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got no further use for me he me out into the street and to give me to the police if i come to him again s expression changed there was no doubt now that for once was sincere the hate in his eyes and face was give me to the police i ll give him to the police he broke out in a sudden flame at s glance of inspection he thinks he has very smart in taking from me all the papers he thinks no one will believe me on my mere word but i ve got a paper he don t know of his hand went to the breast of his coat with an angry clutch i ve got the marriage lines of his wife one word caught and his interest awoke what wife he asked as indifferently as he could his wife his lawful wife squire s i was at the i was a witness he thought he could get out of it and he was half drunk but he married her the marriage where f when f you were present t yes they were married by a preacher named and he gave me her and i swore to her i had lost it got me to do it the scoundrel he wanted me to give it to him but i swore to him i had lost it too i thought it would be of use some of these days a gleam of the old shone in his eyes gazed at the man in amazement his staggered him would you mind letting me see that hesitated and licked his lips like a dog held back from a bone noted it i do not want you to think that i will give you any money for it for i will not he added quietly his gray eyes on him for a moment was so taken that his face became a blank then whether it was that the very frankness of the speech struck home to him or that he wished to secure a fragment of esteem from he recovered himself i don t expect any money for it mr i don t want any money for it i will not only show you this paper i will give it to you it is not yours to give said it belongs to mrs i will see that she gets it if you deliver it to me that s so ejaculated as if the thought had never occurred to him before i want her to have it but you d better keep it for her that man will get it away from her you don t know him as i do you don t know what he d do on a pinch i tell you he is a for life i have seen him sit at the board and stake sums that would have made me rich for life besides he added as if he needed some other reason for giving it up i am afraid if he knew i had it he d get it from me in some way he walked forward and handed the paper to who saw at a glance that it was what had declared it to be a marriage dirty and worn but still with that appeared to be genuine s eyes flashed with satisfaction as he read the name of the rev william h and s name evidently written with the same ink at the same time now said looking up from the paper i will see that mrs s family is put in possession of this paper couldn t you lend me a small sum mr asked just for old t es i know i have done you wrong and given you good cause to hate me but it wasn t my fault an i ve done you a favor to day anyhow looked at him for a second and put his hand in his pocket i ll pay you back as sure as i began no you will not said sharply you could not if you would and would not if you could and i would not lend you a cent or have a business transaction with you for all the money in new york i will give you for the person you have most injured in life now don t thank me for it but go took with glistening eyes and thanks the bills that were handed out to him and out of the room that night having shown the to a good expert who pronounced them genuine dr to squire that he had the proof of s marriage the doctor went over to see the old squire he mentioned the matter casually for he knew his man but as well as he knew him he found himself mistaken in him i know that he said quietly but what i want is to find his deep eyes glowed for a while and suddenly i m a rich man he broke out but i d the give every dollar i ever owned to get her back and to get my hand once on that man the deep fire glowed for a while and then grew dull again and the old man sank back into his former grim silence the doctor looked at him had written him fully of and her condition and he had decided to say nothing to the old grandfather chapter xxx began to renew his visits to mrs which he had for a time when he had found himself the had stimulated his desire to win her but he had a further motive among other things she might ask for an of the money he had had of her and he wanted more money he must keep up appearances or others might upon him when he began again it was on a new line he appealed to her sympathy if he had forgotten himself so	46
far as to ask for more than friendship she would he hoped forgive him she could not find a truer friend he would never offend her so again but he must have her friendship or he might do something desperate fortunately for him had a good advocate at court mrs was very lonely and unhappy just then and the plea prevailed she forgave him and again began to be a visitor at the house but deeper than these lay another motive while following mrs he had been thrown with her freshness her beauty the charm of her girlish figure the unaffected of her spirits attracted him and he had paused in his other pursuit to her as he might have stepped aside to pluck a flower beside the way to his astonishment she declined the honor more she laughed at him it him to himself by a mere country girl and from this moment he looked on her with new eyes the unexpected revelation of a deeper nature than most he had known astonished him since their interview on the street received him with more friendliness than she had hitherto shown him in fact the house was a sad one these days and any diversion was welcome the of s visits had been so sudden that had felt it all the more she had no idea of the reason and set it down to the score of his success with mrs she too could play the game of and she did it well she accordingly showed more favor than she had ever shown him before while therefore he kept up his visits to mrs he was playing all the time his other game with her cousin knowing the world well enough to be sure that it would not believe his attentions to the latter had any serious object in this he was not mistaken the that coupled his name with mrs s was soon as loud as ever finally decided to take matters in her own hands she appeal to mr himself he had talked to her of late in a manner quite different from the which he when she first met him in fact no one could hold higher sentiments than he had expressed about women or about life mr himself had never held than mr had declared to her she began to think that the that she got bits of whenever she saw mrs or some others was perhaps after all and that mr was not aware of the injury he was doing mrs she would appeal to his better nature she lay in wait several times without being able to meet him in a way that would not attract attention at length she wrote him a note asking him to meet her on the street as she wished to speak to him privately when met her that afternoon at the point she had not far from the park he had a curious expression on his cold face she was dressed in a perfectly simple dark street costume which fitted without a her figure and a big black hat with a single large feather shaded her face and lent a shadow to her eyes which gave them an added thought he had never known her so pretty or so he had not seen as handsome a figure that day and he had sat at the club window and the avenue with an eye for fine figures she held out her hand in the way and looking into his eyes quite frankly said with the most natural of voices well i know you think i have gone crazy and are consumed with curiosity to know what i wanted with you t i don t know about the curiosity he said smiling at her suppose we call it interest you don t have to be told now that i shall be only too delighted if i am fortunate enough to be of any service to you he bent down and looked so deep into her eyes that she drew a little back the fact is i am a little treason she said with a blush slightly embarrassed by jove she is a real beauty thought noting with the eye of a the white round throat the dainty curves of the slim figure and the purity of the oval face in which the delicate c lor came and went under his gaze well if this be treason i ll make the most of it he said with his most fascinating smile and spoils are my game but this may be treason partly against yourself she gave a half glance up at him to see how he took this i am quite used to this too my dear girl i assure you he said wondering more and more she drew back a little at the familiarity come and let us stroll in the park he suggested and though she a little he pressed her saying it was there and she would have a better opportunity of showing him how he could help her they walked along talking he dealing in light of a flattering kind which both amused and disturbed her a little and presently he turned into a somewhat secluded alley where he found a bench sheltered and by the overhanging boughs of a tree well here is a good place for confidences he took her hand and himself drew her down beside him i will pretend that you are a charming and i what shall i bet my friend she said calmly and drew her hand away from him ami f man i will be your best friend he held out his hand then you will do what i you are also a good friend of mrs t a little cloud flitted over his face but she did not see it we do not speak of the absent when the present holds all we care for he said lightly	46
she said in a low level tone tears of shame standing in her eyes for answer he caught her again then the unexpected happened at that moment turned a of a few paces oflf that shut out the alley from the bench which had selected for a second he paused amazed then as he took in the situation a black look came into his face the next second he had sprung to where stood and seizing him by the collar jerked him around and him full in the face you hound he caught him again the light of fury in his eyes the love of fight that has burned there when men have fought for a woman since the days of adam and with a fierce oath hurled him spinning back across the walk where he measured his length on the ground then turned to the girl come i will see you home the noise had attracted the attention of others besides just at this juncture a stout policeman turned the curve at a double quick as he did so rose and slipped away what th devil ye t the officer demanded in a rich before he came to a halt i ll stop this i ll run ye wan in i ve got ye now me i ve been for ye for some time he seized by the arm roughly let her go take your hand off that lady sir don t you dare to touch her stepped up to him with his eyes flashing and hand raised and you too i ll you to turn this park take your hand off her or i ll make you sorry for it oh you will but at the tone of authority he released what is your name t give me your number i ll have you discharged for insulting a lady said oh me name s right me name s i guess ye u find it on the rolls right enough and as for a that s what i m goin to against that why exclaimed i am mr mr the big officer over and looked at in the gathering dusk be and so it is who s your friend he asked in a low voice be george she s a the blood rushed to his face and he started to speak sharply he however turned to miss this is an old friend of mine this is who used to be the best man on the ship when i ran the as a boy the same said he used to teach me continued i him the left upper cut nodded the went on and told the story of his coming on a man who was miss but he did not give his name did ye give him the left upper cut t demanded i am not sure that i did not laughed i know he went down over there where you saw him and i have ended one or two with it very satisfactorily ah well then i m glad i ye i m glad ye ve got such a good ma am ye ll pardon what i said when i first up but i was a little over ye see this place is kind o noted this place is called nobody comes here this time they a little and we has to look out for em i am glad i had two such said innocently i m always glad to meet mr s and his too said the taking off his and bowing if i can ye any time to t xx and i ll be proud to do it as and walked slowly homeward gave him an account of her interview with only she did not tell him of his kissing her the first time she tried to the insult now for she did not know what might do he had suddenly grown so quiet what she said to however was enough to make him very grave and when he left her at mrs s house the gravity on his face deepened to that should have dared to insult this young girl ss he had done stirred s deepest anger what did was perhaps a very foolish thing he tried to find him but failing in this he wrote him a note in which he told him what he thought of him and added that if he felt he would be glad to send a friend to him and arrange to give him any satisfaction which he might desire however had left town he had gone west on business and would not return for some weeks the report from his office stated on reaching home went straight to her room and thought over the whole matter it certainly appeared grave enough to her she determined that she would never meet again and further that she would not remain in the house if she had to do so her cheeks burned with shame as she thought of him and then her heart sank at the thought that might at that moment be seeking him having reached her decision she sought mrs as soon she entered the room mrs saw that something serious had occurred and in reply to her question sat down and quietly told the story of having met mr and of his attempting to kiss her though she did not repeat what had said to her to her surprise mrs burst out laughing on my word you were so tragic when you came in that i feared something terrible had occurred why you silly creature do you suppose that meant anything by what he did t he meant to insult and you said with a lift of her head and a flash in her eye nonsense he has probably kissed a hundred and will kiss a hundred more if they give him the chance to do so i gave him no chance said sitting very straight and	46
stiff and with a proud dignity which the other might well have now don t be silly said mrs with a little why did you walk in a secluded part of the park with him i thought i could help a friend of mine said mr i suppose no not mr a woman perhaps yes a woman she spoke with a which mrs had never seen in her cousin she said suddenly after a moment s reflection i think i ought to say to you that i will never speak to mr sham again the color rushed to mrs s face and her eyes gave a flash you will never do she demanded coldly looking at her with lifted head i will never meet mr again you appear to have met him once too often already i think you do not know what you are saying or whom you are speaking to i do perfectly said looking her full in the eyes i think you had better go to your room said mrs angrily the color rose to s face and her eyes were sparkling then the color back again as she restrained herself you mean you wish me to go her voice was calm i do you have evidently forgotten your place i will go home she said she walked slowly to the door as she reached it she turned and faced mrs i wish to thank you for all your kindness to me for you have been very kind to me at times and i her voice broke a little but she recovered herself and walking back to mrs held out her hand good by mrs without rising shook hands with her coldly good by turned and walked slowly from the room as soon as she had closed the door she rushed up stairs and herself in threw herself on the bed and burst out crying the strain had been too great and the bent bow at last snapped an hour or two later there was a knock on her door opened it and mrs entered she appeared rather surprised to find packing her trunk are you really going away she asked yes cousin i think i spoke hastily to you i said one or two things that i regret i had no right to speak to you as i did said mrs no i do not think you had said gravely but i will try and never think of it again but only of your kindness to me suddenly to her astonishment mrs burst out weeping you are all against me she all you are all so hard on me sprang toward her her face full of sudden pity why cousin you are all me what shall i do i am so wretched i am so so lonely oh i wish i were dead sobbed the unhappy woman then maybe some one might be sorry for me even if they did not love me slipped her arm around her and drew her to her as if their ages had been reversed don t cry cousin calm yourself drew her down to a sofa and kneeling beside her tried to comfort her with tender words and assurances of her there cousin i do love we all love you cousin loves you mrs only sobbed her i will stay i will not go said if you want me the unhappy woman caught her in her arms and thanked her with a humility which was new to the girl and out of the reconciliation came a view of her which had never seen and which hardly any one had seen often h chapter s last dance and sham s final throw curiously enough the interview between mrs and brought them closer together than before the older woman seemed to find a new pleasure in the young girl s society and as often as she could she had the girl at her house sometimes too was of the party he held himself in and hardly dared face the fact that he had once more entered on the lane which beginning among flowers had proved so in the end yet more and more he let himself drift into that sweet atmosphere whose light was the presence of one evening they all went together to see a performance that was being much talked about had secured a box next the stage the theatre was crowded sat in another box with several women and was aware that he was watching his party he had never appeared or been the last number but one was a dance by a new who it was stated in the had just come over from russia according to the reports the russian court was wild about her and she had left europe at the personal request of the however this might be it appeared that she could dance the theatre was packed nightly and she was the drawing card as the curtain rose the made her way to the centre of the stage she had black hair and brows but even as she stood there was something in the pose that s last dance seemed familiar to and as she stepped forward and bowed with a little jerk of her head and then with a nod to the began to dance recognized that abandon was her own as she swept the boxes with her eyes they fell on and she started hesitated then went on next moment she glanced at the box again and as her eye caught s she gave him a glance of recognition she was not to be disconcerted now however she had never danced so well and she was greeted with of applause the crowd was wild with delight at that moment from one of the wings a thin curl of smoke rose and floated up alongside a painted it might at first have been only the smoke of a cigar next moment however a	46
going away he was almost the only man in new york that she could call her friend to think of new york without him made her lonely he was in love with mrs she of that she was sure notwithstanding mrs s statement could mrs have treated him badly she had not even cared for her husband so people said would she be cruel to f the more she pondered over it the more unhappy became finally it appeared to her that her duty was plain if mrs had rejected for she might set her right she could at least set her right as to the story about him and mrs that afternoon she called on mrs it was in the spring and she put on a dainty gown she had just made she was received with the sincere cordiality that always showed her she was taken tip to her a nest of blue satin and sunshine and there of all occupations in the world mrs clad in a soft tea gown was engaged in mending old clothes for my she said with a laugh and a blush that made her look charming s last dance a photograph of stood on the table in a silver frame when however would have brought up the subject of mr his name stuck in her throat i have what the children call a for you said the girl smiling mrs smiled as she bit off a thread i heard some one say the other day that you were one of those who do good by and blush to find it fame oh how nice i am not at all you know still it is pleasant to deceive people that way who said mr could not help blushing a little but she had broken the ice and i have one to return to you i heard some one say you had the rare gift of an absolutely direct mind that you were like george washington you couldn t tell a that truth had its home in your eyes her eyes were twinkling my who said asked the girl mr turned quickly under pretence of picking up something but she was not quick enough to hide her face from her friend the red that burned in her cheeks down and made her throat rosy mrs looked at the young girl she made a pretty picture as she sat leaning forward the curves of her slim light figure showing against the background of blue her face was pensive and she was evidently thinking deeply what are you over so v at the question the color mounted into her cheeks and the next second a smile lit up her face as she turned her eyes frankly on mrs you would be amused to know i was wondering how long you had known mr and what lie was like when he was young when he was young do ov i o hy he is only a little over thirty is that all he always seems much older to me i do not know why but he has seen so done so much why he appears to have had so many experiences i feel as if no matter what might happen he would know just what to do for instance that story that cousin told me once of his going down into the mine and that night at the theatre when there was the why he just took charge i felt as if he would take charge no matter what might happen mrs at first had smiled at the girl s enthusiasm but before had finished she had drifted away he he would she repeated then that poor what he did for her i just paused seeking for a trust him mrs smiled you may she said that is exactly the word tell me what was he like you first knew him i don t why he he was just what he is now you could have trusted why didn t you marry asked her eyes on the other s face mrs looked at her with almost a gasp why i what are you talking about who f he says so he said he was desperately in love with you why began mrs with the color mounting to her cheeks well he has gotten bravely over it she laughed he has not he is in love with you now the young girl said calmly mrs turned and faced her with her mouth open to speak and read the girl s sincerity in her with me she clasped her hands with a pretty gesture over her bosom a warm feeling suddenly to her heart the younger woman nodded s last dance and oh mrs don t treat him badly she laid both hands on her arm and looked at her earnestly he has loved you always she continued loved me i you are dreaming but as she said it s heart was beating yes he was talking to me one evening and he began to tell me of his love for a girl a young girl and what a part it had played in his but i was married put in mrs seeking for further proof rather than this yes he said she did not care for him but he had always to keep her image in his her image as she was when he knew her and as he imagined her mrs s face for a moment was a study do you know whom he is in love with she said presently yes with you not with me with you she put her hand on s cheek and gazed into her eyes the girl s eyes sank into her lap her face which had been growing white and pink by turns suddenly mrs i believe i she began in low tones she raised her eyes and they met for a moment mrs s something in	46
think that was her she called herself he was trying with brow to recall exactly i suppose that is the woman you are referring he said suddenly it is you have not had more than one have he laughed pleased to give the subject a lighter tone well this poor creature i used to know in the south when i was a boy when i first went down there you know f s last dance she was the daughter of an old farmer at whose house we stayed i used to talk to her you know how a boy talks to a pretty girl whom he is thrown with in a old country place far from any amusement her eyes showed that she knew and he was satisfied and proceeded but heavens the idea of being in love with her why she was the daughter of a farmer well then i fell in with her once or twice to be when i went down there on business and she was a pretty vain country i used to know her assented mrs you did his face fell yes when i went there to a little winter resort for my when i was seventeen she used to go to the school taught by mr she did t oh then you know her name t it was wasn t iti she nodded i thought it was well she was quite pretty you remember and as i say i fell in with her again and having been old he shifted in his seat a little as if why oh you know how it is i began to talk nonsense to her to pass away the time told her she was pretty and all that and made her a few he paused and took a long breath i thought she was very queer the first thing i knew i found she out of her mind well i stopped and soon came away and to my horror she took it into her head that she was my wife she followed me here i had to go abroad and i heard no more of her until not long ago i heard she had gone completely and was hunting me up as her husband you know how such poor creatures are he paused well satisfied with his recital for first surprise and then a certain sympathy took the place of incredulity in mrs s face she is absolutely mad poor thing i understand he sighed with unmistakable sympathy in his voice yes mrs assented her thoughts drifting away he watched her keenly and next moment began again i heard she had got hold of mr s name and declares that he married us mrs returned to the present and he went on i don t know how she got hold of it i suppose his being the fashionable preacher or his name being in the papers frequently suggested the idea but if you have any doubt on the subject ask him mrs looked assent having heard the story and thinking it might be as well to stop it at once i wrote to mr to give me a statement to set the matter at rest and i have it in my pocket he took from his pocket book a letter and spread it before mrs it read dear mr i am sorry you are being annoyed i cannot imagine that you should need any such statement as you request the records of marriages are kept in the proper office here any one who will take the trouble to inspect those records will see that i have never made any such report this should be more than sufficient i feel sure this will answer your purpose yours sincerely w h i think that settles the matter said with his eyes on her face it would seem so said mrs gravely as she spoke slowly put in one more nail of course you know there must be a witness to a marriage he said if there be such a witness let let those who are engaged in me produce him no no said mrs quickly mr s i think i owe you an apology for what i said of course it appeared incredible but something s last dance i can t tell i don t want to tell yon that shocked me very and i suppose i too hastily and harshly yon forget what i said and forgive me for my injustice certainly i will he said earnestly the in her belief inclined her to be kinder toward him than she had been in a long time the change in her manner toward him made s heart begin to beat he over and took her hand won t you give me more than justice he began if you knew how long i have how i have hoped even against how i have always loved she was so taken by his declaration that for a moment she did not find words to reply and he swept on you would not be so so cruel to me i have always thought you the most the most charming woman in new york she shook her head no you have not i have i swear i have i even when i have hung around other women i have done so because i saw you were taken up some one else i thought i might find some one else to you but never for one moment have i failed to acknowledge your oh no you have not how can you dare to teu me she smiled recovering her self possession i have ever since you were a even when you were when you were beyond i loved you more her face changed and she from him don t she said i will he seized her hand and held it tightly i loved you even then better than i	46
ever loved in my better than than any one else did her face stop she cried not another word i will not listen release my hand she pulled it from him forcibly and as he began again she with a gesture stopped him no it is impossible i will not listen his face changed as he looked into her face she rose from her seat and turned away from him taking two or three steps up and down trying to regain control of herself he waited and watched her an angry light coming into his eyes he her feelings he had made love to married women before and had not been she turned to him now and with level eyes looked into his you never loved me in your life i have had men in love with me and know when they are but you are not one of them i i he began stepping closer to her but she stopped him not for a minute she went on without him and you had no right to say that to me what he demanded what you said my husband loved me with all the strength of a noble high minded man and notwithstanding the difference in our ages treated me as his equal and i loved yes loved him she said as she saw a spark come into his eyes you love some one else now he said coolly it might have been anger that brought the rush of color to her face she turned and looked him full in the face if i do it is not you the arrow went home his eyes snapped with anger you took such lofty ground just now that i should hardly have supposed the attentions of mr meant anything so serious i thought that was mere friendship this time there was no doubt that the color meant anger what do you mean she demanded looking him once more full in the eyes i refer to what the world says especially as he himself is such a model of all the christian virtues s last dance what the world says what do you mean she persisted never taking her eyes from his ce he simply shrugged his shoulders so i assume mr is the fortunate for the remnant of your affections the the pure and pious gentleman who trades on his affections i wish you good luck at his insolence mrs s patience suddenly snapped go she said pointing to the door go when walked out into the street his face was white and drawn and a strange light was in his eyes he had played one of his last cards and had played it like a fool luck had gone against him and he had lost his head his that heart that had never known remorse and rarely began to sink luck had been going against him now for a long time so long that it had swept away his fortune and most of his credit what was worse to him he was conscious that he had lost his nerve where should he unless luck turned or he could get help he would go down he the various means of escape man after man had fallen away from him every scheme had failed he attributed it all to to and had ruined him in new york had blocked him and him in the south but one resource remained to him he would make one more supreme effort then if he failed i he thought of a locked drawer in his desk and a black pistol under the papers there his cheek at the thought but his lips closed tight he would not survive disgrace his disgrace meant the known loss of his fortune one thing he would do had escaped him had succeeded but he could overthrow had been struck hard he would now complete his ruin with this mental he straightened up and walked rapidly down the street that evening was for some time with a man who had of late come into especial notice as a strong and merciless mr mr received him at first with a coldness which might have a less determined man he had no about but knew this and unfolded to him with plausible frankness a scheme which had much reason in it he had at the same time played on the older man s with great and had awakened one or two of his he knew that mr had had a strong feeling against for several years you are one of the few men who do not have to fall down and worship the name of he said well i rather think not said mr with a in his eyes as he recalled s scorn of him at the board meeting years before when had defended against him or this new man who is undertaking to teach new york t mr gave a hard little laugh which was more like a cough than an expression of mirth but which meant that he was amused well neither do i said to tell you frankly i hate them both though there is money and big money in this as you can see for yourself from what i have said this is my real reason for wanting you in it if you jump in and hammer down those things you will clean them out i have the old to all the lands that sold those people they the titles under which claims if you can break up the deal now we will go in and recover the lands from is so deep in that he ll never pull through and his friend has everything on this one toss old s face was inscrutable as he gazed at and declared that he did not know about that he did not believe in having in business s last dance matters as it one s j but r enough to	46
be sure that the seed he had planted would bear fruit and that would stake something on the chance in this he was not deceived the next day mr to his plan for some days after that there appeared in a certain paper a series of attacks on various lines of property that was by other papers as a strong movement the same paper contained a vicious article about the attempt to worthless coal lands on englishmen meantime failure acted the attack might not have amounted to a great deal but for one of those accidents that sometimes overthrow all calculations one of the keenest and oldest in the city suddenly dropped dead and a started on the stock exchange it was stayed in a little while but meantime a number of men had been hard hit and among these was the papers next day announced the names of those who had suffered and much space was given in one of them to the decline of the old firm of son whose history was almost contemporary with that of new york by noon it was that son would close their doors the firm which had lasted for three generations and whose name had been the for honor and for which had stood as the type of the highest that can exist in commerce would go down men spoke of it with a regret which did them hard men who rarely expressed regret for the losses of another it was too that company must but this caused little surprise and less regret had had friends but his son had not succeeded to them having determined to talk to about was calling on the former a day or two after lier interview with she was still somewhat disturbed over it and showed it in her manner so clearly that asked what was the trouble it was nothing veiy much she said only she had broken finally with a friend she had known a long time and things upset her was sympathetic and suddenly to his surprise she broke down and began to cry he had never seen her weep before since she sat as a girl in the pine woods and he lent her his handkerchief to dry her tears something in the association gave him a feeling of unwonted tenderness she had not appeared to him so soft so feminine in a long time he to comfort her he too had broken with an old friend the friend of a lifetime and he would never get over it mine was such a blow to me she said wiping her eyes such cruel things were said to me i did not think any one but a woman would have said such biting things to a woman it was i know said his eyes but what on earth could he have what could he have dared to say to wound you so he said all the town was talking about me and she began to cry again dear old who has been more like a brother to me than any one i have ever known and whom i would give the world to bring back happiness to he is a scoundrel exclaimed i have stood more than i ever expected to stand from any man living but if he is attacking women he was speaking to himself rather than to i will him he is not worth your notice he said kindly addressing again women have been his prey ever since i knew him when he was but a young boy mrs dried her eyes you refer to the story that he had married that poor girl and abandoned her s last dance partly that that is the worst thing i him but that is not true however cruel he is that accusation is i know that myself how do you know it asked in surprise he told me the whole story explained the thing to my satisfaction it was a poor crazy girl who claimed that he married her said mr had performed the ceremony she was crazy i saw mr s letter denying the whole thing do you know his handwriting inquired grimly whose t well that of both of them t she nodded and taking out his x book opened it and took a slip of paper look at that i got that a few days ago from the witness present why what is this she sprang up in her excitement it is incredible she said slowly why he told me the story with the utmost he lied to you said grimly and lied that is their handwriting i have had it examined by the best expert in new york city i had not intended to use that against him but only to clear the character or that poor young creature whom he deceived and then abandoned but as he is her here and is at his old trade of trying to deceive women it is time he was shown up in his true colors she gave a shudder of horror and wiped her right hand with her left oh to think that he dared she wiped her hand on her handkerchief at that moment a servant brought in a card as mrs gazed at it her eyes flashed and her lip curled say that mrs to be excused yes madam the servant hesitated i think he heard you talking madam say that mrs to be excused she said firmly the servant with a bow withdrew she handed the card to on it was the name of the rev william h mr as he stood in the hall was in good spirits though slightly he had determined to carry through a plan that he had long pondered over he had decided to ask mrs to become mrs as glanced toward the door he caught mr s eye he was waiting on the threshold and rubbing his hands with	46
eager just then the servant gave him the message saw his countenance fall and his face he turned picked up his hat and slipped out of the door with a step that was almost a as mr passed down the street he knew that he had reached a crisis in his life he went to see but that gentleman was in no mood for everything had gone against him he was facing utter ruin s him by the way you are the very man i wanted to see he said grimly i want you to sign a note for that twenty thousand i lost by you when you insisted on my holding that stock s jaw fell that you held for sign a note twenty six thousand yes don t pretend not on me save that for the pulpit i know you said the other with a laugh but you were to carry that that was a part of our agreement why twenty thousand would take everything i have don t play that on me said coldly it won t work you can make it up when you get your widow groaned helplessly ck me there is the note sign began to and finally refused to sign gazed at him with amusement s last you sign that or i will serve suit on you in a half hour and we will see how the rev mr stands when my lawyers are through with him you will believe in hell then sure enough you won t dare do it your marriage would come out mrs she knows it said calmly and as looked i told her myself to spare you the trouble sign he rose and touched a bell with a groan signed the paper you must have showed her my letter of course i did but you promised me not to i am ruined what have i to do with that see thou to that said with a bitter laugh s face at the quotation he too had betrayed his lord now go pointed to the door mr went home and tried to write a letter to mrs but he could not master his thoughts that pen that usually flowed so failed to obey him he was in darkness he saw himself was capable of anything he did not know where to turn he thought of his brother he knew many good men who spent their lives helping others but something him from applying to them now to some he had been indifferent others he had known only yet others had withdrawn themselves from him more and more of late he had attributed it to their envy or their folly he suddenly thought of old dr he had always ignored that old man as a sort of creature who had not been able to keep up with the world and had been left doing the work that properly belonged to the unsuccessful curiously enough he was the one to whom the unhappy man now turned besides he was a friend of mrs a half hour later the rev mr was in dr s simple and was finding a singular sense of relief in pouring out his troubles to the old clergyman he told him something of his unhappy situation not all it is true but enough to enable the other to see how grave it was as much from what he inferred bs from what explained he even began to hope again if the doctor would undertake to out the he might yet pull through to his dismay this phase of the matter did not appear to present itself to the old man s mind it was the sin that he had committed that had touched him let us carry it where only we can find relief he said let us take it to the throne of grace where we can lay all our burdens and before knew it he was on his knees praying for him as if he had been a very outcast when the rev mr came out of the shabby little study though he had not gotten the relief he had sought he somehow felt a little comforted while at the same time he felt humble he had one of those brief intervals of feeling that perhaps there was after all something that that old man had found which he had missed and he determined to find it but mr had wandered far out of the way he had had a glimpse of the pearl but the price was great and he had not been able to pay it all the note but the amount was only a to him a bucket shop had swallowed it within an hour he had lost his instinct it was only the love of gambling that remained only one chance appeared to remain for him he had made up with after a fashion he must get hold of her in some way he might obtain more money from her the method he selected was a desperate one f but he was a desperate man after long pondering he sat down and wrote her a note asking her to meet some friends of his a count and at supper next evening chapter the run on the bank it was the day after the events just recorded that s deal was concluded the attack on him and the attempt made by and to break up his deal had failed and the deeds and money were passed was on his way back to his office from his final interview with the representative of the that had bought the properties he was conscious of a curious sensation partly of partly of almost awe as he walked through the crowded streets where every one was bent on the same quest gold at last he had won he was rich he wondered as he walked along if any of the men he shouldered were as	46
rich as he and to him both had been much but he knew was in straits and was in some trouble he was glad about but the recollection of clouded his face it was with a pang that he recalled s recent conduct to a pang that one who had always been his friend should have changed so but that was the way of the world this reflection however was not he reached his office and seated himself at his desk to take another look at his papers before he opened them he rose and locked the door and opening a large envelope spread the papers out on the desk before him x he thought of his father he must write and tell him of his success then he thought of his old home he remembered his resolution to restore it and make it what it used to be but how much he could do with the money it would take to fit up the old place in the manner he had contemplated by it he could double it suddenly there was a step outside and a knock at his door followed by voices in the outer office rose and putting his papers back in his pocket opened the door for a second he had a mingled sensation of pleasure and surprise his father stood there his bag clutched in his hand he looked tired and had aged some since saw him last but his face wore the old smile that always i it when it rested on his son greeted him warmly and drew him inside i was just thinking of you sir you would not come to see me so i have come to see you i have heard from you so rarely that i was afraid you were sick his eyes rested fondly on s face no have been so busy that is all well sir i have won his eyes were sparkling the old gentleman s face lit up you have found have i am so glad it will give old a new lease of life i saw him after he got back he has failed a good deal lately no sir i have found her too but i mean i have won out at last ah you have won her i congratulate you i hope she will make you happy laughed i don t mean that i mean i have sold my lands at last i closed this morning with the englishmen and received the money the general smiled ah you have have you that s very good i am glad for old adam s sake the run on the bank i was afraid he would die before the deeds passed said but see here are the to my order he spread them out this one is my commission and i have the same amount of common stock his father made no comment on this but presently said you will have enough to restore the old place a little how much would it cost to fix up the place as you think it ought to be fixed up t oh some thousands of dollars you see the house is much out of repair and the quarters ought really all to be old s house i have kept in repair and now sleeps in the house as he has gotten so i should think five or six thousand dollars might do it i can certainly spare that much said laughing how is t asked the general was conscious of a feeling of discontent his countenance fell why i don t know i don t see much of him these days ah i i want to go to see him the fact is we there has been an unfortunate misunderstanding between us no one regrets it more than i but i think i can say it was not at all my fault and i have done all and more than was required of me ah i am very sorry for that it s a a pity said the old what was it about t well i don t care to talk about it sir but i can assure you i was not in the least to blame it was caused mainly i believe by that fellow he s a scoundrel said the general with sudden vehemence he is sir i will go and see i see by the papers he is in some trouble i fear he is sir his bank has been declining perhaps you can help his face lit up you remember he once wrote a long time i remember i have repaid that said quickly he has treated me very badly he gave a brief account of the trouble between them the old general back and looked at his son intently his e was very grave and showed that he was reflecting deeply he said presently the devil is standing very close to you a real misunderstanding should always be cleared up you must go to him what do you mean sir asked his son in some confusion you are at the parting of the ways a gentleman cannot hesitate such a debt never can be paid by a gentleman he said calmly you must help him even if you cannot restore the old place has gone for a debt before he rose as if there was nothing more to be said well i will go and wait for you at your rooms he walked out sat and reflected how different he was from his father i how from what he had been years ago then he had had an affection for the old home and all that it represented he had worked with the idea of winning it back some day it had been an inspiration to him but now it was wealth that he had begun to seek it came to him clearly how much he had changed the process	46
all lay before him it had grown with his success and had kept pace with it in an almost steady since he had set success before him as a goal he was angry with himself to find that he was thinking now of success merely as wealth once he had thought of honor and achievement even of duty he remembered when he had not hesitated to descend into what appeared the very jaws of death because it seemed to him his duty he wondered if he would do the same now the on the bank he felt that this was a practical view which he was now taking of life he was now a practical man yes practical like old said his better self he felt that he was not as much of a gentleman as he to be he was farther from his father farther from what was this again brought to his mind if the which he had heard were true was now in a tight place as his father had said perhaps he might be able to help him bat why he do if had helped him in the past had he not already paid him and had not treated him badly of late the least met his advances with a no he would show him that he was not to be treated so he still had a small account in s bank which he had not drawn out because he had not wished to let see that he thought enough of his coldness to make any change but he would put his money now into old s bank after looking at his again he unlocked his door and went out on the street there was more commotion on the street than he had seen in some days men were hurrying at a quicker pace than the rapid gait which was always noticeable in that groups occasionally formed and after a word or two dispersed were crying and announcing some important news in an unintelligible messengers were dashing about rushing in and out of the big buildings something unusual was evidently going on as on his way to the bank of which mr was president passed the mouth of the street in which s office was situated he looked down and saw quite a crowd assembled the street was full he passed on however and went into the big building on the first floor of which s bank had its offices he walked through to the rear of the office to the door of mr s private office and casually asked the nearest clerk for mr the young man said he was engaged however walked up to the door and was about to knock when at a word spoken by his another clerk came hastily forward an said that mr was very busily engaged and could see no one well he will see me said feeling suddenly the courage that the possession of over a quarter of a million dollars gave and he boldly knocked on the door and without waiting to be invited in opened it mr was sitting at his desk and two or three other men one or two of whom had seen before were seated in front of him in close conference they stared at the intruder mr mr s tone conveyed not the least feeling gave no idea either of welcome or surprise excuse me for interrupting you for a moment said i want to open an account here i have a on london hich i should like to deposit and have you collect for me the effect was immediate indeed one might almost say the atmosphere of the room as suddenly changed as if may should be dropped into the lap of december the old banker s face relaxed he touched a bell under the lid of his desk and at the same moment pushed back his chair gentlemen let me introduce my friend mr he presented in turn to each of his companions who greeted him with that degree of mingled reserve and civility which is due to a man who has placed a paper capable of such a marked change in the hands of the most self contained banker in row a tap at the door announced an answer to the bell and the next moment a clerk came in ask mr pen well to come here said mr mr pen well is the head of our foreign department he added in gracious explanation to mr gentlemen is largely interested in some of those southern properties that you have heard me the run on the bank speak of and has just put a very fine deal with an english the door opened and a cool looking slender man of with a thin gray face thin gray hair very smoothly and keen gray eyes entered he was introduced to mr after mr had stated the purpose of s visit and had placed the in mr s hands the latter stated as an interesting item just off the that he understood was in trouble some one had just come and said that there was a run on his bank those attacks on him in the newspapers must have hurt him considerably observed one of the visitors yes he has been a good deal hurt said mr we are all right he glanced at his subordinate mr nodded with deep satisfaction so are we said one of the visitors this is the end of son he will go down he has been going down for some time wife too extravagant this appeared to be the general opinion but scarcely heard the he stood in a the announcement of s trouble had come to him like a thunder clap and he was standing now as in a dream could it be possible that was going to fail f and if he failed would this be all it meant to these men who had	46
unexpected happens so that every word that was spoken was heard distinctly the run on the bank we are not taking to day said the astonished doubtfully smiled well i suppose there is no objection to doing so i have an account in this bank and i wish to add to it i am not afraid of it the gazed at him in blank amazement he evidently thought that was a little mad he opened his mouth as if to speak but said nothing from sheer astonishment i have confidence enough in this bank pursued to put my money here and here i propose to put it and i am not the only one there will be others here in a little while i really i shall have to ask mr faltered the clerk mr has nothing to do with it said positively and to close the discussion he lifted his through the window and turning it down emptied before the astonished a pile of bills which made him gasp enter that to my credit said how much is the sum that mentioned made him gasp yet more it was up in the hundreds of thousands there will be more here in a little while he turned his head and glanced toward the door ah here comes some one now he said as he recognized one of the men whom he had recently left at the council board who was then pushing his way forward under the guidance of several the amount deposited by the banker was much larger than had expected and a few well timed words to those about him had a marked effect upon the he said their apprehension was simply absurd they of course had the right to draw out their money if they wished it and they would get it but he advised them to go home and wait to do so until the crowd dispersed the bank was perfectly sound and they could not break it unless they could also break its friends a few of the struggling dropped out of line some of the others saying that as they had waited so long they guessed they would get their money now the advice given perhaps had an added effect as at that moment a shriek arose from a woman near the door who declared that her pocket had been picked of the money she had just drawn the arrival of the new and the spreading through the crowd of the information that they represented several of the strongest banks in the city the apprehensions of the and a considerable number of them abandoned the idea of drawing out their money and went off though many of them remained it was evident that the dangerous run had subsided a notice was posted on the front door of the bank that the bank would remain open until eight o clock and would be open the following morning at eight which had something to do with the excitement of the that afternoon went back to the bank though were still drawing out their money the scene outside was very different from that which he had witnessed earlier in the day asked for mr and was shown to his room when entered was sitting at his desk busily closed the door behind him and waited the lines were deep on s face but the hunted look it had borne in the morning had passed away and grim resolution had taken its place when at length he glanced up his already white face grew yet the next second a flush sprang to his cheeks he pushed back his chair and rose and taking one step forward stretched out his hand took his hand with a grip that drove the blood from the ends of s fingers the on the bank drew a chair close to his desk and sat down sank into his looked down on the floor for a second then raising his eyes looked full into s eyes t his voice failed he glanced away reached over and took up a paper lying near and the next instant forward and folding his arms on the desk dropped his head on them shaken with emotion rose from his chair and bending over him laid his hand on his head as he might have done to a younger brother don t he said helplessly it is all right he moved his hand down s arm with a touch as caressing as if he had been a little child but all he said was don t it is all right suddenly sat up it is all wrong he said bitterly i have been a fool i had no but i was mad i have wrecked my life but i was insane i was deceived i do not know even now how it happened i ought to have known i learned only just now i can never explain i ask your pardon humbly forward and laid his hand upon him affectionately there there i you owe me no apology and i ask no explanation it was all a great mistake yes and all my fault she was not to blame it was my folly i drove her to desperation i want to ask just one thing was it who made you believe i had deceived asked standing straight above him in mainly but i was mad he drew his hand across his forehead sat back in his chair and with eyes averted sighed deeply his thoughts were evidently far from s eyes rested on him and his face a little with growing resolution one question pardon me for asking it my only reason is that i would give my life a worthless life you once saved to see you as you once were i know more than you think i know you love her still i know you must turned his eyes and let them rest on s face	46
