and princes even--
+we have secluded princes here now--to get lost and forgotten in London."
+"Well, that leaves little chance for ordinary Americans, who don't bank
+on titles."
+
+She looked up, puzzled in spite of herself.  But she presently said, with
+frankness and naivete: "What does 'bank on titles' mean?"
+
+He stroked his beard, smiling quaintly, and said: "I don't know how to
+put the thing better-it seems to fill the bill.  But, anyway, Americans
+are republicans; and don't believe in titles, and--"
+
+"O, pardon me," she interrupted: "of course, I see."
+
+"We've got little ways of talking not the same as yours.  You don't seem
+to have the snap to conversation that we have in the States.  But I'll
+say here that I think you have got a better style of talking.  It isn't
+exhausting."
+
+"Mr. Pride said to me a moment ago that they spoke better English in
+Boston than any other place in the world."
+
+"Did he, though, Lady Lawless?  That's good.  Well, I guess he was only
+talking through his hat."
+
+She was greatly amused.  Her first impressions were correct.  The man was
+interesting.  He had a quaint, practical mind.  He had been thrown upon
+his own resources, since infancy almost, in a new country; and he had
+seen with his own eyes, nakedly, and without predisposition or
+instruction.  From childhood thoroughly adaptable, he could get into
+touch with things quickly, and instantly like or dislike them.  He had
+been used to approach great concerns with fearlessness and competency.
+He respected a thing only for its real value, and its intrinsic value was
+as clear to him as the market value.  He had, perhaps, an exaggerated
+belief in the greatness of his own country, because he liked eagerness
+and energy and daring.  The friction and hurry of American life added to
+his enjoyment.  They acted on him like a stimulating air, in which he
+was always bold, collected, and steady.  He felt an exhilaration in being
+superior to the rustle of forces round him.  It had been his habit to
+play the great game of business with decision and adroitness.  He had not
+spared his opponent in the fight; he had crushed where his interests were
+in peril and the sport played into his hands; comforting himself, if he
+thought of the thing, with the knowledge that he himself would have been
+crushed if the other man had not.  He had never been wilfully unfair, nor
+had he used dishonourable means to secure his ends: his name stood high
+in his own country for commercial integrity; men said: he "played
+square."  He had, maybe, too keen a contempt for dulness and incompetency
+in enterprise, and he loathed red-tape; but this was racial.  His mind
+was as open as his manners.  He was utterly approachable.  He was a
+millionaire, and yet in his own offices in New York he was as accessible
+as a President.  He handled things without gloves, and this was not a
+good thing for any that came to him with a weak case.  He had a
+penetrating intelligence; and few men attempted, after their first
+sophistical statements, to impose upon him: he sent them away unhappy.
+He did not like England altogether: first, because it lacked, as he said,
+enterprise; and because the formality, decorum and excessive convention
+fretted him.  He saw that in many things the old land was backward, and
+he thought that precious time was being wasted.  Still, he could see that
+there were things, purely social, in which the Londoners were at
+advantage; and he acknowledged this when he said, concerning Stephen
+Pride's fond boast, that he was "talking through his hat."
+
+Lady Lawless smiled, and after a moment rejoined:
+
+"Does it mean that he was mumming, as it were, like a conjurer?"
+
+"Exactly.  You are pretty smart, Lady Lawless; for I can see that, from
+your stand-point, it isn't always easy to catch the meaning of sayings
+like that.  But they do hit the case, don't they?"
+
+"They give a good deal of individuality to conversation," was the vague
+reply.  "What, do you think, is the chief lack in England?"
+
+"Nerve and enterprise.  But I'm not going to say you ought to have the
+same kind of nerve as ours.  We are a different tribe, with different
+surroundings, and we don't sit in the same kind of saddle.  We ride for
+all we're worth all the time.  You sit back and take it easy.  We are
+never satisfied unless we are behind a fast trotter; you are content with
+a good cob that steps high, tosses its head, and has an aristocratic
+stride."
+
+"Have you been in the country much?" she asked, without any seeming
+relevancy.
+
+He was keen enough.  He saw the veiled point of her question.  "No: I've
+never been in the country here," he said.  "I suppose you mean that I
+don't see or know England till I've lived there."
+
+"Quite so, Mr. Vandewaters."  She smiled to think what an undistinguished
+name it was.  It suggested pumpkins in the front garden.  Yet here its
+owner was perfectly at his ease, watching the scene before him with good-
+natured superiority.  "London is English; but it is very cosmopolitan,
+you know," she added; "and I fancy you can see it is not a place for fast
+trotters.  The Park would be too crowded for that--even if one wished to
+drive a Maud S."
+
+He turned his slow keen eyes on her, and a smile broadened into a low
+laugh, out of which he said:
+
+"What do you know of Maud S?  I didn't think you would be up in racing
+matters."
+
+"You forget that my husband is a traveller, and an admirer of Americans
+and things American."
+
+"That's so," he answered; "and a staving good traveller he is.  You don't
+catch him asleep, I can tell you, Lady Lawless.  He has stuff in him."
+
+"The stuff to make a good American?"
+
+"Yes; with something over.  He's the kind of Englishman that can keep
+cool when things are ticklish, and look as if he was in a parlour all the
+time.  Americans keep cool, but look cheeky.  O, I know that.  We square
+our shoulders and turn out our toes, and push our hands into our pockets,
+and act as if we owned the world.  Hello--by Jingo!"  Then,
+apologetically: "I beg your pardon, Lady Lawless; it slipped."
+
+Lady Lawless followed Mr. Vandewaters's glance, and saw, passing on her
+husband's arm, a tall, fascinating girl.  She smiled meaningly to
+herself, as she sent a quick quizzical look at the American, and said,
+purposely misinterpreting his exclamation: "I am not envious, Mr.
