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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8cad93c --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #62653 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/62653) diff --git a/old/62653-0.txt b/old/62653-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 6bdc803..0000000 --- a/old/62653-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,11895 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Ball of Fire, by -George Randolph Chester and Lilian Chester - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll -have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using -this ebook. - - - -Title: The Ball of Fire - -Author: George Randolph Chester - Lilian Chester - -Release Date: July 15, 2020 [EBook #62653] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BALL OF FIRE *** - - - - -Produced by Richard Tonsing and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive) - - - - - - - - - - The Ball of Fire - - -[Illustration: For an instant the brown eyes and the blue ones met] - - - - - The Ball of Fire - - - By - George Randolph Chester - and - Lillian Chester - -[Illustration] - - Illustrated - - - Hearst’s International Library Co. - New York 1914 - - - - - Copyright, 1914, by - THE RED BOOK CORPORATION - - Copyright, 1914, by - HEARST’S INTERNATIONAL LIBRARY CO., INC. - - _All Rights reserved, including the translation into foreign languages, - including the Scandinavian._ - - - - - CONTENTS - - - CHAPTER PAGE - I NO PLACE FOR SENTIMENT 1 - - II “WHY?” 9 - - III THE CHANGE IN THE RECTOR’S EYES 22 - - IV TOO MANY MEN 35 - - V EDWARD E. ALLISON TAKES A VACATION 47 - - VI THE IMPULSIVE YOUNG MAN FROM HOME 59 - - VII THEY HAD ALREADY SPOILED HER! 70 - - VIII STILL PIECING OUT THE WORLD 80 - - IX THE MINE FOR THE GOLDEN ALTAR 88 - - X THE STORM CENTER OF MAGNETIC ATTRACTION 98 - - XI “GENTLEMEN, THERE IS YOUR EMPIRE!” 111 - - XII GAIL SOLVES THE PROBLEM OF VEDDER COURT 123 - - XIII THE SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST 135 - - XIV THE FREE AND ENTIRELY UNCURBED 150 - - XV BUT WHY WAS SHE LONESOME? 158 - - XVI GAIL AT HOME 167 - - XVII SOMETHING HAPPENS TO GERALD FOSLAND 178 - - XVIII THE MESSAGE FROM NEW YORK 187 - - XIX THE RECTOR KNOWS 199 - - XX THE BREED OF GAIL 212 - - XXI THE PUBLIC IS AROUSED 221 - - XXII THE REV. SMITH BOYD PROTESTS 231 - - XXIII A SERIES OF GAIETIES 240 - - XXIV THE MAKER OF MAPS 250 - - XXV A QUESTION OF EUGENICS 262 - - XXVI AN EMPIRE AND AN EMPRESS 271 - - XXVII ALLISON’S PRIVATE AND PARTICULAR DEVIL 281 - - XXVIII LOVE 289 - - XXIX GAIL FIRST! 299 - - XXX THE FLUTTER OF A SHEET OF MUSIC 309 - - XXXI GAIL BREAKS A PROMISE 315 - - XXXII GERALD FOSLAND MAKES A SPEECH 325 - - XXXIII CHICKEN, OR STEAK? 334 - - XXXIV A MATTER OF CONSCIENCE 344 - - XXXV A VESTRY MEETING 353 - - XXXVI HAND IN HAND 362 - - - - - ILLUSTRATIONS - - - For an instant the brown eyes and the blue ones met _Frontispiece_ - - FACING PAGE - At 7:15 Ephraim found him at the end of the table in the - midst of some neat and intricate tabulations 51 - - She was glad to be alone, to rescue herself from the - whirl of anger and indignation and humiliation which - had swept around her 109 - - She telephoned that she was going to remain with - Allison; and they enjoyed a two hour chat of many - things 278 - - - - - The Ball of Fire - - - - - CHAPTER I - NO PLACE FOR SENTIMENT - - -Silence pervaded the dim old aisles of Market Square Church; a silence -which seemed to be palpable; a solemn hush which wavered, like the -ghostly echoes of anthems long forgotten, among the slender columns and -the high arches and the delicate tracery of the groining; the winter -sun, streaming through the clerestory windows, cast, on the floor and on -the vacant benches, patches of ruby and of sapphire, of emerald and of -topaz, these seeming only to accentuate the dimness and the silence. - -A thin, wavering, treble note, so delicate that it seemed like a mere -invisible cobweb of a tone, stole out of the organ loft and went pulsing -up amid the dim arches. It grew in volume; it added a diapason; a deep, -soft bass joined it, and then, subdued, but throbbing with the passion -of a lost soul, it swelled into one of the noble preludes of Bach. The -organ rose in a mighty crescendo to a peal which shook the very edifice; -then it stopped with an abruptness which was uncanny, so much so that -the silence which ensued was oppressive. In that silence the vestry door -creaked, it opened wide, and it was as if a vision had suddenly been set -there! Framed in the dark doorway against the background of the -sun-flooded vestry, bathed in the golden light from the transept window, -brown-haired, brown-eyed, rosy-cheeked, stood a girl who might have been -one of the slender stained-glass virgins come to life, the golden light -flaming the edges of her hair into an oriole. She stood timidly, peering -into the dimness, and on her beautifully curved lips was a half -questioning smile. - -“Uncle Jim,” she called, and there was some quality in her low voice -which was strangely attractive; and disturbing. - -“By George, Gail, I forgot that you were to come for me!” said Jim -Sargent, rising from amid the group of men in the dim transept. “The -decorators drove us out of the vestry.” - -“They drove me out, too,” laughed the vision, stepping from her frame. - -“We are delighted that they drove you in here,” quoth the tall, young -Reverend Smith Boyd, who had accomplished the rare art of bowing -gracefully in a Prince Albert. - -She smiled her acknowledgment of the compliment, and glanced uncertainly -at the awe-inspiring vestry meeting, then she turned toward the door. - -“My niece, Miss Gail Sargent, gentlemen,” announced Jim Sargent, with -entirely justifiable pride, and, beaming until his bald spot seemed to -glow with an added shine, he introduced her to each of the gentlemen -present, with the exception of Smith Boyd, whom she had met that -morning. - -“What a pity Saint Paul didn’t see you,” remarked silver-bearded Rufus -Manning, calmly appropriating the vision and ushering her into the pew -between himself and her uncle. “He never would have said it.” - -“That women should not sit in council with the men?” she laughed, -looking into the blue eyes of patriarchal Manning. “Are you sure I won’t -be in the way?” - -“Not at all,” round-headed old Nicholas Van Ploon immediately assured -her. He had popped his eyes open with a jerk at the entrance of Gail, -and had not since been able to close them to their normal almond shape. -He sat now uncomfortably twisted so that he could face her, and his -cheeks were reddening with the exertion, which had wrinkled his roundly -filled vest. The young rector contemplated her gravely. He was not quite -pleased. - -“We’ll be through in a few minutes, Gail,” promised Jim Sargent. -“Allison, you were about to prove something to us, I think,” and he -leaned forward to smile across Gail at Rufus Manning. - -“Prove is the right word,” agreed the stockily built man who had -evidently been addressing the vestry. He was acutely conscious of the -presence of Gail, as they all were. “Your rector suggests that this is a -matter of sentiment. You are anxious to have fifty million dollars to -begin the erection of a cathedral; but I came here to talk business, and -that only. Granting you the full normal appreciation of your Vedder -Court property, and the normal increase of your aggregate rentals, you -can not have, at the end of ten years, a penny over forty-two millions. -I am prepared to offer you, in cash, a sum which will, at three and a -half per cent., and in ten years, produce that exact amount. To this I -add two million.” - -“How much did you allow for increase in the value of the property?” -asked Nicholas Van Ploon, whose only knowledge for several generations -had been centred on this one question. The original Van Ploon had bought -a vast tract of Manhattan for a dollar an acre, and, by that stroke of -towering genius, had placed the family of Van Ploon, for all eternity, -beyond the necessity of thought. - -For answer, Allison passed him the envelope upon which he had been -figuring, checking off an item as he did so. He noticed that Gail’s lips -twitched with suppressed mirth. She turned abruptly to look back at the -striking transept window, and the three vestrymen in the rear pew -immediately sat straighter. Willis Cunningham, who was a bachelor, -hastily smoothed his Vandyke. He was so rich, by inheritance, that money -meant nothing to him. - -“Not enough,” grunted Van Ploon, handing back the envelope, and twisting -again in the general direction of Gail. - -“Ample,” retorted Allison. “You can’t count anything for the buildings. -While I don’t deny that they yield the richest income of any property in -the city, they are the most decrepit tenements in New York. They’ll fall -down in less than ten years. You have them propped up now.” - -Jim Sargent glanced solicitously at Gail, but she did not seem to be -bored; not a particle! - -“They are passed by the building inspector annually,” pompously stated -W. T. Chisholm, his mutton chops turning pink from the reddening of the -skin beneath. He had spent a lifetime in resenting indignities before -they reached him. - -“Building inspectors change,” insinuated Allison. “Politics is very -uncertain.” - -Four indignant vestrymen jerked forward to answer that insult. - -“Gentlemen, this is a vestry meeting,” sternly reproved the Reverend -Smith Boyd, advancing a step, and seeming to feel the need of a gavel. -His rich, deep baritone explained why he was rector of the richest -church in the world. - -Gail’s eyes were dancing, but otherwise she was demureness itself as she -studied, in turns, the members of the richest vestry in the world. She -estimated that eight of the gentlemen then present were almost close -enough to the anger line to swear. They numbered just eight, and they -were most interesting! And _this_ was a vestry meeting! - -“The topic of debate was money, I believe,” suggested Manning, rescuing -his sense of humour from somewhere in his beard. He was the infidel -member. “Suppose we return to it. Is Allison’s offer worth considering?” - -“Why?” inquired the nasal voice of clean-shaven old Joseph G. Clark, who -was sarcastic in money matters. The Standard Cereal Company had attained -its colossal dimensions through rebates; and he had invented the device! -“The only reason we’d sell to Allison would be that we could get more -money than by the normal return from our investment.” - -The thinly spun treble note began once more, pulsing its timid way among -the high, dim arches, as if seeking a lodgment where it might fasten its -tiny thread of harmony, and grow into a masterful composition. A little -old lady came slowly down the centre aisle of the nave, in rich but -modest black, struggling, against her infirmities, to walk with a trace -of the erect gracefulness of her bygone youth. Gail, listening raptly to -the delicately increasing throb of the music, followed, in abstraction, -the slow progress of the little old lady, who seemed to carry with her, -for just a moment, a trace of the solemn hush belonging to that -perspective of slender columns which spread their gracefully pointed -arches up into the groined twilight, where the music hovered until it -could gather strength to burst into full song. The little old lady -turned her gaze for an instant to the group in the transept, and -subconsciously gave the folds of her veil a touch; then she slipped into -her pew, down near the altar, and raised her eyes to the exquisite Henri -Dupres crucifix. She knelt, and bowed her forehead on her hands. - -“I’ve allowed two million for the profit of Market Square Church in -dealing with me,” stated Allison, again proffering the envelope which no -one made a move to take. “I will not pay a dollar more.” - -W. T. Chisholm was suddenly reminded that the vestry had a moral -obligation in the matter under discussion. He was president of the -Majestic Trust Company, and never forgot that fact. - -“To what use would you devote the property of Market Square Church?” he -gravely asked. - -“The erection of a terminal station for all the municipal transportation -in New York,” answered Allison; “subways, elevateds, surface cars, -traction lines! The proposition should have the hearty co-operation of -every citizen.” - -Simple little idea, wasn’t it? Gail had to think successively to -comprehend what a stupendous enterprise this was; and the man talked -about it as modestly as if he were planning to sod a lawn; more so! Why, -back home, if a man dreamed a dream so vast as that, he just talked -about it for the rest of his life; and they put a poet’s wreath on his -tombstone. - -“Now you’re talking sentiment,” retorted stubby-moustached Jim Sargent. -“You said, a while ago, that you came here strictly on business. So did -we. This is no place for sentiment.” - -Rufus Manning, with the tip of his silvery beard in his fingers, looked -up into the delicate groining of the apse, where it curved gracefully -forward over the head of the famous Henri Dupres crucifix, and he -grinned. Gail Sargent was looking contemplatively from one to the other -of the grave vestrymen. - -“You’re right,” conceded Allison curtly. “Suppose you fellows talk it -over by yourselves, and let me know your best offer.” - -“Very well,” assented Jim Sargent, with an indifference which did not -seem to be assumed. “We have some other matters to discuss, and we may -as well thrash this thing out right now. We’ll let you know to-morrow.” - -Gail looked at her watch and rose energetically. - -“I shall be late at Lucile’s, Uncle Jim. I don’t think I can wait for -you.” - -“I’m sorry,” regretted Sargent. “I don’t like to have you drive around -alone.” - -“I’ll be very happy to take Miss Sargent anywhere she’d like to go,” -offered Allison, almost instantaneously. - -“Much obliged, Allison,” accepted Sargent heartily; “that is, if she’ll -go with you.” - -“Thank you,” said Gail simply, as she stepped out of the pew. - -The gentlemen of the vestry rose as one man. Old Nicholas Van Ploon even -attempted to stand gracefully on one leg, while his vest bulged over the -back of the pew in front of him. - -“I think we’ll have to make you a permanent member of the vestry,” -smiled Manning, the patriarch, as he bowed his adieus. “We’ve been -needing a brightening influence for some time.” - -Willis Cunningham, the thoughtful one, wedged his Vandyke between the -heads of Standard Cereal Clark and Banker Chisholm. - -“We hope to see you often, Miss Sargent,” was his thoughtful remark. - -“I mean to attend services,” returned Gail graciously, looking up into -the organ loft, where the organist was making his third attempt at that -baffling run in the Bach prelude. - -“You haven’t said how you like our famous old church,” suggested the -Reverend Smith Boyd with pleasant ease, though he felt relieved that she -was going. - -The sudden snap in Gail’s eyes fairly scintillated. It was like the -shattering of fine glass in the sunlight. - -“It seems to be a remarkably lucrative enterprise,” she smiled up at -him, and was rewarded by a snort from Uncle Jim and a chuckle from -silvery-bearded Rufus Manning. Allison frankly guffawed. The balance of -the sedate vestry was struck dumb by the impertinence. - -Gail felt the eyes of the Reverend Smith Boyd fixed steadily on her, and -turned to meet them. They were cold. She had thought them blue; but now -they were green! She stared back into them for a moment, and a little -red spot came into the delicate tint of her oval cheeks; then she turned -deliberately to the marvellously beautiful big transept window. It had -been designed by the most famous stained-glass artist in the world, and -its subject lent itself to a wealth of colour. It was Christ turning the -money changers out of the temple! - - - - - CHAPTER II - “WHY?” - - -“Snow!” exclaimed Gail in delight, turning up her face to the delicate -flakes. “And the sun shining. That means snow to-morrow!” - -Allison helped her into his big, piratical looking runabout, and tucked -her in as if she were some fragile hot-house plant which might freeze -with the first cool draught. He looked, with keen appreciation, at her -fresh cheeks and sparkling eyes and softly waving hair. He had never -given himself much time for women, but this girl was a distinct -individual. It was not her undeniable beauty which he found so -attractive. He had met many beautiful women. Nor was it charm of manner, -nor the thing called personal magnetism, nor the intelligence which -gleamed from her eyes. It was something intangible and baffling which -had chained his interest from the moment she had appeared in the vestry -doorway, and since he was a man who had never admitted the existence of -mysteries, his own perplexity puzzled him. - -“The pretty white snow is no friend of mine,” he assured her, as he took -the wheel and headed towards the Avenue. He looked calculatingly into -the sky. “This particular downfall is likely to cost the Municipal -Transportation Company several thousand dollars.” - -“I’m curious to know the commercial value of a sunset in New York,” Gail -smiled up at him. Her eyes closed for a swift instant, her long, brown -lashes curving down on her cheeks, but beneath them was an infinitesimal -gleam; and Allison had the impression that under the cover of her -exquisitely veined lids she was looking at him corner-wise, and having a -great deal of fun all by herself. - -“We haven’t capitalised sunsets yet, but we have hopes,” he laughed. - -“Then there’s still a commercial opportunity,” she lightly returned. “I -feel quite friendly to money, but it’s so intimate here. I’ve heard -nothing else since I came, on Monday.” - -“Even in church,” he chuckled. “You delivered a reckless shock to the -Reverend Smith Boyd’s vestry.” - -“Well?” she demanded. “Didn’t he ask my opinion?” - -“I don’t think he’ll make the mistake again,” and Allison took the -corner into the Avenue at a speed which made Gail, unused to bare inches -of leeway, class Allison as a demon driver. The tall traffic policeman -around whose upraised arm they had circled smiled a frank tribute to her -beauty, and she felt relieved. She had cherished some feeling that they -should be arrested. - -“However, even a church must discuss money,” went on Allison, as if he -had just decided a problem to which he had given weighty thought. - -“Fifty millions isn’t mere money,” retorted Gail; “it’s criminal wealth. -If no man can make a million dollars honestly, how can a church?” - -Allison swerved out into the centre of the Avenue and passed a red -limousine before he answered. He had noticed that everybody in the -street stared into his car, and it flattered him immensely to have so -pretty a girl with him. - -“The wealth of Market Square Church is natural and normal,” he -explained. “It arises partly from the increase in value of property -which was donated when practically worthless. Judicious investment is -responsible for the balance.” - -“Oh, bother!” and Gail glanced at him impatiently. “Your natural impulse -is to defend wealth because it is wealth; but you know that Market -Square Church never should have had a surplus to invest. The money -should have been spent in charity. Why are they saving it?” - -Allison began to feel the same respect for Gail’s mental processes which -he would for a man’s, though, when he looked at her with this thought in -mind, she was so thoroughly feminine that she puzzled him more than -ever. - -“Market Square Church has an ambition worthy of its vestry,” he informed -her, bringing his runabout to rest, with a swift glide, just an accurate -three inches behind the taxi in front of them. “When it has fifty -million dollars, it proposes to start building the most magnificent -cathedral on American soil.” - -Gail watched the up-town traffic piling around them, wedging them in, -packing them tightly on all sides, and felt that they must be hours in -extricating themselves from this tangle of shining-bodied vehicles. The -skies had turned grey by now, and the snow was thicker in the air. The -flakes drove, with a cool, refreshing snap, into her face. - -“Why?” she pondered. “Will a fifty million dollar cathedral save souls -in proportion to the amount of money invested?” - -Allison enjoyed that query thoroughly. - -“You must ask the Reverend Smith Boyd,” he chuckled. “You talk like a -heathen!” - -“I am,” she calmly avowed. “I’ve been a heathen ever since a certain -respectable old religious body dropped the theory of infant damnation -from its creed. Its body of elders decided to save the souls of -unbaptised babies from everlasting hell-fire; and the anti-damnation -wing won by three grey-whiskered votes.” - -Proper ladies in the nearby cars stared with haughty disapproval at -Allison, whose degree of appreciation necessitated a howl. Gail, -however, did not join in the mirth. That telltale red spot had appeared -in the delicate pink of her checks. She was still angry with the -man-made creed which had taught a belief so horrible. The traffic -blockade was lifted, and Allison’s clutch slammed. The whole mass of -vehicles moved forwards, and in two blocks up the Avenue they had -scattered like chaff. Allison darted into an opening between two cars, -his runabout skidded, and missed a little electric by a hair’s breadth. -He had no personal interest in religion, but he had in Gail. - -“So you turned infidel.” - -“Oh no,” returned Gail gravely, and with a new tone. “I pray every -morning and every night, and God hears me.” The note of reverence in her -voice was a thing to which Allison gave instant respect. “I have no -quarrel with religion, only with theology. I attend church because its -spiritual influence has survived in spite of outgrown rites. I take part -in the services, though I will not repeat the creed. Why, Mr. Allison, I -love the church, and the most notable man in the future history of the -world will be the man who saves it from dead dogma.” Her eyes were -glowing, the same eyes which had closed in satirical mischief. Now they -were rapt. “What a stunning collie!” she suddenly exclaimed. - -Allison, who had followed her with admiring attention, his mind -accompanying hers in eager leaps, laughed in relief. After all, she was -a girl—and what a girl! The exhilaration of the drive, and of the snow -beating in her face, and of the animated conversation, had set the clear -skin of her face aglow with colour. Her deep red lips, exquisitely -curved and half parted, displayed a row of dazzling white teeth, and the -elbow which touched his was magnetic. Allison refused to believe that he -was forty-five! - -“You’re fond of collies,” he guessed, surprised to find himself with an -eager interest in the likes and dislikes of a young girl. It was a new -experience. - -“I adore them!” she enthusiastically declared. “Back home, I have one of -every marking but a pure white.” - -There was something tender and wistful in the tone of that “back home.” -No doubt she had hosts of friends and admirers there, possibly a -favoured suitor. It was quite likely. A girl such as Gail Sargent could -hardly escape it. If there was a favoured suitor Allison rather pitied -him, for Gail was in the city of strong men. Busy with an entirely new -and strange group of thoughts, Allison turned into the Park, and Gail -uttered an exclamation of delight as the fresh, keen air whipped in her -face. The snow was like a filmy white veil against the bare trees, and -enough of it had clung, by now, to outline, with silver pointing, the -lacework of branches. On the turf, still green from the open winter, it -lay in thin white patches, and squirrels, clad in their sleek winter -garments, were already scampering to their beds, crossing the busy drive -with the adroitness of accomplished metropolitan pedestrians, their -bushy tails hopping behind them in ungainly loops. - -The pair in the runabout were silent, for the east drive at this hour -was thronged with outward bound machines, and the roadway was slippery -with the new-fallen snow. Steady of nerve, keen of eye, firm of hand! -Gail watched the alert figure of Allison, tensely and yet easily -motionless, in the seat beside her. The terrific swiftness of everything -impressed her. Every car was going at top speed, and it seemed that she -was in a constant maze of hair-breadth escapes. By and by, however, she -found another and a greater marvel; that in all this breathless driving, -there was no recklessness. Capability, that was the word for which she -had been groping. No man could survive here, and rest his feet upon the -under layer, unless he possessed superior ability, superior will, -superior strength. She arrived at exactly the same phrase Allison had -entertained five minutes before; “the city of strong men!” Again she -turned to the man at her side for a critical inspection, in this new -light. His frame was powerful, and the square, high forehead, with the -bulges of concentration above the brows, showed his mental equipment to -be equally as rugged. His profile was a crisply cut silhouette against -the wintry grey; straight nose, full, firm lips, pointed chin, square -jaw. He was a fair example of all this force. - -Perhaps feeling the steady gaze, Allison turned to her suddenly, and for -a moment the grey eyes and the brown ones looked questioningly into each -other, then there leaped from the man to the woman a something which -held her gaze a full second longer than she would have wished. - -“Air’s great,” he said with a smile. - -“Glorious!” she agreed. “I don’t want to go in.” - -“Don’t,” he promptly advised her. - -“That’s a simple enough solution,” and her laugh, in the snow-laden air, -reminded him, in one of those queer flashes of memory, of a little -string of sleighbells he had owned as a youngster. “However, I promised -Cousin Lucile.” - -“We’ll stop at the house long enough to tell her you’re busy,” suggested -Allison, as eager as a boy. He had been on his way home to dress for a -business banquet, but such affairs came often, and impulsive adventures -like this could be about once in a lifetime with him. He had played the -grubbing game so assiduously that, while he had advanced, as one of his -lieutenants said, from a street car strap to his present mastership of -traction facilities, he had missed a lot of things on the way. He was -energetic to make up for the loss, however. He felt quite ready to pour -a few gallons of gasolene into his runabout and go straight on to -Boston, or any other place Gail might suggest; and there was an -exhilaration in his voice which was contagious. - -“Let’s!” cried Gail, and, with a laugh which he had discarded with his -first business promotion, Allison threw out another notch of speed, and -whirled from the Seventy-second Street entrance up the Avenue to the -proper turning, and halfway down the block, where he made a swift but -smooth stop, bringing the step with marvellous accuracy to within an -inch of the curb. - -“Won’t you come in?” invited Gail. - -“We’d stay too long,” grinned Allison, entering into the conspiracy with -great fervour. - -She flashed at him a smile and ran up the steps. She turned to him again -as she waited for the bell to be answered, and nodded to him with frank -comradery. - -“Time me,” she called, and he jerked out his watch as she slipped in at -the door. - -Two vivacious looking young women, one tall and black-haired and the -other petite and blonde, and both fashionably slender and both pretty, -rushed out into the hall and surrounded her. - -“We thought you’d never come,” rattled Lucile Teasdale, who was the -petite blonde, and the daughter of the sister of the wife of Gail’s -Uncle Jim. - -“Who’s the man?” demanded Mrs. “Arly” Fosland, with breathless interest. - -“Where’s my tea?” answered Gail. - -“We saw you dash up,” supplemented Lucile. “We thought it was a fire.” - -“Why doesn’t he come in?” this from Arly, in whom two years of polite -married life had not destroyed an innocently eager curiosity to inspect -eligibles at close range, for her friends. - -“Who is he?” insisted Lucile, peeping out of the hall window. - -“Edward E. Allison,” primly announced Gail, suppressing a giggle. “I got -him at Uncle Jim’s vestry meeting. He’s waiting to take me riding in the -Park. Where’s my tea?” - -“Edward E. Allison!” gasped “Arly” Fosland. “Why, he’s the richest -bachelor in New York, even if he isn’t a social butterfly,” and she -contemplated Gail in sisterly wonder and admiration. “Good gracious, -child, run!” - -“Come for the tea to-morrow!” urged Lucile. - -They were all three laughing, and the two young married women were -pushing Gail forward. At the door Lucile and Arly separated from her, to -peer out of the two side windows. - -“He doesn’t look so old,” speculated Arly; and Lucile opened the door. - -“Good-bye, dearie,” and Lucile kissed her cousin in plain sight of the -curb, upon which there was nothing for that young lady to do but go. - -For an instant, Edward E. Allison had a glimpse of her, in her garnet -and turquoise, flanked by a sprightly vision in blue and another -sprightly vision in pink, and he thought he heard the suppressed sounds -of tittering; then the door closed, and the lace curtains of the hall -windows bulged outward, and Gail came tripping down the steps. - -“Two minutes and forty-eight seconds,” called Allison, putting away his -stop watch with one hand and helping her with the other. He tucked her -in more quickly than at the church, but with equal care, then he jumped -in beside her, and never had he cut so swift and sure a circle with his -sixty horse-power runabout. - -They raced up and into the Park, and around the winding driveways with -the light-hearted exhilaration of children, and if there was in them at -that moment any trace of mature thought, they were neither one aware of -it. They were glad that they were just living, and moving swiftly in the -open air, glad that it was snowing, glad that the light was beginning to -fade, that there were other vehicles in the Park, that the world was -such a bright and happy place; and they were quite pleased, too, to be -together. - -It was still light, though the electric lamps were beginning to flare up -through the thin snow veil, when they rounded a rocky drive, and came in -view of a little lookout house perched on a hill. - -“Oh!” called Gail, involuntarily putting her hand on his arm. “I want to -go up there!” - -The work of Edward E. Allison was well nigh perfection. He stopped the -runabout exactly at the centre of the pathway, and was out and on Gail’s -side of the car with the agility of a youngster after a robin’s egg. He -helped her to alight, and would have helped her up the hill with great -pleasure, but she was too nimble and too eager for that, and was in the -lookout house several steps ahead of him. - -“It’s glorious,” she said, and her low, melodious voice thrilled him -again with that strange quality he had noticed when she had first spoken -at the vestry meeting. - -Below them lay a grey mist, dotted here and there with haloed lights, -which receded in the distance into tiny yellow blurs, while the nearer -lamps were swathed in swirling snowflakes. Nearby were ghosts of trees -projecting their tops from the misty lake, and out of what seemed a vast -eerie depth came the clang of street cars, and the rumble of the distant -elevated, and the honks of auto horns, and all the rattle and roar of -the great city, muffled and subdued. - -“It’s like being out of the world.” He was astonished to find in himself -the sudden growth of a poetic spirit, and his voice had in it the -modulation which went with the sentiment. - -“This was created,” mused Gail, as if answering an inner question. “Why -should the clumsy minds of men destroy the simplicity of anything so -vast, and good, and beautiful, as our instinctive belief in the -Creator?” - -Finding no answer in his experience to this unfathomable mystery, Edward -E. Allison very wisely kept still and admired the scenery, which -consisted of one girl framed tastefully in a miscellaneous assortment of -snowflakes. When he tried to unravel the girl, he found her a still more -fathomless mystery, and gave up the task in a hurry. After all, she was -right there, and that was enough. - -When she was quite finished with the view, she turned and went down the -hill, and Edward Allison nearly sprained his spinal column in getting -just ahead of her on the steepened narrow path. It was treacherous -walking just there, with the freshly fallen snow on the shale stones. He -was heartily glad that he had taken this precaution, for, near the -bottom of the hill, one of her tiny French heels slid, and she might -have fallen had it not been for the iron-like arm which he threw back to -support her. For just an instant she was thrown fairly in his embrace, -with his arm about her waist, and her weight upon his breast; and, in -that instant, the fire which had been smouldering in him all afternoon -burst into flame. With a mighty repression he resisted the impulse to -crush her to him, and handed her to the equilibrium which she -instinctively sought, though the arm trembled which had been pressed -about her. His heart sang, as he helped her into the machine, and sprang -in beside her. He felt a savage joy in his strength as he started the -car and felt the wheel under his hard grip. He was young, younger than -he had ever been in his boyhood; strong, stronger than he had ever been -in his youth. What worlds he might conquer now with this new blood -racing through his veins. It was as if he had been suddenly thrust into -the fires of eternal life, and endowed with all the vast, irresistible -force of creation! - -Gail, too, was disturbed. While she had laughed to cover the -embarrassment of her mishap, she had been quite collected enough to -thank Allison for his ready aid; but she had felt the thrill of that -tensed arm, and it had awakened in her mind an entirely new vein of -puzzled conjecture. They were both silent, and busy with that new world -which opens up when any two congenial personalities meet, as they raced -out of the Park, and over One Hundred and Tenth Street, and up Riverside -Drive, and out Old Broadway. Occasionally they exchanged bits of -spineless repartee, and laughed at it, but this was only perfunctory, -for they had left the boy and girl back yonder in the park. - -Gravity with a man invariably leads him back to the consideration of his -leading joy in life, business; and the first thing Allison knew he was -indulging in quite a unique weakness, for him; he was bragging! Not -exactly flat-footed; but, with tolerably strong insinuation, he gave her -to understand that the consolidation of the immense traction interests -of New York was about as tremendous an undertaking as she could -comprehend, and that, having attained so dizzy a summit, he felt -entitled to turn himself to lighter things, to enjoy life and gaiety and -frivolity, to rest, as it were, upon his laurels. - -Gail was amused, as she always was when men of strong achievement -dropped into this weakness to interest girls. She did appreciate and -admire his no doubt tremendous accomplishment; it was only his naïvete -which amused her, and to save her she could not resist the wicked little -impulse to nettle him. To his suggestion that he could now lead a merry -life because he was entitled to rest upon his laurels, she had merely -answered “Why?” - -He dropped into a silence so dense that the thump was almost audible, -and she was contrite. She had pricked him deeper than she knew, however. -She had not understood how gigantic the man’s ambitions had been, nor -how vain he was of his really marvellous progress. After all, why should -he pause, when he had such power in him? She did well to speak -slightingly of any achievement made by a man of such proved ability. New -ambitions sprang up in him. The next time he talked of business with her -he would have something startling under way; something to compel her -respect. The muscles of his jaws knotted. It was like being dared to -climb higher in a swaying tree. - -“Oh, it’s dark!” suddenly discovered Gail. “Aunty will be frantic.” - -“That’s so,” regretfully agreed Allison, who, having no Aunties of his -own, was prone to forget them. “We’ll stop up at this roadhouse, and you -can telephone her,” and he turned in at the drive where rose petalled -lights gleamed out from the latticed windows of a low-eaved building. -Dozens of autos, parked amid the snow-sheeted shrubbery, glared at them -with big yellow eyes, and, through the windows, were white cloths and -sparkling glassware, and laughing groups about the tables, and hurrying -waiters. There was music, too, slow, languorous music! - -“Doesn’t it look inviting!” exclaimed Allison, becoming instantly aware -of the pangs of hunger. - -“It’s an enchanting place!” agreed Gail enthusiastically. - -Allison hesitated a moment. - -“Tell your aunt we’re dining here,” he suggested. - -She laughed aloud. - -“Wouldn’t it be fun,” she speculated, and Allison led her in to the -phone. She turned to him with a snap in her eyes at the door of the -booth. “It depends on who answers.” - - - - - CHAPTER III - THE CHANGE IN THE RECTOR’S EYES - - -The grand privilege of Mrs. Jim Sargent’s happy life was to worry all -she liked. She began with the rise of the sun, and worried about the -silver chest; whether it had been locked over night. Usually she slipped -downstairs, in the grey of the morning, to see, and, thus happily -started on the day, she worried about breakfast and luncheon and dinner; -and Jim and her sister and her niece, Lucile; and the servants and the -horses and the flowers; and at nights she lay awake and heard burglars. -Just now, as she sat on the seven chairs and the four benches of the -mahogany panelled library, amid a wealth of serious-minded sculpture and -painting and rare old prints, she was bathed in a new ecstasy of painful -enjoyment. She was worried about Gail! It was six-thirty now, and Gail -had not yet returned from Lucile’s. - -At irregular intervals, say first two minutes and then three and a half, -and then one, she walked into the Louis XIV reception parlour, and made -up her mind to have a new jeweller try his hand at the sun-ray clock, -and looked out of the windows to see if Lucile’s car was arriving. -Between times she pursued her favourite literary diversion; reading the -automobile accidents in the evening papers. She had spent all her later -years in looking for Jim’s name among the list of the maimed! - -Mrs. Helen Davies, dressed for dinner with as much care as if she had -been about to attend one of the unattainable Mrs. Waverly-Gaites’ -annuals, came sweeping down the marble stairs with the calm aplomb of -one whom nothing can disturb, and, lorgnette in hand, turned into the -library without even a glance into the floor-length mirror in the hall. -Her amber beaded gown was set perfectly on her fine shoulders, and her -black hair, fashionably streaked with grey, was properly done, as she -was perfectly aware. - -“I’m so glad you came down, Helen!” breathed Mrs. Sargent, with a sigh -of relief. “I’m so worried!” - -“Naturally, Grace,” returned her sister Helen, who was reputed to be -gifted in repartee. “One would be, under the circumstances. What are -they?” and she tapped her chin delicately with the tip of her lorgnette, -as a warning to an insipient yawn. It was no longer good form to be -bored. - -“Gail!” replied Mrs. Sargent, who was inclined to dumpiness and a -decided contrast to her stately widowed sister. “She hasn’t come home -from Lucile’s!” - -Mrs. Helen Davies sat beneath the statue of Minerva presenting wisdom to -the world, and arranged the folds of her gown to the most graceful -advantage. - -“You shouldn’t expect her on time, coming from Lucile’s,” she observed, -with a smile of proper pride. She was immensely fond of her daughter -Lucile; but she preferred to live with her sister. “I have a brilliant -idea, Grace. I’ll telephone,” and without seeming to exert herself in -the least, she glided from her picturesque high-backed flemish chair, -and sat at the library table, and drew the phone to her, and secured her -daughter’s number. - -“Hello, Lucile,” she called, in the most friendly of tones. “You’d -better send Gail home, before your Aunt Grace develops wrinkles.” - -“Gail isn’t here,” reported Lucile triumphantly. “She dropped in, two -hours ago, and dropped right out, without waiting for her tea. You’d -never guess with whom she’s driving! Edward E. Allison! He’s the richest -bachelor in New York!” - -Mrs. Helen Davies turned to her anxious sister with a sparkle in her -black eyes. - -“It’s all right, Grace,” and then she turned eagerly to the phone. “Did -he come in?” - -“They were in too big a rush,” jabbered Lucile excitedly. “He doesn’t -look old at all. Arly and I watched them drive away. They seemed to be -great chums. Gail got him at Uncle Jim’s vestry. Doesn’t she look -stunning in red!” - -“Where is she?” interrupted Mrs. Sargent, holding her thumb. - -“Out driving,” reported sister Helen. “Have you sent your invitations -for the house-party, Lucile?” and she discussed that important subject -until Mrs. Sargent’s thumb ached. - -“With whom is Gail driving, and where?” asked sister Grace, anxious for -detail. - -Mrs. Helen Davies touched all of her fingertips together in front of her -on the library table, and beamed on Grace. - -“Don’t worry about Gail,” she smilingly advised. “She is driving with -Edward E. Allison. He is the richest bachelor in New York, though not -socially prominent. No one has ever been able to interest him. I predict -for Gail a brilliant future,” and she moved over contentedly to her -favourite contrast with Minerva. - -“Gail would attract any one,” returned Mrs. Sargent complacently, and -then a little crease came in her brow. “I wonder where she met him.” - -“At the vestry meeting, Lucile said.” - -“Oh,” and Mrs. Sargent’s brow cleared instantly. “Jim introduced them. I -wonder where Jim is!” - -“I am glad Gail is not definitely engaged,” mused Mrs. Davies. “I am -pleased with her. Young Mr. Clemmens may seem to be a very brilliant -match, back home, but, with her exceptional advantages, she has every -right to expect to do better.” - -Again the creases came in Mrs. Sargent’s brow. - -“I don’t know,” she worried. “Gail has had four letters in four days -from Mr. Clemmens. Of course, if she genuinely cares for him—” - -“But she doesn’t,” Helen comforted herself, figuring it all out -carefully. “A young man who would write a letter a day, would exert -every possible pressure to secure a promise, before he would let a -beautiful creature like Gail come to New York for the winter; and the -fact that he did not succeed proves, conclusively, that she has not made -up her mind about him.” - -The door opened, and Jim Sargent came in, wiping the snow from his -stubby moustache before he distributed his customary hearty greetings to -the family. - -“Where’s Gail?” he wanted to know. - -“Out driving with Edward E. Allison,” answered both ladies. - -“Still?” inquired Jim Sargent, and then he laughed. “She’s a clever -girl. Smart as a whip! She nearly started a riot in the vestry.” - -“Was Willis Cunningham there?” inquired Mrs. Davies interestedly. - -“Took me in a corner after the meeting and told me that Gail bore a -remarkable resemblance to the Fratelli Madonna, and might he call.” - -“Mr. Cunningham is one of the men I was anxious for her to meet,” and -Mrs. Davies touched her second finger, as if she were checking off a -list. - -“What did Gail do?” wondered Mrs. Sargent. - -Jim, crossing to the door, chuckled, and removed his watch chain from -his vest. - -“Told Boyd that Market Square Church was a good business proposition.” - -The ladies did not share his amusement. - -“To the Reverend Boyd!” breathed Mrs. Sargent, shocked. She considered -the Reverend Smith Boyd the most wonderful young man of his age. - -“How undiplomatic,” worried Mrs. Davies. “I must have a little talk with -her about cleverness. It’s dangerous in a girl.” - -“Not these days,” declared Jim Sargent, who stood ready to defend Gail, -right or wrong, at every angle. “Allison and Manning enjoyed it -immensely.” - -“Oh,” remarked Helen Davies, somewhat mollified. “And Mr. Cunningham?” - -“And what did the Reverend Boyd say?” inquired Mrs. Sargent, much -concerned. - -“I don’t think he liked it very well,” speculated Gail’s Uncle Jim. -“He’s coming over to-night to discuss church matters. I’ll have to dress -in a hurry,” and he looked at the watch which he held, with its chain, -in his hand. - -The telephone bell rang, and Sargent, who could not train himself to -wait for a servant to sift the messages, answered it immediately, with -his characteristic explosive-first-syllabled: - -“Hello!” - -“Oh, it’s you, Uncle Jim,” called a buoyant voice. “Mr. Allison and I -have found the most enchanting roadhouse in the world, and we’re going -to take dinner here. It’s all right, isn’t it?” - -“Certainly,” he replied, equally buoyant. “Enjoy yourself, Chubsy,” and -he hung up the receiver. - -“What is it?” asked Mrs. Davies, in a tone distinctly chill. She had a -premonition that Jim Sargent had done something foolish. He seemed so -pleased. - -“Gail won’t be home,” he announced carelessly, starting for the stairs. -“She’s dining with Allison at some roadhouse.” - -“Unchaperoned!” gasped Mrs. Davies. - -“She’s all right, Helen,” remarked Jim, starting upstairs. “Allison’s a -fine fellow.” - -“But what will he think of Gail!” protested Helen. “That sort of -unconventionality has gone clear out. Jim, you’ll have to get back that -number!” - -“Sorry,” regretted Jim. “Can’t do it. Against the telephone rules,” and -he went on upstairs, positively humming! - -The two ladies looked at each other, and sat down in the valley of the -shadows of gloom. There was nothing to be done! Mrs. Davies, however, -was different from her sister. Grace Sargent was an accomplished -worrier, who could remain numb in the exercise of her art, but Helen -Davies was a woman of action. She presently called her daughter. - -“Have you started your dinner, Lucile?” she demanded. - -“No, Ted just came home,” reported Lucile. “What’s the matter?” - -“Don’t let him take time to dress,” urged her mother. “You must go right -out and chaperon Gail.” - -“Where is she?” Lucile delayed to inquire. - -“At some roadhouse, dining with Mr. Allison!” - -“Well, what do you think of Gail!” exulted Lucile. “Oh, Arly!” and Mrs. -Davies heard the receiver drop to the end of its line. She heard -laughter, and then the voice of Lucile again. “Mother, she’s with Edward -E. Allison, and they’ll do better without a chaperon. Besides, mother -dear, there’s a million roadhouses. We’ll come down after dinner. I want -to see her when she returns.” - -“I don’t suppose she could be found, except by accident,” granted her -mother, and gave up the enterprise. “Times are constantly changing,” she -complained to her sister. “The management of a girl becomes more -difficult every year. So much freedom makes them disregardful of the aid -of their elders in making a selection.” - -It was not until nine o’clock that the ladies expressed their worry -again. At that hour, Ted and Lucile Teasdale and Arly Fosland came in -with the exuberance of a New Year’s Eve celebration. - -“It’s great sleighing to-night,” stated Lucile’s husband, who was a -thin-waisted young man, with a splendid natural gift for dancing. - -“All that’s missing is the bells,” chattered the black-haired Arly, -breaking straight for her favourite big couch in the library. “The only -way to have any speed in an auto is to go sidewise.” - -“We’re to get up a skidding match, so I can bet on our chauffeur,” -laughed Lucile, fluffing her blonde ringlets before the big mirror in -the hall. “We slid a complete circle coming down through the Park, and -never lost a revolution!” - -“I’ve been thinking it must be bad driving,” fretted Mrs. Sargent. “Gail -should be home by now!” - -“Allison’s a safe driver,” comforted Ted, who liked to see everybody -happy. - -Jim Sargent came to the door of the study, in which he was closeted with -the Reverend Smith Boyd. Jim was practically the young rector’s business -guardian. - -“Hello, folks,” he nodded. “Gail home?” - -“Not yet,” responded Mrs. Sargent, in whose brow the creases were -becoming fixed. - -“It’s hardly time,” estimated Jim, and went back in the study. - -“Ted has a new divinity,” boasted the wife of that agreeable young man. - -“Had, you mean,” corrected Ted. “She’s deserted me for a single man.” - -“Is it the Piccadilly widow?” inquired Arly, punching another pillow -under her elbow. - -“Certainly,” corroborated Ted. “You don’t suppose I have a new one every -day.” - -“You’re losing your power of fascination then,” retorted Arly. “Lucile’s -still in the running with two a day.” - -“She should have her kind by the dozen,” responded Ted, complacently -stroking his glossy moustache. - -“The young set takes up some peculiar fads,” mused Mrs. Davies, with a -trace of concern. “I can’t quite accustom myself to the sanction of -flirting.” - -“Neither can I,” agreed Ted. “It takes the fun out of it.” - -“The only joy is in boasting about it at home,” complained Arly Fosland. -“I can’t even get Gerald interested in my affairs, so I’ve dropped -them.” - -“Gerald wouldn’t understand a flirtation of his own,” criticised Ted. “I -never saw a man who made such hard work of belonging to twelve clubs. -Arly, how did you manage to make him see your fatal lure?” - -“Mother did it,” returned Arly, drowsily absorbing the grateful warmth -of the room. - -“I don’t think anything is half so dangerous to a bachelor as a mother,” -stated Lucile, with a friendly smile at Mrs. Davies. - -“I’m going to start a new fad,” announced Arly, sitting up and -considering the matter; “prudery. There’s nothing more effective.” - -“It’s too wicked,” objected Lucile’s mother, and scored another point -for herself. It was a wearing task to keep up a reputation for repartee. - -“I’m terribly vexed,” confided Lucile, stopping behind Ted’s chair, and -idly tickling the back of his neck. “I thought it would be such a -brilliant scheme to give a winter week-end party, but Mrs. Acton is -going to give one at her country place.” - -“Before or after?” demanded Mrs. Davies, with whom this was a point of -the utmost importance. - -“A week after,” answered Lucile, “but her invitations are out. I wish I -hadn’t mailed mine. What can we do to make ours notable?” - -That being a matter worth considering, the entire party, with the -exception of Aunt Grace, who was listening for the doorbell, set their -wits and their tongues to work. Mrs. Helen Davies took a keener interest -in it than any of them. The invitation list was the most important of -all, for it was a long and arduous way to the heaven of the socially -elect, and it took generations to accomplish the journey. The Murdock -girls, Grace and herself, had no great-grandfather. Murdock Senior had -made his money after Murdock Junior was married, but in time to give the -girls a thorough polishing in an exclusive academy. Thus launched, Helen -had married a man with a great-great-grandfather, but Grace had married -Jim Sargent. Jim was a dear, and had plenty of money, and was as good a -railroader as Grace’s father, with whom he had been great chums; but -still he was Jim Sargent. Gail’s mother, who had married Jim’s brother, -had seven ancestors, but a mother’s family name is so often overlooked. -Nevertheless, when Gail came to marry, the maternal ancestry, all other -things being favourable, might even secure her an invitation to Mrs. -Waverly-Gaites’ annual! Reaching this point in her circle of -speculation, Mrs. Helen Davies came back to her starting place, and -looked at the library clock with a shock. Ten; and the girl was not yet -home! - -The Reverend Smith Boyd came out of the study with his most active -vestryman, and joined the circle of waiting ones. He was a pleasant -addition to the party, for, in spite of belonging to the clergy, he was -able to conduct himself, in Rome, in a quite acceptable Roman fashion. -Pleasant as he was, they wished he would go home, because it was not -convenient to worry in his company; and by this time Lucile herself was -beginning to watch the clock with some anxiety. Only Mrs. Sargent felt -no restraint. An automobile honked at the door as if it were stopping, -and she half arose; then the same honk sounded half way down the block, -and she sat down again. - -“I’m so worried about Gail!” she stated, holding her thumb. - -“We all are,” supplemented Mrs. Davies quickly. “She has been dining -with a party of friends, and the streets are so slippery.” - -“I should judge Mr. Allison to be a very capable driver,” said the -Reverend Smith Boyd; and the ladies glared at Jim. “I envy them their -drive on a night like this. I wonder if there will be good coasting.” - -“Fine,” judged Jim Sargent, looking out of the window toward the -adjoining rectory. “That first snow was wet and it froze. Now there’s a -good inch on top of it, and, at this rate, there should be three by -morning. A little thaw, and another freeze, and a little more snow -to-morrow, and I’ll be tempted to make a bob-sled.” - -“I’ll help you,” offered the Reverend Smith Boyd, with a glow of -pleasure in his particularly fine eyes. “I used to have a twelve seated -bob-sled, which never started down the hill with less than fifteen.” - -“I never rode on one,” complained Arly. “I think I’m due for a bob-sled -party.” - -“You’re invited,” Lucile promptly told her. “Uncle Jim, you and Dr. Boyd -will have to hunt up your hammer and saw.” - -“I’ll start right to work,” offered the young rector, with the alacrity -which had made him a favourite. - -“If the snow holds, we’ll go over into the Jersey hills, and slide,” -promised Sargent with enthusiasm. “I’ll give the party.” - -“I seem to anticipate a pleasant evening,” considered Ted Teasdale, -whose athletics were confined entirely to dancing. “We’ll ride down hill -on the sleds, and up hill in the machines.” - -“That’s barred,” immediately protested Jim. “The boys have to pull the -girls up hill. Isn’t that right, Boyd?” - -“It was correct form when I was a boy,” returned the rector, with a -laugh. He held his muscular hands out before him as if he could still -feel the cut of the rope in his palms. He squared his big shoulders, and -breathed deeply, in memory of those health-giving days. There was a -flush in his cheeks, and his eyes, which were sometimes green, glowed -with a decided blue. Arlene Fosland, looking lazily across at him, from -the comfortable nest which she had not quitted all evening, decided that -it was a shame that he had been cramped into the ministry. - -“There’s Gail!” cried Mrs. Sargent, jumping to her feet and running into -the hall, before the butler could come in answer to the bell. She opened -the door, and was immediately kissed, then Gail came back into the -library without stopping to remove her furs. She was followed by -Allison, and she carried something inside her coat. Her cheeks were -rosy, from the crisp air, and the snow sparkled on her brown hair like -tiny diamonds. - -“We’ve been buying a dog!” she breathlessly explained, and, opening her -coat, she produced an animated teddy bear, with two black eyes and one -black pointed nose protruding from a puff ball of pure white. She set it -on the floor, where it waddled uncertainly in three directions, and -finally curled between the Reverend Smith Boyd’s feet. - -“A collie!” and the Reverend Smith Boyd picked up the warm infant for an -admiring inspection. “It’s a beautiful puppy.” - -“Isn’t it a dear!” exclaimed Gail, taking it away from him, and -favouring him with a smile. She whisked the fluffy little ball over to -her Aunt Grace, and left it in that lady’s lap, while she threw off her -furs. - -“Where could you buy a dog at this hour?” inquired Mrs. Davies, glancing -at the clock, which stood now at the accusing hour of a quarter of -eleven. - -“We woke up the kennel man,” laughed Gail, turning, with a sparkling -glance, to Allison, who was being introduced ceremoniously to the ladies -by Uncle Jim. “We had a perfectly glorious evening! We dined at Roseleaf -Inn, entirely surrounded by hectic lights, then we drove five miles into -the country and bought Flakes. We came home so fast that Mr. Allison -almost had to hold me in.” She turned, laughing, to find the eyes of the -Reverend Smith Boyd fixed on her in cold disapproval. They were no -longer blue! - - - - - CHAPTER IV - TOO MANY MEN - - -“A conscience must be a nuisance to a rector,” sympathised Gail Sargent, -as she walked up the hill beside the Reverend Smith Boyd. - -The tall, young rector shifted the thin rope of the sled to his other -hand. - -“Epigrams are usually more clever than true,” he finally responded, with -a twinkle in his eyes. It had been in his mind to sharply defend that -charge, but he reflected that it was unwise to assume the speech worth -serious consideration. Moreover, he had come to this toboggan party for -healthful physical exercise! - -“Then you’re guilty of an epigram,” retorted Gail, who was annoyed with -the Reverend Smith Boyd without quite knowing why. “You can’t believe -all you are compelled, as a minister, to say.” - -“That,” returned the Reverend Smith Boyd coldly, “is a matter of -interpretation.” He commended himself for his patience, as he proceeded -to instruct this mistaken young person. She was a lovable girl, in spite -of the many things he found in her of which to disapprove. “The eye of -the needle through which the camel was supposed not to be able to pass, -was, in reality, a narrow city gate called the Needle’s Eye.” - -Gail looked at him with that little smile at the corners of her red -lips, eyelids down, curved lashes on her cheeks, and beneath the lashes -a sparkle brighter than the moonlight on the snow crystals in the -adjoining field. - -“It seems to me there was something about wealth in that metaphor,” she -observed, her round eyes flashing open as she smiled up at him. “If it -was so difficult even in those days for a rich man to enter the Kingdom -of Heaven, how can a rich church hope to enter the spirit of the -gospel?” - -The Reverend Smith Boyd hastily, and almost roughly, drew her aside, as -a long, low bob-sled, accompanied by appropriate screams, came streaking -down the hill, and passed them. They both turned and followed its -progress down the narrowing white road, to where it curved away in a -silver line far at the bottom of a hill. Hills and valleys, and fences -and trees, and even a distant stream were covered with the fleecy mantle -of winter, while high over head in a sky of blue, hung a round, white -moon, which flooded the country-side with mellow light, and strewed upon -earth’s fresh robe a wealth of countless sparkling gems. - -“This is a wonderful sermon,” mused Gail; then she turned to the rector. -She softened toward him, as she saw that he, too, had partaken of the -awe and majesty of this scene. He stood straight and tall, his -splendidly poised head thrown back, and his gaze resting far off where -the hills cut against the sky in tree-clad scallops. - -“It is an inspiration,” he told her, with a tone in his vibrant voice -which she had not heard before; and for that brief instant these two, -between whom there had seemed some instinctive antagonism, were nearer -in sympathy than either had thought it possible to be. Then the Reverend -Smith Boyd happened to remember something. “The morality or immorality -of riches depends upon its use,” he sonorously stated, as he stepped out -into the road again, dragging his sled behind him, following the noisy, -loitering crowd with the number two bob-sled. “Market Square Church, -which is the one I suppose you meant in your comparison with the rich -man, intends to devote all the means with which a kind Providence has -blessed it, to the glory of God.” - -“And the gratification of the billionaire vestry,” she added, still -annoyed with the Reverend Smith Boyd, though she did not know why. - -He turned to her almost savagely. - -“Have you no sense of reverence?” he demanded. - -“For the church, or the creed, or the ministry? Not a particle!” she -heartily assured him. “The church, as an instrument for good, has -practically ceased to exist. Even charity, the greatest of the three -principles upon which the church was originally founded, has been taken -away from it, because the secular organisations dispense charity better -and more sanely, and while the object is still alive.” - -Again the Reverend Smith Boyd drew her out of the road, almost ungently, -and unnecessarily in advance of need, to permit a thick man to glide -leisurely by, on his stomach on a hand sled. He grinned up at them from -under a stubby moustache, and waved a hand at them with a vigour which -nearly ran him into a ditch; but a sharp scrape of his toe in the snow, -made with a stab the expertness of which had come back to him through -forty years, brought him into the path again, and he slid majestically -onward, with happy forgetfulness of the dignity belonging to the -president of the Towando Valley Railroad and a vestryman of Market -Square Church. - -“That used to be lots of fun,” remembered Gail, looking after her Uncle -Jim in envy. - -“Market Square Church has dispensed millions in charity,” the rector -felt it his duty to inform her, as they started up the hill again. - -“If it’s like our church at home it costs ninety cents to deliver a -dime,” she retorted, bristling anew with bygone aggravations. “So long -as you can deliver baskets of provisions in person, it is all right, but -the minute you let the money out of your sight it filters through too -many paid hands. I found this out just before I resigned from our -charity committee.” - -He looked at her in perplexity. She was so young and so pretty, so -charming in the ermine which framed her pink face, so gentle of speech -and movement, that her visible self and her incisive mind seemed to be -two different creatures. - -“Why are you so bitter against the church?” and his tone was troubled, -not so much about what she had said, but about her. - -“I didn’t know I was,” she confessed, concerned about it herself. “All -at once I seem to look on it as an old shoe which should be cast aside. -It is so elaborate to do so little good in the world. Morality is on the -increase, as any page of history will show.” - -“I believe that to be true,” he hastily assured her, glad to be able to -agree with her upon something. - -“But it is in spite of the church, not because of it,” she immediately -added. “You can’t say that there is a tremendous moral influence in a -congregation which numbers eight hundred, and sends less than fifty to -services. The balance show their devotion to Christianity by a quarterly -check.” - -The Reverend Smith Boyd felt unfairly hit. - -“That is the sorrow of the church,” he sadly confessed; “the -lukewarmness of its followers.” - -She felt a trace of compunction for him; but why had he gone into the -ministry? - -“Can you blame them?” she demanded, as much aggrieved as if she had -suffered a personal distress. “Not so long ago, the governing body of -the church held a convention in which the uppermost thought was this -same lukewarmness. It was felt, and acknowledged, that the church was -losing its personal hold on its membership, and that something should be -done about it; yet that same body progressed no further in this problem -than to realise that something should be done about it; and spent hours -and hours wrangling over whether banana wine could be used for the -sacrament in Uganda, where grapes do not grow, and where every bottle of -grape wine carried over the desert represents the life of a man. Of what -value is that to religion? How do you suppose Christ would have decided -that question?” - -The rector flushed as if he had been struck, and he turned to Gail with -that cold look in his green eyes. - -“That is too deep a subject to discuss here, but if you will permit me, -I will take it up with you at the house,” he quietly returned, and there -was a dogged compulsion in his tone. - -“I shall be highly interested in the defence,” accepted Gail, with an -aggravating smile. - -There seemed to be but very little to say after that, and they walked -silently up the hill together towards the yellow camp fire, fuming -inwardly at each other. Near the top of the hill, her ermine scarf came -loose at the throat, and, with her numbed hands, she could not locate -the little clasp with which it had been held. - -“May I help you?” offered the rector, constraining himself to -politeness. - -“Thank you.” She was extremely sweet about it, and he reached up to -perform the courtesy. The rounded column of her neck was white as marble -in the moonlight, and, as he sought the clasps, his fingers, drawn from -his woollen gloves, touched her warm throat, and they tingled. He -started as if he had received an electric shock, and, as he looked into -her eyes, a purple mist seemed to spring between them. He mechanically -fastened the clasps, though his fingers trembled. “Thank you,” again -said Gail, and he did not notice that her voice was unusually low. She -went on over to the group gathered around the fire, but the Reverend -Smith Boyd stood where she had left him, staring stupidly at the ground. -He was in a whirl of bewilderment, amid which there was some unreasoning -resentment, but beneath it all there was an inexplicable sadness. - -“Just in time for the Palisade Special, Gail,” called Lucile Teasdale. - -“I don’t know,” laughed Gail. “I think of going on a private car this -trip,” and she sought among the group for distraction from certain -oppressive thought. Allison, and Lucile and Ted and Arly, were among the -more familiar figures; besides were a cherub-cheeked young lady in a -bear skin, to whom Ted Teasdale was pretending to pay assiduous -attention; and the thoughtful Willis Cunningham; and Houston Van Ploon, -who was a ruddy-faced young fellow with an English moustache, and a -perpetual air of having just come from his tailor’s; and a startling -Adonis, with pink cheeks and a shining black goatee and a curly -moustache, and large, round, black eyes, which were deep, and full of -almost anything one might wish to put into them. This astoundingly -fascinating gentleman had been proudly introduced as Dick Rodley, by -Arlene, early in the evening, with an air which plainly stated that he -was a personal discovery for which she gave herself great credit. At -present, however, he was warming the slender white hands of Lucile -Teasdale. Now he sprang up and came towards Gail. - -“The Palisade Special will not start without Miss Sargent,” he declared, -bending upon her an ardent gaze, and bestowing upon her a smile which -displayed a flash of perfect white teeth. - -Gail breathlessly thought him the most dangerously handsome thing she -had ever seen, but she missed the foreign accent in him. That would have -made him complete. - -“I’m sorry that the Palisade Special will be delayed,” she coolly told -him, but she tempered the deliberateness of that decision with an upward -and sidelong glance, which she was startled to recognise in herself as -distinct coquetry. She concluded, however, on reflection, that this was -only a just meed which no one could withhold from this resplendent -creature. - -“You haven’t the heart to refuse,” protested handsome Dick, coming -nearer, and again smiling down at her. - -“I have a prior claim,” laughed Allison, stepping up and taking her by -the arm. “It’s my turn to guide Miss Sargent on the two-passenger sled.” - -There was something new about Allison to-night. There was the thrill and -the exultation of youth in his voice, and twenty years seemed to have -been dropped from his age. There was an intensity about him, too, and -also a proprietor-like compulsion, which decided Gail on a certain -diversion she had entertained. She was oppressed with men to-night. The -world was full of them, and they had closed too nearly around her. - -Suddenly she broke away with a laugh, and, taking the two-passenger sled -from Smith Boyd, who still stood in preoccupation at the edge of the -group, she picked it up and ran with it, and threw herself face forward -on it, as she had done when she was a kiddy, and shot down the hill, to -the intense disapproval of the Reverend Boyd! Dick Rodley, ever alert in -his chosen profession, grabbed a light steel racer from the edge of the -bank, and, with a magnificent run, slapped himself on the sled, and -darted in pursuit! The rector’s lip curled the barest trace at one -corner, but Edward E. Allison, looking down the hill, grinned, and lit a -cigar. - -“Ted Teasdale, come right over here,” ordered Lucile. - -“Can’t,” carelessly returned Ted. “I’m having a serious flirtation with -Miss Kenneth.” - -“You have to stop, and flirt with me,” Lucile insisted, and going over, -she slipped a hand within his sleeve, and passed the other arm -affectionately around Marion Kenneth. “Gail stole the ornament.” - -“Serves you right,” charged Arly Fosland. “You stole him from me. Come -on, Houston, bring out the Palisade Special.” - -Houston Van Ploon, who was a brother to all ladies, obediently dragged -forward the number two bob-sled, and set its nose at the brow of the -hill, and the merry mob piled on. - -“Coming Allison?” called Cunningham. “There’s room for you both, -Doctor.” - -“I don’t think I’ll ride this trip, thanks,” returned Allison, and, as -the rector also declined with pleasant thanks, Allison gave the voyagers -a hearty push, and walked back to the camp fire. - -“I received the ultimatum of your vestry to-day, Doctor Boyd,” observed -Allison when they were alone. “Still that eventual fifty million.” - -“Well, yes,” returned the rector briskly, and he backed up comfortably -to the blaze. He was a different man now. “We discussed your proposition -thoroughly, and decided that, in ten years, the property is worth fifty -million to you, for the purpose you have in mind. Consequently why take -less.” - -Allison surveyed him shrewdly for a moment. - -“That’s the argument of a bandit,” he remarked. “Why accept all that the -prisoner has when his friends can raise a little more?” - -“I don’t see the use of metaphor,” retorted the rector, who dealt -professionally in it. “Business is business.” - -Allison grunted, and flicked his ashes into the fire. - -“By George, you’re right,” he agreed. “I’ve been trying to handle you -like a church, but now I’m going after you like the business -organisation you are.” - -The Reverend Smith Boyd reddened. The charge that Market Square Church -was a remarkably lucrative enterprise was becoming too general for -comfort. - -“The vestry has given you their decision,” he returned, standing stiff -and straight, with his hands clasped behind him. “You may pay for the -Vedder Court tenement property a cash sum which, in ten years, will -accrue to fifty million dollars, or you may let it alone,” and his tone -was as forcefully crisp as Allison’s, though he could not hide the -musical timbre of it. - -“I won’t pay that price, and I won’t let the property alone,” Allison -snapped back. “The city needs it.” - -For a moment the two men looked each other levelly in the eyes. There -seemed to have sprang up some new enmity between them. A thick man with -a stubby moustache came puffing up to the fire, and sat down on his sled -with a thump. - -“Splendid exercise,” he gasped, holding his sides. “I think about a week -of it would either reduce me to a living skeleton, or kill me.” - -“Your vestry’s an ass,” Allison took pleasure in informing him. - -“Same to you and many of them,” puffed Jim Sargent. “What’s the trouble -with you? Trying to take a business advantage of a church.” - -“I’d have a better chance with a Jew,” was Allison’s contemptuous reply. - -“Oh, see here, Allison!” remonstrated Jim Sargent seriously. He even -rose to his feet to make it more emphatic. “You mustn’t treat Market -Square Church with so much indignity.” - -“Why not? Market Square Church puts itself in a position to be -considered in the light of any other grasping organisation.” - -The Reverend Smith Boyd, finding in himself the growth of a most -uncloth-like anger, decided to walk away rather than suffer the -aggravation which must ensue in this conversation. Consequently, he -started down the hill, dragging Jim Sargent’s sled behind him for -company. There were no further insults to the church, however. - -“Jim, what are the relations of the Towando Valley to the L. and C.?” -asked Allison, offering Sargent a cigar. - -“Largely paternal,” and the president of the Towando Valley grinned. “We -feed it when it’s good, and spank it when it cries.” - -“Hold control of the stock?” - -“No, only its transportation,” returned Sargent complacently. - -“Stock is a good deal scattered, I suppose.” - -“Small holdings entirely, and none of the holders proud,” replied -Sargent. “It starts no place and comes right back, and the share-holders -won’t pay postage to send in their annual proxies.” - -“Then the stock doesn’t seem to be worth buying,” observed Allison, with -vast apparent indifference. - -“Only to piece out a collection,” chuckled Sargent. “I didn’t know you -were interested in railroads.” - -“I wasn’t a week ago,” and Allison looked out across the starry sky to -the tree-scalloped hills. “With the completion of the consolidation of -New York’s transportation system, and the building of a big central -station, I thought I was through. It seemed a big achievement to gather -all these lines to a common centre, like holding them in my hand; to -converge four millions of people at one point, to handle them without -confusion, and to re-distribute them along the same lines, looked like a -life’s work; but now I’m beginning to become ambitious.” - -“Oh, I see,” grinned Jim Sargent. “You want to do something you can -really call a job. If I remember rightly, you started with an equipment -of four horse cars and two miles of rusted rail. What do you want to -conquer next?” - -Allison glanced down the hill, then back out across the starlit sky. -Some new fervor had possessed him to-night which made him a poet, and -loosened the tongue which, previous to this, could almost calculate its -utterances in percentage. - -“The world,” he said. - - - - - CHAPTER V - EDWARD E. ALLISON TAKES A VACATION - - -Edward E. Allison walked into the offices of the Municipal -Transportation Company at nine o’clock, and set his basket of opened and -carefully annotated letters out of the mathematical centre of his desk; -then he touched a button, and a thin young man, whose brow, at twenty, -wore the traces of preternatural age, walked briskly in. - -“Has Mr. Greggory arrived?” - -The intensely earnest young man glanced at the clock. - -“Yes, sir,” he replied. - -“Take him these letters, and ask him if he will be kind enough to step -here.” - -“Yes, sir,” and the concentrated young man departed with the basket, -feeling that he had quite capably borne his weight of responsibility. - -Allison, looking particularly fresh and buoyant this morning, utilised -his waiting time to the last fraction of a second. He put in a telephone -call, and took from the drawer of his desk a packet of neatly docketed -papers, an index memorandum book, a portfolio of sketches, and three -cigars, the latter of which he put in his cigar case; then, his desk -being empty, except for a clean memorandum pad and pencil, he closed it -and locked it. The telephone girl reported his number on the wire, and, -the number proving to be that of a florist, he ordered some violets sent -to Gail Sargent. - -Greggory walked in, a fat man with no trace of nonsense about him. - -“Out for the day, Ed?” he surmised, gauging that probability by the gift -of the letters. - -“A month or so,” amended Allison, rising, and surveying the three -articles on his desk calculatingly. “I’m going to take a vacation.” - -“It’s about time,” agreed his efficient general manager. “I think it’s -been four years since you stopped to take a breath. Going to play a -little?” - -“That’s the word,” and Allison chuckled like a boy. “Take care of these -things,” and tossing him the packet of papers and the memorandum book, -he took the portfolio of sketches under his arm. - -“I suppose we’ll have your address,” suggested Greggory. - -“No.” - -Greggory pondered frowningly. He began to see a weight piling up on him, -and, though he was capable, he loved his flesh. - -“About that Shell Beach extension?” he inquired. “There’s likely to be -trouble with the village of Waveview. Their local franchises—” - -“Settle it yourself,” directed Allison carelessly, and Greggory stared. -During the long and arduous course of Allison’s climb, he had built his -success on personal attention to detail. “Good-bye,” and Allison walked -out, lighting a cigar on his way to the door. - -He stopped his runabout in front of a stationer’s, and bought the -largest globe they had in stock. - -“Address, please?” asked the clerk, pencil poised over delivery slip. - -“I’ll take it with me,” and Allison helped them secure the clumsy thing -in the seat beside him. Then he streaked up the Avenue to the small and -severely furnished house where four ebony servants protected him from -the world. - -“Out of town except to this list,” he directed his kinky-haired old -butler, and going into the heavy oak library, he closed the door. On the -wall, depending from the roller case, was a huge map of the boroughs of -New York, which had hung there since he had first begun to group -transportation systems together. It was streaked and smudged with the -marks of various coloured pencils, some faded and some fresh, and around -one rectangle, lettered Vedder Court, was a heavy green mark. He picked -up a pencil from the stand, but laid it down again with a smile. There -was no need for that new red line; nor need, either, any longer, for the -map itself; and he snapped it up into its case, on roller-springs stiff -with disuse. In its place he drew down another one, a broad familiar -domain between two oceans, and he smiled as his eye fell upon that tiny -territory near the Atlantic, which, up to now, he had called a world, -because he had mastered it. - -His library phone rang. - -“Mr. Allison?” a woman’s voice. Gail Sargent, Mrs. Sargent, Mrs. Davies, -or Lucile Teasdale. No other ladies were on his list. The voice was not -that of Gail. “Are you busy to-night?” Oh, yes, Lucile Teasdale. - -“Free as air,” he gaily told her. - -“I’m so glad,” rattled Lucile. “Ted’s just telephoned that he has -tickets for ‘The Lady’s Maid.’ Can you join us?” - -“With pleasure.” No hesitation whatever; prompt and agreeable; even -pleased. - -“That’s jolly. I think six makes such a nice crowd. Besides you and -ourselves, there’ll be Arly and Dick Rodley and Gail.” Gail, of course. -He had known that. “We’ll start from Uncle Jim’s at eight o’clock.” - -Allison called old Ephraim. - -“I want to begin dressing at seven-fifteen,” he directed. “At three -o’clock set some sandwiches inside the door. Have some fruit in my -dressing-room.” - -He went back to his map, remembering Lucile with a retrospective smile. -The last time he had seen that vivacious young person she had been -emptying a box of almonds, at the side of the camp fire at the toboggan -party. He jotted down a memorandum to send her some, and drew a high -stool in front of the map. - -Strange this new ambition which had come to him. Why, he had actually -been about to consider his big work finished; and now, all at once, -everything he had done seemed trivial. The eager desire of youth to -achieve had come to him again, and the blood sang in his veins as he -felt of his lusty strength. He was starting to build, with a youth’s -enthusiasm but with a man’s experience, and with the momentum of success -and the power of capital. Something had crystallised him in the past few -days. - -[Illustration: At 7:15 Ephraim found him at the end of the table in the -midst of some neat and intricate tabulations] - -Across the fertile fields and the mighty mountains and the arid deserts -of the United States, there angled four black threads, from coast to -coast, and everywhere else were shorter main lines and shorter branches, -and, last of all, mere fragments of railroads. He began with the long, -angling threads, but he ended with the fragments, and these, in turns, -he gave minute and careful study. At three o’clock he took a sandwich -and ordered his car. He was gone less than an hour, and came back with -an armload of books; government reports, volumes of statistics, and a -file of more intimate information from the office of his broker. He -threw off his coat when he came in this time, and spread, on the big, -lion-clawed table at which Napoleon had once planned a campaign, a -vari-coloured mass of railroad maps. At seven-fifteen old Ephraim found -him at the end of the table in the midst of some neat and intricate -tabulations. - -“Time to dress, sir,” suggested Ephraim. - -Allison pushed to the floor the railroad map upon which he had been -working, and pulled another one towards him. Ephraim waited one minute. - -“I’ve run your tub, sir.” - -Allison leafed rapidly through the pages of an already hard-used book, -to the section concerning the Indianapolis and St. Joe Railroad. Ephraim -looked around calculatingly, and selected an old atlas from the top of -the case near the door. He held it aloft an instant, and let it fall -with a slam. - -“Oh, it’s you,” remarked the absorbed Allison, glancing up. - -“Yes, sir,” returned Ephraim. “You told me to come for you at -seven-fifteen.” - -Allison arose, and rubbed the tips of his fingers over his eyes. - -“Keep this room locked,” he ordered, and stalked obediently upstairs. -For the next thirty minutes he belonged to Ephraim. - -He was as carefree as a boy when he reached Jim Sargent’s house, and his -eyes snapped when he saw Gail come down the stairs, in a pearl tinted -gown, with a triple string of pearls in her waving hair, and a -rose-coloured cloak depending from her gracefully sloping shoulders. - -Her own eyes brightened at the sight of him. He had been much in her -mind to-day; not singly but as one of a group. She was quite conscious -that she liked him, but she was more conscious that she was curious -about him. She was curious about most men, she suddenly found, comparing -them, sorting them, weighing them; and Allison was one of the most -perplexing specimens. A little heavy in his evening clothes, but not -awkward, and not without dignity of bearing. He stepped forward to shake -hands with her, and, for a moment, she found in her an inclination to -cling to the warm thrill of his clasp. She had never before been so -aware of anything like that. Nevertheless, when she had withdrawn her -hand, she felt a sense of relief. - -“Hello, Allison,” called the hearty voice of Jim Sargent. “You’re -looking like a youngster to-night.” - -“I feel like one,” replied Allison, smiling. “I’m on a vacation.” He was -either vain enough or curious enough to glance at himself in the big -mirror as he passed it. He did look younger; astonishingly so; and he -had about him a quality of lightness which made him restless. He had -been noted among his business associates for a certain dry wit, -scathing, satirical, relentless; now he used that quality agreeably, and -when Lucile and Ted, and Arly and Dick Rodley joined them, he was quite -easily a sharer in the gaiety. At the theatre he was the same. He -participated in all the repartee during the intermissions, and the fact -that he found Gail studying him, now and then, only gave him an added -impulse. He was frank with himself about Gail. He wanted her, and he had -made up his mind to have her. He was himself a little surprised at his -own capacity of entertainment, and when he parted from Gail at the -Sargent house, he left her smiling, and with a softer look in her eyes -than he had yet seen there. - -Immediately on his return to his library, Allison threw off his coat and -waistcoat, collar and tie, and sat at the table. - -“What is there in the ice box?” he wanted to know. - -“Well, sir,” enumerated Ephraim carefully; “Mirandy had a chicken -pot-pie for dinner, and then there’s—” - -“That will do; cold,” interrupted Allison. “Bring it here with as few -service things as possible, a bottle of Vichy and some olives.” - -He began to set down some figures, and when Ephraim came, shaking his -head to himself about such things as cold dumplings at night, Allison -stopped for ten minutes, and lunched with apparent relish. At -seven-thirty he called Ephraim and ordered a cold plunge and some -breakfast. He had been up all night, and on the map of the United States -there were pencilled two thin straight black lines; one from New York to -Chicago, and one from Chicago to San Francisco. Crossing them, and -paralleling them, and angling in their general direction, but quite -close to them in the main, were lines of blue and lines of green and -lines of orange; these three. - -Another day and another night he spent with his maps, and his books, and -his figures; then he went to his broker with a list of railroads. - -“Get me what stock you can of these,” he directed. “Pick it up as -quietly as possible.” - -The broker looked them over and elevated his eyebrows, There was not a -road in the list which was important strategically, but he had ceased to -ask questions of Edward Allison. - -Three days later, Allison went into the annual stockholders’ meeting of -the L. and C. Railroad, and registered majority of the stock in that -insignificant line, which ran up the shore opposite Crescent Island, -joined the Towando Valley shortly after its emergence from its hired -entrance into New York, ran for fifty miles over the roadway of the -Towando, with which it had a long-time tracking contract, and wandered -up into the country, where it served as an outlet to certain -conservatively profitable territory. - -The secretary of the L. and C., a man of thick spectacles and a hundred -wrinkles, looked up with fear in his eyes as his cramped old fingers -clutched his pen. - -“I suppose you’ll be making some important changes, Mr. Allison,” he -quavered. - -“Not in the active officers,” returned Allison with a smile, and the -president, who wore flowing side-whiskers, came over to shake hands with -him. “How soon can you call the meeting?” - -“Almost immediately,” replied the president. “I suppose there’ll be a -change in policies.” - -“Not at all,” Allison reassured him, and walked into the board room, -where less than a dozen stockholders, as old and decrepit as the road -itself, had congregated. - -The president, following him, invited him to a seat next his own chair, -and laid before him a little slip of paper. - -“This is the official slate which had been prepared,” he explained, with -a smile which it took some bravery to produce. - -“It’s perfectly satisfactory,” pronounced Allison, glancing at it -courteously, and the elderly stockholders, knotted in little anxious -groups, took a certain amount of reassurance from the change of -expression on the president’s face. - -The president reached for his gavel and called the meeting. The -stockholders, grey and grave, and some with watery eyes, drew up their -chairs to the long table; for they were directors, too. They answered to -their names, and they listened to the minutes, and waded mechanically -through the routine business, always with their gaze straying to the new -force which had come among them. Every man there knew all about Edward -E. Allison. He had combined the traction interests of New York by -methods as logical and unsympathetic as geometry, and where he appeared, -no matter how pacific his avowed intentions, there were certain to be -radical upheavings. - -Election of officers was reached in the routine, and again that solemn -inquiry in the faded eyes. The “official slate” was proposed in -nomination. Edward E. Allison voted with the rest. Every director was -re-elected! - -New business. Again the solemn inquiry. - -“Move to amend Article Three Section One of the constitution, relating -to duration of office,” announced Allison, passing the written motion to -the secretary. “On a call from the majority of stock, the stockholders -of the L. and C. Railroad have a right to demand a special meeting, on -one week’s notice, for the purpose of re-organisation and re-election.” - -They knew it. It had to come. However, three men on the board had long -held the opinion that any change was for the better, and one of these, a -thin, old man with a nose so blue that it looked as if it had been dyed -to match his necktie, immediately seconded. - -Edward E. Allison waited just long enough to vote his majority stock, -and left the meeting in a hurry, for he had an engagement to take tea -with Gail Sargent. - -He allowed himself four hours for sleep that night, and the next -afternoon headed for Denver. On the way he studied maps again, but the -one to which he paid most attention was a new one drawn by himself, on -which the various ranges of the Rocky Mountains were represented by -scrawled, lead-pencilled spirals. Right where his thin line crossed -these spirals at a converging point, was Yando Chasm, a pass created by -nature, which was the proud possession of the Inland Pacific, now the -most prosperous and direct of all the Pacific systems; and the Inland, -with an insolent pride in the natural fortune which had been found for -it by the cleverest of all engineers, guarded its precious right of way -as no jewel was ever protected. Just east of Yando Chasm there crossed a -little “one-horse” railroad, which, starting at the important city of -Silverknob, served some good mining towns below the Inland’s line, and -on the north side curved up and around through the mountains, rambling -wherever there was freight or passengers to be carried, and ending on -the other side of the range at Nugget City, only twenty miles north of -the Inland’s main line, and a hundred miles west, into the fair country -which sloped down to the Pacific. This road, which had its headquarters -in Denver, was called the Silverknob and Nugget City; and into its -meeting walked Allison, with control. - -His course here was different from that in Jersey City. He ousted every -director on the board, and elected men of his own. Immediately after, in -the directors’ meeting, he elected himself president, and, kindly -consenting to talk with the reporters of the Denver newspapers, hurried -back to Chicago, where he drove directly to the head offices of the -Inland Pacific. - -“I’ve just secured control of the Silverknob and Nugget City,” he -informed the general manager of the Inland. - -“So I noticed,” returned Wilcox, who was a young man of fifty and wore -picturesque velvet hats. “The papers here made quite a sensation of your -going into railroading.” - -“They’re welcome,” grinned Allison. “Say Wilcox, if you’ll build a -branch from Pines to Nugget City, we’ll give you our Nugget City freight -where we cross, at Copperville, east of the range.” - -Wilcox headed for his map. - -“What’s the distance?” he inquired. - -“Twenty-two miles; fairly level grade, and one bridge.” - -“Couldn’t think of it,” decided Wilcox, looking at the map. “We’d like -to have your freight, for there’s a lot of traffic between Silverknob -and Nugget City, but it’s not our territory. The smelters are at -Silverknob, and they ship east over the White Range Line. Anyway, why do -you want to take away the haulage from your northern branch?” - -“Figure on discontinuing it. The grades are steep, the local traffic is -light, and the roadbed is in a rotten condition. It needs rebuilding -throughout. I’ll make you another proposition. I’ll build the line from -Pines to Nugget City myself, if you’ll give us track connection at -Copperville and at Pines, and will give us a traffic contract for our -own rolling stock on a reasonable basis.” - -Again Wilcox looked at the map. The Silverknob and Nugget City road -began nowhere and ran nowhere, so far as the larger transportation world -was concerned, and it could never figure as a competitor. The hundred -miles through the precious natural pass known as Yando Chasm, was not so -busy a stretch of road as it was important, and the revenue from the -passage of the Silverknob and Nugget City’s trains would deduct -considerably from the expense of maintaining that much-prized key to the -golden west. - -“I’ll take it up with Priestly and Gorman,” promised Wilcox. - -“How soon can you let me know?” - -“Monday.” - -That afternoon saw Allison headed back for New York, and the next -morning he popped into the offices of the Pacific Slope and Puget Sound, -where he secured a rental privilege to run the trains of the Orange -Valley Road into San Francisco, and down to Los Angeles, over the tracks -of the P. S. and P. S. The Orange Valley was a little, blind pocket of a -road, which made a juncture with the P. S. and P. S. just a short haul -above San Francisco, and it ran up into a rich fruit country, but its -terminus was far, far away from any possible connection with a -northwestern competitor; and that bargain was easy. - -That night, Allison, glowing with an exultation which erased his -fatigue, dressed to call on Gail Sargent. - - - - - CHAPTER VI - THE IMPULSIVE YOUNG MAN FROM HOME - - -Music resounded in the parlours of Jim Sargent’s house; music so sweet -and compelling in its harmony that Aunt Grace slipped to the head of the -stairs, to listen in mingled ecstasy and pride. Up through the hallway -floated a clear, mellow soprano and a rich, deep baritone, blended so -perfectly that they seemed twin tones. Aunt Grace, drawn by a -fascination she could not resist, crept down to where she could see the -source of the melody. Gail, exceptionally pretty to-night in her simple -little dove-coloured gown with its one pink rose, sat at the piano, -while towering above her, with his chest expanded and a look of perfect -peace on his face, stood the Reverend Smith Boyd. - -Enraptured, Aunt Grace stood and listened until the close of the ballad. -Leafing through her music for the next treat, Gail looked up at the -young rector, and made some smiling remark. Her shining brown hair, -waving about her forehead, was caught up in a simple knot at the back, -and the delicate colour of her cheeks was like the fresh glow of dawn. -The Reverend Smith Boyd bent slightly to answer, and he, too, smiled as -he spoke; but as he happened to find himself gazing deep into the brown -eyes of Gail, the smile began to fade, and Aunt Grace Sargent, scared, -ran back up the stairs and into her own room, where she took a book, and -held it in her lap, upside down. The remark which Gail had made was -this: - -“You should have used your voice professionally.” - -The reply of the rector was: - -“I do.” - -“I didn’t mean oratorically,” she laughed, then returned nervously to -her search for the next selection. She had seen that change in his -smile. “It is so rare to find a perfect speaking voice coupled with a -perfect singing voice,” she rattled on. “Here’s that simple little May -Song. Just harmony, that’s all.” - -Once more their voices rose in that perfect blending which is the most -delicate of all exhilarations. In the melody itself there was an -appealing sympathy, and, in that moment, these two were in as perfect -accord as their voices. There is something in the music of the human -tone which exerts a magnetic attraction like no other in the world; -which breaks down the barriers of antagonism, which sweeps away the -walls of self entrenchment, which attracts and draws, which explains and -does away with explanation. This was the first hour they had spent -without a clash, and the Reverend Smith Boyd, his eyes quite blue -to-night, brought another stack of music from the rack. - -The butler, an aggravating image with only one joint in his body, -paraded solemnly through the hall, and back again with the card tray, -while Gail and the rector sang “Juanita” from an old college song book, -which the Reverend Boyd had discovered in high glee. Aunt Grace came -down the stairs and out past the doors of the music salon. There were -voices of animated greeting in the hall, and Aunty returned to the door -just as the rector was spreading open the book at “Sweet and Low.” - -“Pardon me,” beamed Aunty. “There’s a little surprise out here for you.” - -“For me?” and Gail rose, with a smile and a pretty little nod of -apology. - -She moved with swiftly quiet grace into the hall. There was a little -half shrieking exclamation. The rector, setting a chair smilingly for -Mrs. Sargent, happened, quite unwittingly, to come in range of the hall -mirror at the moment of the half shriek, and he saw an impulsive young -man grab Gail Sargent in his arms, and kiss her! - -“Howard!” protested Gail, in the midst of embarrassed laughter; and -presently she came in, rosy-cheeked, with the impulsive young man, whose -hair was inclined to thinness in front. He was rather good-looking, on -second inspection, with a sharp eye and a brisk manner and a healthy -complexion. - -“Mr. Clemmens, Doctor Boyd,” introduced Gail, and there was the ring of -genuine pleasure in her voice. “Mr. Clemmens is one of my very best -friends from back home,” and she viewed this one of her very best -friends with pride as he shook hands with the Reverend Smith Boyd. He -was easy of manner, was Mr. Clemmens, even confident, though he had -scarcely the ease which does not need self-assertion. - -“I am delighted to meet any friend of Miss Sargent,” admitted the -rector, in that flowing, mellow baritone which no one heard for the -first time without surprise. - -“Allow me to say the same,” returned the young man from back home, -making a critical and jealous inspection of the disturbingly commanding -rector. His voice was brisk, staccato, and a trifle high pitched. Gail -had always admired it, not for its musical quality, of course, but for -its clean-cut decisiveness. - -“When did you arrive?” asked Mrs. Sargent, with hospitable interest. - -“Just this minute,” stated Clemmens, exchanging a glance of pleasure -with Gail. “I only stopped at the hotel long enough to throw in my -luggage, and drove straight on here.” He turned to her so expectantly -that the rector rose. - -“You’re not going?” protested Gail, and was startled to find that the -Reverend Smith Boyd’s eyes were no longer blue. They were cold. - -“I’m afraid that I must,” he answered her in the conventional apologetic -tone, which was not at all like his singing voice. It sounded rather -inflexible, and as if it might not blend very well. “I trust that I -shall have the pleasure of meeting you again, Mr. Clemmens,” and he -shook hands with the brisk young man in a most dignified fashion. He -bowed his frigid adieus to the ladies, and marched into the hall for his -hat. - -“Rector?” guessed Mr. Clemmens, when the outer door had closed. - -“Of Market Square Church,” proudly asserted Aunt Grace. “He is a -wonderfully gifted young man. The rectory is right next door.” - -“Oh yes,” responded Mr. Clemmens perfunctorily, and he turned slowly to -Gail. “Fine looking chap, isn’t he?” - -Gail bridled a trifle. She knew that trick of jealous interrogation -quite well. Howard was trying to surprise her into some facial -expression which would betray her attitude toward the Reverend Smith -Boyd. - -“He’s perfectly splendid!” she beamed. “He has the richest baritone I’ve -ever heard.” - -“It blends so perfectly with Gail’s,” supplemented the admiring Aunt -Grace. “We must have him over so you may hear them sing.” - -“I’ll be delighted,” lied Mr. Clemmens, shooting another glance of -displeasure at Gail. - -Somehow, Aunt Grace felt that there was an atmosphere of discomfort in -the room, and she thought she had better go upstairs, to worry about it. - -“You’ll take dinner with us to-morrow evening, I hope,” she cordially -invited. - -“You won’t have to ask me twice,” laughed Mr. Clemmens, rising because -Aunt Grace did. He was always punctilious, and the manner of his -courtesies showed that he was punctilious. - -“Well, girl, tell me all about it,” heartily began the young man from -home, when Aunty had made her apologies and her departure. He imprisoned -her hand in his, and seated her on the couch, and sat beside her, -crossing his legs comfortably. - -“I’ve been having a delightful time,” replied Gail. “Suppose we go over -to the blue room, Howard. It’s much more pleasant, I think.” She wanted -to be away from the piano. It distressed her. - -“All right,” cheerfully acquiesced Howard, and, still retaining her -hand, he went over with her into the blue room, and seated her on the -couch, and sat beside her, and crossed his legs. “We made up our monthly -report just before I came. Our rate of increase is over ten per cent. -better than in any previous month since we began. Three more years, and -we’ll have the biggest insurance business in the state; that is, except -the big outside companies.” - -“Isn’t that splendid!” and her enthusiasm was fine to see. She had been -kept posted on the progress of the Midwest Mutual Insurance Company -since its inception, and naturally she was very much interested. “Then -you’ll branch out into other states.” - -“Not for ten years to come,” he told her, smiling at her woman-like -overestimate. “The Midwest won’t do that until we’ve covered the home -territory so thoroughly that there’ll be no chance of further expansion. -My board of directors brought up that matter at the last meeting, but I -turned it down flat-footed. I’m enterprising enough, but I’m thorough. -The president has thrown the entire responsibility on my shoulders, and -I won’t take any foolish risks.” - -Gail turned to him in clear-eyed speculation. - -“If I were a man, I’m afraid I’d be a business gambler,” she mused. - -“I’ve no doubt you would,” he comfortably laughed. “However, my method -is the safest. Ten years from now, Gail, I’ll have money that I made -myself, and, in twenty, I’ll be shamelessly rich. Sounds good, doesn’t -it?” - -“You have enough money now, if that’s all you want,” she reminded him. - -“No, I’m ambitious,” he insisted. “Not for myself, though. Gail, you -know why I made this trip,” and he bent closer to her. His staccato -voice softened and his eyes were very earnest. “I couldn’t stay away.” -He clasped his other hand over hers, and drew closer. - -“I told you you mustn’t, Howard,” she gently chided him, though she made -no attempt to withdraw her hand. “I’m not ready yet to decide about -things.” - -He was a poor psychologist. - -“All right,” he cheerfully assented, dropping the earnestness from his -voice and from his eyes, but retaining her hand. His clasp was warm and -strong and wholesome. “Mrs. King’s ball was rather a tame affair this -year, though I may have been prejudiced because you weren’t there.” - -He drifted easily into chat of home people and affairs, and she felt -more and more contented every minute. After all, he was of her own -people, linked to them and to her. It was comfortable to be with some -one whom one thoroughly understood. There was no recess of his mind with -which she was not intimately acquainted. She could foretell his mental -processes as easily as she could read the time on her watch. It was -tremendously restful, after her contact with the stronger personalities -which she had found here. She had been wondering in what indefinable -manner Howard had changed, but now she began to see that it was she who -had shifted her viewpoint. The men she had met here, with the exception -of such as Van Ploon and Cunningham and Ted Teasdale, were far more -complex than Howard, a quality which at times might be more interesting -than agreeable. - -A rush of noise filled the hall. Lucile and Ted Teasdale, handsome Dick -Rodley and Arly Fosland and Houston Van Ploon, had come clattering in as -an escort for Mrs. Davies, whose pet fad was to have as many young -people as possible bring her home from any place. - -The young man from back home took his plunge into that vortex with -becoming steadiness. Gail had looked to see him a trifle bewildered, and -would have had small criticism for him if he had, but he greeted them -all on a friendly basis, and, sitting down again beside her, crossed his -legs, while Mrs. Davies calmly lorgnetted him. - -“Where’s the baby?” demanded handsome Dick Rodley, heading for the -stairs. - -“Silly, you mustn’t!” cried Lucile, and started after him. “Flakes -should be asleep at this hour.” - -“I came in for the sole purpose of teaching Flakes the turkey trot,” -declared handsome Dick, and ran away, followed by Lucile. - -“Lucile’s becoming passé,” criticised Ted. “She’s flirting with Rodley -for the second time.” - -“Can you blame her?” defended Arly, stealing a surreptitious glance at -the young man from back home, then the devil of mischief seized her and -she leaned forward. “Do you flirt, Mr. Clemmens?” - -For once the easy assurance of Howard left him, and he blushed. The -stiff, but kindly disposed Van Ploon came to his rescue. - -“Perhaps Mr. Clemmens is not yet married,” he suggested. - -To save him, Clemmens, used, under any circumstances, to the easy sang -froid of the insurance business, could not keep himself from turning to -Gail with accusing horror in his eyes. Was this the sort of company she -kept? He glanced over at Arly Fosland. She was sitting in the deep -corner of her favourite couch, nursing a slender ankle, and even her -shining black hair, to say nothing of her shining black eyes, seemed to -be snapping with wicked delight. It was so unusual to find a young man -one could shock. - -Lucile and handsome Dick came struggling down the stairway with Flakes -between them, and Gail sprang instantly to take the bewildered puppy -from them both. Little blonde Lucile gave up her interest to the prior -right, but Rodley pretended to be obstinate about it. His deep eyes -burned down into Gail’s, as he stood bending above her, and his smile, -to Howard’s concentrated gaze, had in it that dangerous fascination -which few women could resist! Gail was positively smiling up into his -eyes! - -“Tableau!” called Ted. “All ready for the next reel.” - -“Hold it a while,” begged Arly, and even the young man from home was -forced to admit that the picture was handsome enough to be retained. The -Adonislike Dick, with his black hair and black eyes, his curly black -moustache and his black goatee, his pink cheeks and his white teeth; -Gail, gracefully erect, her head thrown back, her brown hair waving and -her eyes dancing; the Adonis bending over her and the fluffy white -Flakes between them; it was painfully beautiful; and Mr. Clemmens -suddenly regretted his square-toed shoes and his business suit. - -“Children, go home,” suddenly commanded Mrs. Davies. “Dick, put the dog -back where you found it.” - -“I suppose we’ll have to go home,” drawled Ted. “Dick, put back that -dog.” - -“Put away the dog, Dick,” ordered the heavier voice of young Van Ploon. -“Come along, Gail, I’ll put him away.” - -At his approach, Dick placed the puppy, with great care, in Gail’s -charge, and took her arm. Van Ploon took her other arm, and together the -trio, laughing, went away to return Flakes to his bed. They clung to her -most affectionately, bending over her on either side; and they called -her Gail! - -The others were ready to go when they returned from the collie nursery, -and the three young men stood for a moment in a row near the door. Gail -looked them over with a puzzled expression. What was there about them -which was so attractive? Was it poise, sureness, polish, breeding, -experience, insolence, grooming—what? Even the stiff Van Ploon seemed -smooth of bearing to-night! - -“Come home, Gail,” begged Clemmens, when the noisy party had laughed its -way out of the door and Aunt Helen Davies had gone upstairs. - -She knew what was in his mind, but compassion overcame her resentment, -because there was suffering in his voice and in his eyes. She smiled on -him forgivingly, and did not withdraw the hand he took again. - -“New York’s an evil place,” he urged. “Who are these friends of yours?” -and he looked at her accusingly. - -“Why, they are tremendously nice people, Howard,” she told him, -forgiving him again because he did not understand. “Lucile is the pretty -cousin about whom I wrote you, Ted is her husband, and the others are -their friends.” - -“I don’t like them,” he rather sternly said. “They are not fit company -for you. They see no sacredness in marriage, with their open flirting.” - -“Why, Howard, that’s only a joke. Ted and Lucile are exceptionally -devoted to each other.” She turned and studied him seriously. Was he -smaller of stature than he had seemed back home, or what was it? - -They still were standing in the hall, and the front door opened. - -“Brought you a prodigal,” hailed Uncle Jim, slipping his latchkey in his -pocket as he held the door open for the prodigal in question. “Hello, -Clemmens. When did you blow in?” and he advanced to shake hands. - -Gail was watching the doorway. Some one outside was vigorously stamping -his feet. The prodigal came in, and proved to be Allison, buoyant of -step, sparkling of eye, firm of jaw, and ruddy from the night wind. -Smiling with the sureness of welcome, he came eagerly up to Gail, and -took her hand, retaining it until she felt compelled to withdraw it, -recognising again that thrill. The barest trace of a flush came into her -cheeks, and paled again. - -“Allison, meet one of Chubsy’s friends from home,” called Uncle Jim. -“Mr. Allison, Mr. Clemmens.” - -As the two shook hands, Gail turned again to the young man from back -home. Yes, he had grown smaller. - - - - - CHAPTER VII - THEY HAD ALREADY SPOILED HER! - - -Gail faltered when, after bidding good-night to her uncle and to -Allison, she turned and met the look in Howard Clemmens’ eyes. She knew -that the inevitable moment had arrived. He walked straight up to her, -and there was a new dignity in him, a new strength, a new resolve. For a -moment, as he advanced, she thought that he was about to put his arms -around her, but he did not. Instead, he took her hand, in his old -characteristic way, and led her into the library, and seated her on the -couch, and sat beside her. - -“Gail, come home with me,” he said, authoritative but kind. He had been -her recognised suitor from childhood. He had shut out all the other -boys. - -She withdrew her hand, but without deliberate intent. She had felt the -instinctive and imperative need of touching her two hands together in -her lap. - -“You’re asking something impossible, Howard,” she returned, quietly. Her -voice was low, and her beautiful brown eyes, half veiled by their long -lashes, were watching the play of light in a ruby on one of her fingers. -She was deep in abstracted thought, struggling vaguely with problems -which he could not know, and of which she herself was as yet but dimly -conscious. - -“Come home, and marry me.” Perfectly patient, perfectly confident, -perfectly gentle. He reached for her hand again, and took them both, -still clasped, in his own. “Gail, we’ve waited quite long enough. It’s -not doing either one of us any good for you to be here. The best thing -is for us to be married right now.” - -For the first time she turned her eyes full upon him. - -“You are taking a great deal for granted, Howard,” and she wore a calm -decision which he had not before seen in her. “There has never been any -agreement between us.” - -“There has been an understanding,” he retorted, releasing her -unresponsive hands and looking her squarely in the eyes, with a slight -frown on his brow. - -“Never,” she incisively reminded him, and her piquant chin pointed -upwards. “I’ve always told you that I could make no promises.” - -That came as a shock and a surprise. It could not be possible that she -did not care for him! - -“Why, Gail dear, I love you!” he suddenly told her, with more fervour -than she had ever heard in his tone. He slipped from the edge of the -couch to his knee on the floor, where he could look up into her downcast -eyes. He put his arm around her, and drew her closer. He clasped her -hands in his own strong palm. “Listen, Gail dear; we grew up together.” -He was tender now, tender and pleading, and his voice had in it ranges -of modulation which it had never developed before this night. “You were -my very first sweetheart; and the only one. Even as a boy in school, -when you were only a little kiddie, I made up my mind to marry you, and -I’ve never given up that dream. All my life I’ve loved you, stronger and -deeper as the years went on, until now the love that is in me sways -every thought, every action, every emotion. I love you, Gail dear! All -my heart and all my soul is in it.” - -She had not drawn away from his embrace, she had not removed her hands -from his clasp; instead, she had yielded somewhat towards this old -friend. - -“I can’t do without you any longer, Gail!” he impetuously went on, -detecting that yielding in her. “You must marry me! Tell me that you -will!” - -She disengaged herself from him very gently. - -“I can’t, Howard.” Her voice was so low that he could scarcely catch the -words, and her face was filled with sorrow. - -He held tense and rigid where she had left him. - -“You can’t,” he repeated, numbly. - -“It is impossible,” and her face cleared of all its perplexity. She was -grave, and serious, and saddened; but still sure. “For the first time I -know my own mind clearly, and I know that I do not now, and never can, -care for you in the way you wish.” - -He rose abruptly and stood before her. His brows were