they were filled with anguish better than my life i her drew in his breath with a long sigh of relief and of content oh i have no hope went on i gave her every right to doubt it i killed her love i do not blame her it was all my fault i know it now when it is too late it is not too late shook his head without even looking at too late he said speaking to himself rose to his feet it is not too late he declared with a sudden ring in his voice she loves you shook his head she hates me i deserve it in her heart she you said in a tone of conviction turned away with a half bitter laugh you don t know i do know and you will know it too how long shall you be i shall spend the night here said i must be ready for whatever may happen to morrow morning i have not thanked you yet he extended his hand to you the tide for me to day i know what it must have cost you i cannot regret it and i know you never will and i beg you to believe that though i go down to morrow i shall never forget it and if ood me i wilt repay you s eyes rested on him calmly you paid me long ago i was paying a the run on the bank debt to day or trying to pay one in a small way it was not i who made that deposit to day but a better man and a finer gentleman than i can ever hope to my father it was he who inspired me to do that he paid that debt from what had heard he felt that he was justified in going to see mrs possibly it was not too late possibly he might be able to do something to clear away the under which she labored and to make up the trouble between her and still loved her dearly and believed that she cared for him always declared that she did and she could not have been deceived that she had been foolish knew that she had been wicked he did not believe she was self willed vain extravagant but deep under her cold exterior burned fires of which she had once or twice given him a glimpse and he believed that her deepest feeling was ever for when he reached mrs s house he was fortunate enough to find her at home he was shown into the drawing room when mrs entered the room was conscious of a change in her since he had seen her last she too had heard the of the evil tongues that had connected their names she greeted him with cordial words but her manner was constrained and her expression was almost suspicious she changed however under s and friendliness and suddenly asked him if he had seen for the first time real interest spoke in her voice and shone in her face said he had seen him i have come to see if i could not help you perhaps i may be able to do something to set things right it is too late things have gone too far we have just she flung up her hands and tossed them apart with a gesture of despair drifted she repeated she put her handkerchief to her eyes watched her in silence for a moment and then rising he seated himself beside her this is all all wrong he caught her by the wrist and firmly took her hand down from her eyes as an older brother might have done i want to talk to you perhaps i can help i may have been sent here for the who knows t at least i want to help you now tell me he looked into her face with grave kind eyes you do not care for f that would be impossible no of course not except as a friend and liked another your friend her eyes flashed a sudden flame never never repeated after a pause is not that sort his absolute certainty her he did i have reason to she began but put her down never i would stake my salvation on it he is going to get a try to get a divorce he is willing to my name what i never but you do not know the reasons i have for saying so she protested if i could tell no and i do not care doubt your own senses rather than believe that is your authority for that no he is not my only authority you are all so hard on he is a good friend of mine he is not asserted he is your worst enemy your very worst he is incapable of being a friend what have you against him t she demanded i know you and he don t like each other well for one thing he deceived a poor girl and then abandoned perhaps your information is you know how easy it is to get up a and such women are the run on the bank not to be believed they always pretend that they have been deceived she was not one of such women said calmly she was a perfectly respectable woman and the of an old friend of mine well perhaps you may have been t no i have the evidence that married her and oh come now that is absurd i married why never cared enough for any one to marry her unless she had money he has paid attention to a rich woman you must not strain my too far i really thought you had something to show against him of course i know he is not a saint in fact very far from it but	46
he does not pretend to be but at least he is not a he is a and a scoundrel declared firmly he is married and his wife is living now he abandoned her and she is insane i know her you know married she paused in wonder his certainty carried conviction with it i have his marriage you have t a sort of passed over her face he took out the paper and gave it to her she gazed at it with staring eyes that is his hand she rose with a blank face and walked to the window then after a moment came back and sat down she had the expression of a person lost tell me about it told her he also told her of s losses again that look of amazement crossed her face her eyes became almost blank s fortune i cannot understand it he told oh there must be some mistake she broke out vehemently you are deceiving me no i don t mean that of course i know you would not but you have been deceived yourself her face was a sudden white shook his head no why look here he be hard up he has kept up my allowance and met every almost every demand i have made on him she was grasping at and has spent it in wall street what i no he has not i there at least you do him an ii justice what he has got from me he has invested securely i have all the at least some of them how has he invested it partly in a mine called the great gun mine in new partly in i can help with it her face brightened as the thought came to her shook his head the great gun mine is a at least it is worthless not worth five cents on the dollar of what has been put in it it was years ago has used it as a mask for his gambling operations in wall street but has not put a dollar into it for years and now he does not even own it his have it her face had turned perfectly white a look partly of pity for her partly of scorn for crossed s face he rose and strode up and down the room in perplexity he is a common thief he said beneath contempt i his conviction suddenly extended to her when he looked at her she showed in her face that she believed him her last had fallen the calamity had made her quiet what shall i dot she asked hopelessly you must tell oh make a clean breast of it you do not know how can i he would despise me so you do not know how proud he is i words failed her and she stared at helplessly if i do not know i know no one on earth the on the bank go to him and tell him everything it will be the happiest day of his your salvation and his you think i know it she into thought and waited i was to see mr to night she began presently he asked me to supper to meet some the count and smiled a fine scorn came into his eyes where does he give the dinner at what hour t she named the a fashionable up town the time was still several hours away you must go to she sat in deep reflection it is your only your only hope give me authority to act for you and go to him he needs you if i thought he would forgive met she said in a low tone he will i have just come from him write me the authority and go at once a light appeared to dawn in her ce she rose suddenly what shall i write t write simply that i have full authority to act for and that you have gone to she into the next room and herself at an she wrote for a short time when she handed the paper to it contained just what he had requested a simple statement to f c that mr had full authority to represent her and act for her as he deemed best will that dot she asked i think so said now go is waiting chapter reconciliation for some time after left her mrs sat absolutely motionless her eyes half closed her lips drawn tight in deep reflection presently she changed her seat and herself in the corner of a leaning her head on her hand but her expression did not change her mind was evidently working in the same channel a tumult raged within her breast but her face was set like inscrutable just then there was a up stairs a boy s voice was heard shouting see here what papa sent us there was an answering shout and then an uproar of childish delight a sudden change swept over her light appeared to break upon her something like courage came into her face not with tenderness softening it and the gloom which had clouded it she rose suddenly and walked with a swift decisive step out of the room and up the richly stairs to a maid on the upper floor she said hurriedly tell to order the at once and passed into her chamber closing the door she locked it she opened a safe built in the wall a of letters fell out into the room a almost of crossed her face she picked up the letters and began to tear them up with almost violence throwing the fragments into the grate as though they soiled her hands going back to the safe she took out box after box of opening them to glance in and see reconciliation that the jewels were there yes they were there a pearl which had been uie wonder of her set and which	46
her pretended friend and admirer had once said were worth as much as her home she put them all into a bag together with several large containing papers then she went to a dress closet and began to search through it choosing finally a simple dark street dress by no means one of the a gorgeous robe which had been laid out for her to wear she picked up and flung on the floor with sudden it was the gown she had intended to wear that night a tap at the door and the maid s mild voice announced the carriage and a few minutes later mrs descended the stairs tell that mr will be here this evening to see the children yes madam the maid s quiet voice was too well trained to express the slightest surprise but as soon as the outer door had closed on her mistress and she had heard the carriage drive away she rushed down to the lower to convey the intelligence and to gossip over it for half an hour before she deemed it necessary to give the message to the who had succeeded when the latter went home it was just eight o clock that evening when the carriage drove up to the door of s bank and a lady enveloped in a long wrap her dark veil pulled down over her face sprang out and ran up the steps the crowd had long ago dispersed though now and then a few timid still made their way into the bank to be on the safe side the of the banks and the they had made that afternoon had stayed the run and saved the bank from closing but knew that if he was not ruined his bank had received a shock from which it would not recover in a time his fortune r was crippled he feared almost beyond repair the tired clerks looked op as the lady entered the bank and with glances at the clock muttered a few words to each other about her right to draw money after the closing hour had passed when however she walked past their windows and went straight to mr s door their interest increased with his books before him was sitting back in his chair his head leaning back and resting in his clasped hands deep in of and the of the future when there was a tap at the door with some impatience he called to the person to enter the door opened and could scarcely believe his senses for a second he did not even sit forward he did not stir he simply remained sitting back in his chair his face turned to the door his eyes resting on the figure before him in vague amazement the next second with a his wife was on her knees beside him her arms about him her form shaken with sobs he sat forward slowly and his arm rested on her shoulders there don t cry he said slowly it might be worse but all she said was oh i he tried to raise her with grave words to calm her but she resisted and clung to him closer it is not so bad it might be worse he repeated she rose suddenly to her feet and flung back her veil can you forgive met i have come to beg your forgiveness on my knees i have been mad i was deceived no i will not say i was a fool but i loved you always you only you will forgive met say you will there there of course i i do i have been to blame quite as more than you i was a fool oh no no you shall not say that but you will believe that i loved you always i you will believe i was mad reconciliation he raised her np gently and with earnest words reassured her himself for his and folly she suddenly opened her bag and emptied the contents out on his desk there i have brought you these her husband gazed in silent astonishment i don t understand they are for you she said for us to pay debts to help you she pulled off her glove and began to take off her diamond rings they will not go a great way said with a smile of well as far as they will go they shall go do you think i will keep anything i have when you are in trouble when your good name is at stake the everything shall go it is all my fault i have been a wicked silly fool but i did not i ought to have known but i did not i do not see how i could have been so blind and selfish oh don t blame yourself i have not blamed you said soothingly of course you did not know how could women are not expected to know about those things yes they are insisted mrs if i had not been such a fool i might have seen it is all plain to me now your my it came to me like a stroke of lightning s eyes were on her with a strange inquiring look in them how did you hear f he asked mr he came to me and told me i wish he had not done it i mean i did not want you troubled you were not to blame you were deceived oh don t say that i i shall never cease to thank him he tore the veil away and i saw w at a c s vain silly fool i have been j p t i s ba ia o ex ii but i have never forgotten that i was your wife nor ceased to love you she went on vehemently i believe it i have come to confess everything to all my folly all my my	46
insane folly but what i said just now is true i have never forgotten that i was your wife with his arm supporting her reassured her with comforting words and sustained by his confidence she told him of her folly in trusting of her giving him her of everything can you forgive met she asked after her recital i will never think of that again said and if i do it will be with gratitude that they have played their part in doing away with the one great sorrow of my life and bringing back the happiness of my youth the one great blessing that life holds for me i have come to take you home she said to ask you to come back if you will but forgive me she spoke humbly s face gave answer even before he could master himself to speak he stretched out his hand and drew her to him i am at home now wherever you are is my home when came out of his private office there was such a change in him that the clerks who had remained at the bank thought that he must have received some great aid from the lady who had been with him so long he had a few brief words with the explaining that he would be back at the bank before eight o clock in the morning and saying good night hurried to the door after mrs handing her into the carriage he ordered the coachman to drive home and springing in after her he closed the door behind him and they drove off meantime had not been idle after leaving mrs he drove straight to a agency for reconciliation the chief was in and was ushered into his private immediately he was a quiet looking stout man with a gray moustache and keen dark eyes he might have been a successful merchant or official but for the calmness of his manner and the low tones of his voice came immediately to the point i have a piece of important work on hand this evening he said of a private and delicate nature the s look was could i get i think so stated his case at the mention of s name a slight the very across the s calm face could not tell whether it was mere surprise or whether it was gratification now you see precisely what i wish he said as he finished stating the case and his plan it may not be necessary for him even to appear but i wish him to be on hand in case i should need his service if does not to my demand i shall arrest him for the fraud i have mentioned if he does i wish to accompany him to the boat of the south american line that sails to morrow morning and not leave him until the pilot comes oflf i do not apprehend that he will refuse when he knows the hand that i hold no he will not he knows what would happen if proceedings were started said the excuse me a moment he walked out of the office closing the door behind him and a few minutes later returned with david mr this is mr john i have explained to him the nature of the service you require of him he looked at mr who simply nodded his acquiescence you will take your orders from mr should anything arise to change his plans and act accordingly i know him said amused at the cool professional air with which his old friend greeted him in the presence of his principal simply but his eyes had a fire in them it was arranged that should to the place he had mentioned and order a supper there while should get the ticket at the o and then follow him so when had completed his he found at supper at a table near the ladies entrance a view of which he commanded in a mirror just before him mr s manner had entirely changed he was a man of the world and a host as he handed to his seat a supper for two has been ordered in private for he said in an as the waiter moved off they do not know whether it is for a gentleman and a lady or two gentlemen but i suppose it is for a lady as he has been here a number of times with ladies if you are sure that the lady will not come you might wait for him there i will remain here until he comes and follow him up in case you need me feared that the waiter might mention his presence ob no he knows us said with a faint smile at the bare suggestion mr called the head waiter and spoke to him in an the waiter himself showed up to the room where he found a table set with two covers the champagne cooler filled with ice was already on the floor beside the table looked at it grimly the curtains of the window were down and walked over to see on what street the window looked it was a deep the shade was drawn down and he raised it to find that the window faced on a dead wall at the moment the door opened and he heard s voice no one has come yet no sir not as i knows of stammered the waiter i have just come on where is the man who usually waits on met demanded half angrily est ii est well take this he said and remember that if yon serve me properly there will be a good deal more to follow the waiter thanked him now get down and be on the and when a lady comes and asks for show her up immediately if she asks who is here tell her two gentlemen and a lady you understand the waiter	46
bowed his assent and retired came in and closed the door behind him he had just thrown his coat on a chair laid his hat on the and was his moustache at the mirror above it when he caught sight in the mirror of had stepped out behind him from the recess and was standing by the table quietly looking at him he gave an exclamation and turned quickly i what is this t you here what are you doing there is some mistake he glanced at the door no there is no mistake said advancing i am waiting for you for me waiting for me he demanded yes did you not tell the waiter just now a gentleman was here t i confess you do not seem very pleased to see me you have read my looks correctly said who was beginning to recover himself and with it his scornful manner you are the last person on earth i wish to ever i do not know that i should weep if i never had that pleasure again bowed i think it probable you may hereafter have even less cause for joy at meeting me impossible said put his hand on a chair and prepared to sit down to take the other seat the lady you are waiting for e this evening he said and it may be that o mc mv will be protracted n passed by the last words what lady t who says i am waiting for a lady f you said so at the door just now besides i say so oh you were listening were you he sneered yes i heard it how do you know she will not be what do you know about it i know that she will no more be here than the will said he was looking full in the face and saw that the shot went home what do you demanded why are you are you after money or a row i want i want you first to secure all of mrs s money that you have had or as much as you can was so taken that his dark ce turned almost white but he recovered himself quickly you are a madman or some one has been deceiving you you are the victim of a delusion with his eyes fastened on him shook his head oh no i am not a look of perplexed innocence came over s face yes you are he said in an almost friendly tone you are the victim of some i give you my word i do not know even what you are talking about i should say you were engaged in the expression in his eyes changed like a flash but something in s eyes as they met his caused him to add if i did not know that you were a man of character i too am a man of character mr i want you to know it s eyes remained calm and cold as steel faltered i am a man of of large means i am my balance in bank this moment is more than you will ever be worth now i want to ask you why in the name of heaven should i want anything to do with mrs s money t if you have such a balance in bank said it will my mission for you will doubtless be glad to return mr s money that you have had from mrs i happen to know that his money will come in very conveniently for just now oh you come from do you demanded no from mrs returned did she send you t shot at a level glance from under his half closed i offered to come she knows i am here what proof have i of that f my statement and suppose i do not please to accept your statement f a little toward him over the table you will accept it he must hold a strong hand thought he shifted his ground suddenly what in the name of heaven are you driving at t what are you after t come to the point i will said rising let us drop our they are not becoming to you and i am not accustomed to them i have come for several things one of them is mrs s money which you got from her under false he spoke slowly and his eyes were looking in the other s eyes sprang to his feet what do you mean sir he demanded with an oath i have already told i will let no man speak to me in that way did not stir paused to get his breath you would not dare to speak so if a lady s name were not involved and you did not know that i cannot act as i would for fear of her an expression of contempt swept across s face sit down he said i will relieve yo ir mrs is quite ready to meet any may come i have her power of attorney she has gone to her husband and told him everything s face and he could not repress the look of mingled astonishment and fear that stole into his eyes now having given you that information continued i say that you stole mrs s money and i have come to recover it if possible rose to his feet with a furious oath he sprang for his overcoat and it up began to feel for the pocket i ll blow your brains out no you will not said and i advise you to make less noise an officer is outside and i have but to whistle to place you where nothing will help you a warrant is out for your arrest and i have the proof to you with his coat still held in one hand and the other in the pocket shot a glance at he was by his coolness	46
you must think you hold a strong hand he said but i have known them to fail bowed no doubt this one will not fail i have taken pains that it shall not and i have other cards which i have not shown you sit down and listen to me and you shall judge for yourself with a muttered oath walked back to his seat but before he did so he slipped quietly into his pocket a pistol which he took from his overcoat quickly as the act was done saw it don t you think you had better put your pistol back t he said quietly an officer is waiting just outside that door a man that can neither be nor bought perhaps you will agree with me when i tell you that though called his real name is david he has orders at the least disturbance to place you under arrest judge for yourself what chance you will have reconciliation what do you wish me to dot asked sullenly i wish you first to execute some papers which will secure to as far as can possibly be done the amount of money that you have gotten from mrs under the pretence of it for her in mines mrs s name will not be mentioned in this instrument the money was her husband s and you knew it and you knew it was his estate to furnish it secondly i require that you shall leave the country tomorrow morning i have arranged for passage for you on a steamer sailing before sunrise thank you sneered really you are very kind you will sign a paper which contains only a few of the facts but enough perhaps to prevent your returning to this country for some years to come across the table and burst out laughing and you really think i will do how old do you think i am why did you not bring me a milk bottle and a rattle t you do my intellect a great deal of honor for answer tapped twice on a glass with the back of a knife the next second the door opened and entered but calmly observant and with a face set like rock at sight of him s face one moment said wait outside a moment more bowed and closed the door the latch but the did not settle back i will give you one minute in which to decide said he drew from his pocket and threw on the table two papers there are the papers he took out his watch and waited picked up e papers e and glanced over them his f tliat he was with the fortunes of men and the of women he knew that he had lost he tried one more it was a poor one why are you so hard on me he asked with some thing like a a faint in his voice you who i used to whom i have known from boyhood you have always been so hard on me what did i ever do to you that you should have me s face showed that the charge had reached him but it failed of the effect that had hoped for his lip curled slightly i am not hard on you i am easy on but not for your sake he added vehemently you have betrayed every trust in you you have deceived men and betrayed women no vow has been sacred enough to restrain you j no tie strong enough to hold you affection friendship faith have all been trampled under your feet you have deliberately attempted to destroy the happiness of one of the best friends you have ever had have betrayed his trust and tried to ruin his life if i served you right i would place you beyond the power to injure any one forever the reason i do not is not on your account but because i played with you when we were boys and because i do not know how far my personal feeling might influence me in carrying out what i still recognize as mere justice he closed his watch your time is up do you agree i will sign the papers said sullenly drew out a pen and handed it to him signed the papers slowly and deliberately when did you take to writing asked i have done it for several years declared i had writer s once the expression on s face was very like a sneer but he tried to suppress it it will do he said as he folded the papers and took another envelope from his pocket this is your ticket reconciliation for the steamer for which sails to morrow morning at high tide will go with you to a to acknowledge these papers and then will show you aboard of her and will see that you remain aboard until the pilot leaves her to morrow a warrant will be put in the hands of an officer aod an application will be made for a for your property back in his chair with hate speaking from every line of his face you will administer on my effects f i suppose you are also going to be de non of the lady in whose behalf you have exhibited such sudden interest s face and his nostrils dilated for a moment he slightly forward and spoke slowly his burning eyes fastened on s face your statement would be equally infamous whether it were true or false you know that it is a lie and you know that i know it is a lie i will let that suffice i have nothing further to say to you he tapped on the edge of the glass again and walked in he said mr has agreed to my plans he will go aboard the boat to night you will go with him to the office i spoke of where he will acknowledge these	46
papers then you will accompany him to his home and get whatever clothes he may require and you will not lose sight of him until you come off with the pilot bowed without a word his eyes snapped if he makes any attempt to or gives you any cause to think he is trying to his agreement you have your instructions bowed again silently i now leave you rose and inclined his head slightly toward as he turned shot at him a arrow i hope you understand mr that the obligations i have signed are not the only obligations i recognize i owe you a personal debt and i mean to live to pay it i shall pay it somehow turned and looked at him steadily i understand perfectly it is the only kind of debt as far as i know that you recognize your statement has added nothing to what i knew it matters little what you do to me i have at least saved two friends from you he walked out of the room and closed the door behind him as pulled on his gloves he glanced at but what be saw in his face him from speaking his eyes were like coals of fire i am waiting he said hurry walked out in silence the following afternoon when reported that he had left his charge on board the steamer bound for a far south american port felt as if the atmosphere had in some sort cleared a few days later s worn spirit found rest as he had already arranged dr of her death and the doctor went over and told squire at the same time that she had been found and lost the next day and took back to the south all that remained of the poor creature who had left there a few years before in such high hopes one lady closely veiled attended the little service that old dr conducted in the chapel of the hospital where had passed away before the body was taken south had been faithful to the end in looking after her was buried in the lot in the little at not far from the spot where lay the body of general as passed this grave he saw that flowers had been laid on it recently but they had withered all the ridge neighborhood gathered to do honor to reconciliation and to testify their sympathy for her grandfather it an exhibition of feeling such as had not seen since he left the country the old man appeared stronger than he had seemed for some time he took charge and gave directions in a clear and steady voice when the services were over and the last word had been said he stepped forward and raised his hand got her back he said got her back where nobody can take her from me again i was mighty harsh on her but i ve done forgive her long and i hope she knows it now i heard once that the man that took her away said he didn t marry her he paused for a moment then went on he was a liar f ve got the proof but i want you all to witness that if i ever meet him in this world or the next the lord do so to me and more also if i don t kill him he paused again and his breathing was the only sound that was heard in the stillness that had fallen on the listening crowd and if any man and me in my right he continued slowly have his blood good by i thank you for her he turned back to the grave and began to smooth the sides s eyes fell on where he stood on the outer edge of the crowd his face was like but his bosom heaved twice and knew that two men waited to meet as the crowd melted away whispering among themselves crossed over and laid a rose on general s grave chapter the consultation had been making up his mind for some time to go to new york had changed utterly for him since left the whole world seemed to have changed the day after he reached new york received a letter from miss she wrote that her niece was ill and had asked her to write and request him to see mrs who would explain something to him she did not say what it was she added that she wished she had never heard of new york it was a cry of anguish s heart sank like lead for the first time in his life he had a would die and he would never see her again despair took hold of him could stand it no longer he went to the was one of those old fashioned country places a few miles outside of the town such as our people of means used to have a few generations ago before they had lost the instinct of their english ancestors and gained the of modern life the extensive yard and grounds were filled with rose bushes and and shaded by fine old trees among which the birds were singing as drove up the road and over all was an air of and peace which filled his heart with tenderness this is the bower she came from he thought to himself gazing around here is the country garden where the rose grew the consultation miss was surprised to see she greeted him most had long since explained everything to her and she made a more than ample apology for her letter but you must admit she said that your actions were very suspicious when a new york man is handing dancing women to their carriages a gesture and nod completed the sentence but i am not a new york man said oh you are getting to be a very fair said the old lady	46
half grimly was very ill she had been under a great strain in new york and had finally broken down among other of interest that was that dr the resident physician at was a of asked leave to send for a friend who was a man of large experience and a capital doctor well i should be glad to have him sent for these men here are dividing her up into separate pieces and meantime she is going down the hill every day send for any one who will treat her as a whole human being and get her well so that day for dr saying that he wanted him badly and would be under lasting obligations if he would come to at once the name called up many associations to the old physician it was from that that young girl with her brown eyes and dark hair had walked into his life so long ago it was from that the decree had come that had doomed him to a life of loneliness and exile a desire seized him to see the place had been living a few years before she might be living now as the doctor descended from the cars he was met by who told him that the patient was the daughter of general the little girl he had known so long ago i thought perhaps it was your widow said the doctor a little dash of color stole into s grave face then out no he changed the subject and went on to say that the other had arranged to meet him at the house then he gave him a little history of the case you are very much interested in i have known her a long time you see yes her aunt is a friend of mine he is in love with her said the old man to himself she has cut the widow out as they entered the hall miss came out of a room she looked worn and ill ah said here she is he turned to present the doctor but stopped with his lips opened the two stood each other their amazed eyes on each other s as it were across the space of a whole generation this was all the next moment they were shaking hands as if they had parted the week before instead of thirty odd years ago i told you i would come if you ever needed me said the doctor i have come and i never needed you more and i have needed you often it was good in you to for my little girl her voice suddenly broke and she turned away her handkerchief at her eyes the doctor s expression settled into one of deep concern there don t distress yourself we must reserve our powers we may need them now if you will show me to my room for a moment i would like to get myself ready before going in to see your little girl just as the doctor reappeared the other doctors came out of the sick room the local physician a simple young man following the city with mingled pride and awe the latter was a silent self man with a keen eye thin lips and a dry business manner they were presented to the doctor as dr and dr and looked him over there was a certain change of man the consultation ner in each of them the man after a glance increased his show of respect toward the city man the latter treated the doctor with civility but talked in an ex way he understood the case and had no question as to its as for dr his manner was the same to both and had not changed a he said not a word except to ask questions as to symptoms and the treatment that had been followed the doctor s face changed during the recital and when it was ended his expression was one of deep the consultation ended they all went into the sick room dr the first the young doctor next and dr last dr addressed the nurse and dr followed him like his shadow his words and his manner dr walked over to the bedside and leaning over took the patient s thin wan hand my dear i am dr do you remember met she glanced at him at first languidly then with more interest and then as recollection returned to her with a faint smile now we must get well again she smiled faintly the doctor drew up a chair and without speaking further began to stroke her hand his eyes resting on her face one who had seen the old physician before he entered that house could scarcely have known him as the same man who sat by the bed holding the hand of the wan figure lying so placid before him at a distance he appeared a plain on nearer view his eyes and mouth and set chin gave him a look of unexpected determination when he entered a sick room he was like a king coming to his own he took command and fought disease as an so now dr came to the bedside and began to talk in a low professional tone shut her eyes but her fingers closed slightly on dr s hand the medicine appears to have her somewhat i have directed the nurse to continue it observed dr quite so by all means continue it assented dr she is decidedly dr s head inclined just enough to show that he heard him and he went on her hand is there anything you would suggest further than has already been done inquired the city physician of dr no i think not i must catch the train said the former to the younger man doctor will you drive me down to the station yes certainly with pleasure doctor you say you are going away to night t this from	46
their best companies and treated him with distinguished favor mrs actually pursued him even mr pale thin and frosty as ever in appearance into something like cordiality when he met him and held out an icy hand as with a wintry smile he congratulated him on his success well we used to think we had the of business ability but we shall have to admit that some of you young fellows at the south know your business you have done what cost the some millions if you want any help at any time come in and talk to me we had a little once but i don t let a little thing like that stand in the way with a friend felt his jaws lock as he thought of the same man on the other side of a long table at him thank you said he my success has been greatly exaggerated you d better not count too much on it knew that he was considered rich and it disturbed the mistress of the him for the first time in his life he felt that he was sailing under false colors often the fair face handsome figure and cordial friendly air of came to him not so often it is true as another a younger and face but still often enough he admired her greatly he trusted her why should he not try his fortune there and be happy was good enough for him yes that was the trouble she was far too good for him if he addressed her without loving her utterly other reasons too suggested themselves he began to find himself fitting more and more into the city life he had the chance possibly to become rich richer than ever and with it to secure a charming companion why should he not avail himself of amid the glitter and of his surroundings in the city this temptation grew stronger and stronger miss s sharp speech to him he was becoming a fair of the men he had once despised then came a new form of temptation what power this wealth would give him i how much good he could accomplish with it when the temptation grew too overpowering he left his and went down into the country it always did him good to go there to be there was like a plunge in a cool pool he had been so long in the turmoil and strife of the struggle for for wealth had been so wholly surrounded by those who strove as he strove tearing and and those who were in their way that he had almost lost sight of the life that lay outside of the dust and din of that he had almost forgotten that life held other rewards than riches he had forgotten the calm and tranquil region that stretched beyond the and anguish of the strife for gain here his father walked with him again calm serene and elevated his thoughts high above all commercial matters the fields of lofty speculation with philosophers and poets holding up to his gaze again lofty without a thought of reward the very gospel of universal gentleness and kindness there his mother too moved in spirit once more beside him with her smile breathing the purity of heaven how far away it seemed from that world in which he had been living as far as they were from the who made it curiously when he was in new york he found himself under the of when he was in the country he found that he was in love with it was this that him and worried him he that is he almost that would marry him his friends thought that she would several of them had told him so many of them acted on this belief and this had something to do with his retirement as much as he liked as clearly as he felt how but for one fact it would have suited that they should marry one fact changed everything he was not in love with her he was in love with a young girl who had never given him a thought except as a sort of hereditary friend turning from one door at which the light of happiness had shone he had found himself caught at another from which a radiance shone that all other lights yet it was fast shut at length he determined to cut the knot he would put his fate to the test two days after he formed this resolve he walked into the hotel at and as he turned he stood face to face with mrs mrs of late had been all cordiality to him why you dear boy where did you come she asked him in pleased surprise i thought you were stretched at mrs s feet in where has she been this summer s brow clouded he remembered when was her dear boy the of the it is a position i am not in the habit of at least toward ladies who have husbands to occupy it you are thinking of some one else he added coldly wishing devoutly that mrs were in well i am glad you have come here you remember our friendship began in the country yes my husband had to go and get sick and i got really frightened about him and so we determined to come here where we should be perfectly quiet we got here last saturday there is not a man here isn t there asked wishing there were not a woman either how long are you going to stay he asked oh perhaps a month how long shall you be here not very long said i tell you who is here that little of mrs s she was so disagreeable to last winter she has been very ill i think it was the way she was treated in new york she was in love with you know she	46
lives here in a lovely old place just outside of town with her old aunt or cousin i had no idea she had such a nice old home we saw her yesterday we met her on the street i remember her i shall go and see her said recalling mrs s speech at mrs s dinner and s revenge i tell you what we will do she invited us to call and we will go together said mrs paused a moment in reflection and then said casually when are you going oh this afternoon very well i will go mrs drove out to the that afternoon in a little while miss came in observed that she was dressed as she had been that evening at dinner in white but he did not dream that it was the result of thought he did not know with what care every touch had been made to just what he had praised or with what sparkling eyes she had surveyed the slim dainty figure in the old glass she greeted mrs and warmly i am very glad to see you what in the world brought you here to this out of the way place she said turning to the latter and giving him her cool soft hand and looking up at him with pleasure a softer and deeper glow coming into her cheek as she gazed into his eyes a sudden fit of insanity said taking in the sweet girlish figure in his glance i wanted to see some roses that i knew in an old garden about here he perhaps thought that as is growing so fashionable now he might find a mutual friend of ours here mrs said as whom for instance unwilling to commit himself you know has been talking of coming here now don t pretend that you don t know whom does every one say you all in pursuit of i am sure i do not know said calmly i suppose that you are referring to mrs but i happened to know that she was not here no i came to see miss his face wore an expression of amusement mrs made some smiling reply she did not see the expression in s eyes as they for a second caught s glance just then miss came in she had grown since had seen her last and looked older she greeted mrs graciously and cordially miss for some reason of her own was mrs with questions and fell to talking with miss though his eyes were on most of the time the old lady was watching her too and the girl under the mistress of the the of the earnest gaze glanced around and catching her s eye upon her flashed her a answering smile full of affection and tenderness and then went on listening intently to mrs though had read aright the color rising in her cheeks he might have guessed that she was giving at least half her attention to his side of the room where miss was talking of her however was just then much interested in miss s account of dr who it seemed was more attentive to than ever i don t know what she will do she said i suppose she will decide soon it is an affair of long standing s throat had grown dry i had hoped that my cousin might prove a protector for her but his wife is not a good person i was mad to let her go there but she would go she thought she could be of some service but that woman is such a fool oh she is not a bad woman interrupted i do not know how bad she is said miss she is a fool no good woman would ever have allowed such an intimacy as she allowed to come between her and her husband and none but a fool would have permitted a man to make her his she did not even have the excuse of a temptation for she is as cold as a i assure you that you are mistaken defended i know her and i believe that she has far more depth than you give her credit i give her credit for none said miss you men are all alike you think a woman with a pretty face who does not talk much is deep when she is only dull on my word i think it is almost worse to bring about such a scandal without cause than to give a real cause for it in the latter case there is at least the excuse of woman s laughed they are all so stupid asserted miss fiercely they are giving up their privileges to what f i blushed for my sex when i was there they are beginning to mistake civility for i found a plenty of old ladies tottering on the edge of the grave like myself and i found a number of ladies in the shops and in the churches but in that set that you go they all want to be women next thing they ll want to be like men i sha n t be surprised to see them come to wearing men s clothes and drinking and smoking the little fools i as if they thought that a woman who has to curl her hair and spend a half hour over her dress to look decent could ever be on a level with a man who can handle a trunk or drive a wagon or add up a column of figures and can wash his face and hands and put on a clean collar and look a gentleman oh not so bad as that said yes there is no limit to their folly i know them i am one myself but you do not want to be a man no not now i am too old and dependent but i ll let you into a	46
secret i am secretly envious of them i d like to be able to put them down under my heel and make mrs turned and spoke to the old lady she was evidently about to take her leave moved over and for the first time addressed miss i want you to show me about these grounds he said speaking so that both ladies could hear him he rose and both walked out of the parlor when mrs came out and his guide were nowhere to be found so she had to wait but a half hour afterwards he and miss came back from the stables as they drove out of the grounds they passed a good looking young fellow just going in recognized dr that is the young man who is so attentive to your young friend said mrs dr he saved her life and now is going to marry her the mi of the it gave a pang i know him he did not save her life if anybody did that it was an old country doctor dr that old man i i thought he was dead years ago well he is not he is very much alive a few evenings later found mrs in the hotel he had just arrived from the when mrs came down to dinner her greeting was perfect even mrs was she had never looked her black gown fitted perfectly her trim figure and a single red rose half blown caught in her was her only ornament she possessed the gift of simplicity she was a beautiful and as she moved slowly down the long dining room as smoothly as a piece of perfect machinery every eye was upon her she knew that she was being ally observed and the color in her cheeks and added the charm of freshness to her beauty by jove what a woman exclaimed a man at a table near by to his wife it is not difficult to be a woman in a worth gown my dear she said sweetly may i trouble you for the t s attitude toward mrs puzzled even so old a as mrs mrs was an in the art of to know about her friends affairs was one of the objects of her life and it was not only the general facts that she insisted on knowing she proposed to be acquainted with their deepest secrets and the smallest particulars she knew s views or believed she did but she had never ventured to speak on the subject to in fact she stood in awe of and now lie had her by his action finally she could stand it no longer and so next evening she opened fire on h her courage to the sticking l s attacked boldly she caught him on the i l and watching him closely to catch the effect of her attack said suddenly i want to ask you a question are you in love with t turned slowly and looked at her looked at her so long that she began to blush don t you think if i am i had better inform her first f he said quietly mrs was staggered but she was in for it and she had to fight her way through i was scared to death my dear she said when she repeated this part of the conversation for i never know just how he is going to take anything but he was so quiet i went on well yes i think you had she said can take care of herself but i tell you that you have no right to be carrying on with that sweet innocent young girl here you know what people say of you f no i do not said i was not aware that i was of sufficient importance here for people to say anything except perhaps a few x who know me they say you have come here to see miss t do they asked so carelessly that mrs was just thinking that she must be mistaken when he added well will you ask people if they ever heard what said to mr once when he told him it was time to go and dress to receive lady t what did he say asked mrs he said he knew a man in who had made a fortune by attending to his own business having failed with mrs the next afternoon called on miss was in and her aunt was not well so mrs had a fair field for her she decided to test the young girl and she selected the only mode which could have been successful with herself she proposed a surprise she spoke of and noticed the increased interest with which the girl listened this was promising the mistress of the by the way she said you know the report is that mr has at last really surrendered has i am so if ever a man deserved happiness it is he who is the entire absence of self consciousness in s expression and voice surprised mrs mrs she said watching for the effect of her answer of course you know he has always been in love with her the girl s expression of admiration of mrs gave mrs another surprise she decided that she had been mistaken in suspecting her of caring for he has evidently not proposed yet if she were a little older i should be certain of it she said to herself as she drove away but these girls are so one can never tell about them even i could not look as innocent as that to save my life if i were interested that evening called at the he did not take with him a placid spirit mrs s shaft had gone home and it he tried to assure himself that what i were thinking had nothing to do with him but suppose miss took this view of the matter	46
he determined to ascertain one solution of the difficulty lay plain before him he could go away another presented itself but it was preposterous of all the women he knew was the least affected by him in the way that a man she liked him he knew but if he could read women at all and he thought he could she liked him only as a friend and had not a of sentiment about him he was easy then as to the point mrs had raised but had he the right to subject to gossip this was the main thing that troubled him he was half angry with himself that it kept rising in liis mind he determined to find out what her aunt oi it and decided that he could let that direct his course his conscience once or the o e presented itself whether it were possible that could care for him he banished it resolutely when he reached the he found that miss was sick so the virtuous plan he had formed fell through he was trying to fancy himself sorry but when came out on the in a dainty blue gown which fell about her girlish figure and seated with unconscious grace in the easy chair he pushed up for her he knew that he was glad to have her all to himself they fell to talking about her aunt i am dreadfully uneasy about her the girl said once or twice of late she has had something like fainting and the last one was very alarming you don t know what she has been to me she looked up at him with a silent appeal for sympathy which made his heart beat she is the only mother i ever knew and she is all i have in the world her voice faltered and she turned away her head a tear stole down her cheek and dropped in her lap i am so glad you like each other i hear you are engaged she said suddenly he was startled it in so with the thought in his mind at the moment no i am not but i would like to be he came near saying a great deal more but the girl s eyes were fixed on him so innocently that he for a moment hesitated he felt it would be folly if not to go further just then there was a step on the walk and the young man had seen dr came up the steps he was a handsome man stout well dressed and well satisfied could have consigned him and all his class to a distant and he came up the steps cheerily and began talking at once he was so glad to see and had he heard lately from dr such a fine type of the old country doctor etc no said he had not heard lately his manner the mistress of the had at the man s condescension and he rose to go he said casually to as he shook hands how did yon hear the piece of news you mentioned mrs told me you must tell me all about it i will sometime i hope you will be very happy she said earnestly you deserve to be her eyes were very soft no i do not said almost angrily i am not at all what you suppose me to be i will not allow you to say such things of yourself she said smiling i will not stand my friends being abused even by themselves felt his courage her beauty her sincerity her tenderness her innocence her sweetness thrilled him he turned back to her abruptly i hope you will always think that of me he said earnestly i promise to try to deserve it gk od by good by don t forget me she held out her hand took it and held it for a second never he said looking her straight in the eyes gk od by and with a muttered good by to dr who stood with wide open eyes gazing at him he turned and went down the steps i don t like that man said the young doctor this speech sealed his fate don t i do said half her thoughts were far from the young physician at that moment and when they returned to him she knew that she would never marry him a half hour later he knew it the next morning received a note from saying he had left for his home when he bade mrs good by that evening she looked as if she were really sorry that he was going she walked with him down the toward where his carriage awaited him and thought she had never looked sweeter he had never had a at least since he was a college boy and a little of the old feeling came to him he lingered a little but just then mrs came out of the door near him for a moment could almost have fancied he was back on the at gates s her around had turned back the dial a dozen years just what brought it about perhaps no one of the in the little drama could have told but from this time the relations between the two ladies whom left at the hotel that summer night somehow changed not outwardly for they still sat and talked together but they were both conscious of a difference they rather with each other after that mrs set it down to a simple cause mrs was in love with and he had not addressed her of this she was satisfied yet she was a little mrs hardly defined the reason to herself she simply shut up on the side toward mrs and barred her out a strange thing was that she and miss became great friends they took to riding together walking together and seeing a great deal of each	46
other the elder lady spending much of her time up at miss s home among the and flowers of the old place it was a to mrs who frankly confessed that she could only account for it on the ground that mrs wanted to find out how far matters had gone between and miss that girl is a sly she said these learn to be i would not have her in my house if there was a more dissatisfied mortal in the world than that autumn did not know him he worked hard but it did not ease his mind he tried retiring to his old home as he had done in the summer but it was even worse than it had been then came to him that was engaged it came through mrs and he could not it but at least she was lost to him he cursed himself for a fool the mistress of the the of mrs began to come to him oftener and oftener as she had appeared to him that night on the handsome dignified serene sympathetic why should he not seek release by this way he had always admired liked her he felt her sympathy he recognized her charm he appreciated yes her advantage curse it that was the trouble if he were only in love with her if she were not so advantageous then he might think his feeling was more than friendship for she was everything that he admired he was just in this frame of mind when a letter came from who had come home soon after s visit to him he had not been very well and they had decided to take a in southern waters and would he not come along f he could join them at either roads or and they were going to run over to the that he would join them and two days later turned his face to the south twenty four hours afterwards he was stepping up the and being welcomed by as gay a group as ever fluttered handkerchiefs to cheer a friend among them the first object that had caught his eye as he rowed out was the straight figure of mrs a man is always ready to think providence specially in his case provided the interpretation with his own views and this looked to very much as if it were providence for one thing it saved him the trouble of thinking further of a matter which the more he thought of it the more he was perplexed she came forward with the others and welcomed him with her old frank cordial grasp of the hand and gracious air when he was comfortably settled he felt a distinct self content that he had decided to come a is dependent on three things the itself the company on board and the weather had no cause to complain of any of these the virginia dare was a and the weather was i just the weather for a in southern waters the company were all friends of j and found himself sailing in summer seas with summer airs breathing about him was at his best he was richly by exposure and as hard as a nail from work in the open air command of men had given him that calm assurance which is the mark of the captain ambition to be not merely to was once more calling to him with her inspiring voice and as he his fa grew more and more distinguished providence indeed or was working his way and it seemed to he admitted it with a pang of contempt for himself at the that mrs was at least in their hands morning after morning they sat together in the shadow of the sail and evening after evening together watched the moon with an ever golden circle steal up the sky was pleased to find how much interested he was becoming each day he admired her more and more and each day he found her sweeter than she had been before once or twice she spoke to him of but each time she mentioned her turned the subject she said that they had expected to have her join them but she could not leave her aunt i hear she is engaged said yes i heard that i do not believe it whom did you hear it mrs so did l chapter the old ideal one evening they sat on deck had never appeared so sweet it happened that mrs had a headache and was down below and declared that he had some writing to do so mrs and had the deck to themselves they had been sailing for weeks among and through waters as blue as heaven even the d had lent them their airs they had left the indies and were now approaching the american shore their was almost at an end and possibly a little sadness had crept over them both as she had learned more and more of his life and more and more of his character she had found herself ready to give up everything for him if he only gave her what she but one thing had made itself plain to was not in love with her as she knew he could be in love if he were in love it was with an ideal and her woman s told her that she was not that ideal this evening she was unusually pensive she had never looked or been more gracious and charming and as thought of the past and of the future the long past in which they had been friends the long future in which he would live alone his thought took the form of resolve why should they not always be together she knew that he liked her so he had not much to do to go further the moon was just above the horizon making a broad golden pathway to them	46