+Vandewaters."
+
+"Of course not.  That's a commoner thing with us than with you.  American
+girls get more notice and attention from their cradles up, and they want
+it all along the line.  You see, we've mostly got the idea that an
+Englishman expects from his wife what an American woman expects from her
+husband."
+
+"How do Americans get these impressions about us?"
+
+"From our newspapers, I guess; and the newspapers take as the ground-work
+of their belief the Bow Street cases where Englishmen are cornered for
+beating their wives."
+
+"Suppose we were to judge of American Society by the cases in a Chicago
+Divorce Court?"
+
+"There you have me on toast.  That's what comes of having a husband who
+takes American papers.  Mind you, I haven't any idea that the American
+papers are right.  I've had a lot to do with newspapers, and they are
+pretty ignorant, I can tell you--cheap all round.  What's a newspaper,
+anyway, but an editor, more or less smart and overworked, with an owner
+behind him who has got some game on hand?  I know: I've been there."
+
+"How have you 'been there'?"
+
+"I've owned four big papers all at once, and had fifty others under my
+thumb."
+
+Lady Lawless caught her breath; but she believed him.  "You must be very
+rich."
+
+"Owning newspapers doesn't mean riches.  It's a lever, though, for
+tipping the dollars your way."
+
+"I suppose they have--tipped your way?"
+
+"Yes: pretty well.  But, don't follow this lead any farther, Lady
+Lawless, or you may come across something that will give you a start.
+I should like to keep on speaking terms with you."
+
+"You mean that a man cannot hold fifty newspapers under his thumb, and
+live in the glare of a search-light also?"
+
+"Exactly.  You can't make millions without pulling wires."
+
+She saw him watching the girl on her husband's arm.  She had the instinct
+of her sex.  She glanced at the stately girl again; then at Mr.
+Vandewaters critically, and rejoined, quizzically: "Did you--make
+millions?"
+
+His eyes still watching, he replied abstractedly.  "Yes: a few handfuls,
+and lost a few--'that's why I'm here.'"
+
+"To get them back on the London market?"
+
+"That's why I am here."
+
+"You have not come in vain?"
+
+"I could tell you better in a month or so from now.  In any case, I don't
+stand to lose.  I've come to take things away from England."
+
+"I hope you will take away a good opinion of it."
+
+"If there'd been any doubt of it half an hour ago, it would be all gone
+this minute."
+
+"Which is nice of you; and not in your usual vein, I should think.  But,
+Mr. Vandewaters, we want you to come to Craigruie, our country place, to
+spend a week.  Then you will have a chance to judge us better, or rather
+more broadly and effectively."  She was looking at the girl, and at that
+moment she caught Sir Duke's eye.  She telegraphed to him to come.
+
+"Thank you, Lady Lawless, I'm glad you have asked me.  But--" He glanced
+to where Mr. Pride was being introduced to the young lady on Sir Duke's
+arm, and paused.
+
+"We are hoping," she added, interpreting his thought, and speaking a
+little dryly, "that your friend, Mr. Stephen Pride"--the name sounded so
+ludicrous--"will join us."
+
+"He'll be proud enough, you may be sure.  It's a singular combination,
+Pride and myself, isn't it?  But, you see, he has a fortune which, as
+yet, he has never been able to handle for himself; and I do it for him.
+We are partners, and, though you mightn't think it, he has got more money
+now than when he put his dollars at my disposal to help me make a few
+millions at a critical time."
+
+Lady Lawless let her fan touch Mr. Vandewaters's arm.  "I am going
+to do you a great favour.  You see that young lady coming to us with my
+husband?  Well, I am going to introduce you to her.  It is such as she--
+such women--who will convince you--"
+
+"Yes?"
+
+"--that you have yet to make your--what shall I call it?--Ah, I have it:
+your 'biggest deal,'--and, in truth, your best."
+
+"Is that so?" rejoined Vandewaters musingly.  "Is that so?  I always
+thought I'd make my biggest deal in the States.  Who is she?  She is
+handsome."
+
+"She is more than handsome, and she is the Honourable Gracia Raglan."
+
+"I don't understand about 'The Honourable.'"
+
+"I will explain that another time."
+
+A moment later Miss Raglan, in a gentle bewilderment, walked down the
+ballroom on the arm of the millionaire, half afraid that something gauche
+would happen; but by the time she had got to the other end was reassured,
+and became interested.
+
+Sir Duke said to his wife in an aside, before he left her with
+Mr. Vandewaters's financial partner: "What is your pretty conspiracy,
+Molly?"
+
+"Do talk English, Duke, and do not interfere."
+
+A few hours later, on the way home, Sir Duke said: "You asked Mr. Pride
+too?"
+
+"Yes; I grieve to say."
+
+"Why grieve?"
+
+"Because his experiences with us seem to make him dizzy.  He will be
+terribly in earnest with every woman in the house, if--"
+
+"If you do not keep him in line yourself?"
+
+"Quite so.  And the creature is not even interesting."
+
+"Cast your eye about.  He has millions; you have cousins."
+
+"You do not mean that, Duke?  I would see them in their graves first.  He
+says 'My lady' every other sentence, and wants to send me flowers, and a
+box for the opera, and to drive me in the Park."
+
+Her husband laughed.  "I'll stake my life he can't ride.  You will have
+him about the place like a tame cat."  Then, seeing that his wife was
+annoyed: "Never mind, Molly, I will help you all I can.  I want to be
+kind to them."
+
+"I know you do.  But what is your 'pretty conspiracy,' Duke?"
+
+"A well-stocked ranche in Colorado."  He did not mean it.  And she knew
+it.