knotted, and there -was a hard look on his face. - -“I came too late!” he bitterly charged. “They’ve already spoiled you!” - -Gail sprang from the couch, and a round red spot flashed into each -cheek. She had never looked so beautiful as when she stood before him, -her tiny fists clenched and her eyes blazing. She almost replied to him, -then she rang the bell for the butler, and hurried upstairs. Wild as was -her tumult, she stood with her hand on the knob of her dressing-room -until she heard the front door open and close; then she ran in and threw -herself downward on the chintz-covered divan, and cried! - -She sat up presently, and remembered that the dove-coloured gown was her -pet. With a quite characteristic ability of self-segregation, she put -out of her mind, except for the dull ache of it, the tangled vortex of -distress until she had changed her garments and let down her waving -hair, and, disdaining the help of her maid, performed all the little -nightly duties, to the putting away of her clothing. Then, in a -perfectly neat and orderly boudoir, she sat down to take herself -seriously in hand. - -First of all, there was Howard. She must cleanse her conscience of him -for all time to come. In just how far had she encouraged him; in how far -was he justified in assuming there to be an “understanding” between -them? It was true that they had grown up together. It was true that, -from the first moment she had begun to be entertained by young men, she -had permitted him to be her most frequent escort. She had liked him -better than all the others; had trusted him, relied on him, commanded -him. Perhaps she had been selfish in that; but no, she had given at -least as much pleasure as she had received in that companionship. More; -for as her beauty had ripened with her years, Howard had been more and -more exacting in his jealousy, in his claims upon her for the rights and -the rewards of past service. Had she been guilty in submitting to this -mild form of dictatorship, and, by permitting it, had she vested in him -the right to expect it? Possibly. She set that weakness to one side, as -a mark against her. - -Then had come the age of ardour, when a more serious note crept into -their relation. It was the natural end and aim of all girls to become -married, and, as she blossomed into the full flower of her young -womanhood, this end and aim had been constantly borne in on her by all -her friends and relatives, by her parents, her girl chums, and by -Howard. They had convinced her that this was the case, and, in -consequence, the logical candidate was the young man who had expended -all his time and energy in trying to please her. How much of a debt was -that? Well, it was an obligation, she gravely considered, with her -dimpled chin in her hand. An obligation which should be repaid—with -grateful friendship. - -She was compelled to admit, being an honest and a just young person, -that at various times she had herself considered Howard Clemmens the -logical candidate. She must be married some time, and Howard was the -most congenial young man of all her acquaintance. He was of an excellent -family, had proved his right to exist by the fact that he had gone into -business when he had plenty of money to live in idleness, was -well-mannered, cheerful, good-natured, self-sacrificing, and an adorer -whose admiration was consistent and unfaltering. Even—she confessed this -to herself with self-resentment for having confessed it—even at the time -she had left for New York, she had been fairly well settled in her mind -that she would come back, and invite all her hosts of friends to see her -marry Howard, and they would build a new house just the way she wanted -it, and entertain, and some day she would be a prominent member of the -Browning Circle. - -However, she had never, by any single syllable, hinted to Howard, or any -one else, that this might be the case, and her only fault could lie in -thinking it. Now, just how far could Howard divine this mental attitude, -and just how far might that mental attitude influence her actions and -general bearing toward Howard, so that he might be justified in feeling -that there was an actual understanding between them? - -She did not know. She was only sure that she was perfectly miserable. -She had yielded to a fit of impetuous anger, and had sent away her -lifelong friend without a word of good-bye, and he had been a dear, good -fellow who had been ready to bark, or fetch and carry, or lie down and -roll over, at the word of command; and they had been together so much, -and he had always been so kind and considerate and generous, and he was -from back home, and he did really and truly love her very much, and she -was homesick; and she cried again. - -She sat upright with a jerk, and dabbed her eyes with a handkerchief, -which was composed of one square inch of linen entirely surrounded by -embroidered holes. She had been perfectly right in sending Howard away -without a good-bye. He had insulted her friends and her, most grossly; -he had been nasty and unreasonable; he had been presumptuous and -insolent; his voice was harsh and he had crossed his legs in a fashion -which showed his square-toed shoe at an ugly angle. She had never seen -anybody cross his legs in just that way. “They had spoiled her already!” -Indeed! Why had she not waited long enough to assert herself? Why had -she not told him what a conceited creature he was? Why had she not said -all the hot, bitter, stinging things which had popped into her mind at -the time? There were half a dozen better and more scornful ways in which -she could have sent him away than by merely calling the butler and -running upstairs. She might even have stretched out her hand imperiously -and said “Go!” upon which thought she laughed at herself, and dabbed her -eyes with that absurdity which she called a handkerchief. - -There was knock at the door and, on invitation, the tall and stately -Mrs. Helen Davies came in, frilled and ruffled for the night. She found -the dainty, little guest boudoir in green tinted dimness. Gail had -turned down all the lights in the room except the green lamps under the -canopy, and she sat on the divan, with her brown hair rippling about her -shoulders, her knees clasped in her arms, and her dainty little boudoir -slippers peeping from her flowing pink negligee, while the dim green -light, suited to her present sombre reflections, only enhanced the clear -pink of her complexion. Mrs. Davies sat down in front of her. - -“Mr. Clemmens proposed to you to-night,” she charged, gleaning that fact -from experienced observation. - -Gail nodded her head. - -“I hope you did not accept him.” - -The brown ripples shook sidewise. - -“I was quite certain that you would not,” and the older woman’s tone was -one of distinct relief. “In fact, I did not see how you could. The young -man is in no degree a match for you.” - -There was a contemptuous disapproval in her tone which brought Gail’s -head up. - -“You don’t know Howard!” she flared. “He is one of the nicest young men -at home. He is perfectly good and kind and dear, and I was hateful to -him!” and Gail’s chin quivered. - -Aunt Helen rendered first aid to the injured in the tenderest of -manners. She moved over to the other side of Gail where she could -surround her, and laid the brown head on her shoulder. - -“I know just how you feel,” she soothingly said. “You’ve had to refuse -to marry a good friend, and you are reproaching yourself because you -were compelled to hurt him. Of course you are unfair to yourself, and -you feel perfectly miserable, and you will for a while; but the main -point is that you refused him.” - -Gail, whose quick intelligence no intonation escaped, lay comfortably on -Aunt Helen’s shoulder, and a clear little laugh rippled up. She could -not see the smile of satisfaction and relief with which Aunt Helen -Davies received that laugh. - -“My dear, I am quite well pleased with you,” went on the older woman. -“If you handle all your affairs so sensibly, you have a brilliant future -before you.” - -Gail’s eyelids closed; the long, brown lashes curved down on her cheeks, -revealing just a sparkle of brightness, while the mischievous little -smile twitched at the corners of her lips. - -“If you were an ordinary girl, I would urge you, to-night, to make a -selection among the exceptionally excellent matrimonial material of -which you have a choice, but, with your extraordinary talents and -beauty, my advice is just to the contrary. You should delay until you -have had a wider opportunity for judgment. You have not as yet shown any -marked preference, I hope.” - -Gail’s quite unreasoning impulse was to giggle, but she clothed her -voice demurely. - -“No, Aunt Helen.” - -“You are remarkably wise,” complimented Aunt Helen, a bit of -appreciation which quite checked Gail’s impulse to giggle. “In the -meantime, it is just as well to study your opportunities. Of course -there’s Dick Rodley, whom no one considers seriously, and Willis -Cunningham, whose one and only drawback is such questionable health that -he might persistently interfere with your social activities. Houston Van -Ploon, I am frank to say, is the most eligible of all, and to have -attracted his attention is a distinct triumph. Mr. Allison, while rather -advanced in years—” - -“Please!” cried Gail. “You’d think I was a horse.” - -“I know just how you feel,” stated Aunt Helen, entirely unruffled; “but -you have your future to consider, and I wish to invite your confidence,” -and in her voice there was the quaver of much concern. - -“Thank you, Aunt Helen,” said Gail, realising the sincerity of the older -woman’s intentions, and, putting her arms around Mrs. Davies’ neck, she -kissed her. “It is dear of you to take so much interest.” - -“I think it’s pride,” confessed Mrs. Davies, naïvely. “I won’t keep you -up a minute longer, Gail. Go to bed, and get all the sleep you can. Only -sleep will keep those roses in your cheeks. Good-night,” and with a -parting caress, she went to her own room, with a sense of a duty well -performed. - -Gail smiled retrospectively, and tried the blue light under the canopy -lamp, but turned it out immediately. The green gave a much better effect -of moonlight on the floor. - -She called herself back out of the mists of her previous distress. Who -was this Gail, and what was she? There had come a new need in her, a new -awakening. Something seemed to have changed in her, to have -crystallised. Whatever this crystallisation was, it had made her know -that she could not marry Howard Clemmens. It had made her know, too, -that marriage was not to be looked upon as a mere inevitable social -episode. Her thoughts flew back to Aunt Helen. Her eyelashes brushed her -cheeks, and the little smile of sarcasm twitched the corners of her -lips. - -Aunt Helen’s list of eligibles. Gail reviewed them now deliberately; not -with the thought of the social advantages they might offer her, but as -men. She reviewed others whom she had met. For the first time in her -life, she was frankly and self-consciously interested in men; curious -about them. She had reached her third stage of development; the fairy -prince age, the “I suppose I shall have to be married one day” age, and -now the age of conscious awakening. She wondered, in some perplexity, as -to what had brought about her nascence; rather, and she knitted her -pretty brows, who had brought it about. - -The library clock chimed the hour, and startled her out of her reverie. -She turned on the lights, and sat in front of her mirror to give her -hair one of those extra brushings for which it was so grateful, and -which it repaid with so much beauty. She paused deliberately to study -herself in the glass. Why, this was a new Gail, a more potent Gail. What -was it Allison had said about her potentialities? Allison. Strong, -forceful, aggressive Allison. He was potence itself. A thrill of his -handclasp clung with her yet, and a slight flush crept into her cheeks. - -Aunt Grace had worried about Jim’s little cold, and the distant mouse -she thought she heard, and the silver chest, and Lucile’s dangerous -looking new horse, until all these topics had failed, when she detected -the unmistakable click of a switch-button near by. It must be in Gail’s -suite. Hadn’t the child retired yet? She lay quite still pondering that -mighty question for ten minutes, and then, unable to rest any longer, -she slipped out of bed and across the hall. There was no light coming -from under the doors of either the boudoir or the bedroom, so Aunt Grace -peeped into the latter apartment, then she tiptoed softly away. Gail, in -her cascade of pink flufferies, was at the north window, kneeling, with -her earnest face upturned to one bright pale star. - - - - - CHAPTER VIII - STILL PIECING OUT THE WORLD - - -The map of the United States in Edward E. Allison’s library began, now, -to develop little streaks of red. They were not particularly long -streaks, but they were boldly marked, and they hugged, with -extraordinary closeness, the pencil mark which Allison had drawn from -New York to Chicago and from Chicago to San Francisco. There were long -gaps between them, but these did not seem to worry him very much. It was -the little stretches, sometimes scarcely over an inch, which he drew -with such evident pleasure from day to day, and now, occasionally, as he -passed in and out, he stopped by the big globe and gave it a -contemplative whirl. On the day he joined his far western group of -little marks by bridging three small gaps, he received a caller in the -person of a short, well-dressed, old man, who walked with a cane and -looked half asleep, by reason of the many puffs which had piled up under -his eyes and nearly closed them. - -“I’m ready to wind up, Tim,” remarked Allison, offering his caller a -cigar, and lighting one himself. “When can we have that Vedder Court -property condemned?” - -“Whenever you give the word,” reported Tim Corman, who spoke with an -asthmatic voice, and with the quiet dignity of a man who had borne grave -business responsibilities, and had borne them well. - -Allison nodded his head in satisfaction. - -“You’re sure there can’t be any hitch in it.” - -“Not if I say it’s all right,” and the words were Tim’s only reproof. -His tone was perfectly level, and there was no glint in his eyes. -Offended dignity had nothing to do with business. “Give me one week’s -notice, and the Vedder Court property will be condemned for the city -terminal of the Municipal Transportation Company. Appraisement, -thirty-one million.” - -“I only wanted to be reassured,” apologised Allison. “I took your word -that you could swing it when I made my own gamble, but now I have to -drag other people into it.” - -“That’s right,” agreed Tim. “I never get offended over straight -business.” In other times Tim Corman would have said “get sore,” but, as -he neared the end of his years of useful activity, he was making quite a -specialty of refinement, and stocking a picture gallery, and becoming a -connoisseur collector of rare old jewels. He dressed three times a day. - -“How about the Crescent Island subway?” - -“Ripe any time,” and Tim Corman flecked the ashes from his cigar with a -heavily gemmed hand. “The boosters have been working on it right along, -but never too strong.” - -“There’s no need for any particular manipulation in that,” decided -Allison, who knew the traction situation to the last nickel. “The city -needs that outlet, and it needs the new territory which will be opened -up. I think we’d better push the subway right on across to the mainland. -The extension would have to be made in ten years anyhow.” - -“It’s better right now,” immediately assented Corman. In ten years he -might be dead. - -“I think, too, that we’d better provide for a heavy future expansion,” -went on Allison, glancing expectantly into Tim’s old eyes. “We’d -probably better provide for a double-deck, eight track tube.” - -Tim Corman drew a wheezy breath, and then he grinned the senile shadow -of his old-time grin; but it still had the same spirit. - -“You got a hen on,” he deduced. In “society,” Tim could manage very -nicely to use fashionable language, but, in business, he found it -impossible after the third or fourth minute of conversation. He had -taken in every detail of the room on his entrance, and his glance had -strayed more than once to the red streaks on the big map. Now he -approached it, and studied it with absorbed interest. “You’re a smart -boy, Ed,” he concluded. “Across Crescent Island is the only leak where -you could snake in a railroad. You found the only crack that the big -systems haven’t tied up.” - -“All you can get me to admit, just now, is that the city needs an eight -track tube across Crescent Island, under lease to the Municipal -Transportation Company,” stated Allison, smiling with gratification. A -compliment of this sort from shrewd old Tim Corman, who was reputed to -be the foxiest man in the world, was a tribute highly flattering. - -“That’s right,” approved Tim. “All I know is a guess, and I don’t tell -guesses. This is a big job, though, Eddie. A subway to Crescent Island, -under proper restrictions, is just an ordinary year’s work for the boys, -but this tube pokes its nose into Oakland Bay.” - -“I’m quite aware of the size of the job,” chuckled Allison. “However, -Tim, there’ll be money enough behind this proposition to fill that tube -with greenbacks.” - -Between the narrow-slitted and puffy eyelids of Tim Corman there gleamed -a trace of the old-time genii. - -“Then it’s built.” He rose and leaned on his cane, twinkling down on the -man who, years before, he had picked as a “comer.” “I’ve heard people -say that money’s wicked, but they never had any. When I die, and go down -to the big ferry, if the Old Boy comes along and offers me enough money, -I’ll go to Hell.” - -Still laughing, Allison telephoned to the offices of the Midcontinent -Railroad, and dashed out to his runabout just in time to see Tim Corman -driving around the corner in his liveried landau. He found in President -Urbank, of the Midcontinent, a spare man who had worn three vertical -creases in his brow over one thwarted ambition. His rich but sprawling -railroad system ran fairly straight after it was well started for -Chicago, and fairly straight from that way-point until it became drunken -with the monotony of the western foot-hills, where it gangled and angled -its way to the far south and around up the Pacific coast, arriving there -dusty and rattling, after a thousand mile detour from its course—but -that road had no direct entrance into New York city. It approached from -the north, and was compelled to circle completely around, over hired -tracks, to gain a ferryboat entrance. Passengers inured to coming in -over the Midcontinent, which was a well-equipped road otherwise, counted -but half their journey done when they came in sight of New York, no -matter from what distance they had come. - -“Out marketing for railroads to-day, Gil?” suggested Allison. - -“I don’t know,” smiled Urbank. “I might look at a few.” - -“Here they are,” and Allison tossed him a memorandum slip. - -Urbank glanced at the slip, then he looked up at Allison in perplexity. -He had a funny forward angle to his neck when he was interested, and the -creases in his brow were deepened until they looked like cuts. - -“I thought you were joking, and I’m still charitable enough to think so. -What’s all this junk?” - -“Little remnants and job lots of railroads I’ve been picking up,” and -Allison drew forward his chair. “Some I bought outright, and in some I -hold control.” - -“If you’re serious about interesting the Midcontinent in any of this -property, we don’t need to waste much time.” Urbank leaned back and held -his knee. “There are only two of these roads approach the Midcontinent -system at any point, and they are useless property so far as we are -concerned; the L. and C., in the east, and the Silverknob and Nugget -City, in the west, which touches our White Range branch at its southern -terminus. We couldn’t do anything with those.” - -“You landed on the best ones right away,” smiled Allison. “However, I -don’t propose to sell these to the Midcontinent. I propose to absorb the -Midcontinent with them.” - -Urbank suddenly remembered Allison’s traction history, and leaned -forward to look at the job lots and remnants again. - -“This list isn’t complete,” he judged, and turned to Allison with a -serious question in his eye. - -“Almost,” and Allison hitched a little closer to the desk. “There -remains an aggregate of three hundred and twenty miles of road to be -built in four short stretches. In addition to this, I have a twenty year -contract over a hundred mile stretch of the Inland Pacific, a track -right entry into San Francisco, and this,” and he displayed to Urbank a -preliminary copy of an ordinance, authorising the immediate building of -an eight track tube through Crescent Island to the mainland. “Possibly -you can understand this whole project better if I show you a map,” and -he spread out his little pocket sketch. - -If it had been possible to reverse the processes of time and worry and -wearing concentration, President Urbank, of the Midcontinent, would have -raised from his inspection of that map with a brow as smooth as a -baby’s. Instead, his lips went dry, as he craned forward his neck at -that funny angle, and projected his chin with the foolish motion of a -goose. - -“A direct entrance right slam into the centre of New York!” he -exclaimed, cracking all his knuckles violently one by one. “Vedder -Court! Where’s that?” - -“That’s the best part of the joke,” exulted Allison, with no thought -that Vedder Court was, at this present moment, church property. “It’s -just where you said; right slam in the centre of New York; and the -building into which the Midcontinent will run its trains will be also -the terminal building of every municipal transportation line in -Manhattan! From my station platforms, passengers from Chicago or the Far -West will step directly into subway, L., or trolley. When they come in -over the line which is now the Midcontinent, they will be landed, not -across the river, or in some side street, but right at their own doors, -scattering from the Midcontinent terminal over a hundred traction -lines!” His voice, which had begun in the mild banter of a man passing -an idle joke, had risen to a ring so triumphant that he was almost -shouting. - -“But—but—wait a minute!” Urbank protested. He was stuttering. “Where -does the Midcontinent get to the Crescent Island tube?” - -“Right here,” and Allison pointed to his map. “You come out of the tube -to the L. and C., which has a long-time tracking privilege over fifty -miles of the Towando Valley, and terminates at Windfield. At Forgeson, -however, just ten miles after the L. and L. leaves the Towando, that -road—” - -“Is crossed by our tracks!” Urbank eagerly interpreted. “The -Midcontinent, after its direct exit, saves a seventy mile detour! Then -it’s a straight shoot for Chicago! Straight on again out west—Why, -Allison, your route is almost as straight as an arrow! It will have a -three hundred mile shorter haul than even the Inland Pacific! You’ll put -that road out of the business! You’ll have the king of transcontinental -lines, and none can ever be built that will save one kink!” His neck -protruded still further from his collar as he bent over the map. “Here -you split off from the Midcontinent’s main line and utilise the White -Range branch; from Silverknob—My God!” and his mouth dropped open. -“Why—why—why, you cross the big range _over the Inland Pacific’s own -tracks!_” and his voice cracked. - -Edward E. Allison, his vanity gratified to its very core, sat back -comfortably, smiling and smoking, until Urbank awoke. - -“I suppose we can come to some arrangement,” he mildly suggested. - -Urbank looked at him still in a daze for a moment, and a trace of the -creases came back into his brow, then they faded away. - -“You figured all this out before you came to me,” he remarked. “On what -terms do we get in?” - - - - - CHAPTER IX - THE MINE FOR THE GOLDEN ALTAR - - -Vedder Court was a very drunkard among tenement groups. Its decrepit old -wooden buildings, as if weak-kneed from dissipation and senile decay, -leaned against each other crookedly for support, and leered down, at the -sodden swarms beneath, out of broken-paned windows which gave somehow a -ludicrous effect of bleared eyes. A heartless civic impulse had once -burdened them with fire escapes, and these, though they were -comparatively new, had already partaken of the general decay, and -looked, with their motley cluttering of old bedding, and nondescript -garments hung out to dry, and various utensils of the kitchen and -laundry, and various unclassified junk, as if they were a sort of foul, -fungoid growth which had taken root from the unspeakable uncleanliness -within. There had once been a narrow strip of curbed soil in the centre -of the street, where three long-since departed trees had given the -quarter its name of “Court,” but this space was now as bare and dry as -the asphalt surrounding it, and, as it was too small even for the -purpose of children at play, a wooden bench, upon which no one ever sat, -as indeed why should they, had long ago been placed on it, to become -loose-jointed and weather-splintered and rotted, like all the rest of -the neighbourhood. - -As for its tenants; they were exactly the sort of birds one might expect -to find in such foul nests. They were of many nations, but of just two -main varieties; stupid and squalid, or thin and furtive; but they were -all dirty, and they bore, in their complexions, the poison of crowded -breathing spaces, and bad sewerage, and unwholesome or insufficient -food. - -Into this mire, on a day when melting snow had fallen and made all -underfoot a black, shining, oily, sticky canal, there drove an utterly -out-of-place little electric coupé, set low, and its glistening plate -glass windows hung with absurd little lace curtains held back by pink -ribbon bows. At the wheel was the fresh-cheeked Gail Sargent, in a -driving suit and hat and veil of brown, and with her was the -twinkling-eyed Rufus Manning, whose white beard rippled down to his -second waistcoat button. They drove slowly the length of the court and -back again, the girl studying every detail with acute interest. They -stopped in front of Temple Mission, which, with its ugly red and blue -lettering nearly erased by years of monthly scrubbings, occupied an old -store room once used as a saloon. - -“So this is the chrysalis from which the butterfly cathedral is to -emerge,” commented Gail, as Manning held the door open for her, and -before she rose she peered again around the uninviting “court,” which -not even the bright winter sunshine could relieve of its dinginess; -rather, the sun made it only the more dismal by presenting the ugliness -more in detail. - -“This is the mine which produces the gold which is to gild the altar,” -assented Manning, studying the sidewalk. “I don’t think you’d better -come in here. You’ll spoil your shoes.” - -“I want to see it all this time because I’m never coming back,” insisted -Gail, and placed one daintily shod foot on the step. - -“Then I’ll have to shame Sir Walter Raleigh,” laughed the -silvery-bearded Manning, and, to her gasping surprise, he caught her -around the waist and lifted her across to the door, whereat several -soiled urchins laughed, and one vinegary-faced old woman grinned, in -horrible appreciation, and dropped Manning a familiarly respectful -courtesy. - -There was no one in the mission except a broad-shouldered man with a -roughly hewn face, who ducked his head at Manning and touched his -forefinger to the side of his head. He was placing huge soup kettles in -their holes in the counter at the rear of the room, and Manning called -attention to this. - -“A practical mission,” he explained. “We start in by saving the bodies.” - -“Do you get any further?” inquired Gail, glancing from the empty benches -and the atrociously coloured “religious” pictures on the walls to the -windows, past which eddied a mass of humanity all but submerged in -hopelessness. - -“Sometimes,” replied Manning gravely. “I have seen a soul or two even -here. It is because of these two or three possibilities that the mission -is kept up. It might interest you to know that Market Square Church -spends fifteen thousand dollars a year in charity relief in Vedder Court -alone.” - -Gail’s eyelids closed, her lashes curved on her cheeks for an instant, -and the corners of her lips twitched. - -“And how much a year does Market Square Church take out of Vedder -Court?” - -“I was waiting for that bit of impertinence,” laughed Manning. “I shall -be surprised at nothing you say since that first day when you -characterised Market Square Church as a remarkably lucrative enterprise. -Have you never felt any compunctions of conscience over that?” - -“Not once,” answered Gail promptly. She had started to seat herself on -one of the empty benches, but had changed her mind. “If I had been given -to any such self-injustice, however, I should reproach myself now. I -think Market Square Church not only commercial but criminal.” - -“I’ll have to give your soul a chastisement,” smiled Manning. “These -people must live somewhere, and because Vedder Court, being church -property, is exempt from taxation, they find cheaper rents here than -anywhere in the city. If we were to put up improved buildings, I don’t -know where they would go, because we would be compelled to charge more -rent.” - -“In order to make the same rate of profit,” responded Gail. “Out of all -this misery, Market Square Church is reaping a harvest rich enough to -build a fifty million dollar cathedral, and I have sufficient disregard -for the particular Deity under whom you do business, to feel sure that -he would not destroy it by lightning. I want out of here.” - -“Frankly, so do I,” admitted Manning; “although I’m ashamed of myself. -It’s all right for you, who are young, to be fastidious, but your Daddy -Manning is coward enough to want to make his peace with Heaven, after a -life which put a few blots on the book.” - -She looked at him speculatively for a moment, and then she laughed. - -“You know, I don’t believe that, Daddy Manning. You’re an old fraud, who -does good by stealth, in order to gain the reputation of having been -picturesquely wicked. Tell me why you belong to Market Square Church.” - -“Because it’s so respectable,” he twinkled down at her. “When an old -sinner has lost every other claim to respectability, he has himself put -on the vestry.” - -He dropped behind on their way to the door, to surreptitiously slip -something, which looked like money, to the man with the roughly hewn -countenance, and as he stood talking, the Reverend Smith Boyd came in, -not quite breathlessly, but as if he had hurried. - -“I knew you were here,” he said, taking Gail’s slender hand in his own; -then his eyes turned cold. - -“You recognised my pink ribbon bows,” and she laughed up at him frankly. -“You haven’t been over to sing lately.” - -“No,” he replied, seemingly blunt, because he could not say he had been -too busy. - -“Why?” this innocently round-eyed. - -Even bluntness could not save him here. - -“Will you be at home this evening?” he evaded, still with restraint. - -“I’ll have our music selected,” and, in the very midst of her -brightness, she was stopped by the sudden sombreness in the rector’s -eyes. - -“Eight o’clock?” - -“That will be quite agreeable.” - -Simple little conversation; quite trivial indeed, but it had been -attended by much shifting thought. To begin with, the rector regretted -the necessity of disapproving of a young lady so undeniably attractive. -She was a pleasure to the eye and a stimulus to the mind, and always his -first impulse when he thought of her was one of pleasure, but in the -very moment of taking her hand, he saw again that picture of Gail, -clasped in the arms of the impulsive young man from home. That picture -had made it distasteful for him to call and sing. He had not been too -busy! Another incident flashed back to him. The night of the toboggan -party, when she had stood with her face upturned, and the moonlight -gleaming on her round white throat. He had trembled, much to his later -sorrow, as he fastened the scarf about her warm neck. However, she was -the visiting niece of one of his vestrymen, who lived next door to the -rectory. She was particularly charming in this outfit of brown, which -enhanced so much her rich tints. - -Gail jerked her pretty head impatiently. If the Reverend Smith Boyd -meant to be as sombre as this, she’d rather he’d stay at home. He was -dreadfully gloomy at times; though she was compelled to admit that he -was good-looking, in a manly sort of way, and had a glorious voice and a -stimulating mind. She invariably recalled him with pleasure, but -something about him aggravated her so. Strange about that quick -withdrawal of his hand. It was almost rude. He had done the same thing -at the toboggan party. He had fastened her scarf, and then he had jerked -away his hands as if he were annoyed! However, he was the rector, and -her Uncle Jim was a vestryman, and they lived right next door. - -“You just escaped a blowing up, Doctor Boyd,” observed “Daddy” Manning, -joining them, and his eyes twinkled from one to the other. “Our young -friend from the west is harsh with the venerable Market Square Church.” - -“Again?” and the Reverend Smith Boyd was gracious enough to smile. “What -is the matter with it this time?” - -“It is not only commercial, but criminal,” repeated Manning, with a sly -smile at Gail, who now wore a little red spot in each cheek. - -“In what way?” and the rector turned to her severely. - -“The mere fact that your question needs an answer is sufficient -indication of the callousness of every one connected with Market Square -Church,” she promptly informed him. “That the church should permit a -spot like this to exist, when it has the power to obliterate it, is -unbelievable; but that it should make money from the condition is -infamous!” - -The Reverend Smith Boyd’s cold eyes turned green, as he glared at this -daring young person. In offending the dignity of Market Square Church -she offended his own. - -“What would you have us do?” he quietly asked. - -“Retire from business,” she informed him, nettled by the covert sneer at -her youth and inexperience. She laid aside a new perplexity for future -solution. In moments such as this the rector was far from ministerial, -and he displayed a quickness to anger quite out of proportion to the -apparent cause. “The whole trouble with Market Square Church, and of the -churches throughout the world, is that they have no God. The Creator has -been reduced to a formula.” - -Daddy Manning saved the rector the pain of any answer. - -“You’re a religious anarchist,” he charged Gail. - -Her face softened. - -“By no means,” she replied. “I am a devoted follower of the Divine -Spirit, the Divine Will, the Divine Law; but not of the church; for it -has forgotten these things.” - -“You don’t know what you are saying,” the rector told her. - -“That isn’t all you mean,” she retorted. “What you have in mind is that, -being a woman, and young, I should be silent. You would not permit -thought if you could avoid it, for when people begin to think, religion -lives but the church dies; as it is doing to-day.” - -Now the Reverend Smith Boyd could be triumphant. There was a curl of -sarcasm on his lips. - -“Are you quite consistent?” he charged. “You have just been objecting to -the prosperity of the church.” - -“Financially,” she admitted; “but it is a spiritual bankrupt. Your -financial prosperity is a direct sign of your religious decay. Your -financial bankruptcy will come later, as it has done in France, as it is -doing in Italy, as it will do all over the world. Humanity treats the -church with the generosity due a once valuable servant who has out-lived -his usefulness.” - -“My dear child, humanity can never do without religion,” interposed -Daddy Manning. - -“Agreed,” said Gail; “but it outgrows them. It outgrew paganism, -idolatry, and a score of minor phases in between. Now it is outgrowing -the religion of creed, in its progress toward morality. What we need is -a new religion.” - -“You are blaming the church with a fault which lies in the people,” -protested the rector, shocked and disturbed, and yet feeling it his duty -to set Gail right. He was ashamed of himself for having been severe with -her in his mind. She was less frivolous than he had thought, and what -she needed was spiritual instruction. “The people are luke-warm.” - -“What else could they be with the watery spiritual gruel which the -church provides?” retorted Gail. “You feed us discarded bugaboos, -outworn tenets, meaningless forms and ceremonies. All the rest of the -world progresses, but the church stands still. Once in a decade some -sect patches its creed, and thinks it has been revolutionary, when in -fact it has only caught up with a point which was passed by humanity at -large, in its advancing intelligence, fifty years before.” - -“I am interested in knowing what your particular new religion would be -like,” remarked Daddy Manning, his twinkling eyes resting affectionately -on her. - -“It would be a return to the simple faith in God,” Gail told him -reverently. “It is still in the hearts of the people, as it will always -be; but they have nowhere to gather together and worship.” - -Daddy Manning laughed as he detected that bit of sarcasm. - -“According to that we are wasting our new cathedral.” - -“Absolutely!” and it struck the rector with pain that Gail had never -looked more beautiful than now, with her cheeks flushed and her brown -eyes snapping with indignation. “Your cathedral will be a monument, -built out of the profits wrung from squalor, to the vanity of your -congregation. If I were the dictator of this wonderful city of -achievement, I would decree that cathedral never to be built, and Vedder -Court to be utterly destroyed!” - -“It is perhaps just as well that you are not the dictator of the city.” -The young Reverend Smith Boyd gazed down at her from his six feet of -serious purpose, with all his previous disapproval intensified. “The -history of Market Square Church is rich with instances of its usefulness -in both the spiritual and the material world, with evidence of its power -for good, with justification for its existence, with reason for its -acts. You make the common mistake of judging an entire body from one -surface indication. Do you suppose there is no sincerity, no conscience, -no consecration in Market Square Church?” His deep, mellow baritone -vibrated with the defence of his purpose and that of the institution -which he represented. “Why do you suppose our vestrymen, whose time is -of enormous value, find a space amid their busy working hours for the -affairs of Market Square Church? Why do you suppose the ladies of our -guild, who have agreeable pursuits for every hour of the day, give their -time to committee and charity work?” He paused for a hesitant moment. -“Why do you suppose I am so eager for the building, on American soil, of -the most magnificent house of worship in the world?” - -Gail’s pretty upper lip curled. - -“Personal ambition!” she snapped, and, without waiting to see the pallor -which struck his face to stone, she heeled her way out through the mud -to her coupé. - - - - - CHAPTER X - THE STORM CENTRE OF MAGNETIC ATTRACTION - - -“Brother Bones,” said Interlocutor Ted Teasdale commandingly, with his -knuckles on his right knee and his elbow at the proper angle. - -“Yes, sir, Mr. Interlocutor,” replied Willis Cunningham, whose -“black-face make-up” seemed marvellously absurd in connection with his -brown Vandyke. - -“Brother Bones, when does everybody love a storm?” - -“I don’t know, Mr. Interlocutor,” admitted Brother Bones Cunningham, -touching his kinky wig with the tip of one forefinger. “When does -everybody love a storm?” - -Interlocutor Ted Teasdale roved his eye over the assemblage, of fifty or -more, in his own ballroom, and smiled in a superior fashion. The -ebony-faced semicircle of impromptu minstrels, banded together that -morning, leaned forward with anticipatory grins. They had heard the joke -in rehearsal. It was a corker! - -“When it’s a Gail,” he replied, whereat Gail Sargent, at whom everybody -looked and laughed, flushed prettily, and the bones and tambos made a -flourish, and the Interlocutor announced that the Self Help Glee Club -would now sing that entrancing ditty, entitled “Mary Had a Little Calf.” - -It was only in the blossom of the evening at Ted Teasdale’s country -house, the same being about eleven o’clock, and the dance was still to -begin. Lucile Teasdale’s vivid idea for making her house-party notable -was to induce their guests to amuse themselves; and their set had -depended upon hired entertainers for so long that the idea had all the -charm of distinct novelty. There had been an amazingly smart operetta -written on the spot by Willis Cunningham, and with musical settings by -Arlene Fosland. Rippingly clever thing! “The Tea Room Suffragettes!” -Ball afterwards, of course, until four o’clock in the morning. To-night -the minstrel show, and a ball; to-morrow night tableaux vivant, and a -ball; fancy dress this time, and all costumes to be devised from the -materials at hand by the wearer’s own ingenuity. Fine? No end of it! One -could always be sure of having a lively time around Lucile and Ted -Teasdale and Arly Fosland. Gerald Fosland was at this party. Fine chap, -Gerald, and beautifully decent in his attentions to Arly. Pity they were -so rotten bored with each other; but there you were! Each should have -married a blonde. - -Gail Sargent fairly scintillated with enjoyment. She had never attended -so brilliant a house-party. Her own set back home had a lot of fun, but -this was in some way different. The people were no more clever, but -there were more clever people among them; that was it. There had been a -wider range from which to pick, which was why, in New York, there were -so many circles, and circles within circles. - -Gail was sparkling all the time. There was a constant flash of wit, not -of a very high order, to be sure, nor exceptionally brilliant, which -latter was its chief charm. Some wit has to be taken so very seriously. -There were dashes into the brisk, exhilarating winter air, there were -lazy breakfasts, where three or four of the girls grouped in one room, -there was endless gaiety and laughter, and, above all, oceans and oceans -of flirtation. The men whom Lucile and Arly had collected were an -especial joy. They had all the accomplished outward symbols of fervour -without any of its oppressive insistence. Gail, as an agreeable duty to -her new found self, experimented with several of them, and found them -most amusing and pleasant, but nothing more disturbing. - -Dick Rodley was the most persistent, and, in spite of the fact that he -was so flawlessly handsome as to excite ridicule, Gail found herself, by -and by, defending him against her own iconoclastic sense of humour. He -reached her after the minstrel show, while Houston Van Ploon and Willis -Cunningham were still struggling profanely with their burnt cork, and he -stole her from under the very eyes of Jack Lariby, while that smitten -youth was exchanging wit, at a tremendous loss, with caustic Arly -Fosland. - -“Have you seen the new century plant in the conservatory?” Dick asked, -beaming down at her, his black eyes glowing like coals. - -Gail’s eyelids flashed down for an instant, and the corners of her lips -twitched. Young Lariby had only been with her five minutes, but she had -felt herself ageing in that time. - -“I love them,” she avowed, and glancing backward just once, she tiptoed -hastily away with the delighted Dick. That young man had looked deep -into the eyes of many women, and at last he was weary of being adored. -He led Gail straight to the sequestered corner behind the date palms, -but it was occupied by Bobby Chalmers and Flo Reynolds. He strolled with -Gail to the seat behind the rose screen, but it was fully engaged, and -he led the way out toward the geranium alcove. - -“I’ve missed you so this evening,” he earnestly confided to her. “I was -two hours in the minstrel show. It was forever, Gail!” and he bent his -glowing eyes upon her. That was it! His wonderful eyes! They were -magnetic, compelling, and one would be dull who could not find a -response to the thrill of them. - -“Where is the century plant?” He was a tremendously pleasant fellow. -When she walked through a crowded room with Dick, she knew, from the -looks of admiration, just what people were saying; that they were an -extraordinarily handsome couple. - -“There is no century plant,” he shamelessly confessed. - -“I knew it,” and she laughed. - -“I don’t mind admitting that it was a point-blank lie,” he cheerfully -told her. “I wanted to get you out here alone, all to myself,” and his -voice went down two tones. He did do it so prettily! - -“I’ve counted seven couples,” she gaily responded. - -He tightened his arm where her hand lay in it, and she left it there. - -“You’ve clinched Lucile’s reputation,” he stated. “She always has been -famous for picking good ones; but she saved you for the climax.” - -“My happy, happy childhood days,” laughed Gail. “The boys used to talk -that way on the way home from school.” - -“I don’t doubt it,” and Dick smiled appreciatively. “The dullest sort of -a boy would find himself saying nice things to you; but I shall stop -it.” - -“Oh, please don’t!” begged Gail. “You are so delightful at it.” - -He pounced on a corner half hidden by a tub of ferns. There was no bench -there, but it was at least semi-isolated, and he leaned gracefully -against the window-ledge, looking down at her earnestly as she stood, -slenderly outlined against the green of the ferns, in her gown of -delicate blue sparkling with opalescent flakes. - -“That’s just the trouble,” he complained. “I don’t wish you to be aware -that I am saying what you call pretty things. I wish, instead, to be -effective,” and there was a roughness in his voice which had come for -the first time. She was a trifle startled by it, and she lowered her -eyes before the steady gaze which he poured down on her. Why, he was in -earnest! - -“Then take me to Lucile,” she smiled up at him, and strolled in toward -the ballroom. - -Willis Cunningham met them at the door. - -“You promised me the first dance,” he breathlessly informed Gail. He had -been walking rapidly. - -“Are they ready?” she inquired, stepping a pace away from Dick. - -“Well, the musicians are coming in,” evaded Cunningham, tucking her hand -in his arm. - -“I’ve the second one, remember, Gail,” Dick reminded her, as he glanced -around the ballroom for his own partner, but Gail distinctly felt his -eyes following her as she walked away with Cunningham. - -“I know now of what your profile reminds me,” Cunningham told her; “the -Charmeaux ‘Praying Nymph.’ It is the most spiritually beautiful of all -the pictures in the Louvre.” - -“I wonder which is the stronger emotion in me just now,” she returned; -“gratified vanity or curiosity.” - -“I hope it’s the latter,” smiled Cunningham. “I recall now a gallery in -which there is a very good copy of the Charmeaux canvas, and I’d be -delighted to take you.” - -“I’ll go with pleasure,” promised Gail, and Cunningham turned to her -with a grateful smile. - -“I would prefer to show you the original,” he ventured. - -“Oh, look at them tuning their drums,” cried Gail, and he thought that -she had entirely missed his hint, that the keenest delight in his life -would be to lead her through the Louvre, and from thence to a -perspective of picture galleries, dazzling with all the hues of the -spectrum, and as long as life! - -He had other things which he wanted to say, but he calculatingly -reserved them for the day of the picture viewing, when he would have her -exclusive attention; so, through the dance, he talked of trifles far -from his heart. He was a nice chap, too. - -Dick Rodley was on hand with the last stroke of the music, to claim her -for his dance. By one of those waves of unspoken agreement, Gail was -being “rushed.” It was her night, and she enjoyed it to the full. -Perhaps the new awakening in Gail, the crystallisation of which she had -been forced to become conscious, had something to do with this. Her -cheeks, while no more beautiful in their delicacy of colouring, had a -certain quality of translucence, which gave her the indefinable effect -of glowing from within; her eyes, while no brighter, had changed the -manner of their brightness. They had lost something of their sparkle, -which had been replaced by a peculiarly enticing half-veiled -scintillation, much as if they were smouldering, only to cast off -streams of brilliant sparks at the slightest disturbance; while all -about her was the vague intangible aura of magnetic attraction which -seemed to flutter and to soothe and to call, all in one. - -Dick Rodley was the first to know this vague change in her; perhaps -because Dick, with all his experience in the social diversion of -love-making, was, after all, more spiritual in his physical perceptions. -At any rate he hovered near her at every opportunity throughout the -evening, and his own eyes, which had the natural trick of glowing, now -almost blazed when they met those of Gail. She liked him, and she did -not. She was thrown into a flutter of pleasure when he came near her, -she enjoyed a clash of wit, and of will, and of snappy mutual -attraction; then suddenly she wanted him away from her, only to welcome -him eagerly when he came back. - -Van Ploon danced with her, danced conscientiously, keeping perfect time -to the music, avoiding, with practised adroitness, every possible -pocketing, or even hem contacts with surrounding couples, and acquitting -himself of lightly turned observations at the expiration of about every -seventy seconds. He was aware that Gail was exceptionally pretty -to-night, but, if he stopped to analyse it at all, he probably ascribed -it to her delicate blue dancing frock with its opalescent flakes, or her -coiffure, or something of the sort. He quite approved of her; -extraordinarily so. He had never met a girl who approached so near the -thousand per cent. grade of perfection by all the blue ribbon points. - -It was while she was enjoying her second restful dance with Van Ploon -that Gail, swinging with him near the south windows, heard the honk of -an auto horn, and a repetition close after, and, by the acceleration of -tone, she discerned that the machine was coming up the drive at -break-neck speed. Moreover, her delicately attuned musical ear -recognised something familiar in the sound of the horn; perhaps tone, -perhaps duration, perhaps inflection, more likely a combination of all -three. Consequently, she was not at all surprised when, near the -conclusion of the dance, she saw Allison standing in the doorway of the -ballroom, with his hands in his pockets, watching her with a smile. Her -eyes lighted with pleasure, and she nodded gaily to him over Van Ploon’s -tall shoulder. When the dance stopped she was on the far side of the -room, and was instantly the centre of a buzzing little knot of dancers, -from out of which carefree laughter radiated like visible flashes of -musical sound. She emerged from the group with the arms of two -bright-eyed girls around her waist, and met Allison sturdily breasting -the currents which had set towards the conservatory, the drawing-rooms, -or the buffet. - -“Nobody has saved me a dance,” he complained. - -“Nobody expected you until to-morrow,” Gail smilingly returned, -introducing him to the girls. “I’ll beg you one of my dances from Ted or -somebody.” - -She was so obviously slated to entertain Allison during this little -intermission, that Van Ploon, following the trio in duty bound, took one -of the girls and went away, and her partner led the other one to the -music room. - -“I’ll have Lucile piece you out a card,” offered Gail, as they strolled -naturally across to the little glass enclosed balcony. “I don’t think I -can secure you one of Arly’s dances. She’s scandalously popular -to-night.” - -“One will be enough for me, unless you can steal me some more of your -own,” he told her, glancing down at her, from coiffure to blue pointed -slippers, with calm appreciation. “You are looking great to-night,” and -his gaze came back to rest in her glowing eyes. Her fresh colour had -been heightened by the excitement of the evening, but now an added flush -swept lightly over her cheeks, and passed. - -“I’ll see what I can do,” she speculated, looking at her dance card. -“The next three are with total strangers, and of course I can’t touch -those,” she laughed. “The fourth one is with Willis Cunningham, and -after that is a brief wilderness again. I think one is all you get.” - -“I’m lucky even to have that,” declared Allison in content. “The fourth -dance down. That will just give me time to punish the buffet. I’m hungry -as a bear. I started out here without my dinner.” - -They stood at the balcony windows looking out into the wintry night. -There was not much to see, not even the lacing of the bare trees against -the clouded sky. The snow had gone, and where the light from the windows -cut squarely on the ground were bare walks, and cold marble, and dead -lawn; all else was blackness; but it was a sufficient landscape for -people so intensely concentrated upon themselves. - -Her next partner came in search of her presently, and the music struck -up, and Allison, nodding to his many acquaintances jovially, for he was -in excellent humour in these days of building, and planning, and -clearing ground for an entirely new superstructure of life, circled -around to the dining room, where he performed savage feats at the -buffet. Soon he was out again, standing quietly at the edge of things, -and watching Gail with keen pleasure, both when she danced and when, in -the intermissions, the gallants of the party gravitated to her like -needles to a magnet. Her popularity pleased him, and flattered him. -Suddenly he caught sight of Eldridge Babbitt, a middle-aged man who was -watching a young woman with the same pleasure Allison was experiencing -in the contemplation of Gail. - -“Just the man I wanted to see,” announced Allison, making his way to -Babbitt. “I have a new freightage proposition for the National Dairy -Products Consolidation.” - -Babbitt brightened visibly. He had been missing something keenly these -past two days, and now all at once he realised what it was; business. - -“I can’t see any possible new angle,” returned Babbitt cautiously, and -with a backward glance at the dashing young Mrs. Babbitt. He headed -instinctively for the library. - -Laughingly Gail finished her third dance down. She had enjoyed several -sparkling encounters in passing with Dick Rodley, and she was buoyantly -exhilarated as she started to stroll from the floor with her partner. -She had wanted to find cherub-cheeked Marion Kenneth, and together they -walked through the conservatory, and the dining room, and the deserted -billiard room, with its bright light on the green cloth and all the rest -of the room in dimness. There was a narrow space at one point between -the chairs and the table, and it unexpectedly wedged them into close -contact. With a sharp intake of his breath, the fellow, a ruddy-faced, -thick-necked, full-lipped young man who had followed her with his eyes -all evening, suddenly turned, and caught her in his embrace, and, -holding back her head in the hollow of his arm, kissed her; a new kiss -to her, and horrible! - -Suddenly he released her, and stepped back abruptly, filled with -remorse. - -“Forgive me, Miss Sargent,” he begged. - -Gail nodded her numb acceptance of the apology, and turning, hurried out -of the side door to the veranda. Her knees were trembling, but the -fresh, cold air steadied her, and she walked the full length of the wide -porch, trying instinctively to forget the sickening humiliation. As she -came to the corner of the house, the sharp winter wind tore at her, -smote her throat, clutched at her bare shoulders, and stopped her with a -sharp physical command. She drew her gauzy little dancing scarf around -her, and held it tightly knotted at her throat, and edged closer to the -house. She was near a window, and, advancing a step, she looked in. It -was the library, and Allison sat there, so clean and wholesome looking, -with his pink shaven face and his white evening waistcoat, and his dark -hair beginning to sprinkle with grey at the temples. He was so sturdy -and so strong and so dependable looking, as he sat earnestly talking -with Babbitt. Allison said something, and they both smiled; then Babbitt -said something and they both threw back their heads and laughed, while -Allison, with one hand in his pocket, waved his other hand over a -memorandum pad which lay between them. Gail hurried to the front door -and rang the bell. - -“Hello, Gail,” greeted the cheery voice of Allison, as she came in. “My -dance next, isn’t it?” - -His voice was so good, so comforting, so reassuring. - -“I think so,” she replied, standing hesitantly in the doorway, and -thankful that the lights were canopied in this room. - -Allison drew the memorandum pad toward him, and rose. - -[Illustration: She was glad to be alone, to rescue herself from the -whirl of anger and indignation and humiliation which had swept around -her] - -“By the way, there’s one thing I forgot to tell you, Babbitt, and it’s -rather important.” He hesitated and glanced toward the door. “You’ll -excuse me just half a minute, won’t you, Gail?” - -She had noticed that assumption of intimate understanding in him before, -and she had secretly admired it. Now it was a comfort and a joy. - -“Surely,” she granted, and passed on in to the library alcove, a -sheltered nook where she was glad to be alone, to rescue herself from -the whirl of anger, and indignation, and humiliation—above all, -humiliation!—which had swept around her. What had she done to bring this -despicable experience upon herself? What evil thing had there been in -her to summons forth this ugly spectre? She had groped almost -deliberately for that other polarity which should complete her, but this -painful moment was not one of the things for which she had sought. She -could not know, but she had passed one of the inevitable milestones. The -very crystallisation which had brightened and whetted her to a keen zest -in her natural destiny, had attracted this fellow, inevitably. Her face -was hot and cold by turns, and she was almost on the point of crying, in -spite of her constantly reiterated self-admonishment that she must -control herself here, when Allison came to the door of the alcove. - -“All right, Gail,” he said laconically. - -She felt suddenly weary, but she rose and joined him. When she slipped -her hand in his arm, strong, and warm, and pulsing, she was aware of a -thrill from it, but the thrill was just restfulness. - -“You look a little tired,” judged the practical Allison, as they -strolled, side by side, into the hall, and he patted the slender hand -which lay on his arm. - -“Not very,” she lightly replied, and unconsciously she snuggled her hand -more comfortably into its resting place. A little sigh escaped her lips, -deep-drawn and fluttering. It was a sigh of content. - - - - - CHAPTER XI - “GENTLEMEN, THERE IS YOUR EMPIRE!” - - -The seven quiet gentlemen who sat with Allison at his library table, -followed the concluding flourish of his hand toward the map on the wall, -and either nodded or blinked appreciatively. The red line on his map was -complete now, a broad, straight line from the Atlantic to the Pacific, -and to it were added, on either side, irregular, angling red lines like -the legs of a centipede, the feeders of the various systems which were -under control of the new Atlantic-Pacific Railroad. - -“That’s a brilliant piece of engineering, Allison,” observed huge -Richard Haverman, by way of pleasant comment, and he glanced admiringly -at Allison after his eye had roved around the little company of -notables. The feat of bringing these seven men together at a specific -hour, was greater than having consolidated the brilliant new -Atlantic-Pacific Railroad. - -“Let’s get to the details,” barked a voice with the volume of a St. -Bernard. It came from Arthur Grandin, the head of the Union Fuel -Company, which controlled all the wood and coal in the United States, -and all the oil in the world. His bald spot came exactly on a level with -the back of his chair, and he wore a fierce moustache. - -“I’m putting in the Atlantic-Pacific as my share of the pool, -gentlemen,” explained Allison. “My project, as I have told you, is to -make this the main trunk, the vertebræ as it were, of the International -Transportation Company. I have consolidated with the A.-P. the Municipal -Transportation Company, and I have put my entire fortune in it, to lay -it on the table absolutely unencumbered.” - -He threw down the Atlantic-Pacific Railroad and the Municipal -Transportation Company in the form of a one sheet typewritten paper. - -“We’d better appoint some one to look after the legal end of things,” -suggested the towering Haverman, whose careless, lounging attitude -contrasted oddly with his dignified long beard. - -“I’ll take care of it,” said W. T. Chisholm, of the Majestic Trust -Company, and drawing the statement in front of him, he set a paperweight -on it. - -“The first step is not one of incorporation,” went on Allison. “Before -that is done there must be but one railroad system in the United -States.” - -Smooth-shaven old Joseph G. Clark nodded his head. There was but one -cereal company in the United States, and the Standard, in the beginning, -had been the smallest. Two of the heads of rival concerns were now in -Clark’s employ, one was a pauper, and three were dead. He disliked the -pauper. - -Robert E. Taylor, of the American Textiles Company, a man who had quite -disproved the theory that constructive business genius was confined to -the North, smoothed his grey moustache reflectively, with the tip of his -middle finger, all the way out to its long point. - -“I can see where you will tear up the east and west traffic situation to -a considerable extent,” he thoughtfully commented; “but without the -important north and south main trunks you can not make a tight web.” - -Allison went over to his wall map, with a step in which there was the -spring of a boy. A. L. Vance, of the United States Supplies Company, -which controlled beef, sugar, and practically all other food products, -except those mighty necessities under the sways of the Standard Cereal -Company and Eldridge Babbitt’s National Dairy Products Consolidation, -studied the buoyant Allison with a puzzled expression. He had seen -Allison grow to care-burdened manhood, and suddenly Ed seemed twenty -years younger. Only Eldridge Babbitt knew the secret of this miraculous -rejuvenescence. Babbitt had married late in life; a beautiful young -woman! - -“The key to the north and south situation is here,” said Allison, and he -drew a firm, swift, green line down across the United States, branching -at each end. “George Dalrymple will be here in half an hour, and by that -time I trust we may come to some agreement.” - -“It depends on what you want,” boomed Arthur Grandin, who, sitting -beside the immense Haverman, looked as if that giant had shrunk him by -his mere proximity. - -“Freight, to begin with,” stated Allison, resuming his place at the head -of the table, but not his seat. “You gentlemen represent the largest -freightage interests in the United States. You all know your relative -products, and yet, in order to grasp this situation completely, I wish -to enumerate them. Babbitt’s National Dairy Products Consolidation can -swing the shipment of every ounce of butter, cream, cheese, eggs and -poultry handled in this country; Clark’s Standard Cereal Company, wheat, -corn, oats, rice, barley, malt, flour, every ounce of breadstuffs or -cereal goods, grown on American soil; Haverman, the Amalgamated Metals -Constructive Company, every pound of iron, lead, and copper, and every -ton of ore, from the moment it leaves the ground until it appears as an -iron web in a city sky or spans a river; Grandin, the Union Fuel -Company, coal and wood, from Alaska to Pennsylvania, with oil and all -its enormous by-products; Taylor, the American Textiles Company, wool, -cotton, flax, the raw and finished material of every thread of clothing -we wear, or any other textile fabric we use except silk; Vance, the -United States Supplies Company, meat, sugar, fruit, the main blood and -sinew builders of the country. Gentlemen, give me the freightage -controlled by your six companies, and I’ll toss the rest of the -country’s freightage to a beggar.” - -“You forgot Chisholm,” Babbitt reminded him, and Banker Chisholm’s white -mutton chops turned pink from the appreciation which glowed in his -ruddy-veined face. - -“Allison was quite right,” returned big Haverman with a dry smile. “The -freightage income on money is an item scarcely worth considering.” - -“Give the Atlantic-Pacific this freight, and, inside of two years, the -entire business of the United States, with all its ramifications, will -be merged in one management, and that management ours. We shall not need -to absorb, nor purchase, a single railroad until it is bankrupt.” - -“Sensible idea, Allison,” approved Clark, of the Standard Cereal -Company. “It’s a logical proposition which I had in mind years ago.” - -“Allison’s stroke of genius, it seems to me, consists in getting us -together,” smiled big Haverman, hanging his arm over the back of his -chair. - -Banker Chisholm leaned forward on the table, and stroked his round chin -reflectively. “There would be some disorganisation, and perhaps -financial disorder, in the first two years,” he considered; “but the -railroads are already harassed too much by the government to thrive -under competition, and, in the end, I believe this proposed -centralisation would be the best thing for the interests of the -country”; wherein Chisholm displayed that he was a vestryman of Market -Square Church wherever he went. - -“What is your proposition?” asked Grandin, who, because of the -self-assertion necessitated by his diminutive size, seemed pompous, but -was not. No pompous man could have merged the wood, coal, and oil -interests, and, having merged them, swung them over his own shoulder. - -Allison’s answer consisted of one word. - -“Consolidation,” he said. - -There was a moment of silence, while these men absorbed that simple -idea, and glanced speculatively, not at Allison, but at each other. They -were kings, these heads of mighty corporations, whose emissaries carried -their sovereignties into the furthest corners of the earth. Like -friendly kings, they had helped each other in the protection of their -several domains; but this was another matter. - -“That’s a large proposition, Ed,” stated Vance, very thoughtfully. All -sense of levity had gone from this meeting. They had come, as they -thought, to promote a large mutual interest, but not to weld a -Frankenstein. “I did not understand your project to be so comprehensive. -I fancied your idea to be that the various companies represented here, -with Chisholm as financial controller, should take a mutual interest in -the support of the Atlantic-Pacific Railroad, for the purpose of -consolidating the railroad interests of the country under one -management, thereby serving our own transportation needs.” - -“Very well put, Vance,” approved Taylor, smoothing his pointed -moustache. - -“That is a mere logical development of the railroad situation,” returned -Allison. “If I had not cemented this direct route, some one would have -made the consolidation you mention within ten years, for the entire -railroad situation has been disorganised since the death of three big -men in that field; and the scattered holdings would be, and are, an easy -prey for any one vitally interested enough to invade the industry. I -have no such minor proposition in mind. I propose, with the -Atlantic-Pacific as a nucleus, to, first, as I have said, bring the -financial terminals of every mile of railroad in the United States into -one central office. With this I then propose to combine the National -Dairy Products Consolidation, the Standard Cereal Company, the -Amalgamated Metals Constructive Company, the Union Fuel, American -Textiles, the United States Supplies, and the stupendous financial -interests swayed by the banks tributary to the Majestic Trust Company. I -propose to weld these gigantic concerns into one corporation, which -shall be the mightiest organisation the world has ever known. Beginning -with the control of transportation, it will control all food, all -apparel, all construction materials, all fuel. From the shoes on his -feet to the roof over his head, every man in the United States of -America, from labourer to president, shall pay tribute to the -International Transportation Company. Gentlemen, if I have dreamed big, -it is because I have dealt with men who deal only in large dreams. What -I propose is an empire greater than that ever swayed by any monarch in -history. We eight men, who are here in this room, can build that empire -with a scratch of a pen, and can hold it against the assaults of the -world!” - -His voice rang as he finished, and Babbitt looked at him in wonder. -Allison had always been a strong man, but now, in this second youth, he -was an Anteus springing fresh from the earth. There was a moment’s lull, -and then a nasal voice drawled into the silence. - -“Allison;” it was the voice of old Joseph G. Clark, who had built the -Standard Cereal Company out of one wheat elevator; “who is to be the -monarch of your new empire?” - -For just a moment Allison looked about him. Vastly different as these -men were, from the full-bearded Haverman to the smooth-shaven old Joseph -G. Clark, there was some one expression which was the same in every man, -and that expression was mastery. These men, by the sheer force of their -personality, by the sheer dominance of their wills, by the sheer -virility of their purposes, by the sheer dogged persistence which balks -at no obstacle and hesitates at no foe, had fought and strangled and -throttled their way to the top, until they stood head and shoulders -above all the strong men of their respective domains, safe from protest -or dispute of sovereignty, because none had risen strong enough to do -them battle. They were the undefeated champions of their classes, and -the life of every man in that group was an epic! Who was to be monarch -of the new empire? Allison answered that question as simply as he had -the others. - -“The best man,” he said. - -There had been seven big men in America. Now there were eight. They all -recognised that. - -“Of course,” went on Allison, “my proposition does not assume that any -man here will begin by relinquishing control of his own particular -branch of the International Transportation Company; sugar, beef, iron, -steel, oil, and the other commodities will all be under their present -handling; but each branch will so support and benefit the other that the -position of the consolidation itself will be impregnable against -competition or the assaults of government. The advantages of control, -collection, and distribution, are so vast that they far outweigh any -possible question of personal aggrandisement.” - -“Don’t hedge, Allison,” barked Arthur Grandin. “You expressed it right -in the first place. You’re putting it up to us to step out of the local -championship class, and contend for the big belt.” - -“The prize isn’t big enough,” pronounced W. T. Chisholm, as if he had -decided for them all. As befitted his calling, he was slower minded than -the rest. There are few quick turns in banking. - -“Not big enough?” repeated Allison. “Not big enough, when the Union Fuel -Company already supplies every candle which goes into the Soudan, runs -the pumps on the Nile and the motor boats on the Yang-Tse-Kyang, -supplies the oil for the lubrication of the car of Juggernaut, and works -the propeller of every aeroplane? Not big enough, when already the -organisations represented here have driven their industries into every -quarter of the earth? What shall you say when we join to our nucleus the -great steamship lines and the foreign railroads? Not big enough? -Gentlemen, look here!” He strode over to the big globe. From New York to -San Francisco a red line had already been traced. Now he took a pencil -in his hand, and placing the point at New York, gave the globe a whirl, -girding it completely. “Gentlemen, there is your empire!” - -Again the nasal voice of old Joseph G. Clark drawled into the silence. - -“I suggest that we discuss in detail the conditions of the -consolidation,” he remarked. - -The bell of Allison’s house phone rang. - -“Mr. Dalrymple, sir,” said the voice of Ephraim. - -“Very well,” replied Allison. “Show him into the study. Babbitt, will -you read to the gentlemen this skeleton plan of organisation? If you’ll -excuse me, I’ll be back in five minutes.” - -“Dalrymple?” inquired Taylor. - -“Yes,” answered Allison abstractedly, and went into the study. - -He and Dalrymple looked at each other silently for a moment, with the -old enmity shining between them. Dalrymple, a man five years Allison’s -senior, a brisk speaking man with a protruding jaw and deep-set grey -eyes, had done more than any other one human being to develop the -transportation systems of New York, but his gift had been in -construction, in creation, whereas Allison’s had been in combination; -and Dalrymple had gone into the railroad business. - -“Dalrymple, I’m going to give you a chance,” said Allison briskly. “I -want the Gulf and Great Lakes Railroad system.” - -Dalrymple had produced a cigar while he waited for Allison, and now he -lit it. He sat on the corner of the study table and surveyed Allison -critically. - -“I don’t doubt it,” he replied. “The system is almost completed.” - -“I’ll accept a fair offer for your controlling interest,” went on -Allison. - -“And if I won’t sell?” - -“Then I’ll jump on you to-morrow in the stock exchange, and take it away -from you.” - -Dalrymple smiled. - -“You can’t do it. I own my controlling interest outright, and no stock -gamblings on the board of trade can affect either a share of my stock or -the earning capacity of my railroad. When you drove me out of the -traction field, I took advantage of my experience and entrenched myself. -Go on and gamble.” - -“I wish you wouldn’t take that attitude,” returned Allison, troubled. -“It looks to you as if I were pursuing you because of that old quarrel; -but I want you to know that I’m not vindictive.” - -“I don’t think you are,” replied Dalrymple, with infinite contempt. -“You’re just a damned hog.” - -A hot flush swept over Allison’s face, but it was gone in an instant. - -“It happens that I need the new Gulf and Great Lakes system,” he went -on, in a perfectly level voice; “and I prefer to buy it from you at a -fair price.” - -Dalrymple put on his hat. - -“It isn’t for sale,” he stated. - -“Just a minute, Dalrymple,” interposed Allison. “I want to show you -something. Look in here,” and he opened the library door. - -Dalrymple stepped to the opening and saw, not merely seven men, -middle-aged and past, sitting around a library table, but practically -all the freightable necessities of the United States and practically all -its money, a power against which his many million dollar railroad system -was of no more opposition than a toy train. - -“—the transportation department to be governed by a council composed of -the representatives of the various other departments herein mentioned,” -droned on the voice of Babbitt. - -The representatives of the various other departments therein mentioned -were bent in concentrated attention on every sentence, and phrase, and -word, and syllable of that important document, not omitting to pay -important attention to the pauses which answered for commas; and none -looked up. Dalrymple closed the door gently. - -“Now will you sell?” inquired Allison. - -For a moment the two men looked into each other’s eyes, while the old -enmity, begun while they were still in the womb of time, lay chill -between them. At one instant, Dalrymple, whose jaw muscles were working -convulsively, half raised his hands, as if he were minded to fall on -Allison and strangle him; and it was not the fact that Allison was -probably the stronger man which restrained him, but a bigger pride. - -“No,” he said, again with that infinite contempt in his tone. “Break -me.” - -“All right,” accepted Allison cheerfully, and even with relief; for his -way was now free to pursue its normal course. He crossed to the door -which opened into the hall, and politely bowed Dalrymple into the -guidance of old Ephraim. - -“Dalrymple won’t sell,” he reported, when he rejoined his fellow members -of the International Transportation Company. - -Joseph G. Clark looked up from a set of jotted memoranda which he had -been nonchalantly setting down during the reading. - -“We’ll pick it up in the stock market,” he carelessly suggested. - -“Can’t,” replied Allison, with equal carelessness. “He’s entrenched with -solid control, and I imagine he doesn’t owe a dollar.” - -Chisholm, with his fingers in his white mutton chops, was studying -clean-shaven old Clark’s memoranda. - -“A panic will be necessary, anyhow,” he observed. “We’ll acquire the -road then.” - - - - - CHAPTER XII - GAIL SOLVES THE PROBLEM OF VEDDER COURT - - -The Reverend Smith Boyd, rector of the richest church in the world, -dropped his last collar button on the floor, and looked distinctly -annoyed. The collar button rolled under his mahogany highboy, and -concealed itself carefully behind one of the legs. The Reverend Smith -Boyd, there being none to see, laid aside his high dignity, and got down -on his knees, though not for any clerical purpose. With his suspenders -hanging down his back, he sprawled his long arms under the highboy in -all directions, while his face grew red; and the little collar button, -snuggled carefully out of sight behind the furthest leg, just shone and -shone. The rector, the ticking of whose dressing-room clock admonished -him that the precious moments were passing never to return again, -twisted his neck, and bent his head sidewise, and inserted it under the -highboy, one ear scraping the rug and the other the bottom of the lowest -drawer. No collar button. He withdrew his neck, and twisted his head in -the opposite direction, and inserted his head again under the highboy, -so that the ear which had scraped the carpet now scraped the bottom of -the drawer, whereat the little collar button shone so brightly that the -rector’s bulging eye caught the glint of it. His hand swung round, at -the end of a long arm, and captured it before it could hide any further, -then the young rector withdrew his throbbing head and started to raise -up, and bumped the back of his head with a crack on the bottom of an -open drawer, near enough to the top to give him a good long sweep for -momentum. This mishap being just one degree beyond the point to which -the Reverend Smith Boyd had been consecrated, he ejaculated as follows:— - -No, it is not respectful, nor proper, nor charitable, to set down what -the Reverend Smith Boyd, in that stress, ejaculated; but a beautiful, -grey-haired lady, beautiful with the sweetness of content and the -happiness of gratified pride and the kindliness of humour, who had -paused at the Reverend Smith Boyd’s open door to inquire how soon he -would be down to dinner, hastily covered her mouth with her hand, and -moved away from the door, with moist blue eyes, around which twinkled a -dozen tiny wrinkles born of much smiling. - -When the dignified young rector came down to dinner, fully clothed and -apparently in his right mind, his mother, who was the beautiful -grey-haired lady with the twinkling blue eyes, looked across the table -and smiled indulgently at his disguise; for he was not a grown-up, tall, -broad-shouldered man of thirty-two at all. In reality he was a -shock-headed, slightly freckled urchin of nine or ten, by the name of -“Smitty” on the town commons, and “Tod” at home. - -“Aren’t you becoming a trifle irritable of late, Tod?” she inquired with -solicitude, willfully suppressing a smile which flashed up in her as she -remembered that ejaculation. It was shocking in a minister, of course, -but she had ever contended that ministers were, and should be, made of -clay; and clay is friable. - -“Yes, mother, I believe I am,” confessed the Reverend Smith Boyd, -considering the matter with serious impartiality. - -“You are not ill in any way?” - -“Not at all,” he hastily assured her. - -“Your cold is all gone?” - -“Entirely. As a matter of fact, mother,” and he smiled, “I don’t think I -had one.” - -“If you hadn’t drank that tea, and taken the mustard foot bath, and -wrapped the flannel around your throat, it might have been a severe -one,” his mother complacently replied. “You haven’t been studying too -much?” - -“No,” and the slightest flicker of impatience twitched his brows. - -“You’ve no headache?” and the tone was as level as if she had not seen -that flicker. - -“No, mother.” - -“Do you sleep well?” - -The Reverend Smith Boyd took a drink of water. His hand trembled -slightly. - -“Excellently.” - -Mrs. Boyd surveyed her son with a practised eye. - -“I think your appetite’s dropping off a little,” she commented, and then -she was shrewdly silent, though the twinkles of humour came back to her -eyes by and by. “I don’t think you take enough social diversion,” she -finally advised him. “You should go out more. You should ride, walk, but -always in the company of young and agreeable people. Because you are a -rector is no reason for you to spend your spare time in gloomy solitude, -as you have been doing for the past week.” - -The Reverend Smith Boyd would have liked to state that he had been very -busy, but he had a conscience, which was a nuisance to him. He had spent -most of his spare time up in his study, with his chin in his hand. - -“You are quite right, mother,” he sombrely confessed, and swallowed two -spoonfuls of his soup. It was excellent soup, but, after taking a bite -of a wafer, he laid his spoon on the edge of the plate. - -“I think I’ll drive you out of the house, Tod,” Mrs. Boyd decided, in -the same tones she had used to employ when she had sent him to bed. “I -think I’ll send you over to Sargent’s to-night, to sing with Gail.” - -The rector of the richest church in the world flushed a trifle, and -looked at the barley in the bottom of his soup. His mother regarded him -quietly, and the twinkles went out of her eyes. She had been bound to -get at the bottom of his irritability, and now she had arrived at it. - -“I would prefer not to go,” he told her stiffly, and the eyes which he -lifted to her were coldly green. - -“Why?” - -Again that slight twitch of impatience in his brows, then he suppressed -a sigh. The catechism was on the way, and he might just as well answer -up promptly. - -“I do not approve of Miss Sargent.” - -For just one second the rector’s mother felt an impulse to shake Tod -Boyd. Gail Sargent was a young lady of whom any young man might -approve—and what was the matter with Tod? She was beginning to be -humiliated by the fact that, at thirty-two, he had not lost his head and -made a fool of himself, to the point of tight shoes and poetry, over a -girl. - -“Why?” and the voice of Mrs. Boyd was not cold as she had meant it to -be. She had suddenly felt some tug of sympathy for Tod. - -“Well, for one thing, she has a most disagreeable lack of reverence,” he -stated. - -“Reverence?” and Mrs. Boyd knitted her brows. “I don’t believe you quite -understand her. She has the most beautifully simple religious faith that -I have ever seen, Tod.” - -The Reverend Smith Boyd watched his soup disappearing, as if it were -some curious moving object to which his attention had just been called. - -“Miss Sargent claims to have a new religion,” he observed. “She has said -most unkind things about the Church as an institution, and about Market -Square Church in particular. She says that it is a strictly commercial -institution, and that its motive in desiring to build the new cathedral -is vanity.” - -He omitted to mention Gail’s further charge that his own motive in -desiring the new cathedral was personal ambition. Candour did not compel -that admission. It did not become him to act from piqued personal pride. - -Mrs. Boyd studied him as he gazed sombrely at his fish, and the twinkles -once more returned to her eyes, as she made up her mind to cure Tod’s -irritability. - -“I am ashamed of you,” she told her son. “This girl is scarcely twenty. -If I remember rightly, and I’m sure that I do, you came to me, at about -twenty, and confessed to a logical disbelief in the theory of creation, -which included, of course, a disbelief in the Creator. You were an -infidel, an atheist. You were going to relinquish your studies, and give -up all thought of the Church.” - -The deep red of the Reverend Smith Boyd’s face testified to the truth of -this cruel charge, and he pushed back his fish permanently. - -“I most humbly confess,” he stated, and indeed he had writhed in spirit -many times over that remembrance. “However, mother, I have since -discovered that to be a transitional stage through which every -theological student passes.” - -“Yet you won’t allow it to a girl,” charged Mrs. Boyd, with the severity -which she could much better have expressed with a laugh. “When you -discover that this young lady, who seems to be in every way delightful, -is so misled as to criticise the motives of Market Square Church, you -withdraw into your dignity, with the privilege of a layman, and announce -that ‘you do not approve of her.’ What she needs, Tod, is religious -instruction.” - -She had carefully ironed out the tiny little wrinkles around her blue -eyes by the time her son looked up from the profound cogitation into -which this reproof had thrown him. - -“Mother, I have been wrong,” he admitted, and he seemed ever so much -brighter for the confession. He drew his fish towards him and ate it. - -Later the Reverend Smith Boyd presented himself at James Sargent’s -house, with a new light shining in his breast; and he had blue eyes. He -had come to show Gail the way and the light. If she had doubts, and lack -of faith, and flippant irreverence, it was his duty to be patient with -her, for this was the fault of youth. He had been youthful himself. - -Gail’s eyelids dropped and the corners of her lips twitched when the -Reverend Smith Boyd’s name was brought up to her, but she did her hair -in another way, high on her head instead of low on her neck, and then -she went down, bewildering in her simple little dark blue velvet cut -round at the neck. - -“I am so glad your cold is better,” she greeted him, smiling as -pleasantly as if their last meeting had been a most joyous occasion. - -“I don’t think I had a cold,” laughed the young rector, also as happily -mannered as if their last meeting had been a cheerful one. “I sneezed -twice, I believe, and mother immediately gave me a course of doctoring -which no cold could resist.” - -“I was afraid that your voice was out,” remarked Gail, in a tone -suggestive of the fact that that would be a tragedy indeed; and she -began hauling forth music. “You haven’t been over for so long.” - -The Reverend Smith Boyd coloured. At times the way of spiritual -instruction was quite difficult. Nevertheless, he had a duty to perform. -Mechanically he had taken his place at the piano, standing straight and -tall, and his blue eyes softened as they automatically fell on the piece -of music she had opened. Of course it was their favourite, the one in -which their voices had soared in the most perfect unison. Gail glanced -up at him as she brushed a purely imaginary fleck of dust from the keys. -For an instant the brown eyes and the blue ones met. He was a -tremendously nice fellow, after all. But what was worrying him? - -“Before we sing I should like to take up graver matters,” he began, -feeling at a tremendous disadvantage in the presence of the music. To -obviate this, he drew up a chair, and sat facing her. “I have called -this evening in the capacity of your temporary rector.” - -Gail’s eyelids had a tendency to flicker down, but she restrained them. -She was adorable when she looked prim that way. Her lips were like a -rosebud. The Reverend Smith Boyd himself thought of the simile, and cast -it behind him. - -“You are most kind,” she told him, suppressing the imps and demons which -struggled to pop into her eyes. - -“I have been greatly disturbed by the length to which your unbelief has -apparently gone,” the young rector went on, and having plunged into this -opening he began to breathe more freely. This was familiar ground. “I am -willing to admit, to one of your intelligence, that there are certain -articles of the creed, and certain tenets of the Church, which humanity -has outgrown, as a child outgrows its fear of the dark.” - -Gail rested a palm on the edge of the bench behind her, and leaned back -facing him, supported on one beautifully modelled arm. Her face had set -seriously now. - -“However,” went on the rector, “it is the habit and the privilege of -youth to run to extremes. Sweeping doubt takes the place of reasonable -criticism, and the much which is good is condemned alike with the little -which has grown useless.” - -He paused to give Gail a chance for reply, but that straight-eyed young -lady had nothing to say, at this juncture. - -“I do not expect to be able to remove the spiritual errors, which I am -compelled to judge that you have accumulated, by any other means than -patient logic,” he resumed. “May I discuss these matters with you?” His -voice was grave and serious, and full of earnest sincerity, and the -musical quality alone of it made patient logical discussion seem -attractive. - -“If you like,” she assented, smiling at him with wileful and wilful -deception. The wicked thought had occurred to her that it might be her -own duty to broaden his spiritual understanding. - -“Thank you,” he accepted gravely. “If you will give me an hour or so -each week, I shall be very happy.” - -“I am nearly always at home on Tuesday and Friday evenings,” suggested -Gail. “Scarcely any one calls before eight thirty, and we have dinner -quite early on those evenings.” She began to be sincerely interested in -the project. She had never given herself time to quite exactly define -her own attitude towards theology as distinct from religion, and she -felt that she should do it, if for no other reason than to avoid making -impulsive over-statements. The Reverend Smith Boyd would help her to -look squarely into her own mind and her own soul, for he had a very -active intelligence, and was, moreover, the most humanly forceful cleric -she had ever met. Besides, they could always finish by singing. - -“I shall make arrangements to be over as early as you will permit,” -declared the rector, warmly aglow with the idea. “We shall begin with -the very beginnings of things, and, step by step, develop, I hope, a -logical justification of the vast spiritual revolution which has -conquered the world.” - -“I should like nothing better,” mused Gail, and since the Reverend Smith -Boyd rose, and stood behind her and filled his lungs, she turned to the -piano and struck a preliminary chord, which she trailed off into a -tinkling little run, by way of friendly greeting to the piano. - -“We shall begin with the creation,” pursued the rector, dwelling, with -pleasure, on the idea of a thorough progress through the mazes of -religious growth. There were certain vague points which he wanted to -clear up for himself. - -“And wind up with Vedder Court.” She had not meant to say that. It just -popped into her mind, and popped off the end of her tongue. - -“Even that will be taken up in its due logical sequence,” and the -Reverend Smith Boyd prided himself on having already displayed the -patience which he had come expressly to exercise. - -Gail was immediately aware that he was exercising patience. He had -reproved her, nevertheless, and quite coldly, for having violated the -tacit agreement to take up the different phases of their weighty topic -only “in their due logic sequence.” The rector, in this emergency, would -have found no answer which would stand the test, but Gail had the -immense advantage of femininity. - -“It altogether depends at which end we start our sequence,” she sweetly -reminded him. “My own impression is that we should begin at Vedder Court -and work back to the creation. Vedder Court needs immediate attention.” - -That was quite sufficient. When Allison called, twenty minutes later, -they were at it hammer and tongs. There was a bright red spot in each of -Gail’s cheeks, and the Reverend Smith Boyd’s cold eyes were distinctly -green! Allison had been duly announced, but the combatants merely -glanced at him, and finished the few remarks upon which they were, at -the moment, engaged. He had been studying the tableau with the interest -of a connoisseur, and he had devoted his more earnest attention to the -Reverend Smith Boyd. - -“So glad to see you,” said Gail conventionally, rising and offering him -her hand. If there was that strange thrill in his clasp, she was not -aware of it. - -“I only ran in to see if you’d like to take a private car trip in the -new subway before it is opened,” offered Allison, turning to shake hands -with the Reverend Smith Boyd. “Will you join us, Doctor?” - -For some reason a new sort of jangle had come into the room, and it -affected the three of them. Allison was the only one who did not notice -that he had taken Gail’s acceptance for granted. - -“You might tell us when,” she observed, transferring the flame of her -eyes from the rector to Allison. “I may have conflicting engagements.” - -“No, you won’t,” Allison cheerfully informed her; “because it will be at -any hour you set.” - -“Oh,” was the weak response, and, recognising that she was fairly -beaten, her white teeth flashed at him in a smile of humour. “Suppose we -say ten o’clock to-morrow morning.” - -“I am free at that hour,” stated Doctor Boyd, in answer to a glance of -inquiry from Allison. He felt it his duty to keep in touch with public -improvements. Also, beneath his duty lay a keen pleasure in the task. - -“You’ll be very much interested, I think,” and Allison glowed with the -ever-present pride of achievement, then he suddenly grinned. “The new -subway stops at the edge of Vedder Court, waiting.” - -There was another little pause of embarrassment, in which Gail and the -Reverend Smith Boyd were very careful not to glance at each other. -Unfortunately, however, the Reverend Smith Boyd was luckless enough to -automatically, and without conscious mental process, fold the sheet of -music which had long since been placed on the piano. - -“Why stop at the edge of Vedder Court?” inquired Gail, with a nervous -little jerk, much as if the words had been jolted out of her by the -awkward slam of the music rack, which had succeeded the removal of the -song. “Why not go straight on through, and demolish Vedder Court? It is -a scandal and a disgrace to civilisation, and to the city, as well as to -its present proprietors! Vedder Court should be annihilated, torn down, -burned up, swept from the face of the earth! The board of health should -condemn it as unsanitary, the building commission should condemn it as -unsafe, the department of public morals should condemn it as -unwholesome!” - -The Reverend Smith Boyd had been engaged in a strong wrestle within -himself, but the spirit finally conquered the flesh, and he held his -tongue. He remembered that Gail was young, and youth was prone to -extravagant impulse. His spirit of forbearance came so strongly to his -aid that he was even able to acknowledge how beautiful she was when she -was stiffened. - -Allison had been viewing her with mingled admiration and respect. - -“By George, that’s a great idea,” he thoughtfully commented. “Gail, I -think I’ll tear down Vedder Court for you!” - - - - - CHAPTER XIII - THE SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST - - -A short, thick old man, grey-bearded and puff-eyed and loaded with -enormous jewels, met Gail, Lucile and Arly, Ted Teasdale and the -Reverend Smith Boyd, at the foot of the subway stairs, and introduced -himself with smiling ease as Tim Corman, beaming with much pride in his -wide-spread fame. - -“Mr. Allison sent me to meet you,” he stated, with a bow on which he -justly prided himself. “Allison played a low trick on me, ladies,” and -he gazed on them in turns with a jovial familiarity, which, in another, -they might have resented. “From the description he gave me, I was -looking for the most beautiful young lady in the world, and here there’s -three of you.” His eyes swelled completely shut when he laughed. “So -you’ll have to help me out. Which one of you is Miss Sargent?” - -“The young lady who answers the description,” smiled Arly, delighted -with Tim Corman, and she indicated Gail. - -“Mr. Allison couldn’t be here,” explained Tim, leading the way to the -brightly lighted private car. “We’re to pick him up at Hoadley Park. -Miss Sargent, as hostess of the party, is to have charge of everything.” - -The side doors slid open as they approached, and they entered the -carpeted and draped car, furnished with wicker chairs and a well-stocked -buffet. In the forward compartment were three responsible looking men -and a motorman, and one of the responsibles, a fat gentleman who did not -seem to care how his clothes looked, leaned into the parlour. - -“All ready?” he inquired, with an air of concealing a secret impression -that women had no business here. - -Tim Corman, who had carefully seen to it that he had a seat between Gail -and Arly, touched Gail on the glove. - -“Ready, thank you,” she replied, glancing brightly at the loosely -arrayed fat man, and she could see that immediately a portion of that -secret impression was removed. - -With an easy glide, which increased with surprising rapidity into -express speed, the car slid into the long, glistening tunnel, still -moist with the odours of building. - -“This is the most stunningly exclusive thing in the world!” exclaimed -Lucile Teasdale. “A private subway!” - -The Reverend Smith Boyd bent forward. All the way down to the subway -entrance he had enjoyed the reversal to that golden age where no one -says anything and everybody laughs at it. - -“To my mind that is not the greatest novelty,” he observed. “The most -enjoyable part of the journey so far has been getting into the subway -without paying a nickel.” He glanced over at Gail as he spoke, but only -Arly, Lucile and Ted laughed. Tim Corman had adroitly blocked Gail into -a corner, and was holding her attention. - -“Ed Allison’s one of the smartest boys in New York,” he enthusiastically -declared. “Did you ever see anybody as busy as he is?” - -“He seems to be a very energetic man,” Gail assented, with a sudden -remembrance of how busy Allison had always been. - -“Gets anything he goes after,” Tim informed her, and screwed one of his -many-puffed eyes into a wink; at which significant action Gail looked -out at the motorman. “Never tells his plans to anybody, nor what he -wants. Just goes and gets it.” - -“That’s a successful way, I should judge,” she responded, now able to -see the humour of Tim Corman’s volunteer mission, but a red spot -beginning to dawn, nevertheless, in either cheek. - -“Well, he’s square,” asserted Tim judicially. “Understand, he don’t care -how he gets a thing just so he gets it, but if he makes you a promise -he’ll keep it. That’s what I call square.” - -Gail nodded. She had discerned that quality in Allison. - -“What I like about him is that he always wins,” went on Tim. “Nobody in -this town has ever passed him the prunes. Do you know what he did? He -started with two miles of rust and four horse cars, and now he owns the -whole works.” - -Gail knitted her brows. She had heard something of this marvellous tale -before, and it had interested her. She had been groping for an -explanation of Allison’s tremendous force. - -“That was a wonderful achievement. How did he accomplish it?” - -“Made ’em get off and walk!” boasted Tim, with vast pride in the fact. -“Any time Eddie run across a man that had a street car line, he choked -it out of him. He’s a wizard.” - -Tim’s statement seemed to be somewhat clouded in metaphor, but Gail -managed to gather that Allison had possibly used first-principle methods -on his royal pathway to success. - -“You mean that he drove them out of business.” - -“Pushed ’em off!” and Tim’s voice was exultant. - -“I don’t think I understand business,” worried Gail. “It seems so -cruel.” - -“So is baseball, if you want to figure that it’s a shame the losers have -to take a licking,” chuckled Tim. “Anybody Allison likes is lucky,” and -with the friendly familiarity of an old man, Tim Corman patted Gail on -the glove. - -“It occurs to me that I’m neglecting my opportunities,” observed Gail, -rising. “I’m supposed to be running this car,” and going to the glass -door she looked into the motorman’s compartment, which was large, and -had seats in it, and all sorts of mysterious tools and appliances in the -middle of the floor. - -Tim Corman, as Allison’s personal representative, was right on the spot. - -“Come on out,” he invited, and opened the door, whereupon the three -responsible looking men immediately arose. - -Gail hesitated, then smiled. She turned to look at the others, half -wondering if she should invite them to come, and whether a crowd would -be welcomed, but the quartette were gathered on the observation -platform, watching the tunnel swallowing itself in a faraway point. - -“Mr. Greggory, general manager of the Municipal Transportation Company, -Miss Sargent,” introduced Tim, and the fat man bowed, with still another -portion of that secret opinion removed. “Mr. Lincoln, general engineer -of the Transportation Company, Miss Sargent,” and the thin-faced man -with the high forehead and the little French moustache, bowed, smiling -his decided approval. “Mr. McCarthy, general construction manager of the -Transportation Company, Miss Sargent,” and the red-faced man with the -big red moustache, bowed, grinning. Tim Corman led Gail forward to the -motorman, and tapped him on the shoulder. “Show her how it works, Tom,” -he directed. - -So it was that Edward E. Allison, standing quite alone on the platform -of the Hoadley Park station, saw the approaching trial trip car stop, -and run slowly, and run backwards, and dart forwards, and perform all -sorts of experimental movements, before it rushed down to his platform, -with a rosy-cheeked girl standing at the wheel, her brown eyes -sparkling, her red lips parted in a smile of ecstatic happiness, her hat -off and her waving brown hair flowing behind her in the sweep of the -wind. To one side stood a highly pleased motorman, while a short, thick -old man, and a careless fat man, and a man with a high forehead and one -with a red moustache, all smiling indulgently, clogged the space in the -rear. - -Allison boarded the car, and greeted his guests, and came straight -through to the motorman’s cage, as Gail, in response to the clang of the -bell, pulled the lever. She was just getting that easy starting glide, -and she was filled with pride in the fact. - -“You should not stand bare-headed in front of that window,” greeted -Allison, almost roughly; and he closed it. - -Gail turned very sweetly to the motorman. - -“Thank you,” she said, and gave him the lever, then she walked back into -the car. It had required some repression to avoid recognising that -dictatorial attitude, and Allison felt that she was rather distant, and -wondered what was the matter; but he was a practical minded person, and -he felt that it would soon blow over. - -“This is the deepest line in the city,” he informed her, as she led the -way back to the group in the parlour division. “Every subway we build -presents more difficult problems of construction because of the -crossings.” - -“I should think it would be most difficult,” she indifferently -responded, and hurried back to the girls. - -“I feel horribly selfish,” she confessed, slipping her arm around Lucile -on one side and Arly on the other; and the Reverend Smith Boyd, -strangely inclined to poetry these days, compared them to the Three -Graces, with Hope in the centre. They were an attractive picture for the -looking of any man; the blonde Lucile, the brown Gail, and the -black-haired Arly, all fresh-cheeked, slender, and sparkling of eye. - -“I’m glad your conscience smites you,” smiled Arly. “Wasn’t it fun?” - -“The most glorious in the world!” and Gail glanced doubtfully at Tim -Corman, who was right on the spot. - -“Come on, girls,” heartily invited Tim, who could catch a hint as fast -as any man. “I’ll introduce you to Tom,” and, profoundly happy in his -gallantry, he returned to the front of the car with a laughing blonde on -one arm and a laughing brunette on the other. - -Allison turned confidently to chat with Gail, but that young lady, -smiling on the Reverend Smith Boyd, moved back to the observation -platform, and the Reverend Smith Boyd followed the smile with alacrity. - -“I’ve been neglecting this view,” she observed, gazing out into the -rapidly diminishing perspective, then she glanced up sidewise at the -tall young rector, whose eyes were perfectly blue. - -He answered something or other, and the conversation was so obviously a -tête-à-tête that Allison remained behind. Ted Teasdale had long since -found, in the engineer, a man who knew motor boating in every phase of -its failures; so that Allison and Tim Corman were in sole possession of -the parlour compartment, and Tim looked up at Allison with a complacent -grin, as the latter sat beside him. - -“Well, Eddie, I put in a plug for you,” stated Tim, with the air of one -looking for approval. - -“How’s that?” inquired Allison, abstractedly. - -“Boosted you to the girl. Say, she’s a peach!” - -Allison looked quickly back at the platform, and then frowned down on -his zealous friend Tim. - -“What did you tell Miss Sargent about me?” - -“Don’t you worry, Eddie; it’s all right,” laughed Tim. “I hinted to her, -so that she had to get it, that you’re about the most eligible party in -New York. I let her know that no man in this village had ever skinned -you. She wanted to know how you made this big combination, and I told -her you made ’em all get off; pushed ’em off the map. Take it from me, -Eddie, after I got through, she knew where to find a happy home.” - -Allison’s brows knitted in quick anger, and then suddenly he startled -the subway with its first loud laugh. He understood now, or thought he -did, Gail’s distant attitude; but, knowing what was the matter, he could -easily straighten it out. - -“Thanks, Tim,” he chuckled. “Let’s talk business a minute. I had you -hold up the Vedder Court condemnation because I got a new idea last -night. Those buildings are unsafe.” - -“Well, the building commissioners have to make a living,” considered -Tim. - -“That’s what I think,” agreed Allison. - -Tim Corman looked up at him shrewdly out of his puffy slits of eyes, for -a moment, and considered. - -“I get you,” he said, and the business talk being concluded, Allison -went forward. - -“McCarthy,” he snapped, in a voice which grated; “what are all those -boxes back in the beginning of the ‘Y’ of the West Docks branch?” - -“Blasting material,” and McCarthy looked uncomfortable. - -“Get it out,” ordered Allison, and returned to Tim. - -The girls and Ted came back presently, and, with their arrival, Gail -brought the Reverend Smith Boyd into the crowd, thereupon they resolved -themselves into some appearance of sociability, and Allison, for the -amusement of the company, slyly started old Tim Corman into a line of -personal reminiscences, so replete in unconscious humour and so frank in -unconscious disclosure of callous knavery, that the company needed no -other entertainment. - -Out into the open, where the sun paled the electric lights of the car -into a sickly yellow, up into the air, peering into third story -tenements and down narrow alleys, aflutter with countless flapping -pieces of laundry work, then suddenly into the darkness of the tunnel -again, then out, on the surface of country fields, and dreary winter -landscape, to the terminal. It was more cosy in the tunnel, and they -returned there for lunch, while the general manager and the general -engineer and the general construction manager of the Municipal -Transportation Company, with occasional crisp visits from President -Allison, soberly discussed the condition of the line. The Reverend Smith -Boyd displayed an unexpected technical interest in that subject. He had -taken an engineering course in college, and, in fact, he had once -wavered seriously between that occupation and the Church, and he put two -or three questions so pertinent that he awakened a new respect in -Allison. Allison took the rector to the observation platform to explain -something in the construction of the receding tunnel, and as they stood -there earnestly talking, with concentrated brows and eyes searching into -each other for quick understanding, Gail Sargent was suddenly struck by -a wonder as to what makes the differences in men. Allison, slightly -stocky, standing with his feet spread sturdily apart and his hands in -his coat pockets, and his clean-cut profile slightly upturned to the -young rector, was the very epitome of force, of decisive action, of -unconquerable will. He seemed to fairly radiate resistless energy, and -as she looked, Gail was filled with the admiration she had often felt -for this exponent of the distinctively American spirit of achievement. -She had never seen the type in so perfect an example, and again there -seemed to wave toward her that indefinable thrill with which he had so -often impressed her. Was the thrill altogether pleasurable? She could -not tell, but she did know that with it there was mixed a something -which she could not quite fathom in herself. Was it dislike? No, not -that. Was it resentment? Was it fear? She asked herself that last -question again. - -The young rector was vastly different; taller and broader-shouldered, -and more erect of carriage, and fully as firm of profile, he did not -somehow seem to impress her with the strength of Allison. He was more -temperamental, and, consequently, more susceptible to change; therefore -weaker. Was that deduction correct? She wondered, for it troubled her. -She was not quite satisfied. - -Suddenly there came a dull, muffled report, like the distant firing of a -cannon; then an interval of silence, an infinitesimal one, in which the -car ran smoothly on, and, half rising, they looked at each other in -startled questioning. Then, all at once, came a stupendous roar, as if -the world had split asunder, a jolting and jerking, a headlong stoppage, -a clattering, and slapping and crashing and grinding, deafening in its -volume, and with it all, darkness; blackness so intense that it seemed -almost palpable to the touch! - -There was a single shriek, and a nervous laugh verging on hysteria. The -shriek was from Arly, and the laugh from Lucile. There was a cry from -the forward end of the car, as if some one in pain. A man’s yell of -fright; Greggory the general manager. A strong hand clutched Gail’s in -the darkness, firm, reassuring. The rector. - -“Don’t move!” it was the voice of Allison, crisp, harsh, commanding. - -“Anybody hurt?” Tim Corman, the voice of age, but otherwise steady. One -could sense, somehow, that he sat rigid in his chair, with both hands on -his cane. - -“It’s me,” called Tom, the motorman. “Head cut a little, arm bruised. -Nothing bad.” - -“Gail?” Allison again. - -“Yes.” Clear voiced, with the courage which has no sex. - -“Mrs. Teasdale? Mrs. Fosland?” - -Both all right, one a trifle sharp of voice, the other nervous. - -“Ted? Doctor Boyd?” and so through the list. Everybody safe. - -“It is an accidental blast,” said the voice of Allison. He had figured -that a concise statement of just what had happened might expedite -organisation. “We are below the Farmount Ridge, over a hundred feet -deep, and the tube has caved in on us. There must be no waste of -exertion. Don’t move until I find what electrical dangers there are.” - -They obeyed his admonition not to move, even to the extent of silence; -for there was an instinct that Allison might need to hear minutely. He -made his way into the front compartment, he called the chief engineer. -There was a clanking of the strange looking implements on the floor of -the car. A match flared up, and showed the pale face of the engineer -bending over. - -“No matches,” ordered Allison. “We may need the oxygen.” - -He and the engineer made their way back into the parlour compartment. -They took up the door of the motor well in the floor, and in a few -minutes they replaced it. From the sounds they seemed remarkably clumsy. - -“That much is lucky,” commented Allison. “The next thing is to dig.” - -They were quiet a moment. - -“In front or behind?” wondered the engineer. - -Again a pause. - -“In front,” decided Allison. “The explosion came from that direction, -and has probably shaken down more of the soil there than behind, but -it’s solid clay in the rear, and further out.” - -Gail felt the rector’s hand suddenly leave her own. It had been -wonderfully comforting there in the dark; so firm