the soft of the waves against the boat seemed to be a suited to the of the scene and the lovely form before him clad in soft that set it off the fair face and gentle voice appeared to fill everything with had more than once in the past few weeks considered how he would bring the subject up and what he would say if he ever addressed her he did not however go about it in the way he had planned it seemed to him to come up under the spell of the summer night they had drifted into talking of old times and they both softened as their memory went back to their youth and their friendship that had begun among the southern woods and had lasted so many years she had spoken of the influence his opinions had had with her do you know he said presently i think you have exerted more influence on my life any one else i ever knew after i grew up she smiled and her face was softer than usual i should be very glad to think that for i think there are few men who set out in life with such as you had and afterwards realize them thought of his father and of how steadily that old man had held to his through everything i have not realized them he said firmly i fear i have lost most of them i set out in life with high which i got from my father but somehow i seem to have changed them she shook her head with a pleasant light in her eyes i do not think you have do you remember what you said to me once about your ideal he turned and faced her there was an expression of such softness and such sweetness in her face that a kind of happiness fell on him yes and i have always been in love with that ideal he said gravely she said gently yes i knew it the old ideal did you asked in some surprise i scarcely knew it myself though i believe i have been for some time she said i knew that too bent over her and took both her hands in his i love and want love in more than i can ever tell you a change came over her face and she drew in her breath suddenly glanced at him for a second and then looked away her eyes resting at last on the distance where a ship lay her sails hanging idly in the dim haze it might have been a dream ship at s words a picture came to her out of the past a young man was seated on the ground with a fresh bush behind him spring was all about them he was young and slender and with deep burning eyes and close drawn mouth with the future before him whatever with the hope and the courage to conquer he had conquered as he then said he would to the young girl seated beside him when i love he was saying she must fill fall the measure of my dreams she must me she must have beauty and sweetness she must choose the truth as that bird chooses the flowers and to such an one i will give worship without end years after she had come across the phrase again in a poem and at the words the same picture had come to her and a sudden hunger for love for such love the love she had missed in life had seized her but it was then too late she had taken in its place respect and companionship a great establishment and social for a moment her mother sitting calm and calculating in the little room at her future and teaching with commercial the advantages of such a union flashed before her and then once more for a moment came the heart hunger for what she had missed why should she not take the gift thus held out to she liked him and he liked her she trusted him it was the best chance of hat she would ever have besides she could help him he had powers and she could give him the opportunity to develop them love would come who could perhaps the other happiness might yet be hers why should she throw it away t would not life bring the old dream yet could it bring it here was this man whom she had known all her life who filled almost the measure of her old dream at her feet again but was this was this the worship without end t as her heart asked the question and she lifted her eyes to his face the answer came with it no he was too cool too calm this was but friendship and respect that same safe foundation she had tried this might do for some but not for him she had seen him and she knew what he could feel she had caught a glimpse of him that evening when was so attentive to the little girl she had seen him that night in the theatre when the fire occurred he was in love but it was with and happiness might yet be his the next moment s better nature itself the picture of the young girl sitting with her serious face and her eyes came back to her moved by her sympathy and friendship had given her a glimpse of her true heart which she knew she would have died before she would have shown another she had confided in her absolutely she heard the tones of her voice why mrs i dream of him he seems to me so real so true for such a man i i could worship him then came the sudden lifting of the veil the straight confiding appealing glance the opening of the soul and the rush to	46
made up his mind promptly he went up on deck mrs was sitting alone far aft in the shadow her back was ff a um and her i hand was to her eyes he went up to her she did not look up but felt that she knew it was he you must go to her she said yes said i shall i wish you would come oh i wish i could poor little thing i she sighed two days after that walked into the hotel at the clerk recognized him as he appeared and greeted him cordially something in s look or manner perhaps recalled his former association with the family at the for as signed his name he said sad thing that up on the hill what said the old lady s death and the breaking up of the old place he said oh yes it is said and then thinking that he could learn if miss were there without appearing to do so except casually he said who is there now there is not any one there at all i believe ordered a room and a half hour later went out instead of taking a carriage he walked there had been a change in the weather the snow covered everything and the grounds looked wintry and deserted the gate was unlocked but had not been opened lately and had hard work to open it wide enough to let himself through he along through the snow and turning the curve in the road was in front of the house it was shut up every was closed as well as the door and a sudden chill struck him still he went on climbed the wide steps crossed the and rang the bell and finally knocked the sound made him start how it seemed he knocked again but no one came only the on the stopped and looked at him curiously finally he thought he heard some one in the snow he turned as a man came around the house it was the old coachman and he seemed glad enough to see and was at least glad to see him the old ideal it s a bad business it is mr he said sadly yes it is john where is miss t sir said john with surprise in his voice that should not know gone where an that no one knows said john what what do you meant just that sir said the old fellow she went away two days after the funeral an not a of her since but she s at some relative s said seeking information at the same time he gave it no sir not a relative in the world she has except mr in new york and she has not been there learned in the conversation which followed that miss had died very suddenly and that two days after the funeral miss had had the house shut up and taking only a small trunk had left by train for new york they had to hear from her though she had said they would not do so for some time and when no letter had come they had sent to new york but had failed to find her this all seemed natural enough was abundantly able to take care of herself and no doubt desired for the present to be in some place of retirement decided therefore that he would simply go to the city and ascertain where she was he thought of going to see dr but something restrained him the snow was deep and he was anxious to find so he went straight down to the city that evening the next day he discovered that it was not quite so easy to find one who wished to be lost knew nothing of her and his wife were now living with old mrs and they had all invited her to come to them but she had declined was much disturbed however was nearer than dreamed her aunt s death had stricken deeply she could not bear to go to new york it stood to only lor hardness and just then a letter came from dr she must come to him he said he was sick or he would come for her an impulse seized her to go to him she would go back to the scenes of her childhood the memories of her father drew her the memory also of her aunt in some way urged her dr appeared just then nearer to her than any one else she could help him it seemed a haven of to her twenty four hours later the old doctor was sitting in his room he looked worn and old and the death of an old friend had left a void in his life there was a light step outside and a rap at the door it s the servant thought the doctor and called somewhat come in when the door opened it was not the servant for a moment the old man scarcely took in who it was she seemed to be almost a vision he had never thought of in black she was so like a girl he had known long long ago then she ran forward and as the old man rose to his feet she threw her arms about his neck and the world suddenly changed for changed as much as if it had been from new york went down to the old plantation to see his father the old gentleman was his youth among his books he was much interested in s account of his trip while there got word of important business which required his presence in new immediately had returned and had brought suit against his company claiming title to all the lands they had bought from adam on his arrival at new learned that had been there just long enough to his suit the papers in which had been	46
already prepared before he came there was much excitement in the place had boasted that he had made a great deal of money in south america the old ideal he claims now said s captain that he owns all of squire s lands he says you knew it was all his when you sold it to them englishmen and that mr the president of the company knew it was his and he has been well we will see about that said grimly that s what old squire said the old man came up as soon as he heard he was here but didn t stay but one night he had lighted out what did the squire come fort inquired moved by his old friend s expression he said he came to kill him and he d have done it if s got any friends they d better keep him out of his way his face his earnestness had a curious feeling s return meant that he was desperate in some way too felt that was concerned in his movements he was glad to think that she was abroad but was being drawn again into his life in a way that he little knew in the seclusion and of at that season soon felt as if she had reached at last a safe harbor the care of the old doctor gave her employment and her mind after a while began to recover its healthy tone she knew that the happiness of which she had once dreamed would never be hers but she was sustained by the reflection that she had tried to do her duty she had sacrificed herself for others she spent her time trying to help those about her she had made friends with squire and the old man found much comfort in talking to her of sometimes in the afternoon when she was lonely she climbed the hill and looked after the little plot in which lay the grave of her father she remembered her mother but vaguely as a beautiful vision by the years but her father was clear in her memory his smile his his devotion to her remained and the memory of him who k en her came to her sometimes her till she would arouse herself and by an effort banish him from her thoughts often when she went np to the she would see others there women in black with a sorrow than hers and sometimes the squire who was beginning now to grow feeble and with age would be sitting on a bench among the beside a grave on which he had placed flowers the grave was s once he spoke to her of he had brought a suit against the old man claiming that he had a title to all of the latter s property the old fellow was greatly stirred up by it he him furiously he has robbed me of her he said let him beware if he ever comes across my path i shall kill him so the winter passed and spring was beginning to come its in their livery of red and green were already showing on the the was burning on the southern slopes the turf was springing fresh and green were the grass like golden sown by a prodigal were beginning to peep from the shelter of leaves caught along the fence rows and some favored trees were blushing into pink for some reason the season made sad was it that it was nature s season for the season for youth to burst its bonds and blossom into she tried to fight the feeling but it clung to her dr watching her with quickened eyes grew graver and prescribed a once he had spoken to her of and she had told him that he was to marry mrs but the old man had made a discovery and he never spoke to her of him again to her surprise and indignation received one morning a letter from asking her to make an appointment with him on a matter of mutual interest he wished he said to make friends with old mr and she could help him he mentioned and casually spoke of his engagement she took no the old ideal notice of this letter but one afternoon she was than and she went up the hill to her father s grave adam s horse was tied to the fence and across the lots she saw him among the rose bushes at s grave she sat down and gave herself up to reflection gradually the whole of her life in new york passed before her ite its promise of joy for a moment and then the shutting of it out as if the windows of her soul had been closed she heard the gate click and presently heard a step behind her as it approached she turned and faced she seemed to be almost in a dream he had aged somewhat and his dark face had hardened otherwise he had not changed he was still very handsome she felt as if a chill blast had struck her she caught his eye on her and knew that he had recognized her as he came up the path toward her she rose and moved away but he cut across to her and she heard him speak her name she took no notice but walked on miss he stepped in front of her her head went up and she looked him in the eyes with a scorn in hers that stung him move if you please his face flushed then again i heard you were here and i have come to see you to talk with you he began i wish to be friends with you she waved him aside let me pass if you please not until you have heard what i have to say you have done me a great injustice but i put that by i	46
have been robbed by persons you know persons who are no friends of yours whom i understand you have influence with and you can help to right matters it will be worth your while to do it she attempted to pass around win her you might as well ij f j x y e to you and i mean to do it i can show you how important it is for you to aid to advise your friends to settle now will you listen f no she looked him straight in the eyes oh i guess you will he sneered it concerns your friend mr whom you thought so much of your friend has placed himself in a very position i will have him behind bars before i am done wait until i have shown that when he got all that money from the english people he knew that that land was mine and that he had run the lines on which he got the money let me pass said with her head held high she started again to walk by him but he seized her by the wrist this is not central park you shall hear me let me go mr she said but he held her firmly at that moment she heard an oath behind her and a voice exclaimed it is you at last and still troubling women i s countenance suddenly changed he released her wrist and fell back a step his face the next second as she turned quickly old adam s figure was before her he was hurrying toward her the very of wrath his face was purple his eyes blazed his massive form was erect and quivering with fury his heavy stick was in his left hand and with the other he was drawing a pistol from his pocket i have waited for you you dog and you have come at last he cried falling back before his advance was trying as looked to get out a pistol his face was as white as death had no time for thought it was simply instinct old s pistol was already with a cry she threw herself between them but it was too late she was only conscious of a roar and blinding smoke in her eyes and of something like a hot iron at her side then the old ideal she sank down of s stepping over her her sacrifice was in vain for the old man was not to be turned from his revenge as he had sworn so he performed and the next moment with two bullets in his body had paid to him his long piled up debt when came to she was in bed and dr was leaning over her with a white set face i am all right she said with a faint smile was he hurt don t talk now said the doctor quietly thank god you are not hurt much was sitting in his office in new alone that afternoon he had just received a from that had left new york had learned that he was going to to try to make up with old just then the paper from was brought in s eye fell on the head lines of the first column and he almost fell from his chair as he read the words double f o shoots miss and is by m the account of the shooting was in accordance with the heading and was followed by the story of the trouble snatched out his watch and the next second was dashing down the street on his way to the station a train was to start for the east in five minutes he caught it as it ran out of the station and swung himself up to the rear platform curiously enough in his confused thoughts of and what she had meant to him mingled the constant recollection of old stage running through pass it was late in the evening when he reached but he hastened at once to dr s office the moon was shining and it brought back to him the evenings on the at gates s so long ago but it seemed to him that it was who had been there among the pillows that it was who had always been there in his memory he wondered if she would be as she was then as she lay dead and once or twice he wondered if he could be losing his wits then he himself and cleared his mind in ten minutes he was in dr s office the doctor greeted him with more coldness than he had ever shown him felt his suspicion where is miss is he could not frame the question she is doing very well s heart gave a bound of hope the blood back and forth in his ins life seemed to revive for him is she alive f will she live he faltered yes who says she will not demanded the doctor the the despatch no thanks to you that she does he faced and suddenly out i want to tell you that i think you have acted like a damned rascal s jaw ed and he actually staggered with amazement what what do you mean i do not understand you are not a bit better than that dog that you turned her over to who got his deserts yesterday but i do not understand gasped white and hot then i will tell you you led that innocent girl to believe that you were in love with her and then when she was fool enough to believe you and let herself interested you left her to run like a little after a rich woman where did you hear this asked still amazed the old ideal but recovering himself what have you heard who told you not from her he was blazing with wrath no j but from whom t never mind from some	46
s youth america greeting dawn the poet on the shepherd of the seas sleep to a lady at a spring the old lion the of the seas the bent the message vii contents the needle s eye the closed door the the the listener contradiction the question dead my mother her influence the stranger love an old to the apple trees at even my true love s wealth a a portrait love song the harbour light faded spray of contents lost de name of virginia the the april pace come back to us the witch humanity beauty little a poems war uncle s white folks little jack s one the coast of few few are they perchance among a thousand one thou find for whom the of makes an inner day the of way translation to f l p as one who in a lonely land through all the blackness of a stormy night now stumbling here now falling there outright and doubts if it be worse to stir or stand not knowing what at hand what torrents roar beyond some height yet scales the top to find the dawn in sight and earth kissed into radiance with its so wandering hopeless in the darkness i scarce whither led my painful way or whether i should faint or strive to prove if the mountain top some path might lie climbed boldly up the steep and lo the day broke into pearl and splendor in thy love the coast of there is a land not on all though many have touched its coast who far in those t parts meet ship wreck there and are forever lost or if they e er return are soon once more borne far away by hunger for that magic shore its mystic mountains on the horizon piled some have when driven far out of life s measured course by wild or by the star they chose as pilot till their guide drew them within its tide for oft they tell who know its strand the golden haze it hangs low and those who careless steer may miss the land in the sunset s purple glow the coast of its lights mistaken for the evening stars its music for the surf beat on its golden bars young found it when he sought the golden by perilous stream and in his track full many an hath found the rare of his golden dream and at the last like sorrow s and labor s heavy one it for every age rim to mountain core a nameless player on the world s great stage he spread his sails to that shore and reared a with his art sublime like s song wrought towers to every the great reached it when they led into the unknown west and those who followed in their shining wake but left no trace of where their have pressed yet have through stress of storm and rage won by his light a happy the coast of there rest the heroes of lost causes on their calm brows more far than all their could e er adorn when shone fame s star there fallen reap the glorious prize of memory of their precious sacrifice there many a dream faced maid and matron dwells from on through gliding there drink the poets draughts from crystal wells and choir high music to their sublime and there the great philosophers discourse divine philosophy in due and tranquil course there not alone the great and lofty sing but silent poets too find there the song they only sang in dreams when wandering amazed and lost amid the earthly throng their hearts all from worldly fears to meet the spacious music of the gray wrinkled men the sea salt in their hair their eyes set deep with peering through the gloom their voices low with speaking ever where the coast of the break beneath the mountains loom but deep within their yearning burning eyes the light reflected ever from those radiant skies there youth of annoy walks aye with and sorrow there is but a memory to joy with happiness so deep and rare well nigh the heart with its rich content and hope with full is constant her web complete there content at last and smiling down on worn at her feet calm wears the crown bestowed by in his grief and kind gives s heart relief mid meadows by streams repose the and the graces sweet there kiss we lips we only kissed in dreams in the world and there we meet the fair and flower like lost loves of our youth when we trod the ways with radiant truth the coast of those who return have pressed alone the coast but tell of some lost in that charmed souls who loving honor most have sought the crystal mountain tops beyond and upward heedless of their to where all paths lead ever to the shining stars the voice of the sea thus to man the thousand sea words which the stealing winds caught from its lips thou thee and thine god s crown but unto me and humbly learn how infinite thine thou of thine age thy works thine oldest monuments of which thou st were built but yesterday when measured by yon snow mountains of eternal rock the earth thy mother from whose breast thou draw st the sweat stained living which she wills to give and in whose dust thine own must melt again was ere thine earliest dawn but they to me are young i gave them birth the voice of the sea climb up those heaven peaks thy height thou there shalt read deep my name and age dig down thy deepest depth shalt read them still before the mountains sprang before the earth thy cradle and thy tomb was made i was god called them forth from me as thee from earth thou st	46
through a mountain here and there work st all thine engines cutting oflf a speck i wash their rock foundations under tear from thundering down and crush their fragments into sand thou with thy records and and them of thy might lo not a stone exists from yon black cliff to that small at thy foot but bears my signature there when earth was young to teach the mighty wonders of the deep thy deeds are what a morning mist but i i face the ages dost not know that as i gave the earth to spread her fair and dew washed body in the morning light so still t is i that keep her fair and fresh that her robes and nightly diamond i fill her with rare the voice of the sea field and forest with bee haunted stars i give the mom pearl for her radiant roof and eve lend glory for her rosy dome i build the purple towers that hold the west and guard the passage of retiring day thy fabric far the rise from the desert sands their blown in dust about their feet the winged bull mid an alien race grim silent lone but whither went the king i cool the air upon my breast and send the winds forth on mine i offer all my body to the sun and our with to carry wealth and plenty to all yon of floating snow that dwarf the mountains over which they sail are but my borne by my messengers to cheer and every thirsty land the by his palm desert pool the above his frozen the crouched beside his forest brook the shepherd in his spring drink of my cup in one great brotherhood the voice of the sea t is nay not man thou art but one of all the of life holding things brute beast bird insect thing whose souls find in my breath nay not a tree flower of grass or weed but lives through me and hymns my praise to god i feed sustain refresh and keep them all mirror and type of god that life i sing as softly as a mother her drowsy babe to sleep upon her breast on quiet nights when all my winds are laid i the stars down from their home to sink with golden f in my depths i show the pathway to the moon all paved with gems the lost that night she strayed from her sisters wan but i sing other times from that song before whose my waters sank and at whose harmony the mountains rose i heard that morning when the breath of god moved on my face and said let there be light i thrill and tremble but at the thought of that great wonder of that greatest dawn when at god s word the brooding darkness rose the voice of the sea which veiled my face from all the birth of things and rolled far from its resting place to bide henceforth beyond day s crystal walls while all the morning stars together sang and on the instant god stood full revealed long roll at napoleon s tomb til was the marble where the emperor lay a his mighty on either side guarding his couch since the solemn day france brought him home in her pride to sleep on her heart from the sea cage where the eagle and died in his rage i thought of the long red death held in the track of his sword from s bloom to the pall he spread upon s grain i thought of the long black years of dread when the nations at his armies tread a sudden above as the twilight fell the silence around was shocked by the roll of a drum at the throbbing swell the dome of the heavens rocked till it seemed that the mighty conqueror s soul was shaking the earth in that drum s long roll at napoleon s tomb in ae purple the was it and from their tomb the sprang a of a master s though the beat and the sang the standards again and more the world i heard i t the self same drum best ai his call when france arose from his a ha sad when he bade her come ik i her foes x saw tier td arise the of l their eyes q er tyranny her standards flew r felt the af new born life as terror france the true sprang ing amid the strife as a iii torn at the cf her own first bom t e on egypt s sands w her in their terrible di t to b t across the lands it rat s long at napoleon s tomb when th conqueror s reckoning came and his empire melted away in flame when there at the lord god spoke and said thine end is at hand prepare as at once from amid the smoke to the prophet who led his people there i set thee up i will cast thee down for that thou the crown thine eyes have seen but thou shalt not stand on the promised shore of a world set free the people shall pass alone to the land of promise and light and liberty of peace in a nation s trust when thou and thy throne alike are dust the princess progress the dusky land i he gracious goddess in robes arrayed ni ht her royal progress made h hit with lavish hand ll ir the in glee her gold and l i all the tht yellow coin t ui in the tangled grass and and join to ui l the way she chose to pass in lavish wealth the gleaming shines on the cloudy april hill and many a yellow marks where her brazen chariot rolled the slender the princess his head and leaning down looks deep to	46
find within a dew drop s a pool where love may drown no deep nor nook but felt her tender look no secret leafy place but warmed before her face and with her grace the sombre yesterday hath in her presence a brave array and in a night grown gay her purple cloak all careless flung upon the red bud hung and on the forest trees her richest while sprinkled deep with dust of gold the tender branches hold her robe blown fold on fold her clad in glad complete and passing sweet hath set the mad about her breathed rare sweet of roses blowing her feet the princess about her breathed sweet rare of shaken from her hair aa though unseen of mortal eyes she d the gates of paradise her crystal horn in passing by she wound and at the sound ab by the s stroke the fields in music broke and every silent grove in melody awoke to her charmed the choir in every and and flood with golden song the reaches ranged where drinking deep from fountains clear their inspiration they hymn their that spring again is here and all together sing the goddess of the tear the spring the gracious spring youth i once might hear the sing upon the grass a swing or in the orchard s their melody so fine and clear one had to bend his ear to hear or else the music well might pass for whispering in the grass i once might see the dance a circle in their meadow haunts soft by the new moon s glance their airy feet in crystal made the silver moon such but that t was seen might well have been the dew drops i ve wandered far summer seas where music dwells mid that well the might please but never more i catch ah me the silvery melody their crystal twinkling on the america greeting i have the spacious world over and here to thy wide gate america i thy true lover return now exalted as an heir who returns to recover his forefathers lofty estate i ve seen visions of castle and palace up soaring to sun skies where men have drunk deep of death s in infinite soul agonies where tyranny her malice and on liberty s cries where splendor of palace and tower cried up unto god with men s blood where th of tyranny s power america greeting imperial and brazen have stood with and sword to and the rack hard by god s and now at thy fair open i stand as i stood in my youth amazed at the vision immortal of naked and truth the truth that the fathers have taught all their children their birth right in i greet thee thy purple large reaches the snow spire pointed pine to thy golden long low lying with thy tropical and thine infinite bosom that teaches how hath made freedom divine god thee fair mid the he thee strong with the seas that man might preserve here the motions he gave freedom s bold processes that man in his might serve freedom s in peace america how crude then and rude then thy struggles to lift from the sod thy freedom is strong to the the yoke and the rod thy freedom is mighty forever for men who kneel only to god dawn who hath not heard in dusky summer ere winds s the dreamy spell just by some drowsy who from his leafy on the his call that all is well a moment pipes another silvery note s crystal wheels flash up the sky the cry the dawn and glad welcome from every throat and every leafy bough melody so in the gloom and silence of the night my heart in slumber lay not how the hours might fleet away when on my heavens dawned a radiant light and straight i to a shining day the poet on the spacious cities with toil the monarch reared his towers to the skies men the fruitful soil and studied to be wise along the highway s rocky the rang smiling mid the the poet sang the glittering cities long are heaps the towers lie level with the plain the desert serpent sleeps where the marble the stealthy bead eyed where gleamed the tyrant s throne the grandeur dark oblivion the song sings on the shepherd op the seas from s hills the misty sea ever westward till it meets the sky and silently the white ships go by and mount and mount up the long peaceful as sheep at night that placidly climb the tall downs to quiet pastures high assured no foes dare no dangers lie where still their shepherd s memory well did men name him shepherd of the seas who knew so well his shepherd s watch to keep driving the spanish wolves with noble rage pomp and power and beds of ease to herd his mighty flock through every deep and make of every sea their common sleep in a b p thou best of all god s blessing sleep better than earth can wealth power fame they change decay thou always art the same through all the years thy freshness thou dost keep over all lands thine even sweep the sick the worn the blind the lone the lame hearing thy tranquil footsteps bless thy name anguish is soothed sorrow forgets to weep thou st the captive s cell and bid st him thou st the hunted refuge free st the slave show st the outcast pity call st the exile home beggar and king thine equal blessings reap we for our loved ones wealth joy honors but god he his sleep to a lady at a spring since in leafy sweet weary with the eager chase was wont to seek full oft some place loved of her rosy train some cool retreat of crystal springs deep from the	46
heat of noon wherein each subtle grace of snowy form and radiant flower face like goddess and might greet long hath y nd the main the which she loved are all no more mid violet banks her feet are set silent her fled her train one spot alone of all she loved is left this shaded spring is goddess haunted yet oh do not think that thee i can forget though all the centuries should o er me roll though space should spread more far than pole from pole or star from star us yet i still would hold thee in my heart s core set more rare than queens whom kings when death hath them high above regret through endless time when memory the stone rolls back from silent years long to call the past forth from the sullen tomb er far her voice all else hath flown shalt thou her living summons heard fresh as eternal spring in all thy radiant bloom the old lion thb of the lion him the old lion stood in his lonely the sound of the hunting had broken his rest he to the eastward tiger and bear were his he turned to the west and sent through the and mist of the night a thunder that and down the trail and tiger and bear the in sight crouched low in the covert to and for deep through the midnight like surf on a shore thunder in answer with ire the hunters d stricken they knew the dread roar the of the lion was joining his the of the seas april they say the spanish ships are out to seize the spanish main reach down the volume boy and read the story o er again how when the had the might he the earth like rain with saxon blood and made it death to sail the spanish main with torch and steel with stake and rack he trampled out god s until queen her slip t and let her sea dogs loose how they sprang and how they tore i the remember boy they were your they made the the of the seas dick with a single ship struck all the spanish line one knight to the spanish one ship to fifty and nine when spain in san s bay her sacred treaty broke stout fought his way through fire and gave her stroke for stroke a bitter spain that day she drained it to the the thunder of her guns awoke the of the seas from coast to coast he far a with flaming breath where er the sailed his ships sailed francis and death no coast was safe against his ire secure no shore the fairest day oft sank in fire before the s roar the of the seas he made th atlantic red round every spanish piled spanish decks with spanish dead the noblest of from s coast to he down the spanish host and swept the flaming seas he fought till on spain s inmost lakes orange set la s maidens feared to sail lest they the met king philip of his called for the s head the great queen laughed his wrath to scorn and instead and gave him ships and sent him forth to sweep the spanish main note it is related that king philip one day invited a lady to sail with him on a lake and she replied that she was afraid they might meet the the of the seas for england and for england s brood and sink the of spain and well he wrought his mighty work till on that fatal day he met his only conqueror in bay there in his swung amid the sweep he waits the look out s signal cry across the quiet deep and dreams of dark s bar and spanish treachery and how he far across the unknown sea but if fire a single shot upon the spanish main she come to deem the dead has to life again the bent ever along the way lie goes with eyes east down as in despair and shoulders stooped with weight of woes and lips from which flows an prayer his form is bent his step is slow his hands with long are thin and his footsteps go men hear his muttered prayer and know he for deadly sin this was once the of knights who ever sat in hall with wondrous might and beauty and met him lance in rest had need on christ to call the bent men say this with hair so and eye where grief hath the flame once loved a maiden fair and pure and for she would not wed him swore he d bring her down to shame they say he her long and well and splendid spoils both eve and mom of song and won they tell he gave her till at last she fell then her forth with scorn the world was cold her father s door was barred they thus the tale repeat her name was heard in no more and so one day the river bore and laid her at his feet her brow was calm the sunny hair lay tangled in the snowy breast and from the face all trace of care and sin was away and there shone only utter rest the bent the old men say that when the wave that burden brought then backward fled he stooped no sign nor groan he gave as by an open grave but fell as one struck dead he seemed when from that he woke a man already touched by death as when the forest oak beneath the lightning s stroke lives on yet and ever since he tells his beads and next his skin and nightly his frail body with knotted cord that with christ for deadly sin for his own soul he hath no care by penance as if by flame men know	46
that prayer he is for the maiden fair whom he brought down to shame the bent and still along the way he goes with eyes cast down as in despair and shoulders stooped with weight of woes and lips from which forever flows an prayer the message an ancient came to my hands a tale of love in other lands writ by a master so divine the love seems ever mine and thine the volume opened at the place that sings of sweet s grace how reading of fair and that long gone year her eyes into her lover s fell there was nothing more to tell that day they op ed that book no more they read a deeper lore beneath the passage so divine some woman s hand had traced a line and reverently upon the spot had laid a blue forget me not a message sent across the years of lovers sighs and lovers tears a messenger left there to tell they too had loved each other well the message the centuries had glided by since love had heaved that tender sigh the tiny spray that spoke her trust had like herself long turned to dust i felt a sudden sorrow stir my heart across the years for her who reading how loved had found her heart so deeply moved who hearing poor s moan had felt her sorrow as her own i hope where e er her grave may be forget me bloom constantly that somewhere in yon distant skies he who is love hath heard her sighs and her hath granted of his grace ever to see her lover s face the needle s eye they bade me come to the house of prayer they said i should find my there i was wicked enough god at best and weary enough to rest i paused at th door with a timid knock the people within were a silken flock by their of pride it was plain to see salvation was not for the likes of me the bishop was there in his lace and lawn and the priest i saw him the rich and great and virtuous too stood and contented each in his the music was grand the service fine the sermon was eloquent nigh divine the subject was pride and the and the who was just like me the needle s eye i smote my breast in an empty but an came and looked me through and bade me stand beside the door in the space reserved for the mean and poor i left the church in my rags and shame in the dark without one called my name they have turned me out as well he take thou my hand and come fare with me ti we may j nd the light by a narrow gate the way is steep and rough and strait but none will look if your clothes be poor when you come at last to my father s door i struggled on where er he led the blood ran down from his hand so red the blood ran down from his forehead torn tis naught he but the of a thorn you i cried for my heart tis naught tis naught but the print of a nail tou limp in pain and your feet are sore tea yea he for the nails they were four a the needle s eye it you are weary and faint and bent i cried twas a load i bore up a mountain side the way is steep and i faint but he it was far upon by this we had come to a narrow door i had afar it was locked before but now in the presence of my guide the fast closed opened wide and forth there streamed a radiance more bright than is the noon sun s glance and and voices greeted him the music of the i knew his face where the light did fall i had in it in s hall i knew those nail prints now ah me i had helped to nail him to a tree i fainting fell before his face imploring pardon of his grace he stooped and my moan he bore me near to his father s throne it the needle s eye he me close and hid my shame and touched my heart with a flame here said he while i go and try to a little a needle s eye the closed door rd is it thou who at my i made it fast and t will not open more barred it so tight i scarce can hear thy knock and am too feeble now to turn the lock with my folly and my grievous sin put forth thy might lord and burst it in at the judgment bar stood spirits three a thief a fool and a man of degree to whom the judge in his majesty to the shivering thief thy sins are forgiven for that to repent thou hast sometime there be other penitent thieves in heaven it to the fool poor fool thou art free from sin to my light thou too enter in where life and thought shall for thee begin to the mirror of others and neat with the thoughts and sayings of others this judgment rolled from the judgment seat thou a worm to crawl thou doubly damned not lower fall than ne er to have thought for at all the she along with hollow laugh and mocking song in garb and painted mirth the thing on earth time runs the fleeting years left but her misery and her tears the very door was barred against a wretch so d and she knocked at every gate in vain the cast out black with at all save one when this she tried t was his the high priest he heard her tears flung wide his door	46
instant moved who served like and like mary loved her influence the tender earth that smiles when kissed by spring the flowers the woods the birds that sing the summer s song her spirit to me bring the meadows cool that breathe their fragrant deep placid pools that little breezes soft springs speak to my heart of her heaven s purple towers upon the horizon s rim the dove that upon his lonely limb fill my soul s cup with memories to its brim in evening s calm when in the quiet skies the silent tender stars i feel the holy influence of her eyes that deeper hour when night with dawn is and silence its well nigh spent i hear her gently sigh with sweet content her influence i hear young children laughing in the street catch rays of sunshine from them as we meet and smile content to know what makes them sweet yea everywhere in every righteous strife i find her spirit s fragrant influence like mary s precious life he all that came within his ken and error held with steadfast mind aloof e en truth itself he put upon the proof holding that light was ood s first gift to men the stranger one day amid the leafy a presence passed in a sunny ray tossing behind him carelessly the hours as one shakes blossoms from a spray them far and wide nor glanced to either side a sudden as he strolled he chanced upon a flower which fuu within his pathway blew white as a lily modest as a sweeter than s rose in her beauty he approached and softly sighed his breath the blossom stirred and all the air grew fragrant with a subtle rich perfume the glowed the while a rare and crystal radiance did all the adjacent space as t were an angel s face the stranger he gently laid his glowing lips like test music on her lips when came a thrill that trembled to her tips and on the instant with a sudden flame leaped forth the shining sun and earth and heaven were one who art thou she tell me thy name to whom this power is given that thus for me without or fear or shame but by thy lips soft touch heaven whilst to his heart she he whispered i am love love a stray within a garden bright i found a tiny winged he scarce was bigger than a and bore a little bow and arrow i lifted him up in my arm without a thought of or harm but merely as it were in play with threats to carry him away the sport he took in such ill part he stuck an arrow in my heart and ever since i have such pain i cannot draw it out again and yet the strangest part is this i love the pain as though t were bliss an old refrain it seems to me as i think of her that my youth has come again i hear the breath of summer stir the leaves in the old refrain oh my lady love oh my lady love oh where can my lady be i wiu seek my love with the wings of a dove and pray her to love but me the flower kissed meadows all once more are green with grass and the apple trees again are with fragrant snow of bloom oh my lady love oh my lady love oh where can my lady be etc the meadow brook slips by with silvery rippling flow and blue birds sing on fences nigh to below an old oh my lady love oh my lady love i oh where can my lady be etc i hear again the drowsy of honey laden bees and catch the they hum to trees oh my lady love oh my lady love i oh where can my lady love be etc far off the home returning cows low that the eve is late and call their apple boughs to meet them at the gate oh my lady love oh my lady love oh where can my lady be etc once more the knights and ladies pass li visions fancy i lie full length in summer grass to choose my own true love oh my lady love oh my lady love oh where can my lady be etc an old refrain i know not how i know not where i dream a fairy spell i know she is surpassing fair i know i love her well oh my lady love oh my lady love where can my lady be etc i know she is as pure as snow as true as god s own truth i know i know i love her so she must love me in oh my lady love oh my lady love oh where can my lady be etc i know the stars dim to her eyes the flowers blow in her face i know the angels in the skies have given her of their grace oh my lady love i oh my lady love oh where can my lady be etc and none but i her heart can move though may have and when i find my own true love i know i shall find heaven an old refrain oh my lady love oh my lady love oh where can my lady be i will seek my love with the wings of a dove and pray her to love but me to it is not that thine eyes are sweeter far to me than is the light of summer skies to just set free it is not that the setting sun is tangled in thy hair and not of the course to run in such a silken nor for the music of thy words fair love i thee though sweeter than the songs of birds that melody to me it	46
boy to your wife the witch before her mirror inquiring how to please her friends the mystery is solved the mirror but her grace her mirror now she sees herself in all men s eyes s a witch and hath such arts her image is in all men s hearts humanity a lover left his new made bride and shot a dove with her mate at her side i have stood and watched the eagle into the sun and envied him his swift light and though i may not at least i may lift up my feet above the clay reality there be three things real in all the earth mother love death and a little child s mirth little in her green knows all the philosophers know that fire is hot and ice is not and that sun will melt the snow she has heard that the moon is made of green cheese but she s not quite certain of this she knows if you your nose you will and a hurt is made well by a kiss i wish i were wise as is wise for mysteries lie in her deep clear eyes a to m f and f p the day of february fine i choose you for my thus ran the first of the sweet old on the lovers day in the old sweet times and so i follow closely along to tell my love in the words of the song roses are red are blue are sweet and so are you are red in my sweetheart s cheeks deepening tints whenever one speaks are blue in the eyes of one in the eyes of the other the sun but never were roses half so rare and never were a as fair and never have they in their garden bed a part of the fragrance shed a as my two flowers in their sweet home frame both flowers by nature and one by name so as sure as the bloom grows on the vine i choose them for my my sweet heart one and my sweet heart two both little sweet hearts sweet and true to love and to cherish forever mine to cherish and love as my dialect poems d uncle s white yes s me a e s my name i i m bout yo see an de she s much de e po ly an e thank de lord j but de s ter come back it w broad fine place yes t is y an mighty fine people my white folks war but you ought ter a seen it years ago when de an de lived up when de d all de do like o corn on de live ous high yes yes d cut n n dash eat an drink till you could n my folks war n none o yo po white uncle s white folks nor was of high dis am quality you t out em you a bout my white folks i tell you was t an stern d didn have at all to learn fi all was to know over head an feet an t like folks wheat use be rich warn de d an roll in why o my white folks ever stir d ter for d self de use ter be in d same leaves when fall down de stable up at home looked like in a fine comb de cattle was p i tell de an de de hill sides look black an de flocks o sheep was so t an white like clouds on a night an when my use ter uncle s white folks ter her was fur ever she walked i tell you sir yon could her silk dress talk hit use ter like de breeze when it wakes an de t house trees an de s face de s face whenever de got right well i ter t would shine grace de same his countenance had been cellar too had de o wine an brandy an yo could fine an ev in was stored de glory of de lord a son yes you knows me s de young now but we he very es ter pay what owe he s done been gone ten year i s pose but he s back some day of co se an my is an de blue room an ev ry day sheets is an will be tell she s uncle s white folks an she an room she ten ev y blessed day de lord do sen i what say yo say you knows he s young an slender like an better n you of co se hi you s he fo t is him t is de very voice an eyes an an an smile on y yo ain so i wonder is de now let my soul depart in peace for i glory lord i you i you soon s i see d your face has you been dis blessed while yo s done come back an buy de place oh bless de lord for all his grace de shell hunger an shell not lack de de young is done come back little jack yes t was bout two months ago i always used ter run down time bee us you know i like ter had him die an no one nigh you see we him ter come way off e said new house did n fit him no mo n new shoes did an miss him at day ef he moved way how ef we all wondered how he was he d frown an say he was a hundred miss done it down an she could tell t was fo or five ef she was live in memory of john of virginia a man	46
and even from the path whenever i think a will be for my own enjoyment i shall b in with my career a period to which i look back now with a pleasure wholly with what i achieved in it which i find due to the friends i made and to the memories i there in a time when i possessed the treasures of youth spirits hope and conceit as these with the courage to use a mild term that a a background gives are about all that i got out of my life there i shall dwell on them only enough to two or three friends and one enemy who played later a very considerable part in my life my family was an old and distinguished one that is it could be traced back about two hundred years and several of my ancestors had accomplished enough to be known in the history of the state a fact of which i was by john marvel assistant so proud that i was quite satisfied at to rest on their achievements and felt no need to add to its distinction by any labors of my own we had formerly been well off we had indeed at one time prior to the war owned large estates a time to which i was so fond of referring when i first went to college that one of my acquaintances named an envious fellow observed one day that i thought i had inherited all the of the earth and the glory of them my childhood was spent on an old plantation so far removed from anything that i have since known that it might almost have been in another planet it happened that i was the only child of my par its who survived the others having been carried off in early childhood by a of scarlet fever to which circumstance as i look back i now know was due my mother s sadness of expression when my father was not present i was thus subjected to the perils and great misfortune of being an only child among them that of thinking the sun rises and sets for his especial benefit i must say that both my father and mother tried faithfully to do their part to this danger and they not only believed firmly in but acted on the doctrine that to spare the rod is to spoil the child my father i must say was more and i think gladly the obligation as interpreted by my mother declaring that solomon like a good many other persons was much wiser in speech than in practice he was fond of quoting the custom by my first failure of the ancient who trained their youth to ride to shoot and to speak the truth and in this last particular he was inexorable among my chief as a small boy was a little named was the of one of our old servants uncle who was a few years my senior was a sharp boy black as a piece of old mahogany and had a head so hard he could butt a plank off a fence naturally he and i became and he picked up information on various subjects so readily that i found him equally agreeable and useful my father was admirably adapted to the conditions that had created such a but as to the new conditions that succeeded the of the old life as a lamb would be to the wind of winter he was a and an of the strongest type and though in practice he was the kindest and most liberal of men he always maintained that a gentleman was the fruit of civilization a standard i may say in which the personal element counted with him far more than family connection a king can make a nobleman sir he used to say but it takes to make a gentleman when the war came though he was opposed to as he termed it he as a private as soon as the state and fought through the war rising to be a major and at when the war closed he shut himself up on his estate accepting the situation without and himself by john marvel assistant with a philosophy much more in expression than in practice my father s slender had been swept away by the war but being a scholar himself and having a high idea of classical learning and a good estimate of my abilities in which latter view i entirely agreed with him he managed by much to send me to college out of the fragments of his establishment i admired greatly certain principles which were stamped in him as firmly as a is in the solid rock but i fear i had a certain contempt for what appeared to me his to the new state of things and i secretly myself on my superiority to him in all practical affairs without the least appreciation of the sacrifices he was making to send me to college i was an idle dog and plunged into the amusements of the gay set that set whose powers begin below their in which i became a member and to be a leader my first episode at e brought me some by n the jew and the christian i arrived rather late and the term had already begun so that all the desirable rooms had been taken i was told that i would either have to room out of e or take quarters with a young man by the name of like myself a i naturally chose the latter on reaching my quarters i found my new comrade to be an gentlemanly fellow and veiy nice looking indeed his broad brow with curling brown hair above it his dark eyes deep and luminous a nose the least bit too large and to be a well cut mouth with sensitive lips	46