+
+"How can you be so mercenary?" she replied.
+
+Then they both laughed, and said that they were like the rest of the
+world.
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+Lady Lawless was an admirable hostess, and she never appeared to better
+advantage in the character than during the time when Miss Gracia Raglan,
+Mr. John Vandewaters, and Mr. Stephen Pride were guests at Craigruie.
+The men accepted Mr. Vandewaters at once as a good fellow and a very
+sensible man.  He was a heavy-weight for riding; but it was not the
+hunting season, and, when they did ride, a big horse carried him very
+well.  At grouse-shooting he showed to advantage.  Mr. Pride never rode.
+He went shooting only once, and then, as Mr. Vandewaters told him, he got
+"rattled."  He was then advised by his friend to remain at home and
+cultivate his finer faculties.  At the same time, Mr. Vandewaters
+parenthetically remarked to Sir Duke Lawless that Mr. Pride knew the
+poets backwards, and was smart at French.  He insisted on bringing out
+the good qualities of his comrade; but he gave him much strong advice
+privately.  He would have done it just the same at the risk of losing a
+fortune, were it his whim--he would have won the fortune back in due
+course.
+
+At the present time Mr. Vandewaters was in the heat of some large
+commercial movements.  No one would have supposed it, save for the fact
+that telegrams and cablegrams were brought to him day and night.  He had
+liberally salaried the telegraph-clerk to work after hours, simply to be
+at his service.  The contents of these messages never shook his
+equanimity.  He was quiet, urbane, dry-mannered, at all times.  Mr.
+Pride, however, was naturally excitable.  He said of himself earnestly
+that he had a sensitive nature.  He said it to Mrs. Gregory Thorne, whose
+reply was: "Dear me, and when things are irritating and painful to you do
+you never think of suicide?"  Then she turned away to speak to some one,
+as if she had been interrupted, and intended to take up the subject
+again; but she never did.  This remark caused Mr. Pride some nervous
+moments.  He was not quite sure how she meant it.  But it did not depress
+him as it might otherwise have done, for his thoughts were running much
+in another channel with a foolish sort of elation.
+
+As Lady Lawless had predicted, he was assiduously attentive to her, and
+it needed all her tact and cheerful frankness to keep him in line.  She
+managed it very well: Mr. Pride's devotion was not too noticeable to the
+other guests.  She tried to turn his attentions to some pretty girls;
+but, although there were one or two who might, in some weak moments, have
+compromised with his millions, he did no more than saunter with them on
+the terrace and oppress them with his lisping egotism.  Every one hinted
+that he seemed an estimable, but trying, young man; and, as Sir Duke said
+to his wife, the men would not have him at any price.
+
+As for Mr. Vandewaters and Gracia Raglan, Lady Lawless was not very sure
+that her delicate sympathy was certain of reward.  The two were naturally
+thrown together a good deal; but Miss Raglan was a girl of singular
+individuality and high-mindedness, and she was keen enough to see from
+the start what Lady Lawless suspected might happen.  She did not resent
+this,--she was a woman; but it roused in her a spirit of criticism, and
+she threw up a barrier of fine reserve, which puzzled Mr. Vandewaters.
+He did not see that Lady Lawless was making a possible courtship easy for
+him.  If he had, it would have made no difference: he would have looked
+at it as at most things, broadly.  He was not blind to the fact that his
+money might be a "factor", but, as he said to himself, his millions were
+a part of him--they represented, like whist-counters, so much pluck and
+mother-wit.  He liked the general appreciation of them: he knew very well
+that people saw him in them and them in him.  Miss Raglan attracted him
+from the moment of meeting.  She was the first woman of her class that
+he had ever met closely; and the possibility of having as his own so
+adorable a comrade was inspiring.  He sat down sometimes as the days went
+on--it was generally when he was shaving--and thought upon his intention
+regarding Miss Raglan, in relation to his humble past; for he had fully
+made up his mind to marry her, if she would have him.  He wondered what
+she would think when he told her of his life; and he laughed at the
+humour of the situation.  He had been into Debrett, and he knew that she
+could trace her family back to the Crusades.
+
+He determined to make a clean breast of it.  One day he was obliged to
+remain at the house in expectation of receiving important telegrams, and
+the only people who appeared at lunch were Lady Lawless, Mrs. Gregory
+Thorne (who was expecting her husband), Miss Raglan; Pride, and himself.
+While at luncheon he made up his mind to have a talk with Miss Raglan.
+In the library after luncheon the opportunity was given.  It was a warm,
+pleasant day, and delightful in the grounds.
+
+After one or two vain efforts to escape, Mrs. Gregory Thorne and Lady
+Lawless resigned themselves to the attentions of Mr. Pride; and for once
+Lady Lawless did not check Mrs. Thorne's irony.  It was almost a
+satisfaction to see Mr. Pride's bewildered looks, and his inability to
+know whether or not he should resent (whether it would be proper to
+resent) this softly-showered satire.
+
+Mr. Vandewaters and Gracia Raglan talked more freely than they had ever
+done before.
+
+"Do you really like England?" she said to him; then, waving her hand
+lightly to the beeches and the clean-cropped grass through the window,
+"I mean do you like our 'trim parterres,' our devotion to mere living,
+pleasure, sport, squiring, and that sort of thing?"
+
+He raised his head, glanced out, drew in a deep breath, thrust his hands
+down in the pockets of his coat, and looking at her with respectful good
+humour, said: "Like it?  Yes, right down to the ground.  Why shouldn't I!
+It's the kind of place I should like to come to in my old days.  You
+needn't die in a hurry here.  See?"
+
+"Are you sure you would not be like the old sailors who must live where
+they can scent the brine?  You have been used to an active, adventurous,
+hurried life.  Do you think you could endure this humdrum of enjoyment?"