and warm and steady. -He had not talked much to her, just a few reassuring words, in that low, -melodious voice, which thrilled her as did occasionally the touch of -Allison’s hand, as did the eyes of Dick Rodley. But she had received -more strength from the voice of Allison. He was big, Allison, a power, a -force, a spirit of command. She began, for the first time, to comprehend -his magnitude. - -“What have we to dig with?” The voice of the Reverend Smith Boyd, and -there was a note of eagerness in it. - -“The benches up in front here,” yelled McCarthy, and there was a ripping -sound as he tore the seat from one of them. - -“Pardon me.” It was the voice of the rector, up in front. - -“The balance of you sit down, and keep rested,” ordered Allison, now -also up in front. “McCarthy, Boyd and I go first.” - -The long struggle began. The girls grouped together in the back of the -car, moving but very little, for there was much broken glass about. Up -in front the three men could be heard making an opening into the débris -through the forward windows. They talked a great deal, at first, strong, -capable voices. They were interfering with each other, then helping, -combining their strength to move heavy stones and the like, then they -were silent, working independently, or in effective unison. - -Tim Corman was the possessor of a phosphorescent-faced watch, with -twenty-two jewels on the inside and a ruby on the winding stem, and he -constituted himself timekeeper. - -“Thirty minutes,” he called out. “It’s our shift.” - -“You’d better save yourself, Tim,” suggested Greggory, in a kindly tone. - -“I’ll do as much as any of you!” growled old Tim, with the will, if not -the quality, of youth in his voice. “Will one of you girls take care of -my rings?” and stripping them from his fingers, he laid them carefully -in the outstretched hands of Arly. There was a good handful of them. - -The men crawled in from outside, but they stayed in the front -compartment. The air was growing a trifle close, and they breathed -heavily. - -“Good-bye Girl,” called the gaily funereal voice of Ted Teasdale. -“Husband is going to work.” - -“Put on your gloves,” Lucile reminded him. - -“Greggory,” called Allison. - -“Here,” responded the careless fat man. “How did you find it?” - -“Loose,” reported Allison, and there was a sound suspiciously like -grunting, as Greggory crawled through the narrow opening. - -Another interminable wait, while the air grew more stifling. There was -no further levity after Lincoln and the motorman and McCarthy had come -back; for the condition was becoming serious. Some air must undoubtedly -be finding its way to the car through the loose débris, but the carbonic -acid gas exhaled from a dozen pairs of lungs was beginning to pocket, -and the opening ahead, though steadily pushing forward, displayed no -signs of lessening solidity. - -They established shorter shifts now; a quarter of an hour. The men came -silently in and out, and as silently worked, and as silently rested, -while the girls carried that heavy burden of women’s hardest labour; -waiting! - -Greggory was the first to give out, then the injured motorman. When -their turns came, they had not the strength nor the air in their lungs. -Strong McCarthy was the next to join them. - -The shifts had reduced to two, of two men each by now; Ted and old Tim, -and Allison and the rector; and these latter two worked double time. -Their lips and their tongues were parched and cracking, and in their -periods of rest they sat motionlessly facing each other, with a wheeze -in the drawing of their breath. Their stentorian breathing could be -heard from the forward end of their little tunnel clear back into the -car, where the three girls were battling to preserve their senses -against the poisonous gases which were now all that they had to breathe. -Acting on the rector’s advice, they had stood up in the car to escape -the gradually rising level of the carbonic gas, stood, as the time -progressed, with their mouths agape and their breasts heaving and sharp -pains in their lungs at every breath. Arly dropped, silently crumpling -to the floor; then, a few minutes later, Lucile, and, panic-stricken by -the thought that they had gone under, Gail felt her own senses reeling, -when suddenly, looking ahead through eyes which were staring, she saw a -crack of blessed light! - -There was a hoarse cry from ahead! The crack of light widened. Another -one appeared, some four feet to the right of it, and Gail already -fancied that she could feel a freshening of the air she breathed with -such tearing pain. Against the light of the openings, two figures, the -only two which were left to work, strove, at first with the slow, limp -motions of exhaustion, and then with the renewed vigour of approaching -triumph. She could distinguish them clearly now, by the light which -streamed in, the stocky, strong figure of Allison and the tall, sinewy -figure of the rector. They were working frantically, Allison with his -coat off, and the rector with his coat and vest both removed, and one -sleeve torn almost entirely from his shirt, revealing his swelling -biceps, and a long, red scratch. Gail’s senses were numbed, so that they -were reduced to almost merely optical consciousness, so that she saw -things photographically; but, even in her numbness, she realised that -what she had thought a trace of weakness in the rector, was only the -grace which had rounded his strength. - -The two figures bent inward toward each other. There was a moment of -mighty straining, and then the whole centre between the two cracks -rolled away. A huge boulder had barred the path, and its removal let -down a rush of pure, fresh air from the ground above, let down, too, a -flood of dazzling light; and in the curving, under-rim of the opening, -stood the two stalwart men who were the survival of the fittest! The -mere instinct of self-preservation drove Gail forward, with a cry, -toward the source of that life-giving air, and she scrambled through the -window and ran toward the two men. They came hurriedly down to meet her, -and each gave her a hand. - - - - - CHAPTER XIV - THE FREE AND ENTIRELY UNCURBED - - -Gail Sargent became suddenly and acutely aware of an entirely new and -ethnological subdivision of the human race. She had known of Caucasians, -Mongolians, Ethiopians, and the others, but now she was to meet the -representatives of the gay, carefree, and entirely uncurbed metropolitan -press! They figuratively swarmed from the ground, dropped from the -eaves, and wriggled from under the rugs! - -Immediately after Gail had reached home from the accident in the subway, -and had been put to bed and given tea, and had repeatedly assured the -doctor there was nothing the matter with her, they brought, at her -urgent request, copies of the “extras,” which were already being yelled -from every street corner and down every quiet residence block. - -The accounts were, in the main, more or less accurate, barring the fact -that they started with the assumption that there had been one hundred in -Allison’s party, all killed. Later issues, however, regretfully reduced -the number of dead to forty, six, and finally none, at which point they -became more or less coherent, and gave an exact list of the people who -were there, the cause of the accident, and a most appreciatively -accentuated history of the heroic work of the men. Although she -regretted that her picture had by this time crept into the public -prints, grouped with the murders and defalcations of the day, she was -able to overlook this personal discomfort as one of the minor penalties -which civilisation has paid for its progress; like electric light bugs -and electric fan neuralgia, and the smell of gasolene. - -Long before this period, however, the reporters had tracked her to her -lair; so long before, in fact, that there had been three of them waiting -on the doorstep when she was brought into the house, eager young men, -with a high spirit of reverence and delicacy, which was concentrated -entirely on their jobs. They would have held her on the doorstep until -she fainted or dropped dead, if, by so doing, they could have secured -one statement, or hint of a statement, upon which they could have -fastened something derogatory to her reputation, or the reputation of -any of her family or friends; for that was great stuff, and what the -public wanted; and they would have photographed her gleefully in the -process of expiring. Aunt Helen Davies, being a woman of experience, -snatched Gail into the house before they had taken more than eight or -nine photographs of her, but, from that instant, the doorbell became a -nuisance and the telephone bell a torture! Both were finally -disconnected, but, at as late an hour as one A.M., the house was -occasionally assaulted. - -By that time Gail had telegrams of frantic inquiry from all her friends -back home, including the impulsive Clemmens, and particularly including -a telegram from her mother, stating that that highly agitated lady could -not secure a reservation on the first train on account of its being -Saturday night, but that she would start on the fast eleven-thirty the -next morning, whereat Gail kissed the telegram, and cried a little, and -gave way to the moist joy of homesickness. - -In the meantime, the representatives of the gay and carefree and -absolutely uncurbed metropolitan press, were by no means discouraged by -the fact that they had not been able to secure much, except hectic -imaginings from the exterior of the Sargent house. They were busy in -every other possible direction, with the same commendable persistence -which we observe in an ant trying to drag a grasshopper up and down a -cornstalk on the way home. They secured a straight story from Allison, a -modest one from the rector, and variously viewed experiences from other -male members of the party, and collected huge piles of photographs, -among them the charming pictures of Gail, which had previously been -printed on the innocent pages of arrivals at Palm Beach and the Riviera -and other fashionable winter resorts, the whole spread being headed -“What Society Is Doing.” - -So far the explosion editors of the various papers had seen nothing to -particularly commend in the work of their fevered emissaries, and even -the heavy-jawed genius who gathered, from silent cogitation over four -cigarettes and a quart of beer, the purple fiction that the explosion -had cracked the walls of every subway in the city, which were likely to -cave in at any time, only received the compliment of a grateful grunt. - -Little Miss Piper, of the _Morning Planet_, however, was possessed of a -better thought. She was a somewhat withered and puckered little woman, -who had sense enough to dress so as to excite nothing but pity, and she -quietly slipped on her ugly little bonnet with the funny ribbon bow in -the back, and hurried out to the magnificent residence of Mrs. Phyllis -Worthmore, who loathed publicity and had photographs taken once a month -for the purpose. - -Mrs. Phyllis Worthmore was invariably sweet and gracious to working -women, for, after all, they were her sisters, you know; and she excused -herself from a caller in order to meet little Miss Piper in Mr. -Worthmore’s deserted den. Mrs. Worthmore was highly agitated over the -news of the explosion, and she required no particular urging to jabber -on and on about her dear friends who had been in that terrible -catastrophe, and she was ultra enthusiastic when the name of Gail was -mentioned. - -“Oh, Miss Sargent is quite the sensation of the season!” she gushed. -“Her people are fairly well to do, I believe; but her beauty makes up -for the absence of any extravagant fortune. It is commonly conceded that -none of the eligibles in our set are available until Miss Sargent has -made her choice. Positively all of them are at her feet!” and, at -puckered little Miss Piper’s later request, she lightly enumerated a few -of the eligibles in their set; after which Miss Piper took to furtive -glances at her watch, and to feeling the excessively modulated voice of -Mrs. Phyllis Worthmore pounding into her brain like the clatter of a -watchman’s rattle. - -The result of that light-hearted and light-headed interview, in which -Mrs. Phyllis Worthmore, by special request, was not quoted, suddenly -sprang on the startled eyes of Gail, when she leaped through the _Sunday -Morning Planet_ at eight o’clock next morning. An entire page, -embellished in the centre with a beautifully printed photograph, was -devoted to the sensational beauty from the middle-west! Around her were -grouped nine smaller photographs; Allison, Dick Rodley, Willis -Cunningham, Houston Van Ploon, the Reverend Smith Boyd, a callow youth -who had danced with her three times, a Count who had said “How do you -do?” and sailed for Europe, and two men whom she had never met. All -these crack eligibles were classified under the general head of “Slaves -to Her Witching Smile,” and a big, boxed-in list was given, in extremely -black-faced type, stating, in dollars and cents, the exact value in the -matrimonial market of each slave; and the lively genius who had put -together this symposium, by a toweringly happy thought conceived in the -very height of the rush hours, totalled the whole, and gave it as the -commercial worth of Gail’s beauty and charm. It ran into thirteen -figures, including the dollar mark and the two ciphers for cents. - -Nor was this all! A lightning fingered artist had depicted, at the -bottom of the group, outline sketches of the nine suitors, on their -knees in a row, holding up, towards the beautiful picture of Gail in the -centre, their hearts in one hand and their bags of money in the other; -and, even though overworked, the artist had not forgotten to put the -Cross of the Legion of Honour on the breast of the Count, nor the sparse -Van Dyke on Willis Cunningham. Flowing with further facile fancy, he had -embellished the upper right-hand corner of the group with an extremely -lithe and slim-waisted drawing of the streaming haired Gail, as a siren -fishing in the sea; and the sea, represented by many frothing curls, -was, in the upper left-hand corner, densely populated by foolish little -gold fish, rushing eagerly to the dangling bait of the siren. Any one of -the parties mentioned could have sued the _Planet_ for libel; but they -would not, and they would have been made highly ridiculous if they had, -which was the joke of the whole matter, and left the metropolitan press -more and more highly uncurbed; which was a right sturdily to be -maintained in a land of free speech! - -When Lucile Teasdale and Arly Fosland arrived at Jim Sargent’s house at -ten o’clock, and had been let in at the side entrance, they found Gail -dabbing her eyes with a powder puff, taken from a little black -travelling bag which stood open at her side. Arlene was a second later -than Lucile in clasping Gail in her arms, because she had to lift a -travelling veil. The two girls expressed their condolence and their -horror of the outrage, and volubly poured out more sympathy; then they -sat down and shrieked with laughter. - -“It’s too awful for words!” gasped Lucile. “But it is funny, too.” - -Gail’s chin quivered. - -“There should be a law against such things,” she broken-heartedly -returned, in a voice which wavered and halted with the echoes of recent -sobs. - -“I’ll put the _Planet_ out of business!” stormed Jim Sargent, stalking -up and down the library, with his fists clenched and his face purple. -“I’ll bankrupt them!” and he paused, as he passed, to reassuringly pat -the shoulder of poor Aunt Grace, who sat perfectly numb holding one -thumb until the bone ached. Her eyes were frankly red, and the creases -of worry had set into her brow so deeply that they must have scarred her -skull. “I’ll hunt up the whelp who wrote that stuff, and the cur who -drew it, and the dog who inserted it!” frothed the raging Jim. “I’ll—” - -“The press is the palladium of our national liberty, Uncle Jim,” drawled -the soothing voice of Ted. - -“You can’t do a thing about it,” counselled Gerald Fosland, a stiff -looking gentleman who never made a mistake of speech, or manner, or -attire. - -“Shucks, Gail!” suddenly remembered Lucile. “The big Faulker reception -is this week, and your gown was to be so stunning. Don’t go home!” - -Mrs. Helen Davies cast on her feather-brained daughter a glance of -severe reproof. - -“Have you no sense of propriety, Lucile?” she warned. “Gail, very -naturally, can not remain here under the circumstances. It does great -credit to her that, immediately upon realising this horrible occurrence, -she telegraphed to her mother, without consulting any of us, that she -was returning.” - -“I just wanted to go home,” said Gail, her chin quivering and her pretty -throat tremulous with breath pent from sobbing. - -“It’ll all blow over, Gail,” argued Uncle Jim, in deep distress because -she was going so soon. If she had only stopped long enough to pack up, -they might have persuaded her to stay. “Just forget it, and have a good -time.” - -“Jim,” ordered the stern voice of Aunt Helen, “will you be kind enough -to see if any one is out in front?” - -“Certainly,” agreed Jim, wondering why his wife’s sister was suddenly so -severe with him. - -“It’s time to start,” called Ted, with practised wisdom allowing ten -minutes for good-byes, parting instructions, and forgotten messages. - -The adieus were said. Aunt Grace, clasping Gail in her arms, began to -sob, out of a full heart and a general need for the exercise. Gerald -Fosland took the hand of his wife and kissed it, in most gallant -fashion. - -“I shall miss you dreadfully, my dear,” he stated. - -“I shall be thinking of you,” responded Arlene, adjusting her veil. - -Mrs. Davies drew Arlene into the drawing room. - -“It was so sweet of you to agree to accompany Gail,” she observed. “It -would be useless to attempt to influence her now, but I look to you to -bring her back in a week. Her prospects are really too brilliant to be -interrupted by an unfortunate episode of this nature.” - - - - - CHAPTER XV - BUT WHY WAS SHE LONESOME? - - -Everybody was at the depot to meet Gail; just everybody in the world! It -was midnight when the train rolled in, and, as she came toward the gate, -the faces outside, with the high station lights beaming down upon their -eagerness, were like a flashing dream of all the faces she had ever -loved. Of course there was her mother, a little stiff, a little sedate, -a little reserved, but, under her calm exterior, fluttering with a flood -of pent-up emotion. There was her father, a particularly twinkling-eyed -gentleman, a somewhat thinner, somewhat older, somewhat neater edition -of Uncle Jim, and he had, of all things, her favourite collie, Taffy, -perched high on his shoulder! It was from her father that Gail had her -vivacity and from her mother her faculty of introspection. Dazed by the -unexpected delight, and the pain, too, of seeing all these dear old -faces, she was for picking them out in detail, when Taffy made a blur of -them. Taffy, suddenly recognising his playfellow in the throng, first -deafened Miles Sargent with a series of welcoming barks, and then began -climbing up his back. Sargent, always gifted with the capacity for -over-estimating his own powers, a quality which had permitted his -brother Jim to slightly outrun him in the game of life, had fondly hoped -that he could restrain Taffy by the firm hold of the forepaws over his -shoulder; but collies are endowed with a separate set of muscles for -wriggling purposes alone, and the first thing Miles Sargent knew, Taffy -had crawled right over him, and had kicked off from his cravat, and had -shot straight through the outcoming throng, a flash of yelping brown and -white, brushing over a woman with a basket, and landing against Gail -with the force of all his lively affection. - -That was only the beginning of the impetuosity with which she was -received at home. She had never realised that she had quite so many -friends, and even the people in the street seemed familiar, as she was -bundled out to the car, with Arly smiling steadfastly in the background -and remembered only at intervals. They looked more substantial and -earnest and sincere and friendly, these people, than the ones with whom -she had been recently associated. They were more polished in New York, -more sure of themselves, more indifferent to the great mass of their -fellow humanity, but here one could be trustful. It was so good to be -home! - -Of course Howard was there, just the same old Howard, and he bustled up -to her with the same old air of proprietorship, quite as if nothing had -ever happened to disturb their relations. It was he who took her by the -arm and engineered her out to her father’s car. At first she was puzzled -by his air of having a right to boss her around, and then the reason -flashed on her mind. Pride! Howard did not want their set to know that -he was no longer drum major in the Sargent procession. - -“There’s a wad of roses at the house for you, Snapsy,” her father -informed her as the machine started, and his brown eyes twinkled until -they almost seemed to be surrounded by a halo. “They’re from number one, -I think.” - -“Number one?” puzzled Gail, who had taken a folding seat so that she -might occasionally pat Taffy, who sat up sedately with the chauffeur. - -“Miles,” protested Mrs. Sargent, trying to direct his glance toward -Arly. - -“Edward E. Allison,” grinned Gail’s father. “He must be a very active -gentleman. Probably telephoned his own florist in New York to telegraph -Marty here to supply you. Nothing has arrived from the other eight.” - -Gail had a mad impulse to search for her time table. She remembered -now—could she ever forget it—that her nine slaves had been numbered! - -“Dad!” she wailed. “You couldn’t have seen that awful paper!” - -“We receive the New York papers now at four P.M.,” he informed her, with -an assumption of local pride in the fact. “This morning’s _Planet_ had a -wonderful circulation here. I think everybody in town has seen it.” - -Arly Fosland had the bad grace to giggle. Mrs. Sargent looked at her -dubiously. She had, of course, implicit confidence in Gail’s selection -of friends, but nevertheless she was not one to make up her own mind too -rapidly. - -“Everybody’s proud of you, Snapsy!” went on Miles Sargent. “That’s a -wonderful collection of slaves to have made in so short a time.” - -“Please don’t, Dad!” begged Gail. - -“For myself, I favour number five,” continued her father, enjoying -himself very much, and Arly Fosland made up her mind that she was going -to feel very homelike in the Sargent house, at dinner times. “Number -five is—” - -“Miles!” and Mrs. Sargent put her hand comfortingly on Gail’s knee, -while she turned reproachful eyes on her husband. - -“Why, Judith,” protested Mrs. Sargent’s husband, in mock surprise; -“number five—” - -“Dad, I’ll jump out of this car!” - -“—is the Reverend Smith Boyd, of Market Square Church, the wealthiest -and most fashionable congregation in the world. Number six—Mrs. Fosland, -I couldn’t make out number six very well. I suppose you know him.” - -Arly shrieked. - -“I can tell you all about them,” she volunteered, judging that this was -perhaps the best way to relieve Gail’s embarrassment. “Number one, the -gentleman who sent the flowers, is a good-looking bachelor of -forty-five, whose specialty is in making big street car companies out of -little ones, and Gail hadn’t been in New York a week, when he took the -first vacation he’s had in ten years. He’ll probably go back to work -to-morrow morning. He was the hero of the wreck.” - -“No doubt a good provider,” commented Mr. Sargent, gravely checking off -number one. - -Even Mrs. Sargent was smiling now, but Gail was looking interestedly at -the old familiar street, and marvelling that it had changed so little. -It seemed impossible that she had only been gone a few weeks. She was -particularly not hearing the flippant conversation in the car. - -“Number two is Dick Rodley,” enumerated Arly, remembering vividly the -grouping of the nine slaves. “He’s the handsomest man in the world!” - -“Probably fickle.” - -“Number three, Willis Cunningham. He wears a beard. I’d rather talk -about number four, Houston Van Ploon,” and she babbled on with her -descriptions of the nine slaves, until finally Gail laughed and helped -her out. - -Somehow, the returned wanderer felt lonely, even with three cars of -friends following her home, as a guard of honour. That was a strange -sensation. Everything was the same, all her friends were steadfast in -their affection, and she was overjoyed to be back among them; yet she -was lonely. Who could explain it? - -Here was Main Street. Dear old busy Main Street, with its shops and its -hotels and its brilliantly lighted drugstores, the latter only serving -to accentuate the deserted blackness. She was sorry that she had not -arrived at an earlier hour, when the windows would have been lighted and -the streets busier with people; though, of course, it was always dull on -Sunday night. Cricky! Sunday! She had an engagement with Houston Van -Ploon to attend a concert to-night, and she had forgotten to send him -word. He had been at Uncle Jim’s, stiff as a ramrod and punctual to the -second, of course. - -Taffy, who had been whining his newly re-aroused distress over the -absence of Gail, now suddenly remembered that she was home again, and -turned around with a short, sharp bark. He stuck out his tongue and -rolled it at her, laughing, and his tail flopped. He quivered all over. - -Now up the avenue, the dear old wide avenue, with its double rows of -trees and its smooth asphalt, glistening like sprinkling rain from the -quartz sand embedded in its surface, and with the prosperous looking -brown stone houses lining each side of the way, every house with its -lawn and its shrubbery and its glass-doored vestibule. They were nearly -all alike these houses, even to lawns and shrubbery, except that some of -them had no iron dogs in the grass, and others had no little white -cupids holding up either a goose spouting water out of its mouth or an -umbrella which furnished its own rain. They were dear houses, every one, -ever so much more personal than the heartless residences of New York; -and her friends lived in them. It was so good to be home! - -She became more excited now. There was their own house just ahead, -occupying nearly half the block, and slightly larger than the others! It -was brilliantly lighted from the basement to the attic, and all the -servants were either on the front steps or peeping from around the -corner of the house, and old mammy Emma, who had cooked Gail’s own -little individual custard pies since she was a baby, had her apron to -her eyes. Gail’s heart was just plumb full! There was no place, oh, no -place in all the world like home! - -Taffy jumped out of the machine as it turned in at the gate, and ran up -ahead to bark a proper welcome, and touched the top step with a circle -like a whip-snapper, and was back again, a long brown and white streak -bellying down to the grass, and prancing a circle around the machine, -and leaping in the air to bark, and back up to the steps and back to the -machine; then lay down in the grass and rolled over, and, jumping up, -chased a cat out of the next yard, in the mere exuberance of joy; but -was back again to crouch before Gail, and whine, as she stepped out of -the car. - -Old Plympton was there, the hollow-stomached black butler, whose -long-tailed coat dropped straight from the middle of his back, and -flapped against the bend of his knees when he walked. His voice trembled -when he greeted Miss Gail, and old Auntie Clem, who had tended Miss Gail -when she was a little girl no bigger than that, and until the fancy -French maid came, just politely took her young missus upstairs to her -room, and took off those heavy shoes, and made her drink her thimble -glass of hot-spiced port wine. It was so good to be home! - -Of course her friends had piled into the house after her, a whole -chattering mob of them, and, late as the hour was, Vivian Jennings -opened the piano and rattled into Auld Lang Syne, which the company sang -with a ringing zest! The tears filled Gail’s eyes as she listened. They -were such faithful, whole-hearted people back here! It was good to go -away, now and then, just for the joy of coming home again; but one -should not go too often. After all, this was a better life. - -Auntie Clem triumphed. She had Miss Gail all fixed up before that fancy -French maid had on her trifling little cap and her hair primped. Arly, -choosing Auntie Clem instantly for her personal attendant on this brief -visit, naturally refused to intrude further on the home coming, and -expressed herself as frantically in love with her little blue bedroom -and boudoir. - -When Gail went downstairs, in a comfortable little red house gown which -was tremendously artful in its simplicity, she found the whole jolly -company in the big dining room, where Miles Sargent had insisted on -opening something in honour of the happy event. She coloured as her -father turned his twinkling eyes on her, but he did not take occasion to -call her a slave driver or to tease her any further about the work of -art which had driven her home. She reproached herself crossly for having -suspected him of such a crudity. Of course he would not do that! - -They had sandwiches, and olives, and cake, and cookies—trust Mammy Emma -for that—and nuts and fruit and bonbons, and coffee, and champagne. -Everybody was excited, walking around with a sandwich in one hand and an -olive in the other, joking with Gail, and complimenting her, and teasing -her, but in every word and look and action, showing that they loved her. - -She had a new knowledge of them, an understanding of what it is like to -have a whole circle of friends who have grown up from childhood -together. They understood each other, and knew each other’s weaknesses -and faults, so that they were not shocked when they saw evidences of -them, and they knew each other’s virtues, so that they did not -overestimate anything and look for too much, and they were dependent -upon each other and knew it, and they were loyal; that was it! Loyal! -Loyal to the very core! It was good, so good to be home! - -No one thought anything about it when Howard Clemmens stayed behind, -after all the rest had gone home. Howard had always done that. It was -his right. - -Howard was distressed in his mind about several things, and, out of a -habitual acquiescence in his old assumption of leadership, and because -she was tired, and because she was tender of thought toward all her old -friends, she answered his very direct questions. Yes, she had finished -her visit. No, she was not engaged. That atrocious newspaper article had -only been a regular Sunday paper social sensation. They fastened that -sort of a story on some one at least once a year. These little matters -settled, Howard was himself again. He was very glad that Gail had -returned to her normal mode of existence, and now that all this -foolishness was over, he took the earliest opportunity to mention the -little matter between them. Would Gail reconsider her answer to the -question he had asked her in New York? He informed her fully as to the -state of his affections, which had not changed in the least, and he -rather expected that this magnanimous attitude on his part would meet -with melting appreciation. He was very much astonished that it did not, -and displeased when she refused him again. Confound it, he had not given -her time to settle down! - -She was only slightly troubled when he bade her good-night. She was -sorry that she could not see the matter as he did, but there was no -trace of doubt in her mind. Somehow, Howard seemed rather colourless of -late. He was a dear, good boy; but she was not the kind of a girl he -needed. - -With only as much trouble on her brow as could be smoothed away by her -fingertips, she went back into the dining room, where her father, who -liked to have a table near him, was enjoying an extra cup of coffee with -his cigar, and shedding the mild disapproval of Mrs. Sargent, who -foresaw a restless night for him. Gail, who had not spared time for -food, poured herself a glass of water, picked up one of the delicious -little chicken sandwiches, and sat down, within easy leaning distance of -her father, for one of the good, old-time, comfortable family chats. -Taffy curled around her feet, and the group was complete. - -Somehow, that inexplicable feeling of loneliness returned to her, in the -midst of this most dear intimacy. What was it? No one can form far ties -without leaving behind some enduring thread of spiritual communication; -for better or for worse. - - - - - CHAPTER XVI - GAIL AT HOME - - -“I hear Miss Gail’s back home.” It was the ice man. He had given her -slivers of ice in the days when she had wished that she were a boy. - -“Yassum.” Mammy Emma. She said “Yassum” to everybody; men, women, and -children. - -Gail, still snuggled in the pillows, smiled affectionately, and knew -what time it was. She reached lazily out and pressed the button. - -“Prettier than ever, I suppose.” A slam and a bang and a rattle of -crockery. - -“Heaps.” The clink of a muffin pan. Gail knew the peculiar sound from -that of all the other pans in the house. “I thought I done tole you -yeahs ago to saw that ice straight. Does it fit that away?” - -“All right, Emma.” The slam of a lid. “I’ll remember it next time. Miss -Gail home for good?” - -“Praise the Lawd, yes.” - -The clank of ice tongs. - -“She’s a fine girl!” This with profound conviction. “She didn’t get her -head turned and marry any of those rich New Yorkers.” - -“She could if she’d ‘a’ wanted to!” This indignantly. - -“Sure she could.” Sounds of a heavy booted iceman coming down the steps -of the kitchen porch. “New York papers said she could have her pick; but -she come back home.” - -Gail’s maid came in, a neat French girl who had an artist’s delight in -her. She shivered and closed the windows. - -“Arly!” - -“Good morning,” came a cheerful voice through three open doors. “I’m up -hours,” and Arly trotted in, fresh-eyed and smiling, clad in a rich blue -velvet boudoir robe and her black hair braided down her back. “I peeped -in a few minutes ago, but you were sound asleep. I want my coffee.” - -“You poor infant,” and Gail promptly slid two pink feet out of bed to be -slippered by Nanette. “I’ll be ready in a minute. Why didn’t you ring?” - -“I did. Aunty Clem was up and took all the burden of living away from -me. I wouldn’t have coffee by myself, though. I get that at home,” and -there was the slightest trace of wistfulness in her tone. - -“Call Clem again,” directed Gail. “Shall we have it in your -dressing-room or mine?” - -“All over both suites,” laughed Arly. “I shall never have enough of -these beautiful little rooms,” and she hurried back to her own quarters, -to summons, once more, the broadly smiling face of Aunty Clem. - -That was the beginning of the first morning at home, with every -delightful observance just as it had used to be; first the fragrant -coffee, and the pathetically good hot muffins and jam; then the romping, -laughing, splashing process of dressing; then interrupted by a visit -from Mrs. Sargent, and from Taffy, and from Vivian Jennings, who lived -next door, and from Madge Frazier, who had stayed the night with Vivian; -then a race out to the stables, to say good morning to the horses, and -laughing with moist eyes, hear their excited whinnies of greeting, and -slip them lumps of sugar; then to the kennels to be half smothered by -the eager collies; then over to Vivian’s, to surround deaf old -grandmother Jennings with the flowers she loved best, the faces of young -girls; then back to the house and the telephone, for a cheery good -morning to everybody in the world, beginning with Dad, who was already -plugging away in his office, the morning half gone, and looking forward -to lunch. - -Breakfast at eleven, a brisk horseback ride, a change, and Gail’s little -grey electric was at the door. There was a tremendous lot of shopping to -be done. To begin with, sixteen new hair ribbons, and nine fancy -marbles, not the big ones that you can’t use, but the regular -unattainable fifteen centers, and twenty-five pears, and twenty-five -small boxes of candy, and eleven pound packages of special tea, and six -pound packages of special tobacco, and one quart of whiskey, and -eighteen bunches of red carnations, five to the bunch, five grouping -better than four or six. None of these things were to be delivered. Gail -piled them all in her coupé, and, after saying “howdydo” to about -everybody on Main Street, and feeling immensely uplifted thereby, she -inserted Arly in among the carnations and pears and tobacco and things, -and whirled her out to Chickentown, which was the actively devilish -section of the city allotted to Gail’s church work. - -There were those of the guild who made of this religious duty a solemn -and serious task, to be entered upon with sweet piety and uplifting -words; but Gail had solved her problem in a fashion which kept -Chickentown from hating her and charity. She distributed flowers and -pears and tobacco and things, and perfectly human smiles, and a few -commonsense observations when they seemed to be necessary, and scoldings -where they seemed due, and it was a lasting tribute to her diplomacy and -popularity that all the new born babies in the district were named -either Gail or Gale. - -Chickentown lay in a smoky triangle, entirely surrounded by railroad -yards and boiler factories and packing houses and the like, and it was -as feudal in its instincts as any stronghold of old. Its womenfolk would -not market where the Black Creek women marketed, its men would not drink -in the same saloons, and its children came home scarred and prowed from -gory battles with the Black Creek gang; yet, in their little cottages -and in their tiny yards was the neatness of local pride, which had -sprung up immediately after Gail had inaugurated the annual front yard -flower prize system. - -No sooner had the familiar coupé crossed the Black Creek bridge than a -yell went up, which could be heard echoing and reverberating from street -to street throughout the entire domain of Chickentown! One block inside -the fiefdom, the progress of the car was impeded by exactly twenty-five -children. By some miracle they all arrived at nearly the same time, the -only difference being that those who had come the farthest were the most -out of breath. Gail jumped out among them, and twenty-five right hands -went straight up in the air. She inspected the hands critically, one by -one, and, by that inspection alone, divided the mobs into two groups, -the clean handed ones, who were mostly girls, and the dirty-handed ones, -who looked sorry. She shook hands with the first group, and she smiled -on both, and she distributed hair ribbons and marbles and pears and -candy with cordial understanding. - -“It doesn’t do for me to be away so long,” she confessed, looking them -over regretfully. “I don’t believe you are as clean.” - -Those who were as clean looked consciously hurt, but for the most part -they looked guilty; and Gail apologised individually, to those who -merited it. - -“Now we’ll hear the troubles,” she announced; “and you must hurry. The -cleanest first.” - -Twenty-five hands went up, and she picked out the cleanest, a neat -little girl with yellow hair and blue eyes and a prim little walk, who -shyly came forward alone out of the group and wiggled her interlocked -fingers behind her, while Gail sat in the door of her coupé and held her -court. - -A half-whispered conversation; a genuine trouble, and some sound and -sensible advice. Yellow Hair did not like her school-teacher; and what -was she to do about it? A difficult problem that, and while Gail was -inculcating certain extremely cautious lessons of mingled endurance and -diplomacy, which would have been helpful to grown-ups as well as to -yellow-haired little girls, and which Gail reflected that she might -herself use with profit, Arly, with an entirely new sort of smile in her -softened eyes, walked over to the chattering group, all of whom had -troubles to relate, and asked a boy to have a bill changed for her into -quarter dollars. The boy looked at his hand. - -“I guess I won’t be next for a long time,” and taking the bill ran for -the candy shop, which was nearest. There were seven places of retail -business in Chickentown, and since they dealt mostly in coppers, he -expected to be a long time on this errand. - -Arly watched Gail handle the case of a particularly black-eyed little -girl, whose brother was getting too big to play with her any more; and -she grew wistful. - -“Do you mind if I hear a few troubles, Gail?” she requested. - -“Help yourself,” was the laughing reply. “I think there’s enough to go -around.” - -“I’ll begin at the other end,” decided Arly. “Put up your hands, -kiddies,” and they went up slowly. She conscientiously picked the -dirtiest one, but the boy who owned it came forward with a reluctance -which was almost sullen. - -“I druther tell Miss Gail,” he frankly informed her. - -“Of course,” Arly immediately agreed, smiling down into his eyes with -more charm than she had seen fit to exert on anybody in many months. -“But you can tell Miss Gail about it afterwards, if you like, or you -might tell me your littlest trouble and save your biggest one for Miss -Gail.” - -“I ain’t got but one,” responded the boy, and he looked searchingly into -Arly’s black eyes. Her being pretty, like Gail, was a recommendation. - -“There’s a kid over in Black Creek that I used to lick; but now he’s got -me faded.” - -From his intensity, this was a serious trouble, and Arly considered it -seriously. - -“Does he fight fairly?” she asked, and that one question alone showed -that she knew the first principles of human life and conduct, which was -rare in a girl or woman of any type. - -He came a step closer, and looked up into her eyes with all his -reservation gone. - -“Yessum,” he confessed, and there was something of a clutch in his -throat which would never grow up to be a sob, but which would have been -one in a girl. He’d rather have lied, but you couldn’t get any useful -advice that way. - -“Maybe he’s growing faster than you.” - -“Yessum. I eat all the oatmeal they give me, and I take trainin’ runs -every evening after school, clear up to Scraggers Park and back; but it -don’t do any good.” - -Arly pondered. - -“When does he lick you?” she asked. - -“Right after supper when he catches me.” - -“Do you play all day?” - -“I go to school.” - -“Baseball?” - -“Yessum. Baseball, and one-old-cat, and two-old-cat, and rounders, and -marbles, and prisoner’s base, and high-spy, but mostly baseball and -marbles.” - -Arly studied the future citizen with the eye of a practical physical -culturist, who knew exactly how she had preserved her clear complexion -and lithe figure. In spite of his sturdy build, there was not enough -protuberance to his chest, and, though his cheeks were full enough, -there was a hollow look about his jaws and around his eyes. - -“You’re over-trained,” she decisively told him. “You mustn’t play -marbles very often, or very long at a time, because that stooping over -in the dust isn’t good for you, and you mustn’t take your training runs -up to that park. The other boy licks you because you’re all tired out. I -don’t believe it’s because he’s a better fighter.” - -That boy breathed with the sigh of one freed from a mighty burden, and -the eyes which looked up into Arly’s were almost swimming with -gratitude. - -“She’s all right,” he told the next candidate. “She’s a pippin! Say, do -you know what’s the matter with me? I’m over-trained,” and he smacked -his chest resounding whacks and felt of his biceps. - -There were troubles of all sorts and shapes and sizes, and Arly bent to -them more concentrated wisdom than she had been called upon to display -for years. It was a new game, one with a live zest, and Gail had -invented it. Her admiration for Gail went up a notch. One boy was not so -funny as his brother, and was never noticed; another had to eat turnips; -and Arly’s only little girl, for she had started at the boy end, -couldn’t have little slippers that pinched her feet! - -“I’m glad I came home with you,” commented Arly, when she had finished -her court and had distributed her money, which Gail had permitted her -just this once, and they had driven up the block attended by an escort -of exactly twenty-five. “It makes me think, and I’d almost forgotten -how.” - -“It makes me think, too,” confessed Gail, very seriously. “Suppose I -should go away. They’d go right on living, but I like to flatter myself -that I’m doing more good for them than somebody else could do.” Why that -thought had worried her she could not say. She was home to stay now, -except for the usual trips. - -“You’d find the same opportunities anywhere,” Arly quickly assured her. - -“Yes, but they wouldn’t be these same children,” worried Gail. “I’d -never know others like I know these.” - -“No,” admitted Arly slowly. “I think I’ll pick out a few when I go back -home. I’ve often wondered how to do it, without having them think me a -fool or a nosy, but you’ve solved the problem. You’re tremendously -clever.” - -“Here’s Granny Jones’s,” interrupted Gail, with a smile for the -compliment. “Don’t come in, for she’s my worst specimen. She’s a duty,” -and taking some carnations and a package of tea, she hurried away. - -Flowers and tea for the old ladies, tobacco and flowers for the old men, -and the bottle of whiskey for old Ben Jackson, to whom his little nip -every morning and night was a genuine charity, though one severe worker -left the guild because Gail persisted in taking it to him. - -At the house they found silver-haired old Doctor Mooreman, the rector of -the quaintly beautiful little chapel up the avenue, and he greeted Gail -with a smile which was a strange commingling of spiritual virtue and -earthly shrewdness. - -“Well, how’s my little pagan?” he asked her, in the few minutes they had -alone. - -“Worse than ever, I’m afraid,” she confessed. “I suppose you’re asking -about the state of my mind and the degree of my wickedness.” - -“That’s it exactly,” agreed the Reverend Doctor, smiling on her fondly. -“Are you still quarrelling with the Church, because it prefers to be -respectable rather than merely good?” - -“I’m afraid so,” she laughed. “I still don’t understand why Hell is -preached when nobody believes it; nor why we are told the material -details of a spiritual Heaven, when no one has proved its existence -except by ancient literature; nor why an absolutely holy man whose works -are all good, from end to end of his life, can’t go to Heaven if he -doubts the divinity of the Saviour; nor why so much immorality is -encouraged in the world by teaching that marriage itself is sinful; nor -why a hundred other things, which are necessarily the formulas of man, -are made a condition of the worship of the heart. You see, I’m as bad as -ever.” - -The smile of Doctor Mooreman was a pleasant sight to behold. - -“You’re in no spiritual difficulties,” he told her. “You’re only having -fun with your mind, and laying tragic stress on the few little innocent -fictions which were once well-meant and useful.” - -Gail looked at him in astonishment. - -“I never heard you admit that much!” she marvelled. - -“You’re approaching years of discretion,” laughed her old rector. “All -these things are of small moment compared with the great fact that the -Church does stand as a constant effort to inculcate the grace of God. -The young are prone to require roses without a blemish, but even God has -never made one.” - -“I don’t understand,” she puzzled. “You’re not combatting me on any of -these things as you used to,” and it actually worried her. - -“Let me whisper something to you,” and the Reverend Doctor Mooreman, -whose face had the purity which is only visible in old age, leaned -forward, with his eyes snapping. “I don’t believe a lot of them myself; -but Gail, I believe much in the grace of God, and I believe much in its -refining and bettering influence on humanity, so to the people who would -discard everything for the reason of one little flaw, I teach things I -don’t believe; and my conscience is as clean as a whistle.” - -“You’re a darling old fraud!” Gail’s mind was singularly relieved. She -had worried how a man of Doctor Mooreman’s intelligence could swallow so -many of the things which were fed him in his profession. The -conversation had done her good. It tempered her attitude toward certain -things, but it did not change her steadfast principle that the Church -would be better off if it did not require the teachings of tenets and -articles of faith which were an insult to modern intelligence. - -Had she been unfair with the Reverend Smith Boyd? She could not shake -off that thought. She must tell him the attitude of Doctor Mooreman. -That is, if she ever saw him again. Of course she would, however. - - - - - CHAPTER XVII - SOMETHING HAPPENS TO GERALD FOSLAND - - -There was something radically wrong with the Fosland household. Gerald’s -man had for years invariably said: “Good morning, sir; I hope you slept -well, sir.” This time he merely said: “Good morning, sir”; and he forgot -the salt. What was the matter with the house? With the exception of -William’s slip, the every morning programme was quite as usual. Gerald -arose, had his plunge, his breakfast, read his mail and his paper, went -for a canter in the Park, had luncheon at the Papyrus Club, and unless -his morning engagement slip had shown him some social duty for the -afternoon, he did not see Mrs. Fosland until he came down, from the -hands of William, dressed for dinner. - -One can readily see that no deviation from this routine confronted -Gerald Fosland this morning. He had had his plunge and his breakfast, -his mail and his paper laid before him, and yet there was something -ghastly about the feel of the house. It was as if some one were dead! -Gerald Fosland made as radical a deviation from his daily life as -William had done. He left his mail unopened, after a glance at the -postmark; he left his paper unread, and he started for his canter in the -Park a full half hour early! - -He arrived at the Papyrus Club a full half hour early, and sat in the -dimmest corner of the library, taking himself seriously in hand. -Somehow, he was not quite fit, not quite up to himself. It seemed -desperately lonely in the Club. There were plenty of fellows there, but -they were merely nodders. They were not the ones who came at his hour. -He brightened a shade as Tompkinson came in five minutes early. He was -about to wonder if all the world had started a trifle early this -morning, when he remembered that, ordinarily on his arrival, he found -Tompkinson there. He could not analyse why this should be such a relief -to him, unless it was that he found mere normality comforting to-day. - -“Good morning, Fosland,” drawled Tompkinson. “Beautiful weather.” - -“Yes,” said Gerald, and they sat together in voiceless satisfaction -until Connors came in. - -“Good morning,” observed Connors. “Beautiful weather.” - -“Yes,” replied Fosland and Tompkinson, and Connors sat. - -“Depressing affair of Prymm’s,” presently remarked Tompkinson, calling a -boy for the customary appetiser. - -“Rotten,” agreed Connors, with some feeling. All his ancestors had been -Irish, and it never quite gets out of the blood. - -“I haven’t heard,” suggested Fosland, with the decent interest one -club-fellow should have in another. - -“Wife went to Italy with the sculptor who made her portrait; Carmelli, -that’s the name. Intense looking fellow, you know. Prymm had him here at -the club.” - -“You don’t tell me.” Gerald felt an unusual throb of commiseration for -Prymm. “Mighty decent chap.” - -“Yes, Prymm’s all cut up about it,” went on Tompkinson. “Has a sort of -notion he should kill the fellow, or something of the kind.” - -“Why?” demanded Connors, with some feeling again. Connors was a widower, -and Fosland suddenly remembered, though he could not trace a connection -leading to the thought, that Connors had not been a frequenter of the -club until after the death of his wife. “Prymm’s a thoroughly decent -chap, but he was so wasteful.” - -This being a new word in such connection, both Fosland and Tompkinson -looked at Connors inquiringly. - -“I hadn’t noticed.” This Tompkinson. - -“Wasteful of Mrs. Prymm,” explained Connors. “She is a beautiful young -woman, clever, charming, companionable, and, naturally, fond of -admiration. Prymm admired her. He frequently intimated that he did. He -admired his horse, and an exceptional Botticelli which hung in his music -room, but his chief pleasure lay in their possession. He never -considered that he should give any particular pleasure to the -Botticelli, but he did to the horse.” - -Gerald Fosland was aware of a particular feel of discomfort. Rather -heartless to be discussing a fellow member’s intimate affairs this way. - -“It is most unfortunate,” he commented. “Shall we go down to lunch?” - -In the hall they met Prymm, a properly set up fellow, with neatly -plastered hair and an air of unusually perfect grooming. He presented -the appearance of having shaved too closely to-day. - -“Good morning,” said Prymm. “Beautiful weather.” - -Inconsiderate of Prymm to show up at the club. A trifle selfish of him. -It put such a strain on his fellow members. Of course, though, he had -most of his mail there. He only stopped for his mail, and went out. - -“You’ll be in for the usual Tuesday night whist, I dare say,” inquired -Tompkinson perfunctorily. - -“Oh yes,” remembered Fosland, and was thoughtful for a moment. “No, I -don’t think I can come. Sorry.” He felt the eye of Connors fixed on him -curiously. - -On Fosland’s book was a tea, the date filled in two weeks ago; one of -those art things to which men are compelled. Arly had handed it to him, -much like a bill for repairs, or a memorandum to secure steamer tickets. -He drove home, and dressed, and when William handed him his hat and -gloves and stick he laid them on the table beside him, in his lounging -room, and sat down, looking patiently out of the window. He glanced at -his watch, by and by, and resumed his inspection of the opposite side of -the street. He stirred restlessly, and then he suddenly rose, with a -little smile at himself. He had been waiting for word from Mrs. Fosland, -that she was ready. For just a few abstracted moments he had forgotten -that he was to pay the social obligations of the house of Fosland -entirely alone. - -He picked up his hat and gloves and stick, and started to leave the -room. As he passed the door leading to Arly’s apartments, he hesitated, -and put his hand on the knob. He glanced over his shoulder, as a guilty -conscience made him imagine that William was coming in, then he gently -turned the knob, and entered. A tiny vestibule, and then a little -French-grey salon, and then the boudoir, all in delicate blue, and sweet -with a faint, delicate, evasive fragrance which was like the passing of -Arly. Something made him stand, for a moment, with a trace of feeling -which came to awe, and then he turned and went out of the terribly -solemn place. He did not notice, until afterwards, that he had tiptoed. - -Gerald Fosland had never been noted for brilliance, but he was an -insufferable bore at the art tea. People asked him the usual polite -questions, and he either forgot that they were talking or answered about -something else, and he entirely mislaid the fragments of art -conversation which he was supposed to have put on with his ascot. Nearly -every one asked about Arly, and several with more than perfunctory -courtesy. He had always known that Arly was very popular, but he had a -new perception, now, that she was extremely well liked; and it gratified -him. - -Occupied with his own reflections, which were not so much thought as a -dull feeling that he was about to have a thought, he nevertheless felt -that this was a rather agreeable gathering, after all, until he -accidentally joined a group which, with keen fervour, was discussing the -accident to Prymm. He had a general aversion to gossip anyhow, and -shortly after that he went home. - -He wrote some letters, and, when it grew dark, he rang for William. - -“I shall remain in for dinner to-night,” he observed, and mechanically -took up the evening paper which the quiet William laid before him. A -headline which made his hand tremble, caught his eye, and he dropped the -paper. Prymm had shot himself. - -No tragedy had ever shaken Gerald Fosland so much as this. Why, he had -met Prymm only that noon. Prymm had said: “Good morning, beautiful -weather.” For a moment Fosland almost changed his mind about remaining -in for dinner, but, after all, the big panelled dining room, with its -dark wainscoting and its heavily carved furniture and its super-abundant -service, was less lonely than the club. The only words which broke the -silence of the dim dining room during that dinner, were: “Sauce, sir?” - -Gerald took his coffee in his lounging room, and then he went again to -Arly’s door. He turned before he opened it, and tossed his cigarette in -the fireplace. He did not enter by stealth this time. He walked in. He -even went on to the dainty blue bedroom, and looked earnestly about it, -then he went back to the boudoir and seated himself on the stiff chair -in which he had, on rare occasions, sat and chatted with her. He -remained there perhaps half an hour. Suddenly he arose, and called for -his limousine, and drove to Teasdale’s. They were out, he was told. They -were at Mr. Sargent’s, and he drove straight there. Somehow, he was glad -that, since they were out, they had gone to Sargent’s. He was most -anxious to see Lucile. - -“Just in time to join the mourners, Gerald,” greeted Ted. “We’re doing a -very solemn lot of Gailing.” - -“I’ll join you with pleasure,” agreed Gerald, feeling more at home and -lighter of heart here than he had anywhere during the day. Lucile seemed -particularly near to him. “Have you any intimation that Gail expects to -return soon?” - -“None at all,” stated Aunt Helen, with a queer mixture of sombreness and -impatience. “She only writes about what a busy time they are having, and -how delightfully eager her friends have been about her, and how popular -Arly is, and such things as that.” - -“Arly is popular everywhere,” stated Gerald, and Lucile looked at him -wonderingly, turning her head very slowly towards him. - -“What do you hear from Arly?” she inquired, holding up her hand as if to -shield her eyes from the fire, and studying him curiously from that -shadow. - -“Much the same,” he answered; “except that she mentions Gail’s -popularity instead of her own. She had her maid send her another -trunkful of clothing, I believe,” and he fell to gazing into the -fireplace. - -“I am very much disappointed in Arly,” worried Aunt Helen. “I sent Arly -specifically to bring Gail back in a week, and they have been gone nine -days!” - -“I’m glad they’re having a good time,” observed Jim Sargent. “She’ll -come back when she gets ready. The New York pull is something which hits -you in the middle of the night, and makes you get up and pack.” - -“Yes, but the season will soon be over,” worried Aunt Helen. “Gail’s -presence here at this time is so important that I do not see how she can -neglect it. It may affect her entire future life. A second season is -never so full of opportunities as the first one.” - -“Oh nonsense,” laughed Jim. “You’re a fanatic on match-making, Helen. -What you really mean is that Gail should make a choice out of the -matrimonial market before it has all been picked over.” - -“Jim,” protested Mrs. Sargent, the creases of worry appearing in her -brow. Her husband and sister had never quarrelled, but they had -permitted divergences of opinion, which had required much mutual -forbearance. - -“A spade is a spade,” returned Jim. “I think it’s silly to worry about -Gail’s matrimonial prospects. Whenever she’s ready to be married, she’ll -look them all over, and pick out the one who suits her. All she’ll have -to say is ‘Eeny-meeny-miny-moe, you’re it,’ and the fellow will rush -right out and be measured for his suit.” - -“Just the same, I’d rather she’d be here when she counts out,” laughed -Lucile. - -“So would I,” agreed Jim; “but, after all, there are good men -everywhere. Girls get married out in the middle-west as well as here, -and live happily ever after.” - -“They grow fine men out there,” stated Mrs. Sargent, with a -complimentary glance at her husband. She had never wavered in her -opinion of that fine man. - -“Right you are,” agreed Sargent heartily. “They have not the polish of -eastern men perhaps, but they have a strength, and forcefulness, and -virility, which carries them through. There are men out there, stacks of -them, who would appeal to any bright and vivacious woman, sweep her off -her feet, carry her away by storm, and make her forget a lot of things. -If any handsome woman is unappreciated in New York, all she has to do is -to go out to the middle-west.” - -Lucile, listening to the innocently blundering speech of Gail’s proud -uncle, watched Gerald with intense interest. She could scarcely believe -the startling idea which had popped into her head! Gerald’s only -apparent deviation from his normal attitude had consisted in -abstractedly staring into the fire, instead of paying polite attention -to every one, but that he had heard was evidenced by the shifting glance -he gave Sargent. Otherwise he had not moved. - -“You scare me,” said Lucile, still watching Gerald. “I’m not going to -leave Gail out there any longer. I’m going to have her back at once.” - -Gerald raised his head immediately, and smiled at her. - -“Splendid,” he approved. “Fact of the matter is,” and he hesitated an -instant, “I’m becoming extremely lonesome.” - -Even Ted detected something in Gerald’s tone and in his face. - -“It’s time you were waking up,” he bluntly commented. “I should think -you would be lonely without Arly.” - -“Yes, isn’t it time,” agreed Gerald, studying the matter carefully. “You -know, both having plenty of leisure, there’s never been any occasion for -us to travel separately before, and, really, I miss her dreadfully.” - -“I think I’ll have to get her for you, Gerald,” promised Lucile, -removing her hand from in front of her eyes, and smiling at him -reassuringly. She could smile beautifully just now. The incredible thing -she had thought she detected was positively true, and it made her -excitedly happy! Gerald Fosland had been in love with his wife, and had -never known it until now! - -“If you can work that miracle, and bring Gail back with her, you’ll -spread sunshine all over the place,” declared Jim Sargent. “It’s been -like a funeral here since she went home. You’d think Gail was the most -important section of New York. Everybody’s blue; Allison, Doctor Boyd; -everybody who knew her inquires, with long faces, when she’s coming -back!” - -“What do you propose?” inquired Mrs. Helen Davies, with a degree of -interest which intimated that she was quite ready to take any part in -the conspiracy. - -“I have my little plan,” laughed Lucile. “I’m going to send her an -absolutely irresistible reminder of New York!” - - - - - CHAPTER XVIII - THE MESSAGE FROM NEW YORK - - -It was good to be home! Gail wondered that she could ever have been -content away from the loving shelter of her many, many friends. She had -grown world weary in all the false gaiety of New York! She was -disillusioned! She was blasé. She was tired of frivolity; and she -immediately planned or enthusiastically agreed to take part in a series -of gaieties which would have made an average hard-working man anticipate -them with an already broken constitution. - -The house was full of them, morning, noon and night; young girls, sedate -and jolly, and all of them excitedly glad that Gail was among them -again; and young men, in all the degrees from social butterflies to -plodding business pluggers, equally glad. - -Good comfortable home folks these, who were deliciously nice to the -stately black-haired Arly, and voted her a tremendous beauty, and stood -slightly in awe of her. The half cynical Arly, viewing them critically, -found in them one note of interesting novelty; a certain general -clean-hearted wholesomeness, and, being a seeker after the unusual, and -vastly appreciative, she deliberately cultivated them; flattering the -boys, but not so much as to make the other girls hate her. To the girls -she made herself even more attractive, because she liked them better. -She complimented them individually on the point of perfection for which -each girl most prided herself; she told them that they were infinitely -more clever than the women of New York, and better looking, in general; -for the New York women were mostly clothes and make-up; and, above all, -she envied them their truer lives! - -No group of young people could resist such careful work as that, -especially when performed by a young woman so adroit and so attractive, -and so well gowned; so they lost their awkwardness with her, which -removed any sense of discomfort Gail might have felt, which was the aim -to be accomplished. In those first few days Gail was the happiest of all -creatures, in spite of the fact that the local papers had carried a -politer echo of that despicable slave story. At nights, however, -beginning with the second one, when the girls had retired to the mutual -runway of their adjoining suites, the conversation would turn something -like this. - -“Let’s see, this is the seventeenth, isn’t it?” thus Arly. - -“Yes; Tuesday,” concentratedly selecting a chocolate, the box of which -bore a New York name. - -“Mrs. Matson’s ice skating ball is to-night.” A sidelong glance at the -busy Gail. - -“Um-hum.” A chocolate between her white teeth. - -“She always has such original affairs.” - -“Doesn’t she!” Gail draws her sandalled feet up under her and stretches -down her pink negligee, so that she looks like a stiff little statue in -tinted ivory. - -“And such interesting people. That new artist is certain to be there. -What’s his name? Oh yes, Vloddow. I could adore him.” - -“You’re a mere verbal adorer,” laughs Gail, studying anxiously over the -problem of whether she wants another piece of chocolate or not. Allison -had sent such good ones. “Vloddow eats garlic.” - -“That’s why I adore him, from a distance. Of course all the nice regular -fellows will be there; Dick Rodley, and Ted, and Houston, and — Oh, oh! -I forgot to write Gerald,” and with a swift passing kiss somewhere -between Gail’s ear and her chin, she hurries into her own dressing-room, -with a backward glance to make sure that Gail is staring, with softened -brown eyes, down into her chocolate box, and seeing there amid the brown -confections, the laughing, swirling skaters in Mrs. Matson’s glistening -ballroom. Dick, and Ted, and Houston, and Willis, Lucile and Marion, Flo -Reynolds, and the gay little Mrs. Babbitt, and a host of others. There -were some who would not be at that ball; Allison, and the Reverend Smith -Boyd, and—Arlene has plenty of time to write her formally dutiful letter -without disturbance. - -Gail has letters, too, as the days wear on. She scarcely has time for -them amid all the impromptu gaieties, but she does find a chance to read -them; some of them twice. Of course there are letters from “home,” a -prim and still affectionate one from Aunt Helen Davies, and a loving -one, full of worry about Gail’s possible tonsilitis, from Aunt Grace, a -hearty scrawl from Jim, a bubbling little note from Lucile, an absurd -love letter from Ted, couched in terms of the utmost endearment, and -winding up with the proposition to elope with her if she’d only come -back. That was the tenor of all her letters; if she’d only come back! -Bless their hearts, she loved them; and yes, longed for them, even here -in the happy, sheltering environment of her own dear home and friends! -There were still other letters; a confidently friendly one from Allison, -who sent her regularly candy and flowers on alternate days; a -substantial one from Houston Van Ploon; a thoughtful one from Willis -Cunningham; a florid one from Dick Rodley; nice little notes, calculated -to relieve her embarrassment, from all her “slaves” except the missing -Count; and a discussion from the Reverend Smith Boyd. That was one of -those which she read more than once; for it was quite worth it. - - “Dear Miss Sargent: - - “This being our regular evening for discussion, I beg to remind you - that on our last debate, I shall not call it a dispute, we had - barely touched upon the necessity for ritual, or rather, to avoid - any quibble over the word necessity, on my insistence for the need - of a ritual, when we decided that it was better to sing for the - balance of the evening. I was the more ready to acquiesce in this, - as we had, for the first time, hit upon a theorem to which we could - both subscribe; namely, that it is just as easy for the human mind - to grasp the biblical theory of creation as to grasp the creation of - the life-producing chaos out of which evolution must have - proceeded.” - -Gail laid down the letter at this point and smiled, with dancing eyes. -She could see the stern face of the young rector brightening with -pleasure as she had herself propounded this thought, and she could -revisualise his grave pleasure as he had clothed it in accurate words -for them both. It was, as he had said, an extremely solid starting -point, to which they could always return. - - “That this belief is sufficient, even including a continuance of the - omnipresent personal regard which we both admit to assume in that - Creator, I deny. I can see your cheeks flush and your brown eyes - sparkle as you come to this flat statement; and I am willing to - answer for you that you object to my making so far-sweeping a - statement, in the very beginning of what was to have been a slowly - deductive process. You may not be wording it in just this manner, - but this is, in effect, what you are saying. - - “With much patience, I reply that you have not waited for me to - finish, which, I must observe, in justice to myself, you seldom do. - - “Kindly wait just a minute, please. You have thrown back your head, - your brown hair tossing, your pointed chin uptilted, and a little - red spot beginning to appear in your delicately tinted cheeks, but I - hasten to remind you that, if we take up this little side matter of - my unfortunate mention of one of your youthful proclivities, we - shall forget entirely the topic under discussion. I apologise for - having been so rude as to remind you of it, and beg to state that - when I pause at a comma, you had heard but half a statement. - - “At this point you remark that no discussion should be based upon a - half statement, and I admit, with shame, that I am slightly - indignant, for you have not yet permitted me to finish my original - proposition. Now you are sitting back, with your slender white hands - folded in your lap, and the toe of one of your little pointed - slippers waving gently, your curved lashes drooping, and your eyes - carelessly fixed on my cravat, which I can not see, but which I - believe to have been tied with as much care as a gentleman should - expend upon his attire. - - “Miss Sargent, you leave me helpless. I feel a chill sensation in my - cheeks, as if a cold draught had blown upon them. You are firmly - resolved to let me talk without interruption for the next half hour, - upon which you will give me a most adroit answer to everything I - have said. Your answer will have all the effect of refuting my - entire line of logic, without having given me an opportunity to - defend the individual steps. - - “I decline, with much patience, very much patience indeed, to lay - myself open to this conclusion, not because of the undeserved sense - of defeat it will force upon me, but because the matter at issue is - too grave and important to be given a prejudiced dismissal. - - “I can see you now, as I refuse to carry the subject further at this - session. You stiffen in your chair, your eyes, which have seemed so - carelessly indifferent, suddenly glow, and snap, and sparkle, and - flash. The tiny red spots have deepened, enhancing the velvet of - your cheeks. Your red lips curl. You impatiently touch back the - waves of your rippling brown hair with your slender white hand, - which turns so gracefully upon its wrist. You blaze straight into my - eyes, and tell me that I have taken this means of avoiding the - discussion, because I perceive in advance that I am beaten. - - “Miss Sargent, I do not tell you that you are unfair and ungenerous - to seize upon this advantage; instead, I bite my lip, and compel my - countenance to befitting gravity, knowing that I should be above the - petty emotions of anger, impatience, and offended pride; but humbly - confessing, to myself, that I have not my nature under such perfect - subjection as I should like to have. - - “Consequently, I beg you to defer this step in our logical deduction - to another night, and turn, with grateful relief, to the music. I - need not say how heartily I wish that you were here to sing with me. - - “Yours earnestly, - “SMITH BOYD.” - -Gail shrieked when she first read that letter, then she read it again -and blushed. She had, as she came upon his initial flat statement of -denial, felt a flush in her cheeks and a snap in her eyes. She had, as -she read, stiffened with indignation, and relaxed in scornful disdain, -and flashed with hot retort, in advance of his discernment that she -would do so! She was flamingly vexed with him! On the third reading her -eyes twinkled, and her red lips curved deliciously with humour, as she -admired the cleverness which she had previously only recognised. In -subsequent readings this was her continued attitude, and she kept the -letter somewhere in the neighbourhood where she might touch it -occasionally, because of the keen mental appreciation she had for it. -Were her eyes really capable of such an infinite variety of expression -as he had suggested? She looked in the glass to see; but was -disappointed. They were merely large, and brown, and deep, and, just -now, rather softened. - -There was an impromptu party at Gail’s house, a jolly affair, indeed. -All her old, steadfast friends, you know, who were quite sufficient to -fill her life; and this was the night of the gay little Mrs. Babbitt’s -affair in New York. How much better than those great, glittering, social -pageants was a simple, wholesome little ball like this, with all her -dear girl chums, in their pretty little Paris model frocks, and all the -boys, in their shiny white fronts. No one had changed, not even -impulsive Howard Clemmens. Poor Howard! He knew now that his refusal was -permanent and enduring, yet he came right to the front with his same -assumption of proprietorship. She let him do it. You see, in all these -years, the boys had tacitly admitted that Howard “had the inside track”; -so, while they all admired and loved her, they stepped aside and -permitted him to monopolise her. Back home there was a sort of esprit de -corps like that, though it was sometimes hard on the girl. When Gail had -flown home from the cruel world to the sheltering arms of her mother and -her friends, she had firmly planned to set Howard in his proper place as -a formal friend, and thereafter be free. There were quite a number of -the boys who had, at one time or another, seemed quite worth -cultivation. When she came to meet them again, however, with that same -old brotherly love shining in their eyes, she somehow found that she did -not care to be free. Anyhow, it would humiliate Howard to reduce him so -publicly to the ranks, snip off his buttons and take his sabre, as it -were; so she allowed him to clank his spurs, to the joy and delight of -Arly. - -This was the gayest party of which Gail had been the bright particular -ornament since her return, and she quite felt, except for the presence -of Arly, that she had fallen back into her old familiar life. Why, it -seemed as if she had been home for ages and ages! There was the same old -dance music, the Knippel orchestra, with the wonderfully gifted fat -violinist, and the pallid pianist with the long hair, who had four -children, and the ’cellist who scowled so dreadfully but played the deep -passages so superbly, and clarinettist, whom every one thought should -have gone in for concert work, and the grey-haired old basso player, who -never looked up and who never moved a muscle except those in his arms, -one up and down and the other crosswise; there was a new second -violinist, a black-browed man who looked as if he had been disappointed -in life, but second violinists always do. - -At the end of the Sargent ballroom, where Gail’s sedate but hospitable -mother always sat until the “Home, Sweet Home” dance was ended, were the -same dear, familiar palms, which Marty, the florist, always sent to -everybody’s house to augment the home collection. The gorgeous big one -had a leaf gone, but it was sprouting two others. - -Tremendously gay affair. Everybody was delighted, and said so; and they -laughed and danced and strolled and ate ices, and said jolly nothings, -and knew, justifiably, that they were nice, and clever, and happy young -people; and Arly Fosland, with any number of young men wondering how old -her husband was, danced conscientiously, and smiled immediately when any -one looked at her. Gail also was dancing conscientiously, and having a -perfectly happy evening. At about this hour there would be something -near four hundred people in the ballroom, and the drawing-rooms, and the -conservatory of Mrs. Babbitt’s. - -She was whirling near the balcony windows with a tall young friend who -breathed, when there was an exclamation from a group of girls at the -window. Vivian Jennings turned. She was a girl with the sort of eyes -which, in one sweep, can find the only four-leafed clover in a -forty-acre field. - -“Gail!” she cried, almost dancing. “Gail! Do come and see it!” - -Gail did not desert her partner; she merely started over to the window -with one hand trailing behind her as an indication to follow, and -immediately, without looking around, she called: - -“Arly! Where’s Arly?” - -What she saw was this. A rich brown limousine, in which the dome light -was brightly burning, had drawn up to the steps. Inside, among the rich -brown cushions and hangings, and pausing to light a leisurely cigarette, -sat the most wickedly handsome man in the world! He was black-haired, -and black-moustached and black-goateed, and had large, lustrous, melting -black eyes, while on his oval cheeks was the ruddy bloom of health. -Every girl in the window sighed, as, with a movement which was grace in -every changing line, he stepped out of the brilliantly lighted -limousine, and came slowly up the steps, tall, slender, magnificent, in -his shining silk hat and his flowing Inverness, and his white tie, and -his pleated shirt front—Oh, everything; correct to the last detail, -except for the trifling touches of originality, down to his patent -leather tips! With a wave of careless ease he flung back his Inverness -over one shoulder, and rang the bell! - -“Dick!” cried a voice just behind Gail’s ear. Gail had not known that -any one was leaning heavily on her shoulders, but now she and Arly, with -one accord, turned and raced for the vestibule! - -“You handsome thing!” cried Arly, as he stepped into the hall and held -out a hand to each of them. “I’ve a notion to kiss you!” - -“All right,” he beamed down on her, sparing another beam for Gail. No, -Gail had not exaggerated in memory the magic of his melting eyes. It -could not be exaggerated! - -“There aren’t any words to tell you how welcome you are!” said Gail, as -the butler disappeared with his hat and Inverness. - -“What on earth brought you here to bless us?” demanded Arly. - -“I came to propose to Gail,” announced Dick calmly, and took her hand -again, bending down on her that wonderfully magnetic gaze, so that she -was panic-stricken in the idea that he was about to proceed with his -project right on the spot. - -“Wait until after the dance,” she laughingly requested, drawing back a -step and blushing furiously. - -“We’re wasting time,” protested Arly. “Hurry on in, Dick. We want to -exhibit you.” - -“I don’t mind,” consented Dick cheerfully, and stepped through the -doorway, where he created the gasp. - -Eleven girls dreamed of his melting eyes that night; and Howard Clemmens -lost his monopoly. Viewing Gail’s victorious scramble with Arly for -Dick’s exclusive possession, Howard’s friends unanimously reduced him to -the ranks. - -After the dance, Dick made good his threat with Gail, and formally -proposed, urging his enterprise in coming after her as one of his claims -to consideration; but Gail, laughing, and liking him tremendously, told -him he was too handsome to be married, and sent him back home with a -fresh gardenia in his buttonhole. That night Arly and Gail sat long and -silently on the comfortable couch in front of Arly’s fireplace, one in -fluffy blue and the other in fluffy pink, and the one in fluffy blue -furtively studying the one in fluffy pink from under her black -eyelashes. The one in pink was gazing into the fire with far-seeing -brown eyes, and was braiding and unbraiding, with slender white fingers, -a flowing strand of her brown hair. - -“Gail,” ventured the one in blue. - -“Yes.” This abstractedly. - -“Aren’t you a little bit homesick? I am.” - -“So am I!” answered Gail, with sudden animation. - -“Let’s go back!” excitedly. - -“When?” and Gail jumped up. - - - - - CHAPTER XIX - THE RECTOR KNOWS - - -The Reverend Smith Boyd came down to breakfast with a more or less -hollow look in his face, and his mother, inspecting him keenly, poured -his coffee immediately. There was the trace of a twinkle in her eyes, -which were nevertheless extremely solicitous. - -“How is your head?” she inquired. - -“All right, thank you.” This listlessly. - -“Are you sure it doesn’t ache at all?” - -The Reverend Smith Boyd dutifully withdrew his mind from elsewhere, to -consider that proposition justly. - -“I think not,” he decided, and he fell into exactly such a state of -melancholy, trifling with his grape fruit, as Mrs. Boyd wished to test. -She focussed her keen eyes on him microscopically. - -“Miss Sargent is coming back to-night; on the six-ten train.” - -There was a clatter in the Reverend Smith Boyd’s service plate. He had -been awkward with his spoon, and dropped it. He made to pick it up, but -reached two inches the other side of the handle. Mrs. Boyd could have -laughed aloud for sheer joy. She made up her mind to do some energetic -missionary work with Gail Sargent at the first opportunity. The foolish -notions Gail had about the church should be removed. Mrs. Boyd had long -ago studied this matter of religion, with a clear mind and an honest -heart. It was a matter of faith, and she had it; so why be miserable! -Her reverie was broken by the calm and mellow voice of her son. - -“That is delightful news,” he returned with a frank enthusiasm which was -depressing to his mother. - -“I think I shall have the Sargents over to dinner,” she went on, -persisting in her hope. - -“That will be pleasant.” Frank again, carefree, aglow with neighbourly -friendliness; even affection! - -Mrs. Boyd had nothing more to say. She watched her son Tod start -vigorously at his grape fruit, with a vivacity which seemed to indicate -that he might finish with the rind. He drew his eggs energetically -toward him, buttered a slice of toast, and finished his breakfast. -Suddenly he looked at his watch. - -“I have an extremely busy day before me,” he told her briskly. “I have -Vedder Court this morning, some calls in the afternoon, and a mission -meeting at four-thirty. I might probably be late for dinner,” and -feeling to see if he had supplied himself with handkerchiefs, he kissed -his mother, and was gone without another word about Gail! She could have -shaken him in her disappointment. What was the matter with Tod? - -The Reverend Smith Boyd sang as he went out of the door, not a tune or -any set musical form, but a mere unconscious testing of his voice. It -was quite unusual for him to sing on the way to Vedder Court, for he -devoted his time to this portion of his duties because he was a -Christian. He had sympathy, more than enough, and he both understood and -pitied the people of Vedder Court, but, in spite of all his intense -interest in the deplorable condition of humanity’s weak and helpless, he -was compelled to confess to himself that he loathed dirt. - -Vedder Court was particularly perfect in its specialty this morning. The -oily black sediment on its pavements was streaked with iridescence, and -grime seemed to be shedding from every point of the drunken old -buildings, as if they had lain inebriated in a soaking rain all night, -and had just staggered up, to drip. They even seemed to leer down at the -Reverend Smith Boyd, as if his being the only clean thing in the street -were an impertinence, which they would soon rectify. It had been -comparatively dry in the brighter streets of New York, but here, in -Vedder Court, there was perpetual moisture, which seemed to cling, and -to stick, and to fasten its unwholesome scum permanently on everything. -Never had the tangle of smudge-coated children seemed so squalid; never -had the slatternly women seemed so unfeminine; never had the spineless -looking men seemed so shuffling and furtive and sodden; never had the -whole of the human fungi in Vedder Court seemed so unnecessary, and -useless, and, the rector discovered in himself with startled contrition, -so thoroughly not worth saving, body or soul! - -A half intoxicated woman, her front teeth missing and her colourless -hair straggling, and her cheekbones gleaming with the high red of -debauchery, leered up at him as he passed, as if in all her miserable -being there could be one shred, or atom, to invite or attract. A -curly-headed youngster, who would have been angelically beautiful if he -had been washed and his native blood pumped from him, threw mud at the -Reverend Smith Boyd, out of a mere artistic desire to reduce him to -harmony with his surroundings. A mouthing old woman, with hands clawed -like a parrot’s, begged him for alms, and he was ashamed of himself that -he gave it to her with such shrinking. The master could not have been -like this. A burly “pan handler” stopped him with an artificial whine. A -cripple, displaying his ugly deformity for the benefit and example of -the unborn, took from him a dole and a wince of repulsion. - -“The poor ye have always with ye!” For ages that had been the excuse for -such offences as Vedder Court. They were here, they must be cared for -within their means, and no amount of pauperising charity could remove -them from the scheme of things. In so far, Market Square Church felt -justified in its landlordship, that it nursled squalor and bred more. -Yet, somehow, the rector of that solidly respectable institution was not -quite satisfied, and he had added a new expense to the profit and loss -account in the ledger of this particular House of God. He had hired a -crew of forty muscular men, with horses and carts, and had caused them -to be deputised as sanitary police, and had given them authority to -enter and clean; which may have accounted for the especially germ laden -feel of the atmosphere this morning. Down in the next block, where the -squad was systematically at work, there were the sounds of countless -individual battles, and loud mouthings of the fundamental principles of -anarchy. A government which would force soap and deodorisers and -germicides on presumably free and independent citizens, was a government -of tyranny; and it had been a particular wisdom, on the part of the -rough-hewn faced man who had hired this crew, to select none but -accomplished brick dodgers. In the ten carts which lined the curb on -both sides, there were piled such a conglomerate mass of nondescript -fragments of everything undesirable that the rector felt a trace better, -as if he had erased one mark at least of the long black score against -himself. Somehow, recently, he had acquired an urgent impulse to clean -Vedder Court! - -He turned in at one of the darkest and most uninviting of the rickety -stairways. He skipped, with a practised tread, the broken third step, -and made a mental note to once more take up, with the property -committee, the battle of minor repairs. He stopped at the third landing, -and knocked at a dark door, whereupon a petulant voice told him to come -in. The petulant voice came from a woman who sat in a broken rockered -chair, with one leg held stiffly in front of her. She was heavy with the -fat which rolls and bulges, and an empty beer pail, on which the froth -had dried, sat by her side. On the rickety bed lay a man propped on one -elbow, who had been unshaven for days, so that his sandy beard made a -sort of layer on his square face. The man sat up at once. He was a -trifle under-sized, but broad-shouldered and short-necked, and had -enormous red hands. - -“How are you to-day, Mrs. Rogers?” asked the rector, sitting on a -backless and bottomless chair, with his hat on his knees, and holding -himself small, with an unconscious instinct to not let anything touch -him. - -“No better,” replied the woman, making her voice weak. “I’ll never know -a well day again. The good Lord has seen fit to afflict me. I ain’t -saying anything, but it ain’t fair.” - -The Reverend Smith Boyd could not resist a slight contraction of his -brows. Mrs. Rogers invariably introduced the Lord into every -conversation with the rector, and it was his duty to wrestle with her -soul, if she insisted. He was not averse to imparting religious -instruction, but, being a practical man, he could not enjoy wasting his -breath. - -“There are many things we can not understand,” he granted. “What does -the doctor say about your condition?” - -“He don’t offer no hope,” returned the woman, with gratification. “This -knee joint will be stiff till the end of my days. If I had anything to -blame myself with it would be different, but I ain’t. I say my prayers -every night, but if I’m too sick, I do it in the morning.” - -“Can that stuff!” growled the man on the bed. “You been prayin’ once a -day ever since I got you, and nothin’s ever happened.” - -“I’ve brought you a job,” returned the Reverend Smith Boyd promptly. “I -have still ten places to fill on the sanitary squad which is cleaning up -Vedder Court.” - -The man on the bed sat perfectly still. - -“How long will it last?” he growled. - -“Two weeks.” - -“What’s the pay?” - -“A dollar and a half a day.” - -The man shook his head. - -“I can’t do it,” he regretted. “I don’t say anything about the pay, but -I’m a stationary engineer.” He was interested enough in his course of -solid reasoning to lay a stubby finger in his soiled palm. “If I take -this two weeks’ job, it’ll stop me from lookin’ for work, and I might -miss a permanent situation.” - -The rector suppressed certain entirely human instincts. - -“You have not had employment for six months,” he reminded Mr. Rogers. - -“That’s the reason I can’t take a chance,” was the triumphant response. -“If I’d miss a job through takin’ this cheap little thing you offer me, -I’d never forgive myself; and you’d have it on your conscience, too.” - -“Then you won’t accept it,” and the rector rose, with extremely cold -eyes. - -“I’d like to accommodate you, but I can’t afford it,” and the man -remained perfectly still, an art which he had brought to great -perfection. “All we need is the loan of a little money while I’m huntin’ -work.” - -“I can’t give it to you,” announced the Reverend Smith Boyd firmly. -“I’ve offered you an opportunity to earn money, and you won’t accept it. -That ends my responsibility.” - -“You’d better take it, Frank,” advised the woman, losing a little of the -weakness of her voice. - -“You ’tend to your own business!” advised Mr. Rogers in return. “You’re -supposed to run the house, and I’m supposed to earn the living! Reverend -Boyd, if you’ll lend me two dollars till a week from Saturday—” - -“I told you no,” and the rector started to leave the room. - -There was a knock at the door. A thick-armed man with a short, wide face -walked in, a pail in one hand and a scrubbing brush in the other. On the -back of his head was pushed a bright blue cap, with “Sanitary Police” on -it, in tarnished braid. Mr. Rogers stood up. - -“What do you want?” he quite naturally inquired. - -“Clean up,” replied the sanitary policeman, setting down his pail and -ducking his head at the rector, then mopping his brow with a bent -forefinger, while he picked out a place to begin. - -“Nothin’ doing!” announced Mr. Rogers, aflame with the dignity of an -outraged householder. “Good-night!” and he advanced a warning step. - -The wide set sanitary policeman paused in his survey long enough to wag -a thick forefinger at the outraged householder. - -“Don’t start anything,” he advised. “There’s some tough mugs in this -block, but you go down to the places I’ve been, and you’ll find that -they’re all clean.” - -With these few simple remarks, he turned his back indifferently to Mr. -Rogers, and, catching hold of the carpet in the corner with his fingers, -he lifted it up by the roots. - -“There’s no use buckin’ the government,” Mr. Rogers decided, after a -critical study of the sanitary policeman’s back, which was extremely -impressive. “It’s a government of the rich for the rich. Has a poor man -got any show? I’m a capable stationary engineer. All I ask is a chance -to work—at my trade.” This by an afterthought. “If you’ll give me two -dollars to tide me over—” - -The Reverend Smith Boyd stepped out of the way of the sanitary -policeman, and then stepped out of the door. - -“And you call yourself a minister of the gospel!” Mr. Rogers yelled -after him. - -That was a sample of the morning’s work, and the Reverend Smith Boyd -felt more and more, as he neared luncheon time, that he merited some -consideration, if only for the weight of the cross he bore. There were -worse incidents than the abuse of men like Rogers; there were the -hideous sick to see, and the genuinely distressed to comfort, and -depthless misery to relieve; and any day in Vedder Court was a terrific -drain, both upon his sympathies and his personal pocket. - -He felt that this was an exceptionally long day. - -Home in a hurry at twelve-thirty. A scrub, a complete change of -everything, and a general feeling that he should have been sterilised -and baked as well. Luncheon with the mother who saw what a long day this -was, then a far different type of calls; in a sedate black car this -time, up along the avenue, and in and out of the clean side streets, -where there was little danger of having a tire punctured by a wanton -knife, as so often happened in Vedder Court. He called on old Mrs. -Henning, who read her Bible every day to find knotty passages for him to -expound; he called on the Misses Crasley, who were not thin but bony, -who sat frozenly erect with their feet neatly together and their hands -in their laps, and discussed foreign missions with greedy relish; he -spent a half hour with plump Mrs. Rutherford, who shamelessly hinted -that a rector should be married, and who was the worried possessor of -three plump daughters, who did not seem to move well from the shelves; -he listened to the disloyal confessions of Mrs. Sayers, who at heart -liked her husband because he provided her so many faults to brood upon; -he made brief visits with three successive parishioners who were sweet, -good women with a normally balanced sense of duty, and with two -successive parishioners who looked on the Kingdom of Heaven as a -respectable social circle, which should be patronised like a sewing -girls’ club or any other worthy institution. - -Away to Vedder Court again, dismissing his car at the door of Temple -Mission, and walking inside, out of range of the leers of those senile -old buildings, but not out of the range of the peculiar spirit of Vedder -Court, which manifested itself most clearly to the olfactory sense. - -The organ was playing when he entered, and the benches were half filled -by battered old human remnants, who pretended conversion in order to -pick up the crumbs which fell from the table of Market Square Church. -Chiding himself for weariness of the spirit, and comforting himself with -the thought that one greater than he had faltered on the way to Golgotha -he sat on the little platform, with a hymn book in his hand, and, when -the prelude was finished, he devoted his wonderful voice to the -blasphemy. - -The organist, a volunteer, a little old man who kept a shoemaker’s shop -around the corner, and who played sincerely in the name of helpfulness, -was pure of heart. - -The man with the rough-hewn countenance, unfortunately not here to-day, -was also sincere in an entirely unspiritual sort of way; but, with these -exceptions, and himself, of course, the rector knew positively that -there was not another uncalloused creature in the room, not one who -could be reached by argument, sympathy, or fear! They were past -redemption, every last man and woman; and, at the conclusion of the -hymn, he rose to cast his pearls before swine, without heart and without -interest; for no man is interested in anything which can not possibly be -accomplished. - -With a feeling of mockery, yet upheld by the thought that he was holding -out the way and the light, not only seven times but seventy times seven -times, to whatever shred or crumb of divinity might lie unsuspected in -these sterile breasts, he strove earnestly to arouse enthusiasm in -himself so that he might stir these dead ghosts, even in some minute and -remote degree. - -Suddenly a harsh and raucous voice interrupted him. It was the voice of -Mr. Rogers, and that gentleman, who had apparently secured somewhere the -two dollars to tide him over, was now embarked on the tide. He had taken -just enough drinks to make him ugly, if that process were possible, and -he had developed a particularly strong resentment of the latest -injustice which had been perpetrated on him. That injustice consisted of -the Reverend Smith Boyd’s refusal to lend him money till a week from -next Saturday night; and he had come to expose the rector’s shallow -hypocrisy. This he proceeded to do, in language quite unsuited to the -chapel of Temple Mission and to the ears of the ladies then present; -most of whom grinned. - -The proceedings which followed were but brief. The Reverend Smith Boyd -requested the intruder to stop. The intruder had rights, and he stood on -them! The Reverend Smith Boyd ordered him to stop; but the intruder had -a free and independent spirit, which forbade him to accept orders from -any man! The Reverend Smith Boyd, in the interests of the discipline -without which the dignity and effectiveness of the cause could not be -upheld, and pleased that this was so, ordered him out of the room. Mr. -Rogers, with a flood of abuse which displayed some versatility, invited -the Reverend Smith Boyd to put him out; and the Reverend Smith Boyd did -so. It was not much of a struggle, though Mr. Rogers tore two benches -loose on his way, and, at the narrow door through which it is difficult -to thrust even a weak man, because there are so many arms and legs -attached to the human torso, he offered so much resistance that the -reverend doctor was compelled to practically pitch him, headlong, across -the sidewalk, and over the curb, and into the gutter! The victim of -injustice arose slowly, and turned to come back, but he paused to take a -good look at the stalwart young perpetrator, and remembered that he was -thirsty. - -The Reverend Smith Boyd found himself standing in the middle of the -sidewalk, with his fists clenched and his blood surging. The atmosphere -before his eyes seemed to be warm, as if it were reddened slightly. He -was tingling from head to foot with a passion which he had repressed, -and throttled, and smothered since the days of his boyhood! He had -striven, with a strength which was the secret of his compelling voice, -to drive out of him all earthly dross, to found himself on the great -example which was without the cravings of the body; he had sought to -make himself spiritual; but, all at once, this conflict had roused in -him a raging something, which swept up from the very soles of his feet -to his twirling brain, and called him man! - -For a quivering moment he stood there, alive with all the virility which -was the richer because of his long repression. He knew many things now, -many things which ripened him in an instant, and gave him the heart to -touch, and the mind to understand, and the soul to flame. He knew -himself, he knew life, he knew, yes, and that was the wonderful miracle -of the flood which poured in on him, he knew love! - -He reached suddenly for his watch. Six-ten. He could make it! Still -impelled by this new creature which had sprung up in him, he started; -but at the curb he stopped. He had been in such a whirl of emotion that -he had not realised the absence of his hat. He strode into the mission -door, and the rays of the declining sun, struggling dimly through the -dingy glass, fell on the scattered little assemblage—as if it had been -sent to touch them in mercy and compassion—on the weak, and the poor, -and the piteously crippled of soul; and a great wave of shame came to -him; shame, and thankfulness, too! - -He walked slowly up to the platform, and, turning to that reddened -sunlight which bathed his upturned face as if with a benediction, he -said, in a voice which, in its new sweetness of vibration, stirred even -the murky depths of these, the numb: - -“Let us pray.” - - - - - CHAPTER XX - THE BREED OF GAIL - - -Who was that tall, severely correct gentleman waiting at the station, -with a bunch of violets in his hand, and the light in his countenance -which was never on sea or land? It was Gerald Fosland, and he astonished -all beholders by his extraordinary conduct. As the beautiful Arly -stepped through the gates, he advanced with an entirely unrepressed -smile, springing from the ball of his feet with a buoyancy too active to -be quite in good form. He took Arly’s hand in his, but he did not bend -over it with his customary courteous gallantry. Instead, he drew her -slightly towards him, with a firm and deliberate movement, and, bending -his head sidewise under the brim of her hat, kissed her; kissed her on -the lips! - -Immediately thereafter he gave a dignified welcome to Gail, and with -Arly’s arm clutched tightly in his own, he then disappeared. As they -walked rapidly away, Arly looked up at him in bewilderment; then she -suddenly hugged herself closer to him with a jerk. As they went out -through the carriage entrance, she skipped. - -It was good to see Allison, big, strong, forceful, typical of the city -and its mighty deeds. His eye had lighted with something more than -pleasure as Gail stepped out through the gates of the station; something -so infinitely more than pleasure that her eyes dropped, and her hand -trembled as she felt that same old warm thrill of his clasp. He was so -overwhelming in his physical dominance. He took immediate possession of -her, standing by while she greeted her uncle and aunt and other friends, -and beaming with justifiably proud proprietorship. Gail had laughed as -she recognised that attitude, and she found it magnificent after the -pretentions of Howard Clemmens. The difference was that Allison was -really a big man, one born to command, to sway things, to move and shift -and re-arrange great forces; and that, of course, was his manner in -everything. She flushed each time she looked in his direction; for he -never removed his gaze from her; bold, confident, supreme. When a man -like that is kind and gentle and considerate, when he is tender and -thoughtful and full of devotion, he is a big man indeed! - -She let him put her hand on his arm, and felt restful, after the -greetings had been exchanged, as he led her out to the big touring car, -asking her all sorts of eager questions about how she found her home and -her friends, and if the journey had fatigued her, and telling her, over -and over, how good she looked, how bright and how clear-eyed and how -fresh-cheeked, and how charming in her grey travelling costume. She felt -the thrill again as he took her hand in his to help her into the car, -and she loved the masterful manner in which he cleared a way to their -machine through the crowded traffic. In the same masterful air, he -gently but firmly changed her from the little folding seat to the big -soft cushions in the rear, beside her Aunt Grace. - -The Reverend Smith Boyd was at the steps of the Sargent house to greet -her, and her heart leaped as she recognised another of the dear familiar -faces. This was her world, after all; not that world of her childhood. -How different the rector looked; or was it that she had needed to go -away in order to judge her friends anew? His eyes were different; -deeper, steadier and more penetrating into her own; and, yes, bolder. -She was forced to look away from them for a moment. There seemed a warm -eagerness in his greeting, as if everything in him were drawing her to -him. It was indescribable, that change in the Reverend Smith Boyd, but -it was not unexplainable; and, after he had swung back home, with the -earnest promise to come over after dinner, she suddenly blushed -furiously, without any cause, while she was talking of nothing more -intense than the excellent physical condition of Flakes. - -Gay little Mrs. Babbitt brought her husband, while the family group was -still jabbering over its coffee, and after them came the deluge; Dick -Rodley and the cherub-cheeked Marion Kenneth, and Willis Cunningham, and -a host of others, including the Van Ploons, father, son, and solemn -daughter. The callow youth who had danced with her three times was -there, with a gardenia all out of proportion to him, and he sat in the -middle of the Louis XIV salon, where he was excessively in everybody’s -road, and could feast on Gail, for the most of the evening, in numb -admiration; for his point of vantage commanded a view into the library -and all the parlours. - -With a rapidity which was a marvel to all her girl friends, Gail had -slipped upstairs and into a creamy lace evening frock without having -been missed; and she was in this acutely harmonious setting when the -Reverend Smith Boyd called, with his beautiful mother on his arm. The -beautiful mother was in an exceptional flurry of delight to see Gail, -and kissed that charming young lady with clinging warmth. The rector’s -eyes were even more strikingly changed than they had been when he had -first met her on the steps, as they looked on Gail in her creamy lace, -and after she had read that new intense look in his eyes for the second -time that evening, she hurried away, with the license of a busy hostess, -and cooled her face at an open window in the side vestibule. There was a -new note in the Reverend Smith Boyd’s voice; not a greater depth nor -mellowness nor sweetness, but a something else. What was it? It was a -call, that was it; a call across the gulf of futurity. - -They came after her. Ted and Lucile had arrived. She was in a vortex. -Dick Rodley hemmed her in a corner, and proposed to her again, just for -practice, within eye-shot of a dozen people, and he did it so that -onlookers might think that he was complimenting her on her clever -coiffure or discussing a new operetta; but he made her blush, which was -the intention in the depths of his black eyes. It seemed that she was in -a perpetual blush to-night, and something within her seemed to be -surging and halting and wavering and quivering! Her Aunt Helen Davies, -rather early in the evening, began to act stiff and formal. - -“Go home,” she murmured to Lucile. “All this excitement is bad for -Gail’s beauty.” - -She felt free to give the same advice to the gay little Mrs. Babbitt, -and the departure of four people was sufficient to remind the stiff Van -Ploon daughter of the conventions. She removed the elder Van Ploon’s -eyes from Gail, and gathered up Houston, who was energetically talking -horse with Allison. After that the exodus became general, until only the -callow youth and Allison and the Reverend Smith Boyd remained. The -latter young gentleman had taken his flutteringly happy mother home -early in the evening, and he had resorted to dulness with such of the -thinning guests as had seemed disposed to linger. - -It was Aunt Helen who, by some magic of adroitness, sent the callow -youth on his way. He was worth any amount of money to which one cared to -add ciphers, and his family was flawless except for him; but Aunt Helen -had decisively cut him off her books, because he was so well fitted to -be the last of his line. She thought she had better go upstairs after -that, and she glanced into the music room as she passed, and knitted her -brows at the tableau. The Reverend Smith Boyd, who seemed unusually fine -looking to-night, stood leaning against the piano, watching Gail with an -almost incendiary gaze. That young lady, steadily resisting an impulse -to feel her cheek with the back of her hand, sat on the end of the piano -bench furthest removed from the rector, and directed the most of her -attention to Allison, who was less disconcerting. Allison, casting an -occasional glance at the intense young rector, seemed preoccupied -to-night; and Mrs. Helen Davies, pausing to take her sister Grace with -her, walked up the stairs with a forefinger tapping at her well-shaped -chin. She seemed to have reversed places with her sister to-night; for -Mrs. Sargent was supremely happy, while Helen Davies was doing the -family worrying. - -She could have bid Allison adieu had she waited a very few minutes. He -was a man who had spent a lifetime in linking two and two together, and -he abided unwaveringly by his deductions. There was no mistaking the -nature of the change which was so apparent in the Reverend Smith Boyd; -but Allison, after careful thought on the matter, was able to take a -comparatively early departure. - -“I’ll see you to-morrow, Gail,” he observed finally. Rising, he crossed -to where she sat, and, reaching into her lap, he took both her hands. He -let her arms swing from his clasp, and, looking down into her eyes with -smiling regard, he gave her hands an extra pressure, which sent, for the -hundredth time that night, a surge of colour over her face. - -The Reverend Smith Boyd, blazing down at that scene, suddenly felt -something crushing under his hand. It was the light runner board of the -music rack, and three hairs, which had lain in placid place at the crown -of his head, suddenly popped erect. Ten thousand years before had these -three been so grouped, Allison would have felt a stone axe on the back -of his neck, but as it was he passed out unmolested, nodding carelessly -to the young rector, and bestowing on Gail a parting look which was the -perfection of easy assurance. - -The Reverend Smith Boyd wasted not a minute in purposeless hesitation or -idle preliminary conversation. - -“Gail!” he said, in a voice which chimed of all the love songs ever -written, which vibrated with all the love passion ever breathed, which -pleaded with the love appeal of all the dominant forces since creation. -Gail had resumed her seat on the end of the piano bench, and now he -reached down and took her hand, and held it, unresisting. She was weak -and limp, and she averted her eyes from the burning gaze which beamed -down on her. Her breath was fluttering, and the hand which lay in her -lap was cold and trembling. “Gail, I love you!” He bent his head and -kissed her hand. The touch was fire, and she felt her blood leap to it. -“Gail dear,” and his voice was like the suppressed crescendo of a -tremendous organ flute; “I come to you with the love of a man. I come to -you with the love of one inspired to do great deeds, not just to lay -them at your feet, but because you are in the world!” He bent lower, and -tried to gaze into the brown eyes under those fluttering lashes. He held -her hand more tightly to him, clasped it to his breast, oppressed her -with the tremendous desire of his whole being to draw her to him, and -hold her close, as one and a part of him for all time to come, mingling -and merging them into one ecstatic harmony. “Gail! Oh, Gail, Gail!” - -There was a cry in that repetition of her name, almost an anguish. She -stole an upward glance at him, her face pale, her beautiful lips half -parted, and in her depthless brown eyes, alive now with a new light -which had been born within her, there was no forbiddance, though she -dropped them hastily, and bent her head still lower. She had made -herself an eternal part of him just then, had he but seized upon that -unspoken assent, and taken her in his arms, and breathed to her of the -love of man for woman, the love that never dies nor wavers nor falters, -so long as the human race shall endure. - -He bent still closer to her, so that he all but enfolded her. His warm -breath was upon her cheek. The sympathy which was between them bridged -the narrow chasm of air, and enveloped them in an ethereal flame which -coursed them from head to foot, and had already nigh welded them into -one. - -“I need you, Gail!” he told her. “I need you to be my wife, my -sweetheart, my companion. I need you to go with me through life, to walk -hand in hand with me about the greatest work