and a finely jaw gave him an unusual face if not one of distinction he was evidently bent on making himself agreeable to me and as he had read an extraordinary amount for a lad of his age and i who had also read some was lonely we had passed a pleasant evening when he mentioned casually a fact which sent my heart down into my boots he was a jew this then accounted for the ridge of his well carved nose and the curl of his soft brown hair i tried to be as frank and easy as i had been before but it was a failure he saw my surprise as i saw his a coolness took the place of the warmth that had been growing up between us for several hours and we passed a stiff evening he had already had one room mate by john marvel assistant next day i found a former acquaintance who offered to take me into his apartment and that afternoon having watched for my opportunity i took advantage of my room mate s absence and moved out leaving a short note saying that i had discovered an old friend who was very desirous that i should share his quarters when i next met he was so stiff that although i felt sorry for him and was ready to be as civil as i might our acquaintance thereafter became merely i saw in fact little of him during the next months for he soon far ahead of me was indeed no one in his class who possessed his or his ability i used to see him for a while standing in his doorway looking wistfully out at the groups of students gathered under the trees or walking alone like in the fields and until i formed my own set i would have gone and joined him or have asked him to join us but for his i knew that he was lonely for i soon discovered that the cold shoulder was being given to him by most of the students i could not however but feel that it served him right for the airs he put on with me he made a brilliant exhibition in his classes and was easily the man in the class did not affect our attitude toward him perhaps it only the case why should he be able to make easily a demonstration at the that the of us only through one day however we learned that the jew had a room mate were freely taken that he would not stick but he stuck for it was john marvel not that any of us knew what john marvel by the jew and the christian was for even i who except came to know him best did not divine until many years later what a of gold that homely shy awkward john marvel was it appeared that had a harder time than any of us dreamed of he had come to the institution against the advice of his father and for a singular reason he thought it the most liberal institution of learning in the country little he knew of the of youth his mind was so that all that passed through it was instantly appropriated like a plant he drew from the atmosphere about him and what was to us to forms of beauty he was even then a man of independent thought a who peopled the earth with and saw beneath the stony surface of the commonplace the and principles that were to and the world an admirer of the law in its ideal conception he with the fury of the the generation that had and cramped it to an instrument of torture of the human mind and looked to the coming of universal brotherhood and freedom his father was a leading man in his city one who by his native ability and the force that seems to be a characteristic of the race had risen from poverty to the position of chief merchant and of the town in whidi he lived he had been elected mayor in a time of stress but his popularity among the citizens by john marvel assistant generally had cost him as i learned later something among his own people the breadth of his views had not been approved by them the abilities that in the father had taken this direction of the mingling of the practical and the had in the son taken the form i have stated he was an a poet and a tlie boy from the first had discovered powers that had given his father the keenest delight not with a little as he grew up among the best class of boys in his town and became conscious that he was not one of them his inquiring and mind began early to seek the reasons for the difference why should he be held a little apart from them he was a jew yes but why should a jew be held apart they talked about their families why his family could trace back for two thousand and more years to princes and kings they had a religion but he saw other boys with different and playing together they were christians and believed in christ while the jew etc this puzzled him till he found that some of them a few did not hold the same views of christ with the others he began to study for himself boy as he was the history of christ and out of it came questions that his father could not answer and was angry that he should put to him he went to a young who told him that christ was a good man but mistaken in his claims so the boy drifted a little apart from his own people and more and more he studied the questions that arose by the jew and the christian in his mind and	46
more and more he suffered but more and more he grew strong t e father too proud of his son s independence to him by an order which might have been a law to him had nevertheless thrown him on his own resources and cut him down to the lowest figure on which he could live confident that his own opinions would be justified and his son return home s first experience very nearly justified this conviction t e fact that a jew had come and taken one of the old apartments spread through the e with amazing rapidity and created a sensation not that there had not been jews there before for there had been a number there at one time or another but they were members of families of distinction who had been known for generations as bearing part in all the of life and had with other folk on an absolute equality so that there was little or nothing to distinguish them as except their name if they were it was an accident and played no larger part in their views than if they had been scotch or but here was a man who proclaimed himself a jew who proposed that it should ke known and evidently meant to assert his rights and peculiarities on all occasions the result was that he was subjected to a species of persecution which only the young saxon the most brutal of all could have devised as filled rapidly it soon became necessary to double up that is put two men in one apartment by john marvel assistant the first student assigned to live with was a and cool young man like myself from the country and like myself very short of funds would not have minded with a jew or for that matter with the devil if he had thought he could get anything out of him for he had few prejudices and when it came to calculation he was the but had big way to make and be coolly decided that a jew was likely to make him bear his full part of the expenses which he never had any mind to do so he looked around and within hours moved to a place out of college where be got reduced board on the ground of belonging to some peculiar set of of which i am convinced he had never heard till he learned of the landlady s i bad incurred s lasting enmity though i did not know it at the time by a at bis expense we had never taken to each other from the first and one evening when was talking about joined in and said that that institution was no place for any jew i said listen to how did you get in this raised a laugh i am sure had never read martin but i am equally sure he read it afterward for be never forgave me then came my turn and desertion which i have described and then after that interval of loneliness appeared john marvel who was one of the most social men i ever knew was sitting in bis room meditating oa the strange m i by the jew and the christian fate that had made him an outcast among the men whom he had come there to study and know this was my interpretation of his thoughts he would probably have said he was thinking of the strange prejudices of the human race prejudices to which he had been in some sort a victim all his life as his race had been all through the ages he was in loneliness and as in the mellow october afternoon the sound of good fellowship floated in at his window from the lawn outside be grew more and more dejected one evening it he even thought of writing to his father that he would come home and go into his and accept the position that meant wealth and luxury and power just then there was a step outside and stopped and after a moment knocked at the door rose and opened it and stood facing a new student a round faced round blue eyed awkward lad of about his own age is this number demanded the new comer peering curiously at the dingy door and half looking up at the it is why spoke abruptly well i have been assigned to this apartment by the i am a new student and have just come my name is john marvel put his arms across the doorway and stood in the middle of it well i want to tell you before you come in that i am a jew you are welcome not to come but if you come i want you to stay perhaps the other s astonishment contained a for he went on hotly by john marvel assistant i have had two men come here already and both of them left after one day the first said he got cheaper board which was a legitimate excuse if true the other said he had found an old friend who wanted him i am convinced that he lied and that the only reason he left was that i am a jew and now you can come in or not as you please but if you come you must stay he was looking down in john marvel s eyes with a gaze that had the concentrated bitterness of generations in it and the latter met it with a gravity that deepened into pity i will come in and i will stay was a jew said the man on the lower step i do not know him said the other bitterly but you will i know him s arms fell and john marvel entered and stayed tliat evening the two men went to the supper hall together their table was near mine and they were the observed of all	46
the one curious thing was that john marvel was studying for the it lent zest to the jokes that were made on this and more or less were made on the law and the the lying down together of the lion and the lamb etc it was a curious the light haired slow saxon and the dark keen jew with his intellectual face and his deep burning eyes in which glowed the misery and mystery of the ages john marvel soon became well known for he was by the jew and the christian one of the men in the college with his amusing awkwardness he would have become a butt except for his good humor as it was he was for a time a sort of object of ridicule to many of us myself among the number and we had many laughs at him he would disappear on saturday night and not turn up again till monday morning dusty and and many were made at his expense one said that marvel was preaching in the mountains with a view to becoming a second another suggested that if so the mountains would probably get up and run into the sea when however it was discovered later that he had a sunday school in the mountains and walked twelve miles out and twelve miles back most of the except the like myself were silent this fact came out by chance marvel disappeared from one day and remained for two or three weeks either could not or would not give any account of him when marvel returned he looked worn and ill as if he had been starving and almost immediately he was taken ill and went to the with a case of fever here he was so ill that the doctors him and no one saw him except the nurse old mrs a wrinkled and old fat woman something between a knot and an and moved down and took up his quarters in the it was suggested with a view to marvel to and here he stayed tlie nursing by john marvel assistant never appeared to make any difference in s preparation for his classes for when he came back he still stood easily first but poor marvel never caught up again and was even more hopelessly lost in the region at the bottom of the class than ever before when called on to his brow would and he would and until the class would be in ill suppressed all the more because of s over his wretchedness marvel excused by the professor would sit down and his brow and beam quite as if he had made a wonderful performance which indeed he had while s thin face would grow his nostrils quiver and his deep eyes bum like coals one day a spare rusty man with a beard and a stooping woman strolled into the college grounds and after wandering around for a time asked for mr marvel each of them carried a basket tliey were directed to his room and remained with him some time and when they left he walked some distance with them it was at first and then generally reported that they were marvel s father and mother it became known later that they were a couple of poor named whose child john marvel had nursed when it had the fever tliey had just learned of his illness and had come down to bring him some chickens and other things whidi they thought he might need by the jew and the christian this incident with the knowledge of devotion made some impression on us and gained for marvel and incidentally for some sort of respect by m the fight all this time i was about as far aloof from marvel and as i was from any one in the college i rather liked marvel partly because he appeared to like me and i helped him in his latin and partly because at him and i cordially disliked for his cold blooded selfishness and his way i was strong and active and fairly good looking though by no means so handsome as i fancied myself when i passed the large plate glass windows in the i was conceited but not except to my family and those i esteemed my was a good player was open handed enough for it cost me nothing and was inclined to be kind by nature i had moreover several accomplishments which led to a certain measure of popularity i had a memory and could get up a with little trouble though about as quickly as i learned i could pick a little on a could what sounded like a good speech if one did not listen to me could write what has said looked at a distance like poetry and thanks to my father could both fence and read latin these accomplishments served to bring me into the best set in college and in time to by the fight undo me for there is nothing more dangerous to a young man than an exceptional social accomplishment a tenor voice is almost as perilous as a taste for drink and to play the about as as to play i was soon to know better he and marvel after their work became known had been admitted rather more within the circle though they were still kept near the and thus as the spring came on when we all assembled on pleasant under the big trees that shaded the green slopes above the field even and marvel were apt to join us i would long ago have made friends with as some others had done since he distinguished himself for i had been ashamed of my in leaving him but though he was enough with others he always treated me with such marked reserve that i had finally abandoned my charitable effort to be on easy terms with him one	46
spring afternoon we were all under the trees many of us stretched out on the grass i had just saved a game of by driving a ball that brought in three men from the and i was surrounded by quite a group marvel who was as strong as an ox was second on the other nine and had missed the ball as the threw it wildly something was said i do not recall what and i raised a laugh at marvel s expense in which he joined heartily then a discussion began on the merits in which joined i started it but as by john marvel assistant appeared excited i drew out and left it to my friends presently at something said i turned to a friend sam and said in a half aside with a sneer he did not see it sam you i nodded my head meaning you explain it suddenly rose to his feet and without a word of warning poured out on me such a torrent of abuse as i never heard before or since his least epithet was a deadly insult it was out of a clear sky and for a moment my breath was quite taken away i sprang to my feet and with a roar of rage made a rush for him but he was ready and with a step to one side planted a straight blow on my jaw that catching me unprepared sent me full length on my back i was up in a second and made another rush for him only to be caught in the same way and sent down again when i rose the second time i was cooler i knew then that i was in for it those blows were a s they came straight from the shoulder and were as quick as lightning with every of the s weight behind them by this time however the crowd had interfered this was no place for a fight they said the professors would come on us several were holding me and as many more had among them john marvel who could have lifted him in his strong arms and held him as a baby marvel was pleading with him with tears in his eyes was cool enough now but he took no heed of his friend s entreaties standing quite still with the blaze in his by the fight eyes all the more vivid because of the of his face he was looking over his friend s head and was cursing me with all the eloquence of a rich so far as he was concerned there might not have been another man but myself within a mile in a moment an agreement was made by which we were to to a retired spot and fight it out something that he said led to suggest that we settle it with pistols it was s voice sprang at it i will if i can get any gentleman to represent me he said with a bitter sneer casting his flashing scornful eyes around on the crowd i have only one friend and i will not ask him to do it i will represent you said who had hb own reasons for the offer all right when and where said i now and in the railway cut beyond the wood said we retired to two rooms in a neighboring to arrange matters and another represented and sam and harry were my seconds i had expected that some attempt at reconciliation would be made but there was no suggestion of it i never saw such cold blooded young as all our seconds were and when came to close the final he had an air between that of a butcher and an he looked at me exactly as a butcher does at a calf he positively licked his i did not want to shoot but i could cheerfully have murdered while however by john marvel assistant the arrangements were being made by our friends i had had a chance for some reflection and i had used it i knew that did not like me he had no reason to do so for i had not only left him but had been cold and distant with him still i had always treated him and had spoken of him respectfully which was more than had always done yet here without the least provocation he had insulted me i knew there must be some misunderstanding and i determined on my own hook to find out what it was fortune favored me just then opened the door he had gone to his own room for a few moments and on his return the number and opened the wrong door seeing his error he drew back with an apology and was just closing the door when i called him come in here a moment i want to speak to you alone he re entered and closed the door standing stiff and silent there has been some mistake and i want to know what it is he made not the least sign that he heard except a flash deep in his eyes like a streak of lightning in a far off cloud i am ready to fight you in any way you wish i went on but i want to know what the trouble is why did you insult me out of a clear sky what had i done everything what what was it by was cursing me with all the eloquence of a rich by by the fight you have made my life all of his face worked and he made a wild sweep with his ann and brought it back to his side with clenched fist but i you were the head you have all done it you have treated me as an a jew i you have given me credit for nothing because i was a jew i could have stood the personal contempt	46
and insult and i have tried to stand it but i will put up with it no longer it is appointed once for a man to die and i can die in no better cause than for my people he was gasping with suppressed emotion and i was beginning gasp also but for a different reason he went on you thou t i was a coward because i was a jew and because i wanted peace treated me as a because i was a jew and i made up my mind to stop it so this evening my chance came that is all but what have i done nothing more than you have always done treated the jew with contempt but they were all there and i chose you as the leader when you said that about the jew i said nothing about a jew here did you think i insulted you as a jew this afternoon i had risen and walked over in front of him yes he bowed weu i did not you you said to sam that i was a damned jew by john marvel assistant i never said a word like it yes i i said to sam that you did not see the play and said sam you meaning you tell him wait let me think a moment i owe you an apology and will make it i know there are some who will think i do it because i am afraid to fight but i do not care i am not and i will fight if he says so if you will come with me i will make you a public apology and then if you want to fight still i will meet you he suddenly threw his right arm up across his face and turning his back on me leaned on it against the door his whole person shaken with sobs i walked up close to him and laid my on his shoulder helplessly calm yourself i began but could think of nothing else to say he shook for a moment and then turning with his left arm still across his face he held out his right hand and i took it i do not want you to do that all i want is decent treatment ordinary civility he faltered between his sobs then he turned back and against the door for he could scarcely stand and so standing he made the most forcible the most eloquent and the most burning defence of his people i have ever they have civilized the world he declared and what have they gotten from it but brutal they gave you your laws and your literature your morality and your religion even your christ and you have every law human and divine in their by the fight oppression you invaded our land our country and scattered us over the face of the earth trying to destroy our very name and nation but the god of was our refuge and consolation you and then visited it on us you have an act of age long and have in the name of the prince of peace over his people the cross was your means of punishment no jew ever used it but if we had him it would have been in the name of law and order your was in the name of contempt and you have a whole people through the ages the one people ho have ever stood for the one god who have stood for morality and for peace a jew yes i am a jew i thank the god of that i am for as he saved the world in the past so he will save it in the future this was only a part of it and not the best part but it gave me a new insight into his mind when he was through i was ready i had reached my decision i will go with you i said not on your account but on my own and make my statement before the whole crowd they are still on the hill then if any one wants to fight he can get it i will fight he repeated that he did not want me to do this and he would not go which was as well for i might not have been able to say so much in his presence so i went alone with my seconds whom i sought by john marvel assistant i found the latter working over a at a table in the next room and i walked in they looked as solemn as but i broke them up in a moment you can stop this infernal i have to i have treated him like a pig and so have you and i have told him so and now i am going out to tell the other fellows their astonishment was unbounded and at least one of the group was sincerely disappointed i saw s face fall at my words and then he elevated his nose and gave a little well it did not come from our side he said m a half with a sneer i suddenly exploded his cold face was so evil no it did not i made it freely and frankly and i am going to make it publicly but if you are disappointed i want to tell you that you can have a little affair on your own account and in order that there may be no want of pretext i wish to tell you that i believe you have been telling lies on me and i consider you a damned there was a commotion of course and the others all jumped in between us and when it was over i walked out three minutes later i was on the hill among the crowd which now numbered several hundred for they were all waiting to learn the result	46
and standing on a bench i told them what i had said to and how i felt i owed him a public apology not for one insult but for a hundred there was a silence for a second and then such a cheer broke out as by the fight i never got any other time in my cheers for cheers for marvel and even cheers for me and then a youth with a big mouth and a blue merry eye broke the by saying all are oflf and we sha n t have a holiday tomorrow at all the had been on which of us would fall and had been on a possible holiday quite a crowd went to s room to make for any possible slight they had put on him but he was nowhere to be found but that night he and marvel sat at our table and always sat there afterward he illustrated george sorrow s observation that good manners and a knowledge of will take one through the world y by iv my career at college promised at one time after that to be almost creditable but it ended in nothing i was not a good student because i flattered myself i was too good a fellow i loved pleasure too much to apply myself to work and was too self indulgent to deny myself anything i despised the ways of cold blooded creatures like even more than i did the of john marvel why should i at latin and greek and when i had all the poets and i was sure that when the time came i could read up and easily overtake and the like monotony of s i now and then had an uneasy that was developing and that john marvel to whom i used to read latin had somehow come to understand the language better than i however this was only an occasional awakening and the idea was too unpleasant for me to harbor it long meantime i would enjoy myself and prepare to bear off the more shining honors of the orator and society at the very end i did indeed arouse myself for i had a new i fell in love toward the holiday the place always filled up with pretty by usually they came just after the but occasionally some of them came a little in advance those who were bent on conquest at such times only cold like marvel or calculating machines like stuck to their books among the fair this year was one whose reputation for beauty had already preceded her miss she was the daughter of a banker in the capital of the state and by all accounts was a tearing she had created a sensation at the the year before and one who could do that must be a she was reported more beautiful than the noted beauty of the city whom she was said to resemble certainly she was not lacking in either looks or intelligence for those who had caught a glimpse of her declared her a goddess i immediately determined that i would become her for the occasion and i so announced to the dozen or more fellows who composed our set they laughed at me why you do not know her but i shall know her you are not on speaking terms with professor the professor of at whose house she was stopping the professor a machine and i had had a falling out not long before he had called on me for a one morning after a dance and i had said i am not prepared sir you never are prepared he said which the class appeared to think amusing he glanced over the room mr by john marvel assistant also had been at the dance the night before though he said he had a headache and caused much amusement by his and which were like those of a cow i expected him to say unprepared also but not so i was last night sir well i am glad at least that you have some sort of a legitimate excuse i out and rose to my feet are you alluding to me sir take your seat sir i deny your right to question me i will not take my seat i do not propose to sit still and be insulted i demand an answer to my question take your seat i say i will report you to the faculty he s then you will have to do so very quickly for i shall report you immediately and with that i stalked out of the room the faculty met that afternoon and i laid my complaint before them and as the students knowing the inside facts took my side the faculty held that the professor committed the first breach and us both i was well satisfied after i had met and cut the professor publicly i now acknowledge the of the situation but when the boys laughed i it i do not speak to old but i will speak to her the first time i meet her i will bet you do not cried sam by supper for the crowd in several they were always as ready to bet as their long haired ancestors were in the forests where they bet themselves away and kept their faith to the amazement of a roman gentleman who wrote vacant we were all in a room the windows of which looked across the lawn toward the of professor s house and some of the boys were gazing over toward the mansion that sheltered the subject of our thoughts and as it happened at that moment the door opened and out stepped the young lady herself in a smart walking costume by a large hat with a great drooping white feather an exclamation drew us all to the window there she is without doubt that was she jove what a i she is	46
alone there is your chance yes this is the first time you have seen her now stop and play ball or pay up yes supper for the crowd chicken and to end with so they me one and all done i said i will do it now you have never seen her before never i was arranging my tie and brushing my hair you swear it but i hurried out of the door and it behind me by john marvel assistant i turned down the walk that led across the to the point whither miss was directing her steps and i took a gait that i judged should meet her at the of the walks i was doing some hard thinking for i knew the window behind me was crowded with faces as i approached her i cut my eye at her and a glance nearly my resolution she was indeed a charming picture as she advanced though i caught little more than a general impression of a slim straight figure a pink face surmounted by a profusion of light hair under a big hat with white fe and a pair of eyes i glanced away but not before she had caught my eye just then a whistle sounded behind me and my nerve returned i suddenly quickened my pace and held out my hand why how do you do i exclaimed with surprise and pleasure myself directly in front of her she paused looked at me hesitated and then drew back slightly i think i you have made a mistake i think why do you not remember henry is this not miss i asked in a way no i am not miss i beg your i thought i began then as i moved back a little i added then you must be miss for there cannot be more than two like you on earth i beg your pardon i backed away by i am she said her mounting color showed that she was at least not angry and she gave proof of it can you tell me is not that the way to dr s house will show you which it is my manner had become most respectful oh don t trouble yourself i b you it is not the least trouble i said sincerely and it was the only truth i had told i walked back a few steps hat in hand pointing eagerly to the house and as i left i said i hope you will pardon my stupid mistake oh i i do not think it stupid she is a beauty think so i bowed low i saw the color rise again as i turned away much pleased with myself and yet a good deal ashamed too when i returned to the as we termed sam s room the boys seized me they were like howling but i had grown serious i was very much ashamed of myself and i did the only decent thing i could i lied or as good as lied i will give the supper if you will stop this yelling do you suppose i would make a bet about a girl i did not know this took the spirit out of the thing and only one of them knew the truth marvel who was present looked at me seriously and that night said to me half sadly you ought not to have done that what i know it it was an thing by john marvel assistant i do not mean that you ought not to have told a story afterward how he knew it i never knew but i had gotten caught in my own i had walked into the little parlor without any tion and i was soon hopelessly entangled in the web at which i had hitherto i fell violently in love i soon overcame the little that stood in my way and indeed i think miss rather helped me out about this i did not allow grass to grow under my feet or any impression i had made to become i quickly became acquainted with my like young lady that is to speak more exactly i got myself presented to her for my complete acquaintance with her was of later date when i had spent all the little i had i saw immediately that she knew the story of the though she did not at that time refer to it and so far i could tell she did not resent it she at least gave no sign of it i asked her to allow me to escort her to a but she had an engagement who is it i inquired rather she had a curious expression in her eyes which by the way were a cool blue or gray i never could be sure which and at times looked rather like steel she hesitated a moment and her little mouth drew in somewhat closely mr her voice was a singular instrument it had so great a compass and possessed some notes that affected me strangely but it also could be without by the least expression so it was now when she said mr but she colored slightly as i burst out did you ever see him dance i should soon have thought of your dancing with a clothes horse she appeared somewhat troubled does he dance so badly as that he told me he danced so he like this i gave an imitation of s in which i was so earnest that i knocked over a table and broke a fine lamp to my great consternation well you are observed miss calmly who struck me as not so much concerned at my misfortune as i might have expected when however she saw how really troubled i was she was more sympathetic perhaps if we go out they will not know who did it she observed well no i could not do that i	46
said thinking of and then as her expression did not change i fired a shot that i meant to tell would do that sort of thing shall tell them to this she made no reply she only look pretty but it often came back to me afterward how calmly and quite as a matter of course she suggested my concealing the accident and i wondered if she thought i was a liar she had a countenance that i once thought one of the most beautiful in the world but which changed rarely by john marvel assistant its only variations were from an beauty to a firmness yet that with her rather set expression and face her wide open round eyes and pink was as deep as a well and an well at that i soon all rivals was quickly disposed of though with his he still held on this bored me exceedingly and her too if i could judge by her ridicule of him and her sarcasm which he somehow appeared too stupid to see he however to my of his dancing for i was a good and in a very high collar and with very short trousers on his legs was really a fair mark miss was by no means indifferent to public opinion and a shaft of satire could penetrate her mail of complacency so when she returned later to the classic shades of the university as she did a number of times for and other social functions i made a good deal of hay a phrase of s of this stuck in my memory some one it was i think said that i appeared to be making hay and said yes i would be eating it some day i often wondered afterward how he stumbled on the those visits of my tall young cost me dear in the while the other fellows were i was lounging in the drawing room chattering nonsense or in the shade of the big trees in some secluded nook writing her very warm poems of the character which by says is hated both of and men several of these poems were published in the magazine the constant allusions to her physical charms caused to say that i evidently considered miss to be composed wholly of eyes and hair his observation that a man was a fool to write silly verses to a girl he loved because it gave her a wrong idea of her charms i at the time set down to sheer envy for could not turn a rhyme but since i have discovered that for a practical person like it has a foundation of truth y by the hare and the meantime my studies if any part of my occupation could be so termed suffered my appearance at the door with a which i flung away just in time not to carry it into the room together with my excuse of being unprepared moved the of my professors to the that i divided my time between a smoke and a flame it was only as the drew near that i began to appreciate that i would have the least trouble in making my tickets as the phrase went sam and my other friends had begun to be anxious for me for some time before and both and john marvel had come to me and suggested my working at least a little with delicacy and warmth john marvel with that awkward with which he always went at anything i felt perfectly easy in my mind then and met their entreaties scornfully why i did well enough at the i said yes but said john marvel was not here then i was conscious even though i liked the reference to of being a little but john marvel by the hare and the look so innocent and so hopelessly friendly that i passed it by with a laugh and paid miss more attention than ever the s had for a long time been in the general estimation as good as accorded me for i was a and i personally thought eloquent speaker and had some reading but when entered the debate his speeches so far mine that i knew at once that i was beat they appeared not so much prepared for show as mine were as to come from a of reading and reflection who had begun to speak without any design of entering the contest for the would generously have retired but i would not hear of that i called to account for a speech which i had heard of his making that the contest between a jew and a but he denied making it so i lost even that satisfaction i worked for the magazine but my poems to and to and my fanciful sketches though they were thought fine by our set did not in the estimation of the judges equal the serious and solemn essays on caesar and alexander to which the prize was at least the author of those essays had worked over them like a dog and in the light of experience i think he earned the i worked hard at least at the last for my law degree and every one was sure i would win as sure as that would lose but scraped through while mine was held up because the night before the by john marvel assistant degrees were posted i insisted on proving to the professor who had my fate in his hands and whom i casually ran into that a gentleman drunk was a gentleman sober the idea having been suggested to my brain by my having just been enough to put to bed i finally got the degree but not until i had been through many one of which was the sudden frost in miss s manner to me that girl was like autumn weather she could be as warm as	46
me on my degree he got much fuller than i got that and his real grief and shame were among the heaviest burdens i had to bear miss return home the next afternoon after the delivery of the and i heard that went off on the same train with her i expected some sympathy from the girl for whom my devotion had cost me so much but she was as cool and over my failure as if it had been s all she said was why did not you win the honors because i did not work enough for them why did not you work more i came near saying because i was around you but i simply said because i was so certain of winning them you showed rather bad judgment that was all the i received from her the old law professor when he took leave of me said and i remember said it gravely mr you have the burden of too many gifts to carry i was pleased by the speech and showed it he looked at me keenly from under his eyebrows i commend to you the fable of the hare and the we shall hear of i wondered how he knew i was thinking of with hb common face hard eyes and legs you shall hear of me too i declared with some he only smiled politely and made no answer by the hare and the i asked don t you think i have more sense more intellect than more yes much more more sense no remember the fable there are ways that you know not and paths that you have not tried oh that it is as old as humanity he said to scorn delights and live laborious days you will never do that will i left him angry and uncomfortable i had rather looked forward to going to the west to a near cousin of my father s who if report were true had made a fortune as a lawyer and an in a western city he and my father had been boys together but my cousin had gone west and when the war came he had taken the other side my father however always retained his respect for him and spoke of him with affection he had been to my home during my early college a big stolid strong faced man silent and cold but watchful and clear and had appeared to take quite a fancy to me en he gets through he had said to my father send him out to me that is the place for brains and ambition and i will see what is in him for you now that i had failed i could not write to him but as he had made a of my year and as he had written my father several times i rather expected he would open the way for me but no letter came so i was content to go to the capital of the state by ic vi the i am convinced now that as parents are the most creatures children are the brutes on earth i was too self absorbed to think of my kind father who had sacrificed everything to give me opportunities which i had thrown under the feet of and who now consoled and encouraged me without a word of censure though i was deeply grieved at the loss of my parents i did not know until years afterward what an and life long calamity that loss was my father appeared as much pleased with my single success as if i had brought him home the honors which i had been i would show him he gave me only two or three bits of advice before i left home be careful with other people s money and keep out of debt he said also have no dealings with a rascal no matter how tightly you think you can tie him up and his final counsel was marry a lady and do not marry a fool i wondered if he were thinking of however i had not the least doubt in my mind about winning success both with her and with that even more jealous mistress the law in fact i quite meant to things by the character of my career by the i started out well i took a good office on the street in one of the best office buildings an extravagance i could not afford had a little dark hole on the other side of the hall he made a half proposal to share my office with me but i could not stand that i however told him that he was welcome to use my office and books as much as he pleased and he soon made himself so much at home in my office that i think he rather fell into the habit of thinking my his own before i knew many people i worked hard read law and a great deal of other literature but this did not last long for i was social and made acquaintances easily moreover i soon began to get cases though they were too small to me quite below my abilities i thought so unless they promised me a chance of speaking before a jury i turned them over to who would bone at them and work like a horse though i often had to hunt up the law for him a labor i never knew him to acknowledge at first i used to correspond with both john marvel and but gradually i left their letters john who had gone west was too full of his country parish to interest me and s were too for me meantime i was getting on i was taken into the best social set in the city and was soon quite a favorite among them i was made a member of all the	46
as well as of the best club in town was welcomed in the game of the best fellows by john marvel assistant in town and was invited out so much that i really had no time to do much else than enjoy my social success but the chief of the many proofs i had was my restoration to s favor since i was become a sort of toast with those whose opinion she valued highly she was more cordial to me than ever and i was ready enough to let by be by and around the girl in the state daughter of a man who was president of a big bank and of a half dozen i was with her a great deal in fact before my second winter was out my name was coupled with hers by all of our set and many not in our set and about three evenings every week i was to be found in her somewhat steady smile either at some dance or other social entertainment strolling with her in the dusk on our way home from the fashionable of street which for some reason she always liked though i would often have preferred some walk or lounging on her covered sofa in her back drawing room i should have liked it better had taken the hint that most of my other friends had taken and kept away from her house on those evenings which by a consent of nearly every one were left for my visits but who now professed a great friendship for me must take to coming on precisely the evenings i had selected for my calls he never wore a collar that fitted him and his boots were never miss used to laugh at him and call him the indeed so much that i more than once told by the her that while i was not an admirer of myself i thought the fact that he was really in love with her ought to secure him from her sarcasm we had quite a stiff quarrel over the matter and i told her what our old law professor had said of i had rather thought that possibly mr knowing of the growing relation of intimacy between myself and his daughter would throw a little of his law business my way but he never did he did in fact once consult me at hb own house about some extensive interests that he owned and represented together in a railway in a western city but though i took the trouble to hunt iq the matter and send him a brief on the point carefully prepared he did not employ me and evidently considered that i had acted only as a friend it was in this investigation that i first heard of the name and also of the p d and b d r r co i heard long afterward that he said i had too many interests to suit him that he wanted a lawyer to give him all his intellect and not it on politics literature sport and he did not know what besides this was a dig at my rising aspirations in each of these fields for i used to write now r for the newspapers and had one or two articles accepted by a leading monthly magazine a success on which even congratulated me though he said that as for him he preferred the law to any other entertainment my newspaper work attracted sufficient attention to inspire me with the idea of running for and i began to set my traps and lay my for that by john marvel assistant success appeared to wait for me and my beginning was are fatal the soon into outer darkness the outer darkness of the infinite abyss i took it for success and presumed accordingly and finally i came down i played my game too carelessly i began to just a at first but more largely after awhile there i appeared to find my proper field for i made money almost immediately and i spent it freely and after i had made a few thousands i was r with respect by my circle i began to make money so much more easily by this means than i had ever done by the law that i no longer thought it worth while to stay in my office as i had done at first but spent my time in a flock of other in front of a in a s office on chances which had already been decided in offices five hundred miles away thus though i worked up well the cases i had and was fairly successful with them i found my in time drifting away to other men not half as clever as i was who had no other aim than to be lawyers got some of my indeed one of my in warning me against which he said ruined more young men than and drink together told me he had learned of my habit through was always in his office or mine i had made some reputation however as a speaker and as i had taken an active part in politics and had many friends i stood a good chance for the by the s but i had to fly higher i wanted to go to i kept a pair of horses now since i was so successful and used to hunt in the season with other gay or spend my riding with miss who used to look well on horseback we often passed along alone stolid and solemn taking his constitutional he said i remember once as we passed him i recalled what the old professor had said of him and i added that i would not be as dull as for a fortune do you know said miss i do not think him so dull he has improved sat me out a few nights	46
and i told her up and down that if she would marry me i would win i shall never forget the picture as she stood by the heavy marble mantel in her father s drawing room tall and and very handsome she might have been marble herself like the mantel she was so cold and i suddenly aroused by the shock was on fire with resolve and fierce hunger for by the she did not hesitate a moment and i walked out she had given me a deep i saw the sun rise in the streets within two weeks i had made all my arrangements had closed up my affairs given up everything in the world i had executed my notes to my and told them they were not worth a cent unless i lived in which case they would be worth principal and interest sold my law books to for a price which made his eyes had given him my for the term and was gone to the west the night i left i called to see the young lady again a piece of weakness but i hated to give up she looked unusually handsome i believe if she had said a word or had looked sweet at me i might have stayed and i know i should have remained in love with her but she did neither when i told her i was going away she said where v that was every word in just such a tone as if she had met me on the comer and i had said i was going to walk she was standing by the mantel with her arm resting lightly on the marble i said god only knows but somewhere far enough away when are you coming back never oh yes you will she said coolly arranging a so coolly that it stung me like a serpent and brought me on my feet no i will not i said good by by john marvel assistant ood by she gave me her hand and it was as cool as her voice by and mine was as cold a if i were dead i swear i believe sometimes i did die right there before her and that a new man took my place within me at any rate my love for her died slain by the ice in her heart and the foolish i was passed into a man of resolution as i walked out of her gate i met going in and i did not care i did not even hate him i remember that his collar was up to his ears i heard afterward that she accepted him that same week for some inexplicable reason i thought of john marvel as i walked home i suddenly appeared nearer to him than i had done since i left and i r not having answered his simple affectionate letters i started west that night y by vn the in my manage was a bull bow legged and bold at least declared to be a bull of purest blood when he sold him to me for five dollars and a suit of clothes that had cost sixty i found later that he had given a quarter for him to a n ro stable boy who had been sent to dispose of him like the american people he was of many strains but like the american people he proved to have good stuff in him and he had the soul of a lion one eye was a of some early and insolence to some decisive cat his ears had been and one out the other in and his tail had been badly but was as expressive as the s eloquent stump he feared and followed but he adored me and to be adored by woman or dog is something for any man to show at the last day to lie and at me by the hour was his chief occupation to crawl up and my hand or failing that my boot was his heaven i always felt that with all my faults which none knew like myself there must be some good in me to inspire so devoted a love when i determined to leave for the west the night of my final break with in my selfishness i by john marvel assistant forgot but when i reached home that night and solitary there was with his earnest gaze his shrewd eye fixed on me and his friendly twist of the back his joy at my mere presence consoled me and gave me spirit though it did not my decision who had followed me from college at times hung around my office carried miss my notes and flowers and in the hour of my prosperity out in a of apparel that partly accounted for my heavy expense account as well as for the rapid disappearance of the little private stock i occasionally kept or tried to keep in a looking desk which i used as a for myself and friends he usually wore an old suit of mine in which he looked well but on occasions he wore a long coat a red and a large soft light hat which cocked on the side of hb head gave him the air of an indian i think he considered himself in some sort a partner he always referred to me and my business as us and our business and on some one s asking him if he were a partner of mine he replied oh no sir only what you might term a minor of the captain he was however a very useful fellow being ready to do anything in the world i ordered except when he was tight or had some piece of on foot occasions by no means rare he wore at election time a large and flaming announcing that he was something in his party the opposite	46
party to mine but i have reason to believe that when i was in politics he himself freely and by the committed other crimes against the purity of the on which declare all representative government is founded one of my ardent friends once informed me that he thought i ought not to allow to wear that it was insulting me openly i told him that he was a fool that i was so afraid would on my wearing one too i was quite willing to compromise in fact i had gotten rather dependent on him he and i held such identical views as to not to mention some other mutual acquaintances and could show his contempt in such insolent ways i had intimated to some time before immediately after my first serious reverse in the stock market that i was no longer as as i had been and that unless affairs looked up i might move on to fresh or possibly i put it to a wider field for the exercise of my powers whereupon he promptly indicated his intention to accompany me and share my f h tune but i must say he i owed plainly his belief that it was a richer pasture which i was contemplating moving into and he viewed the prospect with a satisfaction much like that of a cat which in the act of milk has cream set before it the only thing that puzzled him was that he could not understand why i wanted more than i had he said so plainly what you want to go for cap n t you stay where you is you done beat em all one of em oh no i haven t by john marvel assistant go way here you is an you know you s the reason you carry yo head so high he little knew the true reason an if you hadn t all you got to do is to walk in yonder up yonder with a toss of his head in the direction of miss s home an hang up your hat and den you ain got to do but write yo i laughed at s idea of the situation and of old s son in law s position but it was rather a laugh than he suspected to soothe my conscience and also to draw him out i said though i did not then really think it possible why she s going to marry turned around and actually out his disgust what man i then as he looked at me to assure himself that i was and finding a shade less amusement in my countenance than he had expected he uttered a wise speech well i tell you cap n if man her he ought to have her cause he done win her an you ain t know how to play de game you done de wrong card i acknowledged in my heart that he had hit the mark and i laughed a less bitterly which he felt as did lying against my foot which he suddenly licked twice an i ll tell you another thing you s well rid of her ef she likes man let him have her and you another one der s plenty mo as good and by the better too and you ll meek her sorry some day s de way i does if wants somebody else i let s em have em it s better to let em have em than after when walked out of my room he had on a suit which i had not had three months and a better suit than i was able to buy again in as many years but he had paid me well for it i had in mind his wise saying when i faced without a cent on earth with all gone except my new bom resolution and offered her only myself and as i walked out of her gate i consoled myself with s wisdom when i left miss i walked straight home and having let nobody know i spent the evening packing up and destroying old letters and papers and odds and ends among them all of s and other at first i found myself tending to reading over and keeping a few letters and but as i glanced over the letters and found how stiff measured and vacant her letters were as compared with my burning in which i had out my heart my wrath rose and i consigned them all to the flames whose heat was the only warmth they had ever known i was in the midst of this sombre occupation with no companion but my angry reflections and no witness but who was plainly aware that something was going on and showed hb intense anxiety in the only method that dull humanity has yet learned to catalogue as dog talk by moving around his stump of a twist tail and making odd uneasy sounds and move by john marvel assistant ments his evident anxiety about me presently attracted my attention and i began to think what i should do with him i knew old mrs would take and care for him as she would for anything of mine but though the best tempered of had his standards which he lived up to like a gentleman and he no insolence from his or equals and admitted no moreover he needed out door exercise as all sound creatures do and this poor old mrs could not give him i discarded for one reason or another my many acquaintances and gradually took in my mind and held it against all reasoning he was drunken and worthless he would possibly at times neglect and at others would certainly testify his pride in him and prove his confidence by making him fight but he adored the dog and he feared me somewhat as i wavered there was	46
i said look at yes i m and he was i am going away to night well i m width you i ain stay by myself after you and is gone no you can t do that i don t know yet exactly where i am going i have not yet decided i am going west to a big city s where i want to go interrupted and when i get settled i ll send for i m going to leave him with you by the yes i ll ted of him sure i ll match him against any in town he can kill of s no if you put him in a fight i ll kill you the first time i see you d you hear yes i ain put him in no fight but ef he in a fight you know he s a mighty high spirited he don like to come him hit sort o him an ef he should i ll whip you as sure as you live ef he should if you let him no i ain let him you him me and though i knew that he was lying i was content to leave the dog with him for i was obliged to leave him with and i knew he loved this dog and hoped my threat would at least keep him from anything that might hurt him i drifted out to the club later and casually dropped the information that i was going away i do not think it made much impression on my friends there in fact i hardly think they took the information seriously they were a kindly lot but took life and me lightly when i left town at midnight the rain was pouring do m and there was no one at the dreary station to see me off but and and as the train pulled out i stood on the platform to say good by to who was waving his right hand sadly while with the other he the collar of the dejected who with his eyes on me struggled and by john marvel assistant suddenly turned on his with a and snap which startled so that he let him go then whirling about he tore after the train which was just beginning to its speed he had to rush over ties and rods but he caught up and made a spring for the step he made good his footing but was running and waving wildly and with his voice in my ears i pushed the dog oflf with my foot and saw him roll over between the tracks nothing however he picked himself up and with another rush sprang again for the step this time only his caught and he hung on by them for a second then b an to slip inch by inch he was slipping off as i stood watching him when imder an impulse fearing that he might be killed i hastily and with a sudden something in my throat reached down and caught him just in time to pull him up and taking him in my arms i bore him into the car i confess that as i felt him my hands a warmer feeling than i had had for some time came around my heart which had been like a lump of ice during these last days and i was glad no one was near by who knew me i made up my mind that come what might i would hold on to my one faithful friend y by vm i first went to the town in which lived the relative the cousin of my father s whom i have mentioned it was a busy city and he was the head of the bar in his state a man of large interests and influence i knew my father s regard for him i think it was this and his promise about me that made me go to him now i thought he might help me at least with advice for i had his name i left my trunk and at the hotel and called on him at hb large office in my loneliness i was full of a new bom feeling of affection for this sole i thought perhaps he might possibly even make me an offer to remain with him and eventually succeed to his practice i had not seen him two seconds however before i knew this was folly when i had sent in my name by an eyed office boy i was kept waiting for some time in the outer office where the office boy loudly an apple and a couple of clerks whispered to each other with their eyes on the private office door and when i was ushered in he gave me a single keen look as i entered and went on writing without asking me to sit down and i would not sit without an invitation when he had finished he looked up and nodded his head with a sort of jerk toward a chair he by john marvel assistant was a large man with a large head short gray hair a strong nose a heavy chin and gray eyes close together without the either of age or of youth i took a step toward him and in some embarrassment began to speak rapidly i called him cousin for blood had always for a great deal with us and i had often heard my father speak of him with pride but his sharp look stopped me take a seat he said more in a tone of than of invitation and called me it was like plunging me into a colder atmosphere i did not sit down but i was so far into my sentence i could not well stop so i went on and asked him what he thought of my settling there growing more	46