+
+It would be hard to tell quite what was running in Gracia Raglan's mind,
+and, for the moment, she herself hardly knew; but she had a sudden,
+overmastering wish to make the man talk: to explore and, maybe, find
+surprising--even trying--things.  She was astonished that she enjoyed his
+society so keenly.  Even now, as she spoke, she remembered a day and a
+night since his coming, when he was absent in London; also how the party
+seemed to have lost its character and life, and how, when Mr. Pride
+condescended, for a few moments, to decline from Lady Lawless upon
+herself, she was even pleasant to him, making him talk about Mr.
+Vandewaters, and relishing the enthusiastic loyalty of the supine young
+man.  She, like Lady Lawless, had learned to see behind the firm bold
+exterior, not merely a notable energy, force, self-reliance, and
+masterfulness, but a native courtesy, simplicity, and refinement which
+surprised her.  Of all the men she knew not a half-dozen had an
+appreciation of nature or of art.  They affected art, and some of them
+went to the Academy or the private views in Bond Street; but they had
+little feeling for the business.  They did it in a well-bred way, with
+taste, but not with warmth.
+
+Mr. Vandewaters now startled her by quoting suddenly lines from an
+English poet unknown to her.  By chance she was turning over the Academy
+pictures of the year, and came at last to one called "A Japanese Beauty
+of Old Days"--an exquisite thing.
+
+"Is it not fascinating?" she said.  "So piquant and fresh."
+
+He gave a silent laugh, as was his custom when he enjoyed anything, and
+then replied:
+
+"I came across a little book of verses one day in the States.  A friend
+of mine, the president of a big railway, gave it to me.  He does some
+painting himself when he travels in his Pullman in the Rockies.  Well,
+it had some verses on just such a picture as that.  Hits it off right,
+Miss Raglan."
+
+"Verses?" she remarked, lifting her eyebrows.  She expected something
+out of the "poet's corner" of a country newspaper.  "What are they?"
+
+"Well, one's enough to show the style.  This is it:
+
+             "'Was I a Samurai renowned,
+               Two-sworded, fierce, immense of bow?
+               A histrion angular and profound?
+               A priest?  or porter?  Child, although
+               I have forgotten clean, I know
+               That in the shade of Fujisan,
+               What time the cherry-orchards blow,
+               I loved you once in old Japan.'"
+
+The verse on the lips of Mr. Vandewaters struck her strangely.  He was
+not like any man she had known.  Most self-made Englishmen, with such a
+burly exterior and energy, and engaged in such pursuits, could not, to
+save themselves from hanging, have impressed her as Mr. Vandewaters did.
+There was a big round sympathy in the tone, a timbre in the voice, which
+made the words entirely fitting.  Besides, he said them without any kind
+of affectation, and with a certain turn of dry humour, as if he were
+inwardly laughing at the idea of the poem.
+
+"The verses are charming," she said, musingly; "and the idea put that way
+is charming also.  But do you think there would be much amusement in
+living half-a-dozen times, or even twice, unless you were quite sure that
+you remembered everything?  This gentleman was peculiarly fortunate to
+recall Fujisan, and the orange orchards--and the girl."
+
+"I believe you are right.  One life is about enough for most of us.
+Memory is all very fine; but you'd want a life set apart for remembering
+the others after awhile."
+
+"Why do you not add, 'And that would bore one?'  Most of the men I know
+would say so."
+
+"Well, I never used the word that way in my life.  When I don't like a
+thing, that ends it--it has got to go."
+
+"You cannot do that with everything."
+
+"Pretty much, if I set my mind to it.  It is astonishing how things'll
+come round your way if you keep on thinking and willing them so."
+
+"Have you always got everything you wanted?"  He had been looking off
+into the grounds through the open window.  Now he turned slowly upon her.
+
+"So far I have got everything I set my mind to get.  Little things don't
+count.  You lose them sometimes because you want to work at something
+else; sometimes because, as in cards, you are throwing a few away to save
+the whole game."
+
+He looked at her, as she thought, curiously.  In his mind he was
+wondering if she knew that he had made up his mind to marry her.  She was
+suddenly made aware of the masterfulness of his spirit, which might, she
+knew, be applied to herself.
+
+"Let us go into the grounds," he added, all at once.  Soon after, in the
+shade of the trees, she broke in upon the thread of their casual
+conversation.  "A few moments ago," she murmured, "you said: 'One life is
+about enough for most of us.'  Then you added a disparaging remark about
+memory.  Well, that doesn't seem like your usual point of view--more like
+that of Mr. Pride; but not so plaintive, of course.  Pray do smoke," she
+added, as, throwing back his coat, he exposed some cigars in his
+waistcoat pocket.  "I am sure you always smoke after lunch."
+
+He took out a cigar, cut off the end, and put it in his mouth.  But he
+did not light it.  Then he glanced up at her with a grave quizzical look
+as though wondering what would be the effect of his next words, and a
+smile played at his lips.
+
+"What I meant was this.  I think we get enough out of our life to last
+us for centuries.  It's all worth doing from the start, no matter what
+it is: working, fighting, marching and countermarching, plotting and
+counterplotting, backing your friends and hating your foes, playing big
+games and giving others a chance to, standing with your hand on the
+lynch-pin, or pulling your head safe out of the hot-pot.  But I don't
+think it is worth doing twice.  The interest wouldn't be fresh.  For men
+and women and life, with a little different dress, are the same as they
+always were; and there's only the same number of passions working now, as
+at the beginning.  I want to live life up to the hilt; because it is all
+new as I go on; but never twice."
+
+"Indeed?"  She looked at him earnestly for a moment, and then added: "I
+should think you would have seen lost chances; and doing things a second
+time might do them better."