in the world, the -redemption of the fallen and helpless, into whose lives we may shed some -of the beauty which blossoms in our own.” - -There was a low cry from Gail, a cry which was half a sob, which came -with a sharp intake of the breath, and carried with it pain and sorrow -and protest. She had been so happy, in what she fancied to be the near -fulfilment of the promptings which had grown so strong within her. No -surge of emotion like this had ever swept over her; no such wave of -yearning had ever carried her impetuously up and out of herself as this -had done. It had been the ecstatic answer to all her dreams, the ripe -and rich and perfect completion of every longing within her; yet, in the -very midst of it had come a word which broke the magic thrall; a thought -which had torn the fairy web like a rude storm from out the icy north; a -devouring genii which, dark and frightening, advanced to destroy all the -happiness which might follow this first inrushing commingling of these -two perfectly correlated elements! - -“I can’t!” she breathed, but she did not withdraw her hand from his -clasp. She could not! It was as if those two palms had welded together, -and had become parts of one and the same organism. - -There was an instant of silence, in which she slowly gathered her -swirling senses, and in which he sat, shocked, stunned, disbelieving his -own ears. Why, he had known, as positively, and more positively, than if -she had told him, that there was a perfect response in her to the great -desire which throbbed within him. It had come to him from her like the -wavering of soft music, music which had blended with his own pulsing -diapason in a melody so subtle that it drowned the senses to languorous -swooning; it had come to him with the delicate far-off pervasiveness of -the birth of a new star in the heavens; it had come to him as a -fragrance, as a radiance, as the beautiful tints of spring blossoms, as -something infinitely stronger, and deeper, and sweeter, than the sleep -of death. That tremendous and perfect fitness and accord with him he -felt in her hand even now. - -“I can’t, Tod,” she said again, and neither one noticed that she had -unconsciously used the name she had heard from his mother, and which she -had unconsciously linked with her thoughts of him. “There could never be -a unity of purpose in us,” and now, for the first time, she gently -withdrew her hand. “I could never be in sympathy with your work, nor you -with my views. Have you noticed that we have never held a serious -dispute over any topic but one?” - -He drew a chair before her, and took her hand again, but this time he -patted it between his own as if it were a child’s. - -“Gail, dear, that is an obstacle which will melt away. There was a time -when I felt as you do. The time will come when you, too, will change.” - -“You don’t understand,” she gently told him. “I believe in God the -Creator; the Maker of my conscience; my Friend and my Father. I am in no -doubt, no quandary, no struggle between faith and disbelief. I see my -way clearly, and there are no thorns to cut for me. I shall never -change.” - -He looked at her searchingly for a moment, and then his face grew grave; -but there was no coldness in it, nor any alteration in the blueness of -his eyes. - -“I shall pray for you,” he said, with simple faith. - - - - - CHAPTER XXI - THE PUBLIC IS AROUSED - - -Clad in her filmy cream lace gown, Gail walked slowly into her boudoir, -and closed the door, and sank upon her divan. She did not stop to-night -to let down her hair and change to her dainty negligee, nor to -punctiliously straighten the room, nor to turn on the beautiful green -light; instead, with all the electric bulbs blazing, she sat with her -chin in her hand, and, with her body perfectly in repose, tried to study -the whirl of her mind. - -She was shaken, she knew that, shaken and stirred as she had never been -before. Something in the depths of her had leaped up into life, and -cried out in agony, and would not stop crying until it was satisfied. - -The hardest part of the whirl from which to untangle herself was the -tremendous overwhelming attraction there had been between them. The red -wave of consciousness rose up over her neck and crimsoned her cheeks and -flushed her very brow, as the nearness of him came back to her. Again -she could feel that marvellous welding of their palms, the tingle of her -shoulder where he had accidentally brushed against it; the music of his -voice, which had set up that ecstatic answering vibration within her. -She felt again his warm breath upon her cheek, the magnetic thrill of -his arms as he enfolded her, the breathless joy which had ensued when he -had drawn her to his breast, and held and held and held her there, as an -indivisible part of him, forever and forever. The burning pressure of -his lips upon hers! That breathless, intolerable ecstasy when he had -folded her closer, and still closer! A sense of shame flooded her that -she had yielded so much, that she had been so helpless in the might and -the strength and the sweep— - -She raised her head with a jerk, and rubbed her hands over her eyes. Why -there had been no such episode! He had not folded her in his arms, nor -drawn her to him, nor kissed her lips; though her breath was fluttering -and her wrists burning in the bare memory of it; he had only drawn quite -near to her, and held her hand; and once he had kissed it! How then had -she reproduced all these sensations so vividly? Then indeed, shame came -to her, as she realised how much more completely than he could know, she -had, in one breathless instant, given herself to him! - -It was that shame which came to her rescue, which set her upon her -defence, which started her to the seeking for her justification. She had -refused him, even at the very height of her most intense yielding. And -why? She must go deeper into the detail of that. She had to grope her -way slowly and painfully back through the quivering maze of her senses, -to recall the point at which she had been taken rudely from the present -into the future. - -“I need you to walk hand in hand with me about the greatest work in the -world!” That was it; the greatest work in the world! And what was that -work? To live and teach ritual in place of religion; to turn worship -into a social observance; to use helpless belief as a ladder of -ambition; to reduce faith to words, and hope to a recitation, and -charity to an obligation; to make pomp and ceremony a substitute for -conscience, and to interpose a secretary between the human heart and -God! - -For just an instant Gail’s eyelids dropped, her long brown lashes curved -upon her cheeks, while beneath them her eyes glinted, and a smile -touched the corners of her lips; then she was serious again. No, she had -decided wisely. They could not spend a lifetime in the ecstasy of touch. -Between those rare moments of the rapture of love must come stern hours -of waking. Then she must live a constant lie, she must battle down her -own ideals and her own thoughts and her own worship and subscribe to a -dead shell of pretence, which she had come to hold in contempt and even -loathing. She must appear constantly before the world as subscribing to -and upholding a sham which had been formulated as thoroughly as the -multiplication table; and to do all these things she would be compelled -to throttle her own dear Deity, with whom she had been friends since her -babyhood, to whom she could go at any hour with pure faith and simple -confidence; always in love and never in fear! - -Yes, she had chosen wisely. Through all the years to come there would be -clash upon clash, until they would grow so far apart spiritually that no -human yearning, no matter how long nor how strong, could bridge the -chasm. She was humiliated to be compelled to confess to herself that the -tremendous fire which had consumed them, that the tremendous attraction -which had drawn them together, that the tremendous ecstasy which had -enveloped them, was by no means of the soul or the spirit or the mind. -And yet, how potent that attraction had been, how it left her still -quivering with longing. Did she despise that tendency in herself? -Something within her answered defiantly “No!” Still defiantly, she -exulted in it; for many instincts which the Creator has planted in -humanity have been made sinful by teaching alone. Moreover, a further -search brought a deserved approbation to the rescue of her self-respect. -Mighty as had been the call upon her from without and from within, she -had resisted it, and driven it back, and leashed it firmly with the -greater strength of her faith! She gloried that she had not been weak in -this stormy test, and her eyes softened with a smile of gratitude. Poor -Tod! - -There was a knock on the door, and Gail smiled again as she said: - -“Come in.” - -Mrs. Helen Davies entered, tall and stately in her boudoir frills and -ruffles. She gazed searchingly at Gail’s now calm face, with its -delicately tinted oval cheeks and its curved red lips and its brown -eyes, into which a measure of peace had come. The face did not tell her -as much as she had expected to find in it, but the fact that Gail had so -far deviated from her unbreakable habit of piling into a negligee and -putting every minute trace of disorder to rights before she did anything -else, was sufficient indication that something unusual had occurred. -Aunt Helen sat down in front of Gail and prepared to enact the rôle of -conscientious mother. - -“Doctor Boyd proposed to you to-night,” she charged, with affectionate -authority. - -“Yes, Aunt Helen,” and Gail began to pull pins out of her hair. - -A worried expression crossed the brow of Aunt Helen. - -“Did you accept him?” and she fairly quivered with anxiety. - -“No, Aunt Helen.” Quite calmly, piling more hairpins and still more into -the little tray by her side, and shaking down her rippling waves of -hair. - -Aunt Helen sighed a deep sigh of relief, and smiled her approval. - -“I was quite hopeful that you would not,” and the tone was one of -distinct pleasure. “Doctor Boyd is a most estimable young man, but I -should not at all consider him a desirable match for you.” - -Gail walked across to her dressing table, and rang for her maid. -Something within her flared up in defence of Tod, but the face which, an -instant later, she turned toward the older woman, had its eyelids down -and the eyes glinting through that curving fringe and the little smile -at the corners of the lips. - -“Of course, he is perfectly eligible,” went on Aunt Helen, studying the -young man in question much as if he were on the auction block, and -guaranteed sound in every limb. “While there would be no possibility of -gaiety, and no freedom of action for even an instant, with the eyes of -every one so critically fixed on a rector’s wife, still she would have -the entrée into the most exclusive circles, and would have a social -position of such dignified respectability as could be secured in no -other way.” Interested in her own analysis, and perfectly placid -because, after all, Gail had refused him, she did not notice that Gail, -now brushing her hair, stopped in the middle of a downward stroke, and -then fell to brushing furiously. “Moreover, the young man is highly -ambitious,” went on Aunt Helen. “The movement for the magnificent new -cathedral had lagged for years before he came; but he had not been here -twelve months before he had the entire congregation ambitious to build -the most magnificent cathedral the world has ever seen. My dear child, -you’ll break your hair with that rough brushing! Moreover, the new -rectory must, of course, be built in keeping with the cathedral, and no -multi-millionaire could erect a home more palatial than Doctor Boyd will -occupy.” - -Gail unfastened her necklace. - -“However, Gail dear, you have shown a degree of carefulness which I am -delighted to find in you,” complimented Aunt Helen. “If you handle all -your affairs so sensibly, you have a brilliant future before you.” - -“I must be an awful worry to you, Aunt Helen,” observed Gail, and -walking over, she slipped her arm around Mrs. Davies’ neck, and kissed -her, and looked around for her chocolate box. - -Gail’s maid came in, and Mrs. Davies bade her sister’s niece good-night -most cordially, and retired with a great load off her mind; and half an -hour later the lights in Gail’s pretty little suite went out. - -If she lay long hours looking out at the pale stars, if, in the midst of -her calm logic, she suddenly buried her face in her pillows and sobbed -silently, if, toward morning, she awoke with a little cry to find her -face and her hands hot, all these things were but normal and natural. It -is enough to know that she came to her breakfast bright-eyed and -rosy-cheeked and smiling with the pleasant greetings of the day, and -picked up the papers casually, and lit upon the newest sensation of the -free and entirely uncurbed metropolitan press! - -The free and entirely uncurbed metropolitan press had found Vedder -Court, and had made it the sudden focus of the public eye. Those few who -were privileged to know intimately the workings of that adroit master of -the public welfare, Tim Corman, could have recognised clearly his fine -hand in the blaze of notoriety which obscure Vedder Court had suddenly -received. After having endured the contamination and contagion of the -Market Square Church tenements for so many years, the city had, all at -once, discovered that the condition was unbearable! The free and -entirely uncurbed metropolitan press had taken up, with great -enthusiasm, the work of poking the finger of scorn at Vedder Court. It -had published photographs of the disreputable old sots of buildings, -and, where they did not seem to drip enough, the artists had retouched -them. It had sent budding young Poes and Dickenses down there to write -up the place in all the horrors which a lurid fancy could portray, or a -hectic mind conceive; and it had given special prominence to the -masterly effort of one litterateur, who never went near the place, but, -after dancing ably until three A.M., had dashed up to his lonely room, -and had wrapped a wet towel around his head, and had conceived of the -scene as it would look in absolute darkness, with one pale lamp gleaming -on the Doréian faces of the passersby! It had sent the sob sisters there -in shoals to interview the down-trodden, and, above all things, it had -put prominently before the public eye the immense profit which Market -Square Church wrung from this organised misery! - -Gail turned sick at heart as she read. Uncle Jim permitted four morning -papers to come to the house, and the dripping details, with many -variations, were in all of them. She glanced over toward the rectory and -the dignified old church standing beyond it, with mingled indignation -and humiliation. A sort of ignominy seemed to have descended upon it, -like a man whose features seem coarsened from the instant he is doomed -to wear prison stripes; and the fact which she particularly resented was -that a portion of the disgrace of Market Square Church seemed to have -descended upon her. She could not make out why this should be; but it -was. Aunt Grace Sargent, bustling about to see that Gail was supplied -with more kinds of delicacies than she could possibly sample, saw that -unmistakable look of distress on Gail’s face, and went straight up to -her sister Helen, the creases of worry deep in her brow. - -Mrs. Helen Davies was having her coffee in bed, and she continued that -absorbing ceremony while she considered her sister’s news. - -“I did not think that Gail was so deeply affected by the occurrences of -last night,” she mused; “but of course she could not sleep, and she’s -full of sympathy this morning, and afraid that maybe she made a mistake, -and feels perfectly wretched.” - -Grace Sargent sat right down. - -“Did the rector propose?” she breathlessly inquired. - -Mrs. Davies poured herself some more hot coffee, and nodded. - -“She refused him.” - -“Oh!” and acute distress settled on Grace Sargent’s brow, with such a -firm clutch that it threatened to homestead the location. Mrs. Sargent -shared the belief of the Reverend Smith Boyd’s mother, that Smith Boyd -was the finest young man in the world; and Gail’s aunt was speechless -with dismay and disappointment. - -“I have ceased to worry about Gail’s future,” went on Mrs. Davies -complacently. “It is her present condition about which I am most -concerned. She is so conscientious and self-analytical that she may -distress herself over this affair, and I must get in Arly and Lucile, -and plan a series of gaieties which will keep her mind occupied from -morning until night.” - -In consequence of this kindly decision, Gail was plunged into gaiety -until she loathed the scrape of a violin! The mere fact that she had no -time to think did not remove the fact that she had a great deal to think -about, and the gaiety only added dismally to her troubled burden. - -Meanwhile, the free and entirely uncurbed metropolitan press went -merrily onward with its righteous Vedder Court crusade, until it had the -public indignation properly aroused. The public indignation rose to such -a pitch that it almost meant something. There is not the slightest doubt -that, if the public had not been busy with affairs of its own, and if it -had not been in the habit of leaving everything to be seen to by the -people financially interested, and if it had not consisted chiefly of a -few active vocal cords, there is not the slightest doubt, it is worth -repeating, that the public might have done something about Vedder Court! -As things were, it grew most satisfactorily indignant. It talked of -nothing else, in the subways and on the “L’s” and on the surface lines, -and on the cindery commuter trains; and on the third day of the -agitation, before something else should happen to shake the populace to -the very foundation of its being, the city authorities condemned the -Vedder Court property as unsanitary, inhuman, and unsafe, as a menace to -the public morals, health and life, and as a blot upon civilisation; -this last being a fancy touch added by Tim Corman himself, who, in his -old age, had a tendency to link poetry to his practicability. In -consequence of this decision, the city authorities ordered Vedder Court -to be forthwith torn down, demolished, and removed from the face of the -earth; thereby justifying, after all, the existence of the free and -entirely uncurbed metropolitan press! The exact psychological moment had -been chosen. The public, caught at the very height of its frenzy, -applauded, and ate its dinner in virtuous satisfaction; and Gail -Sargent’s distress crystallised into a much easier thing to handle; just -plain anger! - -And so Market Square Church had persisted in clutching its greedy hold -on a commercial advantage so vile that even a notoriously corrupt city -government had ordered it destroyed! Her mind was immensely relieved -about the Reverend Smith Boyd. She had chosen well, and wisely! - - - - - CHAPTER XXII - THE REV. SMITH BOYD PROTESTS - - -The doves which in summer flitted about the quiet little vestry yard, -and cooed over the vestry door, would have flown away had they been at -home; for it was a stormy affair, with loud voices and clashing wills -and a general atmosphere of tensity, which was somewhat at variance with -the red-robed figure of the Good Shepherd in the pointed window of the -vestry. The late arrival was Joseph G. Clark, and his eye sought that of -Banker Chisholm, before he nodded to the others and took his seat at the -Gothic table. The Reverend Smith Boyd, who was particularly straight and -tall to-day, and particularly in earnest, paused long enough for the -slight disturbance to subside, and then he finished his speech. - -“That is my unalterable position in the matter,” he declared. “If Market -Square Church has a mission, it is the responsibility for these -miserable human wrecks whom we have made our wards.” - -“We can’t feed and clothe them,” objected Banker Chisholm, whose white -mutton chops already glowed pink from the anger-reddened skin beneath. - -“It doesn’t pay to pauperise the people,” supplemented Willis -Cunningham, stroking his sparse Vandyke complacently. Cunningham, whose -sole relationship to economics consisted in permitting his secretary to -sign checks, had imbibed a few principles which sufficed for all -occasions. - -“I do not wish to pauperise them,” returned the rector. “I am willing to -accept the shame of having the city show Market Square Church its duty, -in exchange for the pleasure of replacing the foul tenements in Vedder -Court with clean ones.” - -Joseph G. Clark glanced again at Chisholm. - -“They’d be dirty again in ten years,” he observed. “If we build the new -type of sanitary tenement we shall have to charge more rent, or not make -a penny of profit; and we can’t get more rent because the people who -would pay it will not come into that neighbourhood.” - -“Are we compelled to make a profit?” retorted the rector. “Is it -necessary for Market Square Church to remain perpetually a commercial -landlord?” - -The vestry gazed at the Reverend Smith Boyd in surprised disapproval. -Their previous rector had talked like that, and the Reverend Smith Boyd -had been a great relief. - -“So long as the church has property at all, it will meet with that -persistent charge,” argued Chisholm. “It seems to me that we have had -enough of it. My own inclination would be to sell the property outright, -and take up slower, but less personal, forms of investment.” - -Old Nicholas Van Ploon, sitting far enough away to fold his hands -comfortably across his tight vest, screwed his neck around so that he -could glare at the banker. - -“No,” he objected; for the Van Ploon millions had been accumulated by -the growth of tall office buildings out of a worthless Manhattan swamp. -“We should never sell the property.” - -“There are a dozen arguments against keeping it,” returned the nasal -voice of old Joseph G. Clark. “The chief one is the necessity of making -a large investment in these new tenements.” - -The Reverend Smith Boyd rose again, shutting the light from the red robe -of the Good Shepherd out of quietly concentrated Jim Sargent’s eyes. - -“I object to this entire discussion,” he stated. “We have a moral -obligation which forbids us to discuss matters of investment and profit -within these walls as if we were a lard trust. We have neglected our -moral obligation in Vedder Court, until we are as blackened with sin as -the thief on the cross.” - -Shrewd old Rufus Manning looked at the young rector curiously. He was -puzzled over the change in him. - -“Don’t swing the pendulum too far, Doctor Boyd,” Manning reminded him, -with a great deal of kindliness. These two had met often in Vedder -Court. “Our sins, such as they are, are more passive than active.” - -It was, of course, old Nicholas Van Ploon who fell back again on the -stock argument which had been quite sufficient to soothe his conscience -for all these years. - -“We give these people cheaper rent than they can find anywhere in the -city.” - -“We should continue to do so, but in cleaner and more wholesome -quarters,” quickly returned the rector. “This is the home of all these -poverty stricken people whom Market Square Church has taken under its -shelter, and we have no right to dispose of it.” - -“That’s what I say,” and Nicholas Van Ploon nodded his round head. “We -should not sell the property.” - -“We can not for shame, if for nothing else,” agreed the rector, seizing -on every point of advantage to support his intense desire to lift the -Vedder Court derelicts from the depth of their degradation. “We lie now -under the disgrace of having owned property so filthy that the city was -compelled to order it torn down. The only way in which we can redeem the -reputation of Market Square Church is to replace those tenements with -better ones, and conduct them as a benefit to the people rather than to -our own pockets.” - -“That’s a clever way of putting it,” commended Jim Sargent. “It’s time -we did something to get rid of our disgrace,” and he was most earnest -about it. He had been the most uncomfortable of all these vestrymen in -the past few days; for the disgrace of Market Square Church had been a -very reliable topic of conversation in Gail Sargent’s neighbourhood. - -The nasal voice of smooth-shaven old Joseph G. Clark drawled into the -little silence which ensued. - -“What about the Cathedral?” he asked, and the hush which followed was -far deeper than the one which he had broken. Even the Reverend Smith -Boyd was driven to some fairly profound thought. His bedroom and his -study were lined with sketches of the stupendously beautiful cathedral, -the most expensive in the world, in which he was to disseminate the -gospel. - -“Suppose we come back to earth,” resumed Clark, who had built the -Standard Cereal Company into a monopoly of all the breadstuffs by that -process. “If we rebuild we set ourselves back in the cathedral project -ten years. You can’t wipe out what you call our disgrace, even if you -give all these paupers free board and compulsory baths. My proposition -is to telephone for Edward E. Allison, and tell him we’re ready to -accept his offer.” - -“Not while I’m a member of this vestry,” declared Nicholas Van Ploon, -swivelling himself to defy Joseph G. Clark. “We don’t sell the -property.” - -“I put Mr. Clark’s proposition as a motion,” jerked W. T. Chisholm, and -in the heated argument which ensued, the Good Shepherd in the window, -taking advantage of the shifting sun, removed from the room the light of -the red robe. - -In the end, the practical minded members won over the sentimentalists, -if Nicholas Van Ploon could be classed under that heading, and Allison -was telephoned. Before they were through wrangling over the decision to -have him meet them, Allison was among them. One might almost have -thought that he had been waiting for the call; but he exchanged no more -friendly glances with Clark and Chisholm, of the new International -Transportation Company, than he did with any of the others. - -“Well, Allison, we’ve about decided to accept your offer for the Vedder -Court property,” stated Manning. - -“I haven’t made you any, but I’m willing,” returned Allison. - -Jim Sargent drew from his pocket a memorandum slip. - -“You offered us a sum which, at three and a half per cent., would -accrue, in ten years, to forty-two million dollars,” he reminded the -president of the Municipal Transportation Company. “That figures to a -spot-cash proposition of thirty-one millions, with a repeating decimal -of one; so somebody will have to lose a cent.” - -“That offer is withdrawn,” said Allison. - -“I don’t see why,” objected Jim Sargent. “The property is as valuable -for your purpose as it ever was.” - -“I don’t dispute that; but in that offer I allowed you for the income -earning capacity of your improved property. Since that capacity is -stopped, I don’t feel obliged to pay you for it, or, in other words, to -make up to you the loss which the city has compelled you to sustain.” - -“There is some show of reason in what Allison says,” observed Joseph G. -Clark. - -Chisholm leaned forward, with his elbows on the table, around the edge -of which were carved the heads of winged cherubs. - -“What is your present offer?” - -“Twenty-five million; cash.” - -“We refuse!” announced Nicholas Van Ploon, bobbing his round head -emphatically. - -“I’m not so sure that we do,” returned Clark. “I have been studying -property values in that neighbourhood, and I doubt if we can obtain -more.” - -“Then we don’t sell!” insisted Nicholas Van Ploon. - -“I scarcely think we wish to take up this discussion with Mr. Allison -until we have digested the offer,” observed the quiet voice of Manning, -and, on this hint, Allison withdrew. - -He smiled as he heard the voices which broke out in controversy the -moment he had closed the door behind him. Being so near, he naturally -called on Gail Sargent, and found her entertaining a little tea party of -the gayest and brightest whom Aunt Helen Davies could bring together. - -She came into the little reception “cosy” to meet Allison, smiling with -pleasure. There seemed to be a degree of wistfulness in her greeting of -her friends since the night of her return. - -“Of course I couldn’t overlook an opportunity to drop in,” said Allison, -shaking her by both hands, and holding them while he surveyed her -critically. There was a tremendous comfort in his strength. - -“So you only called because you were in the neighbourhood,” bantered -Gail. - -“Guilty,” he laughed. “I’ve just been paying attention to my religious -duties.” - -“I wasn’t aware that you knew you had any,” returned Gail, sitting in -the shadow of the window jamb. Allison’s eyes were too searching. - -“I attend a vestry meeting now and then,” he replied, and then he -laughed shortly. “I’d rather do business with forty corporations than -with one vestry. A church always expects to conduct its share of the -negotiations on a strictly commercial basis, while it expects you to -mingle a little charity with your end of the transactions.” - -“The Vedder Court property,” she guessed, with a slight contraction of -her brows. - -“Still after it,” said Allison, and talked of other matters. - -Jim Sargent returned, and glancing into the little reception tête-à-tête -as he passed, saw Allison and came back. - -“I didn’t expect to see you so soon,” wondered Allison. - -“We broke up in a row,” laughed Jim Sargent. “Clark and Chisholm were -willing to accept your price, but the rest of us listened to Doctor Boyd -and Nicholas Van Ploon, and fell. We insist on our cathedral, and Doctor -Boyd’s plan seems the best way to get it, though even that may -necessitate a four or five years’ delay.” - -“What’s his plan?” asked Allison. - -“Rebuilding,” returned Sargent. “We can put up tenements good enough to -pass the building inspectors and to last fifteen years. With the same -rents we are now receiving, we can offer them better quarters, and, as -Doctor Boyd suggested, redeem ourselves from some of the disgrace of -this whole proceeding. Clever, sensible idea, I think.” - -Gail was leaning forward, with her fingers clasped around her knee; her -brown eyes had widened, and a little red spot had appeared in either -cheek; her red lips were half parted, as she looked up in wonder at her -Uncle Jim. - -“Is that the plan upon which they have decided?” and Allison looked at -his watch. - -“Well, hardly,” frowned Sargent. “We couldn’t swing Clark and Chisholm. -At the last minute they suggested that we might build lofts, and the -impending fracas seemed too serious to take up just now, so we’ve tabled -the whole thing.” - -Allison smiled, and slipped his watch back in his pocket. - -“It’s fairly definite, however, that you won’t sell,” he concluded. - -“Not at your figure,” laughed Sargent. “If we took your money, Doctor -Boyd would be too old to preach in the new cathedral.” - -“He’ll pull it through some way,” declared Allison. “He’s as smart as a -whip.” - -Neither gentleman had noticed Gail. She had settled back in her chair -during these last speeches, weary and listless, and overcome with a -sense of some humiliation too evasive to be properly framed even in -thought. She had a sense that she had given away something vastly -precious, and which would never be valued. Neither did they notice that -she changed suddenly to relief. She had been justified in her decision. - -She took the reins of conversation herself after Uncle Jim had left, and -entertained Allison so brightly that he left with impatience at the tea -party which monopolised her. - -Later, when the Reverend Smith Boyd dropped in, he met with a surprising -and disconcerting vivacity. In his eyes there was pain and suffering, -and inexpressible hunger, but in hers there was only dancing frivolity; -a little too ebullient, perhaps, if he had been wise enough to know; but -he was not. - - - - - CHAPTER XXIII - A SERIES OF GAIETIES - - -Gaiety consists in rising in the morning so tired that it takes three -hours of earnest work with a maid, a masseuse, a physical directress, a -hairdresser, and a bonnetiere, before one can produce a spontaneous -silvery laugh, which is never required, expected or considered good form -before two P.M. Gail Sargent went in for gaiety, and, moreover, she -enjoyed it. She rode, she drove, she went calling and received, she -attended teas and gave them, she dined out and entertained, in the name -of her eager Aunt Grace, she went to theatres, the opera, concerts, and -the lively midnight cafés, which had all gone nervously insane with -freak dancing, she attended balls, house parties, and all the in-between -diversions which her novelty-seeking friends could discover or invent, -and she flirted outrageously! She used her eyes, and the pretty pout of -her red lips, and the toss of her head, and all the wiles of coquetry, -to turn men into asses, and she enjoyed that, too! It was a part of her -feminine birthright to enter with zest into this diversion, and it was -only envy which criticised her. Aunt Helen Davies, who knew her world by -chapter and verse, stood behind the scenes of all this active -vaudeville, and applauded. It was at the opera that Aunt Helen could no -longer conceal her marvel. - -“My dear,” she said, under cover of the throbbing music of Thais, “I -have never seen anything like you!” - -“I don’t quite know whether to take that as a compliment or not,” -laughed Gail, who had even, in her new stage of existence, learned to -pay no attention to music. - -“The remark was not only intended to be complimentary, but positively -gushing,” replied Aunt Helen, returning with a smile the glance of their -hostess, the stiff Miss Van Ploon. “After two weeks of the gayest season -I have ever witnessed, you are as fresh and vivacious as when you -started.” - -“It’s a return to first principles,” stated Gail, considering the matter -seriously. “I’ve discovered the secret of success in New York, either -commercial or social. It is to have an unbreakable constitution.” - -The dapper little marquis, who was laying a very well conducted siege -for the heart and hand of Miss Van Ploon, leaned over Gail’s velvet -shoulder and whispered something in her ear. Gail leaned back a trifle -to answer him, her deep brown eyes flashing up at him, her red lips -adorably curved, that delicate colour wavering in her cheeks; and Mrs. -Davies, disregarding entirely the practised luring of the dapper little -marquis, who was as harmless as a canary bird, viewed Gail with -admiration. - -Houston Van Ploon, surveying Gail with pride, made up his mind about a -problem which he had been seriously considering. Gail Sargent, taken -point by point, appearance, charm, manner, disposition and health, had -the highest percentage of perfection of any young woman he had ever met, -an opinion in which his father and sister had agreed, after several -solemn family discussions. - -Nicholas Van Ploon leaned over to his daughter. - -“She has dimples,” he catalogued, nodding his round head in satisfaction -and clasping his hands comfortably over his broad white evening -waistcoat. - -Dick Rodley irrupted into the box with Lucile and Arly, just as Thais -started for the convent, and they were only the forerunners of a -constant stream which, during the intermission, came over to laugh with -Gail, and to look into her sparkling eyes, and exchange repartee with -her, and enjoy that beauty which was like a fragrance. - -Who was the most delighted person in the Van Ploon box? Aunt Helen -Davies! She checked off the eligibles, counting them, estimating them, -judging the exact degree in which Gail had interested them, and the -exact further degree Gail might interest them if she chose. - -Gail, standing, was a revelation to-night, not alone to Nicholas Van -Ploon, who nearly dislocated his neck in turning to feast his gaze on -her in numb wonder, but to Aunt Helen herself. Gail wore an Egyptian -costume, an absurdly straight thing fashioned like a cylinder, but -which, in some mysterious and alluring way, suggested the long, slender, -gracefully curving lines which it concealed. The foundation colour was -tarnished gold, on which were beaded panels in dark blue stones, touched -here and there with dull red. Encircling her small head was an Egyptian -tiara, studded in the front with lapis lazuli and deep red corals, with -one great fire opal glowing in the centre; and her shining brown hair -was waved well below the ears, and smoothly caught under around the back -of her perfect neck. On her cheeks and on her lips were the beautiful -natural tints which were the envy and despair of every pair of lorgnette -shielded eyes, but on her eyelashes, as part of her costume, Gail had -daringly lined a touch of that intense black which is ground in the -harems of the old Nile. - -“You’re the throb of the evening, sweetheart,” Dick Rodley laughed down -at her, as they stood at the door of the box with the function passing -in and out. - -“Thank you, Dicky dear,” she responded, smiling up at him. Since her -earnest gaieties had begun, Dick had been her most frequent companion. -He was one of the component members of that zestful little set composed -of Gail, Lucile and Arly, and the bubbling little Mrs. Babbitt, the -cherub-cheeked Marion Kenneth, the entirely sophisticated Gwen Halstead, -and whatever nice men happened to be available. Dick and Ted and Gerald -were, of course, always available. - -“I’m disappointed,” complained Dick. “You don’t blush any more when I am -affectionate with you.” - -“One loses the trick here,” she laughed. “The demands are too frequent.” - -He bent a little closer to her. - -“I’m going to propose to you again to-night,” he told her. - -“You’re so satisfactory,” she returned carelessly. “But really, Dicky, I -don’t see how you’re going to manage it, unless you perform it right -here, and that’s so conventional.” - -“Play hooky,” he mischievously advised. “I’ll tell you what we’ll do. -You shoo Houston out of the house the minute you get in; then Lucile and -Ted and Arly and Gerald and I will sail up and carry you off to supper, -after which I’ll take you home and propose.” - -Gail’s eyes snapped with the activity of that disloyal programme, and -the little silvery laugh, for which she had been so noted, welled up -from her throat. - -“You have to wait around the corner until he goes away,” she insisted. - -“I’ll bring a guitar if you like,” Dick promised, with so much avidity -that she feared, for an instant, that he might do it. - -“You’re monopolising me scandalously,” she protested. “Go away,” and she -turned immediately to the dapper little marquis, who was enduring the -most difficult evening of his life. Gail was so thoroughly adapted to a -grand affair, one in which he could avow universes; and the Miss Van -Ploon was so exacting. - -The study door was open when Houston Van Ploon sedately escorted Mrs. -Davies and Gail into the library, one of those rooms which appoint -themselves the instinctive lounging places of all family intimates. Gail -turned up her big eyes in sparkling acknowledgment as the punctilious -Van Ploon took her cloak, and, at that moment, as she stood gracefully -poised, she caught the gaze of the Reverend Smith Boyd fixed on her with -such infinite longing that it distressed her. She did not want him to -suffer. - -Uncle Jim strode out with a hearty greeting, and, at the sound of the -voices of no one but Gail and Mrs. Davies and Houston Van Ploon, old -“Daddy” Manning appeared in the doorway, followed by the rector. - -“The sweetest flower that blows in any dale,” quoted “Daddy” Manning, -patting Gail’s hand affectionately. - -The rector stood by, waiting to greet her, after Manning had monopolised -her a selfish moment, and the newly aroused eye of colour in him seized -upon the gold and blue and red of her straight Egyptian costume, and -recognised in them a part of her endless variety. The black on her -lashes. He was close enough to see that; and he marvelled at himself -that he could not disapprove. - -Gail was most uncomfortably aware of him in this nearness; but she -turned to him with a frank smile of friendship. - -“This looks like a conspiracy,” she commented, glancing towards the -study, which was thick with smoke. - -“It’s an offensively innocent one,” returned Manning, giving the rector -but small chance. “We’re discussing the plans for the new Vedder Court -tenements.” - -“Oh!” observed Gail, and radiated a distinct chill, whereupon the -Reverend Smith Boyd, divesting himself of some courteous compliment, -exchanged inane adieus with Mrs. Davies and young Van Ploon, and took -his committee back into the study. - -Mrs. Davies remained but a moment or so. She even seemed eager to -retire, and as she left the library, she cast a hopeful backward glance -at the dancing-eyed Gail and the correct young Van Ploon, who, with his -Dutch complexion and his blonde English moustache and his stalwart -American body, to say nothing of his being a Van Ploon, represented to -her the ideal of masculine perfection. He was an eligible who never did -anything a second too early or a second too late, or deviated by one -syllable from the exact things he should say. - -If the anxious Aunt Helen had counted on any important results from this -evening’s opportunities, she had not taken into her calculations the -adroitness of Gail. In precisely five minutes Van Ploon was on the -doorstep, with his Inverness on his shoulders and his silk hat in his -hand, without even having approached the elaborate introduction to -certain important remarks he had definitely decided to make. Gail might -not have been able to rid herself of him so easily, for he was a person -of considerable momentum, but he had rather planned to make a more -deliberate ceremony of the matter, impulsive opportunities not being in -his line of thought. - -A tall young man in an Inverness walked rapidly past the door while Van -Ploon was saying the correctly clever things in the way of adieu; and -shortly after she had closed the door on Van Ploon, a pebble struck the -side window of the library. Gail opened the window and looked out. Dick -Rodley stood just below, with his impossibly handsome face upturned to -the light, his black eyes shining with glee, his Inverness tossed -romantically back over one shoulder, and an imaginary guitar in his -hands. Up into the library floated the familiar opening strains of -Tosti’s Serenade, and the Reverend Smith Boyd glanced out through the -study door at the enticing figure of Gail, and knitted his brows in a -frown. - -“You absurd thing,” laughed Gail to the serenader. “No, you daren’t come -in,” and she vigorously closed the window. Laughing to herself, she -bustled into her wraps. - -“Here, where are you going?” called her Uncle Jim. - -“Hush!” she admonished him, peering, for a glowing moment, in the study -door, a vision of such disturbing loveliness that the Reverend Smith -Boyd, for the balance of the evening, saw, staring up at him from the -Vedder Court tenement sketches, nothing but eyes and lips and waving -brown hair, and delicately ovalled cheeks, their colour heightened by -the rolling white fur collar. “None of you must say a word about this,” -she gaily went on. “It’s an escapade!” and she was gone. - -Uncle Jim, laughing, but nevertheless intent upon his responsibilities, -grabbed her as she opened the front door, but on the step he saw Dick -Rodley, and, in the machine drawing up at the curb, Arly and Gerald and -Lucile and Ted, so he kissed Gail good-night, and passed her over to the -jovial Dick, and returned to the study to brag about her. - -Gaiety reigned supreme once more! Lights and music and dancing, the hum -of chatter and laughter, the bustle and confusion of the place, the -hilarity which brings a new glow to the cheek and sparkle to the eye, -and then home again in the crisp wintry air, and Dick following into the -house with carefree assurance. - -“Gracious, Dicky, you can’t come in!” protested Gail, with half -frowning, half laughing remonstrance. “It’s a fearful hour for calls.” - -“I’m a friend of the family,” insisted Dick, calmly closing the door -behind them and hanging his hat on the rack. He took Gail’s cloak and -threw off his Inverness. “I guess you’ve forgotten the programme.” - -“Oh, yes, the proposal,” remembered Gail. “Well, have it over with.” - -“All right,” he agreed, and taking her arm and tucking her shoulder -comfortably close to him, he walked easily with her back to the library. -Arrived there, he seated her on her favourite chair, and drew up another -one squarely in front of her. - -“I’m going to shock you to death,” he told her. “I’m going to propose -seriously to you.” - -Some laughing retort was on her lips, but she caught a look in his eyes -which suddenly stopped her. - -“I am very much in earnest about it, Gail,” and his voice bore the stamp -of deep sincerity. “I love you. I want you to be my wife.” - -“Dick,” protested Gail, and it was she who reached out and placed her -hand in his. The action was too confidingly frank for him to mistake it. - -“I was afraid you’d think that way about it,” he said, his voice full of -a pain of which they neither one had believed him capable. “This is the -first time I ever proposed, except in fun, and I want to make you take -me seriously. Gail, I’ve said so many pretty things to you, that now, -when I am in such desperate earnest, there’s nothing left but just to -try to tell you how much I love you; how much I want you!” He stopped, -and, holding her hand, patting it gently with unconscious tenderness, he -gazed earnestly into her eyes. His own were entirely without that -burning glow which he had, for so long, bestowed on all the young and -beautiful. They were almost sombre now, and in their depth was an humble -wistfulness which made Gail’s heart flow out to him. - -“I can’t, Dick,” she told him, smiling affectionately at him. “You’re -the dearest boy in the world, and I want you for my friend as long as we -live; for my very dear friend!” - -He studied her in silence for a moment, and then he put his hands on her -cheeks, and drew her gently towards him. Still smiling into his eyes, -she held up her lips, and he kissed her. - -“I’d like to say something jolly before I go,” he said as he rose; “but -I can’t seem to think of it.” - -Gail laughed, but there was a trace of moisture in her eyes as she took -his arm. - -“I’d like to help you out, Dicky, but I can’t think of it either,” she -returned. - -She was crying a little when she went up the stairs, and her mood was -not even interrupted by the fact that Aunt Helen’s door was ajar, and -that Aunt Helen stood just behind the crack. - -“Why, child, that Egyptian black is running,” was Aunt Helen’s first -observation. - -Gail dabbed hastily at the two tiny rivulets which had hesitated at the -curve of her pink cheeks, and then she put her head on Aunt Helen’s -shoulder, and wept softly. - -“Poor Dicky,” she explained, and then turning, disappeared into her own -room. - -Mrs. Helen Davies looked after her speculatively for a moment; but she -decided not to follow. - - - - - CHAPTER XXIV - THE MAKER OF MAPS - - -There began to be strange new stirrings in the world. Money! From the -land which was its home and place of abode it leaned over cross the wide -seas, and made potent whisperings in the ears of the countries where -money is despised and held vulgar. They all listened. The particular -potency lay in the fact that the money was so big, which took away -tremendously from its despicableness and its vulgarity. - -A black-bearded Grand Duke from the wide land of the frozen seas humbled -himself to plain Ivan Strolesky at the sound of that whisper, and -hurried westward. A high dignitary of an empire upon which the sun never -sets, hid his title under a plebeian nom de plume, and stalked stolidly -away westward to that whisper of despised American money. From the land -of fashion, from the land of toys, from the land of art and music, from -the land of cherry blossoms, from the land of the drowsing drug, from -the land of the flashing jewels, from the lands of the burning sands and -the lands of the midnight sun, there came the highest of power; and they -all, light and swarth, and bearded and smooth, and large and small, and -robed and trousered, centred toward the city of strong men, and, one by -one, presented themselves, in turn, to a grave and silent kinky-haired -old darky by the name of Ephraim. - -One motive alone had dragged them over sterile plains and snowy -mountains and bounding seas; the magic whisper of Money! - -Through Ephraim they came to the stocky, square-standing, square-faced -chess player who was called Allison. They found him pleasant, agreeable, -but hardly of their class. He was so forceful as to be necessarily more -or less crude, and he had an unpleasant fashion of waving aside all the -decent little pretences about money. That was the fault of this whole -rude country, where luxury had been brought to the greatest refinement -ever known in the history of the world; it was so devoted to money, and -the cultured gentlemen did their best to get all they could. - -To Ivan Strolesky Allison was frank and friendly, for there was -something in the big Russian which was different from these others, so -he hastened to have business out of the way. - -“Here are your lines,” he said, spreading down a map which had been -brought up-to-date by hand. “The ones I want are checked in blue. The -others I do not care for.” - -The Grand Duke looked them over with a keen eye. - -“I am rather disappointed,” he confessed in excellent English. “I had -understood that you wished to control our entire railway system.” - -“I do,” assented Allison; “but I don’t wish to pay out money for them -all. If I can acquire the lines I have marked, the others will be -controlled quite easily from the fact that I shall have the only -outlet.” - -The Grand Duke, who had played poker in America and fan-tan in China and -roulette in Monte Carlo, and all the other games throughout the world, -smiled with his impressive big eyes, and put his hand up under his -beard. - -“The matter then seems to resolve itself into a question of price,” he -commented. - -“No; protection,” responded Allison. “If I were buying these railroads -outright, I should expect my property interests to be guarded, even if I -had to appeal to international equity; but I am not.” - -“No,” admitted the Grand Duke. “They can not be purchased.” - -“The proposition resolves itself then into a matter of virtual -commercial seizure,” Allison pointed out. - -The Grand Duke, still with his hand in his beard, chuckled, as he -regarded Allison amusedly. - -“I shall not mind if you call it piracy,” he observed. “We, in Russia, -must collect our revenues as we can, and we are nearly as frank as -Americans about it. Returning to your matter of protection. I shall -admit that the only agreement upon which we can secure what you want, -would not hold in international equity; and, in consequence, the only -protection I can give you is my personal word that you will not be -molested in anything which you wish to do, providing it is pleasant to -myself and those I represent.” - -“Then we’ll make it an annual payment,” decided Allison, putting away -some figures he had prepared. “We’ll make it a sliding scale, increasing -each year with the earnings.” - -The Grand Duke considered that proposition gravely, and offered an -amendment. - -“After the first year,” he said. “We shall begin with a large bonus, -however.” - -Allison again put out of his mind certain figures he had prepared to -suggest. Apparently the Grand Duke needed a large supply of immediate -cash, and the annual payments thereafter would need to be decreased -accordingly, with still another percentage deducted for profit on the -Duke’s necessities. - -“Let us first discuss the bonus,” proposed Allison, and quite amicably -they went into the arrangement, whereby Ivan Strolesky filched the only -valuable railroad lines in his country from the control of its present -graft-ridden possessors, and handed it over to the International -Transportation Company. - -“By the way,” said Allison. “How soon can we obtain possession?” - -Ivan Strolesky put his hand in his beard again, and reflected. - -“There is only one man who stands in the way,” he calculated. “He will -be removed immediately upon my return.” - -There was something so uncanny about this that even the practical and -the direct Allison was shocked for an instant, and then he laughed. - -“We have still much to learn from your country,” he courteously -confessed. - -When Ivan Strolesky had gone, Allison went to his globe and drew a -bright red line across the land of the frozen seas. - -There came a famous diplomat, a heavy blonde man with a red face and big -spectacles and a high, wide, round forehead. - -“I do not know what you want,” said the visitor, regarding Allison with -a stolid stare. “I have come to see.” - -“I merely wish to chat international politics,” returned Allison. “There -is an old-time feud between you and your neighbours to the west.” - -“That is history,” replied the visitor noncommittally. “We are now at -peace.” - -“Never peace,” denied Allison. “There will never be friendship between -phlegmatism and mercurialism. You might rest for centuries with your -neighbours to the west, but rest is not peace.” - -“Excuse me, but what do you mean?” and the visitor stared stolidly. - -“In your affairs of mutual relationship with the land to the west, there -are not less than a dozen causes upon which war could be started without -difficulty,” went on Allison. “In fact, you require perpetual diplomacy -to prevent war with that country.” - -The visitor locked his thick fingers quietly together and kept on -stolidly staring. - -“I hear what you say,” he admitted. - -“You are about to have a war,” Allison advised him. - -“I do not believe so,” and the visitor ponderously shook his head. - -“I am sorry to correct you, but you yourself will bring it about. You -will make, within a month, an unfortunate error of diplomatic judgment, -and your old strip of disputed territory will be alive with soldiers -immediately.” - -“No, it is not true,” and the visitor went so far, in his emphasis, as -to unlock his fingers and rest one hand on the back of the other. - -“I think I am a very fair prophet,” said Allison easily. “I have made -money by my prophecy. I have more money at my command at the present -time than any man in the world, than any government; wealth beyond -handling in mere currency. It can only be conveyed by means of checks. -Let me show you how easy it is to write them,” and drawing a blank book -to him, he wrote a check, and signed his name, and filled out the stub, -and tore it out, and handed it to the visitor for inspection. The -visitor was properly pleased with Allison’s ease in penmanship. - -“I see,” was the comment, and the check was handed back. He drew his -straight-crowned derby towards him. - -“I have made a mistake,” said Allison. “I have left off a cipher,” and -correcting this omission with a new check, he tore up the first one. - -“I see,” commented the visitor, and put the second check in his pocket. - -That had required considerable outlay, but when Allison was alone, he -went over to his globe and made another long red mark. - -A neat waisted man, with a goatee of carefully selected hairs and a -luxuriant black moustache, called on Allison, and laid down his hat and -his stick and his gloves, in a neat little pile, with separate jerks. He -jerked out a cigarette, he jerked out a match, and jerkily lit the -former with the latter. - -“I am here,” he said. - -“I am able to give you some important diplomatic news,” Allison advised -him. “Your country is about to have a war with your ancient enemy to the -east. It will be declared within a month.” - -“It will be finished in a week,” prophesied the neat waisted caller, his -active eyes lighting with pleasure. - -“Possibly,” admitted Allison. “I understand that your country is not in -the best of financial conditions to undertake a war, particularly with -that ancient enemy.” - -“The banking system of my country is patriotic,” returned the caller. -“Its only important banks are controlled under one system. I am the head -of that system. I am a patriot!” and he tapped himself upon the breast -with deep and sincere feeling. - -“How much revenue does your position yield you personally?” - -A shade of sadness crossed the brow of the neat waisted caller. - -“It does not yield you this much,” and Allison pushed toward him a -little slip of paper on which were inscribed some figures. - -The caller’s eyes widened as they read the sum. He smiled. He shrugged -his shoulders. He pushed back the slip of paper. - -“It is droll,” he laughed, and his laugh was nervous. He drew the slip -of paper towards him again with a jerky little motion, then pushed it -back once more. - -“If your banking system found it impossible to be patriotic, your -government would be compelled to raise money through other means. It -would not withdraw from the war.” - -“Never!” and the neat waisted caller once more touched himself on the -breast. - -“It would be compelled to negotiate a loan. If other governments, -through some understanding among their bankers, found it difficult to -provide this loan, your government would find it necessary to release -its ownership, or at least its control, of its most valuable commercial -possession.” - -The caller, who had followed Allison’s progressive statement with -interest, gave a quick little nod of his head. - -“That most valuable commercial possession,” went on Allison, “is the -state railways. You were convinced by my agent that there is a new and -powerful force in the world, or you would not be here. Suppose I point -out that it is possible to so cramp your banking system that you could -not help your country, if you would; suppose I show you that, in the -end, your ancient enemy will lose its identity, while your country -remains intact; suppose I show you that the course I have proposed is -the only way open which will save your country from annihilation? What -then?” - -The neat waisted caller, with the first slow motion he had used since he -came into the room, drew the slip of paper towards him again. - -There followed another banker, a ruddy-faced man whose heavy features -were utterly incapable of emotion; and he sat at Allison’s table in -thick-jowled solidity. - -“There are about to begin international movements of the utmost -importance,” Allison told him. “There is a war scheduled for next month, -which is likely to embroil the whole of Europe.” - -The banking gentleman nodded his head almost imperceptibly. - -“Mr. Chisholm advised me that your sources of information are -authentic,” he stated. “What you tell me is most deplorable.” - -“Quite,” agreed Allison. “I am informed that the company you represent -and manage has the practical direction of the entire banking system of -Europe, with the exception of one country. Besides this, you have -powerful interests, amounting very nearly to a monopoly, in Egypt, in -India, in Australia, and in a dozen other quarters of the globe.” - -“You seem to be accurately informed,” admitted the banking gentleman, -studying interestedly the glowing coals in Allison’s fireplace. - -“If I can show you how a certain attitude towards the international -complications which are about to ensue will be of immense advantage to -your banking system, as well as to the interests I represent, I have no -doubt that we can come to a very definite understanding.” - -The solidly jowled banking gentleman studied the glowing coals for two -minutes. - -“I should be interested in learning the exact details,” he finally -suggested. - -Allison drew some sheets of paper from an indexed file, and spread them -before the financier. It was largely a matter of credits in the -beginning, extensions here, curtailments there, and all on a scale so -gigantic that both gentlemen went over every item with the imaginative -minds of poets. In every line there was a vista of vast empires, of -toppling thrones, of altered boundaries, of such an endless and shifting -panorama of governmental forces, that the minds of men less inured to -the contemplation of commercial and political revolutions might have -grown fagged. On the third page, the solid banking gentleman, who had -not made a nervous motion since his grandfather was a boy, looked up -with a start. - -“Why, this affects my own country!” he exclaimed. “It affects our -enormous shipping interests, our great transportation lines, our -commercial ramifications in all parts of the globe! It cripples us on -the land and wipes us from the sea! It even affects my own government!” - -“Quite true,” admitted Allison. “However, I beg you to take notice that, -with the international complications now about to set in, your -government has reached its logical moment of disintegration. Your -colonies and dependencies are only waiting for your startlingly shrunken -naval and land forces to be embroiled in the first war which will -concentrate your fighting strength in one spot. When that occurs, you -will have revolutions on your hands in a dozen quarters of the globe, so -scattered that you can not possibly reach them. India will go first, for -she thirsts for more than independence. She wants blood. Your other -colonies will follow, and your great shipping interests, your -transportation lines, your commercial ramifications in all parts of the -globe, will be crushed and crumbled, for the foundation upon which they -rest has long ago fallen into decay. Your country! Your country is -already on the way to be crippled on the land and swept from the sea! I -know the forces which are at work; the mightiest forces which have ever -dawned on the world; the forces of twentieth century organised -commerce!” - -The banking gentleman drew a long breath. - -“What you predict may not come to pass,” he maintained, although the -secret information which had brought him to Allison had prepared him to -take every statement seriously. - -“I can show you proofs! The war which is to be started next month is -only the keystone of the political arch of the entire eastern -hemisphere. There are a dozen wars, each bigger than the other, slated -to follow, if needed, like the pressing of a row of electric buttons. -Knowing these things as you shall, it is only a question of whether you -will be with me on the crest, or in the hollow.” - -The caller moistened his lips, and turned his gaze finally from the -glowing coals to Allison’s face. - -“Show me everything you know,” he demanded. - -They sat together until morning, and they traversed the world; and, when -that visitor had gone, Allison gave his globe a contemptuous whirl. - -The balance of them were but matters of detail. With a certain prideful -arrogance, of which he himself was aware, he reflected that now he could -almost leave these minor powers and potentates and dignitaries to a -secretary, but nevertheless he saw them all. One by one they betrayed -their countrymen, their governments, their ideals and their consciences, -and all for the commodity to which Allison had but to add another cipher -when it was not enough! It was not that there were none but traitors in -the world, but that Allison’s agents had selected the proper men. -Moreover, Allison was able to show them a sceptre of resistless might; -the combined money, and power, and control, and wide-reaching arms of -the seven greatest monopolies the world had ever known! There was no -strength of resistance in any man after he had been brought, face to -face, with this new giant. - -It was in the grey of one morning, when Allison was through with his -last enforced collaborator, and, walking over to his globe, he twirled -it slowly. It was lined and streaked and crossed, over all its surface -now, with red, and it was the following of this intricate web which -brought back to him the triumph of his achievement. He had harnessed the -world, and now he had but to drive it. That was the next step, and he -clenched his fist to feel the sheer physical strength of his muscles, as -if it were with this very hand that he would do the driving. - -Intoxicated with a sense of his own power, he went back into his study, -and drew from a drawer the photograph of a young and beautiful girl, who -seemed to look up at him, out of an oval face wreathed with waving brown -hair, and set with beautifully curved lips which twitched at the corners -in a half sarcastic smile, from two brown eyes, deep and glowing and -fraught with an intense attractiveness. Every morning he had looked at -this photograph, the priceless crown of his achievement, the glittering -jewel to set in the head of his sceptre, the beautiful medallion of his -valour! - -“Only a little longer, Gail,” he told her with a smile, and then he -saluted the photograph. “Gail, the maker of maps!” he said. - - - - - CHAPTER XXV - A QUESTION OF EUGENICS - - -Callers for Mrs. Helen Davies, and a huge bouquet of American beauties -for Gail. The latter young lady was in the music room, engaged with -Chopin and a great deal of pensiveness, when the interruption occurred, -and not quite understanding the specific division of ceremonies, crossed -up into the Louis XIV room, where Nicholas Van Ploon and Miss Van Ploon -sat with unusual impressiveness. - -“We don’t wish to see any frivolous young people,” said Miss Van Ploon -playfully, kissing Gail and pinching her cheek affectionately. - -“You can’t mean me,” laughed Gail, turning to receive the outstretched -palm of Nicholas, who, to her intense surprise, bent his round head and -kissed her hand. - -“Just you,” returned Miss Van Ploon, drawing Gail down beside her. “We -consider you the most delightfully frivolous young person in existence.” - -“That’s flattering, but is it complimentary?” queried Gail, and she was -astounded that Nicholas Van Ploon laughed so heartily. He had folded his -hands over his entirely uncreased vest, and now he nodded at her over -and over. - -“Clever,” he said, “very clever;” and he continued to beam on her. - -Miss Van Ploon turned sidewise, to inspect Gail with a fondly critical -estimate. The pensiveness which had needed Chopin for its expression, -and which had been rather growing since the night of Dick Rodley’s final -proposal, had begun to set its slightly etherealising mark upon her. - -“You are a trifle pale, my dear,” said Miss Van Ploon anxiously. “We -must not allow the roses to fade from those beautiful cheeks,” and -Nicholas Van Ploon was at once seriously concerned. He straightened his -neck, and bore the exact expression of a careful head of the family -about to send for a doctor. - -“That’s the second scolding I’ve had about it to-day,” smiled Gail, a -feeling of discomfort beginning to tighten itself around her. “Aunt -Grace is worrying herself very much because I do not sleep sufficiently, -but Aunt Helen tells her that the season will soon be over.” - -“It has been very gay,” observed Miss Van Ploon approvingly. “However, I -would like to see you finish the season as gloriously as you began it.” - -“You should systematise,” advised Nicholas Van Ploon earnestly, and in -an almost fatherly tone. “No matter what occurs, you should take a half -hour nap before dinner every day.” - -Mrs. Davies came into the room, arrayed in the black velvet afternoon -gown which gave her more stateliness and more impressive dignity than -anything in her wardrobe. Miss Van Ploon, who was a true member of the -family, in that she considered the Van Ploon entity before any -individual, quite approved of Mrs. Davies, and was in nowise jealous of -being so distinctly outshone in personal appearance. Nicholas Van Ploon -also surveyed Mrs. Davies with a calculating eye, and bobbed his round -head slightly to himself. He had canvassed Mrs. Helen Davies before, and -had discussed her in family council, but this was a final view, a dress -parade, as it were. - -“I suppose I am dismissed,” laughed Gail, rising, in relief, as Mrs. -Davies exchanged the greetings of the season with her callers. - -“Yes, run away and amuse yourself, child,” and Miss Van Ploon, again -with that assumption that Gail was a pinafored miss with a braid down -her back and a taffy stick in one hand, shook at her a playful finger; -whereupon Gail, pretending to laugh as a pinafored miss should, escaped, -leaving them to their guild matters, or whatever it was. - -“What a charming young woman she is!” commented Miss Van Ploon, -glancing, with dawning pride, at the doorway through which Gail had -disappeared. - -“Indeed, yes,” agreed Mrs. Davies, with a certain trace of -proprietorship of her own. “It has been very delightful to chaperon -her.” - -“It must have been,” acquiesced Miss Van Ploon; “and an extremely -responsible task, too.” - -“Quite,” assented Mrs. Davies. Both ladies were silent for a moment. -Nicholas Van Ploon, watching them in equal silence, began to show traces -of impatience. - -“We shall miss Gail very much if she should return to her home at the -end of the season,” ventured Miss Von Ploon, and waited. - -“We dread to think of losing her,” admitted Mrs. Davies, beginning to -feel fluttery. The question had been asked, the information given. - -Miss Van Ploon turned to her father, and bowed with formal deliberation. -Nicholas Van Ploon looked at her inquiringly. He had not detected any -particular meaning in the conversation, but that bow was a letter of -instructions. He drew a handkerchief from his pocket, and touched his -lips. He arose, in his completely stuffed cutaway, and deliberately -brought forward his chair. He sat down facing his daughter and Mrs. -Helen Davies. The latter lady was tremulous within but frigid without. -Mr. Van Ploon cleared his throat. - -“I believe that you are the acknowledged sponsor of Miss Sargent,” he -inquired. - -Mrs. Davies nodded graciously. - -“May I take the liberty of asking if your beautiful ward has formed a -matrimonial alliance?” - -“I am quite safe in saying that she has not.” Thus Mrs. Davies, in a -tone of untroubled reserve. - -“Then I feel free to speak,” went on the head of the Van Ploons, in -whose family the ancient custom of having a head was still rigidly -preserved. “I may state that we should feel it an honour to have Miss -Sargent become a member of the Van Ploon family.” - -Since he seemed to have more to say, and since he seemed to have paused -merely for rhetorical effect, Mrs. Helen Davies only nodded her head, -suppressing, meantime, the look of exultation which struggled to leap -into her face. - -“My son Houston, I am authorised to state, is devoted to Miss Sargent. -We have discussed the matter among us, and beg to assure you that Miss -Sargent will be received with affection, if she should consent to honour -us with this alliance.” - -The pause this time was not for rhetorical effect. It was a period, -which was emphasised by the fact that Nicholas leaned back in his chair -to restore his hands to their natural resting place. - -“We are honoured,” observed Mrs. Davies, with excellent courtesy -suppressing a gasp. The Van Ploons! The Van Ploons amid the stars! Why, -they were so high in the social firmament that they dared live and talk -and act like common people—and did it. To be above the need of pretence -is greatness indeed! “I shall take up the matter with my niece.” - -“I thank you,” responded the head of the Van Ploons. “You have rendered -it possible for me to inform my son that he is at liberty to speak to -Miss Sargent. He is anxious to call this evening, if he may,” whereupon -he smiled indulgently, and his daughter also smiled indulgently, and -Mrs. Davies smiled indulgently. - -“If you will pardon me, I will ascertain if my niece will be at liberty -this evening,” offered Mrs. Davies, rising. - -“We shall be highly gratified,” accepted Mr. Van Ploon, rising and -bowing. - -“We are so fond of Gail,” added Miss Van Ploon, beaming with sincerity, -and the beam was reflected in the face of her father, who nodded his -spherical head emphatically. - -Mrs. Helen Davies paused at the head of the stairs to calm herself. The -Mrs. Waverly-Gaites’ annual faded into dim obscurity. Mrs. -Waverly-Gaites would beg Gail on her bended knees to attend the annual, -and Mrs. Helen Davies could attend if she liked. She went into her own -room, and took a drink of water, and sat down for thirty or forty -seconds; then she went into Gail’s suite, where she found that young -lady, all unconscious of the honour which was about to befall her, -reading a six hundred page critique of Chopin’s music, and calmly -munching chocolates out of a basket decorated with eight shades of silk -roses. - -“Sit down and have a chocolate, Aunt Helen,” hospitably offered Gail, -slipping a marker in her book. - -Mrs. Davies consumed a great deal of time in selecting a chocolate, but -she did not sit down. - -“Shall you be at liberty this evening, Gail?” she inquired, with much -carelessness. - -“Why?” and Gail, whose feet were stretched out and crossed, in lazy -ease, looked up at her aunt sidewise from under her curving lashes. - -Mrs. Davies hesitated a moment. - -“Houston Van Ploon would like to call.” - -“Are they still downstairs?” Gail suddenly unveiled her eyes, and -brought her slippers squarely in front of her divan. Also she sat bolt -upright. - -“Yes,” and Mrs. Davies betrayed signs of nervousness. - -“Are they making the appointment for Houston?” - -“Yes.” The word drawled. - -“Why?” and Gail’s brown eyes began to crackle. - -Mrs. Davies thought it better to sit down. - -“My dear, a great honour has come to you.” - -Gail leaned forward towards her aunt, and tilted her chin. - -“Houston wants to propose, and he’s sent his father and sister to find -out if he may!” she charged. - -“Yes,” acknowledged Mrs. Davies, driven past the possibility of delay or -preparation, and feeling herself unjustly on the defensive. - -“I shall not be at home this evening,” announced Gail decisively, and -stretched out her feet again, and crossed her little grey slippers, and -took a chocolate. “Or any other evening,” she added. - -Mrs. Davies lost her flutter immediately. This was too stupendously -serious a matter to be weakly treated. - -“My dear, you don’t understand!” she protested, not in anger, but in -patient reason. “Houston Van Ploon has been the unattainable match of -New York. He is a gentleman in every particular, a desirable young man -in every respect, and gifted with everything a young girl would want. He -has so much money that you could buy a kingdom and be a queen, if you -chose to amuse yourself that way. He has a dignified old family, which -makes mere social position seem like an ignominious scramble for -cotillion favours; and it is universally admitted that he is the most -perfect of all the Van Ploons for many generations. Not exceptionally -clever; but that is one of the reasons the Van Ploons are so particular -to find a suitable matrimonial alliance for him.” - -Gail, nibbling daintily at her chocolate, closed her eyelids for a -second, the long, brown lashes curved down on her cheeks, and from -beneath them there escaped a sparkle like the snap of live coals, while -the corners of her lips twitched in that little smile which she kept for -her own enjoyment. - -“You can not appreciate the compliment which has been paid you, Gail. -Every débutante for the past five years has been most carefully -considered by the Van Ploons, and I sincerely believe this to be the -first time they have unanimously agreed on a choice. It is a matter of -eugenics, Gail, but in addition to that, Mr. Van Ploon assures me that -Houston is most fervently interested.” - -“How careless of them,” criticised Gail. “They have neither asked for my -measurements nor examined my teeth.” - -“Gail!” Her chaperon and sponsor was both shocked and stern. - -“I positively decline to even discuss the Van Ploon eugenics,” stated -Gail, pushing aside her chocolates, while a red spot began to appear on -her cheeks. “I shall not, as I stated before, be at home to Houston Van -Ploon this evening—or any other evening.” - -“I shall not deliver that message,” announced Mrs. Davies, setting her -lips. “As your present sponsor, I shall insist that you take more time -to consider a matter so important.” - -“I shall insist on refusing to consider it for one second,” returned -Gail quietly. “I am very fond of Houston Van Ploon, and I hope to remain -so, but I wouldn’t marry him under any circumstances. This is firm, -flat, and final.” - -Mrs. Helen Davies dropped patient reason instantly. She was aware of an -impulsive wish that Gail were in pinafores, and her own child, so she -could box her ears. - -“Gail, you compel me to lose my patience!” she declared. “When you came, -I strained every influence I possessed to have you meet the most -desirable eligibles this big city could offer, just as if you were my -own daughter! I have succeeded in working miracles! I have given you an -opportunity to interest the very best! You have interested them, but I -have never seen such extravagance in the waste of opportunities! You -have refused men whom thousands in the highest circles have sought; and -now you refuse the very choice of them all! What or whom do you want?” - -Gail’s red spots were deepening, but she only clasped her knee in her -interlocked fingers, her brown hair waving about her face, and her chin -uptilted. - -“You can’t always expect to retain your youth, and beauty and charm!” -went on her Aunt Helen. “You can’t expect to come to New York every year -and look over the eligibles until you find one to suit your fastidious -taste! You’re capricious, you’re ungrateful, and you’re unsatisfactory!” - -Gail’s eyes turned suddenly moist, and the red flashed out of her -cheeks. - -“Oh, Aunt Helen!” she exclaimed in instant contrition. “I’m so very, -very sorry that I am such a disappointment to you! But if I just can’t -marry Mr. Van Ploon, I can’t, can I? Don’t you see?” She was up now and -down again, sitting on a hassock in front of Mrs. Davies, and the face -which she upturned had in it so much of beautiful appeal that even her -chaperon and sponsor was softened. “I was nasty a while ago, and I had -no excuse for it, for you have been loving and sincere in your desire to -make my future happy. I’m so very, very sorry! I’ll tell you what I’ll -do! You may go down and tell Mr. Van Ploon and his daughter that I will -see Houston this evening,” and then she smiled; “but you mustn’t say -‘with pleasure.’” - - - - - CHAPTER XXVI - AN EMPIRE AND AN EMPRESS - - -The soft air which blew upon Gail’s cheek was like the first breath of -spring, and there was the far-off prophecy of awakening in the very -sunshine, as she sped out the river road with Allison in his powerful -runabout. For days the weather had been like this, mild and still -invigorating, and it had been a tremendous rest from the protracted -crispness of the winter. There was the smell of moist earth, and the -vague sense of stirring life, as if the roots and the seeds, deep in the -ground, were answering to the thrill of coming birth. - - “It’s glorious!” exclaimed Gail, her cheeks answering to the caress of -the air with a flush of blossom-like delicacy. She was particularly -contented to-day. Allison had been so busy of late, and she had missed -him. With all his strength, he was restful. - -“I feel like a new man at this time of the year,” returned Allison, -glancing at Gail with cool appreciation. A car full of men passed them, -and the looks they cast in his runabout pleased him. “Gail, do you -remember the first time we drove out here?” - - “Indeed yes,” she laughed. “With the snow in our eyes, and the roads -all white, with the lights gleaming through the flakes like Arctic -will-o’-the-wisps. We ran away that night, and dined at Roseleaf Inn, -and worried the folks to death, for fear we had had an accident.” - -“I had more than an accident that night,” said Allison. “I had a total -wreck.” - -Gail glanced at him quickly, but his face was clear of any apparent -purpose. He was gazing straight ahead, his clean-cut profile, always a -pleasant thing to look upon, set against the shifting background of -rocky banks as if it were the one steadfast and unalterable thing in the -universe; and he was smiling introspectively. - -“It was about here that it happened,” he went on. “I think I’d been -bragging a little, and I think you meant to slyly prick my balloon, -which I will admit seemed a kind and charitable thing to do.” - -“What was it?” wondered Gail, trying to recall that unimportant -conversation. - -“Oh, a gentle intimation that I hadn’t done so much,” he laughed. “I had -just finished consolidating all the traction cars in New York, subways, -L’s, and surface: and I felt cocky about it. I even remarked that I had -achieved the dream of my life, and intended to rest a while. All you -said was, ‘Why?’” and his laugh pealed out. Four birds in a wayside bush -sprang into the air and flew on ahead. - -“I used to be conspicuous for impertinence,” smiled Gail. “I’m trying to -reform.” - -“I’m glad you hadn’t started when I met you,” returned Allison, steering -around a sharp stone with the firm accuracy which Gail had so often -admired. “I never had so stinging a reproof as that little why. It did -me more good than any sermon I ever heard.” - -“That’s positively startling,” replied Gail lightly. “I usually hear -from my impertinences, long after, as a source of discomfort.” - -“‘Why?’” repeated Allison. “I took that why home with me. If you had -said, ‘Why should you rest a while?’ or ‘Why should you stop when you’ve -just made a start?’ or something of that nature, it might not have -impressed me so much; but just the one unexplained word was like a -barbed hook in my mind. It wouldn’t come out. I asked myself that why -until daylight, and I found no answer. Why, when I was young and strong, -and had only tasted of victory, should I sit by the fireside and call -myself old? If I had ability to conquer this situation with so much -ease, why should I call it a great accomplishment; for great -accomplishments are measured by the power employed.” - -Gail looked at him in questioning perplexity. She could not gather what -he meant, but she had a sense of something big, and once more she was -impressed with the tremendous reserve force in the man. His clear grey -eyes were fixed on the road ahead, and the very symbol of him seemed to -be this driving; top speed, a long road, a steady hand, a cool -determination, a sublime disregard of hills and valleys which made them -all a level road. - -“Why? That word set me out on a new principle that never, while I had -strength in me, would I consider my work finished, no matter how great -an achievement I had made. I am still at work.” - -Something within her leaped up in answer to the thrill of exultation in -his voice. To have been the inspiration of great deeds, even by so -simple an agency as the accidental use of a word, was in itself an -exalting thing, though an humbling one, too. And there were great deeds. -She was sure of that as she looked at him. He was too calm about it, and -too secure to have been speaking of trifles. - -“When I was a boy I lived on ancient history,” he went on, with a smile -for the bygone dreamer he had been. “I wanted to be a soldier, a great -general, a warrior, in the sturdy old sense, and my one hero was -Alexander the Great, because he conquered the world! That’s what I -wanted to do. I wanted to go out and fight and kill, and bring kingdom -after kingdom under my sway, and finally set myself on a mighty throne, -which should have for its boundaries the north and the south pole! When -I grew older, and found how small was the world which Alexander had -conquered, not much bigger than the original thirteen states, I grew -rather disillusioned, particularly as I was working at about that time -for a dollar and a quarter a day. I spent a few busy years, and had -forgotten the dream; then you said ‘why’ and it all came back.” - -“Hurry!” commanded Gail. “Curiosity is bad for me.” - -Allison laughed heartily at her impatience. He had meant to arouse her -interest, and he had done so. She would not have confessed it, but she -was fascinated by the thing he had held in reserve. It was like the -cruelty of telling a child of a toy in a trunk which is still at the -station. - -“I conquered it,” he told her, with an assumption of nonchalance which -did not deceive her. There was too much of under-vibration in his tone, -and the eyes which he turned upon her were glowing in spite of his -smile. “In my hand I hold control of the transportation of the world! If -a pound of freight is started westward or eastward from New York, -addressed to me at its starting point, it will circle the globe, and on -every mile of its passage it will pay tribute to me. If a man starts to -travel north or south or east or west, anywhere on the five continents -or the seven seas, he must pay tribute to me. With that shipment of -every necessity and luxury under my control, I control the necessities -and luxuries themselves; so there is no human being in the world who can -escape contributing tithes to the monster company I have consolidated.” - -He was disappointed, for a moment. She seemed almost unimpressed. In -reality, she was struggling to comprehend what he had just said to her. -It was so incredibly huge in its proportions, so gigantic, so -extravagantly far reaching that she had only words in her ears. He must -be speaking in hyperbole. - -“I don’t understand,” she said. - -“It is difficult to grasp,” he admitted. “When I first conceived of it, -in answer to your why, I could not myself comprehend any more than that -I had thought of an absurdity, like the lover who wished that the sea -were ink and the land a pen that he might seize it, and write across the -sky ‘I love you!’ It was as fantastic as that in my mind, at first, and -in order to reduce the idea to actual thought, I had to break it into -fragments; and that is the way I set about my campaign.” - -Gail was listening eagerly now. She was beginning to dimly comprehend -that Allison had actually wrought a miracle of commerce, probably the -most stupendous in this entire century of commercial miracles; and her -admiration of him grew. She had always admired great force, great -strength, great power, and here, unfolding before her, was the evidence -of it at its zenith. - -“Let me build it up, step by step, for you. Incidentally, I’ll give you -some confidential news which you will be reading in months to come. I -hope,” and he laughed, “that you will not tell your friends the -reporters about it.” - -“Cross my heart, I won’t,” she gaily replied. The sting of her one big -newspaper experience had begun to die away. - -“When you asked me why, I was trying to secure Vedder Court for a -terminal station for my city traction lines. Vedder Court quickly -became, in my imagination, the terminal point not only of the city -traction lines, but of the world’s transportation. From that I would run -a railroad tube to the mainland, so that I could land passengers, not -only in the heart of New York, but at the platforms of every street car -and L and subway train.” - -“How wonderful!” exclaimed Gail, in enthusiasm. This was an idea she -could grasp. “And have you secured Vedder Court?” - -“It’s a matter of days,” he returned carelessly. “The next step was the -transcontinental line. I built it up, piece by piece, and to-day, under -my own personal control, with sufficient stock to elect my own -directors, who will jump when I crack the whip, I possess a railroad -line from the Atlantic to the Pacific so direct, so straight, and so -allied with ninety-five per cent. of the freight interests of the United -States that, within two years, there will not be a car wheel turning in -America which does not do so at the command of the A.-P. Railroad. That -is the first step leading out of Vedder Court. The news of that -consolidation will be in to-morrow morning’s papers, and from that -minute on, the water will begin to drip from railroad stocks.” - -“How about Uncle Jim’s road?” Gail suddenly interrupted. - -“I am taking care of him,” he told her easily. “From Vedder Court run -subways along the docks.” - -“I see!” interrupted Gail. “You have secured control of the steamship -companies, of the foreign railroads, of everything which hauls and -carries!” - -“Airships excepted,” he laughingly informed her. “Gail, it’s an empire, -and none so great ever existed in all the world! The giant monopolies of -which so much has been said, are only parts of it, like principalities -in a kingdom. There isn’t a nook or corner on the globe where one finger -of my giant does not rest. The armies which swept down from the north -and devastated Europe, the hordes which spread from Rome, the legions -which marched to Moscow, even those mighty armies of the Iliad and the -Odyssey were insignificant as compared to the sway of this tremendous -organisation! All commerce, all finance, all politics, must bow the knee -to it, and serve it! Maps will be shifted for its needs. Nations will -rise and fall as it shall decree, and the whole world, every last -creature of it, shall feed it and be fed by it!” - -He paused, and turned to her with a positive radiance on the face which -she had always considered heavy. She had looked on him as a highly -successful money-grubber, as a commercial genius, as a magician of -manipulation, as a master of men; but he was more than all these; he was -a poet, whose rude epics were written in the metre of whirling wheels -and flying engines and pounding propellers; a poet whose dreams extended -beyond the confines of imagination itself; and then, above that, a -sorcerer who builded what he dreamed! - -There is a magic thrill in creation. It extends beyond the creator to -the created, and it inspires all who come in contact with it. Gail’s -eager mind traversed again and again the girdle he had looped around the -world, darting into all its intricacies and ramifications, until she, -too, had pursued it into all the obscure nooks and crannies, and saw the -most remote and distant peoples dependent upon it, and paying toll to -it, and swaying to its command. This was a dream worthy of -accomplishment; a dream beyond which there could be no superlative; and -the man beside her had dreamed it, and had builded it; and all this -would not have happened if she had not given him the hint with one -potent word which had spurred him, and set his marvellously constructive -mind to work. - -In so far they were partners in this mighty enterprise, and he had been -magnanimous enough to acknowledge her part in it. It drew them strangely -near. It was a universe, in the conception of which no other minds than -theirs had dabbled, in the modelling of which no other hand had been -thrust. What agile mind, gifted with ambition, and broad conception, and -the restlessness which, in her, had not only ranged world wide but -beyond the æther and across the vast seas of superstition and ignorance -and credulity to God himself; what mind such as this could resist the -insidious flattery of that mighty collaboration? - -She was silent now, and he left her silent, brooding, himself, upon the -vast scope of his dreaming, and planning still to centre more and more -the fruits of that dreaming within his own eager hand. - -Roseleaf Inn. Gail recognised it with a smile as they turned in at the -drive. She was glad that they had come here, for it was linked in her -mind with the beginnings of that great project of which she had been the -impulse, and in which the thing in her that had been denied opportunity -because she was a woman, claimed a hungry share. At his suggestion—it -was more like a command, but she scarcely noticed—she telephoned that -she was going to remain to dinner with Allison; and then they enjoyed a -two hour chat of many things, trivial in themselves, but fraught now -with delightful meaning, because they had to think on so many -unexpressed things, larger than these idle people about them could -conceive, or grasp if they knew. - -[Illustration: She telephoned that she was going to remain to dinner -with Allison; and they enjoyed a two hour chat of many things] - -Homeward again in the starlit night, still in that whirl of exultation. -It was somewhat chillier now, and Allison bundled her into the machine -with rough tenderness. She felt the thrill of him as he sat beside her, -and the firm strength with which he controlled the swiftly speeding -runabout, was part her strength. They were kindred spirits, these two, -soaring above the affairs of earth in the serene complacency of those -who make trifles of vastness itself. They did not talk much, for they -had not much to talk about. The details of a scheme so comprehensive as -Allison’s were not things to be explained, they were things to be seen -in a vision. Once she asked him about the bringing of the foreign -railroads into the combination, and he told her that this would only be -accomplished by a political upheaval, which would take place next month, -and would probably involve the whole of Europe. It was another detail; -and it seemed quite natural. She was so interested that he told her all -about his foreign visitors. - -In the Park, Allison stopped at the little outlook house where they had -climbed on that snowy night, and they stood there, with the stars above -and the trees below and the twinkling lights stretching out to the -horizon, all alone above the world of civilisation. Below sounded the -clang of street cars, and far off to the left, high in the air, there -gleamed the lights of a curving L train. That was a part of Allison’s -world which he had long since conquered, a part which he already held in -the hollow of his hand; and the fact that every moving thing which clung -upon a track in all this vast panorama was under his dominion, served -only to illustrate and make plain the marvel of the accomplishment which -was now under way. Beyond that dim horizon lay another and still -another, and in them all, wherever things moved or were transported, the -lift of Allison’s finger was to start and stop the wheels, to the -uttermost confines of the earth! Oh, it was wonderful; wonderful! And -she was part of it! - -It was there that he proposed to her. It did not surprise her. She had -known it when they had entered the Park, and that this was the place. - -He told her that all this empire was being builded to lay at her feet, -that she was the empress of it and he the emperor, but that their joy -was to be not in the sway, not in the sceptre and crown, but in the -doing, and in the having done, and in the conceiving and having -conceived! - -Was this a cold painting of pomp and glory and advantage and reward? He -added to it the fire of a lover, and to that the force and mastery and -compulsion of his dynamic power. She felt again the potent thrill of -him, and the might and sweep and drive of him, and with the hot, -tumbling words of love in her ears, and her senses a-reel, and her mind -in its whirling exultation, she felt between them a sympathy and a union -which it was not in human strength to deny! Something held her back, -something made her withhold the word of promise, on the plea that she -must have more time to think, to consider, to straighten out the tangle -of her mind; but she suffered him to sweep her in his arms, and rain hot -kisses upon her face, and to tell her, over and over and over and over, -that she belonged to him, forever and forever! - - - - - CHAPTER XXVII - ALLISON’S PRIVATE AND PARTICULAR DEVIL - - -The free and entirely uncurbed enjoyed an unusual treat. It had a -sensation which did not need to be supported by a hectic imagination or -a lurid vocabulary. Vedder Court had been condemned for the use of the -Municipal Transportation Company! A new eight track, double-deck tube -was to be constructed through Crescent Island to the mainland! - -Grand climax! Through this tube and into Vedder Court, at the platforms -of the surface and L and subway cars, was to come the passenger trains -of the new Atlantic-Pacific Railroad, a line three hundred miles shorter -than any now stretching between Broadway and the Golden Gate! Any reader -of the daily press, of whom there are several, knows precisely what the -free and entirely uncurbed did with this bit of simon-pure information. -The glittering details began on the first page, turned on the second, -continued on the fourth, jumped over to the seventh, and finished back -among the real estate ads. It began early in the morning, and it -continued until late at night, fresh details piling upon each other in -mad profusion, their importance limited only by the restrictions of -type! - -Extra! The trick by which the A.-P. ran through the mountains over the -Inland Pacific’s track! - -Extra, extra! The compulsion by which the Midcontinent was brought to -complete the big gap in the new A.-P. system! - -Tremendous extra! The contracts of freightage, subject strictly to the -Inter-State Commerce law, between the A.-P. and the cereal trust, the -metal trust, the fuel trust, the cloth trust, and all the other -iniquitous combinations in restraint of everything! Wow! Zowie! That was -the hot one! The A.-P. was the main stem, and within thirteen seconds of -the appearance on the streets of the tremendous extra, every other -fragile branchlet of a railroad not under the immediate protection of -the A.-P., was reduced to a shrivel, and its stocks began to drop with -the sickening plunge of an unopened parachute! - -Gail Sargent kept Nanette on the rush for extras from the first yell on -the streets, and she read every word, including the underlines on the -miscellaneous portraits of Allison and the funny pi-lines which -invariably occurred in the middle of the most interesting sentences. - -It was true, all true! Here was the first step in Allison’s tremendous -project an accomplished fact. The rest of it would be gradually -revealed, from day to day, as suited his needs, and the empire he had -planned would spread, until its circles touched, and overlapped, and -broke into an intricate webbing, over all the land and water of the -earth! And she was to be the Empress! - -Was she? Through all the night she had battled that question, and the -battle had left traces of darkness around her luminous eyes. First, she -had been in the swirl of his tremendous compulsion, overwhelmed by the -sheer physical force of him, captured not by siege but by sortie. Then -had come the dazzling splendour of his great plan, a temptation of -power, of might, of unlimited rulership, in the spoils of which, and the -honour of which, and the glory of which, she would share. Next, in the -midst of her expanding anticipation, there had come, as out of a clear -sky, a sudden inexplicable fear. It was a shrinking, almost like a -chill, which had attacked her. Allison himself! The sheer physical -dominance of him; the tempestuous mastery of him; and again she felt -that breathless sensation of utter helplessness which she had -experienced in the little lookout house. It was as if he were pulling -the very life out of her, to the upbuilding of his own strength! It was -in the very nature of him to sweep her away by storm; it was a part of -his very bigness. He was colossal, gigantic, towering! And she had -conquered this giant, had been the motive of his strength, the very -pinnacle of his cloud-topping ambition! There was pride in that, pride -and to spare. It distressed her that again and again came that impulse -of fear, that shrinking. A new thought dawned. Perhaps this was the -thing which she had desired, the thing for which she had been waiting; -to be taken, and crushed. - -Another disturbance came to her. This mighty plan of Allison’s. The -exaltation of achievement, the dazzling glory of accomplishment, had -blinded her to the processes by which the end must be gained, and the -fact which drew her attention to this was the remembrance that her Uncle -Jim was to be protected! What about the others? For Allison to gain -control and dominion over thousands of now segregated interests, those -thousands must lose their own control. What would become of them? - -Pshaw! That was the way of the world, particularly of the commercial -world. As her father had often expressed it, the big fish ate the little -fish because fish was the only food for fish; and Allison was the -biggest one of them all. That was the way of him; to devour that he -might live. Even here, far from him, and safe in her dainty little -chintz hung suite, she felt the dominance of him. Turn her eyes where -she would, with the lids open or closed, he filled her vision, not in -his normal stature, but grown to the dimensions of his force, filling -the sky, the earth, the sea, blotting out everything! There was no -escaping him. He had come to claim her, and she belonged to him; that -is, unless she chose to call upon a strength still latent in her. There -was a something else which she could not define just now, which seemed -to call to her persistently through the darkness. A voice—but the typo -for colossus stood between! She wondered if she were happy. She wondered -what her Aunt Helen would say. Bigness and power and dominance; she had -admired them all her life. - -Late in the afternoon Jim Sargent came home, drawn, fagged, and with -hollows under his eyes. He had a violent headache, and he looked ten -years older. He walked slowly into the library where Mrs. Sargent and -Mrs. Davies and Gail were discussing the future of Vedder Court, and -dropped into a chair. - -Grace Sargent rang a bell instantly. When Jim felt that way, he needed a -hot drink first of all. - -“What is the matter?” she asked him, the creases of worry flashing into -her brow. - -“It’s been a hard day,” he explained, forcing himself, with an effort, -to answer. Years of persistent experience had taught him to follow the -line of least resistance. “There has been a panic on ’Change. Railroads -are going to smash all up and down the line. Allison’s new A.-P. road. -It’s the star piracy of the century. Allison has brought into the -railroad game the same rough-shod methods he used in his traction -manipulations.” - -“Has your company been hurt, Jim?” asked his wife, fully prepared for -the worst, and making up her mind to bear up bravely under it. - -“Not yet,” replied Sargent, and he passed his hand over his brow. He was -already making a tremendous effort to brace himself for to-morrow’s -ordeal. “I escaped to-day by an accident. By some mistake the Towando -Valley was mentioned as belonging to the new A.