and more embarrassed and hot with every word have you any money he asked shortly not a cent well i have none to lend you you need not count on me i would advise but i did not wait for him to finish i had got hold of myself and was self possessed enough now i did not ask you to lend me any money either i said myself up i did ask you to give me some advice but now i do not want that or anything else you have d n you i made a mistake in coming to you for i am abundantly able to take care of myself of course i know now that he had something on his side he supposed me a weak worthless dog if not a dead beat but i was so angry with him i could by not help saying what i did i stalked out and the door behind me with a bang that made the glass in the rattle and the two or three young men busy in the outer looked up in wonder i went straight to the hotel and took the train to the biggest city my money would get me to i thought a big city offered the best chances for me and at least would hide me i think the fact that i had once written a brief for mr in the matter of his interest in car lines there influenced me in my selection i travelled that night and the next day and the night following and partly because my money was running low and partly on s account i rode in a day coach the first night and day passed well enough but the second night i was tired and dusty and lonely on the train that night i spent some serious hours disappointment is the mother of depression and the grandmother of reflection i took stock of myself and tried to peer into the dim and misty future and it was gloomy work only one who has started out with the world in fee and after throwing it away in sheer of folly suddenly up to find himself of all he had in his pride a s and wanderer on the face of the earth may imagine what i went through i learned that night what the exile feels i dimly felt what the outcast experiences and i was sensible that i had brought it all on myself i had wasted all my substance in living and i had no father to return to nothing not even swine to keep in a strange land i by john marvel assistant faced myself on the train that night and the i gazed on i admitted to be a fool the train and hot and and stopped and still i was conscious of only that process of self facing the image of the haunted me at times i or even slept very soundly though doubled up like a jack knife as i was i could not myself even in my sleep but when i there was still grim lonely haunting me like a corpse chained to my side i was recalled to myself at last by the of children packed in a seat across the aisle from me they had all piled in together the first night somewhere with much excitement they were now hungry and and wretched there were five of them and complaining to their mother who worn and herself yet never lost patience with one or raised her voice above the soothing pitch in all her at first i was annoyed by them then i was amused then i wondered at her and at last i almost envied her so lonely was i and so content was she with her little brood on to the train the second night was a private car said to be that of connected with a of the road the name of the official which i learned later was the same as that of an old college friend of my father s and i had often heard my father mention him as his successful rival with his first sweet by heart and he used to my mother by recalling the charms of the young lady in question whose red golden hair he declared the most beautiful hair that ever crowned a mortal head while my mother i remember insisted that her hair was merely and that her beauty though was of the order a shaft which was will aimed for my mother s beauty was of the delicate aristocratic type the fact was that mr had been a of hers before my father met her and having been discarded by her had consoled himself with the pretty girl to whom my father had been attentive before he met and fell head over heels in love with a new star at a ball mr i knew had gone west and grown up to be a banker and i wondered vaguely if by any chance he could be the same person the train should have reached my destination in time for breakfast and we had all looked forward to it and made our arrangements accordingly the engine however which had been put on somewhere during the night had given out and we were not only some hours late but were no longer able to keep steadily even the s pace at which we had been crawling all night the final stop came on a long in a stretch of broken settled and though once heavily wooded now almost here the engine after a last futile gasping effort finally gave up and the engineer descended for the time to see what he could do about it to make matters worse the by john marvel assistant water in our car had given out and though we had been passing streams a little before there was no	46
the same occupation as ourselves her back was toward us but her figure was straight and and her motions easy and full of spring the sight of the young lady so fresh and cool with the morning sun shining on a thick of shining hair quite revived me i drew near to get a good look at her and also to be within shot of a chance to speak to her should opportunity if i were a trying to describe her i should say that she was standing just at the foot of a bank with a of green bushes behind her her arms full of flowers which she had gathered for all these were there and might have been created by john marvel assistant there for her so harmonious were they with the fresh young face above them and the form which clasped them i might further have her to with her young arms full of blossoms from for she resembled her in other ways than in embracing flowers and breathing fragrance as she stood in the morning light but truth to tell it was only later that i thought of these the first impression i received as it will be the last was of her eyes and snow white teeth changing expression where light and shadow played with every varying feeling and where color came and went like roses thrown on lilies and lilies on roses all came to me later on but that was in another phase her eyes were what i saw at first and never since have i seen the morning or the evening star swimming in rosy light but they have come back to me i remember i wore a blue suit and had on an old cap which i had gotten once when on a short with a friend i was feeling quite pleased with myself she suddenly turned are you the no i am not i could scarcely help laughing at my sudden fall but perhaps i can serve you i added oh i i beg pardon no i thank you i only wanted to ask however it is nothing had on being let out and satisfying himself that i was coming along made a wild dash down the bank and alongside the train and now on his return rush catching sight of the young lady in her fresh frock without waiting for the formality of an introduction by he made a dash for her and sprang up on her as if he had known her all his life i called to him but it was too late and before i could stop him he was up telling her what after my first look at her i should have liked to tell her myself what a sweet charming creature we thought her had no scruples of false pride by a foolish of so called society he her and said so and she liked him for it while i was glad to shine for a moment in the reflected glory of being his master what a fine dog she exclaimed as she patted him addressing the children who with soiled clothes and heads were gazing at the and span apparition in open mouthed wonder how i envy you such a dog he ain t ours he belongs to him said the child pointing to me as i stooped at a little pretending to pull blossoms while i listened oh i who is he is he your father my face was averted no we don t know who he is he just took us so took you so you see explained the next older one our mother she s got the baby and and the gentleman he said he would take us and get some wild flowers because we hadn t had any breakfast and that dog but the dog was forgotten on the instant have not had any breakfast exclaimed the yoimg lady with astonishment by john marvel assistant no you see we had some bread last night but that s given out she ate the last piece last night she pointed at the smallest child and we were so hungry she cried and mamma cried and that gentleman by this time i had turned and i now stepped forward i confess that as i turned wrath was in my heart but at sight of that face in its sympathy my anger died away oh i and to think what i wasted how did it happen the train was late and they had expected to get in to breakfast but the engine gave out i explained and they have not had any breakfast no one on the train you see in the oldest girl glad to be able to add information the train s heavy anyway and they put a private car on and it was more than the engine could pull that s all that s the matter the young lady turned to me do you mean that our car has caused all this trouble i nodded i don t know about all but it helped you poor little i she said rushing to the children come with me and taking the youngest child by the hand she to the rear steps of the car with the others close behind while who appeared to know what was in store walked close beside her knee as much as to say don t leave me out by as the train stood on an the step was too high for her to climb up so i offered to put the children up on the top step for her then came the difficulty of her getting up herself she called the porter but the door was shut and there was no answer let me help you up too i said here you can reach the rail and step in my hand and spring up i can help you perfectly well as	46
though you were mounting a horse i added seeing her hesitate and without giving her time to think i stooped and lifted her to the step as she sprang up the door opened and a lady richly dressed and with several diamond rings on came out on the platform she gazed on the little group with astonishment why what is this who are these they are some poor children who have had no breakfast and i am going to give them some why they can t come in here my dear those dirty little come in our it is impossible my dear oh no it is not said the young girl with a laugh they have had no breakfast give them food my dear if you please but i beg you not to bring them into this car look how dirty they are i why they might give us all some terrible disease i but miss had closed her ears to the plump lady s and was arranging with a servant for something to eat for the children and just then the question of their invasion of the car was by john marvel assistant settled by the train s starting i undertook to run forward alongside the car but seeing an open ahead by a and that the train was its speed i caught and threw him up on the rear platform and then swung myself up after him the rear door was still unlocked so i opened it to pass through the car just inside the elderly lady was sitting back in an arm chair with a novel in her lap though she was engaged at the moment in softly her nails she stopped long enough to raise her and take a shot at me through it are you the she called no madame i said grimly thinking well i must have a s air to day will you ring that certainly i rang and passing on was met by the porter coming to answer the bell this is a private car he said my way i know it i looked him in the eye you can t go th oo this car yes lean i have got to go through it move out of my way my tone and manner impressed him and he moved aside muttering to himself and i passed on just conscious that the stout lady had posted herself at the opening of the passage way behind and had beckoned to the porter who sprang toward her with alacrity as i passed through the open saloon the by young lady was engaged in supplying my little charges with large plates of bread and butter while a grinning in his white apron and cap was bringing a yet further supply she turned and smiled to me as i passed won t you have something too it is a very poor apology for a breakfast for we had finished and cleared away but if these little don t appear to think so i said my ill humor under her smile well won t you have something i declined this in my best manner that i must go ahead and tell their mother what a good fairy they had found it is nothing to think of these poor little things being kept without breakfast all morning my father will be very much disturbed to find that this car has caused the delay not if he is like his sister i thought to myself but i only bowed and said i will come back in a little while and get them for their mother to which she replied that she would send them to their mother by the porter thereby cutting off a chance which i had myself of possibly getting another glimpse of her but the sight of myself at this moment in a mirror hastened my departure a large of black was across my face evidently from a hand of one of the children the prints of the fingers in black were plain on my cheek while a broad ran across my nose no wonder they thought me a by john marvel assistant as i reached the front door of the ear i found it locked and i could not open it at the same moment the porter appeared behind me ef you ll out of my way i ll open it he said in a tone so insolent that my rose i stood aside and still muttering to himself he unlocked the door and with his hand on the stood aside for me to pass as i passed i turned to look for who was following me and i caught the words i se tired o po white folks and dogs in my car at the same moment passed and he gave him a kick which drew a little of surprise from him my blood suddenly boiled the door was still open and quick as light i caught the porter by the collar and with a jerked him out on the platform the door to as he came and i had him to myself with my hand still on his throat i gave him a shake that made his teeth rattle you black scoundrel i said furiously i have a good mind to fling you oflf thb train and break your neck the negro s face was indeed he said i didn mean no harm in the world by what i said if i had known you was one of i d a never said a word nor that i wouldn an i wouldn a your for no well i u teach you i said i ll teach you to keep a civil tongue in your head at least yes yes he said i always is i always by tries to be i just know nor i your pardon i didn mean in the now go in there and learn to behave yourself in the future	46
i said yes i will and with another bow and a side look at who was now growling he let himself in at the door and i passed on forward y by ix i pitch my tent when a later my small charges were brought back to their mother to whom i had explained their absence it was by the young lady herself and i never saw a more grateful picture than that young girl in her fresh travelling costume those children down the car aisle her greeting of the tired mother was a refreshment and a minute after she had gone the mother me a part of a substantial supply of which she had brought her so that i found myself not quite so much in sympathy as before with the criticism of the road that was now being freely about the car and which appeared to have made all the passengers as one not long after this we dropped the private car at a station and proceeded on without it we had however not gone far when we stopped and were run into a and again waited and after a time a train by us a special train with but two private cars on it it was going at a rate but it did not run so fast that we did not recognize the private car we had dropped some way back and it soon became known throughout our train that we had been to let a special with private cars have the right of way i by i pitch my tent confess that my rose at this and when the man h front of me declared that we were the most patient people on earth to give public pay for travelling on trains run by virtue of them and then stand being aside and out of all reason to allow a lot of dead heads to go ahead of us in their special trains i in with him heartily well the road belongs to them don t it inquired a thin man with a voice that was s private train and he took on the car at that station back there they own the road i how do they own it how did they get it demanded the first speaker warmly why you know how they got it got it in the panic that is they got the interest yes and then ran the stock down till they had got control and then and cut out those that wouldn t sell or couldn t the and and that s the way they got it well the court it yes under the law they had had made themselves to suit themselves you know how twas you were there when twas done and saw how they flung their money around or rather the money for i don t believe and his set own the stock at all i ll bet a thousand dollars that every share is up as in old s bank oh well it s all the same thing they stand m together they run the bank the bank money by john marvel assistant they buy the stock and put it up for the loan and then run the road and us in the other for they had now gotten into a high good humor with each other they get our and our money and then side track us without breakfast while they go by in cars that they call theirs but which we pay for i do think we are the biggest fools i that s i said his friend again you ve been reading that fellow s articles in the sunday papers what s his name no i ve been thinking i don t care what it is it s the truth and i m tired of it they say he s a jew interrupted the former i don t care what he is it s the truth asserted the other well i rather think it is agreed his friend but then i m hungry and there isn t even any water on the car and they champagne i sneered the other which we pay for he added you re a yes in a small way but i might as well own stock in a company to hell my father helped to build this road and used to take great pride in it they used to give the then a free ride once a year to the annual meeting and it made them all feel as if they owned the road but now they give free passes not to the but to the and the judges by i pitch my tent it pays better said his friend and they both laughed it appeared indeed rather a good joke to them or at least there was nothing which they could do about it so they might as well take jt good by this time i had learned that my neighbor with the five children was the wife of a man named who was a but had been thrown out of work by a strike in another city and after waiting around for months had gone north to find employment and having at last gotten it had no sent for them to come on she had not seen him for months and she was looking forward to it now with a happiness that was quite touching even the of the night could not dull her joy in the anticipation of meeting her husband and she constantly her little brood with the prospect of soon seeing their dear finally after midday we arrived i shall never forget the sight and smells of that station if i live to be a thousand years old it seemed to me a sort of temporary resting place for lost souls and i was one of them had known it	46
he must have pictured it with its and the procession of tired travellers that streamed in through the black to meet worn with wan smiles on their tired faces or to look anxiously and in vain for friends who had not come or else who had come and gone and outside the roar of the current that swept through the black street i had no one to look for so after helping my neighbor by john marvel assistant and her little brood i sauntered along with at my heel feeling about as lonely as a man can feel on this earth after gazing about and refusing sternly to meet the eye of any of the numerous who wildly waved their toward me shouting with i had about made up my mind to take the least noisy of them when i became conscious that my fellow traveller mrs with her little was passing out of the station and was looking about in a sort of lost way on my speaking to her her face brightened for a moment but clouded again instantly as she said oh sir he s gone he came to meet me this morning but the train was late and he couldn t wait or he d lose his job so he had to go and the kind man at the gate told me he left the message for me but however shall i get there with all the children for i haven t a cent left i the tears up in her eyes as she came to her sad little confession and i said well i think we can manage it somehow you have his address yes sir i have it here and she pulled out an empty little pocket book from the breast of her worn frock and while she gave the baby to the eldest girl to hold opened the purse in it was only a letter and besides this a key these were all she opened the letter tenderly and handed it to me i read the address and fastened it in my memory now i said we ll this out directly i turned and called a i want a carriage by i pitch my tent there was a rush but i was firm and insisted on a hack however as none was to be had i was fain to content myself with a one horse cab of much greater age than them in and directing the driver to go around and get the trunk from the baggage room i beside him and took between my feet and one of the children in my arms and thus made my entry into the city of my home my loneliness had somehow disappeared my g e s destination turned out to be a long way off quite in one of the of the city where working people had their little homes a region i was to become better acquainted with later as we began to pass and cook shops the children began once more to to their mother for something to eat on which the poor thing tried to quiet them with promises of what they should have when they reached home but i could perceive that her heart was low within her and i stopped at a cook shop and bought a liberal allowance of bread and jam and on which the young things fell to like wolves while their mother overwhelmed me with blessings we had not gone far and were still in the centre of the city when a handsome open carriage drove by us and as it passed there sat in it the young lady i had seen on the train with a pleasant looking elderly man whom i d to be her father and who appeared in a very good with her or himself as i was gazing at them her eyes fell full into mine and after a by john marvel assistant half moment s she recognized me as i lifted my hat and her face lit up with a pleasant smile of recognition i found my feelings divided between pleasure at her sweet return of my bow and that she should find me in such a for i knew what a ridiculous figure i must cut with the dog between my feet and a child thickly with jam in my arms in fact i could see that the girl was talking and laughing with her father evidently about us i confess to a feeling of shame at the figure i must cut and i wondered if she would not think i had lied to her in saying that i had never met them before i did not know that the smile had been for when we reached after a good hour s drive the little street for which we were bound i found my fairly correct the dingy little house on which was the number given mrs in her husband s letter was shut up and bore no evidence of having been opened except a small flower pot with a of green in it in a dusty window it was the sort of house that b a stove in summer and an ice box in the winter and there was a whole street of them after we had knocked several times and i had tried to peep over the fence at the end of the street the door of an adjoining opened and a woman peeped out are you mrs she asked yes well here s your key your man told me to tell you t if you came while he was at work you d find by i pitch my tent something to eat in the back room t he d cooked this before he went to work the train was late he said and he couldn t wait but he d be home tonight and he d bring some coal when	46
he came what a fine lot o children you have they ought to keep you in and wood i wish i had some as big as that but mine are all little my two eldest died of scarlet fever two years ago they said she had come out and unlocked the door was now turning away i think your man had to take the upstairs front room but he didn t come you ll have to get to do it and you double up the estate charges such rent we all have to do that well if i can help you i m right here i was struck by her kindness to the forlorn stranger and the latter s touching recognition of it expressed more in looks and in tone than in words having helped them into the house which was empty only one room having even a pretence of in it and that merely a bed a and a broken stove i gave the poor woman a little of my slender stock of money and left her murmuring her thanks and assurances that i had already done too much for them in fact i had done nothing as my were very low i determined to find a boarding house instead of wasting them at a hotel accordingly stopped at a house which i recognized as a boarding house on a street in a neighborhood by john marvel assistant which might from the old houses with their handsome doors and windows have once been fashionable though fashion had long since taken its flight to a and part of the town and the were now giving place to shops and small a wide door with a fan shaped gave it dignity a large vine up to the top of a somewhat porch with classical pillars lent it distinction the landlady mrs a pleasant looking kindly woman offered me a small back room on reasonable terms it being as she said the dull season and having arranged for in a dingy little livery stable near by i took it temporarily till i could look around i foimd the company somewhat all the way from old ladies with false fronts and cracked voices to young travelling men and their rather sad looking wives among the the two who interested me most were two elderly ladies sisters whose acquaintance i made the day after my arrival they did not take their meals at the common table but as i understood in their own apartment in the third story they were a quaint and pathetic pair very meagre very shabby and very poor there was an air of mystery about them and mrs treated them with a respect which she paid to no others of her household they occasionally honored the sitting room with their presence on sunday evenings by mrs s especial invitation and i was much diverted with them they were by i pitch my tent known as the miss but mrs always spoke of them as miss and miss it seems that she had known them in her youth back east my acquaintance with the two old ladies at this time was entirely accidental the morning after my arrival as i started out to look around for an office and also to take for a walk as well as to take a look at the city i fell in with two quaint looking old women who slipped out of the door just ahead of me one of them slightly lame and each with a large bundle in her arms they were dressed in rusty black and each wore a veil which quite concealed her features but as they along engaged in an animated conversation their voices were so refined as to arrest my attention and i was guilty of the of listening to them partly out of sheer idleness and partly because i wanted to know something of my boarding house and of my fellow they were talking about a ball of the night before an account of which they had read in the papers or rather as i learned in a copy of a paper which they had borrowed and they were as much interested in it as if they had been there themselves oh wouldn t you have liked to see it said one it must have been beautiful i should have liked to see miss i could not catch the name she must have been exquisite in and lace she b so lovely anyhow i did not know she had returned i wonder mr did not tell us again i failed to hear the name by john marvel assistant for a very good reason i suppose he did not know he is dead in love with her oh you are so romantic said the other whom i took from her figure and her to be the elder of the two no but any one can tell that at a glance what a pity he could not marry her then we should be sure to see her as a bride the other laughed what an ideal we have nothing fit to go even to the church in why we could go in the gallery oh this bundle is so heavy i don t believe i can ever get there to day oh yes you can now come on don t give up here rest it on the fence a moment as the lame one attempted to lift the bundle to rest it on the fence it slipped to the ground and she gave a little exclamation of fear oh dear suppose it should get soiled i stepped forward and lifted it for her and to my surprise found it very heavy then as they thanked me it occurred to me to to carry the bundle for them to the street car for which i supposed them bound there was a little and i added i am at mrs	46
s also i have just come this appeared to relieve one of them at least but the other said oh but we are not going to the street car we don t ride in street cars yes it is so said the younger one people catch all sorts of diseases on the car by i pitch my tent thinking them rather airy i was about to hand the bundle back but as i was going their way i offered to carry the bundles for both of them as far as i was going thb proved to be quite twenty blocks for i could not in decency return the bundles so we went on together i feeling at heart rather ashamed to be two large bundles through the streets for two very shabby looking old women whose names i did not know we soon however b an to talk and i drew out from them a good deal about mrs and her kindness also that they had seen much better days to which one of them particularly was very fond of referring it seemed that they had lived they carefully guarded the exact place and had once had interests in a railroad which their father had built and largely owned they were anxious to make this clearly after his death they had lived on their until on a sudden the had stopped they found that the railroad with which their road connected had passed into new hands had been bought up by a great their lawyer had informed them and refused any longer to make traffic arrangements with the road this had destroyed the value of their property but they had refused to sell their at the low price as we probably ought to have done sighed one of them not at all i am glad we didn t asserted the other well we got we lost everything didn t we by john marvel assistant i don t know i am only glad that we held out that man knows that he robbed us well that doesn t help us yes it does it helps me to know that he knows it who was it i asked oh there was a i only know the names of two of them a man named and a man named and our lawyer was named was a name which i recalled in connection with mr s interest in the in the case i have mentioned well you held on to your stock you have it now then i foresaw a possible law case against and wondered if he was the owner of the estate which i had already heard of twice since my arrival no said one of them they bought up the stock of all the other people and then they did something which cut us out entirely what was it they did and then we came on here to see about it and spent everything else that we had in trying to get it back but we lost our case and since then well sister we are keeping the thank you very much said the younger of the two quickly to which her sister added her thanks as well i insisted at first on going further with them but seeing that they were anxious to be rid of me i gave them their bundles and passed on by i pitch my tent among the one of those i found most interesting was a man named by whom i sat at the first meal after my arrival and with whom i struck up an acquaintance he was a for a morning paper of very advanced methods and he was pre eminently a person fitted for his position a youth with a long keen nose and a bullet head covered with rather black hair heavy black brows over keen black eyes and an ugly mouth with rather small teeth he had as absolute confidence in himself as any youth i ever met and he either had or made a good pretence of having an intimate knowledge of not only all the public affairs of the city but of the private affairs of every one in the city before we had finished smoking our he had given me what he termed the lay out of the entire and by his account it was the town in the universe a view i subsequently had reason to and he proposed to get out of it as soon as he could and go to new york which to his mind was the only town worth living in in the country he having as i learned later lived there just three weeks his paper he said frankly paid only for articles and was just then jumping on a lot of the high because that paid but they gave him a latitude to write up whatever he pleased because they knew he could dress up anything from a murder to a missionary meeting oh i it don t matter what you write about said he so you know how to do it a bit of criticism suggestive of a better known by john marvel assistant i was much impressed by his extraordinary and extensive experience in the com e of our conversation i mentioned casually the episode of the delayed train and the private car the car you say i told him that that was what some one had said that would make a good story he declared i think i ll write that up i d have all the babies dying and the mothers fainting and an accident just barely averted by a little girl waving a red shawl see while the car dashed by with a party eating and drinking and throwing champagne bottles out of the window but i ve got to go and see the mayor to ascertain why he appointed the new city and	46
then i ve got to drop by the theatre and the new play a roast so i ll hardly have time to roast those and though i d like to do it to teach them not to refuse me round trip passes next time i ask for them i tell you what you do he added modestly you write it up you say you have written for the press oh i yes very often and for the magazines i have had stories published in well that s all right was not a good listener i ll look it over and touch it up put the fire in it and polish it off you write it up say about a column i can cut it down all right and call by here for it about eleven after the theatre it was a cool request coolly made but i was fool enough to to it i felt much over the by i pitch my tent treatment of us by the railway company and was not sorry to air my grievance at the same time that i secured a possible opening i accordingly spent all the afternoon writing my of the inconvenience and distress occasioned the travelling public by the of the railway management discussing by the way the principle of in public and showing that all rights which they claimed were derived from the people i mentioned no names and veiled my allusions but i paid a tribute to the kind heart of the angel of mercy who the children i spent some hours at my composition and took much pride in it when completed then as i had not been out at all to see the town i d the envelope in which i had placed my story to mr and leaving it for him walked out into the wilderness on my return the paper was gone next morning i picked up one paper after another but did not at first find my contribution an account of a grand ball the night before at which an extraordinary display of wealth must have been made was given the prominent place in most of them but as i did not know the persons whose were described with such richness of i passed it by the only thing referring to a railway journey was a article in a sheet called the trumpet headed of banker railway president poor passengers there under these glaring by john marvel assistant i at last discovered my article so distorted and as to be scarcely the main facts of the delay and its cause were there as i wrote them my discussion of rights was retained but the motive was boldly declared to be brutal hatred of the poor and to make it worse the names of both mr and mrs were given as having been present in person over the misery they had caused while a young lady whose name was not given had thrown scraps out of the window for starving children and dogs to scramble for to say that i was angry expresses but a small part of the truth the allusion to the young lady had made my blood boil what would she think if she should know i had had a hand in that paper i waited at red heat for my young man and had he appeared before i cooled down he would have paid for the liberty he took with me when he did appear however he was so innocent of having offended me that i could scarcely bear to attack him well did you see our story he asked yes your story i saw well i had to do a little to it to make it go he said but you did very well you ll learn thank you i don t want to learn that i said hotly i never saw anything so there was not the slightest foundation for all that rot it was made up out of whole cloth i was boiling about miss by i pitch my tent i my dear boy you ll never make an editor i never an he said lots of fellows do but i don t but if a man will give me two lines i can give him two columns and good ones too why we had two what with that and the grand ball last night the are crying it all over town i don t care if they are i don t want to be an editor if one has to tell such lies as that but i don t believe have to do that and i know don t why you have named a man who was a hundred miles away he simply laughed well i m quite willing to get the credit of that paper that s business we re trying to break down the interests and the are mixed up with em was in the office last night he s counsel for the but you don t know i do not i said shortly he s deep you know you write better than you talk he added i tell you what i ll do if you ll write me every day on some live topic i ll never write you a line again on any topic alive or dead unless you die yourself when i ll write that you are the biggest liar i ever saw except my i had expected he would resent my words but he did not he only laughed and said that s a good line write on that i learned later that he had had a slight raise of salary on the paper he off as his i could only console by john marvel assistant myself with the hope that miss would not see the article but miss did see the appreciation of her father in	46
the writing of which i had had a hand and it cost me many a dark hour of sad y by a new girl this is how the young lady heard of it miss had been at home but an hour or two and had only had time to change her travelling costume for a suit of light blue with a blue hat to match which was very becoming to her and order the carriage to drive down and get her father when a visitor was announced miss mo an old and next moment a rather large girl of about miss s own age or possibly a year or two older into the room as if she had been shot in out of one of those engines which flung men into walled towns she began to talk even before she was actually in the room she talked all through her energetic if hasty embrace of her friend and all the time she was the somewhat complicated of a dotted veil which while it obscured added a certain charm to a round commonplace but face in which smiled two round shallow blue eyes well my dear she began while yet outside the door i thought you never were coming back i never and i believe if i hadn t finally made up my mind to get you back you would have stayed forever in that nasty stuck up city of love by john marvel assistant miss a little observed that that title applied to philadelphia and she had only passed through philadelphia on a train one night well it was some kind of love i ll be bound and some one s else brother too that kept you away so long no it was not not even some one else s brother replied miss oh i for heaven s sake don t tell me that s wrong why i ve been that all it sounds so so new i can t help it it may be new but it isn t said miss but i never expected to get back earlier my aunt had to look into some of her affairs in the east and had to settle some matters with a lawyer down south a friend of my father s an old gentleman who used to be one of her husband s partners and is her or something and i had to wait till they got matters settled well i m glad you are here in time i was so afraid you wouldn t be that i got pa to telegraph and have your car put on the president s special train that was coming through and had the right of way i told him that i didn t see that because your father had resigned from the was any reason why you shouldn t be brought on the train were we indebted to you for that attention s voice had a tone of half incredulity i am the power behind the throne just at present pa and old mr have buried the by a new girl and are as thick as thieves since their new deal and jim told me his car was coming through on a special oh i you ought to hear him the way he says my car and throws his chest out i so i said i wanted him to find out where you were on the road on what train i mean and pick you up and he said he would oh i see said miss looking somewhat annoyed he did didn t he yes well you know jim is a very promising young man much more so than he is a f what are you so serious about you look as nothing only i don t wish to be to i was just wondering what right we have to stop trains full of people who have paid for their tickets and what i exclaimed the other girl in astonishment what right why our fathers are aren t th y at least my father is and own a block of the stock that yes but all these people who pay and who had no breakfast oh i don t you worry about them they ll get along somehow and if they pay they ll look out for themselves without your doing it my way is to make all i can out of them and enjoy it while i can that s what pa says yes said miss but i m not sure that it s right by john marvel assistant you ve been reading that man s articles declared miss i know i have too everybody has all the girls i am a aren t they terribly striking he s so good looking pa says he s a jew and an and ought to be in jail are you speaking of mr yes of course now you need not make out you don t know him because they say yes i know him very well said miss so y that her guest paused and changed her tone well anyhow my dear you are just in time we are going to have the biggest thing we ve ever had in this town i ve almost died laughing over it already what is it wait i m going to tell you all about it you know it was all my idea claims the whole credit for it now that i ve made it go says she first suggested it and i assure you my dear she never opened her head about it till i had all the girls wild about it and had arranged for the and had gotten the count to promise what is it interrupted her hostess again laughing wait my dear i m going to tell you all about it the count	46
s a too he says he is but you mustn t tell that he told me in the confidence well the count s to go as of the of what s the name of that old king or emperor or whatever he was that conquered that country you know what i mean by a new girl no indeed i do not and i haven t the least idea what you are talking about oh i know perfectly well and you do too the count bet me i d forget it and i bet him a gold cigar i wouldn t what is his name won t the count look handsome with lace and gold all over his chest and coat tails and a cocked hat he s been showing me the way they dance in his country i almost died laughing over it only it makes me so dizzy they never reverse just whirl and whirl and whirl you know he s a real count yes my father s taken the trouble to hunt that up he said he wasn t going to let a d d come around me without anybody knowing who or what he is ain t that like pa i i don t think i ever met your father said stiffly oh i that s a fact well tis tis just exactly like him as soon as the count began to come around our house a good deal i mean really quite a good deal you understand said the girl tossing her head what must pa do but go to work and hunt him up he thinks jim is a but i tell him s she looked at her hostess what did he find out inquired miss coldly and how did he do it why he just ran him down explained the girl easily just as he does anybody he wants to know about put a man on him you know by john marvel assistant oh i i see miss up a little but the other girl did not notice it only this one was somebody on the other side of course and he found out that he s all right he s a real count he s the third son of count who was let me see a of his emperor the emperor of i didn t know they had an emperor in he s a new one haven t they oh i well maybe it was the king of or the emperor of russia i don t know they are all alike to me i never could keep them apart even at miss de s i only know he s a real count and i won a hundred dollars from pa on a bet that he was and he hated to pay iti he bet that he was a cook or a and i bet he wasn t and oh i you know it s an awfully good joke on him for he was a waiter in new york for a while a what a waiter oh just for a little while after he came over before his arrived but i made pa pay up because he said cook or i put it in this hat see ain t it a wonder she turned herself around before a mirror and admired her hat which was indeed as miss was forced to admit a wonder you know it s just like the hat wears in the star of the when she comes in in the i got her to let me copy it exactly you did how did you manage that by a new girl why you see knows her and he asked and me to supper to meet her and i declare she nearly made me die laughing you know she s a real sweet girl ny says she who you asked miss as she b an to put on her gloves my dear that s where the fun came in we didn t have any i pretended that and the count were married and called her and she was so flattered at being given the title that she was pleased to death though you know she s really dead in love with and he hardly looks at her if he s in love with any one except mr james it s with some one else i know she nodded her head i m afraid i have to go now said miss my father expects me to come for him she glanced at a watch she had up slightly well of course you ll come to what to our ball that s what it is you know though it s for a charity and we make others pay for it why shouldn t they i haven t decided yet what charity wants it to be for a home for cats you d know she d want that now wouldn t you she ll be in there herself some day but i m not going to let it go for anything she wants she s claiming now that she got it up and i m just going to show her who did i m thinking of giving it to that young preacher you met in the country two years ago and got so interested by john marvel assistant in t you got dr to bring him here as his assistant you couldn t give it to a better cause said miss i wonder how he is coming on i guess you know all right but pa says pursued miss without further the interruption we are the poor and the reason they won t work is that we are always giving them money you know they re striking on our lines some of them i haven	46
t decided yet what to give it to oh i you ought to see the doctor he s the of the gay he came to see me the other day it almost made me die laughing you know he s dead in love with your aunt i used to think it was you but pa says i m always thinking everybody is in love with you even the count but he however i ll tell you what said miss suddenly i ll come to the ball if you ll give the proceeds to mr marvel for his poor people see there i what did i tell you i i thought you weren t so pious for nothing all on a sudden you re a goose said miss picking up her i m a wise one though what was it our teacher used to tell us about the giving the alarm somewhere but i don t care i m the and pay the bills pa says the man that holds the bag gets the bring your father we ll get something out of him he always gives to everything i ll call him up and tell him to be sure and come you know they ve by a new girl landed the deal pa says every one of them has made a pile your father might have made it too if he d come in but i think he was fighting them or something i don t quite understand it anyhow it s all done now and i m going to hold pa up for the pearl he promised to give me there s a perfect beauty at s only seventeen thousand and i believe they ll take ten if it s down in cold cash pa says the way to get a man is to put down the cold cash before him and let him fasten his eye on it if he s a jew he says he ll never let it go i tell him by the same he must be a jew himself because he holds on to all the money he ever lays his eye on can i take you down town anywhere inquired miss in a rather voice no my dear just let me fix my hat i have to go the other way in fact i told the count that i was going up to the park for a little spin and he asked if he couldn t come along i didn t want him of course men are so in the way in the morning don t you think so is that quite right she gave her head a toss to test the of her hat quite said miss well good by i ll count on you then i tell you among the the count is going to perform some wonderful of hand tricks with cards my dear he s a i he can do anything with cards heavens it s after one the good good by and as miss entered her victoria the young by john marvel assistant lady rushed off up the street straining her eyes in the direction of the park that night the ball as miss called it came off and was a huge success as was duly in all the morning papers next day with an of description of in exact proportion to the degree of of the in the particular circle in which the editor or his moved or to move mrs stood first in wine colored velvet lace of the sort that of the female sex deem dearest and diamonds and that would have staggered the sailor miss ran her a close second in rose colored satin and spoken of as miss shone lower down in lace and pearls of great price so they went all all beautiful all till were exhausted and the imagination of the ran riot in an excess of color and english among the men especially were first a certain mr james son and partner of the famous mr the and who gave promise of his father in his notorious ability and secondly a count the distinguished of a noble house of reputation who was the city with his distinguished presence and was generally with having led captive the heart of one of the city s fairest and daughters so ran the record and having nothing to do i read that by a new girl morning the account and dwelt on the only name i the young lady of the white and and wondered who the men were whose names stood next to hers us y by xi miss also read the papers that morning and with much amusement till in one of them the most of all the morning journals she came on an article which first made her heart stop beating and then set it to racing with sheer anger to think that such a could be uttered i she would have liked to make meat of that editor he was always attacking her father a little later she b an to think of the rest of the article i what was the truth did they have the right to stop the train and hold it back this sort of thing was what a writer whom she knew denied in a series of papers which a friend of hers a young clergyman who worked among the poor had sent her and which the press generally was she had for some time been reading these papers that had been appearing in the press they were written by a person who was generally spoken of as a jew but who wrote with a pen which had the point of a and whose sentences ate into the plate of artificial like an one of the things he had said had stuck in her memory as the remains of of past ages furnish when compressed in almost	46
infinite numbers the on which the bone and muscle of the present race by of cattle in r are built up so the present big race of the wealthy live on the class of the poor the summer before she had met the writer of these articles and he had made an impression on her which had not been she had not her feelings to ascertain how far this impression was due to his classical face his deep luminous eyes and his impassioned manner yet certain it is that all of these had struck her perhaps i should give just here a little more of miss s history as i came to know of it later on how i came to know of it may or may not be later but at least i learned it she was the daughter of a gentleman who until she came and began to over him gave up all of his time and talents to building up of magnitude and a fortune he had showed abilities and ambition at back east where he came from and when he first struck for the west and started out in life it was in a r on and amid surroundings which were just becoming of more than local importance as they a little later grew under the guidance of men of action like himself to be of more than importance the new west as it was then had called to him and he had responded flinging himself into the current which was just b to take on force he soon became one of the of the development which changing a vast r on where indians and into a land of cities and shortly made its mark on the nation and indeed on the by john marvel assistant world and he was before long swept quite away by it leaving behind all the intellectual and dreams he had ever cherished and giving himself up soul and body to the pleasure he got out of his success as an and of large wealth at first was important to him then it became if not unimportant at least of secondary importance to the power he possessed then it became of importance again indeed of supreme importance for the power he was now dependent on wealth and great wealth his associates were all men of large interests and only one with similar interests could lead them new conditions had come about of late and new methods which he could neither employ nor contend against successfully as he looked back on it later it appeared a feverish dream through which he had passed its rewards were luxury reputation and power beyond anything he had ever conceived of yet what had he not sacrificed for them everything that he had once held up before his mind as a noble ambition study reading association with the great and noble of all time art and love of art appreciation of all except wealth that men have for through the ages friendship domestic joy everything except riches and the power they bring for as he thought over hb past in his growing loneliness he found himself compelled to admit that he had sacrificed all the rest he had married a woman he loved and admired he had given her wealth and luxury instead of himself and she had and died before he by awakened to the tragic fact he had grieved for but he could not conceal from himself the brutal fact that she had ceased years before to be to him as necessary as his business she had left him one child two others had died in infancy and he had mourned for them and with her but he never knew for years and until too late how stricken she had been over their loss the child she had left him had in some way taken hold on him and had held it even against himself she had so much of himself in her that he himself could see the resemblance his natural kindness his good impulses his his resolution and ambition to lead and to succeed in all he undertook even from the earliest days when she was left to him mr was made aware by that he had something out of the ordinary to deal with the arrangement by which on the death of her mother she was taken by her half aunt mrs to be cared for because the poor child needed a mother to look after her fell through promptly the thing who had at the plan appeared dusty and but triumphant in her father s home that first evening as he was preparing after leaving his office to go and see her it was doubtless an moment for the uttle rebel for her father was at the instant in grief and loneliness and self reproach he had worked like fury all day to try to forget his loss but his return home to his empty house had torn open his wounds afresh and the echoing of his solitary on the stair and in the vacant rooms had almost by john marvel assistant driven him to despair every spot every turn was a red hot brand on the fresh wound no man had loved his wife more but he awoke now when too late to the fact that he had left her much alone he had worked for her leaving the enjoyment to the future and she had died before the future came in that desolate present which was to be linked forever to the past it was at this moment that he heard a familiar step outside his door his heart almost stopped to listen it could not be she was safe at her aunt s blocks away awaiting the fulfilment of hb promise to come to see her and it was now dark could it be a delusion his over wrought brain mi	46