+
+"I never missed chances," he replied, simply: "never except twice, and
+then--"
+
+"And then?"
+
+"Then it was to give the other fellow a chance."
+
+"Oh!"  There was a kind of dubiousness in her tone.  He noticed it.
+"You can hardly understand, Miss Raglan.  Fact is, it was one of those
+deals when you can make a million, in a straight enough game; but it
+comes out of another man--one, maybe, that you don't know; who is playing
+just the same as you are.  I have had a lot of sport; but I've never
+crippled any one man, when my engine has been dead on him.  I have played
+more against organisations than single men."
+
+"What was the most remarkable chance you ever had to make a million, and
+did not?"
+
+He threw back his head, smiling shrewdly.  "When by accident my enemy got
+hold of a telegram meant for me.  I was standing behind a frosted glass
+door, and through the narrow bevel of clear glass I watched him read it.
+I never saw a struggle like that.  At last he got up, snatched an
+envelope, put the telegram inside, wrote my name, and called a messenger.
+I knew what was in the message.  I let the messenger go, and watched that
+man for ten minutes.  It was a splendid sight.  The telegram had given
+him a big chance to make a million or two, as he thought.  But he backed
+himself against the temptation, and won.  That day I could have put the
+ball into his wicket; but I didn't.  That's a funny case of the kind."
+
+"Did he ever know?"
+
+"He didn't.  We are fighting yet.  He is richer than I am now, and at
+this moment he's playing a hard game straight at several interests of
+mine.  But I reckon I can stop him."
+
+"You must get a great deal out of life," she said.  "Have you always
+enjoyed it so?"  She was thinking it would be strange to live in contact
+with such events very closely.  It was so like adventure.
+
+"Always--from the start."
+
+"Tell me something of it all, won't you?"  He did not hesitate.
+
+"I was born in a little place in Maine.  My mother was a good woman,
+they said--straight as a die all her life.  I can only remember her in a
+kind of dream, when she used to gather us children about the big rocking-
+chair, and pray for us, and for my father, who was away most of the time,
+working in the timber-shanties in the winter, and at odd things in the
+summer.  My father wasn't much of a man.  He was kind-hearted, but
+shiftless, but pretty handsome for a man from Maine.
+
+"My mother died when I was six years old.  Things got bad.  I was the
+youngest.  The oldest was only ten years old.  She was the head of the
+house.  She had the pluck of a woman.  We got along somehow, until one
+day, when she and I were scrubbing the floor, she caught cold.  She died
+in three days."
+
+Here he paused; and, without glancing at Miss Raglan, who sat very still,
+but looking at him, he lighted his cigar.
+
+"Then things got worse.  My father took to drinking hard, and we had
+mighty little to eat.  I chored around, doing odd things in the village.
+I have often wondered that people didn't see the stuff that was in me,
+and give me a chance.  They didn't, though.  As for my relatives: one was
+a harness-maker.  He sent me out in the dead of winter to post bills for
+miles about, and gave me ten cents for it.  Didn't even give me a meal.
+Twenty years after he came to me and wanted to borrow a hundred dollars.
+I gave him five hundred on condition that he'd not come near me for the
+rest of his natural life.
+
+"The next thing I did was to leave home--'run away,' I suppose, is the
+way to put it.  I got to Boston, and went for a cabin-boy on a steamer;
+travelled down to Panama, and from there to Brazil.  At Brazil I got on
+another ship, and came round to San Francisco.  I got into trouble in San
+Francisco with the chief mate of the Flying Polly, because I tried to
+teach him his business.  One of the first things I learned in life was
+not to interfere with people who had a trade and didn't understand it.
+In San Francisco I got out of the situation.  I took to selling
+newspapers in the streets.
+
+"There wasn't enough money in it.  I went for a cabin-boy again, and
+travelled to Australia.  There, once more, I resigned my position,
+chiefly because I wouldn't cheerfully let the Mate bang me about the
+quarter-deck.  I expect I was a precocious youth, and wasn't exactly the
+kind for Sunday-school prizes.  In Melbourne I began to speculate.  I
+found a ticket for the theatre where an American actor--our biggest actor
+today--was playing, and I tried to sell it outside the door of the
+theatre where they were crowding to see him.  The man who bought it was
+the actor himself.  He gave me two dollars more than the regular price.
+I expect he knew from my voice I was an American.  Is there anything
+peculiar about my voice, Miss Raglan?"
+
+She looked at him quickly, smiled, and said in a low tone: "Yes,
+something peculiar.  Please go on."
+
+"Well, anyway, he said to me: 'Look here, where did you come from, my
+boy?'  I told him the State of Maine.  'What are you doing here?' he
+asked.  'Speculating, said I, and seeing things.'  He looked me up
+and down.  'How are you getting on?'  'Well.  I've made four dollars
+to-day,' I answered.  'Out of this ticket?'  I expect I grinned.  He
+suddenly caught me by the arm and whisked me inside the theatre--the
+first time I'd ever been in a theatre in my life.  I shall never forget
+it.  He took me around to his dressing-room, stuck me in a corner, and
+prodded me with his forefinger.  'Look here,' he said, 'I guess I'll hire
+you to speculate for me.'  And that's how I came to get twenty-five
+dollars a month and my living from a great American actor.  When I got
+back to America--with him--I had two hundred and fifty dollars in cash,
+and good clothes.  I started a peanut-stand, and sold papers and books,
+and became a speculator.  I heard two men talking one day at my stall
+about a railway that was going to run through a certain village, and
+how they intended to buy up the whole place.  I had four hundred and
+fifty dollars then.  I went down to that village, and bought some lots
+myself.  I made four thousand dollars.  Then I sold more books, and went
+on speculating."