-P. combination. Of -course I didn’t correct it, but by to-morrow they’ll know.” - -“Mr. Allison was responsible for that statement,” Gail serenely informed -her uncle. “He promised he’d take care of you.” - -“Great guns!” exploded her uncle. “What did you know about this thing?” - -“All of it,” smiled Gail. She had known that Allison would keep his -word, but it gave her a strange sense of relief that he had done so. - -Her Aunt Helen turned to her with a commanding eye; but Gail merely -dimpled. - -“Of course I couldn’t say anything,” went on Gail. “It was all in -confidence. Isn’t it glorious, Uncle Jim!” - -“You wouldn’t have thought so if you’d been down town to-day,” responded -her uncle, trying again to erase from his brow the damage which had been -done to his nerves. “They wanted to mob Allison! He has cut the ground -from under the entire railroad business of the United States! Their -stocks have deflated an aggregate of billions of dollars, and the slump -is permanent! He has bankrupted a host of men, rifled the pockets of a -million poor investors; he has demoralised the entire transportation -commerce of the United States; and he gave no one the show of a rat in a -trap!” - -“Isn’t that business?” asked Gail, the red spots beginning to come into -her cheeks. - -“Not quite!” snapped her Uncle Jim. “Fiction has made that the universal -idea, but there are decent men in business. The majority of them are, -even in railroading. Most roads are organised and conducted for the sole -purpose of carrying freight and passengers at a profit for the -stockholders, and spectacular stock jobbing deals are the exception -rather than the rule.” - -“Has Mr. Allison been more unfair than others who have made big -consolidations?” demanded Gail, again aware of the severely inquiring -eye of Aunt Helen. - -“Rotten!” replied her uncle, with an emphasis in which there was much of -personal feeling. “He has taken tricky advantage of every unprotected -loophole. He won from the Inland Pacific, at the mere cost of trackage, -a passage which the Inland built through the mountains by brilliant -engineering and at an almost countless cost.” - -“Isn’t that accounted clever?” asked Gail. - -“So is the work of a confidence man or a wire-tapper!” was the retort. -“But they are sent to jail just the same. The Inland created something. -It built, with brains and money and force, and sincere commercial -enterprise, a line which won it a well-earned supremacy of the Pacific -trade. It was entitled to keep it; yet Allison, by making with it a -tricky contract for the restricted use of the key to its supremacy, uses -that very device to destroy it. He has bankrupted, or will have done so, -a two thousand mile railroad system, which is of tremendous commercial -value to the country, in order to use a hundred miles of its track and -remove it from competition! Allison has created nothing. He has only -seized, by stealth, what others have created. He is not even a -commercial highwayman. He is a commercial pickpocket!” - -Gail had paled by now. - -“Tell me one thing,” she demanded. “Wouldn’t any of the railroad men -have employed this trick if they had been shrewd enough to think of it?” - -“A lot of them,” was the admission, after an awkward pause. “Does that -make it morally and ethically correct?” - -“You may be prejudiced, Jim,” interpolated Aunt Helen, moving closer to -Gail. “If they are all playing the game that way, I don’t see why Mr. -Allison shouldn’t receive applause for clever play.” - -“You bet I’m prejudiced!” snarled Sargent, overcoming his weariness and -pacing up and down the library floor. “He came near playing my road the -same trick he did the Inland Pacific. He secured control of the L. and -C., because it has a twenty-year contract for passage over fifty miles -of our track. He’d throw the rest of our line away like a peanut hull, -if he had not promised Gail to protect me. I’m an object of charity!” - -“Oh!” It was a scarcely audible cry of pain. Aunt Helen moved closer, -and patted her hand. Gail did not notice the action. - -“Why did he make you that promise, Gail?” demanded her uncle, turning on -her suddenly, with a physical motion so much like her father’s that she -was startled. - -“He wants me to marry him,” faltered Gail. - -Aunt Grace sat down by the other side of Gail. - -“Have you accepted him, dear?” she asked. - -There was a lump in Gail’s throat. She could not answer! - -“She’ll never marry him with my consent!” stormed her Uncle Jim. “Nor -with Miles’s! The fellow’s an unscrupulous scoundrel! He’s made of -cruelty from his toes to his hair! He stops at nothing! He even robbed -Market Square Church of six million dollars!” - -Gail’s head suddenly went up in startled inquiry. She wanted to still -defend Allison; but she dreaded what was to come. - -“We wouldn’t sell him Vedder Court at his price; so he took it from us -at six million less than he originally offered. He did that by a trick, -too.” - -All three women looked up at him in breathless interest. - -“He had the city condemn Vedder Court,” went on Sargent. “If he had -condemned it outright for the Municipal Transportation Company, he would -have had to pay us about the amount of his original offer; but his own -private and particular devil put the idea into his head that the Vedder -Court tenements should be torn down anyhow, for the good of the public! -So he had the buildings condemned first, destroying six million dollars’ -worth of value; then he had the ground condemned! Tim Corman probably -got about a million dollars for that humanitarian job!” - -A wild fit of sobbing startled them all. - - - - - CHAPTER XXVIII - LOVE - - -Allison swept Gail into his arms, and rained hot kisses upon her, -crushing her closely to him. She offered no resistance, and the very -fact that she held so supinely in his arms, made Allison release her -sooner than he might otherwise have done. She had known that this -experience must come, that no look or gesture or word of hers could ward -it off. - -“You must never do that again,” she told him, stepping back from him, -and regaining her breath with an effort. She had lingered in the front -parlours to receive him before her Uncle Jim should know that he was in -the house, and she had led him straight into the little tête-à-tête -reception room. She meant to free herself quickly. - -“Why not?” he laughed, and advanced toward her, taking her attitude -lightly, ascribing her action to a girlish whim, confident in his power -over her. He meant to dispose of her coyness by taking her in his arms -again. She belonged to him. - -“Mr. Allison.” The tone was cold enough, and deadly in earnest enough to -arrest him. - -“What’s the matter, Gail?” he protested, ready to humour her, to listen -to what she had to say, to smooth matters out. - -“You have no right,” she told him. - -“Yes I have,” he jovially assured her. “I hope I don’t have to wait -until after marriage for a kiss. If that’s the case I’ll take you out -and marry you right now.” - -There was an infection in his laugh, contagion in the assumption that -all was right between them, and that any difference was one which could -be straightened out with jolly patience, and Gail, though her -determination would not have changed, might have softened toward him, -had she not seen in his face a look which paled her lips. Ever since -last night he had anticipated her, had rejoiced in his possession of -her, had dreamed on the time when he should take her for his own; and -his eyes were cloudy with his thoughts of her. - -“Let us have a clear understanding, Mr. Allison.” She was quite erect, -and looking him directly in the eyes. Her own were deep and troubled, -and the dark trace which had been about them in the morning had -deepened. “I told you last night that I should need time in which to -decide; and I have decided. I shall not marry you.” - -He returned her gaze for a moment, and his brow clouded. - -“You’ve changed since last night,” he charged her. - -“Possibly,” she admitted. “It is more likely, however, that I have -merely crystallised. I prefer not to discuss it.” She saw on his face -the growing instinct to humiliate her. - -“You must discuss it,” he insisted. “Last night when I took you in my -arms you made no objection. I was justified in doing it again to-night. -You’re not a fool. You knew from the first that I wanted you, and you -encouraged me. Now, I’m entitled to know what has made the change.” - -The telltale red spots began to appear in her cheeks. - -“You,” she told him. “Last night, your scheme of world empire seemed a -wonderful thing to me, but since then I’ve discovered that it cannot be -built without dishonesty and cruelty; and you’ve used both.” - -His brow cleared. He laughed heartily. - -“You’ve been reading the papers. There isn’t a man in the financial -field who wouldn’t do everything I’ve done; and be proud of it. I can -make you see this in the right light, Gail.” - -“It’s a proof of your moral callousness that you think so,” she informed -him. “Can you make me see it in the right light that you even used me, -of whom you pretended to think sacredly enough to marry, to help you in -your most despicable trick of all?” - -“Look here,” he protested. “That would be impossible! You’re -misinformed.” - -“I wish I were,” she returned. “Unfortunately, it is a matter of direct -knowledge. You caused Vedder Court to be torn down because I thought it -should be wiped out of existence, and in the process you cheated Market -Square Church out of six million dollars!” - -He could not have been more shocked if she had struck him. - -“I knew you did not understand,” he kindly reproved her. “I didn’t want -those old buildings. They couldn’t have sold them for the wreckage -price. When you suggested that they should be torn down, I saw it. They -were a public menace, and the public was right with the movement. The -condemnation price will cover all they could get from the property from -any source. You see, you don’t understand business,” and his tone was -forgiving. “I’d have been foolish to pay six million dollars for -something I couldn’t use. You know, Gail, when the building -commissioners came to look over those buildings, they were shocked! Some -of them wouldn’t have stood up another year. It was only the political -influence of Clark and Chisholm and a few of the other big guns of the -congregation, which kept them from being condemned long ago. You -shouldn’t interfere in business. It always creates trouble between man -and wife,” and he advanced to put his arm around her, and soothe her. - -The hand with which she warded him off was effective this time. She -stared at him in wonder. It seemed inconceivable that the moral sense of -any intelligent man should be so blunted. - -“There’s another reason,” she told him, despairing of making him realise -that he had done anything out of the way. “I do not love you. I could -not.” - -For just a moment he was checked; then his jaws set. - -“That is something you must learn. You have young notions of love, -gleaned from poetry and fiction. You conceive it to be an ideal stage of -existence, a mysterious something almost too delicate for perception by -the human senses. I will teach you love, Gail! Look,” and he stretched -up his firm arm, as if in his grip he already held the reins of the -mighty empire he was hewing out for her. “Love is a thing of strength, -of power, of desire which shakes, and burns, and consumes with fever! It -is like the lust to kill! It whips, and it goads, and it drives! It -creates! It puts new images into the brain; it puts new strength into -sinews; it puts new life into the blood! It cries out! It demands! It -has caused me to turn back from middle-age to youth, to renew all my -ambitions, a thousandfold enhanced by my maturity! It has caused me to -grapple the world by the throat, and shake it, throttle it; so that I -might drag it, quivering, to your feet and say, this is yours; kick it! -That is love, Gail! It drives one on to do great deeds! It gives one the -impulse to recognise no bounds, no bars, no obstacles! It has put all my -being into the attainment of things big enough to show you the force of -my will, and what it could conquer! Do you suppose that, with such love -driving me on, any objection which you may make will stop me? No! I set -out to attain you as the summit of my desire, the one thing in this -world I want, and will have!” - -Again that great fear of him possessed Gail. She feared many things. She -feared that, in spite of her determination, he would still have her, and -in that possibility alone lay all the other fears, fears so gruesome -that she did not dare see them clearly! She knew that she must retain -absolute control of herself. - -“I shall not discuss the matter any further,” she quietly said, and -walking straight towards the door, passed by him, quite within the reach -of his arm, without either looking at him or away from him. Something -within his own strength respected hers, in spite of him. “I have said -all that I have to say.” - -“So have I,” he replied, coming closer to her as she stood in the -doorway, and he gazed down at her with eyes in which there was insolent -determination, and cruelty. “I have said that I mean to have you, and I -will.” - -Without a word, she went into the hall. He followed her, and took his -hat. - -“Good evening,” he said formally. - -“Good evening,” she replied, and he went out of the door. - -When he had gone, she flew up to her rooms, her first coherent thought -being that she had accomplished it! She had seen Allison, and had given -him her definite answer, and had gotten him out of the house while the -others were back in the billiard room. She had held up splendidly, but -she was weak now, and quivering in every limb, and she sank on her -divan, supported on one outstretched arm; and in this uncomfortable -position, she took up the eternal question of Gail. The angry tears of -mortification sprang into her eyes! - -A half hour later her Aunt Grace came up, and found her in the same -position. - -“Mrs. Boyd and Doctor Boyd are downstairs, dear,” she announced. - -Gail straightened up with difficulty. Her arm was numb. - -“Please make my excuses, Aunty,” she begged. - -“What’s the matter?” asked Aunt Grace, the creases jumping into her brow -as if they lay somewhere in the roots of her hair, ready to spring down -at an instant’s notice. “Aren’t you feeling well? Shall I get you -something?” - -“No, thank you,” smiled Gail wanly. “I’m just a little fatigued.” - -“Then don’t you come a step,” and Aunt Grace beamed down on her niece -with infinite tenderness. She had an intuition, these days, that the -girl was troubled; and her sympathies were ready for instant production. -“You’ll have to tell me what to say, though. I’m so clumsy at it.” - -“Just tell them the truth,” smiled Gail, and punching two pillows -together, she stretched herself at full length on the divan. - -Her Aunt Grace regarded her with a puzzled expression for a moment, and -then she laughed. - -“I see; you’re lying down.” She looked at Gail thoughtfully for a -moment. “Dear, could you close your eyes?” - -“Certainly,” agreed Gail, and the brown lashes curved down on her -cheeks, though there was a sharp little glint from under the edges of -her lids. - -Her Aunt Grace stooped and kissed the smooth white brow, then she went -downstairs and entered the library. - -“Gail is lying down,” she primly reported. “Her eyes are closed.” - -The library was quite steadily devoted to Vedder Court to-night. A -highly important change had come into the fortunes of Market Square -Church. It was as if a stone had been thrown into a group of cardboard -houses. All the years of planning had gone the way of the wind, and the -card houses had all to be built over again. The Cathedral had receded by -a good five years, unless the force and fire of the Reverend Smith Boyd -should be sufficient to coax capital out of the pockets of his -millionaire congregation; and, in fact, that quite normal plan was -already under advisement. - -The five of this impromptu counsel were deep in the matter of ways and -means, when a slender apparition, in clinging grey, came down the -stairs. It was Gail, who, for some reason unknown, even to her, had -decided that she was selfish; and the Reverend Smith Boyd’s heart ached -as he saw the pallor on her delicately tinted cheeks and the dark -tracing about her brown eyes. She slipped quietly in among them, her -brown hair loosely waved, so that unexpected threads of gold shone in it -when she passed under the chandelier, and she greeted the callers -pleasantly, and sat down in the corner, very silent. She was glad that -she had come. It was restful in this little circle of friends. - -A noise filled the hall, and even the lights of the library seemed to -brighten, as Lucile and Ted, Arly and Gerald, and Dick Rodley, came -tumbling in, laughing and chattering, and carrying hilarity in front of -them like a wave. Gail shoved her tangle of thoughts still further back -in her head, and the sparkle returned into her eyes. - -“We’re bringing you a personal invitation to Arly and Gerald’s yacht -party,” jabbered Lucile, kissing everybody in reach except the Reverend -Smith Boyd. - -“You might let Arly extend the invitation herself,” objected Ted. - -“I’ve given the pleasure to Gerald,” laughed Arly, with a vivacious -glance at that smiling gentleman. “He does it so much better. Now -listen.” - -“It’s a little informal week-end party, on the _Whitecap_,” Gerald -informed them, with a new something in him which quite satisfactorily -took the place of cordiality. “Sort of a farewell affair. Arly and I are -about to take a selfish two months’ cruise, all by ourselves,” and he -glanced fondly at the handsome black-haired young woman under -discussion. “We should be pleased to have you join us,” and he included -Mrs. Boyd and the young rector with a nod. - -“Of course we’ll come,” agreed Gail. “Doctor Boyd, can’t you arrange for -a week-end party once in your life?” - -“Unfortunately custom has decreed that week-end parties shall cover -Sundays,” he regretted, but there was a calculating look in his eye -which sent Lucile over to him. - -“Play hooky just once,” she begged. “This is only a family crowd, the -Babbitts and Marion Kenneth, and we who are here.” - -The Reverend Smith Boyd looked at his mother, and that lady brightened -visibly. - -“When is it to be?” he asked. - -“Saturday,” Arly informed him, joining Lucile, who had sat on the arm of -Mrs. Boyd’s chair. Arly sat on the other one, and Gerald Fosland, with -an entirely new appreciation of beauty, thought he had never seen a -prettier picture than the sweet-faced old lady with the fresh and -charming young women on either side of her. - -The Reverend Smith Boyd glanced, for just an instant, at Gail, who was -now sitting on the leather couch leaning confidingly against her Aunt -Grace. He had been at some pains to avoid this young lady recently, for -it is natural to spare one’s self distress; but there was a look of -loneliness about her which sent his heart out to her in quick sympathy. - -“I think I’ll play hooky,” he announced, with a twinkle in the eyes -which he now cast upon his mother. - -“That’s being a good sport,” approved Ted. “Stay away a Sunday or two, -and Market Square Church will appreciate you better.” - -“Let’s have some music,” demanded Lucile. - -“Gail and Doctor Boyd must sing for you,” announced Aunt Grace, in whom -there was a trace of wistfulness. “They do sing so beautifully -together!” - -“I’m afraid I can’t to-night,” refused Gail hastily, and indeed she had -good reason why her voice should not have its firm and true quality just -now. “I will accompany Doctor Boyd, though, with pleasure,” and she -started toward the music room. - -The Reverend Smith Boyd was cut off from the ordinary lies about not -being in good voice, and suffering from a slight cold, and such things. -He hesitated a moment, and then he followed. - -The Bedouin Love Song, the Garden of Sleep, and others of the solo -repertoire which Gail had selected for him, came pulsing out of the -music room, first hesitantly, and then with more strength, as the -friendly nearness between himself and the accompanist became better -established. - -Presently, the listeners in the library noticed an unusual pause between -the songs, a low voiced discussion, and then, the two perfectly blended -voices rose in a harmony so perfect that there was moisture in the eyes -of two of the ladies present. - - - - - CHAPTER XXIX - GAIL FIRST! - - -Allison, springing forward with a jerk as he left Jim Sargent’s house, -headed his long, low runabout up the Avenue. He raced into the Park, and -glanced up at the lookout house as he sped on past; but it was only a -fleeting look. He needed no reminder of Gail, and he scarcely noticed -that he was following the same road which they had so often taken -together. His only impulse had been to drive somewhere at top speed, and -he had automatically chosen this path. The night was damp and chill, but -his evening top coat was open, revealing the white glint of his shirt -front. He did not seem to mind. As he passed Roseleaf Inn, he slowed -down. The roadhouse may have given him, and probably did, another -reminder of Gail, in such a manner as to concrete him into logical -thought; for he slowed down the terrific speed which had been the -accompaniment of his unreasoning emotion. The driving required too much -concentration for specific thought. - -With this turning of his mental attitude, even the slow running of the -car seemed to disturb him, and, about half a mile past Roseleaf Inn, he -came slowly to a stop, sitting at the wheel, with his head bent slightly -forward, and staring at the spot where the roadway had ceased to roll -beneath his machine. Presently he became aware of the cold, and running -his car to the side of the road, he stepped out, and, buttoning his coat -around him, crossed a fence and walked through the narrow strip of trees -to the river bank, where he stood for a moment looking out upon the -misty Hudson, sparkling under the moonlight. He began to walk up and -down the bank presently, the turf sinking spongily under his feet, and -it was noticeable that his pace grew more and more rapid, until he was -striding at a furious rate of speed. - -The man was in a torment of passion. He had spent a lifetime in the -deliberate acquisition of everything upon which he had set his will; and -it was one of the things upon which he had built his success, that, once -he had fixed his desire deliberately upon anything, he had held -unwaveringly to that object, employing all the forces of which strong -men are capable; patient waiting, dogged persistence, or vicious -grappling, whichever was best adapted to gain his ends. - -Gail! If there had been tender thoughts of her, they were gone now. He -saw her in a thousand enchantments; sitting beside him, clad in the -white furs which added such piquancy to her rosy cheeks and sparkling -eyes; lounging in the library, in some filmy, clinging robe which -defined her grace, half concealing and half suggesting the long, -delicately curving lines which had so appealed to his ruthlessness; -sitting at the piano, her beautiful small head slightly bent forward, -displaying the requisite line at the nape of her neck, her brown hair -waving backward to a simple knot, her rounded white arms free from the -elbows, and her slender fingers flashing over the keys; coming down the -stairway, in the filmy cream lace gown which had made her seem so -girlishly fragile, her daintily blue slippered feet and her beautifully -turned ankles giving a hint of the grace and suppleness of her whole -self; in her black beaded ball costume, its sparkling deadness -displaying the exquisite ivory tints and beautiful colouring of her neck -and shoulders and bosom with startling effectiveness. In these and a -thousand other glowing pictures he saw her, and with every added picture -there came a new pain in his thought of her. - -He felt the warmth of her hand upon his arm, the brush of her shoulder -against his own, the mere elbow touch as she sat beside him in the car, -the many little careless contacts of daily life, unconscious to her, but -to him fraught always with flame; and, finally, that maddening moment -when he had crushed her in his arms, and so had made, for all time to -come, the possession of her a necessity almost maniacal in the violence -of its determination! He heard the sound of her voice, in all its -enchanting cadences, from the sweetness of her murmured asides to the -ring of her laugh; and the delicate fragrance which was a part of her -overwhelmed him now, in remembrance, like an unnerving faintness! - -It was so that he had centred his mind upon her, and himself and his -will, until, in all creation, there was nothing else but that was -trivial; ambition, power, wealth, fame, the command of empires and of -men, were nothing, except as they might lead to her! - -As a boy Allison had been endowed with extraordinary strength. From a -mother who had married beneath her socially he had inherited a certain -redeeming refinement of taste, a richness of imagination, a turn of -extravagance, a certain daring and confidence. Had his heredity been -left to the father alone, he would have developed into a mere brute, -fighting for the love of inflicting pain, his ambitions confined to -physical supremacy alone. As it was, the combination had made of him a -brute more dangerous by the addition of intelligence. In spite of gentle -surroundings, he had persistently ran away to play in a rough and tumble -neighbourhood, where he had been the terror of boys a head taller than -himself, and had established an unquestioned tyranny among them. He had -a passion at that time for killing cats, and a devilish ingenuity in -devising new modes of torture for them, saturating them with gasolene -and burning them alive, and other such ghastly amusements. The cruelty -of this he had from the father, the ingenuity from the mother. In a -fleeting introspection, a review which could have occupied but a few -seconds of time, he saw back through the years of his passion, for every -year had been a passion of supremacy, as if the cinematograph of his -life had flashed swiftly before him, pausing for illumination at certain -points which had marked the attainment of hard-won goals. - -The days of his schooling, when the mother in him had made him crave -knowledge in spite of the physical instincts which drove him out doors. -He accomplished both. He went at his lessons viciously, perhaps because -they were something which had a tendency to baffle him, and he had made -no braver fights in life than on those lonely nights when, angry and -determined, he had grappled with his books and conquered them. He had -won football honours at the same time. It was said that half the -victories of his team came through the fear of Allison on the opposing -elevens. He had the reputation of being a demon on the gridiron. His -eyes became slightly bloodshot in every contest, and he went into every -battle with a smile on his lips which was more like a snarl. His rise to -football supremacy was well remembered all through life by a dozen -cripples. He had been extremely fond of football, even after one of his -strongest opponents had been carried from the field with a broken neck. - -Then business. A different sort of cruelty entered there. He had a -method of advancement which was far more effective than adroitness. With -the same vicious fever of achievement which had marked the conquering of -his books, he had made himself flawlessly efficient, and had contrasted -himself deliberately with whatever weakness he could find in his -superiors. On the day when the superintendent drank, Allison took -especial pains to create an emergency, a break-down in the power plant, -and showed himself side by side with the temporarily stupid -superintendent, clear-eyed, firm-jawed, glowing cheeked, ready to -grapple with his own emergency. He became superintendent. Trickery, now. -A block of stock here, a block of stock there, a combination of small -holdings by which an unsuspected group of outsiders swept in with -control of that first little street car company. Allison’s was the -smallest block of shares in that combination, infinitesimal as compared -with the total capitalisation of the company, the investment of his -small savings combined with all the borrowing he could manage. Yet, -since he had organised the rebellion, he was left in its control by the -same personal dominance with which he had brought together the warring -elements. Less than two years after his accession to management, he had -frozen out the associates who had put him in power. They none of them -knew how it was done, but they did know that he had taken advantage of -every tricky opportunity his position gave him, and they were bitter -about it. He laughed at them, and he thrashed the man who complained -loudest, a man who had lost every cent of his money through Allison’s -manipulations. Well, that was the way of business. The old rule of -conquest that might makes right had only gone out of favour as applied -to physical oppression. In everything else, it still prevailed; and -Allison was its chief exponent. - -The years of manhood. The panorama was a swiftly moving one now. -Combinations and consolidations had followed closely one upon the other; -brilliant and bewildering shiftings of the pieces on the chess board of -his particular business. Other players had become confused in all these -kaleidoscopic changes, some of which had seemed meaningless; but not -Allison. Every shift left him in a position of more ruthless advantage, -even in those moves which were intended only to create confusion; and he -pushed steadily forward towards the one mark he had set; that there -should eventually be none other in the field than himself! It was -because he never flagged that he could do this. At no summit had he ever -paused for gratification over the extent of his climb, for a backward -glance over his fiercely contended pathway, for refreshment, for breath; -but, with that exhaustless physical vitality inherited from his father -and mental vitality inherited from his mother, he had kept his pace -forward, plunging onward, from summit to still higher summit, and never -asking that there might be one highest peak to which he could attain, -and rest! True, sometimes he had thought, on the upward way, that at the -summit he might pause, but had that summit been the highest, with none -other luring him in the distant sky, he would have been disappointed. - -So it was that he had come this far, and the roadway to his present -height was marked by the cripples he had left behind him, without -compunction, without mercy, without compassion. Bankrupts strewed his -way, broken men of purpose higher than his own, useful factors in the -progress of human life, builders and creators who had advanced the -interest of the commonwealth, but who had been more brilliant in -construction than they had been in reaping the rewards of their -building. It was for Allison to do this. It had been his specialty; the -reaping of rewards. It had been his faculty to permit others to build, -to encourage them in it, and then, when the building was done, to wrest -it away from the builders. That marked him as the greatest commercial -genius of his time; and he had much applause for it. - -Women. Yes, there had been women, creatures of a common mould with whom -he had amused himself, had taken them in their freshness, and broken -them, and thrown them away; this in his earlier years. But in his -maturity, he had bent all his strength to a greater passion; the -acquirement of all those other things which men had wanted and held most -dear, among them acquisition, and power, and success. Perhaps it had -been bad for him, this concentration, for now it left him, at the height -of his maturity, with mistaken fancies, with long pent fires, with -disproportionate desires. Bringing to these, he had the tremendously -abnormal moral effect of never having been thwarted in a thing upon -which he had set his mind, and of believing, by past accomplishment, -that anything upon which he had set his wish must be his, or else every -victory he had ever gained would be swept aside and made of no value. He -must accomplish, or die! - -He was without God, this man; he had nothing within him which conceded, -for a moment, a greater power than his own. In all his mental imagery, -which was rich enough in material things, there was no conception of a -Deity, or of a need for one. To what should he pray, and for what, when -he had himself to rely upon? Worship was an idealistic diversion, a -poetic illusion, the refuge of the weak, who excused their lack of -strength by ascribing it to a mysterious something beyond the control of -any man. He tolerated the popular notion that there must be a God, as he -tolerated codes of social ethics; the conventions which laid down, for -instance, what a gentleman might or might not do, externally, and still -remain a gentleman. In the meantime, if a man-made law came between him -and the accomplishment of his ends, he broke it, without a trace of -thought that he might be wrong. Laws were the mutual safeguard of the -weak, to protect themselves against the encroachment of the strong; and -it was in the equally natural province of the strong to break down those -safeguards. In the same way he disregarded moral laws. They, too, were -for the upholding of the weak, and the mere fact that they existed was -proof enough that they were an acknowledgment of the right of the strong -to break them. - -There is a mistake here. It lies in the statement that Allison -recognised no God. He did. Allison. Not Allison, the man, but the -unconquerable will of Allison, a will which was a divinity in itself. He -believed in it, centred on it all his faith, poured out to it all the -fervidness of his heart, of his mind, of his spirit, of his body. He -worshipped it! - -So it was that he came to the consideration of the one thing which had -attempted to deny itself to him. Gail! It seemed monstrous to him that -she had set herself against him. It was incredible that she should have -a will, which, if she persisted, should prove superior to his own. Why, -he had set his mind upon her from the first! The time had suddenly -arrived when he was ripe for her, and she had come. He had not even -given a thought to the many suitors who had dangled about her. She was -for none of them. She was for him, and he had waited in patience until -she was tired of amusing herself, and until he had wrought the big -ambition towards which her coming, and her impulse, and the new fire she -had kindled in him, had directed him. She had been seriously in earnest -in withholding herself from him. She was determined upon it. She -believed now, in her soul, that she could keep to that determination. At -first he had been amused by it, as a man holds off the angry onslaught -of a child; but, in this last interview with her, there had come a -moment when he had felt his vast compulsion valueless; and it had -angered him. - -A flame raged through his veins which fairly shook him with its -violence. It was not only the reflex of his determination to have her, -but it was the terrific need of her which had grown up in him. Have her? -Of course he would have her! If she would not come to him willingly, he -would take her! If she could not share in the ecstasy of possession -which he had so long anticipated, she need not. She was not to be -considered in it any more than he had considered any other adverse -factor in the attainment of anything he had desired. He was possessed of -a rage now, which centred itself upon one object, and one alone. Gail! -She was his new summit, his new peak, the final one where he had planned -to rest; but now his angry thought was to attain it, and spurn it, -broken and crumbled, as had been all the other barriers to his will, and -press ruthlessly onward into higher skies, he knew not where. It was no -time now, to think on that. Gail first! - - - - - CHAPTER XXX - THE FLUTTER OF A SHEET OF MUSIC - - -Gail, in a pretty little rose-coloured morning robe, with soft frills of -lace around her white throat and at her white elbows, sat on the floor -of the music room amid a chaos of sheet music. She was humming a gay -little song suggested by one of the titles through which she had leafed, -and was gradually sorting her music for the yacht party; instrumental -pieces here, popular things there, another little pile of old-fashioned -glees which the assembled crowd might sing, just here a little stack of -her own solos, nearby the rector’s favourites, between the two their -duets. It was her part in one of the latter she was humming now, -missing, as she sang, the strong accompaniment of the Reverend Smith -Boyd’s mellow voice. She was more peaceful this morning than she had -been for many days. - -The butler came through the hall, and Gail looked up with a suppressed -giggle as she saw him pass the door. She always had an absurd idea that -his hinges should be oiled. - -“Miss Gail is not at home, sir,” she heard the butler say, and Gail -paused with a sheet of music suspended in her hand, the whole expression -of her face changing. She had only given instructions that one person -should receive that invariable message. - -“I beg your pardon, sir!” was the next observation Gail heard, in a tone -of as near startled remonstrance as was possible to the butler’s wooden -voice. - -There was a sound almost as of a scuffle, and then Allison, with his top -coat on his arm and his hat in his hand, strode to the doorway of the -music room, followed immediately by the butler, who looked as if his -hair had been peeled a little at the edges. Allison had apparently -brushed roughly past him, and had disturbed his equanimity for the -balance of his life. - -Gail was on her feet almost instantaneously with the apparition in the -doorway, and she still held the sheet of music which she had been about -to deposit on one of the piles. Allison’s eyes had a queer effect of -being sunken, and there was a strange nervous tension in him. Gail -dismissed the butler with a nod. - -“You were informed that I am not at home,” she said. - -“I meant to see you,” he replied, with a certain determined insolence in -his tone which she could not escape. There was a triumph in it, too, as -if his having swept the butler aside were only a part of his imperious -intention. “I have some things to say to you to which you must listen.” - -“You had better say them all then, because this is your last -opportunity,” she told him, pale with anger, and with a quaver in her -voice which she would have given much to suppress. - -He cast on her a look which blazed. He had not slept since he had seen -her last. He smiled, and the smile was a snarl, displaying his teeth. -Something more than anger crept into Gail’s pallor. - -“I have come to ask you again to marry me, Gail. The matter is too vital -to be let pass without the most serious effort of which I am capable. I -can not do without you. I have a need for you which is greater than -anything of which you could conceive. I come to you humbly, Gail, to ask -you to reconsider your hasty answer of last night. I want you to marry -me.” - -For just a moment his eyes had softened, and Gail felt a slight trace of -pity for him; but in the pity itself there was revulsion. - -“I can not,” she told him. - -“You must!” he immediately rejoined. “As I would build up an empire to -win you, I would destroy one to win you. You spoke last night of what -you called the cruelty and trickery of the building up of my big -transportation monopoly. If it is that which stands between us, it shall -not do so for a moment longer. Marry me, and I will stop it just where -it is. Why, I only built this for you, and if you don’t like it, I shall -have nothing to do with it.” In that he lied, and consciously. He knew -that the moment he had made sure of her his ambition to conquer would -come uppermost again, and that he would pursue his dream of conquest -with even more ardour than before, because he had been refreshed. - -“That would make no difference, Mr. Allison,” she replied. “I told you, -last night, that I would not marry you because I do not, and could not, -love you. There does not need to be any other reason.” There was in her -an inexplicable tension, a reflex of his own, but, though her face was -still pale, she stood very calmly before him. - -The savageness which was in him, held too long in leash, sprang into his -face, his eyes, his lips, the set of his jaws. He advanced a step -towards her. His hands contracted. - -“I shall not again ask you to love me,” he harshly stated; “but you must -marry me. I have made up my mind to that.” - -“Impossible!” Angry now and contemptuous. - -“I’ll make you! There is no resource I will not use. I’ll bankrupt your -family. I’ll wipe it off the earth.” - -Gail’s nails were pressing into her palms. She felt that her lips were -cold. Her eyes were widening, as the horror of him began to grow on her. -He was glaring at her now, and there was no attempt to conceal the -savage cruelty on his face. - -“I’ll compromise you,” he went on. “I’ll connect your name with mine in -such a way that marriage with me will be your only resource. I’ll be an -influence you can’t escape. There will not be a step you can take in -which you will not feel that I am the master of it. Marry you? I’ll have -you if it takes ten years! I’ll have no other end in life. I’ll put into -that one purpose all the strength, and all the will that I have put into -the accomplishment of everything which I have done; and the longer you -delay me the sooner I’ll break you when I do get you.” - -Out of her very weakness had come strength; out of her overwhelming -humiliation had come pride, and though the blood had left her face waxen -and cold, something within her discovered a will which was as strong in -resistance as his was in attack. She knew it, and trembled in the -knowledge of it. - -“You can’t make me marry you,” she said, with infinite scorn and -contempt. - -He clenched his fists and gritted his teeth. Into his eyes there sprang -a blaze which she had never before seen, but dimly, in the eyes of any -man; but she needed no experience to tell her its despicable meaning. -His lips, which had been snarling, suddenly took a downward twitch, and -were half parted. His nostrils were distended, and the blood, flooding -into his face, empurpled it. - -“Then I’ll have you anyhow!” he hoarsely told her, and, his arms tensed -and his head slightly lowered forward, he made as if to advance toward -her. He saw in her frightened eyes that she would scream, but he did not -know that at that moment she could not. Her heart seemed to have lost -its action, and she stood, trembling, faint, in the midst of her strewn -music, with the sensation that the room was turning dark. - -The house was very quiet. Mrs. Sargent and Mrs. Davies were upstairs. -The servants were all in the rear of the house, or below, or in the -upper rooms, at their morning work. He turned swiftly and closed the -door of the music room, then he whirled again towards her, with ferocity -in his eyes. He came slowly, every movement of him alive with ponderous -strength. He was a maniac. He was insane. He was frenzied by one mad -thought which had swept out of his universe every other consideration, -and the glut to kill was no more fearful than the purpose which -possessed him now. - -Gail, standing slight, fragile, her brown eyes staring, her brown hair -dishevelled about her white brow, felt every atom of strength leaving -her, devoured in the overwhelming might of this monstrous creature. The -sheet of music, which she had been holding all this time, dropped from -her nerveless fingers and fluttered to the floor! - -That noise, slight as it was, served to arrest the progress of the man -for just an instant. He was in no frame to reason, but some instinct -urged him to speed. He crouched slightly, as a wild beast might. But the -flutter of that sheet of music had done more for Gail than it had for -him. It had loosed the paralysis which had held her, had broken the -fascination of horror with which she had been spellbound. Just behind -her was a low French window which led to a small side balcony. With one -bound she burst this open, she did not know how, and had leaped over the -light balcony rail, and ran across the lawn to the rectory gate, up the -steps and into the side door, and into the study, where the Reverend -Smith Boyd sat toiling over a sermon. - - - - - CHAPTER XXXI - GAIL BREAKS A PROMISE - - -The _Whitecap_ would have been under way except for the delay of the gay -little Mrs. Babbitt and her admiring husband, who sent word that they -could not arrive until after dinner, so the yacht, long and low and -slender and glistening white, lay in the middle of the Hudson River, -while her guests, bundled warmly against the crisp breeze, gathered in -the forward shelter deck and watched the beginnings of the early sunset. - -“I like Doctor Boyd in his yachting cap,” commented Lucile, as that -young man joined them, with a happy mother on his arm. - -“It takes away that deadly clerical effect,” laughed Arly. “His long -coat makes him look like the captain, and he’s ever so much more -handsome.” - -“I don’t mind being the topic of discussion so long as I’m present,” -commented the Reverend Smith Boyd, glancing around the group as if in -search of some one. - -“It rather restricts the conversation,” Mrs. Helen Davies observed, at -the same time watching, with a smile, the tableau of her sister Grace -and Jim Sargent. Gail and herself had taken Grace out shopping, and had -forced on her sedate taste a neat and “fetching” yachting costume, from -flowing veiled cap to white shoes, which had dropped about twenty years -from her usual appearance, and had brought a renewed enthusiasm to the -eyes of her husband. - -The cherub-cheeked Marion Kenneth glanced wistfully over at the rail -where Dick Rodley, vieing with the sunset in splendour, stood chatting -with easy Ted Teasdale and the stiff Gerald Fosland. - -“Where’s Gail?” demanded the cherub-cheeked one. - -“It’s time that young lady was up on deck,” decided Arly, and rose. - -“She’s probably taking advantage of the opportunity to dress for -dinner,” surmised Mrs. Davies. “In fact, I think it’s a good idea for -all of us,” but the sunset was too potent to leave for a few moments, -and she sat still. - -Where indeed was Gail? In her beautiful little curly maple stateroom, -sitting on the edge of a beautiful little curly maple bed, and digging -two small fists into the maple-brown coverlet. The pallor of the morning -had not yet left her face, and there were circles around the brown eyes -which gave them a wan pathos; there was a crease of pain and worry, too, -in the white brow. - -Gail had come to the greatest crisis in her life. To begin with, -Allison. She would not permit herself to dwell on the most horrible part -of her experience with him. That she put out of her mind, as best she -could, with a shudder. She hoped, in the time to come, to be free of the -picture of him as he advanced slowly towards her in the music room, with -that frenzied glare in his eyes and that terrifying evil look upon his -face. She hoped, in the time to come, to be free of that awful fear -which seemed to have gripped her heart with a clutch that had left deep -imprints upon it, but, just now, she let the picture and the fear remain -before her eyes and in her heart, and centred upon her grave -responsibilities. - -So far she had told no one of what had occurred that morning. When she -had rushed into the rector’s study he had sprung up, and, seeing the -fright in her face and that she was tottering and ready to fall, he had -caught her in his strong arms, and she had clung trustfully to him, half -faint, until wild sobs had come to her relief. Even in her incoherence, -however, even in her wild disorder of emotion, she realised that there -was danger, not only to her but to every one she loved, in the man from -whom she had run away; and she could not tell the young rector any more -than that she had been frightened. Had she so much as mentioned the name -of Allison, she instinctively knew that the Reverend Smith Boyd, in whom -there was some trace of impetuosity, might certainly have forgotten his -cloth and become mere man, and have strode straight across to the house -before Allison could have collected his dazed wits; and she did not dare -add that encounter to her list of woes. It was strange how instinctively -she had headed for the Reverend Smith Boyd’s study; strange then, but -not now. In that moment of flying straight to the protection of his -arms, she knew something about herself, and about the Reverend Smith -Boyd, too. She knew now why she had refused Howard Clemmens, and Willis -Cunningham, and Houston Van Ploon, and Dick Rodley; poor Dick! and -Allison, and all the others. She frankly and complacently admitted to -herself that she loved the Reverend Smith Boyd, but she put that -additional worry into the background. It could be fought out later. She -would have been very happy about it if she had had time, although she -could see no end to that situation but unhappiness. - -These threats of Allison’s. How far could he go with them, how far could -he make them true? All the way. She had a sickening sense that there was -no idleness in his threats. He had both the will and the power to carry -them out. He would bankrupt her family; he would employ slander against -her, from which the innocent have less defence than the guilty; he would -set himself viciously to wreck her happiness at every turn. The long arm -of his vindictiveness would follow her to her home, and set a barrier of -scandalous report even between her and her friends. - -But let her first take up the case of her Uncle Jim. She had not dared -go with her news to hot-tempered Jim Sargent. His first impulse would -have been one of violence, and she could not see that a murder on her -soul, and her Uncle Jim in jail as a murderer, and her name figuring -large, with her photograph in the pages of the free and entirely -uncurbed metropolitan press, would help any one in the present dilemma. -Yet even a warning, to her Uncle Jim, of impending financial danger -might bring about this very same result, for he had a trick of turning -suddenly from the kind and indulgent and tremendously admiring uncle, -into a stern parent, and firing one imperative question after another at -her, in the very image and likeness of her own father; and that was an -authoritative process which she knew she could not resist. Yet Uncle Jim -must be protected! How? It was easy enough to say that he must be, and -yet could he be? Could he even protect himself? She shook her head as -she gazed, with unseeing eyes, out of the daintily curtained port hole -upon the river, with its swarm of bustling small craft. - -Where to turn for advice, or even to have a sharer in the burden which -she felt must surely crush her. There was no one. It was a burden she -must bear alone, unless she could devise some plan of effective action, -and the sense of how far she had been responsible for this condition of -affairs was one which oppressed her, and humbled her, and deepened the -circles about her woe-smitten eyes. - -She had been guilty. In a rush of remorse and repentance, she -over-blamed herself. She did not allow, in her severe self-injustice, -for the natural instincts which had led her into a full and free -commingling with all this new circle; for, as Arly later put it for her -by way of comfort, how was she to know if she did not find out. Now, -however, she allowed herself no grain of comfort, or sympathy, or -relief, from the stern self-arraignment through which she put herself. -She had been wicked, she told herself. Had she delved deeply enough into -her own heart, and acknowledged what she saw there, and had she abided -by that knowledge, she could have spared her many suitors a part of the -pain and humiliation she had caused them by her refusal. She had not -been surprised by any of them. With the infliction of but very slight -pain, she could have stopped them long before they came to the point of -proposal, she saw that now. Why had she not done so? Pride! That was the -answer. The pleasure of being so eagerly sought, the actually spoken -evidence of her popularity, and the flattery of having aroused in all -these big men emotions so strong that they took the sincere form of the -offering of a lifetime of devotion. And she, who had prated to herself -so seriously of marriage, had held it as so sacred a thing, she had so -toyed with it, and had toyed, too, with that instinct in these good men! - -In the light of her experience with Allison, she began to distrust her -own sincerity, and for some minutes she floundered in that Slough of -Despond. - -But no, out of that misery she was able to emerge clear of soul. Her -worst fault had been folly. An instinctive groping for that other part -of her, which nature had set somewhere, unlabelled, to make of the twain -a complete and perfect human entity, had led her into all her -entanglements, even with Allison. And again the darkness deepened around -her troubled eyes. - -After all, had she but known it, she had a greater fault than folly. -Inexperience. Her charm was another, her youth, her beauty, her -virility—and her sympathy! These were her true faults, and the ones for -which every attractive girl must suffer. There is no escape. It is the -great law of compensation. Nature bestows no gift of value for which she -does not exact a corresponding price. - -Gail took her little fists from their pressure into the brown coverlet, -and held her temples between the fingertips of either hand; and the -brown hair, springing into wayward ringlets from the salt-breeze which -blew in at the half opened window, rippled down over her slender hands, -as if to soothe and comfort them. She had been wasting her time in -introspection and self-analysis when there was need for decisive action! -Fortunately she had a respite until Monday morning. In the past few days -of huge commercial movements which so vitally interested her, she had -become acquainted with business methods, to a certain extent, and she -knew that nothing could be done on Saturday afternoon or Sunday; -therefore her Uncle Jim was safe for two nights and a day. Then Allison -would deny the connection of her Uncle Jim’s road with the A.-P., and -the beginning of the destruction of the Sargent family would be -thoroughly accomplished! She had been given a thorough grasp of how -easily that could be done. What could she do in two nights and a day? It -was past her ingenuity to conceive. She must have help! - -But from whom could she receive it? Tod Boyd? The same reason which made -her think of him first made her swiftly place him last. Her Uncle Jim? -Too hotheaded. Her Aunt Grace? Too inexperienced. Her Aunt Helen? Too -conventional. Lucile, Ted, Dick? She laughed. Arly? - -There was a knock on her door, and Arly herself appeared. - -“Selfish,” chided Arly. “We’re all wanting you.” - -“That’s comforting,” smiled Gail. “I have just been being all alone in -the world, on the most absolutely deserted island of which you can -conceive. Arly, sit down. I want to tell you something.” - -The black hair and the brown hair cuddled close together, while Gail, -her tongue once loosened, poured out in a torrent all the pent-up misery -which had been accumulating within her for the past tempestuous weeks; -and Arly, her eyes glistening with the excitement of it all, kept her -exclamations of surprise and fright and indignation and horror, and -everything else, strictly to such low monosyllables as would not impede -the gasping narration. - -“I’d like to kill him!” said Arly, in a low voice of startling -intensity, and jumping to her feet she paced up and down the confines of -the little stateroom. Among all the other surprises of recent events, -there was none more striking than this vast change in the usually cool -and sarcastic Arly, who had not, until her return from Gail’s home, -permitted herself an emotion in two years. She came back to the bed with -a sudden swift knowledge that Gail had been dry-eyed all through this -recital, though her lips were quivering. She should have cried. Instead -she was sitting straight up, staring at Arly with patient inquiry. She -had told all her dilemma, and all her grief, and all her fear; and now -she was waiting. - -“The only way in which that person can be prevented from attacking your -Uncle Jim, which would be his first step, is to attack him before he can -do anything,” said Arly, pacing up and down, her fingers clasped behind -her slender back, her black brows knotted, her graceful head bent toward -the floor. - -“He is too powerful,” protested Gail. - -“That makes him weak,” returned Arly quickly. “In every great power -there is one point of great weakness. Tell me again about this -tremendously big world monopoly.” - -Patiently, and searching her memory for details, Gail recited over again -all which Allison had told her about his wonderful plan of empire; and -even now, angry and humiliated and terror stricken as she was, Gail -could not repress a feeling of admiration for the bigness of it. It was -that which had impressed her in the beginning. - -“It’s wonderful,” commented Arly, catching a trace of that spirit of the -exultation which hangs upon the unfolding of fairyland; and she began to -pace the floor again. “Why, Gail, it is the most colossal piece of -thievery the world has ever known!” And she walked in silence for a -time. “That is the thing upon which we can attack him. We are going to -stop it.” - -Gail rose, too. - -“How?” she asked. “Arly, we couldn’t, just we two girls!” - -“Why not?” demanded Arly, stopping in front of her. “Any plan like that -must be so full of criminal crookedness that exposure alone is enough to -put an end to it.” - -“Exposure,” faltered Gail, and struggled automatically with a lifelong -principle. “It was told to me in confidence.” - -Arly looked at her in astonishment. - -“I could shake you,” she declared, and instead put her arm around Gail. -“Did that person betray no confidence when he came to your uncle’s house -this morning! Moreover, he told you this merely to over-awe you with the -glitter of what he had done. He made that take the place of love! -Confidence! I’ll never do anything with so much pleasure in my life as -to betray yours right now! If you don’t expose that person, I will! If -there’s any way we can damage him, I intend to see that it is done; and -if there’s any way after that to damage him again and again, I want to -do it!” - -For the first time in that miserable day, Gail felt a thrill of hope, -and Arly, at that moment, had, to her, the aspect of a colossal figure, -an angel of brightness in the night of her despair! She felt that she -could afford to sob now, and she did it. - -“Do you suppose that would save Uncle Jim?” she asked, when they had -both finished a highly comforting time together. - -“It will save everybody,” declared Arly. - -“I hope so,” pondered Gail. “But we can’t do it ourselves, Arly. Whom -shall we get to help us?” - -The smile on Arly’s face was a positive illumination for a moment, and -then she laughed. - -“Gerald,” she replied. “You don’t know what a dear he is!” and she rang -for a cabin boy. - - - - - CHAPTER XXXII - GERALD FOSLAND MAKES A SPEECH - - -Gerald Fosland, known to be so formal that he had once dressed to answer -an emergency call from a friend at the hospital, because the message -came in at six o’clock, surprised his guests by appearing before them, -in the salon just before dinner, in his driving coat and with his motor -cap in his hand. - -“Sorry,” he informed them, with his stiff bow, “but an errand of such -importance that it can not be delayed, causes Mrs. Fosland and myself to -return to the city immediately for an hour or so. I am sincerely -apologetic, and I trust that you will have a jolly dinner.” - -“Is Gail going with you?” inquired the alert Mrs. Helen Davies, -observing Gail in the gangway adjusting her furs. - -“She has to chaperon me, while Gerald is busy,” Arly glibly explained. -“Onery, Orey, Ickery, Ann, Filison, Foloson, Nicholas, John; Queevy, -Quavy, English Navy, Stigalum, Stagalum, Buck. You’re it, Aunt Grace,” -counted out Arly. “You and Uncle Jim have to be hosts. Good-bye!” and -she sailed out to the deck, followed by the still troubled Gail, who -managed to accomplish the laughing adieus for which Arly had set the -precedence. - -A swift ride in the launch, in the cool night air, to the landing; a -brisk walk to the street, and, since no one had expected to come ashore -until Monday, a search for a taxi; then Gerald, chatting with correct -pleasantness through his submerged preoccupation, having seen the ladies -safe under shelter, even if it were but the roof of a night hawk taxi, -stopped at the first saloon, a queer place, of a sodden type which he -had never before seen and would never see again. There he phoned half a -dozen messages. There were four eager young men waiting in the reception -room of the Fosland house, when Gerald’s party arrived, and three more -followed them up the steps. - -Gerald aided in divesting the ladies of their wraps, and slipped his own -big top coat into the hands of William, and saw to his tie and the set -of his waistcoat and the smoothness of his hair, before he stalked into -the reception parlour and bowed stiffly. - -“Gentlemen,” he observed, giving his moustache one last smoothing, -“first of all, have you brought with you the written guarantees which I -required from your respective chiefs, that, in whatsoever comes from the -information I am about to give you, the names of your informants shall, -under no circumstances, appear in print?” - -One luckless young man, a fat-cheeked one, with a pucker in the corner -of his lips where his cigar should have been, was unable to produce the -necessary document, and he was under a scrutiny too close to give him a -chance to write it. - -“Sorry,” announced Gerald, with polite contrition. “As this is a very -strict condition, I must ask you to leave the room while I address the -remaining gentlemen.” - -The remaining gentlemen, of whom there were now eleven, grinned -appreciatively. Hickey would have been the best newspaper man in New -York if he were not such a careless slob. He was so good that he was the -only man from the _Planet_. The others had sent two, and three; for -Gerald’s message, while very simple, had been most effective. He had -merely announced that he was prepared to provide them with an -international sensation, involving some hundreds of billions of -dollars—and he had given his right name! - -The unfortunate Hickey made a violent pretence of search through all his -pockets. - -“I must have lost it,” he piteously declared. “Won’t you take my written -word that you won’t be mentioned?” and he looked up at the splendidly -erect Gerald with that honest appeal in his eyes which had deceived so -many. - -“Sorry,” announced Gerald; “but it wouldn’t be sportsmanlike, since it -would be quite unfair to these other gentlemen.” - -“Hold the stuff ’til I telephone,” begged Hickey. “Say, if I get that -written guarantee up here in fifteen minutes, will it do?” - -Gerald looked him speculatively in the eye. - -“If you telephone, and can then assure me, on your word of honour, that -the document I require shall be in the house before you leave, I shall -permit you to remain,” he decreed; and Hickey looked him quite soberly -in the eye for half a minute. - -“I’ll have it here all right,” he decided, and sprang for the telephone, -and came back in three minutes with his word of honour. They could hear -him, from the library, yelling, from the time he gave the number until -he hung up the receiver, and if there was ever urgency in a man’s voice, -it was in the voice of Hickey. - -Gerald Fosland took a commanding position in the corner of the room, -where he could see the countenances of each of the eager young gentlemen -present. He stood behind a chair, with his hands on the back of it, in -his favourite position for responding to a toast. - -“Gentlemen; Edward E. Allison (_Twelve young gentlemen who had been -leaning forward with strained interest, and their mouths half open to -help them hear, suddenly jerked bolt upright. The little squib over -under the statue of Diana, dropped his lead pencil, and came up with a -purple face. Hickey, with a notebook two inches wide in one hand, jabbed -down a scratch to represent Allison_) is about to complete a -transportation system encircling the globe. (_The little squib on the -end choked on his tongue. Hickey made a ring on his note pad, to -represent the globe, and while he waited for the sensation to subside, -put a buckle on it._) The acquisition of the foreign railroads will be -made possible only by a war, which is already arranged. (_The little -squib got writer’s cramp. Hickey waited for details. The hollow-cheeked -reporter grabbed for a cigarette, but with no intention of lighting -it._) The war, which will be between Germany and France, will begin -within a month. France, unable to raise a war fund otherwise, will sell -her railroads. The Russian line is already being taken from its present -managers, and will be turned over to Allison’s world syndicate within a -week. The important steamship lines will become involved in financial -difficulties, which have already been set afoot in England. Following -these events will come a successful rebellion in India, and the -independence of all the British colonies. (_The little squib laid down -his pencil, and sat in open-mouthed despair. He was three sentences -behind, and knew that he would be compelled to trust his memory and his -imagination, and neither were equal to this task. Hickey had seven -serene jabs on his notebook, and was peacefully framing his introductory -paragraph. A seraphic smile was on his thick lips, and his softened eyes -were gazing fondly into the fields of rich fancy. The hollow-cheeked -young man had cocked his cigarette perpendicularly, and he was writing a -few words with artistic precision. The red-headed reporter was tearing -off page after page of his notebook and stuffing them loosely in his -pocket. One of the boys, a thick-breasted one with large hands, was -making microscopic notes on the back of an envelope, and had plenty of -room to spare._) You will probably require some tangible evidence that -these large plans are on the way to fulfilment. I call your attention to -the fact that, last week, the Russian Duomo began a violent agitation -over the removal of Olaf Petrovy, who was the controller of the entire -Russian railroad system. Day before yesterday, Petrovy was unfortunately -assassinated, and the agitation in the Duomo subsided. (_Hickey only -nodded. His eyes glowed with the light of a poet. The little squib -sighed dejectedly._) This morning I read that France is greatly incensed -over a diplomatic breach in the German war office; and it is commented -that the breach is one which can not possibly be healed. Kindly take -note of the following facts. From the first to the eighth of this month, -Baron von Slachten, who is directly responsible for Germany’s foreign -relations, was seen in this city at the Fencing Club, under the -incognito of Henry Brokaw. Chevalier Duchambeau, director of the -combined banking interests of France, was here in that same week, and -was seen at the Montparnasse Cercle. He bore the name of Andree Tirez. -The Grand Duke Jan, of Russia, was here as Ivan Strolesky. James -Wellington Hodge, the master of the banking system of practically all -the world, outside the United States, was here as E. E. Chalmers. Prince -Nito of Japan, Yu-Hip-Lun of China and Count Cassioni of Rome, were here -at the same time; and they all called on Edward E. Allison. (_Furious -writing on the part of all the young gentlemen except the little squib -and Hickey; the former in an acute paralysis of body and mind and soul, -and Hickey in an acute ecstasy. He had symbols down for all the foreign -gentlemen named, a pretzel for the Baron, and had the local records of -Ivan Strolesky and Baron von Slachten up a tree. He had seen them both, -and interviewed the former._) Furthermore, gentlemen, I will give you -now the names of the eight financiers, who, with Edward E. Allison, are -interested in the formation of the International Transportation Company, -which proposes to control the commerce of the world. These gentlemen are -Joseph G. Clark (_the little squib jumped up and sat down. Hickey -produced a long, low whistle of unbounded joy. The hollow-faced one -jerked the useless cigarette from his mouth and threw it in the -fireplace. The red-headed reporter laughed hysterically, though he never -stopped writing. Every young gentleman there made one or another sharp -physical movement expressive of his astonishment and delight_), Eldridge -Babbitt (_more sensation_), W. T. Chisholm (_Hickey wrote the rest of -the list_), Richard Haverman, Arthur Grandin, Robert E. Taylor, A. L. -Vance. I would suggest that, if you disturb these gentlemen in the -manner which I have understood you to be quite capable of doing, you -might secure from some one of them a trace of corroboration of the -things I have said. This is all.” He paused, and bowed stiffly. -“Gentlemen, I wish to add one word. I thank you for your kind attention, -and I desire to say that, while I have violated to-night several of the -rules which I had believed that I would always hold unbroken, I have -done so in the interest of a justice which is greater than all other -considerations. Gentlemen, good-night.” - -“Have you a good photograph handy?” asked the squib, awakening from his -trance. - -Nine young gentlemen put the squib right about that photograph. Hickey -was lost in the fields of Elysian phantasy, and the red-headed reporter -was still writing and stuffing loose pages in his pocket, and the one -with the beard was making a surreptitious sketch of Gerald Fosland, to -use on the first plausible occasion. He had in mind a special article on -wealthy clubmen at home. - -“Company incorporated?” inquired Hickey, who was the most practical poet -of his time. - -“I should consider that a pertinent question,” granted Gerald. -“Gentlemen, you will pardon me for a moment,” and he bowed himself from -the room. - -He had meant to ask that one simple question and return, but, in -Arlene’s blue room, where sat two young women in a high state of quiver, -he had to make his speech all over again, verbatim, and detail each -interruption, and describe how they received the news, and answer, -several times, the variously couched question, if he really thought -their names would not be mentioned. It was fifteen minutes before he -returned, and he found the twelve young gentlemen suffering with an -intolerable itch to be gone! Five of the young men were in the library, -quarrelling, in decently low voices, over the use of phone. The -imperturbable Hickey, however, had it, and he held on, handing in a -story, embellished and coloured and frilled and be-ribboned as he went, -which would make the cylinders on the presses curl up. - -“I am sorry to advise you, gentlemen, that I am unable to tell you if -the International Transportation Company is, or is about to be, -incorporated,” reported Gerald gravely, and he signalled to William to -open the front door. - -The air being too cold, however, he had it closed presently, for now he -was the centre of an interrogatory circle from every degree of which -came questions so sharply pointed that they seemed to flash as they -darted towards him. Gerald Fosland listened to this babble of -conversation with a courtesy beautiful to behold, but at the first good -pause, he advised them that he had given them all the information at his -command, and once more caused the door to be opened; whereupon the eager -young gentlemen, with the exception of the squib, who was on his knees -under a couch looking for a lost subway ticket, shook hands cordially -and admiringly with the host of the evening, and bulged out into the -night. - -As the rapt and enchanted Hickey passed out of the door, a grip like a -pair of ice tongs caught him by the arm, and drew him gently but firmly -back. - -“Sorry,” observed Gerald; “but you don’t go.” - -“Hasn’t that damn boy got here yet?” demanded Hickey, in an immediate -mood for assassination. He was a large young man, and defective -messenger boys were the bane of his existence. - -“William says not,” replied Gerald. - -“For the love of Mike, let me go!” pleaded Hickey. “This stuff has to be -handled while it’s still sizzling! It’s the biggest story of the -century! That boy’ll be here any minute.” - -“Sorry,” regretfully observed Gerald; “but I shall be compelled to -detain you until he arrives.” - -“Can’t do it!” returned the desperate Hickey. “I have to go!” and he -made a dash for the door. - -Once more the ice tongs clutched him by the shoulder and sank into the -flesh. - -“If you try that again, young man, I shall be compelled to thrash you,” -stated the host, again mildly. - -Hickey looked at him, very thoroughly. Gerald was a slim waisted -gentleman, but he had broad shoulders and a depressingly calm eye, and -he probably exercised twenty minutes every morning by an open window, -after his cold plunge, and took a horseback ride, and walked a lot, and -played polo, and a few other effete things like that. Hickey sat down -and waited, and, though the night was cold, he mopped his brow until the -messenger came! - - - - - CHAPTER XXXIII - CHICKEN, OR STEAK? - - -On the outbreak of a bygone rudeness between the United States and -Spain, one free and entirely uncurbed metropolitan paper, unable to -adequately express its violent emotions on the subject, utilised its -whole front page with the one word “War!” printed in red ink, and since -this edition was jumped off the press as fast as that word could be -matrixed and cast, there was not another line anywhere in the paper -about the subject which was so prominently indexed, and the read-overs -about the latest briberies and murders and scandals had no beginnings at -all. But that was good journalism. The public had been expecting war for -some days. They knew what it was all about, and here it was. They bought -up that edition with avidity, and read the one word of news, which they -had seen from afar, and threw down the paper, satisfied. - -Now, however, the free and entirely uncurbed, having risen most -gloriously in the past to every emergency, no matter how great, -positively floundered in the very wealth of its opportunities. To begin -with, the free and entirely uncurbed, usually a unit in what constituted -the news of the day, found itself ignominiously scattered, foozled in -its judgment, inadequate in its expression of anything; and one -brilliant head writer, after trying in vain to combine the diverse -elements of this uncomfortably huge sensation, landed on the single word -“Yow!” and went out, in a daze, for a drink. One paper landed on the -Franco-German War as the leading thrill in this overly rich combination -of news, one took up the greed of Allison, one featured the world -monopoly, one the assured downfall of England, and one, that represented -by the squib, the general absorption of everything by the cereal trust. - -Saturday night, however, saw no late extras. The “story” was too big to -touch without something more tangible than the word of even so -substantial a man as Gerald Fosland; and long before any of the twelve -eager young gentlemen had reached the office, the scout brigade, -hundreds strong, were sniffing over every trail and yelping over every -scent. - -They traced the visiting diplomats from the time they had stepped down -their respective gangplanks to the time they walked up them again. They -besieged and bombarded and beleaguered the eight members of the -International Transportation Company, or as many of them as they could -locate, and they even found their way out to Gerald Fosland’s yacht, in -mad pursuit of Eldridge Babbitt. Here, however, they were foiled, for -Gerald, ordering the anchor hoist at the first hail, stepped out on the -deck from his belated dinner, and informed the gentlemen of the press -that the rights of hospitality on his yacht would be held inviolate, -whereupon he headed for Sandy Hook. The scout brigade were also unable -to locate Joseph G. Clark, the only multi-millionaire in America able to -crawl in a hole and pull the hole in after him, Robert E. Taylor, who -never permitted anybody but a personal friend to speak to him from -dinner time on, and Edward E. Allison, of whom there had been no trace -since noon. They might just as well not have found the others, for -neither Chisholm, nor Haverman, nor Grandin, nor Vance, could be induced -to make any admissions, be trapped into a yes or no, or grunt in the -wrong place. They had grown up with the art of interviewing, and had -kept one lap ahead of it, in obedience to nature’s first law, which, as -every school boy knows, though older people may have forgotten it, is -the law of self-preservation. - -Until three o’clock in the morning every newspaper office in New York -was a scene of violent gloom. Throughout all the city, and into many -outside nooks and crannies, were hundreds of human tentacles, burrowing -like moles into the sandy soil of news, but unearthing nothing of any -value. The world’s biggest sensation was in those offices, and they -couldn’t touch it with a pair of tongs! Nor were libel suits, or any -such trivial considerations, in the minds of the astute managers of the -free and entirely uncurbed. The deterrent was that the interests -involved were so large that one might as well sit on a keg of gunpowder -and light it, as to make the slightest of errors. The gentlemen -mentioned as the organisers of the International Transportation Company -collectively owned about all the money, and all the power, and all the -law, in the gloriously independent United States of America; and if they -got together on any one subject, such as the squashing of a newspaper, -for instance, something calm and impressive was likely to happen. On the -other hand, if the interesting story the free and entirely uncurbed had -in its possession were true, the squashing would be reversed, and the -freeness and entirely uncurbedness would be still more firmly seated -than ever, which is the palladium of our national liberties; and Heaven -be good to us. - -It was a distressing evening. Whole reams of copy, more throbbing than -any fiction, more potent than any explosion, more consequential than any -war, hung on the “hold” hooks, and grew cold! Whole banks of galleys of -the same gorgeous stuff stood on the racks, set and revised, and ready -to be plated, and not a line of it could be released! - -Towards morning there was an army of newspaper men so worried and -distressed, and generally consumed with the mad passion of restraint, -that there was scarcely a fingernail left in the profession, and -frightened-eyed copy boys hid behind doors. Suddenly a dozen telegraph -operators, in as many offices, jumped from their desks, as if they had -all been touched at the same instant by a powerful current from their -instruments, and shouted varying phrases, a composite of which would be -nearest expressed by: - -“Let ’er go!” - -It had been eight o’clock in the evening in New York when Gerald Fosland -had first given out his information, and at that moment it was one A.M. -in Berlin. At three A.M., Berlin time, which was ten P.M. in New York, -the Baron von Slachten, who had been detained by an unusual stress of -diplomatic business, strolled to his favourite café. At three-five, the -Baron von Slachten became the most thought about man in his city, but -the metropolitan press of Berlin is slightly fettered and more or less -curbed, and there are certain formalities to be observed. It is -probable, therefore, that the Baron might have gone about his peaceful -way for two or three days, had not a fool American, in the advertising -branch of one of the New York papers, in an entire ignorance of decent -formalities, walked straight out Unter den Linden, to Baron von -Slachten’s favourite café, and, picking out the Baron at a table with -four bushy-faced friends, made this cheerful remark, in the manner and -custom of journalists in his native land: - -“Well, Baron, the International Transportation Company has confessed. -Could you give me a few words on the subject?” - -The Baron, who had been about to drink a stein of beer, set down his -half liter and stared at the young man blankly. His face turned slowly -yellow, and he rose. - -“Lass bleiben,” the Baron ordered the handy persons who were about to -remove the cheerful advertising representative and incarcerate him for -life, and then the Baron walked stolidly out of the café, and rode home, -and wrote for an hour or so, and ate a heavy early breakfast, and -returned to his study, and obligingly shot himself. - -This was at seven A.M., Berlin time, which was two A.M., in New York; -and owing to the nervousness of an old woman servant, the news reached -New York at three A.M., and the big wheels began to go around. - -Where was Edward E. Allison? There was nothing the free and entirely -uncurbed wanted to know so much as that; but the f. and e. u. was doomed -to disappointment in that one desire of its heart. Even as he had -stumbled down the steps of the Sargent house, Allison was aware of the -hideous thing he had done; aware, too, that Jim Sargent was as violent -as good-natured men are apt to be. This thought, it must be said in -justice to Allison, came last and went away first. It was from himself -that he tried to run away, when he shot his runabout up through the Park -and into the north country, and, by devious roads, to a place which had -come to him as if by inspiration; the Willow Club, which was only open -in the summertime, and employed a feeble old caretaker in the winter. To -this haven, bleak and cold as his own numbed soul, Allison drove in -mechanical firmness, and ran his machine back into the garage, and -closed the doors on it, and walked around to the kitchen, where he found -old Peabody smoking a corncob pipe, and laboriously mending a pair of -breeches. - -“Why, howdy, Mr. Allison,” greeted Peabody, rising, and shoving up his -spectacles. “It’s a treat to see anybody these days. I ain’t had a -visitor for nigh onto a month. There ain’t any provisions in the house, -but if you’d like anything I can run over to the village and get it. I -got a jug of my own, if you’d like a little snifter. How’s things in the -city?” and still rambling on with unanswered questions and miscellaneous -offers and club grounds information, he pottered to the corner cupboard, -and produced his jug, and poured out a glass of whiskey. - -“Thanks,” said Allison, and drank the liquor mechanically. He was -shuddering with the cold, but he had not noticed it until now. He -glanced around the room slowly and curiously, as if he had not seen it -before. “I think I’ll stay out here over night,” he told Peabody. “I’ll -occupy the office. If any one rings the phone, don’t answer.” - -“Yes-sir,” replied Peabody. “Tell you what I’ll do, Mr. Allison. I’ll -muffle the bell. I guess I better light a fire in the office.” - -“Eh? Yes. Oh yes. Yes, you might light a fire.” - -“Get you a nice chicken maybe.” - -“Eh? Yes. Oh yes. Yes.” - -“Chicken or steak? Or maybe some chops.” - -“Anything you like,” and Allison went towards the office. At the door he -turned. “You’ll understand, Peabody, that I have come here to be quiet. -I wish to be entirely alone, with certain important matters which I must -decide. If anybody should happen to drop in, get rid of him. Do not say -that I am here or have been here.” - -“Yes-sir,” replied Peabody. “I know how it is that away. I want to be by -myself, often. Shall I make up the bed in the east room or the west -room? Seems to me the west room is a little pleasanter.” - -Allison went into the office, and closed the door after him. It was damp -and chill in there, but he did not notice it. He sat down in the swivel -chair behind the flat top desk, and rested his chin in his hands, and -stared out of the window at the bleak and dreary landscape. Just within -his range of vision was a lonely little creek, shadowed by a mournful -drooping willow which had given the Club its name, and in the wintry -breeze it waved its long tendrils against the leaden grey sky. Allison -fixed his eyes on that oddly beckoning tree, and strove to think. Old -Peabody came pottering in, and with many a clang and clatter builded a -fire in the capacious Dutch stove; with a longing glance at Allison, for -he was starved with the hunger of talk, he went out again. - -At dusk he once more opened the door. Allison had not moved. He still -sat with his chin in his hands, looking out at that weirdly waving -willow. Old Peabody thought that he must be asleep, until he tiptoed up -at the side. Allison’s grey eyes, unblinking, were staring straight -ahead, with no expression in them. It was as if they had turned to -glass. - -“Excuse me, Mr. Allison. Chicken or steak? I got ’em both, one for -supper and one for breakfast.” - -Allison turned slowly, part way towards Peabody; not entirely. - -“Chicken or steak?” repeated Peabody. - -“Eh? Yes. Oh yes. Yes. The chicken.” - -The fire had gone out. Peabody rebuilt it. He came in an hour later, and -studied the silent man at the desk for a long minute, and then he -decided an important question for himself. He brought in Allison’s -dinner on a tray, and set it on a corner of the desk. - -“Shall I spread a cloth?” - -“No,” returned Allison. The clatter had aroused him for the moment, and -Peabody went away with a very just complaint that if he had to be -bothered with a visitor on a grey day like this, he’d rather not have -such an unsociable cuss. - -At eleven Peabody came in again, to see if Allison were not ready to go -to bed; but Allison sent him away as soon as he had fixed the fire. The -tray was untouched, and out there in the dim moonlight, which peered now -and then through the shifting clouds, the long-armed willow beckoned and -beckoned. - -Morning came, cold and grey and damp as the night had been. Allison had -fallen asleep towards the dawn, sitting at his desk with his heavy head -on his arms, and not even the clatter of the building of the fire roused -him. At seven when Peabody came, Allison raised up with a start at the -opening of the door, but before he glanced at Peabody, he looked out of -the window at the willow. - -“Good morning,” said Peabody with a cheerfulness which sounded oddly in -that dim, bare room. “I brought you the paper, and some fresh eggs. -There was a little touch of frost this morning, but it went away about -time for sun-up. How will you have your eggs? Fried, I suppose, after -the steak. Seems like you don’t have much appetite,” and he scrutinised -the untouched tray with mingled regret and resentment. Since Allison -paid no attention to him, he decided on eggs fried after the steak, and -started for the door. - -Allison had picked up the paper mechanically. It had lain with the top -part downwards, but his own picture was in the centre. He turned the -paper over, so that he could see the headlines. - -“Peabody!” No longer the dead tones of a man in a mental stupor, a man -who can not think, but in the sharp tones of a man who can feel. - -“Yes-sir.” Sharp and crisp, like the snap of a whip. Allison had scared -it out of him. - -“Don’t come in again until I call you.” - -“Yes-sir.” Grieved this time. Darn it, wasn’t he doing his best for the -man! - -So it had come; the time when his will was not God! A God should be -omnipotent, impregnable, unassailable, absolute. He was surprised at the -calmness with which he took this blow. It was the very bigness of the -hurt which left it so little painful. A man with his leg shot off -suffers not one-tenth so much as a man who tears his fingernail to the -quick. Moreover, there was that other big horror which had left him -stupefied and numb. He had not known that in his ruthlessness there was -any place for remorse, or for terror of himself at anything he might -choose to do. But there was. He entered into no ravings now, no -writhings, no outcries. He realised calmly and clearly all he had done, -and all which had happened to him in retribution. He saw the downfall of -his stupendous scheme of worldwide conquest. He saw his fortune, to the -last penny, swept away, for he had invested all that he could raise on -his securities and his business and his prospects, in the preliminary -expenses of the International Transportation Company, bearing this -portion of the financial burden himself, as part of the plan by which he -meant to obtain ultimate control and command of the tremendous -consolidation, and become the king among kings, with the whole world in -his imperious grasp, a sway larger than that of any potentate who had -ever sat upon a throne, larger than the sway of all the monarchs of -earth put together, as large terrestrially as the sway of God himself! -All these he saw crumbled away, fallen down around him, a wreck so -complete that no shred or splinter of it was worth the picking up; saw -himself disgraced and discredited, hated and ridiculed throughout the -length and breadth and circumference of the very earth he had meant to -rule; saw himself discarded by the strong men whom he had inveigled into -this futile scheme and saw himself forced into commercial death as -wolves rend and devour a crippled member of their pack; last, he saw -himself loathed in the one pure breast he had sought to make his own; -and that was the deepest hurt of all; for now, in the bright blaze of -his own conflagration, he saw that, beneath his grossness, he had loved -her, after all, loved her with a love which, if he had shorn it of his -dross, might perhaps have won her. - -Through all that day he sat at the desk, and when the night-time came -again, he walked out of the house, and across the field, and over the -tiny foot-bridge, under the willow tree with the still beckoning arms; -and the world, his world, the world he had meant to make his own, never -saw him again. - - - - - CHAPTER XXXIV - A MATTER OF CONSCIENCE - - -Gail stood at the rail of the _Whitecap_, gazing out over the dancing -blue waves with troubled eyes. - -“Penny,” said a cheerful voice at her side. - -“For my thoughts,” she replied, turning to the impossibly handsome Dick -Rodley who had strolled up, in his blue jacket and white trousers and -other nautical embellishments. “Give me your penny.” - -He reached in his pockets, but of course, there was no money there. He -did, however, find a fountain pen and a card, and he wrote her a note -for the amount. - -“Now deliver the merchandise,” he demanded. - -“Well, to begin with, I’m glad that the fog has been driven away, and -that the sun is shining, and that so many of my friends are on board the -_Whitecap_.” - -“You’re not a conscientious merchant,” objected Dick. “You’re not giving -me all I paid for. No one stands still so long, no matter how charming -of figure or becomingly gowned, without a serious thought. I want that -thought.” - -Gail looked up into his big black eyes reflectively. She was -tremendously glad that she had such a friend as Dick. He was so -agreeable to look at, and he was no problem to her. The most of her -friends were. - -“The news in the paper,” she told him. “It’s so big.” - -Dick looked down at her critically. Her snow-white yachting costume, -with its touches of delicate blue, seemed to make her a part of the blue -sea and the blue sky, with their markings of white in foam and cloud, to -enhance the delicate pallor of her cheeks, to throw into her brown eyes -a trace of violet, to bring into relief, the rich colour of the brown -hair which rippled about her face, straying where it could into wanton -little ringlets, sometimes gold and sometimes almost red in the sun. She -was so new a Gail to Dick that he was puzzled, and worried, too, for he -felt, rather than saw, that some trouble possessed this dearest of his -friends. - -“Yes, it is big news,” he admitted; “big enough and startling enough to -impress any one very gravely.” Then he shook his head at her. “But you -mustn’t worry about it, Gail. You’re not responsible.” - -Gail turned her eyes from him and looked out over the white-edged waves -again. - -“It is a tremendous responsibility,” she mused, whereupon Dick, as -became him, violently broke that thread of thought by taking her arm and -drawing her away from the rail, and walking gaily with her up to the -forward shelter deck, where, shielded from the crispness of the wind, -there sat, around the big table and amid a tangle of Sunday papers, Jim -Sargent and the Reverend Smith Boyd, Arly and Gerald Fosland, all four -deep in the discussion of the one possible topic of conversation. - -“Allison’s explosion again,” objected Dick, as Gail and he joined the -group, and caught the general tenor of the thought. “I suppose the only -way to escape that is to jump off the _Whitecap_. Gail’s worse than any -of you. I find she’s responsible for the whole thing.” - -Arly and Gerald looked up quickly. - -“I neither said nor intimated anything of the sort,” Gail reprimanded -Dick, for the benefit of the Foslands, and she sat down by Arly, -whereupon Dick, observing that he was much offended, patted Gail on the -shoulder, and disappeared in search of Ted. - -“I’d like to hand a vote of thanks to the responsible party,” laughed -Jim Sargent, to whom the news meant more than Gail appreciated. “With -Allison broke, Urbank of the Midcontinent succeeds to control of the -A.-P., and Urbank is anxious to incorporate the Towando Valley in the -system. He told me so yesterday.” - -The light which leaped into Gail’s eyes, and the trace of colour which -flashed into her cheeks, were most comforting to Arly; and they -exchanged a smile of great satisfaction. They clutched hands -ecstatically under the corner of the table, and wanted to laugh -outright. However, it would keep. - -“The destruction of Mr. Allison was a feat of which any gentleman’s -conscience might approve,” commented Gerald Fosland, who had spent some -time in definitely settling, with himself, the ethics of that question. -“The company he proposed to form was a menace to the liberty of the -world and the progress of civilisation.” - -“The destruction didn’t go far enough,” snapped Jim Sargent. “Clark, -Vance, Haverman, Grandin, Babbitt, Taylor, Chisholm; these fellows won’t -be touched, and they built up their monopolies by the same method -Allison proposed; trickery, force, and plain theft!” - -“Harsh language, Uncle Jim Sargent, to use toward your respectable -fellow-vestrymen,” chided Arly, her black eyes dancing. - -“Clark and Chisholm?” and Jim Sargent’s brows knotted. “They’re not my -fellow-vestrymen. Either they go or I do!” - -“I would like you to remain,” quietly stated the Reverend Smith Boyd. “I -hope to achieve several important alterations in the ethics of Market -Square Church.” He was grave this morning. He had unknowingly been -ripening for some time on many questions; and the revelations in this -morning’s papers had brought him to the point of decision. “I wish to -drive the money changers out of the temple,” he added, and glanced at -Gail with a smile in which there was acknowledgment. - -“A remarkably lucrative enterprise, eh Gail?” laughed her Uncle Jim, -remembering her criticism on the occasion of her first and only vestry -meeting, when she had called their attention to the satire of the -stained glass window. - -“You will have still the Scribes and Pharisees, Doctor; ‘those who stand -praying in the public places, so they may be seen of all men,’” and Gail -smiled across at him, within her eyes the mischievous twinkle which had -been absent for many days. - -“I hope to be able to remove the public place,” replied the rector, with -a gravity which told of something vital beneath the apparent repartee. -Mrs. Boyd, strolling past with Aunt Grace Sargent, paused to look at him -fondly. “I shall set myself, with such strength as I may have, against -the building of the proposed cathedral.” - -He had said it so quietly that it took the little group a full minute to -comprehend. Jim Sargent looked with acute interest at the end of his -cigar, and threw it overboard. Arly leaned slowly forward, and, resting -her piquant chin on her closed hand, studied the rector earnestly. -Gerald stroked his moustache contemplatively, and looked at the rector -with growing admiration. By George, that was a sportsmanlike attitude! -He’d have to take the Reverend Smith Boyd down to the Papyrus Club one -day. All the trouble flew back into Gail’s eyes. It was a stupendous -thing the Reverend Smith Boyd was proposing to relinquish! The -rectorship of the most wonderful cathedral in the world! Mrs. Boyd -looked startled for a moment. She had known of Tod’s bright dreams about -the new cathedral and the new rectory. He had planned his mother’s -apartments himself, and the last thing his eyes looked upon at night -were the beautifully coloured sketches on his walls. - -“Don’t be foolish, Boyd,” protested Sargent, who had always felt a -fatherly responsibility for the young rector. “It’s a big ambition and a -worthy ambition, to build that cathedral; and because you’re offended -with certain things the papers have said, about Clark and Chisholm in -connection with the church, is no reason you should cut off your nose to -spite your face.” - -“It is not the publication of these things which has determined me,” -returned the rector thoughtfully. “It has merely hastened my decision. -To begin with, I acknowledge now that it was only a vague, artistic -dream of mine that such a cathedral, by its very magnificence, would -promote worship. That might have been the case when cathedrals were the -only magnificent buildings erected, and when every rich and glittering -thing was devoted to religion. A golden candlestick then became -connected entirely with the service of the Almighty. Now, however, -magnificence has no such signification. The splendour of a cathedral -must enter into competition with the splendour of a state house, a -museum, or a hotel.” - -“You shouldn’t switch that way, Boyd,” remonstrated Sargent, showing his -keen disappointment. “When you began to agitate for the cathedral you -brought a lot of our members in who hadn’t attended services in years. -You stirred them up. You got them interested. They’ll drop right off.” - -“I hope not,” returned the rector earnestly. “I hope to reach them with -a higher ambition, a higher pride, a higher vanity, if you like to put -it that way. I wish them to take joy in establishing the most -magnificent living conditions for the poor which have ever been built! -We have no right to the money which is to be paid us for the Vedder -Court property. We have no right to spend it in pomp. It belongs to the -poor from whom we have taken it, and to the city which has made us rich -by enhancing the value of our ground. I propose to build permanent and -sanitary tenements, to house as many poor people as possible, and -conduct them without a penny of profit above the cost of repairs and -maintenance.” - -Gail bent upon him beaming eyes, and the delicate flush, which had begun -to return to her cheeks, deepened. Was this the sort of tenements he had -proposed to re-erect in Vedder Court? Perhaps she had been hasty! The -Reverend Smith Boyd in turning slowly from one to the other of the -little group, by way of establishing mental communication with them, -rested, for a moment, in the beaming eyes of Gail, and smiled at her in -affectionate recognition then swept his glance on to his mother, where -it lingered. - -“You are perfectly correct,” stated Gerald Fosland, who, though sitting -stiffly upright, had managed nevertheless to dispose one elbow where it -touched gently the surface of Arly. “Market Square Church is a much more -dignified old place of worship than the ostentatious cathedral would -ever be, and your project for spending the money has such strict justice -at the bottom of it that it must prevail. But, I say, Doctor Boyd,” and -he gave his moustache a contemplative tug; “don’t you think you should -include a small margin of profit for the future extension of your idea?” - -“That’s glorious, Gerald!” approved Gail; and Arly, laughing, patted his -hand. - -“You’re probably right,” considered the rector, studying Fosland with a -new interest. “I think we’ll have to put you on the vestry.” - -“I’d be delighted, I’m sure,” responded Gerald, in the courteous tone of -one accepting an invitation to dinner. - -“Do you hear what your son’s planning to do?” called Jim Sargent to Mrs. -Boyd. He was not quite reconciled. “He proposes to take that wonderful -new rectory away from you.” - -The beautiful Mrs. Boyd merely dimpled. - -“I am a trifle astonished,” she confessed. “My son has been so extremely -eager about it; but if he is relinquishing the dream, it is because he -wants something else very much more worth while. I entirely approve of -his plan for the new tenements,” and she did not understand why they all -laughed at her. She did feel, however, that there was affection in the -laughter; and she was quite content. Laughing with them, she walked on -with Grace Sargent. They had set out to make twenty trips around the -deck, for exercise. - -“I find that I have been at work on the plans for these new tenements -ever since the condemnation,” went on the rector. “I would build them in -the semi-court style, with light and air in every room; with as little -woodwork as possible; with plumbing appliances of simple and perfect -sanitation; with centralised baths under the care of an attendant; with -assembly rooms for both social and religious observances and with self -contained bureaus of employment, health and police protection—one -building to each of six blocks, widening the street for a grass plot, -trees, and fountains. The fact that the Market Square Church property is -exempt from taxation, saving us over half a million dollars a year, -renders us able to provide these advantages at a much lower rental to my -Vedder Court people than they can secure quarters anywhere else in the -city, and at the same time lay up a small margin of profit for the -system.” - -Gerald Fosland drew forward his chair. - -“Do you know,” he observed, “I should like very much to become a member -of your vestry.” - -“I’m glad you are interested,” returned the rector, and producing a -pencil he drew a white advertising space towards him. “This is the plan -of tenement I have in mind,” and for the next half hour the five of them -discussed tenement plans with great enthusiasm. - -At the expiration of that time, Ted and Lucile and Dick and Marion came -romping up, with the deliberate intention of creating a disturbance; and -Gail and the Reverend Smith Boyd, being thrown accidentally to the edge -of that whirlpool, walked away for a rest. - -“They tell me you’re going abroad,” observed the rector, looking down at -her sadly, as they paused at her favourite rail space. - -“Yes,” she answered quietly. “Father and mother are coming next week,” -and she glanced up at the rector from under her curving lashes. - -There was a short space of silence. It was almost as if these two were -weary. - -“We shall miss you very much,” he told her, in all sincerity. They were -both looking out over the blue waves; he, tall, broad-shouldered, agile -of limb; she, straight, lithe, graceful. Mrs. Boyd and Mrs. Sargent -passed them admiringly, but went on by with a trace of sadness. - -“I’m sorry to leave,” Gail replied. “I shall be very anxious to know how -you are coming on with your new plan. I’m proud of you for it.” - -“Thank you,” he returned. - -They were talking mechanically. In them was an inexpressible sadness. -They had come so near, and yet they were so far apart. Moreover, they -knew that there was no chance of change. It was a matter of conscience -which came between them, and it was a divergence which would widen with -the years. And yet they loved. They mutually knew it, and it was because -of that love that they must stay apart. - - - - - CHAPTER XXXV - A VESTRY MEETING - - -There was a strained atmosphere in the vestry meeting from the first. -Every member present felt the tension from the moment old Joseph G. -Clark walked in with Chisholm. They did not even nod to the Reverend -Smith Boyd, but took their seats solidly in their customary places at -the table, Clark, shielding his eyes, as was his wont, against the light -which streamed on him from the red robe of the Good Shepherd. The -repression was apparent, too, in the Reverend Smith Boyd, who rose to -address his vestrymen as soon as the late-comers arrived. - -“Gentlemen,” said he, “I wish to speak to you as the treasury committee, -rather than as vestrymen, for it is in the former capacity which you -always attend. I am advised that we have been paid for Vedder Court.” - -Chisholm, to whom he directed a gaze of inquiry, nodded his head. - -“It’s in the Majestic,” he stated. “I have plans for its investment, -which I wish to lay before the committee.” - -“I shall lay my own before them at the same time,” went on the rector. -“I wish, however, to preface these plans by the statement that I have, -so far as I am concerned, relinquished all thought of building the new -cathedral.” - -Nicholas Van Ploon, who had been much troubled of late, brightened, and -nodded his round head emphatically. - -“That’s what I say,” he declared. - -“The decision does not lay in your hands, Doctor Boyd,” drawled a nasal -voice with an unconcealed sneer in it. It was clean-shaven old Joseph G. -Clark, who was not disturbed, in so much as the parting of one hair, by -all the adverse criticism of him which had filled column upon column of -the daily press for the past few days. “The rector has never, in the -history of Market Square Church, been given the control of its finances. -He has invariably been hired to preach the gospel.” - -Sargent, Cunningham, Manning, and even Van Ploon, looked at Clark in -surprise. He was not given to open reproof. Chisholm manifested no -astonishment. He sat quietly in his chair, his fingers idly drumming on -the edge of the table, but his mutton-chop beard was pink from the -reddening of the skin beneath. - -“The present rector of Market Square Church means to have a voice in its -deliberations so long as he is the rector!” announced that young man -emphatically, and Jim Sargent looked up at him with a jerk of his head. -The Reverend Smith Boyd was pale this afternoon, but there was a -something shining through his pallor which made the face alive; and the -something was not temper. Rufus Manning, clasping his silvery beard with -a firm grip, smiled encouragingly at the tall young orator. “I have said -that I have, so far as I am concerned, relinquished the building of the -cathedral,” the rector went on. “For this there are two reasons. The -first is that its building will bring us further away from the very -purpose for which the church was founded; the worship of God with an -humble and a contrite heart! I am ready to confess that I found, on -rigid self-analysis, my leading motive in urging the building of the new -cathedral to have been vanity. I am also ready to confess, on behalf of -my congregation and vestry, that their leading motive was vanity!” - -“You have no authority to speak for me,” interrupted Chisholm, his -mutton chops now red. - -“Splendour is no longer the exclusive property of religion,” resumed the -rector, paying no attention to the interruption. “It has lost the -greater part of its effectiveness because splendour has become a mere -adjunct to the daily luxury of our civilisation. The new cathedral would -be only a surrounding in keeping with the gilded boudoirs from which my -lady parishioners step to come to worship; and the ceremony of worship -has become the Sunday substitute, in point of social recognition, for -the week day tea. If I thought, however, that the building of that -cathedral would promote the spread of the gospel in a degree -commensurate with the outlay, I would still be opposed to the erection -of the building; for the money does not belong to us!” - -“Go right on and develop our conscience,” approved Manning, smiling up -at the old walnut-beamed ceiling with its carved cherub brackets. - -“The money belongs to Vedder Court,” declared the rector; “to the -distorted moral cripples which Market Square Church, through the -accident of commerce, has taken under her wing. Gentlemen, in the recent -revelations concerning the vast industrial interests of the world, I -have seen the whole blackness of modern corporate methods; and Market -Square Church is a corporation! Corporations were originally formed for -the purpose of expediting commerce, and it is the mere logic of -opportunity that their progress to rapacity, coercion, and merciless -strangulation of all competition, has been so swift. They have at no -time been swayed by any moral consideration. This fact is so notorious -that it has given rise to the true phrase ‘corporations have no souls.’ -I wish to ask you, in how far the Market Square Church has been swayed, -in its commercial dealings, by moral considerations?” - -He paused, and glanced from man to man of his vestry. Sargent and -Manning, the former of whom knew his plans and the latter of whom had -been waiting for them to mature, smiled at him in perfect accord. -Nicholas Van Ploon sat quite placidly, with his hands folded over his -creaseless vest. Willis Cunningham, stroking his sparse brown Vandyke, -looked uncomfortable, as if he had suddenly been introduced into a rude -brawl; but his eye roved occasionally to Nicholas Van Ploon, who was two -generations ahead of him in the acquisition of wealth, by the brilliant -process of allowing property to increase in valuation. Chisholm glared. - -“You’ll not find any money which is not tainted,” snapped Joseph G. -Clark, who regarded money in a strictly impersonal light. “The very -dollar you have in your pocket may have come direct from a brothel.” - -“Or from Vedder Court,” retorted the rector. “We have brothels there, -though we do not ‘officially’ know it. We have saloons there; we have -gambling rooms there; and, from all these iniquities, Market Square -Church reaps a profit! For the glory of God? I dare you, Joseph G. -Clark, or W. T. Chisholm, to answer me that question in the affirmative! -In Vedder Court there are tenements walled and partitioned with -contagion, poison, with miasmatic air, reeking with disease; and from -the poor who flock into this fetid shelter, because we offer them cheap -rents, Market Square Church takes a profit as great as any distillery -combine! For the glory of God? Out of very shame we can not answer that -question! We have bought and sold with the greed of any conscienceless -individual, and our commodity has been filth and degradation, human -lives and stunted souls! No decent man would conduct the business we do, -for the reason that it would soil his soul as a gentleman; and it is a -shameful thing that a gentleman should have finer ethics than a -Christian church! In the beginning, I was a coward about this matter! It -was because I wished to be rid of our responsibility in Vedder Court -that I first urged the conversion of that property into a cathedral. We -can not rid ourselves of the responsibility of Vedder Court! If it were -possible for a church to be sent to hell, Market Square Church would be -eternally damned if it took this added guilt upon it!” - -“This talk is absurd,” declared Chisholm. “The city has taken Vedder -Court away from us.” - -“Only the property,” quickly corrected Rufus Manning, turning to -Chisholm with sharpness in his deep blue eyes. “If you will remember, I -told you this same thing before Doctor Boyd came to us. I have waited -ever since his arrival for him to develop to this point, and I wish to -announce myself as solidly supporting his views.” - -“Your own will not bear inspection!” charged Clark, turning to Manning -with a scowl. - -“I’ll range up at the judgment seat with you!” flamed Manning. “We’re -both old enough to think about that!” - -Joseph G. Clark jumped to his feet, and, leaning across the table, shook -a thin forefinger at Manning. - -“I have been attacked enough on the point of my moral standing!” he -declared, his high pitched nasal voice quavering with an anger he had -held below the explosive point during the most of his life. “I can stand -the attacks of a sensational press, but when spiteful criticism follows -me into my own vestry, almost in the sacred shadow of the altar itself, -I am compelled to protest! I wish to state to this vestry, once and for -all, that my moral status is above reproach, and that my conduct has -been such as to receive the commendation of my Maker! Because it has -pleased Divine Providence to place in my hands the distribution of the -grain of the fields, I am constantly subject to the attacks of envy and -malice! It has gone so far that I, last night, received from the -Reverend Smith Boyd, a request to resign from this vestry!” He paused in -triumph on that, as if he had made against the Reverend Smith Boyd a -charge of such ghastly infamy that the young rector must shrivel before -his eyes. “I have led a blameless life! I have never smoked nor drank! I -have paid every penny I ever owed and fulfilled every promise I ever -made. I have obeyed the gospel, and partaken of the sacraments, and the -Divine Being has rewarded me abundantly! He has chosen me, because of my -faithful stewardship, to gather the foods of earth from its sources, and -feed it to the mouths of the hungry; and I shall not depart from my -stewardship in this church, because I am here, as I am everywhere, by -the will of God!” - -Perhaps W. T. Chisholm was not shocked by this blasphemy, but the dismay -of it sat on every other face, even on that of Nicholas Van Ploon, who -was compelled to dig deep to find his ethics. - -“You infernal old thief!” wondered Manning, recovering from his -amazement. “Was it Divine Providence which directed you to devise the -scheme whereby the railroads paid you two dollars rebate on every car of -wheat you shipped, and a dollar bonus on every car of wheat your -competitors shipped? I could give you a string of sins as long as the -catechism, and you dare not deny one of them, because I can prove them -on you! And yet you have the effrontery to say that a Divine Providence -would establish you in your monopoly, by such scoundrelly means as you -have risen to become the greatest dispenser of self advertising -charities in the world! You propose to ride into Heaven on your -universities and your libraries, and on the fact that you never smoked -nor drank nor swore nor gambled; but when you come face to face with -this horrible new god you have created, a deity who would permit you to -attain wealth by the vile methods you have used, you will find him with -a pitch-fork in his hands! I am glad that Doctor Boyd, though knowing -your vindictive record, has had bravery enough to demand your -resignation from this vestry! I hope he receives it!” - -Joseph G. Clark had remained standing, and his head shook, as with a -palsy, while he listened to the charge of Manning. He was a very old -man, and it had been quite necessary for him to restrain his passions -throughout his life. - -“You will go first!” he shouted at Manning. “I am impregnable; but you -have no business on this vestry! You can be removed at any time an -examination is ordered, for I have heard you, we have all heard you, -deny the immaculate conception, and thereby the Divinity of Christ, in -whom alone there is salvation!” - -A hush like death fell on the vestry. The Reverend Smith Boyd was the -first to break the ghastly silence. - -“Gentlemen,” said he, “I do not think that we are in a mood to-day for -further discussion. I suggest that we adjourn.” - -His voice seemed to distract the attention of Clark from Manning, at -whom he had been glowering. He turned on the Reverend Smith Boyd the -remainder of the wrath which marked his first break into senility. - -“As for you!” he snarled, “you will keep your fingers out of matters -which do not concern you! You were hired to preach the gospel, and you -will confine your attention to that occupation, preaching just what you -find sanctioned in this book; nothing more, nothing less!” and taking a -small volume which lay on the table, he tossed it in front of the -Reverend Smith Boyd. - -It was the Book of Common Prayer, containing, in the last pages, the -Articles of Faith. - -Clark seized his hat and coat, and strode out of the door, followed by -the red-faced Chisholm, who had also been asked to resign. Nicholas Van -Ploon rose, and shook hands with the Reverend Smith Boyd. - -“Sargent has told me about your plan for the new tenements,” he stated. -“I am in favour of buying the property.” - -“We’ll swing it for you, Boyd,” promised Jim Sargent. “I’ve been talking -with some of the other members, and they seem to favour the idea that -the new Vedder Court will be a great monument. There’ll be no such -magnificent charity in the world, and no such impressive sacrifice as -giving up that cathedral! I think Cunningham will be with us, when it -comes to a vote.” - -“Certainly,” interposed Nicholas Van Ploon. “We don’t need to make any -profit from those tenements. The normal increase in ground value will be -enough.” - -“Yes,” said Cunningham slowly. “I am heartily in favour of the -proposition.” - -“Coming along, Doctor,” invited Manning, going for his coat and hat. - -“No, I think not,” decided the Reverend Smith Boyd quietly. - -He was sitting at the end of the table facing the Good Shepherd, at the -edge of whose robe still sparkled crystalline light, and in his two -hands he thoughtfully held the Book of Common Prayer. - - - - - CHAPTER XXXVI - HAND IN HAND - - -The Reverend Smith Boyd walked slowly out into the dim church, with the -little volume in his hand. The afternoon sun had sunk so low that the -illumination from the stained-glass windows was cut off by the near -buildings, and the patches of ruby and of sapphire, of emerald and of -topaz, glowed now near the tops of the slender columns, or mellowed the -dusky spaces up amid the arches. - -It was hushed and silent there, deserted, and far from the thoughts of -men. The young rector walked slowly up the aisle to a pew in the corner -near the main entrance, and sat down, still with the little Book of -Common Prayer in his hand, and, in the book, the Articles of Religion. -From them alone must he preach; nothing more and nothing less. That was -the duty for which he was hired. His own mind, his own intelligence, the -reason and the spirit and the soul which God had given him were for no -other use than the clever support of the things which were printed here. -And who had formulated these articles? Men; men like himself. They had -made their interpretation in solemn conclave, and had defined the Deity, -and the form in which he must be addressed, as one instructs a servant -in the proper words to use in announcing the arrival of a guest or the -readiness of a dinner. The interpretation made, these men had arrogantly -closed the book, and had said, in effect, this is the way of salvation, -and none other can avail. Unless a man believes what is here set down, -he can in nowise enter the Kingdom of Heaven; and a pure life filled -with good works is for naught. - -The Reverend Smith Boyd had no need to read those Articles of Religion. -He had been over them countless times, and he knew them by heart, from -beginning to end. He had opened wide the credulity of his mind, and had -forced his belief into these channels, so that he might preach the -gospel, not of Christ, but of his church, with a clean conscience. And -he had done so. Whatever doubts there had lurked in him, from that one -period of infidelity in his youth, he had shut off behind a solid wall -over which he would not peer. There were many things behind that wall -which it were better for him not to see, he had told himself, lest, from -among them, some false doctrine may creep up and poison the purity of -his faith. He had thrown himself solidly on faith. Belief implicit and -unfaltering was necessary to the support of the dogmatic theology he -taught, and he gave it that belief; implicit and unfaltering. Reason had -no part in religion or in theology; and for good cause! - -But here had come a condition where reason, like a long suppressed -passion of the body, clamoured insistently to be heard, and would have -its voice, and strode in, and took loud possession. Joseph G. Clark, so -filled with iniquity that he could not see his own sins, so rotted, to -the depths of his soul, that he could twist every violation of moral law -into a virtue, so sunken in the foulness of every possible onslaught -upon mercy and justice and humanity that millions suffered from his -deeds, this man could sit in the vestry of Market Square Church, and -control the destinies of an organisation built ostensibly for the -purpose of saving souls and spreading the gospel of mercy and justice -and humanity, could sit in the seat of the holy, because, with his lips -he could say: “I acknowledge Christ as my Redeemer”! Rufus Manning, -whose life was an open page, whose record was one upon which there was -no blot, who had lived purely, and humanely, and mercifully and -compassionately, who had given freely of his time and of his goods for -the benefit of those who were weak and helpless and needy, who had read -deeply into human hearts, and had comforted them because he was gifted -with a portion of that divine compassion which sent an only begotten Son -to die upon the cross, that through his blood the sins of man might be -washed away, this man could be driven from the vestry of Market Square -Church, itself guilty and stained with sin, because he could not, or -would not say with his lips, “I acknowledge Christ as my Redeemer”! - -Reason made a terrific onslaught against faith at this juncture. -Familiar as he was with the book, the Reverend Smith Boyd turned to the -Articles of Religion. - -“We are accounted righteous before God, only for the merit of our Lord -and Saviour Jesus Christ by Faith, and not for our own works or -deserving.... - -“Works done before the grace of Christ, and the Inspiration of His -Spirit, are not pleasant to God, for as much as they spring not of faith -in Jesus Christ; neither do they make men meet to receive grace, or -deserve grace of congruity: yea, rather, for that they are not done as -God hath willed and commanded them to be done, we doubt not but they -have the nature of sin.” - -There was some discrepancy here between the works and the faith of Clark -and the works and the faith of Manning. The Reverend Smith Boyd made no -doubt that the Great Judge would find little difficulty in -distinguishing between these two men, and in deciding upon their -respective merits; but that was not the point which disturbed the young -rector. It was the attitude of the church towards these men, and the -fact that he must uphold that attitude. It was absurd! The Reverend -Smith Boyd was a devout and earnest and consistent believer, not merely -in the existence of God, but in his greatness and his power and his -glory, his justice and his mercy and his wisdom; but the Reverend Smith -Boyd suddenly made the startling discovery that he was not preaching -God! He was preaching the church and its creed! - -Started, now, he went through the thirty-nine Articles of Religion, one -by one, slowly, thoughtfully, and with a quickened conscience. Reason -knocked at the door of Faith, and entered; but it did not drive out -Faith. They sat side by side, but each gave something to the other. No, -rather, Reason stripped the mask from Faith, tore away the disguising -cloak, and displayed her in all her simple beauty, sweet, and gentle, -and helpful. What was the faith he had been called upon to teach? Faith -in the thirty-nine Articles of Religion! This had been cleverly -substituted by the organisers of an easy profession, for faith in God, -which latter was too simple of comprehension for the purposes of any -organisation. - -For a long time the Reverend Smith Boyd sat in the corner pew, and when -he had closed the book, all that had been behind the wall of his mind -came out, and was sorted into heaps, and the bad discarded and the good -retained. He found a wonderful relief in that. He had lived with a -secret chamber in his heart, hidden even from himself, and now that he -had opened the door, he felt free. Above him, around him, within him, -was the presence of God, infinite, tender, easy of understanding; and -from that God, his God, the one which should walk with him through life -his friend and comforter and counsellor, he stripped every shred of -pretence and worthless form and useless ceremony! - -“I believe in God the Creator; the Maker of my conscience; my Friend and -Father.” The creed of Gail! - -He walked out into the broad centre aisle, now, amid the solemn pews and -the avenue of slender columns, and beneath graceful arches which pointed -heavenward the aspirations of the human soul. Before the altar he paused -and gazed up at the beautiful Henri Dupres crucifix. The soft light from -one of the clerestory windows flooded in on Him, and the compassionate -eyes of the Son of God seemed bent upon the young rector in benign -sympathy. For a moment the rector stood, tall and erect, then he -stretched forth his arms: - -“I know that my Redeemer liveth!” he said, and sank to his knees. - -Two high points he had kept in his faith, points never to be shaken; the -existence of his Creator, his mercy and his love, and the Divinity of -his Son, who died, was crucified and buried, and on the third day arose -to ascend unto Heaven. Reason could not destroy that citadel in a man -born to the necessity of Faith! Man must believe some one thing. If it -was as easy, as he had once set forth, to believe in the biblical -account of the creation of the world as to believe in a pre-existent -chaos, out of which evoluted the spirit of life, and all its marvels of -growing trees and flying birds and reasoning men, it was as easy to go -one step further, and add the Son to the Father and to the Holy Ghost! -Even chaos must have been created! - -Fully satisfied, the Reverend Smith Boyd walked into the vestry, and -wrote his resignation from the rectorship of Market Square Church, for -he could no longer teach, and preach, Faith—in the thirty-nine Articles -of Religion! Within his grasp he had held a position of wealth, of -power, of fame! He scarcely considered their loss; and in the ease with -which he relinquished them, he knew that he was self-absolved from the -charge of using his conscience as a ladder of ambition! If personal -vanity had entered into his desire to build the new cathedral, it had -been incidental, not fundamental. It made him profoundly happy to know -this with positiveness. - -He called up the house of Jim Sargent, and asked for Gail. - -“Come over,” he invited her. “I want to see you very much. I’m in the -church. Come in through the vestry.” - -“All right,” was the cheerful reply. “I’ll be there in a minute.” - -He had been very sly! He was tremendously pleased with himself! He had -kept out of his voice all the longing, and all the exultation, and all -the love! He would not trust even one vibration of his secret to a cold -telephone wire! - -He set the door of the vestry open wide. Within the church, the organist -had conquered that baffling run in the mighty prelude of Bach, and the -great dim spaces up amid the arches were pulsing in ecstasy with the -tremendous harmony. Outside, upon the background of the celestial -strain, there rose a fluttering, a twittering, a cooing. The doves of -spring had returned to the vestry yard. - -Just a moment and Gail appeared, poised in the doorway, with a filmy -pink scarf about her shoulders, a simple frock of delicate grey upon her -slender figure, her brown hair waving about her oval face, a faint flush -upon her cheeks, her brown eyes sparkling, her red lips smiling up at -him. - -He had intended to tell her much, but instead, he folded her in his -arms, and she nestled there, content. For a long, happy moment they -stood, lost to the world of thought; and then she looked up at him, and -laughed. - -“I knew it from your voice,” she said. - -He laughed with her; then he grew grave, but there was the light of a -great happiness in his gravity. - -“I have resigned,” he told her. - -That was a part of what she had known. - -“And not for me!” she exulted. It was not a question. She saw that in -him was no doubt, no quandary, no struggle between faith and disbelief. - -“I see my way clearly,” he smiled down at her; “and there are no thorns -to cut for me. I shall never change.” - -“And we shall walk hand in hand about the greatest work in the world,” -she softly reminded him, and there were tears in her eyes. “But what -work shall that be, Tod?” She looked up at him for guidance, now. - -“To shed into other lives some of the beauty which blossoms in our own,” -he replied, walking with her into the great dim nave, where the shadows -still quivered with the under-echoes of the mighty Bach prelude. “I have -been thinking much of the many things you have said to me,” he told her, -“and particularly of the need, not for a new religion, but for a -re-birth of the old; that same new impulse towards the better and the -higher life which Christ brought into the world. I have been thinking on -the mission of Him, and it was the very mission to the need of which you -have held so firmly. He came to clear away the thorns of creed which had -grown up between the human heart and God! The brambles have grown again. -The time is almost ripe, Gail, for a new quickening of the spirit; for -the Second Coming.” - -She glanced at him, startled. - -“For a new voice in the wilderness,” she wondered. - -“Not yet,” he answered. “We have signs in the hearts of men, for there -is a great awakening of the public conscience throughout the world; but -before the day of harvest arrives, we must have a sign in the sky. No -great spiritual revival has ever swept the world without its attendant -supernatural phenomena, for mysticism is a part of religion, and will be -to the end of time. Reason, by the very nature of itself, realises its -own limitations, and demands something beyond its understanding upon -which to hang its faith. It is the need of faith which distinguishes the -soul from the mind.” - -“A sign,” mused Gail, her eyes aglow with the majesty of the thought. - -“It will come,” he assured her, with the calm prescience of prophecy -itself. “As no great spiritual revival has ever swept the world without -its attendant supernatural phenomena, so no great spiritual revival has -ever swept the world without its concreted symbol which men might wear -upon their breasts. The cross! What shall be its successor? A ball of -fire in the sky? Who knows! If that symbol of man’s spiritual -rejuvenation, of his renewed nearness to God, were, in reality, a ball -of fire, Gail, I would hold it up in the sight of all mankind though it -shrivelled my arm!” - -The thin treble note stole out of the organ loft, pulsing its timid way -among the high, dim arches, as if seeking a lodgment where it might -fasten its tiny thread of harmony, and grow into a song of new glory, -the glory which had been born that day in the two earnest hearts beneath -in the avenue of slender columns. The soft light from one of the -clerestory windows flooded in on the compassionate Son of Man above the -altar. The very air seemed to vibrate with the new inspiration which had -been voiced in the old Market Square Church. Gail gazed up at Smith -Boyd, with the first content her heart had ever known; content in which -there was both earnestness and serenity, to replace all her groping. He -met her gaze with eyes in which there glowed the endless love which it -is beyond the power of speech to tell. There was a moment of ecstasy, of -complete understanding, of the perfect unity which should last -throughout their lives. In that harmony, they walked from the canopy of -dim arches, out through the vestry, and beneath the door above which -perched the two grey doves, cooing. For an instant Gail looked back into -the solemn depths, and a wistfulness came into her eyes. - -“The ball of fire,” she mused. “When shall we see it in the sky?” - - - VAIL-BALLOU CO., BINGHAMTON AND NEW YORK - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES - - - 1. Silently corrected typographical errors and variations in spelling. - 2. Archaic, non-standard, and uncertain spellings retained as printed. - 3. 