t have fancied it next second the door burst open and in rushed with a cry why how did you slipped out and ran away i you did not come and i could not stay when the emotion of the first greeting was over mr under the strong sense of what he deemed his duty to the child and also to the dear dead which had led him at first to make the sacrifice of yielding to his sister in law s began to explain to the little girl the of her action and the importance of her returning to her aunt when she had been so kind but he found it a difficult task mr believed in discipline he had been brought up in a rigid school and he knew it made for character but it was work with the little girl s arms clasped about his neck and her hot tear little face pressed close to his by as she pleaded and met hb with a and an which astonished him moreover she had a strong advocate in his own heart and from the first moment when she had burst in on his heart breaking loneliness he had felt that he could not let her go again if she were she would not go back she asserted she hated her aunt anyhow she was a hateful old woman who her servants and sent her up stairs to her supper when to this her father promptly replied that she must go back and he would take her she as promptly changed her note very well she would go back he need not come with her but she would die oh no you will not die you will soon grow very fond of her then i shall grow very worldly like her said miss what makes you think that because she is a worldly old woman and you said so yourself i said when demanded her father with a guilty feeling of vague recollection to once when mamma said something against her husband you said that and mamma said you ought not to say that about her sister and you said she was only her half sister anyhow and not a bit like her and now you want to send me back to her as if i were only your half child by john marvel assistant the father smiled sadly enough as he drew the anxious little face close to his own no you are all mine and my all i only want to do what is right mamma wants me to stay with you so it must be right the present tense used by the child struck the father to the heart what makes you think that he asked with a sigh the little girl was quick to catch at the new hope she told me so the day before she died when i was in the room with her she said you would be lonely and i must be a comfort to you mr gave a gasp that was almost a groan and the child flung her arms about his neck and i sha n t leave you my all papa unless you drive me i promised mamma i would stay and take care of you and i will and you won t make will you for i am your all you won t will you no d d if i do i said the father catching her to his heart and trying to the oath as it burst from his lips as soon as she had down he went to her aunt s to make the necessary explanation he found it not the easiest task for the good lady had her own ideas and had formed her plans and the change was a blow to her it was in the beginning of the breach between mr and his in law which led eventually to the between them i by you are going to spoil that child to death i exclaimed the lady this mr denied though in his heart he thought it possible it was not a pleasant interview for mrs was deeply offended but mr felt that it was well worth the cost when on his return home he was greeted by a cry of joy from the top of the stair where the little girl sat in her dressing gown awaiting him and when with a cry of joy she came rushing down like dropping her in her excitement and flung herself into his arms he knew that life had begun for him anew mr was quite aware of the truth of mrs s prophecy but he enjoyed the of his daughter which she had foretold and he enjoyed equally the small which the child exercised over him and also the development of her mind as the years passed papa she said one day when she had asked him to take her somewhere and he had pleaded business why do you go to the office so much i have to work to make money for my daughter said her father stating the first reason that suggested itself are you not rich enough now well i don t know that i am with a young lady growing up on my hands said her father smiling am i very expensive she asked with a sudden little expression of gravity coming over her face no that you are not my dear and if you were there is no pleasure on earth to me like giving it to you by john marvel assistant that is one of my chief reasons for working so steadily though there are others i have plenty of money said then you are happier than most people who don t know when they have plenty yes you see all i have to do when i want anything is to go into a store and	46
ask for it and tell them i am your daughter and they let me have it at once oh said her father laughing so that is the way you buy things is it no wonder you have plenty well you d better come to me and ask for what you want i think the other is the way and as you say you like to give it to me i don t see that it makes any difference mr decided that he had better explain the difference i hate rich people said suddenly they are so vulgar for example her father looking with some amusement at the girl whose face had suddenly taken on an expression of severe aunt and they are always talking about their money mr s eyes were twinkling you must not talk that way about your aunt she is very fond of you she is always at me me she wants you to grow up to be a fine woman like her said miss by mr felt that it was wise to cheek this line of criticism and he now spoke seriously you must not be so critical of your aunt she b really very fond of you and she was your half sister you must respect her and love her i love her but i don t like her she and mc are just alike always of what they have and do and running down what others have and do oh well it takes a great many people to make a world said mr felt a want of sympathy and made another bid for it says that her father is going to be the richest man in this town who is talking about money now said mr laughing i am not i am merely saying what she said you must not tell the silly things your friends say only to you i thought you said i must tell you everything but of course if you don t wish me to i won t mr laughed and took her on his knee he was not quite sure whether she was serious or was only laughing at him but as he b an to explain she burst into a peal of merriment over her victory in appearance she was like her mother only he thought her fairer as fair as he had thought her mother in the days of his first devotion and her deeper eyes and firmer features were an added beauty the well chin was his own her eyes deep with by john marvel assistant depths and mouth firm even with its delicate beauty had come from some or who in some generation past had faced life in its most form with resolution and had faced death with equal calm for some belief that now would scarcely have given an hour s questioning so when she grew each year developing new powers and charm and constancy he b an to find a new interest in life and to make her more his companion and than he had ever made her mother he left his business oftener to see her than he had left it to see her mother he took her oftener with him on his and took more that he might have her company she sat at the head of his table and filled her place with an ability that was at once hb astonishment and his pride at one time as she changed from a mere child to a young girl he had thought of marrying again rather with a view to giving her a guide and than for any other purpose her however at the mere suggestion and much more her real grief had led him to the plan from time to time until now she was a young lady and he could see for himself that she needed neither nor he sometimes smiled to think what the would have been had he taken to wife the soft kindly rather commonplace lady whom he had once thought of as his daughter s guardian a domestic fowl in the of a young eagle would have had an easier time one phase alone in her development had puzzled and baffled him she had gone off one spring to a country by neighborhood in another state here she had some old relatives on her mother s side mr had been called to europe on business and she had remained there until well into the summer when she returned she was not the same some change had taken place in her she had gone away a gay pleasure loving and rather selfish young girl he was obliged to admit that she was both wilful and self indulgent even his for her could not blind his eyes to this and at times it had given him much concern for at times there was a dash in which if he came off victor he felt it was at a perilous price that possibly of a strain on her obedience she returned a full grown woman thoughtful and self sacrificing and with an aim he was glad it was not a mission and as her aim was to be useful and she b an with him he accepted it with contentment she talked freely of her visit spoke warmly and indeed of those she had met there among these were a young country preacher and a friend of his a young jew but though she spoke of both with respect the praise she accorded them was so equal that he dismissed from his mind the possibility that she could have been seriously taken with either of them possibly the jew was the one she was most enthusiastic over but she spoke of him too openly to cause her father besides he was a jew the preacher she plainly respected most highly yet her account of his appearance	46
was too humorous to admit a serious feeling for him though she had gotten him called to be one of dr s by john marvel assistant had happened was that the girl who had only in the lilies and fed on the roses of life had suddenly been dropped in an out of the way comer in a country neighborhood in an old state where there were neither lilies nor roses of the kind though a of the real and natural kind with which nature in mood to those who have of the sort but and and soil when she first landed there after the very first excitement of being thrown into a wholly new situation among strangers whom though her relatives she had always regarded much as she had r places in distant lands was over she found herself as it were at a loss for occupation everything was so quiet and calm she felt lost and somewhat bored but after a little time she found occupation in small things as on looking closely she discovered beauties in nature which her t glance had failed to catch the people appeared so novel so simple so wholly different from all whom she had known the and amusements and interests of her life in the city or at summer ing places or in travelling were not only unknown to them as unknown as if they were in another planet but were matters of absolute their interest was in their neighbors in the small about them and an hundred miles away were as distant to them as though they had taken place in another era among the few in this rural was a young clergyman whom she always by heard spoken of with as much respect as if he had been a bishop what mr marvel thought and what he said was referred to or was quoted as something to be considered so much so that she had formed a picture in her own mind of a quite remarkable looking and impressive person when at last she met john marvel what was her amusement to discover in place of her young a stout young fellow with rather hair very near sighted and awkward and exceedingly shy a person as far from a man of the world as a stout country bred cart horse would be from a sleek his timidity in her presence caused her endless amusement and for lack of some better diversion and to her staid she set herself to him in every way that her fertile brain could devise visiting the young clergyman at the time was a friend who came much nearer being in appearance what had imagined john marvel to be a dark slender young man with a classical face but that its lines were stronger and more deeply and eyes he had just come to visit mr marvel and to get a needed rest john marvel said he had he jl a among the poor and his views were so different from any that had ever heard as to appear almost shocking he was an educated man yet he had lived and worked as an he was a gentleman yet he vehemently the conditions which produced the upper class but an by john marvel assistant even greater surprise awaited her when he announced that he was a jew when john marvel brought his friend to see miss the first impression that she received was one of pleasure he was so striking and unusual with deep burning eyes imder dark brows then she was not sure that she liked him she even thought she was sensible of a sort of she had a feeling as if he were weighing her in his mind and not of her treated her at times with indifference at times with a certain disdain she was conscious of an as showed scorn of conditions and things which she had been brought up to believe almost as much a necessary part of life as air and light she promptly began to argue with him but when she found that he usually had the best of the she became more careful how she opened herself to his attack he aroused in her the feeling of opposition his scorn of the money making spirit of the day led her to defend what she held in contempt and once when he had been against that set up of brass to worship and declared that it was the old story of over again and was the to brotherhood with the beasts of the field she wheeled on him declaring that it was only people who had no power to make money who held such views do you think that i could not make money if i wished to do so said quietly with an amused light in his eyes as they rested on her with an expression by which was certainly not hostile for her eagerness had brought warm blood to her cheeks and her eyes were sparkling with the glow of yes if you were able you would be as rich as a jew a yet more amused look came into s eyes are all jews rich he asked yes all who are capable you know they are no for i am a jew and i am not rich said you a oh i b your i she blushed deeply pray don t imagine that i am offended would you be offended if i charged you with coming from a race of poets and philosophers and of a race that had given the world its literature and its religion she burst out laughing no but i was such a fool pray forgive me she held out her hand and took it and pressed it firmly and this was the beginning of their friendship walked home slowly that evening that is across the fields to	46
the little where john marvel lived he had food for thought when saw john marvel a few days later she told him of her conversation and the speech she had made to his friend you know said john that he is rich or could be if he chose to go home his father is very rich he is a new jew to me said he is quite different from the typical jew by john marvel assistant i wonder if there is a typical jew questioned john to himself and this set wondering too but found other causes for wonder in wolf besides the fact of his race which she had mentioned to her cousins and they forced upon her the consciousness that she would have to her ideas of many things as she had been compelled to do in regard to the appearance and aims of this singular people her idea of the had always been curiously with noses foreign speech of a far from refined type and a persistent pursuit of by ways generally and largely devoted to shops containing articles more or less discarded by other people here she found a cultivated gentleman with features if not wholly classical at least more regular and refined than those of most young men of her acquaintance speech so cultivated as to be quite distinguished and an air and manner so easy and gracious as to suggest to her complete knowledge of the great world no matter what subject was discussed between them he knew about it more than any one else and always threw light on it which gave it a new interest for her he had a knowledge of the literature and not only of the but of most modem nations and he talked to her of things of which she had never so much as heard he had not only travelled in europe but had travelled in a way to give him an intimate knowledge not merely of the countries but of the people and customs of the countries which no one she had ever met possessed he had crossed in the by of ocean more than once and had across both to england and the but what made you do it she asked did not you find it terrible yes pretty bad was at the moment showing her how tea was made in certain provinces along uie sea which he had visited not long before about as bad as it could be then what made you do it well i saved money by it too what the other reason was she did not press him to give she only thought that is the jew of it but after she had seen more of him she discovered that the other reason was that he might learn by personal experience what the condition was in the ships and the holes where the lived deep down amid the coal and the roaring and further that he might know the people themselves incidentally he had learned there and elsewhere and russian with the strange faculty of absorbing whatever he came in touch with but he thought no more of knowing that than of knowing it was this study of conditions that finally gave her the key to his design in life for it developed as their acquaintance grew that this clear headed cultivated thoughtful man held strange views as to the ordinary things of life the things which she had always accepted as as and as the solid earth or the vaguely comprehended but wholly accepted revolution of the in fact he held that the by john marvel assistant tions of modem life the relations of people in mass which she had somehow always considered as almost perfect and indeed established were absolutely and and unjust she at first did not take him seriously she could not to find a pleasant and indeed rather eloquent spoken young man as wicked and vile the establishment of and the of capital by captains of industry appeared to her almost yet there he sat with burning eyes and thrilling voice the very things she had always considered most why that is isn t it she asked feeling that if she could him of this somewhat vaguely comprehended term she would prove her old foundations smiled he was very good looking when he smiled no not exactly if it is it is only an and individual kind of but it is so far as it is based on a profound desire to society and to place it on a natural and social foundation where every one shall have a chance to work and to reap the fruit of such work what is she demanded suddenly it is not what you mean by the term he laughed it is not taking the property of those who have worked for it and giving to those who neither have worked nor will work that is what you have in mind precisely she nodded it is at least the i mean the tion of the same method of general order by the people by at large to labor and the product of labor property that is now employed in government the of the present methods so that all should both in the labor and in the product he went on to picture the consequences of thb scheme when all men should work and all should reap but though he made it appear easy enough to him s practical little head saw the difficulties and the much more readily than the perfect result which he appeared to find so certain you cannot human nature she protested and when you shall have gotten your system thoroughly under way those who have gotten in positions of power will use their advantage for their own benefit and then you will still have to begin all over again but was certain of the result and pointed out the	46
work of his friend john marvel as a proof of his theory while at first the broad shouldered yoimg clergyman fled from her presence with a which was it was not long before he appeared to have himself sufficiently against her shafts of to be able to her presence and before a great while had passed her friends began to her on the fact that wherever she went mr marvel was pretty sure to appear one of her old cousins half and half her against going too far with the young man saying mr marvel my dear is too good a man for you to amuse yourself with and then fling away what is sim by john marvel assistant the diversion of an hour for you may become a matter of real gravity with him he is already deeply interested in you and you are interested in him why i am interested in him declared the girl why he tells me of all the old sick w and cats in the parish and i have an engagement to go around with him and see some old women to morrow you ought to see some that we went to visit the other i know my dear but you must not make fun of his work he is happy in it and is a great deal of good and if you should get him dissatisfied oh no indeed i gave him some money last week for a poor family to get some clothes so that they could come to church they were named they live near the mines the whole family were to be next sunday and what do you suppose they did as soon as they got the clothes they went last sunday to a big and were all i i was him about that when you heard me laughing at him the wretches exclaimed her cousin to think of their deceiving him i know said the girl but i think he minded the deception much more than the other though i charged him with being disappointed at not getting them into his fold really i don t think he minded it a bit at least he said he would much rather they had gone where they would be happy now mr marvel s friend mr is a different matter he appears quite able to take care of himself by quite said miss but my dear said her cousin lowering her voice they say he is a jew he is said you know it yes he told me so himself told you himself i why i how did he come to tell you why i don t know we were talking and i said something foolish about the jews about some one being as rich and as a jew and he smiled and said are all jews rich and and i said if they have a chance and he said not always i am a jew and i am not rich well i thought he was just me so i went on and do you know he is not only a jew but mr marvel says he is rich only he does not claim his money because he is a mr marvel says he could go home to morrow and his father would take him and lavish money on him but he works works all the time among the poor well i must say i always liked him said her cousin but he isn t such good fun to as mr marvel he is too intense mr marvel does get so red and unhappy looking when he is well you have no right to him he is a clergyman and should be treated with respect you wouldn t dare to your in town the great dr what is his name wouldn t i dr why he is one of the greatest in town he s always by john marvel ant running to see some girl them with his big blue eyes exclaimed her cousin why he d many any one of the who would have him or or don t be profane the old lady looked so hat the girl ran over and kissed her with a laugh why i ve told him so told him tl yes i have i told him so when he tried to marry me then he tried you are you really are but do tell me about it did he really court you why he s old enough to be your grandfather interrupted the girl that s what i told him served him right too but he must be a fine preacher from what my old friend once wrote me did you ever meet she and her sister live in your city they went there years ago to press a claim they had to a large fortune left them by their father colonel who used to be a very rich man but left his affairs somewhat complicated i gather from what writes me or did write for she does not write very often now i wish you d go and see them when you go back i will said where do they live at a mrs s she keeps a boarding house i don t know the exact and s by letter a year or more ago but you will have no difficulty in finding it it must be in the fashionable quarter and i should think any one could tell you where she lives i will find her said laughing y by john marvel when a little later a of broke out in a little camp not far from the home of miss s relatives and she learned that john marvel spent all his time nursing the sick and their necessities as far as possible she awakened to a of the truth of what her cousin had said that under his awkward exterior	46
been too late and if the young man had not had such a potent influence behind him the doctor might have suggested some in the way of through the arrangements he had proposed but though mrs and her brother in law were understood to have had some differences over certain business by john marvel assistant matters she was veiy fond of her niece and she was the woman who came to his church the doctor reflected therefore that he need not have the awkward young man about him much and when a little later it appeared that this young man was filling his chapel and neighborhood house poor club and night schools and was sending in reports which showed that real work was being done the doctor was well satisfied to let him remain so well indeed that he never invited him to his house but only official relations with him the report that among john marvel s chief in the work of his poor and night school was a jew disturbed the doctor slightly but he reflected that when one showed such notable results it was in a way necessary to employ many curious and after all the association with jews in affairs was a matter of taste y by mr now to to the period of my arrival in the west the day after miss s return home her father paid her the unusual honor of leaving his office to take lunch with her her mind was full of the subject of the paper she had read in the press that morning giving a lurid picture of the inconvenience and distress on the passengers and the management of the company for permitting what was claimed to be so gross a breach of the rights of the public ordinarily she would have passed it over with a shrug of her white shoulders and a stamp of her little foot would have been all the tribute she would have paid to it but of late she had begun to think it had never before been brought so clearly to the notice of the girl how her own pleasures not the natural but the created pleasures of which she was quite as fond as other healthy girls of her age and class were almost exclusively at the expense of the class she had been accustomed to r ard with a general sort of vague sympathy as the poor the attack on her father and herself enraged her but as she cooled down a feeling deeper than mere anger at an injustice took possession of her mind to find that she herself had in a way been the by john marvel assistant sion of the distress to women and children startled her and left in her mind a feeling of uneasiness to which she had hitherto been a stranger father she began did u see that dreadful article in the trumpet this morning mr without looking up adopted the natural line of special pleading although he knew perfectly well instantly the article to which she referred what article he asked that story about our having delayed the passenger train with women and children on it and then having side them without breakfast in order to give our car the right of way oh yes i believe i saw that i see so many ridiculous things in the newspapers i pay no attention to them but father that was a terrible said the of whom asked mr with a little twinkle in his eye why of you of aunt of yes and of of everybody connected with the road not of you my dear said mr with the light of affection warming up his rather cold face surely no one even the writers of the press could imagine anything to say against you yes of me too though not by name perhaps but i was there and i was in a way the cause of the trouble by mr because the car was sent after me and aunt and i feel terribly guilty about it guilty of what my dear smiled her father of simply using your own property in a way satisfactory to you that is just it father that is the point which the writer raises is it our own property it certainly is my love property that i have paid for my associates and i and which i control or did control in with the other owners and propose to control to suit myself and them so long as we have the interest every writer speaker and to the contrary notwithstanding well said the girl that sounds all right it looks as if you ought to be able to do what you like with your own but do you know father i am not sure that it is our own that is just the point he says nonsense said her father lightly don t let this jew go and fill your clear little head with such foolishness as that enjoy life while you can make your mind easy and get all the use you can out of what i have for you i only hope you may have as much pleasure in using it as i have had in providing it the banker gazed over at his daughter half half seriously took out a cigar and began to the end leisurely the girl laughed she knew that he had something on his mind well what is it she asked smiling he gave a laugh don t go and imagine that because that jew can write he is any the less a don t by john marvel assistant go and confound him and his work it is the easiest thing in the world to pick to find the defects in any system the difficult thing is work she nodded did that foreigner go down there while you were there the count the	46
no count no of course not where did you get such an idea he lighted his cigar with a look of relief put it in his mouth and sat back in his chair don t let your aunt go and make a fool of you she is a very good business woman but you know she is not exactly solomon and she is mad about titles when you marry marry a man mr for example laughed the girl he is aunt s second choice she is always talking about his money she is always talking about somebody s money generally her own but before i d let that fellow have you i d kill him with my own hand he s the worst young man i know why if i could tell you half yes one tenth of the things i have heard about him but i can t tell you only don t go and let anybody pull the wool over your eyes no fear of tl it said the girl no i don t know that there is i think you ve got a pretty clear little head on your shoulders but when any one gets gets why gets her feelings you can t just on her you know and with your by mr at you and flinging her sleek count and her gilded fools at you it takes a good head to resist her the girl reassured him with a smile of appreciation i don t know where she got that from continued her father it must have been that outside strain the your mother did not have a trace of it in her i never saw two half sisters so different she d have married anybody on earth she cared for and when she married me i had nothing in the world except what my father chose to give me and no very great expectations she had a rich fellow from the south after her a big plantation and lots of slaves and all that and your aunt was all for her marrying him a good chap too a and all that but she turned him down and took me and i made my own way what i have i made afterward by hard work till i got a good start and then it came easy enough the trouble since has been to keep others from stealing it from me and that s more trouble than to make it i can tell you what between and other i have a hard time to hold on to what i have i know you have to work very hard said the girl her eyes on him full of affection why this is the first time i ve had you up to lunch with me in months i felt as much honored as if it had been the king of england that s it i have to stay down there to keep the robbers from running off with my pile that young by john marvel assistant fellow thought he d get a little at it but i taught him a thing or two he s a his only idea is to make good by up all right if the market s rising and you can double but it s a dangerous game especially if one tries to at the table do he play asked the girl he plays mainly merry h l i beg your i didn t mean to say that before you but he does and if his father didn t come to hb rescue and plank up every time he goes broke he d have been in the court or jail and that s where he ll wind up yet if he don t look out i don t believe you him laughed the girl yes i do i like him well enough he is amusing rather he is gay careless impudent he s the main through which i extract money from old s he never anything unless you pay two gold dollars down for one paper one on the spot but i want to keep away from you that s all i suppose got to lose you some time but i ll be hanged if i want to give you up to a a a a a d d like well you will never have that to do said the girl i promise you that how is the strike coming on asked his daughter when i went away it was just threatening and i read in the papers that the failed and the men were ordered out but i t seen much about it in the papers since though i have looked by mr oh yes it s going on over on the other lines across town in a sort of way said her father wearily the fools they won t listen to any reason poor people sighed the girl why did they go out poor fools said mr warmly they walked out for nothing more than they always have had i saw that they had some cause what was it they ve always some cause if they didn t have one they d e it now they are talking of extending it over our lines our lines why heaven knows we ve done everything they demanded in reason they talk about a sympathetic strike i hear that a fellow has come on to bring it about poor fools the girl gave him a smile of affection as he pushed back his chair and leaning over her as he walked toward the door he gave her a kiss of mingled pride and affection but when he had left the room she sat still for some moments looking straight ahead of her her brow slightly with thought which evidently	46
was not wholly pleasant and then with a sweeping motion of her hand she pushed her chair back and as she arose from the table said i wish i knew what is right that moment a new resolution entered her mind and ringing the bell for the servant she ordered her carriage by xiv miss seeks work she drove first to dr s church and going around walked in at the side door near the east end where the rooms and the s study were she remembered to have seen on a door somewhere there a sign on which was painted in gilded letters the fact that the s hours were from to on and and this was thursday the hour however was now nearly three and she had called only on a chance of catching him a chance which a stout and gloomy looking who appeared from somewhere at her foot fall told her at first was lost but when he recognized her he changed his air grew quite interested and said he would see if the doctor was in he had been there he knew after lunch but he might have left he entered and closed the door softly behind him leaving the girl in the gloom but a moment later he returned and showed her in the with a smile of pleasure on his face was standing just beside a handsome mahogany writing desk near a window awaiting her entry and he greeted her cordiality oh i my dear young lady come in i was just about going off and i m glad i happened to have lingered a little getting ready to a new year book he laid his fingers on a of s proof lying on the by miss seeks work desk beside a stock i was just thinking what a bore it is and lo it turned into a blessing like s se what can i do for you the s large blue eyes rested on his comely with a spark in them that was not from any spiritual fire well i don t know said the girl doubtfully i see you were at the grand ball or whatever it was last night and i was so delighted to see that it was for a charitable object and the particular object which i saw yes it is for mr marvel s work out among the poor said miss the s expression changed yes that b our work you know that is our chapel i built it the ball must have been a great success it was the first knowledge i had that you and your dear aunt had returned hb voice had a tone of faint reproach in it yes we returned yesterday i the papers would leave me alone she added ah i my dear young lady there are many who would give a great deal to be by the public prints as you are the morning and evening star b always mentioned while the go unnoticed well i don t know about that said the girl but i do the papers would let me alone and my father too oh i yes to be sure i did not know what you were referring to that was an outrageous attack so utterly too absolutely such attacks deserve the of all thinking men by john marvel assistant the trouble is that the attack was but the story was not what what do you mean the clergyman s face wore a puzzled expression that our car was on to the train and why shouldn t it be my dear young lady doesn t the road belong to your father at least to your family and those whom they represent i don t know that it does and that b one reason why i have come to see you of course it does you will have to go to a lawyer to ascertain the exact of the title but i have always understood it does why your aunt mrs owns thousands of shares doesn t she and your a grave suspicion suddenly flitted across his mind relative to a he had heard of heavy losses by mr and large gains by mr the president of the road and his associates who according to this were hostile to mr i don t know but even if they do i am not sure that that makes them owners did you read that article no well not all of it i glanced over a part of it enough to see that it was very that s all the head lines were simply the article itself was not so i should like to do some work among the poor said the girl why certainly just what we need the earnest interest and assistance of just such persons as yourself of your class the good earnest representatives of the by miss seeks work upper class if we had all like you there would be no cry from well how can i go about it demanded the girl rather cutting in on the s reply why you can teach in the sunday school we have a class of nice girls ladies you know a very small one and i could make my arrange for miss for the lady who now has them to take another class one of the orphan classes no i don t mean that kind of thing if i taught at all i should like to try my hand at the orphan class myself well that could be easily arranged began the but his visitor kept on without him only i should want to give them all different hats and dresses i can t bear to see all those poor little things dressed exactly in the same way sad or gray all cut by the same pattern and the same hats year in and	46
year out why they have new hats every year the i mean the same kind of hat tall and short stout and thin slim or they all wear the same horrible round hats i can t bear to look at them i vow i d give them all a different hat for christmas oh my dear you can t do that you would spoil them and it s against the you must remember that these children are being is bad enough declared the girl but those hats are worse well i can t teach but i might some other poor class by john marvel assistant why let me see the fact is that we haven t any he was speaking slowly casting his mind over his field very poor people in this church there used to be a number but they don t come any more they must have moved out of the neighborhood i must make my assistant look them up you have no poor then not in this congregation the fact is this church is not very well suited to them they don t mix with our people you see our class of people of course we are doing a great work among the poor our we have three one of them indeed is a church and larger than many independent churches another has given me some anxiety but the third is doing quite a remarkable work among the working people out in the east end that under my assistant the young man you interested yourself so much in last year and which your ball committee was good enough to consider in selecting the object of its benevolence yes i know mr marvel i will go out there oh i my dear you couldn t go out there why not i want to see him why it is away out on the edge of the city what you might call the jumping ofl place among and railroad shops yes i know i have been out there you have why it is away out it is on i don t recall the name of the street it s away out i know it s near the street car that your family own it s a very pretty chapel indeed don t you think so by ic miss seeks work it is natural that you should take an interest in it as your aunt mrs helped us to build it she e the largest contribution toward it i don t know what we should do without charitable women like her yes i know and mr marvel is coming on well a change came over the face of the oh very well rather an fellow and very slow but doing a very good work for our parish i have been wanting to get the bishop to go there all this year as there are a number of for me to present but he has been so busy and i have been so busy i will go there said miss rising i don t think you will like it urged the it is a very bad part of the town almost dangerous filled with working people and others of that sort and i don t suppose a carriage ever i will go in the street cars said the girl the street cars yes you could go that way but why not come here and let me you a class i wish to work among the poor the happy said the smiling why not come and help me in my work who need you so much his voice had changed suddenly and he attempted to possess himself of the hand that rested on his table but it was suddenly withdrawn i thought we had settled that finally last year said miss firmly ah yes but the heart is not so easily regulated oh yes yours is why don t you try aunt again by john marvel assistant try again who the was somewhat embarrassed why aunt the evening star said miss laughing who says did she say i had ah addressed i got it from you come on now which way are you going that is just my way may i have the pleasure of driving up with you i must go and see your aunt and welcome her back one moment he had shown the young lady out of ttie door he now turned back and folding up the stock placed it carefully in his pocket as the carriage with its smart team turned into one of the broader streets two young men were standing in a window of a large building highly decorated looking idly out on the street they had just been talking of the threatened strike which the were discussing as to which they held similar views i tell you what is the matter with those said the elder of the two a large young fellow they need cold steel they ought to be made to work how would that suit us laughed the other we don t have to what s old after observed the first one said the other and yawned after her he s taking notice no he s wedded to the goes into the grand five times a day and reads the by miss seeks work bet you he courts her how you prove it ask her bet you you t ask her how much what you like i don t want to win your money don t you then hand me back that little fifteen hundred you picked up from me last week that was square but this is a certainty i d chance it bet you a thousand jim you t ask her to her face if old isn t her and hasn t asked her to	46
marry him oh i that s different you want to make me put up and then make my bet for me i tell you what i ll bet that she s the only girl i know i wouldn t ask that that may be now i tell you what i ll that you want a ring the bell that s a certainty too laughed his friend and they turned and sank wearily in deep chairs till a drink should give them energy to start a fresh discussion having put down the rev at the door of her aunt s imposing mansion after a moment of directed her coachman to drive to a certain street in the section known as and there she stopped at a pleasant looking old house and jumping out of the carriage ran up the worn stone steps and rang the bell it was a street that had once been fashionable as the ample well built houses and the good doors and windows but that by john marvel assistant fashion had long since taken her flight to other and more sections and shops loan offices and small had long the of the last generation had any of the of the quarter been needed it might have been foimd in the scornful air of miss s stout coachman as he sat on hb box he looked disgusted and his chin was almost as high as the of his tightly up horses miss asked of the rather girl who came to the door if the miss were in and if so would they see her when the maid went to see if they were at home miss was shown into a large and very dark room with chairs of many patterns all old placed about in it a sofa on one side a marble table in the centre an upright piano on the other side and on a small table a large piece of white coral under a glass cover where the fireplace had once been a large register now stood grating off the heat that might try in vain to escape through it presently the maid returned miss was in and would the lady please walk up it was in the third story back at the top of the stairs miss ran up and tapped on the door waited and tapped again then as there was no answer she opened the door cautiously and peeped in it was a small hall room bare of furniture except two chairs a sewing machine a table on which was an board at which at the moment stood a little old lady with a forehead so high by ic miss seeks work as to be almost bald she was clad in a rusty black skirt a loose morning of blue cotton and she wore loose bedroom slippers her sleeves were rolled up and her arms were thin and she held a flat iron in her hand with which she had evidently been a white under garment which lay on the board and another one was on a little gas stove which stood near a stationary wash stand as miss opened the door the old lady gave a little exclamation of dismay and her hand went involuntarily to her throat i beg your pardon said the girl starting to retire and close the door i thought the servant told me by thb time the other had recovered herself come in won t you she said with a smile and in a voice singularly soft and refined my sister will be ready to receive you in a moment i was only a little startled the fact is she said laughing i thought the door was bolted but sometimes the bolt does not go quite in my sister won t you take a chair let me remove those things she took up the pile of under garments that was on one chair and placed it on top of a pile of dishes and other things on the other oh i am so sorry protested the girl who observed that she was concealing the dishes i was sure the girl told me it was the door at the head of the stairs she is the creature that girl i must really get my sister to speak to mrs about her i would except that i am afraid the poor thing might by john marvel assistant lose her place there is another door just off the passage that she probably meant yes probably it was i that was stupid oh i no not at all you must excuse the disorder you find the fact is this is our work room and we were just i was just doing a little to get these things finished when your card was brought we both were and as my sister is so much quicker she ran to get ready and i thought i would just finish this when i was at it and you would excuse me oh i i am so i wouldn t for anything have interrupted you repeated the girl observing how all the time she was to arrange her poor attire rolling down her sleeves and her skirt all the while with a glance of her eye toward the door oh i my dear i wouldn t have had you turned away for anything in the world my would be we have a better room than this where we usually receive our visitors you will see what a nice room it is we can t very well afford to have two rooms but this is too small for us to live in comfortably and we have to keep it because it has a stationary wash stand with hot water which us to do our yes i see murmured miss softly you see we earn our living by making for for a firm i see and what nice work you	46
do she was handling a garment softly yes my sister does beautiful work and i used to by miss seeks work do pretty well too but i am troubled a little with my eyes lately the light isn t very good at night and the gas is so expensive i don t see quite as well as i used to do how much can you do asked her who had been making a mental calculation why i it is hard to tell i do the work and my sister does the finishing then she usually and i iron when i am able i suffer with so that i can t help her very much i hope you make them pay you well for it out the girl why we used to get a very good price we got till recently seven cents apiece but now it has been cut down that was for everything and too we are glad to get that how on earth do you manage to live on it oh i we live very well very well indeed said the little lady cheerfully mrs is very good to us she lets us have the rooms cheaper than she would any one else you see she used to know us when we lived back in the east her father was a clerk in our father s office and her mother went to school with us then when we lost everything and were turned out we found we had to make our own living and we came here to see about our case and she found we were here and that s the way we came to be here but don t you let my sister know i told you about the sewing she said dropping her voice as a brisk step was heard outside the door ah here she is now as at the moment the door by john marvel assistant opened and a brisk little old lady almost the counter part of her sister except that she might have been ten years her junior that is sixty instead of seventy years of age tripped into the room oh my dear miss how good of you to come all the way out here to call on us i sister what in the world are you doing why will you do this i can t keep her from amusing herself i this with a shake of the head and a appeal for sympathy from her visitor won t you walk into our sitting room now sister do go and make yourself you know she will slave over all sorts of queer things she really loves sewing and i m quite ashamed to have you come into this pig walk in won t you and she led the way into a larger room adjoining the work room leaving miss in doubt which was the more pathetic the little old lady still over the board making no pretence to conceal their poverty or the other in her poor best trying to conceal the straits in which they were fallen had observed that the older sister s gaze had constantly rested on the rose she wore and as they were going out the latter called her sister s attention to it she said she thought it possibly the most beautiful rose she had ever seen won t you have it said and it oh i no indeed i wouldn t deprive you of it for anything it is just where it ought to be persisted and finally overcame both her reluctance and her sister s objection by miss seeks work she was struck with the caressing way in which she took and held it pressing it against her withered cheek sister don t you remember the giant of battles we used to have in our garden at this reminds me of it so its fragrance is just the same yes we used to have a great many roses explained the younger sister as she led the way into the next room as if she were asking into a palace though this room was almost as bare of furniture as the other the chief difference being an upright case which was a folding bed and a table on which were a score of books and a few old your friend mr marvel was here the other day what a nice young man he is yes said i am going out to see him where has he moved to miss said she did not know the street but her had the address she would go and see when she came back she went over and opened the old bible lying on the table here is where we keep the addresses of those we especially value she said smiling oh i here it is when he was here the other day he brought us a treat a whole half dozen won t you let me prepare you one they are so delicious who had been holding a bank note clutched in her hand thanked her with a smile but said she must go she walked across the room and took up the bible casually and when she laid it down it a little in a new place by john marvel assistant oh you know we have had quite an adventure said miss an adventure tell me about it why you must know there is a young man here i am sure must be some one in disguise he is so well not exactly handsome but really distinguished looking and he knows all about and things like that better look out for him said miss oh do you think so my sister and i were thinking of consulting him about our affairs our railroad case you know oh well what do you know about him nothing yet you see he has just come but he joined us on	46
in this case the angel of the flaming sword she had higher for miss starting i had less than forty dollars left and fifteen of that was borrowed next day by a fellow named who occupied the big front room adjoining my little back hall room and who had forgotten to draw any money out of bank he said but would return it the next day at dinner time a matter he also forgot i was particularly struck with him not because he had a title and was much to by our landlady and her especially the ladies as by the lady of the because i recalled his name in with miss s in the account of the ball the night after i arrived i was now in a little pigeon hole of an office in a big building near the court house where with a table two chairs and a dozen books i had opened what i called my law office without a or an acquaintance but with hopes i found the old principle on which i had been reared set at naught and that life in its was a vast struggle based on selfishness i was happy enough at first and it was well i was it was a long time before i was happy again having in mind miss i wrote and secured a few letters of introduction but they were from people who did not care anything for me to people who did not care anything about them semi fashionable folk mainly known in social circles and i had no money to throw away on society one indeed a friend of mine had gotten for me from mr to a man of high standing both in business and social circles the president of a company with which as i learned later mr had formerly some connection this gentleman s name was and i wondered if he were the same person who had been posted by at the head of my story of the delayed train i thought of presenting the letter it however was so guarded that i thought it would not do me the least good and besides i did not wish to owe anything to s father for i felt sure his influence had always been against me by john marvel assistant and i was still too sore to be willing to accept a favor at his hands it was well i did not present it for mr with and characteristic prudence had written a private letter the former letter to mere social purposes and had intimated that i had been a failure in my profession and was inclined to this character he had obtained as i subsequently learned from the new conditions with which i was confronted had a singular effect on me i was accustomed to a life where every one knew me and i knew if not every one at least something good or bad about every one here i might have committed anything short of murder or suicide without comment and might have committed both without any one outside of the and the police and caring a straw about it i felt peculiarly lonely because i was inclined to be social and preferred to associate with the first man i met on the street to being alone in fact i have always it one of my chief blessings that i could find pleasure and entertainment for a half hour in the company of any man in the world except a fool or a man of fashion as the old writers used to speak of them or as we call them now members of the smart set the first things that struck me as i stepped out into the thronged streets of the city were the that hurried hurried hurried along like a torrent through a never stopping nor pausing only flowing on intent on but one thing getting along by the lady of the faces and in the crowd were not eager but anxious there was no rest and no room for rest more than in the of it was the at flood strong and in mass but common as i stood among them yet not of them i could not but remark how like they were in mass and how not merely all distinction but all individuality perished in the mixing i recalled a speech that my father had once made i prefer he said to city men the latter are as like as their coats the ready made clothing house is a great but also a great like the school of which you boast it may the mass but it it all distinction this came home to me now i had a proof of its truth and i may add of the effect of influences not long after i launched on the restless sea of city life i was passing one day along a street filled with houses some much finer than others when my way was blocked by a child s funeral in front of a small but neat house beside one much more the white stood at the door and the little white with a few flowers on it was just about to be borne out as i came up a child s funeral has always appealed to me peculiarly it seems so sad to have died on the threshold before even opening the door it appeared to me suddenly to have brought me near to my kind and i stopped in front of the adjoining house to wait till the little by john marvel assistant e had entered the carriage which followed behind the a number of other persons had done the same thing at this moment the door of the larger house next door opened and a woman and well dressed appeared and stood on her steps waiting for her carriage which stood at some little distance as	46
i was standing near her i turned and asked her in an can you tell me whose funeral this is no i cannot she said so sharply that i took a good look at her as she stood trying to button a tight glove i thought perhaps you knew as they are your next door neighbors well i do not it s no concern of mine she said shortly she beckoned to her carriage across the way the coachman who had been looking at the funeral caught sight of her and with a start wheeled his horses around to draw up the number of persons however who had stopped like myself prevented his coming up to her door which appeared to annoy the lady can t you move these people on she demanded angrily of a stout who stood like the rest of us looking on it s a funeral he said briefly well i know it is i don t expect you to interfere with that it s these and curiosity who block the way that i want moved to clear a way for my carriage and if you can t do it i ll ask mr to put a man on this beat who can as it happens i am going there now insolence could go no farther by the lady of the let that carriage come up here will you v said the without changing his expression drive up lad he beckoned to the coachman who came as near as he could to mrs s said the lady in a voice evidently intended for the to hear and next time stand across the street staring at what you have no business with but keep your eyes open so that you won t keep me waiting half an hour to you she entered the carriage and drove off making a new attack on her glove to close it over a wrist i glanced at the coachman as she closed the door and i saw an angry gleam flash in his eye and when i turned to the he was following the carriage with a look of hate i suddenly felt drawn to them both and the old fight between the people and the suddenly took shape before me and i found where my sympathies lay at this moment the turned and i caught his eye and held it it was hard and angry at first but as he gave me a keen second glance he saw something in my face and hb eye softened who is mr i a the next mayor he said briefly oh i took out my card under an impulse and my address on it and handed it to him if you have any trouble about this let me know he took it and turning it slowly gazed at it at first with a puzzled look then as he saw the address hb expression changed by john marvel assistant he opened his coat and put it carefully in his pocket thank you sir he said finally i turned away with the consciousness that i had had a new light thrown on life and had found it more selfish than i had dreamed i had begun with high hopes it was indeed ever my nature to be hopeful being healthy and strong and in the prime of vigorous youth i was always rich when at my poorest only my heavy h ship had not come in i knew that though the was lean and storms were beating furiously off the coast somewhere beating her way against the contrary winds the was slowly making and some day i should find her beside my pier and see her stores at my feet the stress and storm of the struggle were not unwelcome to me i was always a good when aroused but i was lazy and too indolent to get aroused now however i was wide awake the greatness of the city stirred my its blackness and its force aroused my sleeping powers and as i stepped into the surf and felt the rush of the tides as they swept about and by me i felt as a fair might who steps for the first time in a fierce current and feels it clutch his limbs and draw him in i was not afraid only awakened and alive to the struggle before me and my senses thrilled as i plunged and rose to catch my breath and face the vast unknown later on i found that the chief danger i had not counted on the of the senses the slow process under which spirit energy courage and even hope finally die by the lady of the one who has never had the experience of starting in a big city alone without a connection of any kind cannot conceive what it means the loneliness utter as in a desert the waiting the terrible waiting being obliged to sit day after day and just wait for business to come watching your small funds out drop by drop seeing men pass your door and enter others and never one turn in at yours till your spirit sinks lower and lower and your heart dies within you one who has not felt it does not know what it is to be out of work and not able to get it the rich and fat and sleek the safe and secure what know they of want want not of money but of work the only capital of the honest and industrious poor it is the that ever haunts the poor it makes the world look as though the whole system of society were out of joint as if all men were in conspiracy against you as if god had forgotten you i found men in a harder case than mine men in multitude with wives and children the babe at the mother	46