+
+He paused, blew his cigar-smoke slowly from him a moment; then turned
+with a quick look to Miss Raglan, and smiled as at some incongruous
+thing.  He was wondering what would be the effect of his next words.
+
+"When I was about twenty-two, and had ten thousand dollars, I fell in
+love.  She was a bright-faced, smart girl.  Her mother kept a boarding-
+house in New York; not an up-town boarding-house.  She waited on table.
+I suppose a man can be clever in making money, and knowing how to handle
+men, and not know much about women.  I thought she was worth a good deal
+more to me than the ten thousand dollars.  She didn't know I had that
+money.  A drummer--that's a commercial traveller--came along, who had a
+salary of, maybe, a thousand dollars a year.  She jilted me.  She made a
+mistake.  That year I made twenty-five thousand dollars.  I saw her a
+couple of years ago.  She was keeping a boarding-house too, and her
+daughter was waiting on table.  I'm sorry for that girl: it isn't any fun
+being poor.  I didn't take much interest in women after that.  I put my
+surplus affections into stocks and shares, and bulling and bearing.  .  .
+Well, that is the way the thing has gone till now."
+
+"What became of your father and your brother?" she asked in a neutral
+tone.
+
+"I don't know anything about my father.  He disappeared after I left, and
+never turned up again.  And Jim--poor Jim!--he was shiftless.  Jim was a
+tanner.  It was no good setting him up in business.  Steady income was
+the cheapest way.  But Jim died of too much time on his hands.  His son
+is in Mexico somewhere.  I sent him there, and I hope he'll stay.  If he
+doesn't, his salary stops: he is shiftless too.  That is not the kind of
+thing, and they are not the kind of people you know best, Miss Raglan."
+
+He looked at her, eyes full-front, bravely, honestly, ready to face the
+worst.  Her head was turned away.
+
+He nodded to himself.  It was as he feared.
+
+At that moment a boy came running along the walk towards them, and handed
+Mr. Vandewaters a telegram.  He gave the lad a few pence, then, with an
+apology, opened the telegram.  Presently he whistled softly, in a quick
+surprised way.  Then he stuffed the paper into his waistcoat pocket,
+threw away his cigar, and turned to Gracia Raglan, whose face as yet was
+only half towards him.  "I hope your news is good," she said very
+quietly.
+
+"Pretty bad, in a way," he answered.  "I have lost a couple of millions--
+maybe a little more."
+
+She gasped, and turned an astonished face on him.  He saw her startled
+look, and laughed.
+
+"Does it not worry you?" she asked.
+
+"I have got more important things on hand just now," he answered.  "Very
+much more important," he added, and there was that in his voice which
+made her turn away her head again.
+
+"I suppose," he went on, "that the story you have just heard is not the
+kind of an autobiography you would care to have told in your drawing-
+room?"
+
+Still she did not reply; but her hands were clasped tightly in front of
+her.  "No: I suppose not," he went on--"I--I suppose not.  And yet, do
+you know, Miss Raglan, I don't feel a bit ashamed of it, after all: which
+may be evidence of my lost condition."
+
+Now she turned to him with a wonderful light in her eyes, her sweet,
+strong face rich with feeling.  She put out her hand to his arm, and
+touched it quickly, nervously.
+
+"Your story has touched me inexpressibly," she said.  "I did not know
+that men could be so strong and frank and courageous as you.  I did not
+know that men could be so great; that any man could think more of what a
+woman thought of--of his life's story--than of"--she paused, and then
+gave a trembling little laugh--"of two millions or more."
+
+He got to his feet, and faced her.  "You--you are a woman, by heaven!"
+he said.  "You are finer even than I thought you.  I am not worthy to
+ask you what I had in my mind to ask you; but there is no man in God's
+universe who would prize you as I do.  I may be a poor man before
+sundown.  If that happens, though, I shall remember the place where
+I had the biggest moment of my life, and the woman who made that
+moment possible."
+
+Now she also rose.  There was a brave high look in her face; but her
+voice shook a little as she said: "You have never been a coward, why be a
+coward now?"
+
+Smiling, he slowly answered: "I wouldn't if I were sure about my
+dollars."
+
+She did not reply, but glanced down, not with coquetry, but because she
+could not stand the furnace of his eyes.
+
+"You said a moment ago," she ventured, "that you have had one big moment
+in your life.  Oughtn't it to bring you good fortune?"
+
+"It will--it will," he said, reaching his hand towards hers.
+
+"No, no," she rejoined archly.  "I am going.  Please do not follow me."
+Then, over her shoulder, as she left him: "If you have luck, I shall want
+a subscription for my hospital."
+
+"As many thousands as you like," he answered: then, as she sped away: "I
+will have her, and the millions too!" adding reminiscently: "Yes, Lady
+Lawless, this is my biggest deal."
+
+He tramped to the stables, asked for and got a horse, and rode away to
+the railway station.  It was dinner time when he got back.  He came down
+to dinner late, apologising to Lady Lawless as he did so.  Glancing
+across the table at Mr. Pride, he saw a peculiar excited look in the
+young man's face.
+
+"The baby fool!" he said to himself.  "He's getting into mischief.  I'll
+startle him.  If he knows that an army of his dollars is playing at fox-
+and-geese, he'll not make eyes at Lady Lawless this way--little ass."
+
+Lady Lawless appeared oblivious of the young man's devotional exercises.
+She was engaged on a more congenial theme.  In spite of Miss Raglan's
+excellent acting, she saw that something had occurred.  Mr. Vandewaters
+was much the same as usual, save that his voice had an added ring.  She
+was not sure that all was right; but she was determined to know.  Sir
+Duke was amused generally.  He led a pretty by-play with Mrs. Gregory
+Thorne, of whom he asked the details of the day, much to the confusion,
+not admirably hid, of Mr. Pride; lamenting now and then Mr. Vandewaters's
+absence from the shooting.