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You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll -have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using -this ebook. - - - -Title: The Ball of Fire - -Author: George Randolph Chester - Lilian Chester - -Release Date: July 15, 2020 [EBook #62653] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BALL OF FIRE *** - - - - -Produced by Richard Tonsing and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive) - - - - - - -</pre> - - -<div class='tnotes covernote'> - -<p class='c000'><b>Transcriber’s Note:</b></p> - -<p class='c000'>The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.</p> - -</div> - -<div class='section ph1'> - -<div class='lg-container-r c001'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>The Ball of Fire</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -</div> - -<div id='Frontispiece' class='figcenter id001'> -<img src='images/i_frontispiece.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic001'> -<p>For an instant the brown eyes and the blue ones met</p> -</div> -</div> - -<div class='titlepage'> - -<div> - <h1 class='c002'>The Ball of Fire</h1> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c003'> - <div>By</div> - <div><span class='large'>George Randolph Chester</span></div> - <div>and</div> - <div><span class='large'>Lillian Chester</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='figcenter id002'> -<img src='images/i_title.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div>Illustrated</div> - <div class='c003'><span class='large'>Hearst’s International Library Co.</span></div> - <div><span class='large'>New York                      1914</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c001'> - <div>Copyright, 1914, by</div> - <div><span class='sc'>The Red Book Corporation</span></div> - <div class='c004'>Copyright, 1914, by</div> - <div><span class='sc'>Hearst’s International Library Co., Inc.</span></div> - <div class='c004'><i>All Rights reserved, including the translation into foreign languages, including the Scandinavian.</i></div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <h2 class='c005'>CONTENTS</h2> -</div> - -<table class='table0' summary='CONTENTS'> - <tr> - <th class='c006'><span class='small'>CHAPTER</span></th> - <th class='c007'> </th> - <th class='c008'><span class='small'>PAGE</span></th> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>I</td> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>No Place for Sentiment</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_1'>1</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>II</td> - <td class='c007'>“<span class='sc'>Why?</span>”</td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_9'>9</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>III</td> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>The Change in the Rector’s Eyes</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_22'>22</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>IV</td> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>Too Many Men</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_35'>35</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>V</td> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>Edward E. Allison Takes a Vacation</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_47'>47</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>VI</td> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>The Impulsive Young Man From Home</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_59'>59</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>VII</td> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>They Had Already Spoiled Her!</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_70'>70</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>VIII</td> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>Still Piecing Out the World</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_80'>80</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>IX</td> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>The Mine for the Golden Altar</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_88'>88</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>X</td> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>The Storm Center of Magnetic Attraction</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_98'>98</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>XI</td> - <td class='c007'>“<span class='sc'>Gentlemen, There is Your Empire!</span>”</td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_111'>111</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>XII</td> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>Gail Solves the Problem of Vedder Court</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_123'>123</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>XIII</td> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>The Survival of the Fittest</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_135'>135</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>XIV</td> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>The Free and Entirely Uncurbed</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_150'>150</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>XV</td> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>But Why Was She Lonesome?</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_158'>158</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>XVI</td> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>Gail at Home</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_167'>167</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>XVII</td> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>Something Happens to Gerald Fosland</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_178'>178</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>XVIII</td> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>The Message from New York</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_187'>187</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>XIX</td> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>The Rector Knows</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_199'>199</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>XX</td> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>The Breed of Gail</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_212'>212</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>XXI</td> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>The Public is Aroused</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_221'>221</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>XXII</td> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>The Rev. Smith Boyd Protests</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_231'>231</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>XXIII</td> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>A Series of Gaieties</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_240'>240</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>XXIV</td> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>The Maker of Maps</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_250'>250</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>XXV</td> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>A Question of Eugenics</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_262'>262</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>XXVI</td> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>An Empire and an Empress</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_271'>271</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>XXVII</td> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>Allison’s Private and Particular Devil</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_281'>281</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>XXVIII</td> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>Love</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_289'>289</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>XXIX</td> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>Gail First!</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_299'>299</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>XXX</td> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>The Flutter of a Sheet of Music</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_309'>309</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>XXXI</td> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>Gail Breaks a Promise</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_315'>315</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>XXXII</td> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>Gerald Fosland Makes a Speech</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_325'>325</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>XXXIII</td> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>Chicken, or Steak?</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_334'>334</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>XXXIV</td> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>A Matter of Conscience</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_344'>344</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>XXXV</td> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>A Vestry Meeting</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_353'>353</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>XXXVI</td> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>Hand in Hand</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_362'>362</a></td> - </tr> -</table> - -<div class='chapter'> - <h2 class='c005'>ILLUSTRATIONS</h2> -</div> - -<table class='table0' summary='ILLUSTRATIONS'> - <tr> - <td class='c009'>For an instant the brown eyes and the blue ones met</td> - <td class='c010'><i><a href='#Frontispiece'>Frontispiece</a></i></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <th class='c009'></th> - <th class='c010'>FACING PAGE</th> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c009'>At 7:15 Ephraim found him at the end of the table in the midst of some neat and intricate tabulations</td> - <td class='c010'><a href='#fp_051'>51</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c009'>She was glad to be alone, to rescue herself from the whirl of anger and indignation and humiliation which had swept around her</td> - <td class='c010'><a href='#fp_109'>109</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c009'>She telephoned that she was going to remain with Allison; and they enjoyed a two hour chat of many things</td> - <td class='c010'><a href='#fp_278'>278</a></td> - </tr> -</table> - -<div class='section ph1'> - -<div class='lg-container-r c001'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>The Ball of Fire</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_1'>1</span> - <h2 class='c005'>CHAPTER I<br /> <span class='small'>NO PLACE FOR SENTIMENT</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_0_6 c011'>Silence pervaded the dim old aisles of Market -Square Church; a silence which seemed to be palpable; -a solemn hush which wavered, like the ghostly -echoes of anthems long forgotten, among the slender -columns and the high arches and the delicate tracery -of the groining; the winter sun, streaming through the -clerestory windows, cast, on the floor and on the vacant -benches, patches of ruby and of sapphire, of emerald -and of topaz, these seeming only to accentuate the dimness -and the silence.</p> - -<p class='c012'>A thin, wavering, treble note, so delicate that it -seemed like a mere invisible cobweb of a tone, stole out -of the organ loft and went pulsing up amid the dim -arches. It grew in volume; it added a diapason; a -deep, soft bass joined it, and then, subdued, but throbbing -with the passion of a lost soul, it swelled into one -of the noble preludes of Bach. The organ rose in a -mighty crescendo to a peal which shook the very edifice; -then it stopped with an abruptness which was -uncanny, so much so that the silence which ensued was -oppressive. In that silence the vestry door creaked, -it opened wide, and it was as if a vision had suddenly -been set there! Framed in the dark doorway against -<span class='pageno' id='Page_2'>2</span>the background of the sun-flooded vestry, bathed in -the golden light from the transept window, brown-haired, -brown-eyed, rosy-cheeked, stood a girl who -might have been one of the slender stained-glass virgins -come to life, the golden light flaming the edges -of her hair into an oriole. She stood timidly, peering -into the dimness, and on her beautifully curved lips -was a half questioning smile.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Uncle Jim,” she called, and there was some quality -in her low voice which was strangely attractive; and -disturbing.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“By George, Gail, I forgot that you were to come -for me!” said Jim Sargent, rising from amid the group -of men in the dim transept. “The decorators drove -us out of the vestry.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“They drove me out, too,” laughed the vision, stepping -from her frame.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“We are delighted that they drove you in here,” -quoth the tall, young Reverend Smith Boyd, who had -accomplished the rare art of bowing gracefully in a -Prince Albert.</p> - -<p class='c012'>She smiled her acknowledgment of the compliment, -and glanced uncertainly at the awe-inspiring vestry -meeting, then she turned toward the door.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“My niece, Miss Gail Sargent, gentlemen,” announced -Jim Sargent, with entirely justifiable pride, -and, beaming until his bald spot seemed to glow with -an added shine, he introduced her to each of the gentlemen -present, with the exception of Smith Boyd, whom -she had met that morning.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“What a pity Saint Paul didn’t see you,” remarked -silver-bearded Rufus Manning, calmly appropriating -the vision and ushering her into the pew between himself -and her uncle. “He never would have said it.”</p> - -<p class='c012'><span class='pageno' id='Page_3'>3</span>“That women should not sit in council with the -men?” she laughed, looking into the blue eyes of patriarchal -Manning. “Are you sure I won’t be in the -way?”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Not at all,” round-headed old Nicholas Van Ploon -immediately assured her. He had popped his eyes -open with a jerk at the entrance of Gail, and had not -since been able to close them to their normal almond -shape. He sat now uncomfortably twisted so that he -could face her, and his cheeks were reddening with the -exertion, which had wrinkled his roundly filled vest. -The young rector contemplated her gravely. He was -not quite pleased.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“We’ll be through in a few minutes, Gail,” promised -Jim Sargent. “Allison, you were about to prove something -to us, I think,” and he leaned forward to smile -across Gail at Rufus Manning.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Prove is the right word,” agreed the stockily built -man who had evidently been addressing the vestry. -He was acutely conscious of the presence of Gail, as -they all were. “Your rector suggests that this is a -matter of sentiment. You are anxious to have fifty -million dollars to begin the erection of a cathedral; -but I came here to talk business, and that only. Granting -you the full normal appreciation of your Vedder -Court property, and the normal increase of your aggregate -rentals, you can not have, at the end of ten -years, a penny over forty-two millions. I am prepared -to offer you, in cash, a sum which will, at three and a -half per cent., and in ten years, produce that exact -amount. To this I add two million.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“How much did you allow for increase in the value -of the property?” asked Nicholas Van Ploon, whose -only knowledge for several generations had been centred -<span class='pageno' id='Page_4'>4</span>on this one question. The original Van Ploon had -bought a vast tract of Manhattan for a dollar an acre, -and, by that stroke of towering genius, had placed the -family of Van Ploon, for all eternity, beyond the necessity -of thought.</p> - -<p class='c012'>For answer, Allison passed him the envelope upon -which he had been figuring, checking off an item as he -did so. He noticed that Gail’s lips twitched with suppressed -mirth. She turned abruptly to look back at -the striking transept window, and the three vestrymen -in the rear pew immediately sat straighter. Willis Cunningham, -who was a bachelor, hastily smoothed his Vandyke. -He was so rich, by inheritance, that money -meant nothing to him.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Not enough,” grunted Van Ploon, handing back -the envelope, and twisting again in the general direction -of Gail.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Ample,” retorted Allison. “You can’t count anything -for the buildings. While I don’t deny that they -yield the richest income of any property in the city, -they are the most decrepit tenements in New York. -They’ll fall down in less than ten years. You have -them propped up now.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Jim Sargent glanced solicitously at Gail, but she did -not seem to be bored; not a particle!</p> - -<p class='c012'>“They are passed by the building inspector annually,” -pompously stated W. T. Chisholm, his mutton -chops turning pink from the reddening of the skin beneath. -He had spent a lifetime in resenting indignities -before they reached him.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Building inspectors change,” insinuated Allison. -“Politics is very uncertain.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Four indignant vestrymen jerked forward to answer -that insult.</p> - -<p class='c012'><span class='pageno' id='Page_5'>5</span>“Gentlemen, this is a vestry meeting,” sternly reproved -the Reverend Smith Boyd, advancing a step, -and seeming to feel the need of a gavel. His rich, deep -baritone explained why he was rector of the richest -church in the world.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Gail’s eyes were dancing, but otherwise she was demureness -itself as she studied, in turns, the members -of the richest vestry in the world. She estimated that -eight of the gentlemen then present were almost close -enough to the anger line to swear. They numbered -just eight, and they were most interesting! And <i>this</i> -was a vestry meeting!</p> - -<p class='c012'>“The topic of debate was money, I believe,” suggested -Manning, rescuing his sense of humour from -somewhere in his beard. He was the infidel member. -“Suppose we return to it. Is Allison’s offer worth -considering?”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Why?” inquired the nasal voice of clean-shaven -old Joseph G. Clark, who was sarcastic in money matters. -The Standard Cereal Company had attained its -colossal dimensions through rebates; and he had invented -the device! “The only reason we’d sell to Allison -would be that we could get more money than by -the normal return from our investment.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>The thinly spun treble note began once more, pulsing -its timid way among the high, dim arches, as if seeking -a lodgment where it might fasten its tiny thread of -harmony, and grow into a masterful composition. A -little old lady came slowly down the centre aisle of the -nave, in rich but modest black, struggling, against her -infirmities, to walk with a trace of the erect gracefulness -of her bygone youth. Gail, listening raptly to the -delicately increasing throb of the music, followed, in -abstraction, the slow progress of the little old lady, who -<span class='pageno' id='Page_6'>6</span>seemed to carry with her, for just a moment, a trace -of the solemn hush belonging to that perspective of -slender columns which spread their gracefully pointed -arches up into the groined twilight, where the music -hovered until it could gather strength to burst into -full song. The little old lady turned her gaze for an -instant to the group in the transept, and subconsciously -gave the folds of her veil a touch; then she -slipped into her pew, down near the altar, and raised -her eyes to the exquisite Henri Dupres crucifix. She -knelt, and bowed her forehead on her hands.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I’ve allowed two million for the profit of Market -Square Church in dealing with me,” stated Allison, -again proffering the envelope which no one made a -move to take. “I will not pay a dollar more.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>W. T. Chisholm was suddenly reminded that the vestry -had a moral obligation in the matter under discussion. -He was president of the Majestic Trust Company, -and never forgot that fact.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“To what use would you devote the property of Market -Square Church?” he gravely asked.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“The erection of a terminal station for all the municipal -transportation in New York,” answered Allison; -“subways, elevateds, surface cars, traction lines! The -proposition should have the hearty co-operation of -every citizen.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Simple little idea, wasn’t it? Gail had to think successively -to comprehend what a stupendous enterprise -this was; and the man talked about it as modestly as -if he were planning to sod a lawn; more so! Why, back -home, if a man dreamed a dream so vast as that, he -just talked about it for the rest of his life; and they -put a poet’s wreath on his tombstone.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Now you’re talking sentiment,” retorted stubby-moustached -<span class='pageno' id='Page_7'>7</span>Jim Sargent. “You said, a while ago, that -you came here strictly on business. So did we. This -is no place for sentiment.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Rufus Manning, with the tip of his silvery beard in -his fingers, looked up into the delicate groining of the -apse, where it curved gracefully forward over the head -of the famous Henri Dupres crucifix, and he grinned. -Gail Sargent was looking contemplatively from one to -the other of the grave vestrymen.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“You’re right,” conceded Allison curtly. “Suppose -you fellows talk it over by yourselves, and let me know -your best offer.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Very well,” assented Jim Sargent, with an indifference -which did not seem to be assumed. “We have -some other matters to discuss, and we may as well -thrash this thing out right now. We’ll let you know -to-morrow.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Gail looked at her watch and rose energetically.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I shall be late at Lucile’s, Uncle Jim. I don’t think -I can wait for you.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I’m sorry,” regretted Sargent. “I don’t like to -have you drive around alone.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I’ll be very happy to take Miss Sargent anywhere -she’d like to go,” offered Allison, almost instantaneously.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Much obliged, Allison,” accepted Sargent heartily; -“that is, if she’ll go with you.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Thank you,” said Gail simply, as she stepped out -of the pew.</p> - -<p class='c012'>The gentlemen of the vestry rose as one man. Old -Nicholas Van Ploon even attempted to stand gracefully -on one leg, while his vest bulged over the back of the -pew in front of him.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I think we’ll have to make you a permanent member -<span class='pageno' id='Page_8'>8</span>of the vestry,” smiled Manning, the patriarch, as he -bowed his adieus. “We’ve been needing a brightening -influence for some time.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Willis Cunningham, the thoughtful one, wedged his -Vandyke between the heads of Standard Cereal Clark -and Banker Chisholm.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“We hope to see you often, Miss Sargent,” was his -thoughtful remark.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I mean to attend services,” returned Gail graciously, -looking up into the organ loft, where the organist was -making his third attempt at that baffling run in the -Bach prelude.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“You haven’t said how you like our famous old -church,” suggested the Reverend Smith Boyd with -pleasant ease, though he felt relieved that she was going.</p> - -<p class='c012'>The sudden snap in Gail’s eyes fairly scintillated. -It was like the shattering of fine glass in the sunlight.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“It seems to be a remarkably lucrative enterprise,” -she smiled up at him, and was rewarded by a snort from -Uncle Jim and a chuckle from silvery-bearded Rufus -Manning. Allison frankly guffawed. The balance of -the sedate vestry was struck dumb by the impertinence.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Gail felt the eyes of the Reverend Smith Boyd fixed -steadily on her, and turned to meet them. They were -cold. She had thought them blue; but now they were -green! She stared back into them for a moment, and -a little red spot came into the delicate tint of her oval -cheeks; then she turned deliberately to the marvellously -beautiful big transept window. It had been designed -by the most famous stained-glass artist in the world, -and its subject lent itself to a wealth of colour. It was -Christ turning the money changers out of the temple!</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_9'>9</span> - <h2 class='c005'>CHAPTER II<br /> <span class='small'>“WHY?”</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_0_6 c011'>“Snow!” exclaimed Gail in delight, turning up -her face to the delicate flakes. “And the sun -shining. That means snow to-morrow!”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Allison helped her into his big, piratical looking runabout, -and tucked her in as if she were some fragile -hot-house plant which might freeze with the first cool -draught. He looked, with keen appreciation, at her -fresh cheeks and sparkling eyes and softly waving hair. -He had never given himself much time for women, but -this girl was a distinct individual. It was not her -undeniable beauty which he found so attractive. He -had met many beautiful women. Nor was it charm of -manner, nor the thing called personal magnetism, nor -the intelligence which gleamed from her eyes. It was -something intangible and baffling which had chained -his interest from the moment she had appeared in the -vestry doorway, and since he was a man who had never -admitted the existence of mysteries, his own perplexity -puzzled him.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“The pretty white snow is no friend of mine,” -he assured her, as he took the wheel and headed towards -the Avenue. He looked calculatingly into the sky. -“This particular downfall is likely to cost the Municipal -Transportation Company several thousand dollars.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I’m curious to know the commercial value of a sunset -<span class='pageno' id='Page_10'>10</span>in New York,” Gail smiled up at him. Her eyes -closed for a swift instant, her long, brown lashes curving -down on her cheeks, but beneath them was an infinitesimal -gleam; and Allison had the impression that -under the cover of her exquisitely veined lids she was -looking at him corner-wise, and having a great deal -of fun all by herself.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“We haven’t capitalised sunsets yet, but we have -hopes,” he laughed.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Then there’s still a commercial opportunity,” she -lightly returned. “I feel quite friendly to money, but -it’s so intimate here. I’ve heard nothing else since I -came, on Monday.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Even in church,” he chuckled. “You delivered a -reckless shock to the Reverend Smith Boyd’s vestry.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Well?” she demanded. “Didn’t he ask my opinion?”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I don’t think he’ll make the mistake again,” and -Allison took the corner into the Avenue at a speed -which made Gail, unused to bare inches of leeway, class -Allison as a demon driver. The tall traffic policeman -around whose upraised arm they had circled smiled a -frank tribute to her beauty, and she felt relieved. She -had cherished some feeling that they should be arrested.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“However, even a church must discuss money,” went -on Allison, as if he had just decided a problem to which -he had given weighty thought.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Fifty millions isn’t mere money,” retorted Gail; -“it’s criminal wealth. If no man can make a million -dollars honestly, how can a church?”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Allison swerved out into the centre of the Avenue and -passed a red limousine before he answered. He had -noticed that everybody in the street stared into his car, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_11'>11</span>and it flattered him immensely to have so pretty a girl -with him.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“The wealth of Market Square Church is natural -and normal,” he explained. “It arises partly from the -increase in value of property which was donated when -practically worthless. Judicious investment is responsible -for the balance.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Oh, bother!” and Gail glanced at him impatiently. -“Your natural impulse is to defend wealth because it is -wealth; but you know that Market Square Church never -should have had a surplus to invest. The money should -have been spent in charity. Why are they saving it?”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Allison began to feel the same respect for Gail’s mental -processes which he would for a man’s, though, when -he looked at her with this thought in mind, she was so -thoroughly feminine that she puzzled him more than -ever.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Market Square Church has an ambition worthy of -its vestry,” he informed her, bringing his runabout to -rest, with a swift glide, just an accurate three inches -behind the taxi in front of them. “When it has fifty -million dollars, it proposes to start building the most -magnificent cathedral on American soil.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Gail watched the up-town traffic piling around them, -wedging them in, packing them tightly on all sides, and -felt that they must be hours in extricating themselves -from this tangle of shining-bodied vehicles. The skies -had turned grey by now, and the snow was thicker in -the air. The flakes drove, with a cool, refreshing snap, -into her face.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Why?” she pondered. “Will a fifty million dollar -cathedral save souls in proportion to the amount of -money invested?”</p> - -<p class='c012'><span class='pageno' id='Page_12'>12</span>Allison enjoyed that query thoroughly.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“You must ask the Reverend Smith Boyd,” he -chuckled. “You talk like a heathen!”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I am,” she calmly avowed. “I’ve been a heathen -ever since a certain respectable old religious body -dropped the theory of infant damnation from its creed. -Its body of elders decided to save the souls of unbaptised -babies from everlasting hell-fire; and the anti-damnation -wing won by three grey-whiskered votes.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Proper ladies in the nearby cars stared with haughty -disapproval at Allison, whose degree of appreciation -necessitated a howl. Gail, however, did not join in the -mirth. That telltale red spot had appeared in the delicate -pink of her checks. She was still angry with the -man-made creed which had taught a belief so horrible. -The traffic blockade was lifted, and Allison’s clutch -slammed. The whole mass of vehicles moved forwards, -and in two blocks up the Avenue they had scattered like -chaff. Allison darted into an opening between two -cars, his runabout skidded, and missed a little electric -by a hair’s breadth. He had no personal interest in -religion, but he had in Gail.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“So you turned infidel.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Oh no,” returned Gail gravely, and with a new tone. -“I pray every morning and every night, and God hears -me.” The note of reverence in her voice was a thing -to which Allison gave instant respect. “I have no -quarrel with religion, only with theology. I attend -church because its spiritual influence has survived in -spite of outgrown rites. I take part in the services, -though I will not repeat the creed. Why, Mr. Allison, -I love the church, and the most notable man in the future -history of the world will be the man who saves it -from dead dogma.” Her eyes were glowing, the same -<span class='pageno' id='Page_13'>13</span>eyes which had closed in satirical mischief. Now they -were rapt. “What a stunning collie!” she suddenly -exclaimed.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Allison, who had followed her with admiring attention, -his mind accompanying hers in eager leaps, -laughed in relief. After all, she was a girl—and what -a girl! The exhilaration of the drive, and of the snow -beating in her face, and of the animated conversation, -had set the clear skin of her face aglow with colour. -Her deep red lips, exquisitely curved and half parted, -displayed a row of dazzling white teeth, and the elbow -which touched his was magnetic. Allison refused to -believe that he was forty-five!</p> - -<p class='c012'>“You’re fond of collies,” he guessed, surprised to find -himself with an eager interest in the likes and dislikes -of a young girl. It was a new experience.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I adore them!” she enthusiastically declared. -“Back home, I have one of every marking but a pure -white.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>There was something tender and wistful in the tone -of that “back home.” No doubt she had hosts of -friends and admirers there, possibly a favoured suitor. -It was quite likely. A girl such as Gail Sargent could -hardly escape it. If there was a favoured suitor Allison -rather pitied him, for Gail was in the city of strong -men. Busy with an entirely new and strange group -of thoughts, Allison turned into the Park, and Gail uttered -an exclamation of delight as the fresh, keen air -whipped in her face. The snow was like a filmy white -veil against the bare trees, and enough of it had clung, -by now, to outline, with silver pointing, the lacework -of branches. On the turf, still green from the open -winter, it lay in thin white patches, and squirrels, clad -in their sleek winter garments, were already scampering -<span class='pageno' id='Page_14'>14</span>to their beds, crossing the busy drive with the adroitness -of accomplished metropolitan pedestrians, their -bushy tails hopping behind them in ungainly loops.</p> - -<p class='c012'>The pair in the runabout were silent, for the east -drive at this hour was thronged with outward bound -machines, and the roadway was slippery with the new-fallen -snow. Steady of nerve, keen of eye, firm of -hand! Gail watched the alert figure of Allison, tensely -and yet easily motionless, in the seat beside her. The -terrific swiftness of everything impressed her. Every -car was going at top speed, and it seemed that she was -in a constant maze of hair-breadth escapes. By and -by, however, she found another and a greater marvel; -that in all this breathless driving, there was no recklessness. -Capability, that was the word for which she -had been groping. No man could survive here, and rest -his feet upon the under layer, unless he possessed superior -ability, superior will, superior strength. She arrived -at exactly the same phrase Allison had entertained -five minutes before; “the city of strong men!” -Again she turned to the man at her side for a critical -inspection, in this new light. His frame was powerful, -and the square, high forehead, with the bulges of concentration -above the brows, showed his mental equipment -to be equally as rugged. His profile was a crisply -cut silhouette against the wintry grey; straight nose, -full, firm lips, pointed chin, square jaw. He was a -fair example of all this force.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Perhaps feeling the steady gaze, Allison turned to -her suddenly, and for a moment the grey eyes and the -brown ones looked questioningly into each other, then -there leaped from the man to the woman a something -which held her gaze a full second longer than she would -have wished.</p> - -<p class='c012'><span class='pageno' id='Page_15'>15</span>“Air’s great,” he said with a smile.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Glorious!” she agreed. “I don’t want to go in.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Don’t,” he promptly advised her.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“That’s a simple enough solution,” and her laugh, -in the snow-laden air, reminded him, in one of those -queer flashes of memory, of a little string of sleighbells -he had owned as a youngster. “However, I promised -Cousin Lucile.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“We’ll stop at the house long enough to tell her -you’re busy,” suggested Allison, as eager as a boy. He -had been on his way home to dress for a business banquet, -but such affairs came often, and impulsive adventures -like this could be about once in a lifetime with him. -He had played the grubbing game so assiduously that, -while he had advanced, as one of his lieutenants said, -from a street car strap to his present mastership of -traction facilities, he had missed a lot of things on the -way. He was energetic to make up for the loss, however. -He felt quite ready to pour a few gallons of -gasolene into his runabout and go straight on to Boston, -or any other place Gail might suggest; and there -was an exhilaration in his voice which was contagious.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Let’s!” cried Gail, and, with a laugh which he had -discarded with his first business promotion, Allison -threw out another notch of speed, and whirled from -the Seventy-second Street entrance up the Avenue to -the proper turning, and halfway down the block, where -he made a swift but smooth stop, bringing the step -with marvellous accuracy to within an inch of the curb.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Won’t you come in?” invited Gail.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“We’d stay too long,” grinned Allison, entering into -the conspiracy with great fervour.</p> - -<p class='c012'>She flashed at him a smile and ran up the steps. She -<span class='pageno' id='Page_16'>16</span>turned to him again as she waited for the bell to be answered, -and nodded to him with frank comradery.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Time me,” she called, and he jerked out his watch -as she slipped in at the door.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Two vivacious looking young women, one tall and -black-haired and the other petite and blonde, and both -fashionably slender and both pretty, rushed out into -the hall and surrounded her.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“We thought you’d never come,” rattled Lucile -Teasdale, who was the petite blonde, and the daughter -of the sister of the wife of Gail’s Uncle Jim.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Who’s the man?” demanded Mrs. “Arly” Fosland, -with breathless interest.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Where’s my tea?” answered Gail.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“We saw you dash up,” supplemented Lucile. -“We thought it was a fire.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Why doesn’t he come in?” this from Arly, in whom -two years of polite married life had not destroyed an -innocently eager curiosity to inspect eligibles at close -range, for her friends.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Who is he?” insisted Lucile, peeping out of the -hall window.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Edward E. Allison,” primly announced Gail, suppressing -a giggle. “I got him at Uncle Jim’s vestry -meeting. He’s waiting to take me riding in the Park. -Where’s my tea?”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Edward E. Allison!” gasped “Arly” Fosland. -“Why, he’s the richest bachelor in New York, even if -he isn’t a social butterfly,” and she contemplated Gail -in sisterly wonder and admiration. “Good gracious, -child, run!”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Come for the tea to-morrow!” urged Lucile.</p> - -<p class='c012'>They were all three laughing, and the two young -married women were pushing Gail forward. At the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_17'>17</span>door Lucile and Arly separated from her, to peer out -of the two side windows.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“He doesn’t look so old,” speculated Arly; and Lucile -opened the door.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Good-bye, dearie,” and Lucile kissed her cousin in -plain sight of the curb, upon which there was nothing -for that young lady to do but go.</p> - -<p class='c012'>For an instant, Edward E. Allison had a glimpse of -her, in her garnet and turquoise, flanked by a sprightly -vision in blue and another sprightly vision in pink, and -he thought he heard the suppressed sounds of tittering; -then the door closed, and the lace curtains of the -hall windows bulged outward, and Gail came tripping -down the steps.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Two minutes and forty-eight seconds,” called Allison, -putting away his stop watch with one hand and -helping her with the other. He tucked her in more -quickly than at the church, but with equal care, then -he jumped in beside her, and never had he cut so swift -and sure a circle with his sixty horse-power runabout.</p> - -<p class='c012'>They raced up and into the Park, and around the -winding driveways with the light-hearted exhilaration -of children, and if there was in them at that moment -any trace of mature thought, they were neither one -aware of it. They were glad that they were just living, -and moving swiftly in the open air, glad that it -was snowing, glad that the light was beginning to fade, -that there were other vehicles in the Park, that the -world was such a bright and happy place; and they -were quite pleased, too, to be together.</p> - -<p class='c012'>It was still light, though the electric lamps were beginning -to flare up through the thin snow veil, when -they rounded a rocky drive, and came in view of a little -lookout house perched on a hill.</p> - -<p class='c012'><span class='pageno' id='Page_18'>18</span>“Oh!” called Gail, involuntarily putting her hand -on his arm. “I want to go up there!”</p> - -<p class='c012'>The work of Edward E. Allison was well nigh perfection. -He stopped the runabout exactly at the centre -of the pathway, and was out and on Gail’s side of -the car with the agility of a youngster after a robin’s -egg. He helped her to alight, and would have helped -her up the hill with great pleasure, but she was too -nimble and too eager for that, and was in the lookout -house several steps ahead of him.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“It’s glorious,” she said, and her low, melodious -voice thrilled him again with that strange quality he had -noticed when she had first spoken at the vestry meeting.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Below them lay a grey mist, dotted here and there -with haloed lights, which receded in the distance into -tiny yellow blurs, while the nearer lamps were swathed -in swirling snowflakes. Nearby were ghosts of trees -projecting their tops from the misty lake, and out of -what seemed a vast eerie depth came the clang of street -cars, and the rumble of the distant elevated, and the -honks of auto horns, and all the rattle and roar of the -great city, muffled and subdued.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“It’s like being out of the world.” He was astonished -to find in himself the sudden growth of a poetic -spirit, and his voice had in it the modulation which -went with the sentiment.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“This was created,” mused Gail, as if answering an -inner question. “Why should the clumsy minds of men -destroy the simplicity of anything so vast, and good, -and beautiful, as our instinctive belief in the Creator?”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Finding no answer in his experience to this unfathomable -mystery, Edward E. Allison very wisely kept still -and admired the scenery, which consisted of one girl -framed tastefully in a miscellaneous assortment of snowflakes. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_19'>19</span>When he tried to unravel the girl, he found her -a still more fathomless mystery, and gave up the task -in a hurry. After all, she was right there, and that -was enough.</p> - -<p class='c012'>When she was quite finished with the view, she turned -and went down the hill, and Edward Allison nearly -sprained his spinal column in getting just ahead of her -on the steepened narrow path. It was treacherous -walking just there, with the freshly fallen snow on the -shale stones. He was heartily glad that he had -taken this precaution, for, near the bottom of the -hill, one of her tiny French heels slid, and she -might have fallen had it not been for the iron-like arm -which he threw back to support her. For just an instant -she was thrown fairly in his embrace, with his arm -about her waist, and her weight upon his breast; and, -in that instant, the fire which had been smouldering in -him all afternoon burst into flame. With a mighty repression -he resisted the impulse to crush her to him, -and handed her to the equilibrium which she instinctively -sought, though the arm trembled which had been -pressed about her. His heart sang, as he helped her -into the machine, and sprang in beside her. He felt -a savage joy in his strength as he started the car and -felt the wheel under his hard grip. He was young, -younger than he had ever been in his boyhood; strong, -stronger than he had ever been in his youth. What -worlds he might conquer now with this new blood racing -through his veins. It was as if he had been suddenly -thrust into the fires of eternal life, and endowed -with all the vast, irresistible force of creation!</p> - -<p class='c012'>Gail, too, was disturbed. While she had laughed to -cover the embarrassment of her mishap, she had been -quite collected enough to thank Allison for his ready -<span class='pageno' id='Page_20'>20</span>aid; but she had felt the thrill of that tensed arm, and -it had awakened in her mind an entirely new vein of -puzzled conjecture. They were both silent, and busy -with that new world which opens up when any two congenial -personalities meet, as they raced out of the Park, -and over One Hundred and Tenth Street, and up Riverside -Drive, and out Old Broadway. Occasionally they -exchanged bits of spineless repartee, and laughed at it, -but this was only perfunctory, for they had left the -boy and girl back yonder in the park.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Gravity with a man invariably leads him back to the -consideration of his leading joy in life, business; and -the first thing Allison knew he was indulging in quite -a unique weakness, for him; he was bragging! Not -exactly flat-footed; but, with tolerably strong insinuation, -he gave her to understand that the consolidation -of the immense traction interests of New York was -about as tremendous an undertaking as she could comprehend, -and that, having attained so dizzy a summit, -he felt entitled to turn himself to lighter things, to enjoy -life and gaiety and frivolity, to rest, as it were, -upon his laurels.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Gail was amused, as she always was when men of -strong achievement dropped into this weakness to interest -girls. She did appreciate and admire his no -doubt tremendous accomplishment; it was only his -naïvete which amused her, and to save her she could -not resist the wicked little impulse to nettle him. To -his suggestion that he could now lead a merry life because -he was entitled to rest upon his laurels, she had -merely answered “Why?”</p> - -<p class='c012'>He dropped into a silence so dense that the thump -was almost audible, and she was contrite. She had -pricked him deeper than she knew, however. She had -<span class='pageno' id='Page_21'>21</span>not understood how gigantic the man’s ambitions had -been, nor how vain he was of his really marvellous -progress. After all, why should he pause, when he -had such power in him? She did well to speak slightingly -of any achievement made by a man of such proved -ability. New ambitions sprang up in him. The next -time he talked of business with her he would have something -startling under way; something to compel her respect. -The muscles of his jaws knotted. It was like -being dared to climb higher in a swaying tree.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Oh, it’s dark!” suddenly discovered Gail. “Aunty -will be frantic.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“That’s so,” regretfully agreed Allison, who, having -no Aunties of his own, was prone to forget them. -“We’ll stop up at this roadhouse, and you can telephone -her,” and he turned in at the drive where rose -petalled lights gleamed out from the latticed windows -of a low-eaved building. Dozens of autos, parked amid -the snow-sheeted shrubbery, glared at them with big -yellow eyes, and, through the windows, were white cloths -and sparkling glassware, and laughing groups about the -tables, and hurrying waiters. There was music, too, -slow, languorous music!</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Doesn’t it look inviting!” exclaimed Allison, becoming -instantly aware of the pangs of hunger.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“It’s an enchanting place!” agreed Gail enthusiastically.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Allison hesitated a moment.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Tell your aunt we’re dining here,” he suggested.</p> - -<p class='c012'>She laughed aloud.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Wouldn’t it be fun,” she speculated, and Allison -led her in to the phone. She turned to him with a snap -in her eyes at the door of the booth. “It depends on -who answers.”</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_22'>22</span> - <h2 class='c005'>CHAPTER III<br /> <span class='small'>THE CHANGE IN THE RECTOR’S EYES</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_0_6 c011'>The grand privilege of Mrs. Jim Sargent’s happy -life was to worry all she liked. She began with -the rise of the sun, and worried about the silver chest; -whether it had been locked over night. Usually she -slipped downstairs, in the grey of the morning, to see, -and, thus happily started on the day, she worried about -breakfast and luncheon and dinner; and Jim and her -sister and her niece, Lucile; and the servants and the -horses and the flowers; and at nights she lay awake and -heard burglars. Just now, as she sat on the seven -chairs and the four benches of the mahogany panelled -library, amid a wealth of serious-minded sculpture and -painting and rare old prints, she was bathed in a new -ecstasy of painful enjoyment. She was worried about -Gail! It was six-thirty now, and Gail had not yet returned -from Lucile’s.</p> - -<p class='c012'>At irregular intervals, say first two minutes and then -three and a half, and then one, she walked into the -Louis XIV reception parlour, and made up her mind to -have a new jeweller try his hand at the sun-ray clock, -and looked out of the windows to see if Lucile’s car was -arriving. Between times she pursued her favourite literary -diversion; reading the automobile accidents in -the evening papers. She had spent all her later years -in looking for Jim’s name among the list of the maimed!</p> - -<p class='c012'><span class='pageno' id='Page_23'>23</span>Mrs. Helen Davies, dressed for dinner with as much -care as if she had been about to attend one of the unattainable -Mrs. Waverly-Gaites’ annuals, came sweeping -down the marble stairs with the calm aplomb of one -whom nothing can disturb, and, lorgnette in hand, -turned into the library without even a glance into the -floor-length mirror in the hall. Her amber beaded -gown was set perfectly on her fine shoulders, and her -black hair, fashionably streaked with grey, was properly -done, as she was perfectly aware.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I’m so glad you came down, Helen!” breathed Mrs. -Sargent, with a sigh of relief. “I’m so worried!”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Naturally, Grace,” returned her sister Helen, who -was reputed to be gifted in repartee. “One would be, -under the circumstances. What are they?” and she -tapped her chin delicately with the tip of her lorgnette, -as a warning to an insipient yawn. It was no longer -good form to be bored.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Gail!” replied Mrs. Sargent, who was inclined to -dumpiness and a decided contrast to her stately widowed -sister. “She hasn’t come home from Lucile’s!”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Mrs. Helen Davies sat beneath the statue of Minerva -presenting wisdom to the world, and arranged -the folds of her gown to the most graceful advantage.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“You shouldn’t expect her on time, coming from Lucile’s,” -she observed, with a smile of proper pride. She -was immensely fond of her daughter Lucile; but she -preferred to live with her sister. “I have a brilliant -idea, Grace. I’ll telephone,” and without seeming to -exert herself in the least, she glided from her picturesque -high-backed flemish chair, and sat at the library table, -and drew the phone to her, and secured her daughter’s -number.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Hello, Lucile,” she called, in the most friendly of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_24'>24</span>tones. “You’d better send Gail home, before your -Aunt Grace develops wrinkles.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Gail isn’t here,” reported Lucile triumphantly. -“She dropped in, two hours ago, and dropped right -out, without waiting for her tea. You’d never guess -with whom she’s driving! Edward E. Allison! He’s -the richest bachelor in New York!”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Mrs. Helen Davies turned to her anxious sister with -a sparkle in her black eyes.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“It’s all right, Grace,” and then she turned eagerly -to the phone. “Did he come in?”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“They were in too big a rush,” jabbered Lucile excitedly. -“He doesn’t look old at all. Arly and I -watched them drive away. They seemed to be great -chums. Gail got him at Uncle Jim’s vestry. Doesn’t -she look stunning in red!”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Where is she?” interrupted Mrs. Sargent, holding -her thumb.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Out driving,” reported sister Helen. “Have you -sent your invitations for the house-party, Lucile?” and -she discussed that important subject until Mrs. Sargent’s -thumb ached.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“With whom is Gail driving, and where?” asked -sister Grace, anxious for detail.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Mrs. Helen Davies touched all of her fingertips together -in front of her on the library table, and beamed -on Grace.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Don’t worry about Gail,” she smilingly advised. -“She is driving with Edward E. Allison. He is the -richest bachelor in New York, though not socially prominent. -No one has ever been able to interest him. I -predict for Gail a brilliant future,” and she moved over -contentedly to her favourite contrast with Minerva.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Gail would attract any one,” returned Mrs. Sargent -<span class='pageno' id='Page_25'>25</span>complacently, and then a little crease came in her -brow. “I wonder where she met him.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“At the vestry meeting, Lucile said.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Oh,” and Mrs. Sargent’s brow cleared instantly. -“Jim introduced them. I wonder where Jim is!”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I am glad Gail is not definitely engaged,” mused -Mrs. Davies. “I am pleased with her. Young Mr. -Clemmens may seem to be a very brilliant match, back -home, but, with her exceptional advantages, she has -every right to expect to do better.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Again the creases came in Mrs. Sargent’s brow.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I don’t know,” she worried. “Gail has had four -letters in four days from Mr. Clemmens. Of course, -if she genuinely cares for him—”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“But she doesn’t,” Helen comforted herself, figuring -it all out carefully. “A young man who would -write a letter a day, would exert every possible pressure -to secure a promise, before he would let a beautiful -creature like Gail come to New York for the winter; -and the fact that he did not succeed proves, conclusively, -that she has not made up her mind about -him.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>The door opened, and Jim Sargent came in, wiping -the snow from his stubby moustache before he distributed -his customary hearty greetings to the family.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Where’s Gail?” he wanted to know.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Out driving with Edward E. Allison,” answered -both ladies.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Still?” inquired Jim Sargent, and then he laughed. -“She’s a clever girl. Smart as a whip! She nearly -started a riot in the vestry.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Was Willis Cunningham there?” inquired Mrs. -Davies interestedly.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Took me in a corner after the meeting and told -<span class='pageno' id='Page_26'>26</span>me that Gail bore a remarkable resemblance to the -Fratelli Madonna, and might he call.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Mr. Cunningham is one of the men I was anxious -for her to meet,” and Mrs. Davies touched her second -finger, as if she were checking off a list.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“What did Gail do?” wondered Mrs. Sargent.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Jim, crossing to the door, chuckled, and removed his -watch chain from his vest.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Told Boyd that Market Square Church was a good -business proposition.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>The ladies did not share his amusement.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“To the Reverend Boyd!” breathed Mrs. Sargent, -shocked. She considered the Reverend Smith Boyd the -most wonderful young man of his age.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“How undiplomatic,” worried Mrs. Davies. “I -must have a little talk with her about cleverness. It’s -dangerous in a girl.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Not these days,” declared Jim Sargent, who stood -ready to defend Gail, right or wrong, at every angle. -“Allison and Manning enjoyed it immensely.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Oh,” remarked Helen Davies, somewhat mollified. -“And Mr. Cunningham?”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“And what did the Reverend Boyd say?” inquired -Mrs. Sargent, much concerned.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I don’t think he liked it very well,” speculated -Gail’s Uncle Jim. “He’s coming over to-night to discuss -church matters. I’ll have to dress in a hurry,” -and he looked at the watch which he held, with its -chain, in his hand.</p> - -<p class='c012'>The telephone bell rang, and Sargent, who could -not train himself to wait for a servant to sift the messages, -answered it immediately, with his characteristic -explosive-first-syllabled:</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Hello!”</p> - -<p class='c012'><span class='pageno' id='Page_27'>27</span>“Oh, it’s you, Uncle Jim,” called a buoyant voice. -“Mr. Allison and I have found the most enchanting -roadhouse in the world, and we’re going to take dinner -here. It’s all right, isn’t it?”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Certainly,” he replied, equally buoyant. “Enjoy -yourself, Chubsy,” and he hung up the receiver.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“What is it?” asked Mrs. Davies, in a tone distinctly -chill. She had a premonition that Jim Sargent -had done something foolish. He seemed so pleased.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Gail won’t be home,” he announced carelessly, starting -for the stairs. “She’s dining with Allison at some -roadhouse.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Unchaperoned!” gasped Mrs. Davies.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“She’s all right, Helen,” remarked Jim, starting upstairs. -“Allison’s a fine fellow.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“But what will he think of Gail!” protested Helen. -“That sort of unconventionality has gone clear out. -Jim, you’ll have to get back that number!”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Sorry,” regretted Jim. “Can’t do it. Against -the telephone rules,” and he went on upstairs, positively -humming!</p> - -<p class='c012'>The two ladies looked at each other, and sat down in -the valley of the shadows of gloom. There was nothing -to be done! Mrs. Davies, however, was different -from her sister. Grace Sargent was an accomplished -worrier, who could remain numb in the exercise of her -art, but Helen Davies was a woman of action. She -presently called her daughter.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Have you started your dinner, Lucile?” she demanded.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“No, Ted just came home,” reported Lucile. -“What’s the matter?”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Don’t let him take time to dress,” urged her mother. -“You must go right out and chaperon Gail.”</p> - -<p class='c012'><span class='pageno' id='Page_28'>28</span>“Where is she?” Lucile delayed to inquire.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“At some roadhouse, dining with Mr. Allison!”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Well, what do you think of Gail!” exulted Lucile. -“Oh, Arly!” and Mrs. Davies heard the receiver drop -to the end of its line. She heard laughter, and then -the voice of Lucile again. “Mother, she’s with Edward -E. Allison, and they’ll do better without a chaperon. -Besides, mother dear, there’s a million roadhouses. -We’ll come down after dinner. I want to see -her when she returns.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I don’t suppose she could be found, except by accident,” -granted her mother, and gave up the enterprise. -“Times are constantly changing,” she complained -to her sister. “The management of a girl becomes -more difficult every year. So much freedom -makes them disregardful of the aid of their elders in -making a selection.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>It was not until nine o’clock that the ladies expressed -their worry again. At that hour, Ted and Lucile -Teasdale and Arly Fosland came in with the exuberance -of a New Year’s Eve celebration.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“It’s great sleighing to-night,” stated Lucile’s husband, -who was a thin-waisted young man, with a splendid -natural gift for dancing.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“All that’s missing is the bells,” chattered the black-haired -Arly, breaking straight for her favourite big -couch in the library. “The only way to have any -speed in an auto is to go sidewise.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“We’re to get up a skidding match, so I can bet on -our chauffeur,” laughed Lucile, fluffing her blonde ringlets -before the big mirror in the hall. “We slid a complete -circle coming down through the Park, and never -lost a revolution!”</p> - -<p class='c012'><span class='pageno' id='Page_29'>29</span>“I’ve been thinking it must be bad driving,” fretted -Mrs. Sargent. “Gail should be home by now!”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Allison’s a safe driver,” comforted Ted, who liked -to see everybody happy.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Jim Sargent came to the door of the study, in which -he was closeted with the Reverend Smith Boyd. Jim -was practically the young rector’s business guardian.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Hello, folks,” he nodded. “Gail home?”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Not yet,” responded Mrs. Sargent, in whose brow -the creases were becoming fixed.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“It’s hardly time,” estimated Jim, and went back -in the study.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Ted has a new divinity,” boasted the wife of that -agreeable young man.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Had, you mean,” corrected Ted. “She’s deserted -me for a single man.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Is it the Piccadilly widow?” inquired Arly, punching -another pillow under her elbow.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Certainly,” corroborated Ted. “You don’t suppose -I have a new one every day.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“You’re losing your power of fascination then,” retorted -Arly. “Lucile’s still in the running with two -a day.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“She should have her kind by the dozen,” responded -Ted, complacently stroking his glossy moustache.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“The young set takes up some peculiar fads,” mused -Mrs. Davies, with a trace of concern. “I can’t quite -accustom myself to the sanction of flirting.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Neither can I,” agreed Ted. “It takes the fun -out of it.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“The only joy is in boasting about it at home,” -complained Arly Fosland. “I can’t even get Gerald -interested in my affairs, so I’ve dropped them.”</p> - -<p class='c012'><span class='pageno' id='Page_30'>30</span>“Gerald wouldn’t understand a flirtation of his own,” -criticised Ted. “I never saw a man who made such -hard work of belonging to twelve clubs. Arly, how did -you manage to make him see your fatal lure?”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Mother did it,” returned Arly, drowsily absorbing -the grateful warmth of the room.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I don’t think anything is half so dangerous to a -bachelor as a mother,” stated Lucile, with a friendly -smile at Mrs. Davies.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I’m going to start a new fad,” announced Arly, -sitting up and considering the matter; “prudery. -There’s nothing more effective.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“It’s too wicked,” objected Lucile’s mother, and -scored another point for herself. It was a wearing task -to keep up a reputation for repartee.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I’m terribly vexed,” confided Lucile, stopping behind -Ted’s chair, and idly tickling the back of his neck. -“I thought it would be such a brilliant scheme to give -a winter week-end party, but Mrs. Acton is going to -give one at her country place.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Before or after?” demanded Mrs. Davies, with -whom this was a point of the utmost importance.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“A week after,” answered Lucile, “but her invitations -are out. I wish I hadn’t mailed mine. What -can we do to make ours notable?”</p> - -<p class='c012'>That being a matter worth considering, the entire -party, with the exception of Aunt Grace, who was listening -for the doorbell, set their wits and their tongues -to work. Mrs. Helen Davies took a keener interest in it -than any of them. The invitation list was the most -important of all, for it was a long and arduous way to -the heaven of the socially elect, and it took generations -to accomplish the journey. The Murdock girls, Grace -<span class='pageno' id='Page_31'>31</span>and herself, had no great-grandfather. Murdock -Senior had made his money after Murdock Junior was -married, but in time to give the girls a thorough polishing -in an exclusive academy. Thus launched, Helen -had married a man with a great-great-grandfather, but -Grace had married Jim Sargent. Jim was a dear, and -had plenty of money, and was as good a railroader as -Grace’s father, with whom he had been great chums; -but still he was Jim Sargent. Gail’s mother, who had -married Jim’s brother, had seven ancestors, but a -mother’s family name is so often overlooked. Nevertheless, -when Gail came to marry, the maternal ancestry, -all other things being favourable, might even secure -her an invitation to Mrs. Waverly-Gaites’ annual! -Reaching this point in her circle of speculation, Mrs. -Helen Davies came back to her starting place, and -looked at the library clock with a shock. Ten; and -the girl was not yet home!</p> - -<p class='c012'>The Reverend Smith Boyd came out of the study -with his most active vestryman, and joined the circle -of waiting ones. He was a pleasant addition to the -party, for, in spite of belonging to the clergy, he was able -to conduct himself, in Rome, in a quite acceptable -Roman fashion. Pleasant as he was, they wished he -would go home, because it was not convenient to worry -in his company; and by this time Lucile herself was beginning -to watch the clock with some anxiety. Only -Mrs. Sargent felt no restraint. An automobile honked -at the door as if it were stopping, and she half arose; -then the same honk sounded half way down the block, -and she sat down again.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I’m so worried about Gail!” she stated, holding her -thumb.</p> - -<p class='c012'><span class='pageno' id='Page_32'>32</span>“We all are,” supplemented Mrs. Davies quickly. -“She has been dining with a party of friends, and the -streets are so slippery.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I should judge Mr. Allison to be a very capable -driver,” said the Reverend Smith Boyd; and the ladies -glared at Jim. “I envy them their drive on a night -like this. I wonder if there will be good coasting.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Fine,” judged Jim Sargent, looking out of the -window toward the adjoining rectory. “That first -snow was wet and it froze. Now there’s a good inch -on top of it, and, at this rate, there should be three by -morning. A little thaw, and another freeze, and a little -more snow to-morrow, and I’ll be tempted to make -a bob-sled.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I’ll help you,” offered the Reverend Smith Boyd, -with a glow of pleasure in his particularly fine eyes. -“I used to have a twelve seated bob-sled, which never -started down the hill with less than fifteen.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I never rode on one,” complained Arly. “I think -I’m due for a bob-sled party.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“You’re invited,” Lucile promptly told her. “Uncle -Jim, you and Dr. Boyd will have to hunt up your hammer -and saw.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I’ll start right to work,” offered the young rector, -with the alacrity which had made him a favourite.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“If the snow holds, we’ll go over into the Jersey -hills, and slide,” promised Sargent with enthusiasm. -“I’ll give the party.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I seem to anticipate a pleasant evening,” considered -Ted Teasdale, whose athletics were confined entirely -to dancing. “We’ll ride down hill on the sleds, -and up hill in the machines.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“That’s barred,” immediately protested Jim. “The -<span class='pageno' id='Page_33'>33</span>boys have to pull the girls up hill. Isn’t that right, -Boyd?”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“It was correct form when I was a boy,” returned -the rector, with a laugh. He held his muscular hands -out before him as if he could still feel the cut of the -rope in his palms. He squared his big shoulders, and -breathed deeply, in memory of those health-giving days. -There was a flush in his cheeks, and his eyes, which -were sometimes green, glowed with a decided blue. Arlene -Fosland, looking lazily across at him, from the -comfortable nest which she had not quitted all evening, -decided that it was a shame that he had been -cramped into the ministry.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“There’s Gail!” cried Mrs. Sargent, jumping to her -feet and running into the hall, before the butler could -come in answer to the bell. She opened the door, and -was immediately kissed, then Gail came back into the -library without stopping to remove her furs. She was -followed by Allison, and she carried something inside -her coat. Her cheeks were rosy, from the crisp air, -and the snow sparkled on her brown hair like tiny diamonds.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“We’ve been buying a dog!” she breathlessly explained, -and, opening her coat, she produced an animated -teddy bear, with two black eyes and one black -pointed nose protruding from a puff ball of pure white. -She set it on the floor, where it waddled uncertainly in -three directions, and finally curled between the Reverend -Smith Boyd’s feet.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“A collie!” and the Reverend Smith Boyd picked up -the warm infant for an admiring inspection. “It’s -a beautiful puppy.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Isn’t it a dear!” exclaimed Gail, taking it away -<span class='pageno' id='Page_34'>34</span>from him, and favouring him with a smile. She -whisked the fluffy little ball over to her Aunt Grace, -and left it in that lady’s lap, while she threw off her -furs.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Where could you buy a dog at this hour?” inquired -Mrs. Davies, glancing at the clock, which stood -now at the accusing hour of a quarter of eleven.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“We woke up the kennel man,” laughed Gail, turning, -with a sparkling glance, to Allison, who was being -introduced ceremoniously to the ladies by Uncle Jim. -“We had a perfectly glorious evening! We dined at -Roseleaf Inn, entirely surrounded by hectic lights, -then we drove five miles into the country and bought -Flakes. We came home so fast that Mr. Allison almost -had to hold me in.” She turned, laughing, to find -the eyes of the Reverend Smith Boyd fixed on her in -cold disapproval. They were no longer blue!</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_35'>35</span> - <h2 class='c005'>CHAPTER IV<br /> <span class='small'>TOO MANY MEN</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_0_6 c011'>“A conscience must be a nuisance to a rector,” -sympathised Gail Sargent, as she walked up the -hill beside the Reverend Smith Boyd.</p> - -<p class='c012'>The tall, young rector shifted the thin rope of the -sled to his other hand.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Epigrams are usually more clever than true,” he -finally responded, with a twinkle in his eyes. It had -been in his mind to sharply defend that charge, but he -reflected that it was unwise to assume the speech worth -serious consideration. Moreover, he had come to this -toboggan party for healthful physical exercise!</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Then you’re guilty of an epigram,” retorted Gail, -who was annoyed with the Reverend Smith Boyd without -quite knowing why. “You can’t believe all you are -compelled, as a minister, to say.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“That,” returned the Reverend Smith Boyd coldly, -“is a matter of interpretation.” He commended himself -for his patience, as he proceeded to instruct this -mistaken young person. She was a lovable girl, -in spite of the many things he found in her of -which to disapprove. “The eye of the needle through -which the camel was supposed not to be able to pass, -was, in reality, a narrow city gate called the Needle’s -Eye.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Gail looked at him with that little smile at the corners -of her red lips, eyelids down, curved lashes on -<span class='pageno' id='Page_36'>36</span>her cheeks, and beneath the lashes a sparkle brighter -than the moonlight on the snow crystals in the adjoining -field.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“It seems to me there was something about wealth -in that metaphor,” she observed, her round eyes flashing -open as she smiled up at him. “If it was so difficult -even in those days for a rich man to enter the -Kingdom of Heaven, how can a rich church hope to -enter the spirit of the gospel?”</p> - -<p class='c012'>The Reverend Smith Boyd hastily, and almost -roughly, drew her aside, as a long, low bob-sled, accompanied -by appropriate screams, came streaking down -the hill, and passed them. They both turned and followed -its progress down the narrowing white road, -to where it curved away in a silver line far at the -bottom of a hill. Hills and valleys, and fences and -trees, and even a distant stream were covered with the -fleecy mantle of winter, while high over head in a sky -of blue, hung a round, white moon, which flooded the -country-side with mellow light, and strewed upon -earth’s fresh robe a wealth of countless sparkling gems.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“This is a wonderful sermon,” mused Gail; then she -turned to the rector. She softened toward him, as she -saw that he, too, had partaken of the awe and majesty -of this scene. He stood straight and tall, his splendidly -poised head thrown back, and his gaze resting far -off where the hills cut against the sky in tree-clad scallops.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“It is an inspiration,” he told her, with a tone in his -vibrant voice which she had not heard before; and for -that brief instant these two, between whom there had -seemed some instinctive antagonism, were nearer in -sympathy than either had thought it possible to be. -Then the Reverend Smith Boyd happened to remember -<span class='pageno' id='Page_37'>37</span>something. “The morality or immorality of riches depends -upon its use,” he sonorously stated, as he stepped -out into the road again, dragging his sled behind him, -following the noisy, loitering crowd with the number -two bob-sled. “Market Square Church, which is the -one I suppose you meant in your comparison with the -rich man, intends to devote all the means with which -a kind Providence has blessed it, to the glory of God.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“And the gratification of the billionaire vestry,” she -added, still annoyed with the Reverend Smith Boyd, -though she did not know why.</p> - -<p class='c012'>He turned to her almost savagely.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Have you no sense of reverence?” he demanded.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“For the church, or the creed, or the ministry? Not -a particle!” she heartily assured him. “The church, -as an instrument for good, has practically ceased to -exist. Even charity, the greatest of the three principles -upon which the church was originally founded, -has been taken away from it, because the secular organisations -dispense charity better and more sanely, -and while the object is still alive.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Again the Reverend Smith Boyd drew her out of the -road, almost ungently, and unnecessarily in advance -of need, to permit a thick man to glide leisurely by, on -his stomach on a hand sled. He grinned up at them -from under a stubby moustache, and waved a hand at -them with a vigour which nearly ran him into a ditch; -but a sharp scrape of his toe in the snow, made with a -stab the expertness of which had come back to him -through forty years, brought him into the path again, -and he slid majestically onward, with happy forgetfulness -of the dignity belonging to the president of the -Towando Valley Railroad and a vestryman of Market -Square Church.</p> - -<p class='c012'><span class='pageno' id='Page_38'>38</span>“That used to be lots of fun,” remembered Gail, -looking after her Uncle Jim in envy.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Market Square Church has dispensed millions in -charity,” the rector felt it his duty to inform her, as -they started up the hill again.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“If it’s like our church at home it costs ninety cents -to deliver a dime,” she retorted, bristling anew with -bygone aggravations. “So long as you can deliver -baskets of provisions in person, it is all right, but the -minute you let the money out of your sight it filters -through too many paid hands. I found this out just -before I resigned from our charity committee.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>He looked at her in perplexity. She was so young -and so pretty, so charming in the ermine which framed -her pink face, so gentle of speech and movement, that -her visible self and her incisive mind seemed to be two -different creatures.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Why are you so bitter against the church?” and -his tone was troubled, not so much about what she had -said, but about her.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I didn’t know I was,” she confessed, concerned -about it herself. “All at once I seem to look on it as -an old shoe which should be cast aside. It is so elaborate -to do so little good in the world. Morality is -on the increase, as any page of history will show.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I believe that to be true,” he hastily assured her, -glad to be able to agree with her upon something.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“But it is in spite of the church, not because of it,” -she immediately added. “You can’t say that there is -a tremendous moral influence in a congregation which -numbers eight hundred, and sends less than fifty to -services. The balance show their devotion to Christianity -by a quarterly check.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>The Reverend Smith Boyd felt unfairly hit.</p> - -<p class='c012'><span class='pageno' id='Page_39'>39</span>“That is the sorrow of the church,” he sadly confessed; -“the lukewarmness of its followers.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>She felt a trace of compunction for him; but why -had he gone into the ministry?</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Can you blame them?” she demanded, as much aggrieved -as if she had suffered a personal distress. -“Not so long ago, the governing body of the church -held a convention in which the uppermost thought was -this same lukewarmness. It was felt, and acknowledged, -that the church was losing its personal hold on -its membership, and that something should be done -about it; yet that same body progressed no further in -this problem than to realise that something should be -done about it; and spent hours and hours wrangling -over whether banana wine could be used for the sacrament -in Uganda, where grapes do not grow, and -where every bottle of grape wine carried over the desert -represents the life of a man. Of what value is that to -religion? How do you suppose Christ would have -decided that question?”</p> - -<p class='c012'>The rector flushed as if he had been struck, and he -turned to Gail with that cold look in his green eyes.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“That is too deep a subject to discuss here, but -if you will permit me, I will take it up with you at the -house,” he quietly returned, and there was a dogged -compulsion in his tone.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I shall be highly interested in the defence,” accepted -Gail, with an aggravating smile.</p> - -<p class='c012'>There seemed to be but very little to say after that, -and they walked silently up the hill together towards -the yellow camp fire, fuming inwardly at each other. -Near the top of the hill, her ermine scarf came loose at -the throat, and, with her numbed hands, she could not -locate the little clasp with which it had been held.</p> - -<p class='c012'><span class='pageno' id='Page_40'>40</span>“May I help you?” offered the rector, constraining -himself to politeness.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Thank you.” She was extremely sweet about it, -and he reached up to perform the courtesy. The -rounded column of her neck was white as marble in the -moonlight, and, as he sought the clasps, his fingers, -drawn from his woollen gloves, touched her warm throat, -and they tingled. He started as if he had received an -electric shock, and, as he looked into her eyes, a purple -mist seemed to spring between them. He mechanically -fastened the clasps, though his fingers trembled. -“Thank you,” again said Gail, and he did not notice -that her voice was unusually low. She went on over -to the group gathered around the fire, but the Reverend -Smith Boyd stood where she had left him, -staring stupidly at the ground. He was in a whirl of -bewilderment, amid which there was some unreasoning -resentment, but beneath it all there was an inexplicable -sadness.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Just in time for the Palisade Special, Gail,” called -Lucile Teasdale.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I don’t know,” laughed Gail. “I think of going -on a private car this trip,” and she sought among the -group for distraction from certain oppressive thought. -Allison, and Lucile and Ted and Arly, were among the -more familiar figures; besides were a cherub-cheeked -young lady in a bear skin, to whom Ted Teasdale was -pretending to pay assiduous attention; and the -thoughtful Willis Cunningham; and Houston Van -Ploon, who was a ruddy-faced young fellow with an -English moustache, and a perpetual air of having just -come from his tailor’s; and a startling Adonis, with -pink cheeks and a shining black goatee and a curly -moustache, and large, round, black eyes, which were -<span class='pageno' id='Page_41'>41</span>deep, and full of almost anything one might wish to -put into them. This astoundingly fascinating gentleman -had been proudly introduced as Dick Rodley, by -Arlene, early in the evening, with an air which plainly -stated that he was a personal discovery for which she -gave herself great credit. At present, however, he -was warming the slender white hands of Lucile Teasdale. -Now he sprang up and came towards Gail.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“The Palisade Special will not start without Miss -Sargent,” he declared, bending upon her an ardent -gaze, and bestowing upon her a smile which displayed -a flash of perfect white teeth.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Gail breathlessly thought him the most dangerously -handsome thing she had ever seen, but she missed the -foreign accent in him. That would have made him -complete.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I’m sorry that the Palisade Special will be delayed,” -she coolly told him, but she tempered the deliberateness -of that decision with an upward and sidelong -glance, which she was startled to recognise in herself -as distinct coquetry. She concluded, however, on -reflection, that this was only a just meed which no one -could withhold from this resplendent creature.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“You haven’t the heart to refuse,” protested handsome -Dick, coming nearer, and again smiling down at -her.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I have a prior claim,” laughed Allison, stepping -up and taking her by the arm. “It’s my turn to guide -Miss Sargent on the two-passenger sled.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>There was something new about Allison to-night. -There was the thrill and the exultation of youth in his -voice, and twenty years seemed to have been dropped -from his age. There was an intensity about him, too, -and also a proprietor-like compulsion, which decided -<span class='pageno' id='Page_42'>42</span>Gail on a certain diversion she had entertained. She -was oppressed with men to-night. The world was full -of them, and they had closed too nearly around her.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Suddenly she broke away with a laugh, and, taking -the two-passenger sled from Smith Boyd, who still -stood in preoccupation at the edge of the group, she -picked it up and ran with it, and threw herself face -forward on it, as she had done when she was a kiddy, -and shot down the hill, to the intense disapproval of -the Reverend Boyd! Dick Rodley, ever alert in his -chosen profession, grabbed a light steel racer from -the edge of the bank, and, with a magnificent run, -slapped himself on the sled, and darted in pursuit! -The rector’s lip curled the barest trace at one corner, -but Edward E. Allison, looking down the hill, -grinned, and lit a cigar.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Ted Teasdale, come right over here,” ordered Lucile.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Can’t,” carelessly returned Ted. “I’m having a -serious flirtation with Miss Kenneth.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“You have to stop, and flirt with me,” Lucile insisted, -and going over, she slipped a hand within his sleeve, -and passed the other arm affectionately around Marion -Kenneth. “Gail stole the ornament.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Serves you right,” charged Arly Fosland. “You -stole him from me. Come on, Houston, bring out the -Palisade Special.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Houston Van Ploon, who was a brother to all ladies, -obediently dragged forward the number two bob-sled, -and set its nose at the brow of the hill, and the merry -mob piled on.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Coming Allison?” called Cunningham. “There’s -room for you both, Doctor.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I don’t think I’ll ride this trip, thanks,” returned -<span class='pageno' id='Page_43'>43</span>Allison, and, as the rector also declined with pleasant -thanks, Allison gave the voyagers a hearty push, and -walked back to the camp fire.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I received the ultimatum of your vestry to-day, -Doctor Boyd,” observed Allison when they were alone. -“Still that eventual fifty million.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Well, yes,” returned the rector briskly, and he -backed up comfortably to the blaze. He was a different -man now. “We discussed your proposition -thoroughly, and decided that, in ten years, the property -is worth fifty million to you, for the purpose you have -in mind. Consequently why take less.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Allison surveyed him shrewdly for a moment.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“That’s the argument of a bandit,” he remarked. -“Why accept all that the prisoner has when his friends -can raise a little more?”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I don’t see the use of metaphor,” retorted the rector, -who dealt professionally in it. “Business is business.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Allison grunted, and flicked his ashes into the fire.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“By George, you’re right,” he agreed. “I’ve been -trying to handle you like a church, but now I’m going -after you like the business organisation you are.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>The Reverend Smith Boyd reddened. The charge -that Market Square Church was a remarkably lucrative -enterprise was becoming too general for comfort.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“The vestry has given you their decision,” he returned, -standing stiff and straight, with his hands -clasped behind him. “You may pay for the Vedder -Court tenement property a cash sum which, in ten -years, will accrue to fifty million dollars, or you may -let it alone,” and his tone was as forcefully crisp as -Allison’s, though he could not hide the musical timbre -of it.</p> - -<p class='c012'><span class='pageno' id='Page_44'>44</span>“I won’t pay that price, and I won’t let the property -alone,” Allison snapped back. “The city needs it.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>For a moment the two men looked each other levelly -in the eyes. There seemed to have sprang up some -new enmity between them. A thick man with a stubby -moustache came puffing up to the fire, and sat down on -his sled with a thump.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Splendid exercise,” he gasped, holding his sides. -“I think about a week of it would either reduce me to -a living skeleton, or kill me.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Your vestry’s an ass,” Allison took pleasure in informing -him.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Same to you and many of them,” puffed Jim Sargent. -“What’s the trouble with you? Trying to -take a business advantage of a church.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I’d have a better chance with a Jew,” was Allison’s -contemptuous reply.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Oh, see here, Allison!” remonstrated Jim Sargent -seriously. He even rose to his feet to make it more -emphatic. “You mustn’t treat Market Square Church -with so much indignity.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Why not? Market Square Church puts itself in -a position to be considered in the light of any other -grasping organisation.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>The Reverend Smith Boyd, finding in himself the -growth of a most uncloth-like anger, decided to walk -away rather than suffer the aggravation which must ensue -in this conversation. Consequently, he started -down the hill, dragging Jim Sargent’s sled behind him -for company. There were no further insults to the -church, however.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Jim, what are the relations of the Towando Valley -to the L. and C.?” asked Allison, offering Sargent -a cigar.</p> - -<p class='c012'><span class='pageno' id='Page_45'>45</span>“Largely paternal,” and the president of the Towando -Valley grinned. “We feed it when it’s good, -and spank it when it cries.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Hold control of the stock?”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“No, only its transportation,” returned Sargent -complacently.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Stock is a good deal scattered, I suppose.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Small holdings entirely, and none of the holders -proud,” replied Sargent. “It starts no place and -comes right back, and the share-holders won’t pay postage -to send in their annual proxies.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Then the stock doesn’t seem to be worth buying,” -observed Allison, with vast apparent indifference.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Only to piece out a collection,” chuckled Sargent. -“I didn’t know you were interested in railroads.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I wasn’t a week ago,” and Allison looked out across -the starry sky to the tree-scalloped hills. “With the -completion of the consolidation of New York’s transportation -system, and the building of a big central station, -I thought I was through. It seemed a big achievement -to gather all these lines to a common centre, like -holding them in my hand; to converge four millions of -people at one point, to handle them without confusion, -and to re-distribute them along the same lines, looked -like a life’s work; but now I’m beginning to become ambitious.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Oh, I see,” grinned Jim Sargent. “You want to -do something you can really call a job. If I remember -rightly, you started with an equipment of four horse -cars and two miles of rusted rail. What do you want -to conquer next?”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Allison glanced down the hill, then back out across -the starlit sky. Some new fervor had possessed him -<span class='pageno' id='Page_46'>46</span>to-night which made him a poet, and loosened the tongue -which, previous to this, could almost calculate its utterances -in percentage.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“The world,” he said.</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_47'>47</span> - <h2 class='c005'>CHAPTER V<br /> <span class='small'>EDWARD E. ALLISON TAKES A VACATION</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_0_6 c011'>Edward E. Allison walked into the offices of -the Municipal Transportation Company at nine -o’clock, and set his basket of opened and carefully -annotated letters out of the mathematical centre of his -desk; then he touched a button, and a thin young man, -whose brow, at twenty, wore the traces of preternatural -age, walked briskly in.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Has Mr. Greggory arrived?”</p> - -<p class='c012'>The intensely earnest young man glanced at the -clock.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Yes, sir,” he replied.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Take him these letters, and ask him if he will be -kind enough to step here.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Yes, sir,” and the concentrated young man departed -with the basket, feeling that he had quite capably -borne his weight of responsibility.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Allison, looking particularly fresh and buoyant this -morning, utilised his waiting time to the last fraction -of a second. He put in a telephone call, and took from -the drawer of his desk a packet of neatly docketed papers, -an index memorandum book, a portfolio of -sketches, and three cigars, the latter of which he put in -his cigar case; then, his desk being empty, except for a -clean memorandum pad and pencil, he closed it and -locked it. The telephone girl reported his number on -<span class='pageno' id='Page_48'>48</span>the wire, and, the number proving to be that of a florist, -he ordered some violets sent to Gail Sargent.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Greggory walked in, a fat man with no trace of nonsense -about him.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Out for the day, Ed?” he surmised, gauging that -probability by the gift of the letters.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“A month or so,” amended Allison, rising, and surveying -the three articles on his desk calculatingly. -“I’m going to take a vacation.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“It’s about time,” agreed his efficient general manager. -“I think it’s been four years since you stopped -to take a breath. Going to play a little?”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“That’s the word,” and Allison chuckled like a boy. -“Take care of these things,” and tossing him the -packet of papers and the memorandum book, he took -the portfolio of sketches under his arm.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I suppose we’ll have your address,” suggested -Greggory.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“No.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Greggory pondered frowningly. He began to see a -weight piling up on him, and, though he was capable, -he loved his flesh.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“About that Shell Beach extension?” he inquired. -“There’s likely to be trouble with the village of Waveview. -Their local franchises—”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Settle it yourself,” directed Allison carelessly, and -Greggory stared. During the long and arduous course -of Allison’s climb, he had built his success on personal -attention to detail. “Good-bye,” and Allison walked -out, lighting a cigar on his way to the door.</p> - -<p class='c012'>He stopped his runabout in front of a stationer’s, -and bought the largest globe they had in stock.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Address, please?” asked the clerk, pencil poised -over delivery slip.</p> - -<p class='c012'><span class='pageno' id='Page_49'>49</span>“I’ll take it with me,” and Allison helped them secure -the clumsy thing in the seat beside him. Then he -streaked up the Avenue to the small and severely furnished -house where four ebony servants protected him -from the world.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Out of town except to this list,” he directed his -kinky-haired old butler, and going into the heavy oak -library, he closed the door. On the wall, depending -from the roller case, was a huge map of the boroughs -of New York, which had hung there since he had first -begun to group transportation systems together. It -was streaked and smudged with the marks of various -coloured pencils, some faded and some fresh, and around -one rectangle, lettered Vedder Court, was a heavy green -mark. He picked up a pencil from the stand, but laid -it down again with a smile. There was no need for that -new red line; nor need, either, any longer, for the -map itself; and he snapped it up into its case, -on roller-springs stiff with disuse. In its place he -drew down another one, a broad familiar domain -between two oceans, and he smiled as his eye fell -upon that tiny territory near the Atlantic, which, -up to now, he had called a world, because he had mastered -it.</p> - -<p class='c012'>His library phone rang.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Mr. Allison?” a woman’s voice. Gail Sargent, -Mrs. Sargent, Mrs. Davies, or Lucile Teasdale. No -other ladies were on his list. The voice was not that -of Gail. “Are you busy to-night?” Oh, yes, Lucile -Teasdale.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Free as air,” he gaily told her.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I’m so glad,” rattled Lucile. “Ted’s just telephoned -that he has tickets for ‘The Lady’s Maid.’ Can -you join us?”</p> - -<p class='c012'><span class='pageno' id='Page_50'>50</span>“With pleasure.” No hesitation whatever; prompt -and agreeable; even pleased.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“That’s jolly. I think six makes such a nice crowd. -Besides you and ourselves, there’ll be Arly and Dick -Rodley and Gail.” Gail, of course. He had known -that. “We’ll start from Uncle Jim’s at eight o’clock.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Allison called old Ephraim.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I want to begin dressing at seven-fifteen,” he directed. -“At three o’clock set some sandwiches inside -the door. Have some fruit in my dressing-room.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>He went back to his map, remembering Lucile with -a retrospective smile. The last time he had seen that -vivacious young person she had been emptying a box -of almonds, at the side of the camp fire at the toboggan -party. He jotted down a memorandum to send her -some, and drew a high stool in front of the map.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Strange this new ambition which had come to him. -Why, he had actually been about to consider his big -work finished; and now, all at once, everything he had -done seemed trivial. The eager desire of youth to -achieve had come to him again, and the blood sang in -his veins as he felt of his lusty strength. He was starting -to build, with a youth’s enthusiasm but with a man’s -experience, and with the momentum of success and the -power of capital. Something had crystallised him in -the past few days.