s withered breast the children dying for food staggering along the streets seeking work in vain while wealth in a glittering flood poured through the streets in which they perished this bitter knowledge i came to learn day after day till i grew almost to hate mankind the next step b war against society not all who it hate the men they fight it is the cause they hate there i sat day after day full of hope and eagerness and now that my conceit was somewhat knocked out of me with not only abundant ability but the stem resolve to by john marvel assistant any business which might be to me and just to despair no wonder men go to the devil and to fight the whole establishment of organized society i almost went when i look back at it now it seems like a miracle that i did not go wholly pride saved me it survived long after hope died sometimes i even thought of the pistol i had in my but i had made up my mind to and win there too came in pride i could not bear to think of and how she would congratulate herself and how would no i could not give him that action did me a good turn there a strong enmity well based is not always without good results but should not my memory with pretended pity so i starved but held on when i got so that i amid endure it no longer i used to go out and walk up and down the streets sometimes the fashionable streets and look at the handsome and the fine car and flashing by and the handsomely dressed people passing and recall that i was as good as they in my heart i thought better some of them with kind faces i used to fancy my friends but that they did not know i was in town this conceit helped me and at times i used to fancy that i lived in a particular house and owned a particular team thus living for a brief moment like a child in making pictures a house is sometimes personal and well nigh human to me it appears to have qualities almost human and to express them on its face kindness hostility breadth by the lady of the or and brutal selfishness are often on its front i have often felt that i could tell from the outside of a house the characteristics of the people within ignorance want of tact and display spoke from every doorway and gaudy with a which would have shocked a savage this being so what characters some of the wealthy people of our cities must it must be one of the of the poor that the houses of the rich are often so hideous and the mansion i selected finally as mine was a light stone mansion simple in its style but charming in its proportions not one of the largest but certainly one of the prettiest in the whole city amid a waste of splendid vulgarity it was almost perfect in its harmonious design and lines and had a sunny look it stood in an ample lot with sun and air all around it and grass and flowers about it our fathers used to say seated which has a more established and sound it looked a home of refinement and ease its stable was set back some distance behind and a little to one side so that i could see that it was of the same stone with the mansion and just enough of the same general style to indicate that it belonged to the mansion and the that came out of it were the and in the city one day as i was walking trying to divert myself from my loneliness a rolled out of this stable by john marvel assistant with a pair of airy shining like satin and drew up to the carriage k a little before me and a young lady came out of the house as i passed by my heart gave a leap for it was the girl i had seen on the train i took her in rather than her as she tripped down the stone steps and she glanced at me for a second as if she thought i might be an acquaintance she made as she there one of the loveliest pictures i had ever laid eyes on her trim slim figure exquisitely dressed in the way soft living brown hair brushed back from a white broad forehead beautiful speaking eyes under nearly straight brows and a mouth neither too big for beauty nor too small for character all set by a big black hat with rich that made a background for what i thought the loveliest face i had ever seen something pleasant had evidently just happened for she came out of the door smiling and i observed at the same moment her eyes and her i wondered that people did not always smile that smile suddenly lit up everything for me i forgot my loneliness my want of success myself her hands were full of as she came down the steps and just as i passed the wind lifted the paper from one a bunch of flowers and in to recover it she dropped another and it rolled down to my feet i picked it up and handed it to her it was a ball one of those big rubber balls with painted rings around it that are given to small children because they cannot do anything with she thanked me by the lady of the and was to her carriage when under a sudden i stepped to the door just as i should have done at home and lifting my hat said i b your pardon but t i open your door for you she bowed looking perhaps just	46
the least shade surprised but having handed her in i was afraid of embarrassing her and was away and passing on when she thanked me again very graciously again i lifted my hat and again got a look into her deep eyes as the carriage rolled off she was leaning back in it and i felt her eyes upon me from under the shade of that big hat with a pleasant look but i had assumed an unconscious air and even stopped and picked up as though carelessly a couple of she had dropped as she crossed the and after a of their fragrance dropped them into my pocket book because they reminded me of the past and because i hated to see them lie on the hard pavement to be crushed by passing feet the book was empty enough otherwise but somehow i did not mind it so much after the were there who lives in that i asked of an officer mr the banker and big west side street car man runs all the lines out that way all the estate don t run he added he waved his arm to include a circle that might take in half the town or half the the big house in the middle of the block b mrs s the great you know everybody knows her i did not but i did not care by john marvel assistant i knew all i wanted to know i knew who miss was i reflected with some concern that this was the name of the vice president of the railway whom i had attacked through and of the man to whom mr s letter was addressed i went back to my o in better spirits and having no brief to work on even wrote a poem about the about her leaving a track of behind her i was drawn to that street a number of times afterward but i saw her no more i don t believe that love often comes at first sight but that it may come thus or at least at second sight i have my own case to prove it may be that my empty heart bruised and lonely in that great city was waiting with open door for any guest bold enough to walk in and claim possession it may be that that young lady with her pleasant smile her high bred face and kindly air crossing my path in that wilderness was led by providence it may be that her grace and charm were those i had pictured long in the dreams of youth and but now found however it was i went home in love with an ideal whose outward semblance was the girl with the children s toys truly in love with her and the vision of never came to me again in any guise that could discomfort me from this time the vision that haunted me and led me on was of a sweet eyed girl who as she smiled and dropped her the picture of standing by the marble mantel in her parlor her by the lady of the so as to set off her not too small wrist while i faced my fate flitted before my mind but she was a ghost to me and my heart warmed as i thought of the lady of the and the children s toys y by xvi the shadow of sham i soon changed back to my first boarding house after my two weeks were out for which i had i went to my landlady mrs a tall thin woman with high cheek bones a cold eye and a close mouth and told her frankly i could not pay any more in advance and that though i would certainly pay her within a short time it might not be convenient for me to pay her by the week and i left it with her whether she would keep me on these terms she did not hesitate a second her first duty was to herself and family she said by which she meant her daughter miss as she always spoke of her but whom the portion of the whom i associated with always spoke of as a young woman who dressed much in yellow perhaps because it matched her hair played vehemently on the piano and entertained the young men who there besides she wanted the room for a dressing room for a gentleman who wished a whole she added with what i thought a little undue stress on the word gentleman as the gentleman in question was the person who had borrowed my money from me and never returned it g who occupied the big room next my little one he had as i learned cut quite a dash by the shadow of sham in town for a while living at one of the most fashionable hotels and driving a cart and and paying attention to a young in the city ter of a and street car but he had taken a room at mrs s in order he gave out that he might be quiet for a time as a duke or or something i am not sure he did not say a king who was his relative had died in europe he had taken the greater part of the by storm for he was a tall looking fellow and would have been handsome but for a hard and eye and i found myself in a pitiful in my aversion to him which however after a while gained some the young men one of them my young who had moved there from mrs s the boarding house keeper s daughter was desperately in love with and with her mother s able assistance was making a dead set for him which par the count was using for what it was worth hardly attempting meantime to disguise his amusement	46
at them he sang enough to be though his voice was like his eye hard and cold and he used to sing with miss the method by which according to a young jew named who lived in the house he paid his board i never knew how he acquired his information but he was positive i said i could pay my board in vith a little song now i can sing so the count by john marvel assistant he would give me all he is to sing so like i sing but i am not a count on this side however this was paid the girl enough attention to turn the poor thing s head and made her treat harshly my who was deeply in love with her and spent all his salary on her for flowers and theatre tickets on her the evening before i left i had to call down who had been drinking a little and i must say when i called he came promptly it was after dinner in the smoking room as the apartment was called and he began to ridicule poor victoria cruelly saying she had told him her hair was yellow like that of the girls of his own country and he had told her no that hers was natural while theirs was always and she it she is in loaf me i e swallow i her he laughed the others laughed too but i did not i thought of and perhaps i was thinking of my money and i know i thought of the account of the ball which took place the day i arrived i told him what i thought of his a girl he flattered so to her face he turned on me his eyes snapping his face flushed but his manner cool and his voice level are you in loaf her too like poor who spent all on her and what she laugh at to make me amused i her to you den i too not want her i had her you can take her he made a gesture as if tossing something by the shadow of sham into my and put his back in his teeth and drew a long breath there were none but men present and some of them had stopped laughing and were looking grave no i am not in love with her i said quietly standing up i only will not allow you to speak so of any lady in my presence that is all i was thinking of a girl who lived in a sunny house and had once taken a lot of little dirty faced children to feed them and once had smiled into my eyes i only knew her name but her were in my pocket near my heart i was perfectly calm in my manner and my face had and he it for he out i nod i nod speaks in your presence you me one little lesson you who know te so veil i you he bowed low before me spreading out his arms and some of the others it encouraged him and he straightened up and stepped in front of me i tell you i does he proceeded i say i please before you about he paused and cast about for something which would prove his boast is nod a woman in tis town or in america i that nod herself to title to me if i her and say you count ha ah he bent his body forward and stuck his face almost into mine with a gesture as insulting as he could make it and as i stepped back a pace to get a firm stand he stuck out his tongue and his head in derision the next second he had turned almost by john marvel assistant a i had taken lessons since wolf me i saw the bottom of his boots he wag at precisely the right distance for me and i caught him fairly in the mouth his head struck the and he lay so still that for a few moments i thought i had killed him but after a little be came to and began to rise get up i said and to these gentlemen and to me i caught him and dragged him to his feet and faced him you insulted me i see about tis he turning away but i caught him with a grip on his shoulder and him the others were all on my side now but i did not see them i saw only him or i will fling you out of the window he the affair passed the count explained his by some story that he had been run down by a to which i learned he afterward added a little fiction about having stopped a and having saved some one but i had left before this touch occurred to him mrs must have had some idea of the collision though not of the original cause for she was very decided in the expression of her wishes to have possession of the dressing room that night for the gentleman and i yielded possession the curious thing about it was that one reason i could not pay mrs again in advance was that he still had my money which he had borrowed the day after i had by the shadow of sham from mrs s i went back to my old kept by mrs as a much cheaper one in a much poorer neighborhood where i was not asked to pay in advance but paid at the end of the month by my pins and shirt and gradually everything else i had i was brought up to go to church my people having all been earnest christians and devoted church people but in my years i had gone through the usual conceited phase of and partly from this intellectual disease and partly	46
from i had allowed the habit to drop into and later during my first years at the bar i had been gradually dropping it altogether my conscience however was never quite easy about it my mother used to say that the promise as to training up a child in the way he should go was not to be fulfilled in youth but in age and as my years advanced i began to find that the training of childhood counted for more and more however had no more religion than a cat she to be comfortable and to follow the general habit of the to which she belonged she went to the church because it was fashionable and whenever she had half an excuse she stayed away from church unless it were on a sunday like or some such an occasion when she made up by the of her and the apparent of her for all i must confess that i was very easily influenced by her at that time and was quite as ready to by john marvel assistant absent myself from h as she was though i should have had a much deeper feeling for her if she had not what i esteemed a of life that women at least should profess religion and if she had not pretended to have herself as to matters as far beyond h intellect as the system or s laws i remember quoting to her once dr johnson s reply to when the latter asked if the actor were not an yes sir as a dog is an he has not thought on the matter at all dr samuel johnson she asked you mean the one who wrote the dictionary and i saw that she was so pleased with her literary knowledge in knowing his name that she never gave a thought to the matter that we were discussing so let it drop as david said that in his trouble he called upon the lord so now in my solitude and poverty i began once more to think on serious things and when sunday came i would dress up and go to church partly in obedience to the feeling i speak of and partly to be associated with people well dressed and good or so the church i selected was a large stone edifice st s with a gilded cross on its somewhat spire toward which i saw a richly clad their way sunday morning the as was stated in gilded letters on a large sign was the rev dr i cannot say that the congregation were especially refined looking or particularly cordial in fact they were very far by the shadow of sham from cordial and the solemn to whom i spoke after turning a deaf ear to my request for a seat took occasion as soon as he had bowed and scraped a richly dressed stout lady up the aisle to look me over on the sly not my shoes before he allowed me to take a seat in one of the rear the preacher the as he spoke of himself in the notices when he occasionally the rather frequent first personal was a middle aged gentleman with a complexion a voice a comfortable round person and fair hands of which he was far from ashamed for he had what but for my reverence for the cloth i should call a trick of using his hand with a fine handkerchief held loosely in it his face was self contained rather than strong and handsome rather than pleasing he was so good looking that it set me on reflecting what relation looks bear to the of large and fashionable churches for as i recalled it nearly all the of such churches were men of looks and it came to me that when sir de requested his old college friend to send him down a he desired him to find out a man rather of plain sense than much learning of a good aspect a clear voice a temper and if possible a man who knew something of hb sermon was altogether a secondary consideration for he could always read one of the of st s or dr south s or dr s possibly it is something of the same feeling that the sermons to the looks of of fashionable by john marvel assistant churches however i did not have long to reflect on that idea for my thoughts were given a new and different not to say pleasanter direction by the sudden appearance of a trim figure clad in a gray suit and lai gray hat which as it moved up the aisle quite for me the priest and all the people i was struck first by the easy grace with which the young girl moved but before she had turned into her and i caught sight of her face under the large hat which had hidden it knew it was my young lady miss whom i had helped up on tlie train and afterward into her carriage it is not too much to say that the rev dr secured that moment a new permanent member of his congregation before the service was over i had been by her simple and unaffected and when in one of the i caught a clear liquid note perfectly sweet and i felt as though i had made a new and charming discovery the gave a number of notices from which i felt die church must be one of the great forces of the city for work among the poor yet when i glanced around i could not see a poor person in the except myself and two old ladies in rusty black who had been seated near the door i was struck by the interest shown in the notices by my young lady of the large hat from whose little head with its well brown hair my eyes did not long stray i	46
have he said in addition to the notable work already carried on through my assistant in by the shadow of sham the work of st s chapel with success thb work has reached and i am glad to be able to say is reaching more than ever before the great ignorant class that in our midst and a tendency to that b most disturbing this is the class which causes most of the uneasiness felt in the minds of the thoughtful i observed that he did not mention the name of the assistant in charge and my sympathy rather went out to the nameless priest doing hb work without the reward of even being mentioned as to the sermon i can only say that it was twenty minutes long and appeared aimed exclusively at the sins of whom i had always esteemed a quite decent sort of fellow rather than at those of the doctor s congregation whom he appeared to have a higher opinion of than of the i recall the text seek ye first the kingdom of god and all these things shall be added unto you he made it very plain that to be pious and prudent was the best way to secure wealth he held up a worldly motive and a worldly reward such a sermon as that would have the most uneasy conscience in when the congregation came out i in the aisle until my young lady passed when i my eyes on her face and finely curved cheek straight nose and soft eyes veiled under their long lashes my old ladies in black were waiting in the end of a and as i observed by their smiles when she approached by john marvel assistant waiting like myself to see her i had already recognized them as the old ladies of the bundles whom i had once helped on the street how i envied them the smile and cordial greeting they received in return i made the observation then which i have often had confirmed since that tenderness to the aged like that to the very young is the mark of a nature i heard them say we know who has done the work out at the chapel and she replied no you must not think that my poor work has been nothing your friend has done it all and i think that the doctor ou t to have said so to which they assented warmly and i did the same though i did not know their friend s name as i had nowhere to go in particular i strolled slowly up the street and then walked back again and as i the church i met the who had just left his room he was a fine looking man on the street as well as in the and i was prompted to speak to him and say that i had just heard him preach he was however too impatient at my him and so suspicious that i quickly regretted my impulse hb well what is it was so prompt on his lips and his suspicion of me was so clear in his cold eyes that i drew myself up and replied nothing i was only going to say that i had just heard you preach that s all oh i ah i well i m much obliged i m very glad if i ve helped you he pulled out his watch helped you haven t i said and turned away by the shadow of sham a quarter of an hour later as i strolled along the street lonely and forlorn i saw him hurrying up the steps of the house which had been pointed out to me as mrs s the great y by the as i saw more of the city its its might and its grew on me it was a world in itself a world constructed on lines as different from that in which i had lived as if it had been a city as different from the smaller cities i had known as if it had been or the were as great as they could have been in the so vast that they must have the towers of so rich and splendid that the hanging gardens of must have been reared their bulk into the smoky air and cast into perpetual shade all that lay near them hard beside their towering mass lay a region filled with the wretched of the poor and a little further off the houses of the well to do and there was not a greater contrast between the of the one and the pitiful of the other than between the life of the owners of the former and that of the of the closely packed which in their shadow splendor and were divided often only by a brick wall the roar of the tide that swept through the streets drowned the cry of wretchedness and only the wretched knew how loud it was i had never seen such wealth and i had never dreamed of such poverty by the gulf the vulgar make the parade the refined pass so quietly as scarcely to be observed the vulgarity of the display of riches began to me i discovered later the great store of refinement goodness and sweetness that was hidden in the homes alike of an element of the wealthy the merely well to do and the poor but for a time it was all by the glare of the vulgar and rich discontent hardness vulgarity were stamped in many faces and spoke in every movement of many of those i saw even of the most richly dressed i think it was more the vulgarity and insolence of those i saw in the of wealth anything else even my own poverty that changed my views and turned me for a time from my easy indifference as to social conditions toward a recognition	46
that those conditions are a bent i have never quite got over though i was later drawn back to a more point of view than under the hatred of sham and the spur of want i was driven to occupy for some time they have no traditions and no they know no standard but wealth and possess no ability to display it but through parade they feel it necessary to prove their novel position by continual assertion they think that wealth has them from decency they mistake civility for and for their best effort b only a a poor imitation of what they imagine to be the manners of the upper class abroad whose indifferent manners they by john marvel assistant loves company and when i wanted comfort i left the section of splendor and display of extravagance and glittering wealth and went to those r than myself a practice i can commend from experience when i got so desperate that i could not stand it any longer and was afraid i might fall down dead or do violence i used to turn my steps in another direction and walk through tlie poorer part of the city not the worst part where there was nothing but dirt and and that me and i bad never had much sympathy with the class that lived they always appeared contented enough with their surroundings and rather to enjoy themselves in their own way and not the successful workman s quarter there was an assurance and assumption there that offended me the bred of sudden success no matter in what class b everywhere equally vulgar after its kind it was the part of the city where the people were respectable but they could just hold on with all their struggling and striving that i used to go into the part where there were patches not rags and sometimes an effort to keep down the dirt and where a bit of a plant in a pot or a little cheap ornament in a window told of the spark of sentiment that could yet live amid the poverty and hardness about it they always place them in the windows no doubt to get the light and partly perhaps to show by that there is something within better than might be looked for next door these people on their by the gulf holidays always make toward the open country they try to get away from their more successful brothers and get back near to nature the old mother that cares nothing for success and only according to the love her children bear her here i often walked as i grew more wretched in this section i used to see people with whom i felt in touch a man with the look in his eye that made me know that he was at bay or a woman with that resigned air which hopeless struggling in the face and on the shoulders these drew me nearer to my kind and made me feel that there were others in a harder case than i and gave me a desire to help them i came to know some of them by sight and the houses in which they lived and sometimes i spoke to them and exchanged a word or two and the effort to take a cheerful view with them helped me and sent me back to my little lonely hole cheered and in some sort comforted and resolute to hold out a little longer but it was hungry work this element composed the great body of the population but deep down below them lay a yet lower element in an infinite and hopeless misery to which even the poor class i speak of were alien they were spoken of at times as the criminal classes they were not this at all though among them were many driven to crime by necessity because there was no means for them to no possible means nor hope outside of their casual and occasional of the law by which they by john marvel assistant secure enough for empty and bodies merely to keep alive they live among and on the poor and one of the bitterest trials of poverty b the continual presence and of these who like other pursue them and cannot be kept off their only common crime is desperate infinite poverty poverty beyond hope for they have nothing not work nor the hope of work not even the power to if it should be offered them as the well to do look with anxiety to the loss of their property and the consequent sinking to some lower plane of moderate poverty so the poor look with shuddering or at last with despair to sinking into the of this hopeless state for which there is no name because none has been devised adequate to describe its desperate misery often but a block or even but a wall the where they creep and and rot from the broad well lighted smooth paved avenue where wealth goes by in its wild of extravagance and reckless mirth the eye of the and starving wolf from his thicket at the glittering of heartless and waste should the pack ever find a leader bold enough to spring what will be the end at present they are hungry enough but they have not organized they are not yet a hunting pack but only scattered bands about fighting and on each other the larger bands with the bolder leaders driving off the weaker and but let them all once and the end will not be yet by the gulf after day i saw my last few dollars away and though i my thin purse at times by i had yet this too gradually away fortunately i had plenty of clothes which i had bought in my flush days so i could still make a respectable appearance as money got low	46
all sorts of schemes used to present themselves to me to my pocket one was to go out as a on the streets clean bricks or do anything i was not lazy i would have walked around the world for a case i do not think i was ashamed of it for i knew it was respectable but i was afraid some one i knew might pass by i was afraid that or mrs might see me and yes that that young girl from the house might recognize me i had often thought of her since i had dropped them into my pocket book and now when this idea came to me i took them out and looked at them they still retained a faint fragrance what would be the result if she should pass by and see me cleaning bricks me a and the thoughts came together should see me i would win on my own line if it took me all my life the idea of suggested another plan why not gambling was gentlemanly at least gentlemen but did they play for a living i had a little myself in the past played and like most men myself on my game though i generally lost in the long run and when i was making good resolutions after my failure i had made up my by john marvel assistant mind never to play again anywhere and i had always held to the opinion that as soon as a man played for his living he crossed the line and ceased to be a gentleman now however it began to appear to me as if this were the only plan by which could make anything and as if i should have a good excuse for breaking my resolution i resisted the temptation for some time but one night when i had nearly everything and had only three or four dollars left i went out and after a long but half hearted battle gave up as such are always lost and turned into a street across an alley from my office where i knew there was a gambling place over a saloon kept by one i went boldly up the stairs even as i mounted them i felt a sort of i stopped at the door and my old resolution not to play again stirred and struggled a little i caught it however with a sort of grip almost physical and gave it a shake till it was quiet i knew i should win the blaze of light within cheered me and without hesitating an instant i walked across the room to where a crowd stood watching the play of some one seated at a table it was a large and richly decorated room with a few rather daring pictures on the walls and much about the ceiling the hot air heavy with tobacco smoke and of one kind and another met me in a blast as i entered and involuntarily i thought of a sweat shop i had once seen in my earlier days but the sensation passed and left me warm and as i passed along a man looked at me and half nodded i knew he was the proprietor i made my way in and by the gulf caught the dealer s eye and taking out a note as carelessly as if my pockets were stuffed with them i glanced over the board to select my bet at one end of the table sat the large heavy man i had run into one night on the leading from the alley to the building where i had my office he was somewhat and evidently in bad luck for he was heated and was wildly near by sat a big sour looking fellow dressed whom i recognized as having been one of my fellow travellers on the side train the one who had talked to the of their wrongs he still wore his diamonds his silk hat and patent leather shoes but i took little notice of these casually as i dropped my note my eye fell on the player at the middle of the table he was surrounded by of as i looked he in a new pile at least a hundred dollars and he never changed a he was calmer than the dealer before him he was in evening dress and success had given him quite an air i caught up my note without knowing it and fell back behind a group of young men who had just come up curious things happen sometimes i found my note doubled up in my hand when i had got out of doors a quarter of an hour later all i remember is my at seeing that sitting there in money so calmly with my money for his stake in his pocket and i turned out for him an adventurer who said all american women were at his bidding it recalled to me the girl i had seen on the train and had handed later by john marvel assistant into her and the good resolutions i had formed and it strung me up like wine i felt that i was a coward to have come there and as bad as just as i to leave the place a party of young fellows entered the room they had come from a dinner at mr s as i understood from their talk j and were on to a dance unless the luck should run to suit them they were in high spirits mr s champagne having done its work and they were evidently of the place and good j i judged from the respect paid them by the attendants the leader of them was a large rather good looking young fellow but with marks of on a face without a line of refinement in it the others all seemed to be his followers they greeted familiarly and by name	46
the eager attendants who rushed forward to take their coats and the leader asked them casually who was in to night the count s here i think sir said one whom they called the count s him again said the young leader and he swore to me he d never let him have another cent with oaths enough to damn him d per than he will be damned anyhow come oo i ll skin him clean i lingered for a moment to see him skin they sauntered up to the table and after a greeting to the count began to toss bills on the board as though they grew on trees the least of them would have kept by the gulf me going for months i had never seen money handled so before and it staggered me who is that young man i asked of a man near me nodding toward the leader he must be pretty rich you bet he s jim got all his s money and going to get all the and piles some day he ll need it too added my i should think so i recalled his name in connection with miss s name in the account of the ball and i was feeling a little bitter why he d just as try to comer water as to bet a hundred dollar bill on a card this is just play to him he d give all he d win to night to any one of hia women his women yes he s one of the real upper class the upper so this was the idea of the upper class held by this man and his my soul r at the thought of this man standing as the type of upper class and i was turning away when back his chair as i turned he looked up and i saw him start though i did not his glance the dealer saw him too and as he looked at me i caught his eye he to me but i took no notice as i walked out the man near the door spoke to me there s supper in the next room thank you i don t want it come in again better luck to morrow by john marvel assistant for you i hope i said and i saw hb i had of late been having an uncomfortable thought which was beginning to worry me the idea of doing away with myself had suggested itself to me from time to time i do not mean that i ever thought i should really do it for when i reflected seriously i knew i should not in the first place i was afraid and in the next place i never gave up the belief that i should some day achieve success i my feelings i found that the true name for my was but the idea would come up to me and now began to me i had a pistol which i could never bring myself to though nearly everything else was pledged i put the pistol away but this did not help matters it looked like cowardice so that evening i had taken the pistol out and put it into my pocket when i went into the street if i could only catch some breaking into a bank or some beating a woman or some scoundrel committing any crime it would attract attention and i might get work i often used to think thus but nothing ever happened and i knew nothing would happen that evening when i walked out of the gambling house so presently the pistol began to be in my way and my mind went to working again on the ease with which i could go to my office and lock myself in still i kept on and i found myself near the river a black stream that i had often thought of as the it was as black and silent now as it slipped on in the darkness as the river of death by the gulf i was along the of fancy bitter and sinking lower and lower every step in the of working over i would come if i should suddenly up the whole business and get out of life pondering how i should destroy all marks by which there could be any possibility of when the current of my thoughts if that moody train of dismal reflection could be dignified with such a name was turned aside by a small incident as i wandered on in the darkness the figure of a woman standing a shadow in the shadow at a comer of an alley arrested my attention even in the gloom the attitude of was such as to strike me and i saw or felt i know not which that her eyes were on me and that in some dim distant way they contain an appeal i saw that she was young and in the dusk the oval outline of a face that might have both and beauty my attention was she a beggar or only an unhappy outcast waiting in the darkness for the sad reward which evil chance might fling to her wretchedness i put my hand in my pocket thinking that she might beg of me and i would give her a small portion of my slender store but she said nothing and i passed on after a little however still thinking of her dejected air and with a sudden sympathy for her wretchedness i turned back she was still standing where i left her i passed slowly by her but she said nothing though i felt again that her eyes were on me then my curiosity or possibly i may say my interest being i turned again and walked by her by john marvel assistant why so sad to night i said with words which might have appeared but in a tone which she	46
instantly recognized for sympathy she turned half away and said nothing and i stood silent watching her for her face must once have been almost beautiful though it was now sadly and an ugly across her eye and cheek as if it might have come from the of a made that side drawn and distorted do you want money she slowly shook her head without looking at me what is it then maybe i can help you she turned slowly and looked at me with such indescribable in her face that my heart went out to her no fm past help now oh no you re not my spirits rose with the words and i felt suddenly as if i had risen out of the which had been me and as though i had gotten my feet on a firm place where i could reach out a hand to help this despairing and sinking sister yes past help now come and walk with me and as she did not stir i took her hand and drew it through my arm and gently led her forward along the street i had a strange feeling as i walked along i somehow felt as i had escaped from something which had been dragging me down it was a strange walk and a strange and tragic story that she told of having left her home in the country inspired by the desire to do something aid be something more than she was a simple farmer s by the gulf ter in another state with some little education such as the country schools could give of having secured a position in a big shop where for a small sum she worked all day and learned to see and love fine clothes and beautiful things of having fallen in with one or two gay companions in this and other shops who wore the fine clothes and had the beautiful things she admired of having been put forward because she was pretty and polite and then of having met a young man well dressed and with fine manners of having fallen in love with him and of having accepted his attentions and his gifts and then of having been led astray by him and then of such an act of base as had i not had it afterward in every horrid detail i should never have believed i had known something of the wickedness of men and the evil of an in the city where the passions of the heart are given play but i had never dreamed of anything so as the story this girl told me that night she had been deliberately and with malice not only to her destruction but to a life of slavery so vile ds to be the man who had secured her heart used his power over her to seize and sell her into a slavery for which there b no name which could be used oh the printed page here stricken by the horror of her situation she had attempted to escape from her but had been bodily beaten into submission then she had made a wild dash for liberty and had been seized and with a knife until she fell under her wounds and her life was in imminent danger by john marvel assistant from this time she gave up and became the slave of the woman of the house smooth ally she said they called her but she would not give me her name or her address she would have her killed she feared if she did so here she gradually had yielded to her fate and had lived in company with her other slaves some willing some as unwilling as herself until finally her place was needed for one more useful to her owner when she had been handed on from one owner to another always sinking in the scale lower and lower until at last she had been turned into the street with her choice limited only to the river or the long before she had finished her story i had made up my mind that life still held for me something which i might do however poor and useless i knew myself to be the only person i could think of who might help her was miss how could i reach her could i write her of this poor creature she could not go back to her home she said for she knew that they had heard of her life and they were good and christian people she used to write to and hear from them but it had been two years and more since she had written or heard now still she gave me what she said was her father s address in another state and i told her i would find out how they felt about her and would let her know i gave her a part of what i had it was very little and i have often wished since then that i had had the courage to give her all i was walking on with her trying to think of some place where she might find a shelter and be taken care of until her friends could be informed where she was by the gulf when in one of the streets in front of a bar room we heard mingled laughter and singing and found a group of young men and standing on the laughing at the singers who stood in the street as we drew near i saw that the latter were a small group of the salvation army and it appeared to me a providence here were some who might help her at the moment that we approached they ended the hymn they had been singing and kneeling down in the street one of them offered a prayer after which a woman handed around something like a asking for a collection the that she encountered might have	46
had no one to blame but myself a fact i was just b to face when i walked out of the house i was in a rather low state of mind i felt that it was the last day when i could make any to being a gentleman i had been slipping down down and now i was very near the bottom so i wandered on in the street with at my heels and my pistol in my pocket just then a notice of a concert on a wall caught my eye and i gave myself a shake together as an ass and determined suddenly that i needed some amusement and that a better use for the pistol would be to sell it and go to the concert i would at least be a gentleman once more and then to morrow i could start afresh so i hunted up a and raising from the villain who kept it a few dollars on my pistol had a good supper and then took home and went to the as it happened i got one of the best seats in the house it was a revelation to me by john marvel assistant a revolution in my thoughts and feelings the great audience gay with and flowers and jewels filling up all the space about and above me rising up to the very top of the vast i did not have time at first to observe them i only felt them for just as i entered the came out and the audience applauded it me like wine i felt as if it had been myself they were then the music began the it caught me up and bore me away and glory and love were all about me the splendor of the contest the struggle in which a false step a cowardly weakness might fling away the world the reward that awaited the victor and the curse if he gave way till i found myself dazzled amazed and borne down by the of harmonious sound and could do nothing but lie drifting at the mercy of the tide and watch whatever object caught my eye the first thing i took in was the tall old who above the great bank of dark bodies with swaying arms still and solemn he appeared out of the mist and seemed like some which i must hold on to if i would not be swept away no one appeared to pay much attention to him and he appeared of all but his drums now he over them and listened to their throbbing now he beat as if the whole world depended on it i held on to him and felt somehow as if he were the one to whom the looked the centre of all the music and pomp and mystery and i must keep him in sight by the i don t know much of what came on the programme after that fox i was by the storm of applause which followed and during the i looked about at the audience me they filled the house from floor to roof every seat was occupied and the boxes looked like banks of flowers all the faces were strange to me though and i was beginning to feel lonely again and was turning to my old when sweeping the boxes my eye fell on a girl who caught me at once she was sitting a little forward looking across toward the with so serious an expression on her lovely face that i felt drawn to her even before i took in that she was the girl i had seen on the train and whom i had handed into her as i gazed at her this came to me and with it such a warm feeling about my heart as i had not had in a long time i looked at the men about her one of whom was the good looking clergyman dr and the next instant all my blood was there bending down over her talking into her ear so close to her that she had to sit forward to escape his touch was the whom i had heard say not three weeks before that every american girl was open to a proposal from him i don t know really what happened after that i only remember wishing i had my pistol back and being glad that i had it not sold it for i made up my mind anew in that theatre that night to live and succeed and preserve that girl from that adventurer when the concert was over i watched the direction they took and made my way through the crowd to the exit by by john assistant they would go into the there i waited and presently they came along she was surrounded by a little party and was laughing heartily over something one of them had just said and was looking in the rich pink wrap which enveloped her like a rich pink i was gazing at her intently and caught her eye and no doubt struck by my look of recognition she bowed she had not really thought of me she was still of what had been said and it was only a casual bow to some one in a crowd who knows you and catches your eye but it was a bow and it was a smiling one and again that warm feeling about my heart which had come when i met her on the street the next second that fellow came along he was taller than most of the crowd and well dressed was really a handsome enough fellow but for his cold eyes and hard look the eyes were too bold and the chin not bold enough he was walking beside a lai je girl with shallow blue eyes who appeared much pleased with herself or with him hut at the moment he	46
was bowing his to her while she was trying to hold on to him i don t think you are nice a bit i heard her say as they came up to me you have not taken the least notice of me to night this he evidently for she and smiled up at him well then til excuse you this but you needn t be running after her she won t i did not hear the rest i was thinking of the girl before me by the he was looking over the heads of the people before him and the next moment was his way to overtake my young lady close to him in the crowd as he came on stood mrs s daughter painted and in her best finely and i saw her imploring eyes fastened on him eagerly he glanced at her and she bowed with a gratified light dawning in her face i saw his face he cut her dead poor girl i i saw her pain and the look of disappointment as she followed him with her eyes he pushed on after my young lady but i was ahead of him just before he reached her i slipped in and when he attempted to push by i stood firm before him beg pardon he said dying to put me aside to step ahead of me i turned my head and over my shoulder looked him in the face i beg your pardon oh he said how do let me by to your old trade i asked looking into his eyes over my shoulder ah i saw the rage come into his face and he swore some foreign oath he put his hand on my shoulder to push me aside but i half turned and looked him straight in the eyes and his grasp relaxed he had felt my grip once and he knew i was not afraid of him and thought i was a fool and his hand fell i walked in front of him and kept him back until the party with my young lady in it had passed quite out of the door and then i let him by for that evening at least i had protected her by john marvel assistant i walked to my lodging with a feeling of more content than i had had in a long time my heart had a home though i had none it was as if the shell b which i had been cramped so long were broken and i should at last step out into a new world i had a definite aim and one higher than i ever had had before i was in love with that girl and i made up ray mind to win her as i walked along through the gradually streets mj old professor s words came to me they had been i my past life and saw as clearly as if in a mirror my failures and false steps i had and with the i had sat in my hole of an office with all my talents as deeply as if i had been under the of and had expected men to me as though i had been treasure it may appear to some that i exaggerated my feeling for a girl whom i scarcely knew at all but love is the least conventional of passions his victory the most un expected and unaccountable he may steal into the heart like a thief or burst in like a robber the is not so the not so furious and lose their strength in his presence and of their power surrender at discretion than than he leads them both captive and behind them in his train the long line of captains whom has as his helpless slaves why should it then be thought strange that a poor weak foolish lonely young man should fall before him at his first i i confess i thought it by the foolish and yet so weak was i that i welcomed the arrow that pierced my heart and as i homeward through the streets i to my breast the joy that i loved once more as i was on the point of ringing the door bell there was a heavy step behind me and there was my old coming along he turned in at the little gate and i explained that i was his new and had been to hear him play ah i you mean to hear the no i don t i meant to hear you i went to the concert but i enjoyed you most he chuckled at the flattery and let me in and taking a survey of me invited me to come and have a bit of supper with him which i accepted his wife came in and waited on us and he told her what i had said with pleasure and she laughed over it and rallied him and accepted it and accepted me instantly as an old friend it gave me a new feeling a few minutes later there was another arrival a knock on the street door and the mother smiling and at her husband went and let in the a plump round girl the mingled likeness of her two parents with red cheeks blue eyes smooth hair and that like look of shyness and content which maidens have and behind her a looking young fellow with powerful shoulders and a neck in a net of muscles a clear pink skin and blue eyes and with a roll in his gait partly the effect by john marvel assistant of his iron muscles and partly of mere i was introduced and the first thing the mother did was to repeat the compliment i had paid the father it had gone home and the simple way the white teeth shone around that little circle and the pride the whole family took in this poor bit of praise	46
told their simplicity and warmed my heart the father and mother w ere evidently pleased with their daughter s young man for the mother constantly rallied the daughter about and about her drawing the father in with sly looks and knowing of her head and occasionally glancing at me to see if i too took in the situation although i did not yet know a word of their language i could understand perfectly what she was saying j and i never passed an evening that gave me a better idea of family happiness or greater satisfaction when i went up to my little room i somehow to have gotten into a world of reality and content a new world i in a new world the one i had reached the night before the land of hope and content and when came down stairs i was as fresh as a soul and i walked out into the street with at my heel as though i owned the earth the morning was as perfect as though god had just created light the sky was as blue and the atmosphere as clear as though the rain that had fallen had washed away with the smoke all whatsoever and the floor of heaven afresh with her skirt turned back and a by the white apron about her comely figure was singing as she polished the outer steps before going to her work in a box factory and the sun was shining upon her bare head with its smooth hair and upon the little rose bush by the door turning the rain drops that still hung on it into jewels she stopped and who had followed me and who like his master loved to be by a pretty woman laid back hb ears and rubbed hb head against her and an hour later a group of little muddy boys with their books in their hands had been by a broad on their way to school and were in the mud and laughing over the and they were getting on their clothes and ruddy faces as i watched them one who had been squeezed out of the fun and stood on the looking on and laughing suddenly seized with fear or envy shouted that if they did not come on would keep them in and stricken with sudden panic the whole flock of little sand started off and ran as hard as their legs would carry them around the comer i seemed to be i made my breakfast on a one cent loaf of bread taking a little street which even in that section was a back street to eat it in and for butter amused myself watching a lot of little children among the last of whom i recognized my muddy boys who must have found another in at the door of a small old frame building which i knew must be their school though i could not understand why it should be in such by john marvel assistant a when all the public schools i had seen were the most i took the trouble to go by that day and look at the house on the comer it was as sunny as ever and when on my way back to my office i passed miss the central figure of a group of fresh looking girls i felt that the half shy smile of recognition which she gave me was a shaft of light to draw my hopes to something better than i had known was with me and he promptly picked out his friend and received from her a greeting which curiously enough raised my hopes out of all reason i began to feel that the dog was a link between us y by xix re enter it happened that the building in which i had taken an office bore a somewhat questionable reputation i had selected it because it was cheap and it was too late when i discovered its character i had no money to move the lawyers in it were a lot criminal straw of police ts etc and the other occupants were as bad with wild cat schemes ticket with and thieves in one field or another with doubtless a good of honest men among them it was an old building and rather out of the line of the best growth of the city but in a convenient and crowded section the lower floor was occupied with bucket shops and ticket offices on the street and at the back in a sort of on an alley was a saloon known as s the owner being a solid double son of with blue eyes as keen as and over this saloon was the gambling house where i had been saved by finding on the second floor the best offices were a occupied by a lawyer named a person of considerable distinction after its own kind as was the created with other of the sea after its kind a lawyer of unusual a keen political and a by john marvel assistant business man i had as happened a hole looking out on a narrow well opposite the rear room of his was a large man with a broad face a big nose blue eyes black hair a tight mouth and a coarse fist he would have turned the scales at two hundred and he walked with a step as light as a sick nurse s the first time i ever saw him was when i ran into him suddenly in a winding back that came down on an alley from the floor below mine and was used mainly by those in a hurry and i was conscious even in dim light that he gave me a look of great as he appeared in a hurry i gave way to him with a b pardon for my to which he made no reply except a i however took	46