+
+Mr. Vandewaters was cool enough.  He said that he had been playing at
+nine-pins with railways, which was good enough sport for him.  Soon after
+dinner, he was handed two telegrams.  He glanced slowly up at Pride, as
+if debating whether to tell him something.  He evidently decided against
+it, and, excusing himself by saying he was off to take a little walk in
+Wall Street, went away to the telegraph office, where he stayed three
+hours.
+
+The magnitude of the concerns, the admirable stoicism with which he
+received alarming news, his dry humour while they waited between
+messages--all were so unlike anything the telegraph-clerk had ever seen,
+or imagined, that the thing was like a preposterous dream.  Even when, at
+last, a telegram came which the clerk vaguely felt was, somehow, like the
+fall of an empire, Mr. Vandewaters remained unmoved.  Then he sent one
+more telegram, gave the clerk a pound, asked that the reply be sent to
+him as soon as it came, and went away, calmly smoking his cigar.
+
+It was a mild night.  When he got to the house he found some of the
+guests walking on the veranda.  He joined them; but Miss Raglan was not
+with them; nor were Lady Lawless and Mr. Pride.  He wanted to see all
+three, and so he went into the house.  There was no one in the drawing-
+room.  He reached the library in time to hear Lady Lawless say to Mr.
+Pride, who was disappearing through another door: "You had better ask
+advice of Mr. Vandewaters."
+
+The door closed.  Mr. Vandewaters stepped forward.
+
+He understood the situation.  "I guess I know how to advise him, Lady
+Lawless," he said.
+
+She turned on him quietly, traces of hauteur in her manner.  Her self-
+pride had been hurt.  "You have heard?" she asked.
+
+"Only your last words, Lady Lawless.  They were enough.  I feel guilty in
+having brought him here."
+
+"You need not.  I was glad to have your friend.  He is young and
+effusive.  Let us say no more about it.
+
+"He is tragically repentant; which is a pity.  There is no reason why he
+should not stay, and be sensible.  Why should young men lose their heads,
+and be so absurdly earnest?"
+
+"Another poser, Lady Lawless."
+
+"In all your life you never misunderstood things so, I am sure."
+
+"Well, there is no virtue in keeping your head steady.  I have spent most
+of my life wooing Madame Fortune; I find that makes a man canny."
+
+"She has been very kind to you."
+
+"Perhaps it would surprise you if I told you that at this moment I am not
+worth ten thousand dollars."  She looked greatly astonished.  "I do not
+understand," she said.  She was thinking of what this might mean to
+Gracia Raglan.
+
+"You see I've been playing games at a disadvantage with some ruffians at
+New York.  They have combined and got me into a corner.  I have made my
+last move.  If it comes out right I shall be richer than ever; if not I
+must begin all over again."
+
+Lady Lawless looked at him curiously.  She had never met a man like him
+before.  His power seemed almost Napoleonic; his imperturbability was
+absolute.  Yet she noticed something new in him.  On one side a kind of
+grim forcefulness; on the other, a quiet sort of human sympathy.  The
+one, no doubt, had to do with the momentous circumstances amid which he
+was placed; the other, with an event which she had, perhaps prematurely,
+anticipated.
+
+"I wonder--I wonder at you," she said.  "How do you keep so cool while
+such tremendous things are happening?"
+
+"Because I believe in myself, Lady Lawless.  I have had to take my
+measure a good many times in this world.  I never was defeated through
+my own stupidity.  It has been the sheer luck of the game."
+
+"You do not look like a gamester," she said.
+
+"I guess it's all pretty much a game in life, if you look at it right.
+It is only a case of playing fair or foul."
+
+"I never heard any Englishmen talk as you do."
+
+"Very likely not," he responded.  "I don't want to be unpleasant; but
+most Englishmen work things out by the rule their fathers taught them,
+and not by native ingenuity.  It is native wit that tells in the end,
+I'm thinking."
+
+"Perhaps you are right," she rejoined.  "There must be a kind of genius
+in it."  Here her voice dropped a little lower.  "I do not believe there
+are many Englishmen, even if they had your dollars--"
+
+"The dollars I had this morning," he interposed.
+
+"--who could have so strongly impressed Gracia Raglan."
+
+He looked thoughtfully on the ground; then raised his eyes to Lady
+Lawless, and said in a low, ringing tone:
+
+"Yes, I am going to do more than 'impress': I am going to convince her."
+
+"When?" she asked.
+
+"To-morrow morning, I hope," was the reply.  "I believe I shall have my
+millions again."
+
+"If you do," she said slowly, "do you not think that you ought to run no
+more risks--for her sake?"
+
+"That is just what I mean to do, Lady Lawless.  I'll settle millions
+where they ought to be settled, drop Wall Street, and--go into training."
+
+"Into training?" she asked.
+
+"Yes, for a house on the Hudson, a villa at Cannes, a residence in
+Grosvenor Square, and a place in Devonshire--or somewhere else.  Then,"
+he added, with a twinkle in his eye, "I shall need a good deal of time to
+cultivate accent."
+
+"Don't!" she said.  "You are much more charming as you are."
+
+They passed into the drawing-room.
+
+"Are these things to be told?" she asked, with a little suggestion in
+her voice.
+
+"I can trust your discretion."
+
+"Even in such circumstances?" she asked.  She paused, with a motion of
+her fan back towards the room they had left.
+
+"You have taught him a lesson, Lady Lawless.  It is rough on him; but he
+needs it."
+
+"I hope he will do nothing rash," she said.