</p> - -<div id='fp_051' class='figcenter id001'> -<img src='images/fp_051.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic001'> -<p>At 7:15 Ephraim found him at the end of the table in the midst of some neat and intricate tabulations</p> -</div> -</div> - -<p class='c012'><span class='pageno' id='Page_51'>51</span>Across the fertile fields and the mighty mountains -and the arid deserts of the United States, there angled -four black threads, from coast to coast, and everywhere -else were shorter main lines and shorter branches, and, -last of all, mere fragments of railroads. He began -with the long, angling threads, but he ended with the -fragments, and these, in turns, he gave minute and careful -study. At three o’clock he took a sandwich and -ordered his car. He was gone less than an hour, and -came back with an armload of books; government reports, -volumes of statistics, and a file of more intimate -information from the office of his broker. He threw -off his coat when he came in this time, and spread, on -the big, lion-clawed table at which Napoleon had once -planned a campaign, a vari-coloured mass of railroad -maps. At seven-fifteen old Ephraim found him at the -end of the table in the midst of some neat and intricate -tabulations.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Time to dress, sir,” suggested Ephraim.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Allison pushed to the floor the railroad map upon -which he had been working, and pulled another one towards -him. Ephraim waited one minute.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I’ve run your tub, sir.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Allison leafed rapidly through the pages of an already -hard-used book, to the section concerning the -Indianapolis and St. Joe Railroad. Ephraim looked -around calculatingly, and selected an old atlas from -the top of the case near the door. He held it aloft an -instant, and let it fall with a slam.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Oh, it’s you,” remarked the absorbed Allison, -glancing up.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Yes, sir,” returned Ephraim. “You told me to -come for you at seven-fifteen.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Allison arose, and rubbed the tips of his fingers over -his eyes.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Keep this room locked,” he ordered, and stalked -obediently upstairs. For the next thirty minutes he -belonged to Ephraim.</p> - -<p class='c012'>He was as carefree as a boy when he reached Jim -Sargent’s house, and his eyes snapped when he saw Gail -come down the stairs, in a pearl tinted gown, with a -triple string of pearls in her waving hair, and a rose-coloured -<span class='pageno' id='Page_52'>52</span>cloak depending from her gracefully sloping -shoulders.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Her own eyes brightened at the sight of him. He -had been much in her mind to-day; not singly but as -one of a group. She was quite conscious that she liked -him, but she was more conscious that she was curious -about him. She was curious about most men, she suddenly -found, comparing them, sorting them, weighing -them; and Allison was one of the most perplexing specimens. -A little heavy in his evening clothes, but not -awkward, and not without dignity of bearing. He -stepped forward to shake hands with her, and, for a moment, -she found in her an inclination to cling to the -warm thrill of his clasp. She had never before been so -aware of anything like that. Nevertheless, when she -had withdrawn her hand, she felt a sense of relief.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Hello, Allison,” called the hearty voice of Jim -Sargent. “You’re looking like a youngster to-night.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I feel like one,” replied Allison, smiling. “I’m on -a vacation.” He was either vain enough or curious -enough to glance at himself in the big mirror as he -passed it. He did look younger; astonishingly so; and -he had about him a quality of lightness which made -him restless. He had been noted among his business -associates for a certain dry wit, scathing, satirical, relentless; -now he used that quality agreeably, and when -Lucile and Ted, and Arly and Dick Rodley joined them, -he was quite easily a sharer in the gaiety. At the -theatre he was the same. He participated in all the -repartee during the intermissions, and the fact that he -found Gail studying him, now and then, only gave him -an added impulse. He was frank with himself about -Gail. He wanted her, and he had made up his mind to -have her. He was himself a little surprised at his own -<span class='pageno' id='Page_53'>53</span>capacity of entertainment, and when he parted from -Gail at the Sargent house, he left her smiling, and with -a softer look in her eyes than he had yet seen there.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Immediately on his return to his library, Allison -threw off his coat and waistcoat, collar and tie, and sat -at the table.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“What is there in the ice box?” he wanted to -know.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Well, sir,” enumerated Ephraim carefully; “Mirandy -had a chicken pot-pie for dinner, and then -there’s—”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“That will do; cold,” interrupted Allison. “Bring -it here with as few service things as possible, a bottle of -Vichy and some olives.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>He began to set down some figures, and when -Ephraim came, shaking his head to himself about such -things as cold dumplings at night, Allison stopped for -ten minutes, and lunched with apparent relish. At -seven-thirty he called Ephraim and ordered a cold -plunge and some breakfast. He had been up all night, -and on the map of the United States there were pencilled -two thin straight black lines; one from New York to -Chicago, and one from Chicago to San Francisco. -Crossing them, and paralleling them, and angling in -their general direction, but quite close to them in the -main, were lines of blue and lines of green and lines of -orange; these three.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Another day and another night he spent with his -maps, and his books, and his figures; then he went to -his broker with a list of railroads.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Get me what stock you can of these,” he directed. -“Pick it up as quietly as possible.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>The broker looked them over and elevated his eyebrows, -There was not a road in the list which was -<span class='pageno' id='Page_54'>54</span>important strategically, but he had ceased to ask questions -of Edward Allison.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Three days later, Allison went into the annual stockholders’ -meeting of the L. and C. Railroad, and registered -majority of the stock in that insignificant line, -which ran up the shore opposite Crescent Island, joined -the Towando Valley shortly after its emergence from -its hired entrance into New York, ran for fifty miles -over the roadway of the Towando, with which it had -a long-time tracking contract, and wandered up into -the country, where it served as an outlet to certain -conservatively profitable territory.</p> - -<p class='c012'>The secretary of the L. and C., a man of thick spectacles -and a hundred wrinkles, looked up with fear in -his eyes as his cramped old fingers clutched his pen.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I suppose you’ll be making some important -changes, Mr. Allison,” he quavered.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Not in the active officers,” returned Allison with -a smile, and the president, who wore flowing side-whiskers, -came over to shake hands with him. “How soon -can you call the meeting?”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Almost immediately,” replied the president. “I -suppose there’ll be a change in policies.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Not at all,” Allison reassured him, and walked into -the board room, where less than a dozen stockholders, -as old and decrepit as the road itself, had congregated.</p> - -<p class='c012'>The president, following him, invited him to a seat -next his own chair, and laid before him a little slip of -paper.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“This is the official slate which had been prepared,” -he explained, with a smile which it took some bravery -to produce.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“It’s perfectly satisfactory,” pronounced Allison, -glancing at it courteously, and the elderly stockholders, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_55'>55</span>knotted in little anxious groups, took a certain -amount of reassurance from the change of expression -on the president’s face.</p> - -<p class='c012'>The president reached for his gavel and called the -meeting. The stockholders, grey and grave, and some -with watery eyes, drew up their chairs to the long table; -for they were directors, too. They answered to their -names, and they listened to the minutes, and waded -mechanically through the routine business, always with -their gaze straying to the new force which had come -among them. Every man there knew all about Edward -E. Allison. He had combined the traction interests -of New York by methods as logical and unsympathetic -as geometry, and where he appeared, no matter -how pacific his avowed intentions, there were certain to -be radical upheavings.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Election of officers was reached in the routine, and -again that solemn inquiry in the faded eyes. The “official -slate” was proposed in nomination. Edward E. -Allison voted with the rest. Every director was re-elected!</p> - -<p class='c012'>New business. Again the solemn inquiry.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Move to amend Article Three Section One of the -constitution, relating to duration of office,” announced -Allison, passing the written motion to the secretary. -“On a call from the majority of stock, the stockholders -of the L. and C. Railroad have a right to demand -a special meeting, on one week’s notice, for the purpose -of re-organisation and re-election.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>They knew it. It had to come. However, three men -on the board had long held the opinion that any change -was for the better, and one of these, a thin, old man -with a nose so blue that it looked as if it had been dyed -to match his necktie, immediately seconded.</p> - -<p class='c012'><span class='pageno' id='Page_56'>56</span>Edward E. Allison waited just long enough to vote -his majority stock, and left the meeting in a hurry, for -he had an engagement to take tea with Gail Sargent.</p> - -<p class='c012'>He allowed himself four hours for sleep that night, -and the next afternoon headed for Denver. On the way -he studied maps again, but the one to which he paid -most attention was a new one drawn by himself, on -which the various ranges of the Rocky Mountains were -represented by scrawled, lead-pencilled spirals. Right -where his thin line crossed these spirals at a converging -point, was Yando Chasm, a pass created by nature, -which was the proud possession of the Inland -Pacific, now the most prosperous and direct of all the -Pacific systems; and the Inland, with an insolent pride -in the natural fortune which had been found for it -by the cleverest of all engineers, guarded its precious -right of way as no jewel was ever protected. Just -east of Yando Chasm there crossed a little “one-horse” -railroad, which, starting at the important city of Silverknob, -served some good mining towns below the Inland’s -line, and on the north side curved up and around -through the mountains, rambling wherever there was -freight or passengers to be carried, and ending on the -other side of the range at Nugget City, only twenty -miles north of the Inland’s main line, and a hundred -miles west, into the fair country which sloped down to -the Pacific. This road, which had its headquarters in -Denver, was called the Silverknob and Nugget City; -and into its meeting walked Allison, with control.</p> - -<p class='c012'>His course here was different from that in Jersey -City. He ousted every director on the board, and -elected men of his own. Immediately after, in the directors’ -meeting, he elected himself president, and, -kindly consenting to talk with the reporters of the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_57'>57</span>Denver newspapers, hurried back to Chicago, where he -drove directly to the head offices of the Inland Pacific.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I’ve just secured control of the Silverknob and -Nugget City,” he informed the general manager of the -Inland.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“So I noticed,” returned Wilcox, who was a young -man of fifty and wore picturesque velvet hats. “The -papers here made quite a sensation of your going into -railroading.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“They’re welcome,” grinned Allison. “Say Wilcox, -if you’ll build a branch from Pines to Nugget City, -we’ll give you our Nugget City freight where we cross, -at Copperville, east of the range.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Wilcox headed for his map.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“What’s the distance?” he inquired.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Twenty-two miles; fairly level grade, and one -bridge.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Couldn’t think of it,” decided Wilcox, looking at -the map. “We’d like to have your freight, for there’s -a lot of traffic between Silverknob and Nugget City, -but it’s not our territory. The smelters are at Silverknob, -and they ship east over the White Range Line. -Anyway, why do you want to take away the haulage -from your northern branch?”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Figure on discontinuing it. The grades are steep, -the local traffic is light, and the roadbed is in a rotten -condition. It needs rebuilding throughout. I’ll make -you another proposition. I’ll build the line from Pines -to Nugget City myself, if you’ll give us track connection -at Copperville and at Pines, and will give us a -traffic contract for our own rolling stock on a reasonable -basis.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Again Wilcox looked at the map. The Silverknob -and Nugget City road began nowhere and ran nowhere, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_58'>58</span>so far as the larger transportation world was concerned, -and it could never figure as a competitor. The -hundred miles through the precious natural pass known -as Yando Chasm, was not so busy a stretch of road -as it was important, and the revenue from the passage -of the Silverknob and Nugget City’s trains would deduct -considerably from the expense of maintaining that -much-prized key to the golden west.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I’ll take it up with Priestly and Gorman,” promised -Wilcox.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“How soon can you let me know?”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Monday.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>That afternoon saw Allison headed back for New -York, and the next morning he popped into the offices -of the Pacific Slope and Puget Sound, where he secured -a rental privilege to run the trains of the Orange -Valley Road into San Francisco, and down to Los Angeles, -over the tracks of the P. S. and P. S. The -Orange Valley was a little, blind pocket of a road, which -made a juncture with the P. S. and P. S. just a short -haul above San Francisco, and it ran up into a rich -fruit country, but its terminus was far, far away from -any possible connection with a northwestern competitor; -and that bargain was easy.</p> - -<p class='c012'>That night, Allison, glowing with an exultation which -erased his fatigue, dressed to call on Gail Sargent.</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_59'>59</span> - <h2 class='c005'>CHAPTER VI<br /> <span class='small'>THE IMPULSIVE YOUNG MAN FROM HOME</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_0_6 c011'>Music resounded in the parlours of Jim Sargent’s -house; music so sweet and compelling in its harmony -that Aunt Grace slipped to the head of the stairs, -to listen in mingled ecstasy and pride. Up through -the hallway floated a clear, mellow soprano and a rich, -deep baritone, blended so perfectly that they seemed -twin tones. Aunt Grace, drawn by a fascination she -could not resist, crept down to where she could see the -source of the melody. Gail, exceptionally pretty to-night -in her simple little dove-coloured gown with its -one pink rose, sat at the piano, while towering above -her, with his chest expanded and a look of perfect peace -on his face, stood the Reverend Smith Boyd.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Enraptured, Aunt Grace stood and listened until -the close of the ballad. Leafing through her music -for the next treat, Gail looked up at the young rector, -and made some smiling remark. Her shining brown -hair, waving about her forehead, was caught up in a -simple knot at the back, and the delicate colour of her -cheeks was like the fresh glow of dawn. The Reverend -Smith Boyd bent slightly to answer, and he, too, -smiled as he spoke; but as he happened to find himself -gazing deep into the brown eyes of Gail, the smile -began to fade, and Aunt Grace Sargent, scared, ran -back up the stairs and into her own room, where she -<span class='pageno' id='Page_60'>60</span>took a book, and held it in her lap, upside down. The -remark which Gail had made was this:</p> - -<p class='c012'>“You should have used your voice professionally.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>The reply of the rector was:</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I do.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I didn’t mean oratorically,” she laughed, then returned -nervously to her search for the next selection. -She had seen that change in his smile. “It is so rare -to find a perfect speaking voice coupled with a perfect -singing voice,” she rattled on. “Here’s that simple -little May Song. Just harmony, that’s all.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Once more their voices rose in that perfect blending -which is the most delicate of all exhilarations. In the -melody itself there was an appealing sympathy, and, -in that moment, these two were in as perfect accord as -their voices. There is something in the music of the -human tone which exerts a magnetic attraction like -no other in the world; which breaks down the barriers -of antagonism, which sweeps away the walls of self entrenchment, -which attracts and draws, which explains -and does away with explanation. This was the first -hour they had spent without a clash, and the Reverend -Smith Boyd, his eyes quite blue to-night, brought -another stack of music from the rack.</p> - -<p class='c012'>The butler, an aggravating image with only one -joint in his body, paraded solemnly through the hall, -and back again with the card tray, while Gail and the -rector sang “Juanita” from an old college song book, -which the Reverend Boyd had discovered in high glee. -Aunt Grace came down the stairs and out past the -doors of the music salon. There were voices of animated -greeting in the hall, and Aunty returned to the -door just as the rector was spreading open the book -at “Sweet and Low.”</p> - -<p class='c012'><span class='pageno' id='Page_61'>61</span>“Pardon me,” beamed Aunty. “There’s a little -surprise out here for you.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“For me?” and Gail rose, with a smile and a pretty -little nod of apology.</p> - -<p class='c012'>She moved with swiftly quiet grace into the hall. -There was a little half shrieking exclamation. The rector, -setting a chair smilingly for Mrs. Sargent, happened, -quite unwittingly, to come in range of the hall -mirror at the moment of the half shriek, and he saw -an impulsive young man grab Gail Sargent in his arms, -and kiss her!</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Howard!” protested Gail, in the midst of embarrassed -laughter; and presently she came in, rosy-cheeked, -with the impulsive young man, whose hair was -inclined to thinness in front. He was rather good-looking, on second inspection, with a sharp eye and a -brisk manner and a healthy complexion.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Mr. Clemmens, Doctor Boyd,” introduced Gail, and -there was the ring of genuine pleasure in her voice. -“Mr. Clemmens is one of my very best friends from -back home,” and she viewed this one of her very best -friends with pride as he shook hands with the Reverend -Smith Boyd. He was easy of manner, was Mr. -Clemmens, even confident, though he had scarcely the -ease which does not need self-assertion.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I am delighted to meet any friend of Miss Sargent,” -admitted the rector, in that flowing, mellow baritone -which no one heard for the first time without surprise.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Allow me to say the same,” returned the young -man from back home, making a critical and jealous inspection -of the disturbingly commanding rector. His -voice was brisk, staccato, and a trifle high pitched. -Gail had always admired it, not for its musical -<span class='pageno' id='Page_62'>62</span>quality, of course, but for its clean-cut decisiveness.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“When did you arrive?” asked Mrs. Sargent, with -hospitable interest.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Just this minute,” stated Clemmens, exchanging -a glance of pleasure with Gail. “I only stopped at -the hotel long enough to throw in my luggage, and -drove straight on here.” He turned to her so expectantly -that the rector rose.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“You’re not going?” protested Gail, and was -startled to find that the Reverend Smith Boyd’s eyes -were no longer blue. They were cold.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I’m afraid that I must,” he answered her in the -conventional apologetic tone, which was not at all like -his singing voice. It sounded rather inflexible, and as -if it might not blend very well. “I trust that I shall -have the pleasure of meeting you again, Mr. Clemmens,” -and he shook hands with the brisk young man -in a most dignified fashion. He bowed his frigid adieus -to the ladies, and marched into the hall for his -hat.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Rector?” guessed Mr. Clemmens, when the outer -door had closed.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Of Market Square Church,” proudly asserted -Aunt Grace. “He is a wonderfully gifted young man. -The rectory is right next door.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Oh yes,” responded Mr. Clemmens perfunctorily, -and he turned slowly to Gail. “Fine looking chap, -isn’t he?”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Gail bridled a trifle. She knew that trick of jealous -interrogation quite well. Howard was trying to surprise -her into some facial expression which would betray -her attitude toward the Reverend Smith Boyd.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“He’s perfectly splendid!” she beamed. “He has -the richest baritone I’ve ever heard.”</p> - -<p class='c012'><span class='pageno' id='Page_63'>63</span>“It blends so perfectly with Gail’s,” supplemented -the admiring Aunt Grace. “We must have him over -so you may hear them sing.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I’ll be delighted,” lied Mr. Clemmens, shooting another -glance of displeasure at Gail.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Somehow, Aunt Grace felt that there was an atmosphere -of discomfort in the room, and she thought she -had better go upstairs, to worry about it.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“You’ll take dinner with us to-morrow evening, I -hope,” she cordially invited.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“You won’t have to ask me twice,” laughed Mr. -Clemmens, rising because Aunt Grace did. He was always -punctilious, and the manner of his courtesies -showed that he was punctilious.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Well, girl, tell me all about it,” heartily began the -young man from home, when Aunty had made her apologies -and her departure. He imprisoned her hand in -his, and seated her on the couch, and sat beside her, -crossing his legs comfortably.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I’ve been having a delightful time,” replied Gail. -“Suppose we go over to the blue room, Howard. It’s -much more pleasant, I think.” She wanted to be away -from the piano. It distressed her.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“All right,” cheerfully acquiesced Howard, and, still -retaining her hand, he went over with her into the -blue room, and seated her on the couch, and sat beside -her, and crossed his legs. “We made up our monthly -report just before I came. Our rate of increase is -over ten per cent. better than in any previous month -since we began. Three more years, and we’ll have the -biggest insurance business in the state; that is, except -the big outside companies.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Isn’t that splendid!” and her enthusiasm was fine -to see. She had been kept posted on the progress of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_64'>64</span>the Midwest Mutual Insurance Company since its inception, -and naturally she was very much interested. -“Then you’ll branch out into other states.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Not for ten years to come,” he told her, smiling -at her woman-like overestimate. “The Midwest won’t -do that until we’ve covered the home territory so thoroughly -that there’ll be no chance of further expansion. -My board of directors brought up that matter at the -last meeting, but I turned it down flat-footed. I’m -enterprising enough, but I’m thorough. The president -has thrown the entire responsibility on my -shoulders, and I won’t take any foolish risks.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Gail turned to him in clear-eyed speculation.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“If I were a man, I’m afraid I’d be a business gambler,” -she mused.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I’ve no doubt you would,” he comfortably laughed. -“However, my method is the safest. Ten years from -now, Gail, I’ll have money that I made myself, and, -in twenty, I’ll be shamelessly rich. Sounds good, -doesn’t it?”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“You have enough money now, if that’s all you -want,” she reminded him.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“No, I’m ambitious,” he insisted. “Not for myself, -though. Gail, you know why I made this trip,” -and he bent closer to her. His staccato voice softened -and his eyes were very earnest. “I couldn’t stay -away.” He clasped his other hand over hers, and drew -closer.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I told you you mustn’t, Howard,” she gently chided -him, though she made no attempt to withdraw her hand. -“I’m not ready yet to decide about things.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>He was a poor psychologist.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“All right,” he cheerfully assented, dropping the -earnestness from his voice and from his eyes, but retaining -<span class='pageno' id='Page_65'>65</span>her hand. His clasp was warm and strong and -wholesome. “Mrs. King’s ball was rather a tame affair -this year, though I may have been prejudiced because -you weren’t there.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>He drifted easily into chat of home people and affairs, -and she felt more and more contented every minute. -After all, he was of her own people, linked to -them and to her. It was comfortable to be with some -one whom one thoroughly understood. There was no -recess of his mind with which she was not intimately -acquainted. She could foretell his mental processes as -easily as she could read the time on her watch. It was -tremendously restful, after her contact with the -stronger personalities which she had found here. She -had been wondering in what indefinable manner Howard -had changed, but now she began to see that it was she -who had shifted her viewpoint. The men she had met -here, with the exception of such as Van Ploon and Cunningham -and Ted Teasdale, were far more complex than -Howard, a quality which at times might be more interesting -than agreeable.</p> - -<p class='c012'>A rush of noise filled the hall. Lucile and Ted Teasdale, -handsome Dick Rodley and Arly Fosland and -Houston Van Ploon, had come clattering in as an escort -for Mrs. Davies, whose pet fad was to have as -many young people as possible bring her home from -any place.</p> - -<p class='c012'>The young man from back home took his plunge into -that vortex with becoming steadiness. Gail had looked -to see him a trifle bewildered, and would have had small -criticism for him if he had, but he greeted them all on -a friendly basis, and, sitting down again beside her, -crossed his legs, while Mrs. Davies calmly lorgnetted -him.</p> - -<p class='c012'><span class='pageno' id='Page_66'>66</span>“Where’s the baby?” demanded handsome Dick -Rodley, heading for the stairs.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Silly, you mustn’t!” cried Lucile, and started after -him. “Flakes should be asleep at this hour.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I came in for the sole purpose of teaching Flakes -the turkey trot,” declared handsome Dick, and ran -away, followed by Lucile.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Lucile’s becoming passé,” criticised Ted. “She’s -flirting with Rodley for the second time.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Can you blame her?” defended Arly, stealing a -surreptitious glance at the young man from back home, -then the devil of mischief seized her and she leaned forward. -“Do you flirt, Mr. Clemmens?”</p> - -<p class='c012'>For once the easy assurance of Howard left him, and -he blushed. The stiff, but kindly disposed Van Ploon -came to his rescue.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Perhaps Mr. Clemmens is not yet married,” he -suggested.</p> - -<p class='c012'>To save him, Clemmens, used, under any circumstances, -to the easy <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">sang froid</span> of the insurance business, -could not keep himself from turning to Gail with -accusing horror in his eyes. Was this the sort of company -she kept? He glanced over at Arly Fosland. -She was sitting in the deep corner of her favourite -couch, nursing a slender ankle, and even her shining -black hair, to say nothing of her shining black eyes, -seemed to be snapping with wicked delight. It was -so unusual to find a young man one could shock.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Lucile and handsome Dick came struggling down the -stairway with Flakes between them, and Gail sprang -instantly to take the bewildered puppy from them both. -Little blonde Lucile gave up her interest to the prior -right, but Rodley pretended to be obstinate about it. -His deep eyes burned down into Gail’s, as he stood -<span class='pageno' id='Page_67'>67</span>bending above her, and his smile, to Howard’s concentrated -gaze, had in it that dangerous fascination which -few women could resist! Gail was positively smiling -up into his eyes!</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Tableau!” called Ted. “All ready for the next -reel.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Hold it a while,” begged Arly, and even the young -man from home was forced to admit that the picture -was handsome enough to be retained. The Adonislike -Dick, with his black hair and black eyes, his curly -black moustache and his black goatee, his pink cheeks -and his white teeth; Gail, gracefully erect, her head -thrown back, her brown hair waving and her eyes dancing; -the Adonis bending over her and the fluffy white -Flakes between them; it was painfully beautiful; and -Mr. Clemmens suddenly regretted his square-toed shoes -and his business suit.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Children, go home,” suddenly commanded Mrs. -Davies. “Dick, put the dog back where you found -it.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I suppose we’ll have to go home,” drawled Ted. -“Dick, put back that dog.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Put away the dog, Dick,” ordered the heavier voice -of young Van Ploon. “Come along, Gail, I’ll put him -away.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>At his approach, Dick placed the puppy, with great -care, in Gail’s charge, and took her arm. Van Ploon -took her other arm, and together the trio, laughing, -went away to return Flakes to his bed. They clung -to her most affectionately, bending over her on either -side; and they called her Gail!</p> - -<p class='c012'>The others were ready to go when they returned -from the collie nursery, and the three young men stood -for a moment in a row near the door. Gail looked -<span class='pageno' id='Page_68'>68</span>them over with a puzzled expression. What was there -about them which was so attractive? Was it poise, -sureness, polish, breeding, experience, insolence, grooming—what? -Even the stiff Van Ploon seemed smooth -of bearing to-night!</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Come home, Gail,” begged Clemmens, when the -noisy party had laughed its way out of the door and -Aunt Helen Davies had gone upstairs.</p> - -<p class='c012'>She knew what was in his mind, but compassion overcame -her resentment, because there was suffering in his -voice and in his eyes. She smiled on him forgivingly, -and did not withdraw the hand he took again.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“New York’s an evil place,” he urged. “Who are -these friends of yours?” and he looked at her accusingly.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Why, they are tremendously nice people, -Howard,” she told him, forgiving him again because he -did not understand. “Lucile is the pretty cousin -about whom I wrote you, Ted is her husband, and the -others are their friends.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I don’t like them,” he rather sternly said. “They -are not fit company for you. They see no sacredness -in marriage, with their open flirting.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Why, Howard, that’s only a joke. Ted and Lucile -are exceptionally devoted to each other.” She turned -and studied him seriously. Was he smaller of stature -than he had seemed back home, or what was it?</p> - -<p class='c012'>They still were standing in the hall, and the front -door opened.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Brought you a prodigal,” hailed Uncle Jim, slipping -his latchkey in his pocket as he held the door open -for the prodigal in question. “Hello, Clemmens. -When did you blow in?” and he advanced to shake -hands.</p> - -<p class='c012'><span class='pageno' id='Page_69'>69</span>Gail was watching the doorway. Some one outside -was vigorously stamping his feet. The prodigal came -in, and proved to be Allison, buoyant of step, sparkling -of eye, firm of jaw, and ruddy from the night wind. -Smiling with the sureness of welcome, he came eagerly -up to Gail, and took her hand, retaining it until she -felt compelled to withdraw it, recognising again that -thrill. The barest trace of a flush came into her cheeks, -and paled again.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Allison, meet one of Chubsy’s friends from home,” -called Uncle Jim. “Mr. Allison, Mr. Clemmens.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>As the two shook hands, Gail turned again to the -young man from back home. Yes, he had grown -smaller.</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_70'>70</span> - <h2 class='c005'>CHAPTER VII<br /> <span class='small'>THEY HAD ALREADY SPOILED HER!</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_0_6 c011'>Gail faltered when, after bidding good-night to -her uncle and to Allison, she turned and met the -look in Howard Clemmens’ eyes. She knew that the -inevitable moment had arrived. He walked straight up -to her, and there was a new dignity in him, a new -strength, a new resolve. For a moment, as he advanced, -she thought that he was about to put his arms -around her, but he did not. Instead, he took her hand, -in his old characteristic way, and led her into the library, -and seated her on the couch, and sat beside her.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Gail, come home with me,” he said, authoritative -but kind. He had been her recognised suitor from -childhood. He had shut out all the other boys.</p> - -<p class='c012'>She withdrew her hand, but without deliberate intent. -She had felt the instinctive and imperative need of touching -her two hands together in her lap.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“You’re asking something impossible, Howard,” she -returned, quietly. Her voice was low, and her beautiful -brown eyes, half veiled by their long lashes, were -watching the play of light in a ruby on one of her fingers. -She was deep in abstracted thought, struggling -vaguely with problems which he could not know, and -of which she herself was as yet but dimly conscious.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Come home, and marry me.” Perfectly patient, -perfectly confident, perfectly gentle. He reached for -her hand again, and took them both, still clasped, in his -<span class='pageno' id='Page_71'>71</span>own. “Gail, we’ve waited quite long enough. It’s not -doing either one of us any good for you to be here. The -best thing is for us to be married right now.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>For the first time she turned her eyes full upon him.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“You are taking a great deal for granted, Howard,” -and she wore a calm decision which he had not before -seen in her. “There has never been any agreement between -us.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“There has been an understanding,” he retorted, releasing -her unresponsive hands and looking her squarely -in the eyes, with a slight frown on his brow.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Never,” she incisively reminded him, and her piquant -chin pointed upwards. “I’ve always told you -that I could make no promises.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>That came as a shock and a surprise. It could not -be possible that she did not care for him!</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Why, Gail dear, I love you!” he suddenly told her, -with more fervour than she had ever heard in his tone. -He slipped from the edge of the couch to his knee on -the floor, where he could look up into her downcast eyes. -He put his arm around her, and drew her closer. He -clasped her hands in his own strong palm. “Listen, -Gail dear; we grew up together.” He was tender now, -tender and pleading, and his voice had in it ranges of -modulation which it had never developed before this -night. “You were my very first sweetheart; and the -only one. Even as a boy in school, when you were only -a little kiddie, I made up my mind to marry you, and -I’ve never given up that dream. All my life I’ve loved -you, stronger and deeper as the years went on, until -now the love that is in me sways every thought, every -action, every emotion. I love you, Gail dear! All my -heart and all my soul is in it.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>She had not drawn away from his embrace, she had -<span class='pageno' id='Page_72'>72</span>not removed her hands from his clasp; instead, she had -yielded somewhat towards this old friend.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I can’t do without you any longer, Gail!” he impetuously -went on, detecting that yielding in her. -“You must marry me! Tell me that you will!”</p> - -<p class='c012'>She disengaged herself from him very gently.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I can’t, Howard.” Her voice was so low that he -could scarcely catch the words, and her face was filled -with sorrow.</p> - -<p class='c012'>He held tense and rigid where she had left him.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“You can’t,” he repeated, numbly.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“It is impossible,” and her face cleared of all its perplexity. -She was grave, and serious, and saddened; -but still sure. “For the first time I know my own mind -clearly, and I know that I do not now, and never can, -care for you in the way you wish.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>He rose abruptly and stood before her. His brows -were knotted, and there was a hard look on his face.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I came too late!” he bitterly charged. “They’ve -already spoiled you!”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Gail sprang from the couch, and a round red spot -flashed into each cheek. She had never looked so beautiful -as when she stood before him, her tiny fists clenched -and her eyes blazing. She almost replied to him, then -she rang the bell for the butler, and hurried upstairs. -Wild as was her tumult, she stood with her hand on the -knob of her dressing-room until she heard the front door -open and close; then she ran in and threw herself downward -on the chintz-covered divan, and cried!</p> - -<p class='c012'>She sat up presently, and remembered that the dove-coloured -gown was her pet. With a quite characteristic -ability of self-segregation, she put out of her mind, -except for the dull ache of it, the tangled vortex of distress -until she had changed her garments and let down -<span class='pageno' id='Page_73'>73</span>her waving hair, and, disdaining the help of her maid, -performed all the little nightly duties, to the putting -away of her clothing. Then, in a perfectly neat and -orderly boudoir, she sat down to take herself seriously -in hand.</p> - -<p class='c012'>First of all, there was Howard. She must cleanse -her conscience of him for all time to come. In just -how far had she encouraged him; in how far was he -justified in assuming there to be an “understanding” -between them? It was true that they had grown up -together. It was true that, from the first moment she -had begun to be entertained by young men, she had permitted -him to be her most frequent escort. She had -liked him better than all the others; had trusted him, -relied on him, commanded him. Perhaps she had been -selfish in that; but no, she had given at least as much -pleasure as she had received in that companionship. -More; for as her beauty had ripened with her years, -Howard had been more and more exacting in his jealousy, -in his claims upon her for the rights and the rewards -of past service. Had she been guilty in submitting -to this mild form of dictatorship, and, by permitting -it, had she vested in him the right to expect it? -Possibly. She set that weakness to one side, as a mark -against her.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Then had come the age of ardour, when a more serious -note crept into their relation. It was the natural -end and aim of all girls to become married, and, as she -blossomed into the full flower of her young womanhood, -this end and aim had been constantly borne in on her -by all her friends and relatives, by her parents, her girl -chums, and by Howard. They had convinced her that -this was the case, and, in consequence, the logical candidate -was the young man who had expended all his time -<span class='pageno' id='Page_74'>74</span>and energy in trying to please her. How much of a -debt was that? Well, it was an obligation, she gravely -considered, with her dimpled chin in her hand. An obligation -which should be repaid—with grateful friendship.</p> - -<p class='c012'>She was compelled to admit, being an honest and a -just young person, that at various times she had herself -considered Howard Clemmens the logical candidate. -She must be married some time, and Howard was -the most congenial young man of all her acquaintance. -He was of an excellent family, had proved his right to -exist by the fact that he had gone into business when -he had plenty of money to live in idleness, was well-mannered, -cheerful, good-natured, self-sacrificing, and -an adorer whose admiration was consistent and unfaltering. -Even—she confessed this to herself with self-resentment -for having confessed it—even at the time -she had left for New York, she had been fairly well settled -in her mind that she would come back, and invite -all her hosts of friends to see her marry Howard, and -they would build a new house just the way she wanted -it, and entertain, and some day she would be a prominent -member of the Browning Circle.</p> - -<p class='c012'>However, she had never, by any single syllable, -hinted to Howard, or any one else, that this might be -the case, and her only fault could lie in thinking it. -Now, just how far could Howard divine this mental attitude, -and just how far might that mental attitude influence -her actions and general bearing toward Howard, -so that he might be justified in feeling that there was -an actual understanding between them?</p> - -<p class='c012'>She did not know. She was only sure that she was -perfectly miserable. She had yielded to a fit of impetuous -anger, and had sent away her lifelong friend -<span class='pageno' id='Page_75'>75</span>without a word of good-bye, and he had been a dear, -good fellow who had been ready to bark, or fetch and -carry, or lie down and roll over, at the word of command; -and they had been together so much, and he had -always been so kind and considerate and generous, and -he was from back home, and he did really and truly love -her very much, and she was homesick; and she cried -again.</p> - -<p class='c012'>She sat upright with a jerk, and dabbed her eyes with -a handkerchief, which was composed of one square inch -of linen entirely surrounded by embroidered holes. She -had been perfectly right in sending Howard away without -a good-bye. He had insulted her friends and her, -most grossly; he had been nasty and unreasonable; he -had been presumptuous and insolent; his voice was harsh -and he had crossed his legs in a fashion which showed -his square-toed shoe at an ugly angle. She had never -seen anybody cross his legs in just that way. “They -had spoiled her already!” Indeed! Why had she not -waited long enough to assert herself? Why had she -not told him what a conceited creature he was? Why -had she not said all the hot, bitter, stinging things which -had popped into her mind at the time? There were -half a dozen better and more scornful ways in which -she could have sent him away than by merely calling -the butler and running upstairs. She might even have -stretched out her hand imperiously and said “Go!” -upon which thought she laughed at herself, and dabbed -her eyes with that absurdity which she called a handkerchief.</p> - -<p class='c012'>There was knock at the door and, on invitation, the -tall and stately Mrs. Helen Davies came in, frilled and -ruffled for the night. She found the dainty, little guest -boudoir in green tinted dimness. Gail had turned -<span class='pageno' id='Page_76'>76</span>down all the lights in the room except the green lamps -under the canopy, and she sat on the divan, with her -brown hair rippling about her shoulders, her knees -clasped in her arms, and her dainty little boudoir slippers -peeping from her flowing pink negligee, while the -dim green light, suited to her present sombre reflections, -only enhanced the clear pink of her complexion. -Mrs. Davies sat down in front of her.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Mr. Clemmens proposed to you to-night,” she -charged, gleaning that fact from experienced observation.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Gail nodded her head.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I hope you did not accept him.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>The brown ripples shook sidewise.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I was quite certain that you would not,” and the -older woman’s tone was one of distinct relief. “In -fact, I did not see how you could. The young man is -in no degree a match for you.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>There was a contemptuous disapproval in her tone -which brought Gail’s head up.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“You don’t know Howard!” she flared. “He is one -of the nicest young men at home. He is perfectly good -and kind and dear, and I was hateful to him!” and -Gail’s chin quivered.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Aunt Helen rendered first aid to the injured in the -tenderest of manners. She moved over to the other side -of Gail where she could surround her, and laid the brown -head on her shoulder.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I know just how you feel,” she soothingly said. -“You’ve had to refuse to marry a good friend, and you -are reproaching yourself because you were compelled to -hurt him. Of course you are unfair to yourself, and -you feel perfectly miserable, and you will for a while; -but the main point is that you refused him.”</p> - -<p class='c012'><span class='pageno' id='Page_77'>77</span>Gail, whose quick intelligence no intonation escaped, -lay comfortably on Aunt Helen’s shoulder, and a clear -little laugh rippled up. She could not see the smile -of satisfaction and relief with which Aunt Helen Davies -received that laugh.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“My dear, I am quite well pleased with you,” went -on the older woman. “If you handle all your affairs -so sensibly, you have a brilliant future before you.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Gail’s eyelids closed; the long, brown lashes curved -down on her cheeks, revealing just a sparkle of brightness, -while the mischievous little smile twitched at the -corners of her lips.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“If you were an ordinary girl, I would urge you, to-night, -to make a selection among the exceptionally excellent -matrimonial material of which you have a choice, -but, with your extraordinary talents and beauty, my -advice is just to the contrary. You should delay until -you have had a wider opportunity for judgment. You -have not as yet shown any marked preference, I -hope.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Gail’s quite unreasoning impulse was to giggle, but -she clothed her voice demurely.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“No, Aunt Helen.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“You are remarkably wise,” complimented Aunt -Helen, a bit of appreciation which quite checked Gail’s -impulse to giggle. “In the meantime, it is just as well -to study your opportunities. Of course there’s Dick -Rodley, whom no one considers seriously, and Willis -Cunningham, whose one and only drawback is such questionable -health that he might persistently interfere with -your social activities. Houston Van Ploon, I am frank -to say, is the most eligible of all, and to have attracted -his attention is a distinct triumph. Mr. Allison, while -rather advanced in years—”</p> - -<p class='c012'><span class='pageno' id='Page_78'>78</span>“Please!” cried Gail. “You’d think I was a horse.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I know just how you feel,” stated Aunt Helen, entirely -unruffled; “but you have your future to consider, -and I wish to invite your confidence,” and in her voice -there was the quaver of much concern.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Thank you, Aunt Helen,” said Gail, realising the -sincerity of the older woman’s intentions, and, putting -her arms around Mrs. Davies’ neck, she kissed her. “It -is dear of you to take so much interest.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I think it’s pride,” confessed Mrs. Davies, naïvely. -“I won’t keep you up a minute longer, Gail. Go to -bed, and get all the sleep you can. Only sleep will -keep those roses in your cheeks. Good-night,” and -with a parting caress, she went to her own room, with -a sense of a duty well performed.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Gail smiled retrospectively, and tried the blue light -under the canopy lamp, but turned it out immediately. -The green gave a much better effect of moonlight on -the floor.</p> - -<p class='c012'>She called herself back out of the mists of her previous -distress. Who was this Gail, and what was she? -There had come a new need in her, a new awakening. -Something seemed to have changed in her, to have crystallised. -Whatever this crystallisation was, it had -made her know that she could not marry Howard Clemmens. -It had made her know, too, that marriage was -not to be looked upon as a mere inevitable social episode. -Her thoughts flew back to Aunt Helen. Her -eyelashes brushed her cheeks, and the little smile of sarcasm -twitched the corners of her lips.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Aunt Helen’s list of eligibles. Gail reviewed them -now deliberately; not with the thought of the social -advantages they might offer her, but as men. She reviewed -others whom she had met. For the first time -<span class='pageno' id='Page_79'>79</span>in her life, she was frankly and self-consciously interested -in men; curious about them. She had reached her -third stage of development; the fairy prince age, the -“I suppose I shall have to be married one day” age, -and now the age of conscious awakening. She wondered, -in some perplexity, as to what had brought about -her nascence; rather, and she knitted her pretty brows, -who had brought it about.</p> - -<p class='c012'>The library clock chimed the hour, and startled her -out of her reverie. She turned on the lights, and sat -in front of her mirror to give her hair one of those extra -brushings for which it was so grateful, and which it -repaid with so much beauty. She paused deliberately -to study herself in the glass. Why, this was a new -Gail, a more potent Gail. What was it Allison had said -about her potentialities? Allison. Strong, forceful, -aggressive Allison. He was potence itself. A thrill -of his handclasp clung with her yet, and a slight flush -crept into her cheeks.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Aunt Grace had worried about Jim’s little cold, and -the distant mouse she thought she heard, and the silver -chest, and Lucile’s dangerous looking new horse, -until all these topics had failed, when she detected the -unmistakable click of a switch-button near by. It must -be in Gail’s suite. Hadn’t the child retired yet? She -lay quite still pondering that mighty question for ten -minutes, and then, unable to rest any longer, she slipped -out of bed and across the hall. There was no light -coming from under the doors of either the boudoir -or the bedroom, so Aunt Grace peeped into the latter -apartment, then she tiptoed softly away. Gail, in her -cascade of pink flufferies, was at the north window, -kneeling, with her earnest face upturned to one bright -pale star.</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_80'>80</span> - <h2 class='c005'>CHAPTER VIII<br /> <span class='small'>STILL PIECING OUT THE WORLD</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_0_6 c011'>The map of the United States in Edward E. Allison’s -library began, now, to develop little streaks -of red. They were not particularly long streaks, but -they were boldly marked, and they hugged, with extraordinary -closeness, the pencil mark which Allison had -drawn from New York to Chicago and from Chicago -to San Francisco. There were long gaps between -them, but these did not seem to worry him very much. -It was the little stretches, sometimes scarcely over an -inch, which he drew with such evident pleasure from -day to day, and now, occasionally, as he passed in and -out, he stopped by the big globe and gave it a contemplative -whirl. On the day he joined his far western -group of little marks by bridging three small gaps, -he received a caller in the person of a short, well-dressed, -old man, who walked with a cane and looked -half asleep, by reason of the many puffs which had piled -up under his eyes and nearly closed them.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I’m ready to wind up, Tim,” remarked Allison, offering -his caller a cigar, and lighting one himself. -“When can we have that Vedder Court property condemned?”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Whenever you give the word,” reported Tim Corman, -who spoke with an asthmatic voice, and with the -quiet dignity of a man who had borne grave business -responsibilities, and had borne them well.</p> - -<p class='c012'><span class='pageno' id='Page_81'>81</span>Allison nodded his head in satisfaction.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“You’re sure there can’t be any hitch in it.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Not if I say it’s all right,” and the words were -Tim’s only reproof. His tone was perfectly level, and -there was no glint in his eyes. Offended dignity had -nothing to do with business. “Give me one week’s notice, -and the Vedder Court property will be condemned -for the city terminal of the Municipal Transportation -Company. Appraisement, thirty-one million.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I only wanted to be reassured,” apologised Allison. -“I took your word that you could swing it when I made -my own gamble, but now I have to drag other people -into it.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“That’s right,” agreed Tim. “I never get offended -over straight business.” In other times Tim -Corman would have said “get sore,” but, as he neared -the end of his years of useful activity, he was making -quite a specialty of refinement, and stocking a picture -gallery, and becoming a connoisseur collector of rare -old jewels. He dressed three times a day.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“How about the Crescent Island subway?”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Ripe any time,” and Tim Corman flecked the ashes -from his cigar with a heavily gemmed hand. “The -boosters have been working on it right along, but never -too strong.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“There’s no need for any particular manipulation -in that,” decided Allison, who knew the traction situation -to the last nickel. “The city needs that outlet, -and it needs the new territory which will be opened up. -I think we’d better push the subway right on across -to the mainland. The extension would have to be made -in ten years anyhow.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“It’s better right now,” immediately assented Corman. -In ten years he might be dead.</p> - -<p class='c012'><span class='pageno' id='Page_82'>82</span>“I think, too, that we’d better provide for a heavy -future expansion,” went on Allison, glancing expectantly -into Tim’s old eyes. “We’d probably better -provide for a double-deck, eight track tube.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Tim Corman drew a wheezy breath, and then he -grinned the senile shadow of his old-time grin; but it -still had the same spirit.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“You got a hen on,” he deduced. In “society,” -Tim could manage very nicely to use fashionable -language, but, in business, he found it impossible -after the third or fourth minute of conversation. -He had taken in every detail of the room on his entrance, -and his glance had strayed more than once to -the red streaks on the big map. Now he approached -it, and studied it with absorbed interest. “You’re a -smart boy, Ed,” he concluded. “Across Crescent Island -is the only leak where you could snake in a railroad. -You found the only crack that the big systems -haven’t tied up.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“All you can get me to admit, just now, is that the -city needs an eight track tube across Crescent Island, -under lease to the Municipal Transportation Company,” -stated Allison, smiling with gratification. A -compliment of this sort from shrewd old Tim Corman, -who was reputed to be the foxiest man in the world, was -a tribute highly flattering.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“That’s right,” approved Tim. “All I know is a -guess, and I don’t tell guesses. This is a big job, -though, Eddie. A subway to Crescent Island, under -proper restrictions, is just an ordinary year’s work for -the boys, but this tube pokes its nose into Oakland Bay.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I’m quite aware of the size of the job,” chuckled Allison. -“However, Tim, there’ll be money enough behind -this proposition to fill that tube with greenbacks.”</p> - -<p class='c012'><span class='pageno' id='Page_83'>83</span>Between the narrow-slitted and puffy eyelids of -Tim Corman there gleamed a trace of the old-time -genii.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Then it’s built.” He rose and leaned on his cane, -twinkling down on the man who, years before, he had -picked as a “comer.” “I’ve heard people say that -money’s wicked, but they never had any. When I die, -and go down to the big ferry, if the Old Boy comes -along and offers me enough money, I’ll go to Hell.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Still laughing, Allison telephoned to the offices of the -Midcontinent Railroad, and dashed out to his runabout -just in time to see Tim Corman driving around the corner -in his liveried landau. He found in President Urbank, -of the Midcontinent, a spare man who had worn -three vertical creases in his brow over one thwarted ambition. -His rich but sprawling railroad system ran -fairly straight after it was well started for Chicago, -and fairly straight from that way-point until it became -drunken with the monotony of the western foot-hills, -where it gangled and angled its way to the far south -and around up the Pacific coast, arriving there dusty -and rattling, after a thousand mile detour from its -course—but that road had no direct entrance into -New York city. It approached from the north, and was -compelled to circle completely around, over hired tracks, -to gain a ferryboat entrance. Passengers inured to -coming in over the Midcontinent, which was a well-equipped -road otherwise, counted but half their journey -done when they came in sight of New York, no matter -from what distance they had come.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Out marketing for railroads to-day, Gil?” suggested -Allison.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I don’t know,” smiled Urbank. “I might look at -a few.”</p> - -<p class='c012'><span class='pageno' id='Page_84'>84</span>“Here they are,” and Allison tossed him a memorandum -slip.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Urbank glanced at the slip, then he looked up at Allison -in perplexity. He had a funny forward angle to -his neck when he was interested, and the creases -in his brow were deepened until they looked like cuts.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I thought you were joking, and I’m still charitable -enough to think so. What’s all this junk?”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Little remnants and job lots of railroads I’ve been -picking up,” and Allison drew forward his chair. -“Some I bought outright, and in some I hold control.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“If you’re serious about interesting the Midcontinent -in any of this property, we don’t need to waste -much time.” Urbank leaned back and held his knee. -“There are only two of these roads approach the Midcontinent -system at any point, and they are useless -property so far as we are concerned; the L. and C., in -the east, and the Silverknob and Nugget City, in the -west, which touches our White Range branch at its -southern terminus. We couldn’t do anything with -those.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“You landed on the best ones right away,” smiled -Allison. “However, I don’t propose to sell these to -the Midcontinent. I propose to absorb the Midcontinent -with them.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Urbank suddenly remembered Allison’s traction history, -and leaned forward to look at the job lots and -remnants again.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“This list isn’t complete,” he judged, and turned to -Allison with a serious question in his eye.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Almost,” and Allison hitched a little closer to the -desk. “There remains an aggregate of three hundred -and twenty miles of road to be built in four short -<span class='pageno' id='Page_85'>85</span>stretches. In addition to this, I have a twenty year -contract over a hundred mile stretch of the Inland -Pacific, a track right entry into San Francisco, and -this,” and he displayed to Urbank a preliminary copy -of an ordinance, authorising the immediate building of -an eight track tube through Crescent Island to the -mainland. “Possibly you can understand this whole -project better if I show you a map,” and he spread out -his little pocket sketch.</p> - -<p class='c012'>If it had been possible to reverse the processes of -time and worry and wearing concentration, President -Urbank, of the Midcontinent, would have raised from -his inspection of that map with a brow as smooth as a -baby’s. Instead, his lips went dry, as he craned forward -his neck at that funny angle, and projected his -chin with the foolish motion of a goose.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“A direct entrance right slam into the centre of -New York!” he exclaimed, cracking all his knuckles -violently one by one. “Vedder Court! Where’s -that?”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“That’s the best part of the joke,” exulted Allison, -with no thought that Vedder Court was, at this present -moment, church property. “It’s just where you -said; right slam in the centre of New York; and the -building into which the Midcontinent will run its trains -will be also the terminal building of every municipal -transportation line in Manhattan! From my station -platforms, passengers from Chicago or the Far West -will step directly into subway, L., or trolley. When -they come in over the line which is now the Midcontinent, -they will be landed, not across the river, or in -some side street, but right at their own doors, scattering -from the Midcontinent terminal over a hundred traction -lines!” His voice, which had begun in the mild -<span class='pageno' id='Page_86'>86</span>banter of a man passing an idle joke, had risen to a -ring so triumphant that he was almost shouting.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“But—but—wait a minute!” Urbank protested. -He was stuttering. “Where does the Midcontinent -get to the Crescent Island tube?”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Right here,” and Allison pointed to his map. “You -come out of the tube to the L. and C., which has a long-time -tracking privilege over fifty miles of the Towando -Valley, and terminates at Windfield. At Forgeson, -however, just ten miles after the L. and L. leaves the -Towando, that road—”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Is crossed by our tracks!” Urbank eagerly interpreted. -“The Midcontinent, after its direct exit, saves -a seventy mile detour! Then it’s a straight shoot for -Chicago! Straight on again out west—Why, Allison, -your route is almost as straight as an arrow! It -will have a three hundred mile shorter haul than even -the Inland Pacific! You’ll put that road out of the -business! You’ll have the king of transcontinental -lines, and none can ever be built that will save one -kink!” His neck protruded still further from his collar -as he bent over the map. “Here you split off from -the Midcontinent’s main line and utilise the White -Range branch; from Silverknob—My God!” and -his mouth dropped open. “Why—why—why, you -cross the big range <i>over the Inland Pacific’s own -tracks!</i>” and his voice cracked.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Edward E. Allison, his vanity gratified to its very -core, sat back comfortably, smiling and smoking, until -Urbank awoke.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I suppose we can come to some arrangement,” he -mildly suggested.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Urbank looked at him still in a daze for a moment, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_87'>87</span>and a trace of the creases came back into his brow, -then they faded away.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“You figured all this out before you came to me,” -he remarked. “On what terms do we get in?”</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_88'>88</span> - <h2 class='c005'>CHAPTER IX<br /> <span class='small'>THE MINE FOR THE GOLDEN ALTAR</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_0_6 c011'>Vedder Court was a very drunkard among tenement -groups. Its decrepit old wooden buildings, -as if weak-kneed from dissipation and senile -decay, leaned against each other crookedly for support, -and leered down, at the sodden swarms beneath, -out of broken-paned windows which gave somehow a -ludicrous effect of bleared eyes. A heartless civic impulse -had once burdened them with fire escapes, and -these, though they were comparatively new, had already -partaken of the general decay, and looked, with -their motley cluttering of old bedding, and nondescript -garments hung out to dry, and various utensils of the -kitchen and laundry, and various unclassified junk, as -if they were a sort of foul, fungoid growth which had -taken root from the unspeakable uncleanliness within. -There had once been a narrow strip of curbed soil in the -centre of the street, where three long-since departed -trees had given the quarter its name of “Court,” but -this space was now as bare and dry as the asphalt surrounding -it, and, as it was too small even for the purpose -of children at play, a wooden bench, upon which -no one ever sat, as indeed why should they, had long -ago been placed on it, to become loose-jointed and -weather-splintered and rotted, like all the rest of the -neighbourhood.</p> - -<p class='c012'><span class='pageno' id='Page_89'>89</span>As for its tenants; they were exactly the sort of birds -one might expect to find in such foul nests. They were -of many nations, but of just two main varieties; stupid -and squalid, or thin and furtive; but they were all -dirty, and they bore, in their complexions, the poison -of crowded breathing spaces, and bad sewerage, and -unwholesome or insufficient food.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Into this mire, on a day when melting snow had -fallen and made all underfoot a black, shining, oily, -sticky canal, there drove an utterly out-of-place little -electric coupé, set low, and its glistening plate glass -windows hung with absurd little lace curtains held back -by pink ribbon bows. At the wheel was the fresh-cheeked -Gail Sargent, in a driving suit and hat and -veil of brown, and with her was the twinkling-eyed Rufus -Manning, whose white beard rippled down to his -second waistcoat button. They drove slowly the -length of the court and back again, the girl studying -every detail with acute interest. They stopped in -front of Temple Mission, which, with its ugly red and -blue lettering nearly erased by years of monthly -scrubbings, occupied an old store room once used as a -saloon.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“So this is the chrysalis from which the butterfly -cathedral is to emerge,” commented Gail, as Manning -held the door open for her, and before she rose she -peered again around the uninviting “court,” which not -even the bright winter sunshine could relieve of its -dinginess; rather, the sun made it only the more dismal -by presenting the ugliness more in detail.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“This is the mine which produces the gold which is -to gild the altar,” assented Manning, studying the sidewalk. -“I don’t think you’d better come in here. -You’ll spoil your shoes.”</p> - -<p class='c012'><span class='pageno' id='Page_90'>90</span>“I want to see it all this time because I’m never -coming back,” insisted Gail, and placed one daintily -shod foot on the step.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Then I’ll have to shame Sir Walter Raleigh,” -laughed the silvery-bearded Manning, and, to her -gasping surprise, he caught her around the waist and -lifted her across to the door, whereat several soiled -urchins laughed, and one vinegary-faced old woman -grinned, in horrible appreciation, and dropped Manning -a familiarly respectful courtesy.</p> - -<p class='c012'>There was no one in the mission except a broad-shouldered -man with a roughly hewn face, who ducked -his head at Manning and touched his forefinger to the -side of his head. He was placing huge soup kettles -in their holes in the counter at the rear of the room, -and Manning called attention to this.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“A practical mission,” he explained. “We start in -by saving the bodies.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Do you get any further?” inquired Gail, glancing -from the empty benches and the atrociously coloured -“religious” pictures on the walls to the windows, past -which eddied a mass of humanity all but submerged in -hopelessness.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Sometimes,” replied Manning gravely. “I have -seen a soul or two even here. It is because of these -two or three possibilities that the mission is kept up. -It might interest you to know that Market Square -Church spends fifteen thousand dollars a year in charity -relief in Vedder Court alone.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Gail’s eyelids closed, her lashes curved on her cheeks -for an instant, and the corners of her lips twitched.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“And how much a year does Market Square Church -take out of Vedder Court?”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I was waiting for that bit of impertinence,” -<span class='pageno' id='Page_91'>91</span>laughed Manning. “I shall be surprised at nothing -you say since that first day when you characterised -Market Square Church as a remarkably lucrative enterprise. -Have you never felt any compunctions of -conscience over that?”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Not once,” answered Gail promptly. She had -started to seat herself on one of the empty benches, but -had changed her mind. “If I had been given to any -such self-injustice, however, I should reproach myself -now. I think Market Square Church not only commercial -but criminal.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I’ll have to give your soul a chastisement,” smiled -Manning. “These people must live somewhere, and -because Vedder Court, being church property, is exempt -from taxation, they find cheaper rents here than -anywhere in the city. If we were to put up improved -buildings, I don’t know where they would go, because -we would be compelled to charge more rent.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“In order to make the same rate of profit,” responded -Gail. “Out of all this misery, Market Square -Church is reaping a harvest rich enough to build a -fifty million dollar cathedral, and I have sufficient disregard -for the particular Deity under whom you do -business, to feel sure that he would not destroy it by -lightning. I want out of here.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Frankly, so do I,” admitted Manning; “although -I’m ashamed of myself. It’s all right for you, who are -young, to be fastidious, but your Daddy Manning is -coward enough to want to make his peace with Heaven, -after a life which put a few blots on the book.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>She looked at him speculatively for a moment, and -then she laughed.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“You know, I don’t believe that, Daddy Manning. -You’re an old fraud, who does good by stealth, in order -<span class='pageno' id='Page_92'>92</span>to gain the reputation of having been picturesquely -wicked. Tell me why you belong to Market Square -Church.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Because it’s so respectable,” he twinkled down -at her. “When an old sinner has lost every other -claim to respectability, he has himself put on the vestry.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>He dropped behind on their way to the door, to surreptitiously -slip something, which looked like money, to -the man with the roughly hewn countenance, and as he -stood talking, the Reverend Smith Boyd came in, not -quite breathlessly, but as if he had hurried.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I knew you were here,” he said, taking Gail’s slender -hand in his own; then his eyes turned cold.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“You recognised my pink ribbon bows,” and she -laughed up at him frankly. “You haven’t been over -to sing lately.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“No,” he replied, seemingly blunt, because he could -not say he had been too busy.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Why?” this innocently round-eyed.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Even bluntness could not save him here.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Will you be at home this evening?” he evaded, -still with restraint.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I’ll have our music selected,” and, in the very midst -of her brightness, she was stopped by the sudden sombreness -in the rector’s eyes.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Eight o’clock?”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“That will be quite agreeable.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Simple little conversation; quite trivial indeed, but -it had been attended by much shifting thought. To -begin with, the rector regretted the necessity of disapproving -of a young lady so undeniably attractive. She -was a pleasure to the eye and a stimulus to the mind, -and always his first impulse when he thought of her -<span class='pageno' id='Page_93'>93</span>was one of pleasure, but in the very moment of taking -her hand, he saw again that picture of Gail, clasped in -the arms of the impulsive young man from home. -That picture had made it distasteful for him to call and -sing. He had not been too busy! Another incident -flashed back to him. The night of the toboggan party, -when she had stood with her face upturned, and the -moonlight gleaming on her round white throat. He -had trembled, much to his later sorrow, as he fastened -the scarf about her warm neck. However, she was the -visiting niece of one of his vestrymen, who lived next -door to the rectory. She was particularly charming in -this outfit of brown, which enhanced so much her rich -tints.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Gail jerked her pretty head impatiently. If the -Reverend Smith Boyd meant to be as sombre as this, -she’d rather he’d stay at home. He was dreadfully -gloomy at times; though she was compelled to admit -that he was good-looking, in a manly sort of way, and -had a glorious voice and a stimulating mind. She invariably -recalled him with pleasure, but something about -him aggravated her so. Strange about that quick -withdrawal of his hand. It was almost rude. He had -done the same thing at the toboggan party. He had -fastened her scarf, and then he had jerked away his -hands as if he were annoyed! However, he was the -rector, and her Uncle Jim was a vestryman, and they -lived right next door.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“You just escaped a blowing up, Doctor Boyd,” -observed “Daddy” Manning, joining them, and his -eyes twinkled from one to the other. “Our young -friend from the west is harsh with the venerable Market -Square Church.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Again?” and the Reverend Smith Boyd was gracious -<span class='pageno' id='Page_94'>94</span>enough to smile. “What is the matter with it -this time?”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“It is not only commercial, but criminal,” repeated -Manning, with a sly smile at Gail, who now wore a little -red spot in each cheek.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“In what way?” and the rector turned to her severely.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“The mere fact that your question needs an answer -is sufficient indication of the callousness of every one -connected with Market Square Church,” she promptly -informed him. “That the church should permit a spot -like this to exist, when it has the power to obliterate it, -is unbelievable; but that it should make money from -the condition is infamous!”</p> - -<p class='c012'>The Reverend Smith Boyd’s cold eyes turned green, -as he glared at this daring young person. In offending -the dignity of Market Square Church she offended -his own.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“What would you have us do?” he quietly asked.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Retire from business,” she informed him, nettled -by the covert sneer at her youth and inexperience. -She laid aside a new perplexity for future solution. In -moments such as this the rector was far from ministerial, -and he displayed a quickness to anger quite out of -proportion to the apparent cause. “The whole trouble -with Market Square Church, and of the churches -throughout the world, is that they have no God. The -Creator has been reduced to a formula.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Daddy Manning saved the rector the pain of any -answer.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“You’re a religious anarchist,” he charged Gail.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Her face softened.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“By no means,” she replied. “I am a devoted follower -of the Divine Spirit, the Divine Will, the Divine -<span class='pageno' id='Page_95'>95</span>Law; but not of the church; for it has forgotten these -things.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“You don’t know what you are saying,” the rector -told her.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“That isn’t all you mean,” she retorted. “What -you have in mind is that, being a woman, and young, -I should be silent. You would not permit thought if -you could avoid it, for when people begin to think, -religion lives but the church dies; as it is doing to-day.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Now the Reverend Smith Boyd could be triumphant. -There was a curl of sarcasm on his lips.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Are you quite consistent?” he charged. “You -have just been objecting to the prosperity of the -church.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Financially,” she admitted; “but it is a spiritual -bankrupt. Your financial prosperity is a direct sign -of your religious decay. Your financial bankruptcy -will come later, as it has done in France, as it is doing -in Italy, as it will do all over the world. Humanity -treats the church with the generosity due a once valuable -servant who has out-lived his usefulness.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“My dear child, humanity can never do without religion,” -interposed Daddy Manning.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Agreed,” said Gail; “but it outgrows them. It -outgrew paganism, idolatry, and a score of minor -phases in between. Now it is outgrowing the religion -of creed, in its progress toward morality. What we -need is a new religion.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“You are blaming the church with a fault which -lies in the people,” protested the rector, shocked and -disturbed, and yet feeling it his duty to set Gail right. -He was ashamed of himself for having been severe with -her in his mind. She was less frivolous than he had -<span class='pageno' id='Page_96'>96</span>thought, and what she needed was spiritual instruction. -“The people are luke-warm.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“What else could they be with the watery spiritual -gruel which the church provides?” retorted Gail. “You -feed us discarded bugaboos, outworn tenets, meaningless -forms and ceremonies. All the rest of the world -progresses, but the church stands still. Once in a -decade some sect patches its creed, and thinks it -has been revolutionary, when in fact it has only caught -up with a point which was passed by humanity at large, -in its advancing intelligence, fifty years before.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I am interested in knowing what your particular -new religion would be like,” remarked Daddy Manning, -his twinkling eyes resting affectionately on her.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“It would be a return to the simple faith in God,” -Gail told him reverently. “It is still in the hearts of -the people, as it will always be; but they have nowhere -to gather together and worship.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Daddy Manning laughed as he detected that bit of -sarcasm.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“According to that we are wasting our new cathedral.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Absolutely!” and it struck the rector with pain -that Gail had never looked more beautiful than now, -with her cheeks flushed and her brown eyes snapping -with indignation. “Your cathedral will be a monument, -built out of the profits wrung from squalor, to -the vanity of your congregation. If I were the dictator -of this wonderful city of achievement, I would -decree that cathedral never to be built, and Vedder -Court to be utterly destroyed!”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“It is perhaps just as well that you are not the dictator -of the city.” The young Reverend Smith Boyd -gazed down at her from his six feet of serious purpose, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_97'>97</span>with all his previous disapproval intensified. “The -history of Market Square Church is rich with instances -of its usefulness in both the spiritual and the material -world, with evidence of its power for good, with justification -for its existence, with reason for its acts. You -make the common mistake of judging an entire body -from one surface indication. Do you suppose there -is no sincerity, no conscience, no consecration in Market -Square Church?” His deep, mellow baritone vibrated -with the defence of his purpose and that of the -institution which he represented. “Why do you suppose -our vestrymen, whose time is of enormous value, -find a space amid their busy working hours for the affairs -of Market Square Church? Why do you suppose -the ladies of our guild, who have agreeable pursuits -for every hour of the day, give their time to committee -and charity work?” He paused for a hesitant -moment. “Why do you suppose I am so eager for -the building, on American soil, of the most magnificent -house of worship in the world?”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Gail’s pretty upper lip curled.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Personal ambition!” she snapped, and, without -waiting to see the pallor which struck his face to stone, -she heeled her way out through the mud to her coupé.</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_98'>98</span> - <h2 class='c005'>CHAPTER X<br /> <span class='small'>THE STORM CENTRE OF MAGNETIC ATTRACTION</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_0_6 c011'>“Brother Bones,” said Interlocutor Ted -Teasdale commandingly, with his knuckles on -his right knee and his elbow at the proper angle.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Yes, sir, Mr. Interlocutor,” replied Willis Cunningham, -whose “black-face make-up” seemed marvellously -absurd in connection with his brown Vandyke.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Brother Bones, when does everybody love a storm?”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I don’t know, Mr. Interlocutor,” admitted Brother -Bones Cunningham, touching his kinky wig with the tip -of one forefinger. “When does everybody love a -storm?”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Interlocutor Ted Teasdale roved his eye over the assemblage, -of fifty or more, in his own ballroom, and -smiled in a superior fashion. The ebony-faced semicircle -of impromptu minstrels, banded together that -morning, leaned forward with anticipatory grins. -They had heard the joke in rehearsal. It was a -corker!</p> - -<p class='c012'>“When it’s a Gail,” he replied, whereat Gail Sargent, -at whom everybody looked and laughed, flushed -prettily, and the bones and tambos made a flourish, and -the Interlocutor announced that the Self Help Glee -Club would now sing that entrancing ditty, entitled -“Mary Had a Little Calf.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>It was only in the blossom of the evening at Ted -Teasdale’s country house, the same being about eleven -<span class='pageno' id='Page_99'>99</span>o’clock, and the dance was still to begin. Lucile Teasdale’s -vivid idea for making her house-party notable -was to induce their guests to amuse themselves; and -their set had depended upon hired entertainers for so -long that the idea had all the charm of distinct novelty. -There had been an amazingly smart operetta written -on the spot by Willis Cunningham, and with musical -settings by Arlene Fosland. Rippingly clever thing! -“The Tea Room Suffragettes!” Ball afterwards, of -course, until four o’clock in the morning. To-night -the minstrel show, and a ball; to-morrow night <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">tableaux -vivant</span>, and a ball; fancy dress this time, and all costumes -to be devised from the materials at hand by the -wearer’s own ingenuity. Fine? No end of it! One -could always be sure of having a lively time around -Lucile and Ted Teasdale and Arly Fosland. Gerald -Fosland was at this party. Fine chap, Gerald, and -beautifully decent in his attentions to Arly. Pity they -were so rotten bored with each other; but there you -were! Each should have married a blonde.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Gail Sargent fairly scintillated with enjoyment. She -had never attended so brilliant a house-party. Her -own set back home had a lot of fun, but this was in -some way different. The people were no more clever, -but there were more clever people among them; that -was it. There had been a wider range from which to -pick, which was why, in New York, there were so many -circles, and circles within circles.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Gail was sparkling all the time. There was a constant -flash of wit, not of a very high order, to be sure, -nor exceptionally brilliant, which latter was its chief -charm. Some wit has to be taken so very seriously. -There were dashes into the brisk, exhilarating winter -air, there were lazy breakfasts, where three or four of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_100'>100</span>the girls grouped in one room, there was endless gaiety -and laughter, and, above all, oceans and oceans of flirtation. -The men whom Lucile and Arly had collected -were an especial joy. They had all the accomplished -outward symbols of fervour without any of its oppressive -insistence. Gail, as an agreeable duty to her new -found self, experimented with several of them, and found -them most amusing and pleasant, but nothing more disturbing.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Dick Rodley was the most persistent, and, in spite of -the fact that he was so flawlessly handsome as to excite -ridicule, Gail found herself, by and by, defending him -against her own iconoclastic sense of humour. He -reached her after the minstrel show, while Houston Van -Ploon and Willis Cunningham were still struggling profanely -with their burnt cork, and he stole her from under -the very eyes of Jack Lariby, while that smitten -youth was exchanging wit, at a tremendous loss, with -caustic Arly Fosland.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Have you seen the new century plant in the conservatory?” -Dick asked, beaming down at her, his black -eyes glowing like coals.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Gail’s eyelids flashed down for an instant, and the -corners of her lips twitched. Young Lariby had only -been with her five minutes, but she had felt herself ageing -in that time.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I love them,” she avowed, and glancing backward -just once, she tiptoed hastily away with the delighted -Dick. That young man had looked deep into the eyes -of many women, and at last he was weary of being -adored. He led Gail straight to the sequestered corner -behind the date palms, but it was occupied by Bobby -Chalmers and Flo Reynolds. He strolled with Gail to -the seat behind the rose screen, but it was fully engaged, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_101'>101</span>and he led the way out toward the geranium alcove.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I’ve missed you so this evening,” he earnestly confided -to her. “I was two hours in the minstrel show. -It was forever, Gail!” and he bent his glowing eyes -upon her. That was it! His wonderful eyes! They -were magnetic, compelling, and one would be dull who -could not find a response to the thrill of them.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Where is the century plant?” He was a tremendously -pleasant fellow. When she walked through a -crowded room with Dick, she knew, from the looks of -admiration, just what people were saying; that they -were an extraordinarily handsome couple.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“There is no century plant,” he shamelessly confessed.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I knew it,” and she laughed.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I don’t mind admitting that it was a point-blank -lie,” he cheerfully told her. “I wanted to get you out -here alone, all to myself,” and his voice went down two -tones. He did do it so prettily!</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I’ve counted seven couples,” she gaily responded.</p> - -<p class='c012'>He tightened his arm where her hand lay in it, and -she left it there.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“You’ve clinched Lucile’s reputation,” he stated. -“She always has been famous for picking good ones; -but she saved you for the climax.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“My happy, happy childhood days,” laughed Gail. -“The boys used to talk that way on the way home from -school.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I don’t doubt it,” and Dick smiled appreciatively. -“The dullest sort of a boy would find himself saying -nice things to you; but I shall stop it.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Oh, please don’t!” begged Gail. “You are so delightful -at it.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>He pounced on a corner half hidden by a tub of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_102'>102</span>ferns. There was no bench there, but it was at least -semi-isolated, and he leaned gracefully against the -window-ledge, looking down at her earnestly as she -stood, slenderly outlined against the green of the ferns, -in her gown of delicate blue sparkling with opalescent -flakes.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“That’s just the trouble,” he complained. “I don’t -wish you to be aware that I am saying what you call -pretty things. I wish, instead, to be effective,” and -there was a roughness in his voice which had come for -the first time. She was a trifle startled by it, and she -lowered her eyes before the steady gaze which he poured -down on her. Why, he was in earnest!</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Then take me to Lucile,” she smiled up at him, and -strolled in toward the ballroom.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Willis Cunningham met them at the door.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“You promised me the first dance,” he breathlessly -informed Gail. He had been walking rapidly.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Are they ready?” she inquired, stepping a pace -away from Dick.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Well, the musicians are coming in,” evaded Cunningham, -tucking her hand in his arm.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I’ve the second one, remember, Gail,” Dick reminded -her, as he glanced around the ballroom for his -own partner, but Gail distinctly felt his eyes following -her as she walked away with Cunningham.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I know now of what your profile reminds me,” -Cunningham told her; “the Charmeaux ‘Praying -Nymph.’ It is the most spiritually beautiful of all the -pictures in the Louvre.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I wonder which is the stronger emotion in me just -now,” she returned; “gratified vanity or curiosity.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I hope it’s the latter,” smiled Cunningham. “I -<span class='pageno' id='Page_103'>103</span>recall now a gallery in which there is a very good copy -of the Charmeaux canvas, and I’d be delighted to take -you.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I’ll go with pleasure,” promised Gail, and Cunningham -turned to her with a grateful smile.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I would prefer to show you the original,” he ventured.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Oh, look at them tuning their drums,” cried Gail, -and he thought that she had entirely missed his hint, -that the keenest delight in his life would be to lead her -through the Louvre, and from thence to a perspective -of picture galleries, dazzling with all the hues of the -spectrum, and as long as life!</p> - -<p class='c012'>He had other things which he wanted to say, but he -calculatingly reserved them for the day of the picture -viewing, when he would have her exclusive attention; -so, through the dance, he talked of trifles far from his -heart. He was a nice chap, too.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Dick Rodley was on hand with the last stroke of the -music, to claim her for his dance. By one of those -waves of unspoken agreement, Gail was being “rushed.” -It was her night, and she enjoyed it to the full. Perhaps -the new awakening in Gail, the crystallisation of -which she had been forced to become conscious, had -something to do with this. Her cheeks, while no more -beautiful in their delicacy of colouring, had a certain -quality of translucence, which gave her the indefinable -effect of glowing from within; her eyes, while no -brighter, had changed the manner of their brightness. -They had lost something of their sparkle, which had -been replaced by a peculiarly enticing half-veiled scintillation, -much as if they were smouldering, only to cast -off streams of brilliant sparks at the slightest disturbance; -<span class='pageno' id='Page_104'>104</span>while all about her was the vague intangible aura -of magnetic attraction which seemed to flutter and to -soothe and to call, all in one.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Dick Rodley was the first to know this vague change -in her; perhaps because Dick, with all his experience in -the social diversion of love-making, was, after all, more -spiritual in his physical perceptions. At any rate he -hovered near her at every opportunity throughout the -evening, and his own eyes, which had the natural trick -of glowing, now almost blazed when they met those of -Gail. She liked him, and she did not. She was thrown -into a flutter of pleasure when he came near her, she -enjoyed a clash of wit, and of will, and of snappy -mutual attraction; then suddenly she wanted him away -from her, only to welcome him eagerly when he came -back.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Van Ploon danced with her, danced conscientiously, -keeping perfect time to the music, avoiding, with practised -adroitness, every possible pocketing, or even hem -contacts with surrounding couples, and acquitting himself -of lightly turned observations at the expiration of -about every seventy seconds. He was aware that Gail -was exceptionally pretty to-night, but, if he stopped to -analyse it at all, he probably ascribed it to her delicate -blue dancing frock with its opalescent flakes, or her -coiffure, or something of the sort. He quite approved -of her; extraordinarily so. He had never met a girl -who approached so near the thousand per cent. grade -of perfection by all the blue ribbon points.</p> - -<p class='c012'>It was while she was enjoying her second restful -dance with Van Ploon that Gail, swinging with him near -the south windows, heard the honk of an auto horn, and -a repetition close after, and, by the acceleration of -tone, she discerned that the machine was coming up the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_105'>105</span>drive at break-neck speed. Moreover, her delicately -attuned musical ear recognised something familiar in -the sound of the horn; perhaps tone, perhaps duration, -perhaps inflection, more likely a combination of all -three. Consequently, she was not at all surprised -when, near the conclusion of the dance, she saw Allison -standing in the doorway of the ballroom, with his hands -in his pockets, watching her with a smile. Her eyes -lighted with pleasure, and she nodded gaily to him over -Van Ploon’s tall shoulder. When the dance stopped -she was on the far side of the room, and was instantly -the centre of a buzzing little knot of dancers, from out -of which carefree laughter radiated like visible flashes -of musical sound. She emerged from the group with -the arms of two bright-eyed girls around her waist, and -met Allison sturdily breasting the currents which had -set towards the conservatory, the drawing-rooms, or the -buffet.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Nobody has saved me a dance,” he complained.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Nobody expected you until to-morrow,” Gail smilingly -returned, introducing him to the girls. “I’ll beg -you one of my dances from Ted or somebody.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>She was so obviously slated to entertain Allison during -this little intermission, that Van Ploon, following -the trio in duty bound, took one of the girls and went -away, and her partner led the other one to the music -room.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I’ll have Lucile piece you out a card,” offered Gail, -as they strolled naturally across to the little glass enclosed -balcony. “I don’t think I can secure you one -of Arly’s dances. She’s scandalously popular to-night.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“One will be enough for me, unless you can steal me -some more of your own,” he told her, glancing down at -<span class='pageno' id='Page_106'>106</span>her, from coiffure to blue pointed slippers, with calm -appreciation. “You are looking great to-night,” and -his gaze came back to rest in her glowing eyes. Her -fresh colour had been heightened by the excitement of -the evening, but now an added flush swept lightly over -her cheeks, and passed.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I’ll see what I can do,” she speculated, looking at -her dance card. “The next three are with total -strangers, and of course I can’t touch those,” she -laughed. “The fourth one is with Willis Cunningham, -and after that is a brief wilderness again. I think -one is all you get.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I’m lucky even to have that,” declared Allison in -content. “The fourth dance down. That will just -give me time to punish the buffet. I’m hungry as a -bear. I started out here without my dinner.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>They stood at the balcony windows looking out into -the wintry night. There was not much to see, not even -the lacing of the bare trees against the clouded sky. -The snow had gone, and where the light from the windows -cut squarely on the ground were bare walks, and -cold marble, and dead lawn; all else was blackness; but it -was a sufficient landscape for people so intensely concentrated -upon themselves.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Her next partner came in search of her presently, and -the music struck up, and Allison, nodding to his many -acquaintances jovially, for he was in excellent humour -in these days of building, and planning, and clearing -ground for an entirely new superstructure of life, circled -around to the dining room, where he performed -savage feats at the buffet. Soon he was out again, -standing quietly at the edge of things, and watching -Gail with keen pleasure, both when she danced and -when, in the intermissions, the gallants of the party -<span class='pageno' id='Page_107'>107</span>gravitated to her like needles to a magnet. Her popularity -pleased him, and flattered him. Suddenly he -caught sight of Eldridge Babbitt, a middle-aged man -who was watching a young woman with the same pleasure -Allison was experiencing in the contemplation of -Gail.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Just the man I wanted to see,” announced Allison, -making his way to Babbitt. “I have a new freightage -proposition for the National Dairy Products Consolidation.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Babbitt brightened visibly. He had been missing -something keenly these past two days, and now all at -once he realised what it was; business.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I can’t see any possible new angle,” returned Babbitt -cautiously, and with a backward glance at the -dashing young Mrs. Babbitt. He headed instinctively -for the library.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Laughingly Gail finished her third dance down. She -had enjoyed several sparkling encounters in passing -with Dick Rodley, and she was buoyantly exhilarated as -she started to stroll from the floor with her partner. -She had wanted to find cherub-cheeked Marion Kenneth, -and together they walked through the conservatory, and -the dining room, and the deserted billiard room, with -its bright light on the green cloth and all the rest of -the room in dimness. There was a narrow space at -one point between the chairs and the table, and it unexpectedly -wedged them into close contact. With a -sharp intake of his breath, the fellow, a ruddy-faced, -thick-necked, full-lipped young man who had followed -her with his eyes all evening, suddenly turned, and -caught her in his embrace, and, holding back her head in -the hollow of his arm, kissed her; a new kiss to her, and -horrible!</p> - -<p class='c012'><span class='pageno' id='Page_108'>108</span>Suddenly he released her, and stepped back abruptly, -filled with remorse.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Forgive me, Miss Sargent,” he begged.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Gail nodded her numb acceptance of the apology, -and turning, hurried out of the side door to the veranda. -Her knees were trembling, but the fresh, cold air -steadied her, and she walked the full length of the wide -porch, trying instinctively to forget the sickening humiliation. -As she came to the corner of the house, the -sharp winter wind tore at her, smote her throat, clutched -at her bare shoulders, and stopped her with a sharp -physical command. She drew her gauzy little dancing -scarf around her, and held it tightly knotted at her -throat, and edged closer to the house. She was near -a window, and, advancing a step, she looked in. It was -the library, and Allison sat there, so clean and wholesome -looking, with his pink shaven face and his white -evening waistcoat, and his dark hair beginning to -sprinkle with grey at the temples. He was so sturdy -and so strong and so dependable looking, as he sat -earnestly talking with Babbitt. Allison said something, -and they both smiled; then Babbitt said something and -they both threw back their heads and laughed, while -Allison, with one hand in his pocket, waved his other -hand over a memorandum pad which lay between them. -Gail hurried to the front door and rang the bell.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Hello, Gail,” greeted the cheery voice of Allison, -as she came in. “My dance next, isn’t it?”</p> - -<p class='c012'>His voice was so good, so comforting, so reassuring.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I think so,” she replied, standing hesitantly in the -doorway, and thankful that the lights were canopied in -this room.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Allison drew the memorandum pad toward him, and -rose.</p> - -<div id='fp_109' class='figcenter id001'> -<img src='images/fp_109.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic001'> -<p>She was glad to be alone, to rescue herself from the whirl of anger and indignation and humiliation which had swept around her</p> -</div> -</div> - -<p class='c012'><span class='pageno' id='Page_109'>109</span>“By the way, there’s one thing I forgot to tell you, -Babbitt, and it’s rather important.” He hesitated and -glanced toward the door. “You’ll excuse me just half -a minute, won’t you, Gail?”</p> - -<p class='c012'>She had noticed that assumption of intimate understanding -in him before, and she had secretly admired it. -Now it was a comfort and a joy.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Surely,” she granted, and passed on in to the library -alcove, a sheltered nook where she was glad to be -alone, to rescue herself from the whirl of anger, and -indignation, and humiliation—above all, humiliation!—which -had swept around her. What had she done -to bring this despicable experience upon herself? -What evil thing had there been in her to summons forth -this ugly spectre? She had groped almost deliberately -for that other polarity which should complete her, but -this painful moment was not one of the things for which -she had sought. She could not know, but she had passed -one of the inevitable milestones. The very crystallisation -which had brightened and whetted her to a keen -zest in her natural destiny, had attracted this fellow, -inevitably. Her face was hot and cold by turns, and -she was almost on the point of crying, in spite of her -constantly reiterated self-admonishment that she must -control herself here, when Allison came to the door of -the alcove.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“All right, Gail,” he said laconically.</p> - -<p class='c012'>She felt suddenly weary, but she rose and joined him. -When she slipped her hand in his arm, strong, and -warm, and pulsing, she was aware of a thrill from it, -but the thrill was just restfulness.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“You look a little tired,” judged the practical Allison, -as they strolled, side by side, into the hall, and he -patted the slender hand which lay on his arm.</p> - -<p class='c012'><span class='pageno' id='Page_110'>110</span>“Not very,” she lightly replied, and unconsciously -she snuggled her hand more comfortably into its resting -place. A little sigh escaped her lips, deep-drawn -and fluttering. It was a sigh of content.</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_111'>111</span> - <h2 class='c005'>CHAPTER XI<br /> <span class='small'>“GENTLEMEN, THERE IS YOUR EMPIRE!”</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_0_6 c011'>The seven quiet gentlemen who sat with Allison at -his library table, followed the concluding flourish -of his hand toward the map on the wall, and either -nodded or blinked appreciatively. The red line on his -map was complete now, a broad, straight line from the -Atlantic to the Pacific, and to it were added, on either -side, irregular, angling red lines like the legs of a centipede, -the feeders of the various systems which were -under control of the new Atlantic-Pacific Railroad.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“That’s a brilliant piece of engineering, Allison,” -observed huge Richard Haverman, by way of pleasant -comment, and he glanced admiringly at Allison after -his eye had roved around the little company of notables. -The feat of bringing these seven men together at a -specific hour, was greater than having consolidated the -brilliant new Atlantic-Pacific Railroad.