noiselessly withdrew and closed the door when he was gone i was conscious of a feeling of intense relief and also of intense a feeling i had never had for but one man before a feeling which x never got rid of one evening a little later i missed he usually came home even when he strayed off which was not often unless as happened he went with for whom he had conceived a great fondness and who loved and him in return it had come to be a great bond between the girl and me and i think the whole family liked me the better for the dog s love of the daughter but this be did not appear i knew he was not with for i remembered he had been in my office during the afternoon and in consequence i spent an unhappy night all sorts of visions floated before my mind from the prize ring to the table i rather inclined to the former for i knew his powerful chest and and his shoulders would commend him to the fancy i thought i remembered that he had gone out of my just before i left and had gone down the steps which led to the alley i have by re enter mentioned this he sometimes did i recalled that i was thinking of miss and had not seen or thought of him between the office and my home i was so disturbed about him by that i went out to hunt for him and returned to my office by the same street i had walked through in the afternoon when i reached the building in which my office was i turned into the alley i have mentioned and went up the back it was now after midnight and it was as black as pitch when i reached my office thinking that i might by a bare possibility have locked him in i opened the door and walked in closing it behind me the window looked out on the well left for light and air and was open and as i opened the door a light was reflected through the window on my wall i stepped up to close the window and accidentally looking across the narrow well to see where the light came from discovered that it was in the back office of in which were seated mr and the sour looking man i had seen on the train with the silk hat and the diamond and of all persons in the world the name caught my ear and i involuntarily stopped without being aware that i was listening as i looked the door opened and a man i recognized as the of the building entered and with him a negro waiter bearing two of champagne and three glasses for a moment i felt as though i had been dreaming for the negro was i saw the recognition between him and by john marvel assistant and s white teeth shone as talked about him i heard him say no i don know t all about him got to look out for myself yes got a good place an i m to keep he had opened the bottles and poured out the wine and gave him a note big enough to make him bow very low and thank him when he had withdrawn said you ve got to look out for that rascal he s an awfully smart scoundrel oh i ll own body and soul said i wouldn t have him around me don t he won t fool me if he does he opened and closed his fist with the gesture i had seen him use the first day he paid me a visit well let s to business he said when they had drained their glasses he looked at the other men what do you say you pay me the money and til bring the strike all right said the labor leader and i ll deliver the too in ten days there be a wheel turning on his road i ll order every man out that wears a west line cap or handle a west line tool the west line this was what the street car line was called which ran out into the poor section of the city where i lived which mr controlled that s all right til keep my part d n i want to break him i ll show him who runs this town with his d d airs by re enter that s it said leaning forward it s your road or his that s the way i figure it he rubbed his hands with satisfaction i am with you my friends you can count on the interest you you ll keep the police off said the labor leader will i watch em i poured out another glass and offered the bottle to who declined it then it s all right well you d better make a cash payment down at the start said the labor leader swore do you think i have a bank in my or am a dealer that i can put up a pile like that at midnight besides i ve always heard there re two bad the one that don t pay at all and the one t pays in advance you deliver the goods oh i come oflf said the other if you am t a dealer you own a bank and you ve a s got it downstairs if you ain t so put up or you ll want money sure enough i know what that strike s worth to you rose and at that moment i became aware of the of what i was doing for i had been absolutely absorbed watching and i moved back as i did so knocking over a chair at the sound the light was instantly extinguished and i left my office	46
and hurried down the stairs wondering when the blow was to fall the afternoon following my surprise of the conference in s back room there was a knock at my by john marvel assistant door and walked into my office i was surprised to see what a man of fashion air he had he appeared really glad to see me and was so cordial that i almost forgot my first feeling of shame that he should find me in such circumstances especially as he began to talk vaguely of a large case he had come out to look after and i thought he was on the verge of asking me to represent his you know we own considerable interests out here both in the surface lines and in the p d b d he said no i did not know you did i remember that mr once talked to me about some interests in the p d b d and i made some little investigation at the time i came to the conclusion that his interest had but he never employed me yes that s a part of the interests i speak of mr is a very careful man very well you see i have learned my lesson i have learned economy at least i laughed in reply to hb question of how i was getting along in my new home he took as he asked it an glance at the poor little office a very important lesson to learn he said i am glad i learned it early he was so that i could not help saying you were always economical yes i hope so i always mean to be you get much work by re enter no not much yet still you know i always had a of getting business i said my trouble was that i used to disdain small things and i let others attend to them i know better than that now i don t think i have any right to complain oh i suppose you have to put in night work too then he added after a pause this then was the meaning of his call he wished to know whether i had seen him in s office the night before he had delivered himself into my hands so i answered lightly oh yes sometimes i had led him up to the point and i knew now he was afraid to take a step further he os well tell me something he said if you don t mind do you know mr what mr mr walter the banker i don t mind telling you at all that i do not oh i thought he was going to o per me a case but was economical he already had one lawyer i had a letter of introduction to him from mr i said but you can say to mr that i never presented it oh ah i ll tell him do do you know mr f i nodded yes do you know him well by john marvel assistant does any one know him well i he has an office in this building i could not for the life of me tell whether this was an or a question so i merely nodded which answered in either case but i was to say to him why you come out with it and ask me plainly what i know of your conference the other night however i did not i had learned to play a close game i saw your the other day did you where is he i wanted to find him and asked innocently enough back at home how is he getting on pretty well i believe he s a big rascal yes j but a pleasant one and an open one suddenly rose well i must be going i have an engagement which i must keep at the door he paused by the way mrs begged to be remembered to you he had a way of like a slowly he did so now he did not mean his tone to be insolent to be insolent himself but it was i m very much obliged to her remember me to her that afternoon i strolled out hoping to get a glimpse of miss i did so but was riding in a with her and her father so he won the last by re enter after all but the rubber was not over i was glad that they did not see me and i returned to my office filled with rage and determined to the first chance i should have not because he was a and a liar but because he was applying his in the direction of miss that night the weather changed and it turned os cold i remember it from a small circumstance the wind appeared to me to have shifted when miss s carriage drove out of sight with in it i went home and had bad dreams what was doing with the could i have been in thinking he and had been talking of mr in their conference for some time there had been trouble on the street car lines of the city and a number of small strikes had taken place on a system of lines running across the city and to some extent in competition with the west line which mr had an interest in according to the press the west line which ran out a new section was growing steadily while the other line was falling back could it be that was to secure possession of the west line this too had been intimated and one of the richest men of the town was said to be behind him what should i do under the circumstances would tell miss any lies about me all these suggestions me and with the loss of kept me awake so that next morning i was in rather a bad	46
in a part of the town on the working people s section which fortunately was not far from where we got off the car also fortunately we found him at home he was a slim young fellow with a quiet manner and a clean cut face lighted by a pair of frank blue eyes said my conductor here s a friend of mine who wants a little up that s the way with most friends of yours bill said the doctor who had given me a single keen look what s the matter with him shot or have the been after him no he s got his arm smashed saving a man s life what well let s have a look at it he doesn t look very bad he helped me off with my coat and as he glanced at the sleeve gave a little exclamation whose life did he save he asked as he was binding up the arm that s partly a mine i see he went to work and soon had me up well he s all right now what were you doing he asked as he put on the last touches by john marvel assistant jumping on a car ah the doctor was amused you observe that our friend is he said to me what s that asked the other don t prejudice him against me he don t know anything against me yet and that s more than some folks can say who was on that car that you were following asked the doctor with a side glance at my friend the latter did not change his expression a did you ever hear what the said to herself after she had the dog on and the dog not seeing anything but her jumped on her what you talk too d d much the doctor chuckled and changed the subject what s your labor friend doing now what did he come back here for same old thing work he seems to me to work other people pretty well the other nodded he s on a new line now s got him yes he has as the doctor looked incredulous what s he after who s he working for same person pretty busy too mr there knows him already repeated the doctor where did i hear your name t oh do you know a preacher named john marvel john marvel why yes i went to with him i knew him well by my first you knew a good man then he is that said the other promptly if there were more like him i d be out of a job you know miss too what miss my heart warmed at the name and i forgot all about marvel how did he know that i knew her the angel of the lost the miss then as he nodded slightly my heart was now quite warm who called her so she said she knew you i look after some of her friends for her who called her the angel of the lost children a friend of who works in the a writer she s always finding and helping some one who is lost body or soul do you know hun i guess we all know him don t we put in the other man and so do some of the big ones rather and the lady she s a good one too he added i was so much in this part of the conversation that i forgot at the moment to ask the doctor where he had known john marvel and i however asked him what i owed him and he replied not a cent any of s friends here or john marvel s friends or after a pause miss s friends by john marvel assistant may command me i am only too glad to be able to serve them it s the only way i can help that s what i told him said my friend whose name i heard for the first time i told him you weren t one of these jew doctors that a man as soon as he puts his nose in the door and skin him clean i am a jew but i hope i am not one of that no but there are plenty of em i came away feeling that i had made two friends well worth making they were real men when i parted from my friend he took out of his pocket book a card for my friends he said as he handed it to me when i got to the light i read wm private it was not until long afterward that i knew that the man he was following when he sprang on the car and i saved him was myself and that i owed the attention to my and to mr to whom had given a rather sad account of me my had asked him to ascertain how i lived i called on my new friend earlier than he had expected in my distress about i consulted him the very next day and he undertook to get him back i told him i had not a cent to pay him with at present but some day i should have it and then you ll never owe me a cent as long as you live he said besides i d like to find that dog i remember him he s a good one you say you used the back by my first at times opening on the alley near s yes he looked away out of the window with a placid expression i wouldn t go down that way too often at night he said presently why i don t know you might and break your neck one or two men have done it oh i ll be careful i laughed i m pretty you need to be there you say	46
your dog s a good he s a can whip any dog i ever saw i never fought him but i had a negro boy who used to take him off till i stopped him well i ll find that is i ll find where he went i thanked him and strolled over across town to try to get a glimpse of the angel of the lost children i saw her in a carriage with another young girl and as i gazed at her she suddenly turned her eyes and looked straight at me quite as if she had expected to see me and the smile she gave me though only that which a pleasant thought wings lighted my heart for a week a day or two later my friend dropped into my o well i have found him his face showed that placid expression which with him meant deep satisfaction the police have him are holding him in a case by john marvel assistant but you can identify and get him he was in the hands of a negro dog and they got him in a they pulled one of the joints in town when there was a fight going on and pinched a full load the was among them he put up a stiff fight and they had to hammer him good before they him hell go down for ninety days sure he was a they said men right and left i m glad they him you re sure it s sure he claimed the dog said he d raised him but it didn t go i knew he d stolen him because he he knew you knew me a ne ro what did he say his name was they told me let me see professor something not yes that s it well for once in his life he told the truth he sold me the dog you say he s in jail i must go and get him out you ll find it hard work fighting the police is a serious crime in this city a man had better steal rob or kill anybody else than fight an who has most pull down there well has considerable he runs the police he may be next mayor i determined of course to go at once and see what i could do to get out of his trouble i found by my first him in the ward among the in the jail a massive and forbidding looking structure to get into which appeared for a time almost as as to get out but on expressing my wish to be accorded an interview with him i was referred from one official to another until with my back to the wall i came to a heavy ill looking creature who went by the name of i preferred my request to him i might as well have undertaken to argue with the stone images which were rudely carved as beside the entrance he simply puffed his big black cigar in silence shook his head and looked away from me and my urging had no other effect than to bring a of amusement from a couple of dog faced who had entered and with a nod to him had sunk into greasy chairs who do you know here a name suddenly to me and i used it among others i know mr and as i saw his countenance fall i added and he b enough for the present i looked him sternly in the eye he got up out of his seat and actually walked across the room opened a cupboard and took out a key th i rang a bell why didn t you say you were a friend of hb he asked a friend of mr can see any one he wants here i have discovered that civility will answer with or even nineteen of the world but there b a class of brutes who yield only to by john marvel assistant force and who are influenced only by fear and of them was this he led the way now enough growling from time to time some explanation which i took to be his method of when after going through a number of which were fairly clean and well we came at length to the ward where my unfortunate was confined the atmosphere was wholly different hot and and intolerable the air struck me like a blast from some infernal region and behind the grating which shut off the within from even the modified freedom of the outer court was a mass of humanity of all ages foul enough in appearance to have come from hell at the call of the there was some interest manifested in their evil faces and some of them shouted back repeating the name of jim some half others with more at length out of the mob emerged poor but like oh how changed his head was with an old cloth soiled and stained his mien was dejected and his face was swollen and bruised at sight of me however he suddenly gave a cry and springing forward tried to thrust his hands through the bars of the grating to grasp mine lord he exclaimed if it ain t de captain glory be to god hen i you d come if you heard bout me me out of dis fur de lord s sake dis is de place i ever has been in in my life done beat me up and put on me and chain me and fling by my first me in de wagon and lock me up and sweat me and put me through the third degree till i thought if de lord didn t take mercy me i would be gone for can t you me out o dis right away i explained the impossibility of doing this immediately but assured him that he	46
would soon be i out and that i would look after his case and see that he got justice yes sir that b what i want i don t ax but how did you get here i demanded and even in his misery i could not help being amused to see his countenance fall fetched me here in de wagon he said i know that i mean for what well say captain i an drunk but you know i don drink i know you do you fool i said with some i have no doubt you were what they say but what i mean is where is and how did you get hold of him well you see hen it s way said i come here fur you and i couldn you so then i got a place and while i fur you one day i come an as he lost like you an he didn t know where you an you didn t know where he i him along to care of him till i could fin you by john marvel assistant and incidentally to fight him i said again s countenance fell no sir that i didn t he declared stoutly does you think i d fight dog after what you me yes i do i know you did so stop lying about it and tell me where he is or i will leave you in here to rot till they send you down to the or the yes sir yes sir i will fur god s sake don do hen me out o here an i will tell you but i ll swear i didn t fight him he got into a fight so and then as he licked de out of s dog them d d come in an me over the head because i didn t want them to in de and way from me i could not help laughing at his well where is he now i ll swear hen i don know you ax the police i know he ain t in here but knows where he b i night and day no harm won t happen to him because dog can beat dog in this sinful town i wish you had seen him as the was now showing signs of impatience i cut short thereby saving him the sin of more lies and with a promise that i would get him out if i could i came away the had assured me on the way that he would find and return me my dog and was so sincere in hb declaration that nothing would give him more by my first pleasure than to do this for any friend of mr s that i made the concession of allowing him to use his efforts in this direction but i heard nothing more of him with the aid of my friend the i soon learned the names of the police officers who had arrested and was enabled to get from them the particulars of the trouble which caused his arrest it seemed that by one of the strange and circumstances which so often occur in life had come across just outside of the building in which was my law office and being then in his glory he had taken the dog into the bar room of where he had on arrival in town secured a place to see what chance there might be of making a match with the match was duly arranged and came off the following night in a resort not far from s saloon and won the fight just at this moment however the police made a pulled the place and arrested as many of the crowd as could not escape and held on to as many of those as were without requisite influence to secure their prompt discharge in the course of the operation got soundly though i could not tell whether it was for being drunk or for engaging in a with the police declared privately that it was to pre vent his taking down the money when the trial came off i had prepared myself fully but i feel confident that nothing would have availed to secure s except for two by john marvel assistant one was that i succeeded in the interest of mr who for some reason of own showed a disposition to be particularly civil and complacent toward me at that time so civil indeed that i quite reproached myself for having conceived a dislike of him through his as i learned later the most witness against my suddenly became exceedingly friendly to him and on the failed to remember any circumstance of importance which could injure him and finally declared his inability to identify him the result was that was and when he was so informed he arose and made a speech to the t and the jury which would certainly fix him in their memory forever in the course of it he declared that i was the greatest lawyer that had ever lived in the world and i had to stop him for fear in his enthusiasm he might add also that was the greatest dog that ever lived y by xxi the of i had not got back and i meant to find him if possible i it was several days before i could get on the trace of him and when i to get the dog i foimd an difficulty in the way i was sent from one office to another my patience was exhausted and finally when i thought i had at last run him down i was informed that the dog was dead the tooth official with a on his breast as his only of official rank on my pressing the matter gave me a account of the manner in which the dog came to his death he had attempted he said to get through the	46
gate and it had to on him accidentally and being very heavy had broken his neck i had given up for lost and was in a very low state of mind in which with me deeply though possibly for a different reason he declared that we had lost a dog as could win a ten dollar bill any day he could get a man to put it up cap n you ought to a seen the way he up that bar keep s i was ready to in de pile when jumped in an me we done los dog cap n you an i got to go to work he added with a look by john marvel assistant it did look g indeed a few days later a letter from him announced that he had gotten a place and call on me before long as he gave no i assumed that hb place was in some bar and i was much disturbed about him one day long after dashed into my office and nearly ate me up in his joy i really did not know until he came back how dear he was to me it was as if he had risen from dead i took him up in my arms and him as if i had been a boy he wore a fine new collar with a on it which i could not next day as i turned into the alley at the back of the building on which opened s saloon with a view to running up to my office by the back way i found in the of a man who was holding on to him notwithstanding his effort to escape he was a stout fellow with a surly face at my appearance repeated the by which he had escaped from j the day i left him behind me back east and was soon at my side i strode up to the man what ate you doing with my dog i demanded angrily he s mr s dog he s nothing of the kind he s my dog and i brought him here with me i guess i know whose dog he is he said he got him from dick that was the name of the man who had put up a dog to fight a light began to break on me by the of i guess you don t know anything of the kind you know he s mine he never heard of i brought him here when i came and he was stolen from me not long ago and i ve just got him back shut up for was beginning to growl and was ready for war the fellow something and satisfied me that he was laboring under a so i explained a little further and he turned and went into s saloon next day however there was a knock at my door and before i could call to the person to come in himself stood in the door the knock itself was loud and insolent and was and ready for trouble i hear you have a dog here that belongs to me he b an well you have heard wrong i have not well to my daughter it is the same thing no i haven t a dog that belongs to your daughter yes a dog that belongs to my daughter where is he i m sure i don t know i wasn t aware that you had a daughter and i have no dog of hers or any one else except my own that don t go young man trot him out at this moment walked out from under my desk where he had been lying and standing beside me gave a low deep growl why s the dog now by john marvel assistant i was angry but i was quiet and i got up and walked over toward him tell me what you are talking about i said i m talking about that dog my daughter owns him and i ve come for him well you can t get this dog i said because he s mine oh he is is he yes i brought him here with me when i came i ve had him since he was a yes i did back there and lie for with the hair up on his broad back and a wicked look in his eye was growling his low ominous bass that meant war at the word however he went back to his comer and lay down his eye watchful and uneasy his prompt obedience seemed to mr for he condescended to make his first attempt at an explanation well a man brought him and sold him to my daughter two months ago i know he stole him i don t know anything about that she paid for him fair and square and she s fond of the dog and i want him i m sorry for i can t part with him you d sell him i guess no if i put up enough no by the of say see here he put his hand in his pocket i helped you out about that of yours and i want die dog give you for the more than he s worth and that makes one he s cost he s not for sale i won t sell him well i ll make it a hundred a hundred the money seemed a fortune to me but i could not sell no i tell you the dog is not for sale i won t sell hun what is your price anyhow demanded i tell you i want the dog i promised my daughter to get the dog back mr i have told you the dog is not for sale i will not sell him at any price he suddenly up you won t well i ll tell	46
fact that this was the customary lease and that a principle was involved which brought mr into the case as he stated for a who was the largest landlord in the city and it was the fact that miss had recommended me and that was in the case that made me put forth all my powers on it on the stand the agent who it appeared had begun as an office boy in the office of mr and had then become his private secretary from which he had risen to wealth and position a fact i had learned from was foolish enough to say that the case was gotten up by an unknown yoimg lawyer out of spite against the estate and that it was simply an instance of the eternal attacks on wealth that in fact there were only two sides the with the dress coat and the man without you began poor when did you change your coat i asked the laugh was raised on him and he got angry after that i had the case i was unknown but was better known than i thought and the hardship on my was too plain i led him on into a of tied him up and cross examined him till the perspiration ran off his icy forehead i got the jury and won the case but notwithstanding my success by john marvel assistant my was ruined he was put out of the house of course and though i had saved for him his beds every article he possessed soon went for food the laws established for the very protection of the poor destroy their credit and injure them he could not give security for rent and but for a fellow workman named taking him into his house and the kindness of the man he had spoken of as the preacher his children would have had to go to the or a worse place s case was the beginning of my practice and in a little while i found myself counsel for many of the drivers in our section of the city among those whom this case brought me in touch with was a young lawyer who a little later became the attorney for the government my interest in him was quickened by the discovery that he was related to mr a fact he mentioned somewhat he was present during the trial and on its conclusion came up and congratulated me on my success against what he termed the most powerful combination for evil in the city they bid fair he said to control not only the city but the state and are the more dangerous because they are behind the su of ignorant honesty but you must look out for as he stood near i caught the latter s eye fixed on us with that curious expression which cast a sort of mask over his face i had not hunted up john marvel after learning of his presence in the city partly because i thought he by the of would not be congenial and partly because having left several affectionate letters from him during my prosperity i was ashamed to seek him now in my but fate decided for me we think of our absent friend and a letter from him is handed to us before we have forgotten the we fancy that a man in the street is an acquaintance he comes nearer and we discover our mistake only to meet the person we thought of on the next corner we cross seas and run into our next door neighbor in a crowded in fact the instances of are so and so strange that one can hardly the that there is some sort of law governing them i indulged in this reflection when a morning or two later as i was recalling my carelessness in not looking up john marvel and there was a tap on the door and a spare well built dark bearded man neatly but plainly dressed walked in his hat shaded his face and partly concealed his eyes but as he smiled and spoke i recognized him i was just thinking of you he looked much older than i expected and than i thought i myself looked his face was lined and his hair had a few of silver at the temples his eyes were deeper than ever and he appeared rather worn but he had developed since we had parted at g ll e his manner was full of energy in fact as he talked he almost blazed at times and i was conscious of a strange kind of power in him that attracted by john marvel assistant and carried me along with him even to the of my judgment he had been away he said and had only just returned and had heard of my success in the estate combination and he had come to congratulate me it was the first victory any one had ever been able to win against them but i did not defeat any combination i said i only defeated in his effort to take my s bed and turn him and his children out in the street without a blanket there is the combination all the same he asserted they have the law and the gospel both in the combine they make and administer the one and then preach the other to bind on men s shoulders burdens grievous to be borne that they themselves do not touch with so much as a finger but i don t understand i persisted for i saw that he labored under much suppressed feeling and i wondered what had him i know for i have had some experience of him and the agent was a cool proposition but the estate why strung out a list of that the estate supported that staggered me i only could not understand why they support a man like the estate support i yes a	46
poor what a world we should by the preacher it would be filled with and dead beats i declared the idea enterprise would cease a dead would result and the industrious and would be the prey of the worthless and the idle not if all men could attain the ideal no but there is just the rub they cannot you leave out human nature selfishness is in man it has been the which has driven the race to advance he shook his head the grace of is for all he said the mother love has some part in the advance made and that is not selfish thank there are many rich noble men and women who are not selfish and who do god s service on earth out of sheer loving kindness spend their money and themselves in his work no doubt but here in this city yes in this city thousands of them why where do we get the money from to run our place with from the estate i yes even from the estate we get some but men like mr are those who support us and women like ah but beyond all those who give money are those who give themselves they bring the spiritual blessing of their presence and teach the true lesson of divine sympathy one such person is worth many who only give money who for instance miss or example by john marvel assistant i could scarcely believe my senses miss i do you know miss what miss are you speaking of i hurriedly asked to cover my own confusion for john had grown red and i knew instinctively that it was she there could be but one miss yes i know her she ah teaches in my sunday school john s old trick of had come back teaching in his sunday school i and i not know that instant john secured a new teacher but he went on quickly not the joy in my heart or the pious resolve i was forming she is one of the good people who holds her wealth as a trust for the master s poor she comes over every sunday afternoon all the way from her home and teaches a class next sunday at three p m a of my name sat on a bench in john s little church pretending to teach nine little whose only concern was their shoes which they continually measured with each other while out of the comer of my eye i watched a slender figure bending with what i thought wonderful grace over a full of little girls on the other side of the church intent on their or the lesson brought in that bald headed and somewhat prophet who called forth from the wood the savage and she bears to the crowd of children who ran after him and made rude observations on his personal appearance and before i was through my sympathies had largely shifted from the unfortunate to the victim of their annoy by the preacher ance still i made up my mind to stick if john would let me and the slim and flower like teacher of the class across the aisle continued to attend i dismissed my class rather abruptly i fear on observing that the little girls had suddenly risen and were following their teacher toward the door with almost as much eagerness as i felt to escort her when i discovered that she was only going to unite them with another class it was too late to recall my pupils who at the first opportunity had made for the door almost as swiftly as though the she bears were after them when the sunday school broke up the young lady waited around and i took pains to go up and speak to her and received a very gracious smile and word of appreciation at my with the bay class as my boys were termed which quite rewarded me for my work her eyes with their pleasant light lit up the whole place for me just then john marvel came out and it was the first time i ever regretted his appearance the smile she gave him and the cordiality of her manner filled me with sudden and jealousy it was evident that she had waited to see him and old john s face bore a look of such happiness that he almost looked handsome as for her as i came out i felt quite dazed on the street whom should i meet but simply passing by but when i asked him to take a walk he muttered something about having to see john he was well dressed and looked unusually handsome yet when john appeared still talking earnestly with miss i instantly saw by john marvel assistant by his face and the direction of his eye that the john he wanted to see wore an hat and a quiet but dainty tailor made suit and had a face as lovely as a rose i was in such a humor that i flung off down the street swearing that every man i knew was in love with her and it was not until ten o clock that night when i went to john s whither i was drawn by an irresistible desire to talk about her and find out how matters stood between them and he told me that she had asked where i had gone that i got over my temper why what made you run off so he inquired when i knew perfectly what he meant immediately after we let out my dear fellow i was through and besides i thought you had pleasanter company i said this with my eyes on his face to see him suddenly but he answered with a which put me to shame yes miss has been trying to get a place	46
sentences spread their wings and sailed out with monotonous regularity and the solemn air of a duty performed there was no conversation with the hostess only as i observed from my of an exchange of compliments and flattery most of the appeared either to be very intimate or not to know each other at all and when they could not gain the ear of the hostess they simply sat stiffly in their chairs and looked straight before them or walked and the splendid k with something of an air of i became so interested that being unobserved myself i stayed some time observing them i also had a vague hope that possibly miss might appear it was owing to my long visit that i was finally honored with my hostess s attention as she had taken no notice of me on my first entrance beyond a formal bow and an indifferent i had moved on and a moment by john marvel assistant later had gotten into conversation with a young girl large plump and apparently like myself ready to talk to any one who came near as she promptly opened a conversation with me a step which i may say i was more than ready to take advantage of i recognized her as the girl who had been talking to count the evening of the concert and whom i had him leave for miss we were soon in the midst of a conversation in which i did the questioning and she did most of the talking and she threw considerable light on a number of the visitors whom she divided into various classes in a of her own some were some were and some were old the latter as i gathered not any special to on the part of those so but only indicating the young woman s of their merits still she was amusing enough for a time and appeared to be always ready to die laughing over everything like myself she seemed rather inclined to keep her eye on the door where i was watching for the possible appearance of the one who had brought me there i was recalled from a slight of my mind from some story she was telling by her saying you re a lawyer aren t you feeling rather flattered at the suggestion and thinking that i must have struck her as looking i admitted the fact and asked her why she thought so because they re the only people who have by mrs nothing to do and attend young lawyers i have seen you walking on the street when i was driving by well you know you looked than i but you weren t really i said i was a little taken by her asking if i knew count oh yes i said i know hun this made an impression what do you think of hun what do i think of him when i know you a little better i will tell you i said doesn t he attend oh i yes but then he is he is something a nobleman you know do i yes didn t you hear how last spring he stopped a and was knocked down and dragged ever so far why his face was all i could not help laughing at the recollection of i saw that oh did you do tell me about it it was fine wasn t it don t you think he s lovely him to tell you about it i was relieved at that moment at a chance to escape her i saw my hostess talking to a middle aged but handsome woman whose face somehow haunted me with a which i could not quite place and as i happened to look in a mirror i saw they were talking of me so i bowed to my young lady and moved on the visitor asked who i was and i could see the hostess reply that she had not the slightest idea she put by john marvel assistant up her and me attentively and then shook her head again i walked over to where they sat we were just saying mr ah ah that one who to do a little for one s fellow beings finds very little encouragement she spoke almost looking first at me and then at her friend who had been taking an of the west side of the room and had not the slightest idea of what she was talking i am with beggars she proceeded remembering her great reputation for charity i thought this natural and suggested as much she was pleased with my sympathy and continued why they me even in the privacy of my home not long ago a person called and though i had given instructions to my butler to deny me to persons he knew their business and i know them this man who was a preacher and should have known better pushed himself in and actually got into my drawing room when i was receiving some of my friends as he saw me of course i could not excuse myself and do you know he had the insolence not only to dictate to me how i should spend my money but actually how i should manage my affairs oh dear think of that sighed the other lady and you of all people i admitted that this was extraordinary and encouraged mrs swept on why he actually wanted me to forego my rents and let a person stay in one of my houses who would not pay his rent by mrs the man had had the insolence to hold on and actually force me to bring suit impossible i b an to wish i were back in my office at this moment however came from an unexpected source you know we have bought a house very near you the girl who had joined our	46
group and suddenly broke in on our hostess s ah i should think you would feel rather lonely up here and would miss all your old friends said mrs sweetly turning her eyes toward the door the girl lifted her head and turned to the other lady not at all you know lots of people call at big houses mrs just because they are big said she with a spark in her pale blue eye and i felt she was able to take care of herself but mrs did not appear to hear she was looking over the heads of the rest of us with her eye on the door when suddenly as her servant in an unintelligible voice announced some one her face lit up my dear how do you do it was so good of you to come i turned to look just as brushed by me and with a little rush between the ladies seated near me bent over and seizing her hand kissed it while he uttered his compliments it made by john marvel assistant a deep impression on the company i was sure he had seen me the effect on the company was remarkable the girl moved around a little and stood in front of another lady who pressed slightly forward count muttered one lady to mrs in an audible oh i know him well she was evidently trying to catch the count s eye to prove her intimate acquaintance but was too much engrossed with or by our hostess to see her or else was too busy my eye well it s all up with me i thought if i leave him here my character s gone forever such a beautiful custom murmured mrs s friend i always like it now do sit down and have a cup of tea said our hostess i will make you a fresh cup she glanced at a chair across the room and then at me and i almost thought she was going to ask me to bring the chair for the count i but she thought better of it go and bring that chair and sit right here by me and let me know how you are here take this seat said mrs who was rising but whose eyes were fast on s face oh i must you be going asked mrs well good so glad you could come yes i must go how do you do count oh i ah how do you do said the count turning with a start and a short bow i met you at the ball not long ago miss by mrs introduced me to you don t you remember she glanced at the young lady who stood waiting ah yes certainly to be sure miss ah yes i remember doubtless he did for at this juncture the young lady i had been talking to stepped forward and claimed the of the count who i thought looked a trifle bored feeling as if i were a mouse in a trap i was about to try to escape when my intention was changed as suddenly as by a miracle and indeed s appearance at this moment seemed almost if not quite miraculous she had been walking rapidly in the wind and her hair was a little blown not too for i hate just enough to give precisely the right touch of sweet n and to a pretty and attractive girl her cheeks were glowing her eyes sparkling her face lighted with some resolution which made it at once audacious and earnest and as she came into the room she suddenly transformed it by giving it something of reality which it had hitherto lacked she appeared like spring coming after winter she hurried up to her aunt who i must say looked pleased to see her and gave an arch glance which i did not fail to detect and then after a dutiful and hasty kiss she pulled up a chair and dashed into the middle of the subject which filled her mind she was so eager about it that she did not pay the least attention to who with his heels close by john marvel assistant together and his back almost turned on the other girl who was rattling on at his ear was bowing and grinning like a toy and she did not even see me where i stood a little retired my dear here is count trying to speak to you said her aunt come here miss and tell me what you have been doing she smiled at the girl and indicated a chair but miss saw the she had no idea of her prize and miss did not choose to try for a capture count she said over her shoulder giving the smiling and bowing only half a nod and less than half a glance oh i aunt she proceeded i have such a favor to ask you oh it s a most worthy object i assure you really worthy how much is it inquired the older lady casually i don t know yet but wait you must let me tell you about it and you will see how good it is my dear i haven t a cent to give to anything said her aunt i am quite i know it the family disease said the girl lightly and hurried on i am trying to do some work among the poor the poor i exclaimed her aunt my dear i am so tired of hearing about the poor i don t know what to do i am one of the poor myself my agent was here this morning and tells me that any number of my tenants are behind on their rents and several of my best tenants have given notice that on the of by mrs their present terms they want a of their rents i know said the girl	46
they are out of work they are all ordered out or soon will be papa says poor things i i have been to day to see a poor family out of of course they are out of they work that s why ihey are and now they are talking of a general strike i as if they hadn t had strikes enough i shall cut down my that s what i shall do aunt don t do exclaimed the girl they are so poor if you could see a poor family i saw this morning why they have nothing they are literally starving well they have themselves to thank if they are she was now addressing the count and two or three ladies seated near her on the edge of their chairs very true sighed one of the latter i know said the count i read it in th pa to day t at t ey what you call strike t ey should be you call put down of course they should it almost makes one despair of mankind in mrs who though could not tear herself away as she stood at a glove i suddenly recalled her standing at the foot of a flight of steps with cold eyes at a child s funeral yes their ingratitude it does indeed said mrs my ah your says i shall by john marvel assistant have to make that will take up every bit of the rents of any number of my houses and two of my largest i have to repair them of course and then if this strike really comes why he says it will cost our city lines alone i don t know how much money but i hate to talk about money it b so sordid she sat back in her chair yes indeed assented the lady she addressed i on t even like to think about it i would like just to be able to draw my for whatever i want and never hear the word money like you mrs but one can t do it she si ed why my why don t you do as i do demanded mrs who had no idea of having the conversation taken away from her in her own house my secretary opens all those letters and them i consider it a great impertinence for any one whom i don t know to write to me and of course i don t acknowledge those letters my agent my dear we must go said the lady nearest her to her companion as the two ladies swept out they stopped near me to look at a picture and one of them said to the other did you ever hear a more display in all your life her secretary her her duties i as if we didn t all have yes indeed and her agent that s my husband but i do think she was right about that man s pushing in by mrs yes about she was but she need not be her money before us my husband made it for old my husband says the estate is run that they have the worst in the city and charge the highest rents do you know that my husband b her agent is he why to be sure but of course she is responsible yes she s the cause of it and they pay more for their than any one else why my husband says that g ll who is the lawyer of the estate is the greatest in this city i suppose he ll be buying a count next i don t see how your husband stands him he s so refined such a well they have to have business dealings together you know yes they say he just owns the council and now he s to be mayor i know did you see that article in the paper about him and hb methods charging that he was to every one in town even the and who employed him oh didn t i i tell my husband he d better be sure which side to take one reason i came to day was to see how she took it so did i said her friend they say the first paper was written by a jew it was a by john marvel assistant ment it charged him with making a breach between mr and mrs and now with trying to ruin mr and it was written by a jew was it indeed i should like to meet him shouldn t you but of course we couldn t invite him to our homes do you know anybody who might invite him to lunch and ask us to meet him it would be so interesting to hear liim talk so they passed out and i went up to make my to our hostess secretly intending to remain longer if i could get a chance to talk to her niece who was now presenting her petition to her while the count with his eye on her while he pretended to listen to miss stood by waiting like a cat at a as i approached miss glanced up and i myself for weeks that it was not only surprise but pleasure that lighted up her face why how do you do she said and i extended my hand feeling as shy as i ever did in my life but as though paradise were somewhere close at hand where did you two know each other demanded her aunt suspiciously and i saw s face even while the girl rattled on at his ear why this is the gentleman who had the poor children on the train that day last spring they are the same children i have been telling you about but i did not know you had ever really met that was not the only time i have had tlie	46
good fortune to meet miss i said i wanted to add by mrs that i hoped to have yet better fortune hereafter but i did not perhaps it was to save me embarrassment that miss said mr and i teach in the same sunday school yes about the she bears i thinking of one at the moment miss laughed i have been trying to help your little friends since i am glad the she bears did not them i think they are in much more danger from the wolf at the door in fact it was about them that i came to see my aunt to day i cursed my folly for not having carried out my intention of going to look after them and a vow to go often thereafter i was so glad you won their case for them she said in an moving over toward me as several new entered a warm thrill ran all through my veins but how did you manage to get here she asked with twinkling eyes does she know or has she forgiven you she doesn t know at least i haven t told her well i should like to be by that is in a balcony when she finds out who you are do you think i was very bold to come well wait till she who you are richard de not i you see that door well you just watch me i came for a particular reason that made me think it best to come and a very good one by john marvel assistant i added and glanced at her and found her stiu smiling what was it v she looked me full in the face i will tell you some time no now no next sunday afternoon if you will let me walk home with you after you have explained the she bears she nodded all right and i rose up into the blue sky i almost thought i had wings my aunt is really a kind woman i can do almost anything with her do you think that proves it i said i wanted to say that i was that sort of a kind person myself but i did not dare my father says she has a she thinks she is a wonderful business woman because she can run up a column of figures correctly and that she makes a great to do over small things and lets the big ones go she would not take advice so he gave up trying to advise her and she on two men who flatter and deceive her yes i don t see how she can keep those two men and as her counsel and agent but i suppose she found them there and does not like to change my father says just then mrs after a long scrutiny of us through her said rather sharply miss turned hastily and plunged into a sentence by mrs aunt you do not know how much good the little chapel you helped out in the east side does mr mar the preacher there gets places for poor people that are out of employment and i suppose he does but save me from these why one of them came here the other day and would not be refused he actually forced himself into my house he had a poor family or something he said and he wanted me to undertake to support them and when i came to find out they were some of my own tenants who had positively refused to pay any rent and had held on for months to one of my houses without paying me a penny she had evidently forgotten that she had just said this a moment before i happened to remember she added because my agent told me the man s name o exclaimed miss why that is the name of my poor family she cut her eye over toward me with a sparkle in it well you need not come to me about that man my counsel said he was one of the worst characters he knew a regular one of these irish you know and when i afterward tried to collect my rents he got some creature of a lawyer to try and defeat me and actually did me of my debt this was a centre shot for me and i wondered what she would think if she ever found out who the was the perspiration began to start on my forehead it was clear that i must get away she was however by john marvel assistant in such a full sweep that i could not get in a word to say good by but i soon gave mr marble or whatever his name was a very different idea of the way he should behave when he came to see a lady i let him know that i preferred to manage my affairs and select my own objects of charity without being dictated to by any one and that i did not propose to help and i soon gave mr to understand whom he had to deal with i ordered him turned out at once instantly she was now addressing me she was so well satisfied with her position that i must have looked astonished and i had not at first a word to say this she took for acquiescence that was perhaps the greatest piece of insolence i ever she continued don t you think so well no i do not i said for a moment or so her face was a perfect blank then it was filled with amazement her whole person changed her head went up her eyes flashed her color deepened she said perhaps we look at the matter from different back more stiffly than ever unquestionably madam i happen to know john marvel the gentleman who called on	46
you very well and i know him to be one of the best men in the world i know that he supported that poor family out of his own small income and when they were turned out of their house fed them until he could get the father some by i f q i v perhaps you are the man yourself she added by by mrs work to do he was not an but a hard working who had been ill and had lost his place she said this time with renewed raising her to observe some new comers perhaps you happen also to know s counsel perhaps you are the man yourself she added i bowed low i am the truth swept over her like a flood before she recovered i bowed my of which so far as i could see she took no notice she turned to as miss from behind a high backed chair held out her hand to me well poor s done for now she said in an but as latter smiled in my eyes i did not care what her aunt said my dear count here is the tea at last i heard our hostess say and then she added i have not seen you for so long why have you denied yourself to friends you have quite gotten over your accident of the spring i read about it in the papers at the time such a noble thing to have stopped those horses you must tell me about it how did it happen i could not help turning to give one look and he hesitated and stammered i came out filled with a new sense of what was meant by the curses against the as i was walking along i ran into you are the very man he exclaimed it by john marvel assistant is providence i was just thinking of you and you ran into my arms it is fate it did seem so mrs and her dear count had me here at least was sincerity but i wondered if he knew that miss was within there y by xxiv s mission naturally was somewhat surprised to see me come forth from mrs s for he knew what i had not known when i called there that she was the real owner of the estate i gave him an account of my interview with the lady i was wondering he said laughing what you were doing in there after having beaten her in that suit i thought you had taken your nerve with you i was afraid you had fallen a victim to her to whose mrs s she is the true of the time and her enchantment is one that only the strong can resist she reaches men through their i was thinking of quite another person who alone could me and i was glad that he was not looking at me he was however too full of another subject to notice me and as we walked along i told him of the old lady s views about john marvel he suddenly launched out against her with a passion which i was scarcely prepared for as much as i knew he loved john marvel turning he pointed fiercely back at the great mansion by john marvel assistant do you see that big house his long finger shook slightly an index of his feeling yes every stone in it is laid in mortar with the tears of and and the blood of countless victims of and oppression nonsense i have no brief for that old woman i think she is an ignorant purse proud old creature spoiled by her wealth and the that it has brought her from a society of and but i do not believe that at heart she is bad she had had a good advocate defend her to me and i was quoting her was that is it she sets up to be the of generosity the patron of charity the example of kindness for all to follow she never gave a cent in her life but only a portion a small portion of the money wrung from the hearts of others her fortune was laid in corruption her old husband i knew he robbed every one even his partners he his benefactor colonel who made him and robbed his of their inheritance how for i was much interested now by buying up their counsel and him to sell them out and making him his counsel and now that old woman keeps him as her counsel and adviser though he is the worst man in this city guilty of every crime on the books sacred and profane but she does not know that by s mission not know it why doesn t she know it because she her doors to the men who do know it and her ears to the cries of his victims doesn t every one who cares to look into the crimes in this city know that is the protector of vice and that he could not exist a day if the so called good people got up and determined to him that he is the owner of the houses in this city the because they are not so openly vile as some others isn t she trying to sell her niece to an adventurer for a title or a for his money is she my blood suddenly began to boil and i b n to get a new insight into s hostility we had turned toward john marvel s he appeared a sort of to which to turn as we were dealing with serious subjects and was on his way there when i encountered him as we walked along he disclosed a system of vice so so horrible and so repulsive that i hesitate to set it down he declared that it extended over	46

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