+
+"Perhaps he'll write some poetry, and refuse to consider his natural
+appetite."
+
+"Will you go and see him now?" she asked.  "Immediately.  Good night,
+Lady Lawless."  His big hand swallowed hers in a firm, friendly clasp,
+and he shook it once or twice before he parted from her.  He met Sir Duke
+Lawless in the doorway.  They greeted cheerfully, and then Lawless came
+up to his wife.
+
+"Well, my dear," he said, with an amused look in his face, "well, what
+news?"
+
+She lifted her eyebrows at him.
+
+"Something has happened, Molly, I can see it in your face."
+
+She was very brief.  "Gracia Raglan has been conquered; the young man
+from Boston has been foolish; and Mr. Vandewaters has lost millions."
+
+"Eh?  That's awkward," said Sir Duke.
+
+"Which?" asked his wife.
+
+Vandewaters found Mr. Pride in his bedroom, a waif of melancholy.  He
+drew a chair up, lighted a cigar, eyed the young man from head to foot,
+and then said: "Pride, have you got any backbone?  If you have, brace up.
+You are ruined.  That's about as mild as I can put it."
+
+"You know all?"--said the young man helplessly, his hands clasped between
+his knees in aesthetic agony.
+
+"Yes; I know more than you do, as you will find out.  You're a nice sort
+of man, to come into a man's house, in a strange land, and make love to
+his wife.  Now, what do you think of yourself?  You're a nice
+representative of the American, aren't you?"
+
+"I--I didn't mean any harm--I--couldn't help it," replied the stricken
+boy.
+
+"O, for God's sake, drop that bib-and-tucker twaddle!  Couldn't help it!
+Every scoundrel, too weak to face the consequences of his sin, says he
+couldn't help it.  So help me, Joseph, I'd like to thrash you.  Couldn't
+help it!  Now, sit up in your chair, take this cigar, drink this glass of
+whiskey I'm pouring for you, and make up your mind that you're going to
+be a man and not a nincompoop--sit still!  Don't fly up.  I mean what I
+say.  I've got business to talk to you.  And make up your mind that, for
+once, you have got to take life seriously."
+
+"What right have you to speak to me like this?" demanded the young man
+with an attempt at dignity.  Vandewaters laughed loudly.
+
+"Right?  Great Scott!  The right of a man who thinks a damned sight more
+of your reputation than you do yourself, and of your fortune than you
+would ever have wits to do.  I am the best friend you've got, and not the
+less your friend because I feel like breaking your ribs.  Now, enough of
+that.  This is what I have to say, Pride: to-night you and I are beggars.
+You understand?  Beggars.  Out in the cold world, out in the street.
+Now, what do you think of that?"
+
+The shock to Mr. Pride was great.  Mr. Vandewaters had exaggerated the
+disaster; but he had done it with a purpose.  The youth gasped "My God!"
+and dropped his glass.  Vandewaters picked it up, and regarded him a
+moment in silence.  Then he began to explain their financial position.
+He did not explain the one bold stroke which he was playing to redeem
+their fortunes: if possible.  When he had finished the story, he said,
+"I guess that's a bit more serious than the little affair in the library
+half an hour ago?"
+
+He rose to his feet.  "Look here, Pride, be a man.  You've never tried it
+yet.  Let me teach you how to face the world without a dollar; how to
+make a fortune.  Then, when you've made it, you'll get what you've never
+had yet--the pleasure of spending money dug out of your own wits."
+
+He carried conviction into a mind not yet all destroyed by effeminacy and
+indulgence of the emotions.  Something of the iron of his own brain got
+into the brain of the young man, who came to his feet trembling a little,
+and said: "I don't mind it so much, if you only stick to me,
+Vandewaters."
+
+A smile flickered about the corners of Vandewaters's mouth.
+
+"Take a little more whiskey," he said; "then get into bed, and go to
+sleep.  No nonsense, remember; go to sleep.  To-morrow morning we will
+talk.  And see here, my boy,"--he caught him by both arms and fastened
+his eyes,--"you have had a lesson: learn it backwards.  Good night."
+
+Next morning Mr. Vandewaters was early in the grounds.  He chatted with
+the gardener, and discussed the merits of the horses with the groom,
+apparently at peace with the world.  Yet he was watching vigilantly the
+carriage-drive from the public-road.  Just before breakfast-time a
+telegraph messenger appeared.  Vandewaters was standing with Sir Duke
+Lawless when the message was handed to him.  He read it, put it into his
+pocket, and went on talking.  Presently he said: "My agent is coming from
+town this morning, Sir Duke.  I may have to leave to-night."  Then he
+turned, and went to his room.
+
+Lady Lawless had heard his last words.
+
+"What about your ranche in Colorado, Duke?"
+
+"About as sure, I fancy, as your millionaire for Gracia."
+
+Miss Raglan did not appear at breakfast with the rest.  Neither did Mr.
+Pride, who slept late that morning.  About ten o'clock Mr. Vandewaters's
+agent arrived.  About twelve o'clock Mr. Vandewaters saw Miss Raglan
+sitting alone in the library.  He was evidently looking for her.  He came
+up to her quietly, and put a piece of paper in her lap.
+
+"What is this?" she asked, a little startled.
+
+"A thousand for your hospital," was the meaning reply.
+
+She flushed, and came to her feet.
+
+"I have won," he said.
+
+And then he reached out and took both her hands.
+
+
+
+
+ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
+
+But I don't think it is worth doing twice
+He wishes to be rude to some one, and is disappointed
+I--couldn't help it
+Interfere with people who had a trade and didn't understand it
+Lose their heads, and be so absurdly earnest
+Scoundrel, too weak to face the consequences of his sin
+
+
+
+
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