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Let’s get to the details,” barked a voice with the -volume of a St. Bernard. It came from Arthur Grandin, -the head of the Union Fuel Company, which controlled -all the wood and coal in the United States, and -all the oil in the world. His bald spot came exactly -on a level with the back of his chair, and he wore a -fierce moustache.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I’m putting in the Atlantic-Pacific as my share of -the pool, gentlemen,” explained Allison. “My project, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_112'>112</span>as I have told you, is to make this the main trunk, the -vertebræ as it were, of the International Transportation -Company. I have consolidated with the A.-P. the -Municipal Transportation Company, and I have put -my entire fortune in it, to lay it on the table absolutely -unencumbered.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>He threw down the Atlantic-Pacific Railroad and the -Municipal Transportation Company in the form of a -one sheet typewritten paper.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“We’d better appoint some one to look after the -legal end of things,” suggested the towering Haverman, -whose careless, lounging attitude contrasted oddly with -his dignified long beard.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I’ll take care of it,” said W. T. Chisholm, of the -Majestic Trust Company, and drawing the statement -in front of him, he set a paperweight on it.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“The first step is not one of incorporation,” went -on Allison. “Before that is done there must be but -one railroad system in the United States.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Smooth-shaven old Joseph G. Clark nodded his head. -There was but one cereal company in the United States, -and the Standard, in the beginning, had been the smallest. -Two of the heads of rival concerns were now in -Clark’s employ, one was a pauper, and three were dead. -He disliked the pauper.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Robert E. Taylor, of the American Textiles Company, -a man who had quite disproved the theory that -constructive business genius was confined to the North, -smoothed his grey moustache reflectively, with the tip -of his middle finger, all the way out to its long point.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I can see where you will tear up the east and west -traffic situation to a considerable extent,” he thoughtfully -commented; “but without the important north -and south main trunks you can not make a tight web.”</p> - -<p class='c012'><span class='pageno' id='Page_113'>113</span>Allison went over to his wall map, with a step in -which there was the spring of a boy. A. L. Vance, of -the United States Supplies Company, which controlled -beef, sugar, and practically all other food products, -except those mighty necessities under the sways of the -Standard Cereal Company and Eldridge Babbitt’s National -Dairy Products Consolidation, studied the buoyant -Allison with a puzzled expression. He had seen -Allison grow to care-burdened manhood, and suddenly -Ed seemed twenty years younger. Only Eldridge Babbitt -knew the secret of this miraculous rejuvenescence. -Babbitt had married late in life; a beautiful young -woman!</p> - -<p class='c012'>“The key to the north and south situation is here,” -said Allison, and he drew a firm, swift, green line down -across the United States, branching at each end. -“George Dalrymple will be here in half an hour, and -by that time I trust we may come to some agreement.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“It depends on what you want,” boomed Arthur -Grandin, who, sitting beside the immense Haverman, -looked as if that giant had shrunk him by his mere -proximity.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Freight, to begin with,” stated Allison, resuming -his place at the head of the table, but not his seat. -“You gentlemen represent the largest freightage interests -in the United States. You all know your -relative products, and yet, in order to grasp this situation -completely, I wish to enumerate them. Babbitt’s -National Dairy Products Consolidation can -swing the shipment of every ounce of butter, cream, -cheese, eggs and poultry handled in this country; -Clark’s Standard Cereal Company, wheat, corn, -oats, rice, barley, malt, flour, every ounce of breadstuffs -or cereal goods, grown on American soil; Haverman, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_114'>114</span>the Amalgamated Metals Constructive Company, -every pound of iron, lead, and copper, and every ton -of ore, from the moment it leaves the ground until it -appears as an iron web in a city sky or spans a -river; Grandin, the Union Fuel Company, coal and -wood, from Alaska to Pennsylvania, with oil and all its -enormous by-products; Taylor, the American Textiles -Company, wool, cotton, flax, the raw and finished material -of every thread of clothing we wear, or any other -textile fabric we use except silk; Vance, the United -States Supplies Company, meat, sugar, fruit, the main -blood and sinew builders of the country. Gentlemen, -give me the freightage controlled by your six companies, -and I’ll toss the rest of the country’s freightage -to a beggar.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“You forgot Chisholm,” Babbitt reminded him, and -Banker Chisholm’s white mutton chops turned pink -from the appreciation which glowed in his ruddy-veined -face.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Allison was quite right,” returned big Haverman -with a dry smile. “The freightage income on money -is an item scarcely worth considering.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Give the Atlantic-Pacific this freight, and, inside -of two years, the entire business of the United States, -with all its ramifications, will be merged in one management, -and that management ours. We shall not need -to absorb, nor purchase, a single railroad until it is -bankrupt.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Sensible idea, Allison,” approved Clark, of the -Standard Cereal Company. “It’s a logical proposition -which I had in mind years ago.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Allison’s stroke of genius, it seems to me, consists -in getting us together,” smiled big Haverman, hanging -his arm over the back of his chair.</p> - -<p class='c012'><span class='pageno' id='Page_115'>115</span>Banker Chisholm leaned forward on the table, and -stroked his round chin reflectively. “There would be -some disorganisation, and perhaps financial disorder, -in the first two years,” he considered; “but the railroads -are already harassed too much by the government -to thrive under competition, and, in the end, I believe -this proposed centralisation would be the best -thing for the interests of the country”; wherein Chisholm -displayed that he was a vestryman of Market -Square Church wherever he went.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“What is your proposition?” asked Grandin, who, -because of the self-assertion necessitated by his diminutive -size, seemed pompous, but was not. No pompous -man could have merged the wood, coal, and oil interests, -and, having merged them, swung them over his -own shoulder.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Allison’s answer consisted of one word.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Consolidation,” he said.</p> - -<p class='c012'>There was a moment of silence, while these men absorbed -that simple idea, and glanced speculatively, not -at Allison, but at each other. They were kings, these -heads of mighty corporations, whose emissaries carried -their sovereignties into the furthest corners of the earth. -Like friendly kings, they had helped each other in the -protection of their several domains; but this was another -matter.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“That’s a large proposition, Ed,” stated Vance, -very thoughtfully. All sense of levity had gone from -this meeting. They had come, as they thought, to promote -a large mutual interest, but not to weld a Frankenstein. -“I did not understand your project to be so -comprehensive. I fancied your idea to be that the -various companies represented here, with Chisholm as -financial controller, should take a mutual interest in -<span class='pageno' id='Page_116'>116</span>the support of the Atlantic-Pacific Railroad, for the -purpose of consolidating the railroad interests of the -country under one management, thereby serving our -own transportation needs.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Very well put, Vance,” approved Taylor, smoothing -his pointed moustache.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“That is a mere logical development of the railroad -situation,” returned Allison. “If I had not cemented -this direct route, some one would have made the consolidation -you mention within ten years, for the entire -railroad situation has been disorganised since the death -of three big men in that field; and the scattered holdings -would be, and are, an easy prey for any one vitally -interested enough to invade the industry. I have no -such minor proposition in mind. I propose, with the -Atlantic-Pacific as a nucleus, to, first, as I have said, -bring the financial terminals of every mile of railroad -in the United States into one central office. With this -I then propose to combine the National Dairy Products -Consolidation, the Standard Cereal Company, the -Amalgamated Metals Constructive Company, the -Union Fuel, American Textiles, the United States Supplies, -and the stupendous financial interests swayed by -the banks tributary to the Majestic Trust Company. -I propose to weld these gigantic concerns into one corporation, -which shall be the mightiest organisation the -world has ever known. Beginning with the control of -transportation, it will control all food, all apparel, all -construction materials, all fuel. From the shoes on -his feet to the roof over his head, every man in the -United States of America, from labourer to president, -shall pay tribute to the International Transportation -Company. Gentlemen, if I have dreamed big, it is because -<span class='pageno' id='Page_117'>117</span>I have dealt with men who deal only in large -dreams. What I propose is an empire greater than -that ever swayed by any monarch in history. We -eight men, who are here in this room, can build that -empire with a scratch of a pen, and can hold it against -the assaults of the world!”</p> - -<p class='c012'>His voice rang as he finished, and Babbitt looked at -him in wonder. Allison had always been a strong -man, but now, in this second youth, he was an Anteus -springing fresh from the earth. There was a moment’s -lull, and then a nasal voice drawled into the silence.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Allison;” it was the voice of old Joseph G. Clark, -who had built the Standard Cereal Company out of one -wheat elevator; “who is to be the monarch of your -new empire?”</p> - -<p class='c012'>For just a moment Allison looked about him. Vastly -different as these men were, from the full-bearded Haverman -to the smooth-shaven old Joseph G. Clark, there -was some one expression which was the same in every -man, and that expression was mastery. These men, by -the sheer force of their personality, by the sheer dominance -of their wills, by the sheer virility of their purposes, -by the sheer dogged persistence which balks at -no obstacle and hesitates at no foe, had fought and -strangled and throttled their way to the top, until they -stood head and shoulders above all the strong men of -their respective domains, safe from protest or dispute -of sovereignty, because none had risen strong enough -to do them battle. They were the undefeated champions -of their classes, and the life of every man in that -group was an epic! Who was to be monarch of the -new empire? Allison answered that question as simply -as he had the others.</p> - -<p class='c012'><span class='pageno' id='Page_118'>118</span>“The best man,” he said.</p> - -<p class='c012'>There had been seven big men in America. Now -there were eight. They all recognised that.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Of course,” went on Allison, “my proposition does -not assume that any man here will begin by relinquishing -control of his own particular branch of the International -Transportation Company; sugar, beef, iron, -steel, oil, and the other commodities will all be under -their present handling; but each branch will so support -and benefit the other that the position of the consolidation -itself will be impregnable against competition or -the assaults of government. The advantages of control, -collection, and distribution, are so vast that they -far outweigh any possible question of personal aggrandisement.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Don’t hedge, Allison,” barked Arthur Grandin. -“You expressed it right in the first place. You’re putting -it up to us to step out of the local championship -class, and contend for the big belt.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“The prize isn’t big enough,” pronounced W. T. -Chisholm, as if he had decided for them all. As befitted -his calling, he was slower minded than the rest. -There are few quick turns in banking.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Not big enough?” repeated Allison. “Not big -enough, when the Union Fuel Company already supplies -every candle which goes into the Soudan, runs the -pumps on the Nile and the motor boats on the Yang-Tse-Kyang, -supplies the oil for the lubrication of the -car of Juggernaut, and works the propeller of every -aeroplane? Not big enough, when already the organisations -represented here have driven their industries -into every quarter of the earth? What shall you say -when we join to our nucleus the great steamship lines -and the foreign railroads? Not big enough? Gentlemen, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_119'>119</span>look here!” He strode over to the big globe. -From New York to San Francisco a red line had already -been traced. Now he took a pencil in his hand, and -placing the point at New York, gave the globe a whirl, -girding it completely. “Gentlemen, there is your empire!”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Again the nasal voice of old Joseph G. Clark drawled -into the silence.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I suggest that we discuss in detail the conditions -of the consolidation,” he remarked.</p> - -<p class='c012'>The bell of Allison’s house phone rang.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Mr. Dalrymple, sir,” said the voice of Ephraim.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Very well,” replied Allison. “Show him into the -study. Babbitt, will you read to the gentlemen this -skeleton plan of organisation? If you’ll excuse me, -I’ll be back in five minutes.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Dalrymple?” inquired Taylor.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Yes,” answered Allison abstractedly, and went into -the study.</p> - -<p class='c012'>He and Dalrymple looked at each other silently for -a moment, with the old enmity shining between them. -Dalrymple, a man five years Allison’s senior, a brisk -speaking man with a protruding jaw and deep-set grey -eyes, had done more than any other one human being -to develop the transportation systems of New York, but -his gift had been in construction, in creation, whereas -Allison’s had been in combination; and Dalrymple had -gone into the railroad business.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Dalrymple, I’m going to give you a chance,” said -Allison briskly. “I want the Gulf and Great Lakes -Railroad system.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Dalrymple had produced a cigar while he waited for -Allison, and now he lit it. He sat on the corner of the -study table and surveyed Allison critically.</p> - -<p class='c012'><span class='pageno' id='Page_120'>120</span>“I don’t doubt it,” he replied. “The system is almost -completed.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I’ll accept a fair offer for your controlling interest,” -went on Allison.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“And if I won’t sell?”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Then I’ll jump on you to-morrow in the stock exchange, -and take it away from you.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Dalrymple smiled.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“You can’t do it. I own my controlling interest -outright, and no stock gamblings on the board of trade -can affect either a share of my stock or the earning -capacity of my railroad. When you drove me out of -the traction field, I took advantage of my experience -and entrenched myself. Go on and gamble.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I wish you wouldn’t take that attitude,” returned -Allison, troubled. “It looks to you as if I were pursuing -you because of that old quarrel; but I want you -to know that I’m not vindictive.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I don’t think you are,” replied Dalrymple, with -infinite contempt. “You’re just a damned hog.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>A hot flush swept over Allison’s face, but it was gone -in an instant.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“It happens that I need the new Gulf and Great -Lakes system,” he went on, in a perfectly level voice; -“and I prefer to buy it from you at a fair price.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Dalrymple put on his hat.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“It isn’t for sale,” he stated.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Just a minute, Dalrymple,” interposed Allison. -“I want to show you something. Look in here,” and -he opened the library door.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Dalrymple stepped to the opening and saw, not -merely seven men, middle-aged and past, sitting around -a library table, but practically all the freightable necessities -<span class='pageno' id='Page_121'>121</span>of the United States and practically all its money, -a power against which his many million dollar railroad -system was of no more opposition than a toy train.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“—the transportation department to be governed by -a council composed of the representatives of the various -other departments herein mentioned,” droned on -the voice of Babbitt.</p> - -<p class='c012'>The representatives of the various other departments -therein mentioned were bent in concentrated attention -on every sentence, and phrase, and word, and syllable -of that important document, not omitting to pay important -attention to the pauses which answered for -commas; and none looked up. Dalrymple closed the -door gently.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Now will you sell?” inquired Allison.</p> - -<p class='c012'>For a moment the two men looked into each other’s -eyes, while the old enmity, begun while they were still -in the womb of time, lay chill between them. At one -instant, Dalrymple, whose jaw muscles were working -convulsively, half raised his hands, as if he were minded -to fall on Allison and strangle him; and it was not the -fact that Allison was probably the stronger man which -restrained him, but a bigger pride.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“No,” he said, again with that infinite contempt in -his tone. “Break me.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“All right,” accepted Allison cheerfully, and even -with relief; for his way was now free to pursue its normal -course. He crossed to the door which opened into -the hall, and politely bowed Dalrymple into the guidance -of old Ephraim.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Dalrymple won’t sell,” he reported, when he rejoined -his fellow members of the International Transportation -Company.</p> - -<p class='c012'><span class='pageno' id='Page_122'>122</span>Joseph G. Clark looked up from a set of jotted memoranda -which he had been nonchalantly setting down -during the reading.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“We’ll pick it up in the stock market,” he carelessly -suggested.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Can’t,” replied Allison, with equal carelessness. -“He’s entrenched with solid control, and I imagine he -doesn’t owe a dollar.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Chisholm, with his fingers in his white mutton chops, -was studying clean-shaven old Clark’s memoranda.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“A panic will be necessary, anyhow,” he observed. -“We’ll acquire the road then.”</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_123'>123</span> - <h2 class='c005'>CHAPTER XII<br /> <span class='small'>GAIL SOLVES THE PROBLEM OF VEDDER COURT</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_0_6 c011'>The Reverend Smith Boyd, rector of the richest -church in the world, dropped his last collar button -on the floor, and looked distinctly annoyed. The -collar button rolled under his mahogany highboy, and -concealed itself carefully behind one of the legs. The -Reverend Smith Boyd, there being none to see, laid aside -his high dignity, and got down on his knees, though -not for any clerical purpose. With his suspenders -hanging down his back, he sprawled his long arms under -the highboy in all directions, while his face grew -red; and the little collar button, snuggled carefully out -of sight behind the furthest leg, just shone and shone. -The rector, the ticking of whose dressing-room clock -admonished him that the precious moments were passing -never to return again, twisted his neck, and bent -his head sidewise, and inserted it under the highboy, -one ear scraping the rug and the other the bottom of -the lowest drawer. No collar button. He withdrew -his neck, and twisted his head in the opposite direction, -and inserted his head again under the highboy, so that -the ear which had scraped the carpet now scraped the -bottom of the drawer, whereat the little collar button -shone so brightly that the rector’s bulging eye caught -the glint of it. His hand swung round, at the end of -a long arm, and captured it before it could hide any -further, then the young rector withdrew his throbbing -<span class='pageno' id='Page_124'>124</span>head and started to raise up, and bumped the back of -his head with a crack on the bottom of an open -drawer, near enough to the top to give him a good long -sweep for momentum. This mishap being just one degree -beyond the point to which the Reverend Smith -Boyd had been consecrated, he ejaculated as follows:—</p> - -<p class='c012'>No, it is not respectful, nor proper, nor charitable, -to set down what the Reverend Smith Boyd, in that -stress, ejaculated; but a beautiful, grey-haired lady, -beautiful with the sweetness of content and the happiness -of gratified pride and the kindliness of humour, -who had paused at the Reverend Smith Boyd’s open -door to inquire how soon he would be down to dinner, -hastily covered her mouth with her hand, and moved -away from the door, with moist blue eyes, around which -twinkled a dozen tiny wrinkles born of much smiling.</p> - -<p class='c012'>When the dignified young rector came down to dinner, -fully clothed and apparently in his right mind, his -mother, who was the beautiful grey-haired lady with -the twinkling blue eyes, looked across the table and -smiled indulgently at his disguise; for he was not a -grown-up, tall, broad-shouldered man of thirty-two at -all. In reality he was a shock-headed, slightly freckled -urchin of nine or ten, by the name of “Smitty” on -the town commons, and “Tod” at home.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Aren’t you becoming a trifle irritable of late, -Tod?” she inquired with solicitude, willfully suppressing -a smile which flashed up in her as she remembered -that ejaculation. It was shocking in a minister, of -course, but she had ever contended that ministers were, -and should be, made of clay; and clay is friable.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Yes, mother, I believe I am,” confessed the Reverend -Smith Boyd, considering the matter with serious -impartiality.</p> - -<p class='c012'><span class='pageno' id='Page_125'>125</span>“You are not ill in any way?”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Not at all,” he hastily assured her.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Your cold is all gone?”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Entirely. As a matter of fact, mother,” and he -smiled, “I don’t think I had one.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“If you hadn’t drank that tea, and taken the mustard -foot bath, and wrapped the flannel around your -throat, it might have been a severe one,” his mother -complacently replied. “You haven’t been studying too -much?”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“No,” and the slightest flicker of impatience twitched -his brows.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“You’ve no headache?” and the tone was as level -as if she had not seen that flicker.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“No, mother.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Do you sleep well?”</p> - -<p class='c012'>The Reverend Smith Boyd took a drink of water. -His hand trembled slightly.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Excellently.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Mrs. Boyd surveyed her son with a practised eye.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I think your appetite’s dropping off a little,” she -commented, and then she was shrewdly silent, though -the twinkles of humour came back to her eyes by and -by. “I don’t think you take enough social diversion,” -she finally advised him. “You should go out -more. You should ride, walk, but always in the company -of young and agreeable people. Because you are -a rector is no reason for you to spend your spare time -in gloomy solitude, as you have been doing for the past -week.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>The Reverend Smith Boyd would have liked to state -that he had been very busy, but he had a conscience, -which was a nuisance to him. He had spent most of -his spare time up in his study, with his chin in his hand.</p> - -<p class='c012'><span class='pageno' id='Page_126'>126</span>“You are quite right, mother,” he sombrely confessed, -and swallowed two spoonfuls of his soup. It -was excellent soup, but, after taking a bite of a wafer, -he laid his spoon on the edge of the plate.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I think I’ll drive you out of the house, Tod,” Mrs. -Boyd decided, in the same tones she had used to employ -when she had sent him to bed. “I think I’ll send -you over to Sargent’s to-night, to sing with Gail.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>The rector of the richest church in the world flushed -a trifle, and looked at the barley in the bottom of his -soup. His mother regarded him quietly, and the twinkles -went out of her eyes. She had been bound to get -at the bottom of his irritability, and now she had arrived -at it.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I would prefer not to go,” he told her stiffly, and -the eyes which he lifted to her were coldly green.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Why?”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Again that slight twitch of impatience in his brows, -then he suppressed a sigh. The catechism was on the -way, and he might just as well answer up promptly.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I do not approve of Miss Sargent.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>For just one second the rector’s mother felt an impulse -to shake Tod Boyd. Gail Sargent was a young -lady of whom any young man might approve—and -what was the matter with Tod? She was beginning -to be humiliated by the fact that, at thirty-two, he had -not lost his head and made a fool of himself, to the -point of tight shoes and poetry, over a girl.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Why?” and the voice of Mrs. Boyd was not cold -as she had meant it to be. She had suddenly felt some -tug of sympathy for Tod.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Well, for one thing, she has a most disagreeable -lack of reverence,” he stated.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Reverence?” and Mrs. Boyd knitted her brows. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_127'>127</span>“I don’t believe you quite understand her. She has the -most beautifully simple religious faith that I have ever -seen, Tod.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>The Reverend Smith Boyd watched his soup disappearing, -as if it were some curious moving object to -which his attention had just been called.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Miss Sargent claims to have a new religion,” he -observed. “She has said most unkind things about the -Church as an institution, and about Market Square -Church in particular. She says that it is a strictly -commercial institution, and that its motive in desiring -to build the new cathedral is vanity.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>He omitted to mention Gail’s further charge that his -own motive in desiring the new cathedral was personal -ambition. Candour did not compel that admission. It -did not become him to act from piqued personal -pride.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Mrs. Boyd studied him as he gazed sombrely at his -fish, and the twinkles once more returned to her eyes, -as she made up her mind to cure Tod’s irritability.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I am ashamed of you,” she told her son. “This -girl is scarcely twenty. If I remember rightly, and -I’m sure that I do, you came to me, at about twenty, -and confessed to a logical disbelief in the theory of creation, -which included, of course, a disbelief in the Creator. -You were an infidel, an atheist. You were going -to relinquish your studies, and give up all thought of -the Church.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>The deep red of the Reverend Smith Boyd’s face -testified to the truth of this cruel charge, and he pushed -back his fish permanently.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I most humbly confess,” he stated, and indeed he -had writhed in spirit many times over that remembrance. -“However, mother, I have since discovered that to be -<span class='pageno' id='Page_128'>128</span>a transitional stage through which every theological -student passes.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Yet you won’t allow it to a girl,” charged Mrs. -Boyd, with the severity which she could much better -have expressed with a laugh. “When you discover -that this young lady, who seems to be in every way delightful, -is so misled as to criticise the motives of Market -Square Church, you withdraw into your dignity, -with the privilege of a layman, and announce that ‘you -do not approve of her.’ What she needs, Tod, is religious -instruction.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>She had carefully ironed out the tiny little wrinkles -around her blue eyes by the time her son looked up -from the profound cogitation into which this reproof -had thrown him.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Mother, I have been wrong,” he admitted, and he -seemed ever so much brighter for the confession. He -drew his fish towards him and ate it.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Later the Reverend Smith Boyd presented himself at -James Sargent’s house, with a new light shining in his -breast; and he had blue eyes. He had come to show -Gail the way and the light. If she had doubts, and -lack of faith, and flippant irreverence, it was his duty -to be patient with her, for this was the fault of youth. -He had been youthful himself.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Gail’s eyelids dropped and the corners of her lips -twitched when the Reverend Smith Boyd’s name was -brought up to her, but she did her hair in another way, -high on her head instead of low on her neck, and then -she went down, bewildering in her simple little dark blue -velvet cut round at the neck.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I am so glad your cold is better,” she greeted him, -smiling as pleasantly as if their last meeting had been -a most joyous occasion.</p> - -<p class='c012'><span class='pageno' id='Page_129'>129</span>“I don’t think I had a cold,” laughed the young -rector, also as happily mannered as if their last meeting -had been a cheerful one. “I sneezed twice, I believe, -and mother immediately gave me a course of doctoring -which no cold could resist.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I was afraid that your voice was out,” remarked -Gail, in a tone suggestive of the fact that that would -be a tragedy indeed; and she began hauling forth music. -“You haven’t been over for so long.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>The Reverend Smith Boyd coloured. At times the -way of spiritual instruction was quite difficult. Nevertheless, -he had a duty to perform. Mechanically he -had taken his place at the piano, standing straight and -tall, and his blue eyes softened as they automatically -fell on the piece of music she had opened. Of course -it was their favourite, the one in which their voices had -soared in the most perfect unison. Gail glanced up at -him as she brushed a purely imaginary fleck of dust -from the keys. For an instant the brown eyes and the -blue ones met. He was a tremendously nice fellow, -after all. But what was worrying him?</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Before we sing I should like to take up graver matters,” -he began, feeling at a tremendous disadvantage -in the presence of the music. To obviate this, he drew -up a chair, and sat facing her. “I have called this -evening in the capacity of your temporary rector.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Gail’s eyelids had a tendency to flicker down, but -she restrained them. She was adorable when she looked -prim that way. Her lips were like a rosebud. The -Reverend Smith Boyd himself thought of the simile, -and cast it behind him.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“You are most kind,” she told him, suppressing the -imps and demons which struggled to pop into her eyes.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I have been greatly disturbed by the length to -<span class='pageno' id='Page_130'>130</span>which your unbelief has apparently gone,” the young -rector went on, and having plunged into this opening -he began to breathe more freely. This was familiar -ground. “I am willing to admit, to one of your intelligence, -that there are certain articles of the creed, -and certain tenets of the Church, which humanity has -outgrown, as a child outgrows its fear of the dark.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Gail rested a palm on the edge of the bench behind -her, and leaned back facing him, supported on one -beautifully modelled arm. Her face had set seriously -now.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“However,” went on the rector, “it is the habit and -the privilege of youth to run to extremes. Sweeping -doubt takes the place of reasonable criticism, and the -much which is good is condemned alike with the little -which has grown useless.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>He paused to give Gail a chance for reply, but that -straight-eyed young lady had nothing to say, at this -juncture.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I do not expect to be able to remove the spiritual -errors, which I am compelled to judge that you have -accumulated, by any other means than patient logic,” -he resumed. “May I discuss these matters with you?” -His voice was grave and serious, and full of earnest -sincerity, and the musical quality alone of it made patient -logical discussion seem attractive.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“If you like,” she assented, smiling at him with wileful -and wilful deception. The wicked thought had occurred -to her that it might be her own duty to broaden -his spiritual understanding.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Thank you,” he accepted gravely. “If you will -give me an hour or so each week, I shall be very happy.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I am nearly always at home on Tuesday and Friday -evenings,” suggested Gail. “Scarcely any one -<span class='pageno' id='Page_131'>131</span>calls before eight thirty, and we have dinner quite early -on those evenings.” She began to be sincerely interested -in the project. She had never given herself time -to quite exactly define her own attitude towards theology -as distinct from religion, and she felt that she -should do it, if for no other reason than to avoid making -impulsive over-statements. The Reverend Smith -Boyd would help her to look squarely into her own -mind and her own soul, for he had a very active intelligence, -and was, moreover, the most humanly forceful -cleric she had ever met. Besides, they could always -finish by singing.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I shall make arrangements to be over as early as -you will permit,” declared the rector, warmly aglow -with the idea. “We shall begin with the very beginnings -of things, and, step by step, develop, I hope, a -logical justification of the vast spiritual revolution which -has conquered the world.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I should like nothing better,” mused Gail, and -since the Reverend Smith Boyd rose, and stood behind -her and filled his lungs, she turned to the piano and -struck a preliminary chord, which she trailed off into -a tinkling little run, by way of friendly greeting to -the piano.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“We shall begin with the creation,” pursued the rector, -dwelling, with pleasure, on the idea of a thorough -progress through the mazes of religious growth. There -were certain vague points which he wanted to clear up -for himself.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“And wind up with Vedder Court.” She had not -meant to say that. It just popped into her mind, and -popped off the end of her tongue.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Even that will be taken up in its due logical sequence,” -and the Reverend Smith Boyd prided himself -<span class='pageno' id='Page_132'>132</span>on having already displayed the patience which he had -come expressly to exercise.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Gail was immediately aware that he was exercising -patience. He had reproved her, nevertheless, and -quite coldly, for having violated the tacit agreement to -take up the different phases of their weighty topic only -“in their due logic sequence.” The rector, in this -emergency, would have found no answer which would -stand the test, but Gail had the immense advantage of -femininity.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“It altogether depends at which end we start our -sequence,” she sweetly reminded him. “My own impression -is that we should begin at Vedder Court and -work back to the creation. Vedder Court needs immediate -attention.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>That was quite sufficient. When Allison called, -twenty minutes later, they were at it hammer and tongs. -There was a bright red spot in each of Gail’s cheeks, -and the Reverend Smith Boyd’s cold eyes were distinctly -green! Allison had been duly announced, but the combatants -merely glanced at him, and finished the few remarks -upon which they were, at the moment, engaged. -He had been studying the tableau with the interest of -a connoisseur, and he had devoted his more earnest attention -to the Reverend Smith Boyd.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“So glad to see you,” said Gail conventionally, rising -and offering him her hand. If there was that -strange thrill in his clasp, she was not aware of it.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I only ran in to see if you’d like to take a private -car trip in the new subway before it is opened,” offered -Allison, turning to shake hands with the Reverend Smith -Boyd. “Will you join us, Doctor?”</p> - -<p class='c012'>For some reason a new sort of jangle had come into -the room, and it affected the three of them. Allison -<span class='pageno' id='Page_133'>133</span>was the only one who did not notice that he had taken -Gail’s acceptance for granted.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“You might tell us when,” she observed, transferring -the flame of her eyes from the rector to Allison. -“I may have conflicting engagements.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“No, you won’t,” Allison cheerfully informed her; -“because it will be at any hour you set.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Oh,” was the weak response, and, recognising that -she was fairly beaten, her white teeth flashed at him in -a smile of humour. “Suppose we say ten o’clock to-morrow -morning.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I am free at that hour,” stated Doctor Boyd, in -answer to a glance of inquiry from Allison. He felt -it his duty to keep in touch with public improvements. -Also, beneath his duty lay a keen pleasure in the task.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“You’ll be very much interested, I think,” and Allison -glowed with the ever-present pride of achievement, -then he suddenly grinned. “The new subway stops at -the edge of Vedder Court, waiting.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>There was another little pause of embarrassment, in -which Gail and the Reverend Smith Boyd were very -careful not to glance at each other. Unfortunately, -however, the Reverend Smith Boyd was luckless enough -to automatically, and without conscious mental process, -fold the sheet of music which had long since been -placed on the piano.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Why stop at the edge of Vedder Court?” inquired -Gail, with a nervous little jerk, much as if the words -had been jolted out of her by the awkward slam of the -music rack, which had succeeded the removal of the song. -“Why not go straight on through, and demolish Vedder -Court? It is a scandal and a disgrace to civilisation, -and to the city, as well as to its present proprietors! -Vedder Court should be annihilated, torn down, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_134'>134</span>burned up, swept from the face of the earth! The -board of health should condemn it as unsanitary, the -building commission should condemn it as unsafe, the -department of public morals should condemn it as unwholesome!”</p> - -<p class='c012'>The Reverend Smith Boyd had been engaged in a -strong wrestle within himself, but the spirit finally conquered -the flesh, and he held his tongue. He remembered -that Gail was young, and youth was prone to extravagant -impulse. His spirit of forbearance came so -strongly to his aid that he was even able to acknowledge -how beautiful she was when she was stiffened.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Allison had been viewing her with mingled admiration -and respect.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“By George, that’s a great idea,” he thoughtfully -commented. “Gail, I think I’ll tear down Vedder Court -for you!”</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_135'>135</span> - <h2 class='c005'>CHAPTER XIII<br /> <span class='small'>THE SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_0_6 c011'>A short, thick old man, grey-bearded and puff-eyed -and loaded with enormous jewels, met Gail, -Lucile and Arly, Ted Teasdale and the Reverend Smith -Boyd, at the foot of the subway stairs, and introduced -himself with smiling ease as Tim Corman, beaming with -much pride in his wide-spread fame.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Mr. Allison sent me to meet you,” he stated, with -a bow on which he justly prided himself. “Allison -played a low trick on me, ladies,” and he gazed on them -in turns with a jovial familiarity, which, in another, -they might have resented. “From the description he -gave me, I was looking for the most beautiful young -lady in the world, and here there’s three of you.” His -eyes swelled completely shut when he laughed. “So -you’ll have to help me out. Which one of you is Miss -Sargent?”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“The young lady who answers the description,” -smiled Arly, delighted with Tim Corman, and she indicated -Gail.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Mr. Allison couldn’t be here,” explained Tim, leading -the way to the brightly lighted private car. “We’re -to pick him up at Hoadley Park. Miss Sargent, as -hostess of the party, is to have charge of everything.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>The side doors slid open as they approached, and they -entered the carpeted and draped car, furnished with -wicker chairs and a well-stocked buffet. In the forward -<span class='pageno' id='Page_136'>136</span>compartment were three responsible looking men -and a motorman, and one of the responsibles, a fat gentleman -who did not seem to care how his clothes looked, -leaned into the parlour.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“All ready?” he inquired, with an air of concealing -a secret impression that women had no business here.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Tim Corman, who had carefully seen to it that he -had a seat between Gail and Arly, touched Gail on the -glove.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Ready, thank you,” she replied, glancing brightly -at the loosely arrayed fat man, and she could see that -immediately a portion of that secret impression was removed.</p> - -<p class='c012'>With an easy glide, which increased with surprising -rapidity into express speed, the car slid into the long, -glistening tunnel, still moist with the odours of building.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“This is the most stunningly exclusive thing in the -world!” exclaimed Lucile Teasdale. “A private subway!”</p> - -<p class='c012'>The Reverend Smith Boyd bent forward. All the -way down to the subway entrance he had enjoyed the -reversal to that golden age where no one says anything -and everybody laughs at it.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“To my mind that is not the greatest novelty,” he -observed. “The most enjoyable part of the journey -so far has been getting into the subway without paying -a nickel.” He glanced over at Gail as he spoke, but -only Arly, Lucile and Ted laughed. Tim Corman had -adroitly blocked Gail into a corner, and was holding -her attention.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Ed Allison’s one of the smartest boys in New York,” -he enthusiastically declared. “Did you ever see anybody -as busy as he is?”</p> - -<p class='c012'><span class='pageno' id='Page_137'>137</span>“He seems to be a very energetic man,” Gail assented, -with a sudden remembrance of how busy Allison -had always been.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Gets anything he goes after,” Tim informed her, -and screwed one of his many-puffed eyes into a wink; -at which significant action Gail looked out at the motorman. -“Never tells his plans to anybody, nor what he -wants. Just goes and gets it.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“That’s a successful way, I should judge,” she responded, -now able to see the humour of Tim Corman’s -volunteer mission, but a red spot beginning to -dawn, nevertheless, in either cheek.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Well, he’s square,” asserted Tim judicially. “Understand, -he don’t care how he gets a thing just so he -gets it, but if he makes you a promise he’ll keep it. -That’s what I call square.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Gail nodded. She had discerned that quality in Allison.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“What I like about him is that he always wins,” -went on Tim. “Nobody in this town has ever passed -him the prunes. Do you know what he did? He -started with two miles of rust and four horse cars, and -now he owns the whole works.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Gail knitted her brows. She had heard something -of this marvellous tale before, and it had interested -her. She had been groping for an explanation of Allison’s -tremendous force.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“That was a wonderful achievement. How did he -accomplish it?”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Made ’em get off and walk!” boasted Tim, with -vast pride in the fact. “Any time Eddie run across -a man that had a street car line, he choked it out of -him. He’s a wizard.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Tim’s statement seemed to be somewhat clouded in -<span class='pageno' id='Page_138'>138</span>metaphor, but Gail managed to gather that Allison had -possibly used first-principle methods on his royal pathway -to success.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“You mean that he drove them out of business.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Pushed ’em off!” and Tim’s voice was exultant.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I don’t think I understand business,” worried Gail. -“It seems so cruel.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“So is baseball, if you want to figure that it’s a -shame the losers have to take a licking,” chuckled Tim. -“Anybody Allison likes is lucky,” and with the friendly -familiarity of an old man, Tim Corman patted Gail -on the glove.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“It occurs to me that I’m neglecting my opportunities,” -observed Gail, rising. “I’m supposed to be running -this car,” and going to the glass door she looked -into the motorman’s compartment, which was large, and -had seats in it, and all sorts of mysterious tools and -appliances in the middle of the floor.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Tim Corman, as Allison’s personal representative, -was right on the spot.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Come on out,” he invited, and opened the door, -whereupon the three responsible looking men immediately -arose.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Gail hesitated, then smiled. She turned to look at -the others, half wondering if she should invite them to -come, and whether a crowd would be welcomed, but -the quartette were gathered on the observation platform, -watching the tunnel swallowing itself in a faraway -point.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Mr. Greggory, general manager of the Municipal -Transportation Company, Miss Sargent,” introduced -Tim, and the fat man bowed, with still another portion -of that secret opinion removed. “Mr. Lincoln, -general engineer of the Transportation Company, Miss -<span class='pageno' id='Page_139'>139</span>Sargent,” and the thin-faced man with the high forehead -and the little French moustache, bowed, smiling -his decided approval. “Mr. McCarthy, general construction -manager of the Transportation Company, -Miss Sargent,” and the red-faced man with the big red -moustache, bowed, grinning. Tim Corman led Gail forward -to the motorman, and tapped him on the shoulder. -“Show her how it works, Tom,” he directed.</p> - -<p class='c012'>So it was that Edward E. Allison, standing quite -alone on the platform of the Hoadley Park station, saw -the approaching trial trip car stop, and run slowly, -and run backwards, and dart forwards, and perform -all sorts of experimental movements, before it rushed -down to his platform, with a rosy-cheeked girl standing -at the wheel, her brown eyes sparkling, her red lips -parted in a smile of ecstatic happiness, her hat off and -her waving brown hair flowing behind her in the sweep -of the wind. To one side stood a highly pleased motorman, -while a short, thick old man, and a careless fat -man, and a man with a high forehead and one with a -red moustache, all smiling indulgently, clogged the -space in the rear.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Allison boarded the car, and greeted his guests, and -came straight through to the motorman’s cage, as Gail, -in response to the clang of the bell, pulled the lever. -She was just getting that easy starting glide, and she -was filled with pride in the fact.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“You should not stand bare-headed in front of that -window,” greeted Allison, almost roughly; and he -closed it.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Gail turned very sweetly to the motorman.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Thank you,” she said, and gave him the lever, then -she walked back into the car. It had required some -repression to avoid recognising that dictatorial attitude, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_140'>140</span>and Allison felt that she was rather distant, and -wondered what was the matter; but he was a practical -minded person, and he felt that it would soon blow over.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“This is the deepest line in the city,” he informed -her, as she led the way back to the group in the parlour -division. “Every subway we build presents more -difficult problems of construction because of the crossings.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I should think it would be most difficult,” she indifferently -responded, and hurried back to the girls.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I feel horribly selfish,” she confessed, slipping her -arm around Lucile on one side and Arly on the other; -and the Reverend Smith Boyd, strangely inclined to -poetry these days, compared them to the Three Graces, -with Hope in the centre. They were an attractive picture -for the looking of any man; the blonde Lucile, the -brown Gail, and the black-haired Arly, all fresh-cheeked, -slender, and sparkling of eye.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I’m glad your conscience smites you,” smiled Arly. -“Wasn’t it fun?”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“The most glorious in the world!” and Gail glanced -doubtfully at Tim Corman, who was right on the spot.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Come on, girls,” heartily invited Tim, who could -catch a hint as fast as any man. “I’ll introduce you -to Tom,” and, profoundly happy in his gallantry, he -returned to the front of the car with a laughing blonde -on one arm and a laughing brunette on the other.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Allison turned confidently to chat with Gail, but that -young lady, smiling on the Reverend Smith Boyd, -moved back to the observation platform, and the Reverend -Smith Boyd followed the smile with alacrity.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I’ve been neglecting this view,” she observed, gazing -out into the rapidly diminishing perspective, then -<span class='pageno' id='Page_141'>141</span>she glanced up sidewise at the tall young rector, whose -eyes were perfectly blue.</p> - -<p class='c012'>He answered something or other, and the conversation -was so obviously a tête-à-tête that Allison remained -behind. Ted Teasdale had long since found, -in the engineer, a man who knew motor boating in every -phase of its failures; so that Allison and Tim Corman -were in sole possession of the parlour compartment, -and Tim looked up at Allison with a complacent grin, -as the latter sat beside him.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Well, Eddie, I put in a plug for you,” stated Tim, -with the air of one looking for approval.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“How’s that?” inquired Allison, abstractedly.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Boosted you to the girl. Say, she’s a peach!”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Allison looked quickly back at the platform, and then -frowned down on his zealous friend Tim.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“What did you tell Miss Sargent about me?”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Don’t you worry, Eddie; it’s all right,” laughed -Tim. “I hinted to her, so that she had to get it, that -you’re about the most eligible party in New York. I -let her know that no man in this village had ever skinned -you. She wanted to know how you made this big combination, -and I told her you made ’em all get off; pushed -’em off the map. Take it from me, Eddie, after I got -through, she knew where to find a happy home.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Allison’s brows knitted in quick anger, and then suddenly -he startled the subway with its first loud laugh. -He understood now, or thought he did, Gail’s distant -attitude; but, knowing what was the matter, he could -easily straighten it out.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Thanks, Tim,” he chuckled. “Let’s talk business -a minute. I had you hold up the Vedder Court condemnation -because I got a new idea last night. Those -buildings are unsafe.”</p> - -<p class='c012'><span class='pageno' id='Page_142'>142</span>“Well, the building commissioners have to make a -living,” considered Tim.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“That’s what I think,” agreed Allison.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Tim Corman looked up at him shrewdly out of his -puffy slits of eyes, for a moment, and considered.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I get you,” he said, and the business talk being -concluded, Allison went forward.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“McCarthy,” he snapped, in a voice which grated; -“what are all those boxes back in the beginning of the -‘Y’ of the West Docks branch?”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Blasting material,” and McCarthy looked uncomfortable.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Get it out,” ordered Allison, and returned to Tim.</p> - -<p class='c012'>The girls and Ted came back presently, and, with -their arrival, Gail brought the Reverend Smith Boyd -into the crowd, thereupon they resolved themselves into -some appearance of sociability, and Allison, for the -amusement of the company, slyly started old Tim Corman -into a line of personal reminiscences, so replete in -unconscious humour and so frank in unconscious disclosure -of callous knavery, that the company needed no -other entertainment.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Out into the open, where the sun paled the electric -lights of the car into a sickly yellow, up into the air, -peering into third story tenements and down narrow -alleys, aflutter with countless flapping pieces of laundry -work, then suddenly into the darkness of the tunnel -again, then out, on the surface of country fields, and -dreary winter landscape, to the terminal. It was more -cosy in the tunnel, and they returned there for lunch, -while the general manager and the general engineer and -the general construction manager of the Municipal -Transportation Company, with occasional crisp visits -from President Allison, soberly discussed the condition -<span class='pageno' id='Page_143'>143</span>of the line. The Reverend Smith Boyd displayed -an unexpected technical interest in that subject. He -had taken an engineering course in college, and, in fact, -he had once wavered seriously between that occupation -and the Church, and he put two or three questions so -pertinent that he awakened a new respect in Allison. -Allison took the rector to the observation platform to -explain something in the construction of the receding -tunnel, and as they stood there earnestly talking, with -concentrated brows and eyes searching into each other -for quick understanding, Gail Sargent was suddenly -struck by a wonder as to what makes the differences -in men. Allison, slightly stocky, standing with his feet -spread sturdily apart and his hands in his coat pockets, -and his clean-cut profile slightly upturned to the young -rector, was the very epitome of force, of decisive action, -of unconquerable will. He seemed to fairly radiate resistless -energy, and as she looked, Gail was filled -with the admiration she had often felt for this exponent -of the distinctively American spirit of achievement. She -had never seen the type in so perfect an example, and -again there seemed to wave toward her that indefinable -thrill with which he had so often impressed her. Was -the thrill altogether pleasurable? She could not tell, -but she did know that with it there was mixed a something -which she could not quite fathom in herself. Was -it dislike? No, not that. Was it resentment? Was -it fear? She asked herself that last question again.</p> - -<p class='c012'>The young rector was vastly different; taller and -broader-shouldered, and more erect of carriage, and -fully as firm of profile, he did not somehow seem to impress -her with the strength of Allison. He was more -temperamental, and, consequently, more susceptible to -change; therefore weaker. Was that deduction correct? -<span class='pageno' id='Page_144'>144</span>She wondered, for it troubled her. She was not -quite satisfied.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Suddenly there came a dull, muffled report, like the -distant firing of a cannon; then an interval of silence, -an infinitesimal one, in which the car ran smoothly on, -and, half rising, they looked at each other in startled -questioning. Then, all at once, came a stupendous -roar, as if the world had split asunder, a jolting -and jerking, a headlong stoppage, a clattering, and -slapping and crashing and grinding, deafening in its -volume, and with it all, darkness; blackness so intense -that it seemed almost palpable to the touch!</p> - -<p class='c012'>There was a single shriek, and a nervous laugh verging -on hysteria. The shriek was from Arly, and the -laugh from Lucile. There was a cry from the forward -end of the car, as if some one in pain. A man’s yell -of fright; Greggory the general manager. A strong -hand clutched Gail’s in the darkness, firm, reassuring. -The rector.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Don’t move!” it was the voice of Allison, crisp, -harsh, commanding.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Anybody hurt?” Tim Corman, the voice of age, -but otherwise steady. One could sense, somehow, that -he sat rigid in his chair, with both hands on his cane.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“It’s me,” called Tom, the motorman. “Head cut -a little, arm bruised. Nothing bad.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Gail?” Allison again.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Yes.” Clear voiced, with the courage which has no -sex.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Mrs. Teasdale? Mrs. Fosland?”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Both all right, one a trifle sharp of voice, the other -nervous.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Ted? Doctor Boyd?” and so through the list. -Everybody safe.</p> - -<p class='c012'><span class='pageno' id='Page_145'>145</span>“It is an accidental blast,” said the voice of Allison. -He had figured that a concise statement of just -what had happened might expedite organisation. “We -are below the Farmount Ridge, over a hundred feet -deep, and the tube has caved in on us. There must be -no waste of exertion. Don’t move until I find what -electrical dangers there are.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>They obeyed his admonition not to move, even to the -extent of silence; for there was an instinct that Allison -might need to hear minutely. He made his way -into the front compartment, he called the chief engineer. -There was a clanking of the strange looking implements -on the floor of the car. A match flared up, and showed -the pale face of the engineer bending over.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“No matches,” ordered Allison. “We may need the -oxygen.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>He and the engineer made their way back into the -parlour compartment. They took up the door of the -motor well in the floor, and in a few minutes they replaced -it. From the sounds they seemed remarkably -clumsy.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“That much is lucky,” commented Allison. “The -next thing is to dig.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>They were quiet a moment.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“In front or behind?” wondered the engineer.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Again a pause.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“In front,” decided Allison. “The explosion came -from that direction, and has probably shaken down more -of the soil there than behind, but it’s solid clay in the -rear, and further out.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Gail felt the rector’s hand suddenly leave her own. -It had been wonderfully comforting there in the dark; -so firm and warm and steady. He had not talked much -to her, just a few reassuring words, in that low, melodious -<span class='pageno' id='Page_146'>146</span>voice, which thrilled her as did occasionally the -touch of Allison’s hand, as did the eyes of Dick Rodley. -But she had received more strength from the voice -of Allison. He was big, Allison, a power, a force, a -spirit of command. She began, for the first time, to -comprehend his magnitude.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“What have we to dig with?” The voice of the -Reverend Smith Boyd, and there was a note of eagerness -in it.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“The benches up in front here,” yelled McCarthy, -and there was a ripping sound as he tore the seat from -one of them.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Pardon me.” It was the voice of the rector, up -in front.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“The balance of you sit down, and keep rested,” -ordered Allison, now also up in front. “McCarthy, -Boyd and I go first.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>The long struggle began. The girls grouped together -in the back of the car, moving but very little, -for there was much broken glass about. Up in front -the three men could be heard making an opening into -the débris through the forward windows. They talked -a great deal, at first, strong, capable voices. They -were interfering with each other, then helping, combining -their strength to move heavy stones and the like, -then they were silent, working independently, or in effective -unison.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Tim Corman was the possessor of a phosphorescent-faced -watch, with twenty-two jewels on the inside and -a ruby on the winding stem, and he constituted himself -timekeeper.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Thirty minutes,” he called out. “It’s our shift.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“You’d better save yourself, Tim,” suggested Greggory, -in a kindly tone.</p> - -<p class='c012'><span class='pageno' id='Page_147'>147</span>“I’ll do as much as any of you!” growled old Tim, -with the will, if not the quality, of youth in his voice. -“Will one of you girls take care of my rings?” and -stripping them from his fingers, he laid them carefully -in the outstretched hands of Arly. There was a good -handful of them.</p> - -<p class='c012'>The men crawled in from outside, but they stayed in -the front compartment. The air was growing a trifle -close, and they breathed heavily.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Good-bye Girl,” called the gaily funereal voice of -Ted Teasdale. “Husband is going to work.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Put on your gloves,” Lucile reminded him.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Greggory,” called Allison.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Here,” responded the careless fat man. “How did -you find it?”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Loose,” reported Allison, and there was a sound -suspiciously like grunting, as Greggory crawled through -the narrow opening.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Another interminable wait, while the air grew more -stifling. There was no further levity after Lincoln and -the motorman and McCarthy had come back; for the -condition was becoming serious. Some air must undoubtedly -be finding its way to the car through the -loose débris, but the carbonic acid gas exhaled from a -dozen pairs of lungs was beginning to pocket, and the -opening ahead, though steadily pushing forward, displayed -no signs of lessening solidity.</p> - -<p class='c012'>They established shorter shifts now; a quarter of -an hour. The men came silently in and out, and as silently -worked, and as silently rested, while the girls -carried that heavy burden of women’s hardest labour; -waiting!</p> - -<p class='c012'>Greggory was the first to give out, then the injured -motorman. When their turns came, they had not the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_148'>148</span>strength nor the air in their lungs. Strong McCarthy -was the next to join them.</p> - -<p class='c012'>The shifts had reduced to two, of two men each by -now; Ted and old Tim, and Allison and the rector; -and these latter two worked double time. Their lips -and their tongues were parched and cracking, and in -their periods of rest they sat motionlessly facing each -other, with a wheeze in the drawing of their breath. -Their stentorian breathing could be heard from the forward -end of their little tunnel clear back into the car, -where the three girls were battling to preserve their -senses against the poisonous gases which were now all -that they had to breathe. Acting on the rector’s advice, -they had stood up in the car to escape the gradually -rising level of the carbonic gas, stood, as the time -progressed, with their mouths agape and their breasts -heaving and sharp pains in their lungs at every breath. -Arly dropped, silently crumpling to the floor; then, a -few minutes later, Lucile, and, panic-stricken by the -thought that they had gone under, Gail felt her own -senses reeling, when suddenly, looking ahead through -eyes which were staring, she saw a crack of blessed -light!</p> - -<p class='c012'>There was a hoarse cry from ahead! The crack of -light widened. Another one appeared, some four feet -to the right of it, and Gail already fancied that she -could feel a freshening of the air she breathed with -such tearing pain. Against the light of the openings, -two figures, the only two which were left to work, strove, -at first with the slow, limp motions of exhaustion, and -then with the renewed vigour of approaching triumph. -She could distinguish them clearly now, by the light -which streamed in, the stocky, strong figure of Allison -and the tall, sinewy figure of the rector. They were -<span class='pageno' id='Page_149'>149</span>working frantically, Allison with his coat off, and the -rector with his coat and vest both removed, and one -sleeve torn almost entirely from his shirt, revealing his -swelling biceps, and a long, red scratch. Gail’s senses -were numbed, so that they were reduced to almost -merely optical consciousness, so that she saw things -photographically; but, even in her numbness, she realised -that what she had thought a trace of weakness in -the rector, was only the grace which had rounded his -strength.</p> - -<p class='c012'>The two figures bent inward toward each other. -There was a moment of mighty straining, and then the -whole centre between the two cracks rolled away. A -huge boulder had barred the path, and its removal let -down a rush of pure, fresh air from the ground above, -let down, too, a flood of dazzling light; and in the curving, -under-rim of the opening, stood the two stalwart -men who were the survival of the fittest! The mere -instinct of self-preservation drove Gail forward, with -a cry, toward the source of that life-giving air, and she -scrambled through the window and ran toward the two -men. They came hurriedly down to meet her, and each -gave her a hand.</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_150'>150</span> - <h2 class='c005'>CHAPTER XIV<br /> <span class='small'>THE FREE AND ENTIRELY UNCURBED</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_0_6 c011'>Gail Sargent became suddenly and acutely -aware of an entirely new and ethnological subdivision -of the human race. She had known of Caucasians, -Mongolians, Ethiopians, and the others, but -now she was to meet the representatives of the gay, -carefree, and entirely uncurbed metropolitan press! -They figuratively swarmed from the ground, dropped -from the eaves, and wriggled from under the rugs!</p> - -<p class='c012'>Immediately after Gail had reached home from the -accident in the subway, and had been put to bed and -given tea, and had repeatedly assured the doctor there -was nothing the matter with her, they brought, at her -urgent request, copies of the “extras,” which were already -being yelled from every street corner and down -every quiet residence block.</p> - -<p class='c012'>The accounts were, in the main, more or less accurate, -barring the fact that they started with the assumption -that there had been one hundred in Allison’s party, all -killed. Later issues, however, regretfully reduced the -number of dead to forty, six, and finally none, at which -point they became more or less coherent, and gave an -exact list of the people who were there, the cause of the -accident, and a most appreciatively accentuated history -of the heroic work of the men. Although she regretted -that her picture had by this time crept into the public -prints, grouped with the murders and defalcations of -the day, she was able to overlook this personal discomfort -as one of the minor penalties which civilisation has -<span class='pageno' id='Page_151'>151</span>paid for its progress; like electric light bugs and electric -fan neuralgia, and the smell of gasolene.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Long before this period, however, the reporters had -tracked her to her lair; so long before, in fact, that there -had been three of them waiting on the doorstep when -she was brought into the house, eager young men, with -a high spirit of reverence and delicacy, which was concentrated -entirely on their jobs. They would have held -her on the doorstep until she fainted or dropped dead, -if, by so doing, they could have secured one statement, -or hint of a statement, upon which they could have fastened -something derogatory to her reputation, or the -reputation of any of her family or friends; for that was -great stuff, and what the public wanted; and they would -have photographed her gleefully in the process of expiring. -Aunt Helen Davies, being a woman of experience, -snatched Gail into the house before they had taken -more than eight or nine photographs of her, but, from -that instant, the doorbell became a nuisance and the -telephone bell a torture! Both were finally disconnected, -but, at as late an hour as one A.M., the house -was occasionally assaulted.</p> - -<p class='c012'>By that time Gail had telegrams of frantic inquiry -from all her friends back home, including the impulsive -Clemmens, and particularly including a telegram from -her mother, stating that that highly agitated lady could -not secure a reservation on the first train on account of -its being Saturday night, but that she would start on -the fast eleven-thirty the next morning, whereat Gail -kissed the telegram, and cried a little, and gave way to -the moist joy of homesickness.</p> - -<p class='c012'>In the meantime, the representatives of the gay and -carefree and absolutely uncurbed metropolitan press, -were by no means discouraged by the fact that they -<span class='pageno' id='Page_152'>152</span>had not been able to secure much, except hectic imaginings -from the exterior of the Sargent house. They -were busy in every other possible direction, with the -same commendable persistence which we observe in an -ant trying to drag a grasshopper up and down a cornstalk -on the way home. They secured a straight story -from Allison, a modest one from the rector, and variously -viewed experiences from other male members of -the party, and collected huge piles of photographs, -among them the charming pictures of Gail, which had -previously been printed on the innocent pages of arrivals -at Palm Beach and the Riviera and other fashionable -winter resorts, the whole spread being headed -“What Society Is Doing.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>So far the explosion editors of the various papers -had seen nothing to particularly commend in the work -of their fevered emissaries, and even the heavy-jawed -genius who gathered, from silent cogitation over four -cigarettes and a quart of beer, the purple fiction that -the explosion had cracked the walls of every subway in -the city, which were likely to cave in at any time, only -received the compliment of a grateful grunt.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Little Miss Piper, of the <cite>Morning Planet</cite>, however, -was possessed of a better thought. She was a somewhat -withered and puckered little woman, who had sense -enough to dress so as to excite nothing but pity, and -she quietly slipped on her ugly little bonnet with the -funny ribbon bow in the back, and hurried out to the -magnificent residence of Mrs. Phyllis Worthmore, who -loathed publicity and had photographs taken once a -month for the purpose.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Mrs. Phyllis Worthmore was invariably sweet and -gracious to working women, for, after all, they were -her sisters, you know; and she excused herself from a -<span class='pageno' id='Page_153'>153</span>caller in order to meet little Miss Piper in Mr. Worthmore’s -deserted den. Mrs. Worthmore was highly agitated -over the news of the explosion, and she required -no particular urging to jabber on and on about her -dear friends who had been in that terrible catastrophe, -and she was ultra enthusiastic when the name of Gail -was mentioned.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Oh, Miss Sargent is quite the sensation of the season!” -she gushed. “Her people are fairly well to do, -I believe; but her beauty makes up for the absence of -any extravagant fortune. It is commonly conceded -that none of the eligibles in our set are available until -Miss Sargent has made her choice. Positively all of -them are at her feet!” and, at puckered little Miss -Piper’s later request, she lightly enumerated a few of -the eligibles in their set; after which Miss Piper took -to furtive glances at her watch, and to feeling the excessively -modulated voice of Mrs. Phyllis Worthmore -pounding into her brain like the clatter of a watchman’s -rattle.</p> - -<p class='c012'>The result of that light-hearted and light-headed interview, -in which Mrs. Phyllis Worthmore, by special -request, was not quoted, suddenly sprang on the startled -eyes of Gail, when she leaped through the <cite>Sunday -Morning Planet</cite> at eight o’clock next morning. An -entire page, embellished in the centre with a beautifully -printed photograph, was devoted to the sensational -beauty from the middle-west! Around her were -grouped nine smaller photographs; Allison, Dick Rodley, -Willis Cunningham, Houston Van Ploon, the Reverend -Smith Boyd, a callow youth who had danced with -her three times, a Count who had said “How do you -do?” and sailed for Europe, and two men whom she -had never met. All these crack eligibles were classified -<span class='pageno' id='Page_154'>154</span>under the general head of “Slaves to Her Witching -Smile,” and a big, boxed-in list was given, in extremely -black-faced type, stating, in dollars and cents, -the exact value in the matrimonial market of each slave; -and the lively genius who had put together this symposium, -by a toweringly happy thought conceived in -the very height of the rush hours, totalled the whole, and -gave it as the commercial worth of Gail’s beauty and -charm. It ran into thirteen figures, including the dollar -mark and the two ciphers for cents.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Nor was this all! A lightning fingered artist had -depicted, at the bottom of the group, outline sketches -of the nine suitors, on their knees in a row, holding up, -towards the beautiful picture of Gail in the centre, their -hearts in one hand and their bags of money in the -other; and, even though overworked, the artist had not -forgotten to put the Cross of the Legion of Honour -on the breast of the Count, nor the sparse Van Dyke -on Willis Cunningham. Flowing with further facile -fancy, he had embellished the upper right-hand corner -of the group with an extremely lithe and slim-waisted -drawing of the streaming haired Gail, as a siren fishing -in the sea; and the sea, represented by many frothing -curls, was, in the upper left-hand corner, densely populated -by foolish little gold fish, rushing eagerly to the -dangling bait of the siren. Any one of the parties -mentioned could have sued the <cite>Planet</cite> for libel; but they -would not, and they would have been made highly ridiculous -if they had, which was the joke of the whole matter, -and left the metropolitan press more and more -highly uncurbed; which was a right sturdily to be maintained -in a land of free speech!</p> - -<p class='c012'>When Lucile Teasdale and Arly Fosland arrived at -Jim Sargent’s house at ten o’clock, and had been let in -<span class='pageno' id='Page_155'>155</span>at the side entrance, they found Gail dabbing her eyes -with a powder puff, taken from a little black travelling -bag which stood open at her side. Arlene was a second -later than Lucile in clasping Gail in her arms, because -she had to lift a travelling veil. The two girls -expressed their condolence and their horror of the outrage, -and volubly poured out more sympathy; then -they sat down and shrieked with laughter.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“It’s too awful for words!” gasped Lucile. “But -it is funny, too.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Gail’s chin quivered.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“There should be a law against such things,” she -broken-heartedly returned, in a voice which wavered -and halted with the echoes of recent sobs.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I’ll put the <cite>Planet</cite> out of business!” stormed Jim -Sargent, stalking up and down the library, with his -fists clenched and his face purple. “I’ll bankrupt -them!” and he paused, as he passed, to reassuringly -pat the shoulder of poor Aunt Grace, who sat perfectly -numb holding one thumb until the bone ached. Her -eyes were frankly red, and the creases of worry had -set into her brow so deeply that they must have scarred -her skull. “I’ll hunt up the whelp who wrote that -stuff, and the cur who drew it, and the dog who inserted -it!” frothed the raging Jim. “I’ll—”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“The press is the palladium of our national liberty, -Uncle Jim,” drawled the soothing voice of -Ted.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“You can’t do a thing about it,” counselled Gerald -Fosland, a stiff looking gentleman who never made a -mistake of speech, or manner, or attire.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Shucks, Gail!” suddenly remembered Lucile. -“The big Faulker reception is this week, and your -gown was to be so stunning. Don’t go home!”</p> - -<p class='c012'><span class='pageno' id='Page_156'>156</span>Mrs. Helen Davies cast on her feather-brained daughter -a glance of severe reproof.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Have you no sense of propriety, Lucile?” she -warned. “Gail, very naturally, can not remain here -under the circumstances. It does great credit to her -that, immediately upon realising this horrible occurrence, -she telegraphed to her mother, without consulting -any of us, that she was returning.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I just wanted to go home,” said Gail, her chin -quivering and her pretty throat tremulous with breath -pent from sobbing.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“It’ll all blow over, Gail,” argued Uncle Jim, in deep -distress because she was going so soon. If she had only -stopped long enough to pack up, they might have persuaded -her to stay. “Just forget it, and have a good -time.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Jim,” ordered the stern voice of Aunt Helen, “will -you be kind enough to see if any one is out in front?”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Certainly,” agreed Jim, wondering why his wife’s -sister was suddenly so severe with him.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“It’s time to start,” called Ted, with practised wisdom -allowing ten minutes for good-byes, parting instructions, -and forgotten messages.</p> - -<p class='c012'>The adieus were said. Aunt Grace, clasping Gail -in her arms, began to sob, out of a full heart and a -general need for the exercise. Gerald Fosland took the -hand of his wife and kissed it, in most gallant fashion.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I shall miss you dreadfully, my dear,” he stated.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I shall be thinking of you,” responded Arlene, adjusting -her veil.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Mrs. Davies drew Arlene into the drawing room.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“It was so sweet of you to agree to accompany -Gail,” she observed. “It would be useless to attempt -<span class='pageno' id='Page_157'>157</span>to influence her now, but I look to you to bring her -back in a week. Her prospects are really too brilliant -to be interrupted by an unfortunate episode of this -nature.”</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_158'>158</span> - <h2 class='c005'>CHAPTER XV<br /> <span class='small'>BUT WHY WAS SHE LONESOME?</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_0_6 c011'>Everybody was at the depot to meet Gail; just -everybody in the world! It was midnight when -the train rolled in, and, as she came toward the gate, -the faces outside, with the high station lights beaming -down upon their eagerness, were like a flashing dream -of all the faces she had ever loved. Of course there -was her mother, a little stiff, a little sedate, a little reserved, -but, under her calm exterior, fluttering with a -flood of pent-up emotion. There was her father, a particularly -twinkling-eyed gentleman, a somewhat thinner, -somewhat older, somewhat neater edition of Uncle Jim, -and he had, of all things, her favourite collie, Taffy, -perched high on his shoulder! It was from her father -that Gail had her vivacity and from her mother her faculty -of introspection. Dazed by the unexpected delight, -and the pain, too, of seeing all these dear old -faces, she was for picking them out in detail, when -Taffy made a blur of them. Taffy, suddenly recognising -his playfellow in the throng, first deafened Miles -Sargent with a series of welcoming barks, and then -began climbing up his back. Sargent, always gifted -with the capacity for over-estimating his own powers, -a quality which had permitted his brother Jim to -slightly outrun him in the game of life, had -fondly hoped that he could restrain Taffy by the firm -hold of the forepaws over his shoulder; but collies are -<span class='pageno' id='Page_159'>159</span>endowed with a separate set of muscles for wriggling -purposes alone, and the first thing Miles Sargent knew, -Taffy had crawled right over him, and had kicked off -from his cravat, and had shot straight through the outcoming -throng, a flash of yelping brown and white, -brushing over a woman with a basket, and landing -against Gail with the force of all his lively affection.</p> - -<p class='c012'>That was only the beginning of the impetuosity with -which she was received at home. She had never realised -that she had quite so many friends, and even the -people in the street seemed familiar, as she was bundled -out to the car, with Arly smiling steadfastly in the -background and remembered only at intervals. They -looked more substantial and earnest and sincere and -friendly, these people, than the ones with whom she had -been recently associated. They were more polished in -New York, more sure of themselves, more indifferent -to the great mass of their fellow humanity, but here one -could be trustful. It was so good to be home!</p> - -<p class='c012'>Of course Howard was there, just the same old Howard, -and he bustled up to her with the same old air of -proprietorship, quite as if nothing had ever happened -to disturb their relations. It was he who took her by -the arm and engineered her out to her father’s car. At -first she was puzzled by his air of having a right to boss -her around, and then the reason flashed on her mind. -Pride! Howard did not want their set to know that -he was no longer drum major in the Sargent procession.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“There’s a wad of roses at the house for you, -Snapsy,” her father informed her as the machine -started, and his brown eyes twinkled until they almost -seemed to be surrounded by a halo. “They’re from -number one, I think.”</p> - -<p class='c012'><span class='pageno' id='Page_160'>160</span>“Number one?” puzzled Gail, who had taken a folding -seat so that she might occasionally pat Taffy, who -sat up sedately with the chauffeur.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Miles,” protested Mrs. Sargent, trying to direct -his glance toward Arly.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Edward E. Allison,” grinned Gail’s father. “He -must be a very active gentleman. Probably telephoned -his own florist in New York to telegraph Marty here to -supply you. Nothing has arrived from the other -eight.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Gail had a mad impulse to search for her time table. -She remembered now—could she ever forget it—that -her nine slaves had been numbered!</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Dad!” she wailed. “You couldn’t have seen that -awful paper!”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“We receive the New York papers now at four P.M.,” -he informed her, with an assumption of local pride -in the fact. “This morning’s <cite>Planet</cite> had a wonderful -circulation here. I think everybody in town has -seen it.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Arly Fosland had the bad grace to giggle. Mrs. -Sargent looked at her dubiously. She had, of course, -implicit confidence in Gail’s selection of friends, but -nevertheless she was not one to make up her own mind -too rapidly.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Everybody’s proud of you, Snapsy!” went on Miles -Sargent. “That’s a wonderful collection of slaves to -have made in so short a time.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Please don’t, Dad!” begged Gail.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“For myself, I favour number five,” continued her -father, enjoying himself very much, and Arly Fosland -made up her mind that she was going to feel very homelike -in the Sargent house, at dinner times. “Number -five is—”</p> - -<p class='c012'><span class='pageno' id='Page_161'>161</span>“Miles!” and Mrs. Sargent put her hand comfortingly -on Gail’s knee, while she turned reproachful eyes -on her husband.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Why, Judith,” protested Mrs. Sargent’s husband, -in mock surprise; “number five—”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Dad, I’ll jump out of this car!”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“—is the Reverend Smith Boyd, of Market Square -Church, the wealthiest and most fashionable congregation -in the world. Number six—Mrs. Fosland, I -couldn’t make out number six very well. I suppose -you know him.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Arly shrieked.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I can tell you all about them,” she volunteered, -judging that this was perhaps the best way to relieve -Gail’s embarrassment. “Number one, the gentleman -who sent the flowers, is a good-looking bachelor of forty-five, -whose specialty is in making big street car companies -out of little ones, and Gail hadn’t been in New -York a week, when he took the first vacation he’s had -in ten years. He’ll probably go back to work to-morrow -morning. He was the hero of the wreck.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“No doubt a good provider,” commented Mr. Sargent, -gravely checking off number one.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Even Mrs. Sargent was smiling now, but Gail was -looking interestedly at the old familiar street, and marvelling -that it had changed so little. It seemed impossible -that she had only been gone a few weeks. She -was particularly not hearing the flippant conversation -in the car.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Number two is Dick Rodley,” enumerated Arly, -remembering vividly the grouping of the nine slaves. -“He’s the handsomest man in the world!”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Probably fickle.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Number three, Willis Cunningham. He wears a -<span class='pageno' id='Page_162'>162</span>beard. I’d rather talk about number four, Houston -Van Ploon,” and she babbled on with her descriptions -of the nine slaves, until finally Gail laughed and helped -her out.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Somehow, the returned wanderer felt lonely, even with -three cars of friends following her home, as a guard -of honour. That was a strange sensation. Everything -was the same, all her friends were steadfast in their -affection, and she was overjoyed to be back among -them; yet she was lonely. Who could explain it?</p> - -<p class='c012'>Here was Main Street. Dear old busy Main Street, -with its shops and its hotels and its brilliantly lighted -drugstores, the latter only serving to accentuate the deserted -blackness. She was sorry that she had not arrived -at an earlier hour, when the windows would have -been lighted and the streets busier with people; though, -of course, it was always dull on Sunday night. Cricky! -Sunday! She had an engagement with Houston Van -Ploon to attend a concert to-night, and she had forgotten -to send him word. He had been at Uncle Jim’s, -stiff as a ramrod and punctual to the second, of course.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Taffy, who had been whining his newly re-aroused -distress over the absence of Gail, now suddenly remembered -that she was home again, and turned around with -a short, sharp bark. He stuck out his tongue and -rolled it at her, laughing, and his tail flopped. He -quivered all over.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Now up the avenue, the dear old wide avenue, with -its double rows of trees and its smooth asphalt, glistening -like sprinkling rain from the quartz sand embedded -in its surface, and with the prosperous looking brown -stone houses lining each side of the way, every house -with its lawn and its shrubbery and its glass-doored -vestibule. They were nearly all alike these houses, even -<span class='pageno' id='Page_163'>163</span>to lawns and shrubbery, except that some of them had -no iron dogs in the grass, and others had no little white -cupids holding up either a goose spouting water out -of its mouth or an umbrella which furnished its own -rain. They were dear houses, every one, ever so much -more personal than the heartless residences of New -York; and her friends lived in them. It was so good -to be home!</p> - -<p class='c012'>She became more excited now. There was their own -house just ahead, occupying nearly half the block, and -slightly larger than the others! It was brilliantly -lighted from the basement to the attic, and all the servants -were either on the front steps or peeping from -around the corner of the house, and old mammy Emma, -who had cooked Gail’s own little individual custard pies -since she was a baby, had her apron to her eyes. Gail’s -heart was just plumb full! There was no place, oh, -no place in all the world like home!</p> - -<p class='c012'>Taffy jumped out of the machine as it turned in at -the gate, and ran up ahead to bark a proper welcome, -and touched the top step with a circle like a whip-snapper, -and was back again, a long brown and white streak -bellying down to the grass, and prancing a circle around -the machine, and leaping in the air to bark, and back -up to the steps and back to the machine; then lay down -in the grass and rolled over, and, jumping up, chased -a cat out of the next yard, in the mere exuberance of -joy; but was back again to crouch before Gail, and -whine, as she stepped out of the car.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Old Plympton was there, the hollow-stomached black -butler, whose long-tailed coat dropped straight from -the middle of his back, and flapped against the bend of -his knees when he walked. His voice trembled when -he greeted Miss Gail, and old Auntie Clem, who had -<span class='pageno' id='Page_164'>164</span>tended Miss Gail when she was a little girl no bigger -than that, and until the fancy French maid came, just -politely took her young missus upstairs to her room, -and took off those heavy shoes, and made her drink her -thimble glass of hot-spiced port wine. It was so good -to be home!</p> - -<p class='c012'>Of course her friends had piled into the house after -her, a whole chattering mob of them, and, late as the -hour was, Vivian Jennings opened the piano and rattled -into Auld Lang Syne, which the company sang with a -ringing zest! The tears filled Gail’s eyes as she listened. -They were such faithful, whole-hearted people -back here! It was good to go away, now and then, -just for the joy of coming home again; but one should -not go too often. After all, this was a better life.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Auntie Clem triumphed. She had Miss Gail all fixed -up before that fancy French maid had on her trifling -little cap and her hair primped. Arly, choosing -Auntie Clem instantly for her personal attendant on -this brief visit, naturally refused to intrude further on -the home coming, and expressed herself as frantically -in love with her little blue bedroom and boudoir.</p> - -<p class='c012'>When Gail went downstairs, in a comfortable little -red house gown which was tremendously artful in its -simplicity, she found the whole jolly company in the -big dining room, where Miles Sargent had insisted on -opening something in honour of the happy event. She -coloured as her father turned his twinkling eyes on her, -but he did not take occasion to call her a slave driver -or to tease her any further about the work of art which -had driven her home. She reproached herself crossly -for having suspected him of such a crudity. Of course -he would not do that!</p> - -<p class='c012'>They had sandwiches, and olives, and cake, and -<span class='pageno' id='Page_165'>165</span>cookies—trust Mammy Emma for that—and nuts -and fruit and bonbons, and coffee, and champagne. -Everybody was excited, walking around with a sandwich -in one hand and an olive in the other, joking with -Gail, and complimenting her, and teasing her, but in -every word and look and action, showing that they loved -her.</p> - -<p class='c012'>She had a new knowledge of them, an understanding -of what it is like to have a whole circle of friends who -have grown up from childhood together. They understood -each other, and knew each other’s weaknesses and -faults, so that they were not shocked when they saw -evidences of them, and they knew each other’s virtues, -so that they did not overestimate anything and look -for too much, and they were dependent upon each other -and knew it, and they were loyal; that was it! Loyal! -Loyal to the very core! It was good, so good to be -home!</p> - -<p class='c012'>No one thought anything about it when Howard -Clemmens stayed behind, after all the rest had gone -home. Howard had always done that. It was his -right.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Howard was distressed in his mind about several -things, and, out of a habitual acquiescence in his old -assumption of leadership, and because she was tired, -and because she was tender of thought toward all her -old friends, she answered his very direct questions. -Yes, she had finished her visit. No, she was not engaged. -That atrocious newspaper article had only been -a regular Sunday paper social sensation. They fastened -that sort of a story on some one at least once a -year. These little matters settled, Howard was himself -again. He was very glad that Gail had returned to -her normal mode of existence, and now that all this -<span class='pageno' id='Page_166'>166</span>foolishness was over, he took the earliest opportunity -to mention the little matter between them. -Would Gail reconsider her answer to the question he -had asked her in New York? He informed her fully -as to the state of his affections, which had not changed -in the least, and he rather expected that this magnanimous -attitude on his part would meet with melting appreciation. -He was very much astonished that it did -not, and displeased when she refused him again. Confound -it, he had not given her time to settle down!</p> - -<p class='c012'>She was only slightly troubled when he bade her -good-night. She was sorry that she could not see the -matter as he did, but there was no trace of doubt in her -mind. Somehow, Howard seemed rather colourless of -late. He was a dear, good boy; but she was not the -kind of a girl he needed.</p> - -<p class='c012'>With only as much trouble on her brow as could be -smoothed away by her fingertips, she went back into -the dining room, where her father, who liked to have a -table near him, was enjoying an extra cup of coffee with -his cigar, and shedding the mild disapproval of Mrs. -Sargent, who foresaw a restless night for him. Gail, -who had not spared time for food, poured herself a -glass of water, picked up one of the delicious little -chicken sandwiches, and sat down, within easy leaning -distance of her father, for one of the good, old-time, -comfortable family chats. Taffy curled around her -feet, and the group was complete.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Somehow, that inexplicable feeling of loneliness returned -to her, in the midst of this most dear intimacy. -What was it? No one can form far ties without leaving -behind some enduring thread of spiritual communication; -for better or for worse.</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_167'>167</span> - <h2 class='c005'>CHAPTER XVI<br /> <span class='small'>GAIL AT HOME</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_0_6 c011'>“I hear Miss Gail’s back home.” It was the ice -man. He had given her slivers of ice in the -days when she had wished that she were a boy.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Yassum.” Mammy Emma. She said “Yassum” -to everybody; men, women, and children.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Gail, still snuggled in the pillows, smiled affectionately, -and knew what time it was. She reached lazily -out and pressed the button.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Prettier than ever, I suppose.” A slam and a -bang and a rattle of crockery.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Heaps.” The clink of a muffin pan. Gail knew -the peculiar sound from that of all the other pans in -the house. “I thought I done tole you yeahs ago to -saw that ice straight. Does it fit that away?”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“All right, Emma.” The slam of a lid. “I’ll remember -it next time. Miss Gail home for good?”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Praise the Lawd, yes.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>The clank of ice tongs.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“She’s a fine girl!” This with profound conviction. -“She didn’t get her head turned and marry any of -those rich New Yorkers.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“She could if she’d ‘a’ wanted to!” This indignantly.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Sure she could.” Sounds of a heavy booted iceman -coming down the steps of the kitchen porch. “New -<span class='pageno' id='Page_168'>168</span>York papers said she could have her pick; but she come -back home.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Gail’s maid came in, a neat French girl who had an -artist’s delight in her. She shivered and closed the -windows.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Arly!”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Good morning,” came a cheerful voice through -three open doors. “I’m up hours,” and Arly trotted -in, fresh-eyed and smiling, clad in a rich blue velvet -boudoir robe and her black hair braided down her back. -“I peeped in a few minutes ago, but you were sound -asleep. I want my coffee.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“You poor infant,” and Gail promptly slid two pink -feet out of bed to be slippered by Nanette. “I’ll be -ready in a minute. Why didn’t you ring?”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I did. Aunty Clem was up and took all the burden -of living away from me. I wouldn’t have coffee by -myself, though. I get that at home,” and there was -the slightest trace of wistfulness in her tone.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Call Clem again,” directed Gail. “Shall we have -it in your dressing-room or mine?”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“All over both suites,” laughed Arly. “I shall -never have enough of these beautiful little rooms,” and -she hurried back to her own quarters, to summons, once -more, the broadly smiling face of Aunty Clem.</p> - -<p class='c012'>That was the beginning of the first morning at home, -with every delightful observance just as it had used -to be; first the fragrant coffee, and the pathetically -good hot muffins and jam; then the romping, laughing, -splashing process of dressing; then interrupted by a -visit from Mrs. Sargent, and from Taffy, and from -Vivian Jennings, who lived next door, and from Madge -Frazier, who had stayed the night with Vivian; then a -race out to the stables, to say good morning to the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_169'>169</span>horses, and laughing with moist eyes, hear their excited -whinnies of greeting, and slip them lumps of sugar; -then to the kennels to be half smothered by the eager -collies; then over to Vivian’s, to surround deaf old -grandmother Jennings with the flowers she loved best, -the faces of young girls; then back to the house and the -telephone, for a cheery good morning to everybody in -the world, beginning with Dad, who was already plugging -away in his office, the morning half gone, and looking -forward to lunch.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Breakfast at eleven, a brisk horseback ride, a change, -and Gail’s little grey electric was at the door. There -was a tremendous lot of shopping to be done. To begin -with, sixteen new hair ribbons, and nine fancy marbles, -not the big ones that you can’t use, but the regular -unattainable fifteen centers, and twenty-five pears, and -twenty-five small boxes of candy, and eleven pound -packages of special tea, and six pound packages of -special tobacco, and one quart of whiskey, and eighteen -bunches of red carnations, five to the bunch, five grouping -better than four or six. None of these things were -to be delivered. Gail piled them all in her coupé, and, -after saying “howdydo” to about everybody on Main -Street, and feeling immensely uplifted thereby, she inserted -Arly in among the carnations and pears and tobacco -and things, and whirled her out to Chickentown, -which was the actively devilish section of the city allotted -to Gail’s church work.</p> - -<p class='c012'>There were those of the guild who made of this religious -duty a solemn and serious task, to be entered -upon with sweet piety and uplifting words; but Gail -had solved her problem in a fashion which kept Chickentown -from hating her and charity. She distributed -flowers and pears and tobacco and things, and perfectly -<span class='pageno' id='Page_170'>170</span>human smiles, and a few commonsense observations -when they seemed to be necessary, and scoldings -where they seemed due, and it was a lasting tribute -to her diplomacy and popularity that all the new -born babies in the district were named either Gail or -Gale.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Chickentown lay in a smoky triangle, entirely surrounded -by railroad yards and boiler factories and -packing houses and the like, and it was as feudal in its -instincts as any stronghold of old. Its womenfolk -would not market where the Black Creek women marketed, -its men would not drink in the same saloons, and -its children came home scarred and prowed from gory -battles with the Black Creek gang; yet, in their little -cottages and in their tiny yards was the neatness of -local pride, which had sprung up immediately after Gail -had inaugurated the annual front yard flower prize -system.</p> - -<p class='c012'>No sooner had the familiar coupé crossed the -Black Creek bridge than a yell went up, which could -be heard echoing and reverberating from street to street -throughout the entire domain of Chickentown! One -block inside the fiefdom, the progress of the car was -impeded by exactly twenty-five children. By some -miracle they all arrived at nearly the same time, the -only difference being that those who had come the -farthest were the most out of breath. Gail jumped out -among them, and twenty-five right hands went straight -up in the air. She inspected the hands critically, one -by one, and, by that inspection alone, divided the mobs -into two groups, the clean handed ones, who were mostly -girls, and the dirty-handed ones, who looked sorry. -She shook hands with the first group, and she smiled on -<span class='pageno' id='Page_171'>171</span>both, and she distributed hair ribbons and marbles and -pears and candy with cordial understanding.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“It doesn’t do for me to be away so long,” she confessed, -looking them over regretfully. “I don’t believe -you are as clean.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Those who were as clean looked consciously hurt, but -for the most part they looked guilty; and Gail apologised -individually, to those who merited it.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Now we’ll hear the troubles,” she announced; “and -you must hurry. The cleanest first.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Twenty-five hands went up, and she picked out the -cleanest, a neat little girl with yellow hair and blue -eyes and a prim little walk, who shyly came forward -alone out of the group and wiggled her interlocked -fingers behind her, while Gail sat in the door of her -coupé and held her court.</p> - -<p class='c012'>A half-whispered conversation; a genuine trouble, -and some sound and sensible advice. Yellow Hair did -not like her school-teacher; and what was she to do -about it? A difficult problem that, and while Gail was -inculcating certain extremely cautious lessons of mingled -endurance and diplomacy, which would have been -helpful to grown-ups as well as to yellow-haired little -girls, and which Gail reflected that she might herself -use with profit, Arly, with an entirely new sort of smile -in her softened eyes, walked over to the chattering -group, all of whom had troubles to relate, and asked a -boy to have a bill changed for her into quarter dollars. -The boy looked at his hand.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I guess I won’t be next for a long time,” and taking -the bill ran for the candy shop, which was nearest. -There were seven places of retail business in Chickentown, -and since they dealt mostly in coppers, he expected -to be a long time on this errand.</p> - -<p class='c012'><span class='pageno' id='Page_172'>172</span>Arly watched Gail handle the case of a particularly -black-eyed little girl, whose brother was getting too -big to play with her any more; and she grew wistful.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Do you mind if I hear a few troubles, Gail?” she -requested.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Help yourself,” was the laughing reply. “I think -there’s enough to go around.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I’ll begin at the other end,” decided Arly. “Put -up your hands, kiddies,” and they went up slowly. She -conscientiously picked the dirtiest one, but the boy who -owned it came forward with a reluctance which was almost -sullen.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I druther tell Miss Gail,” he frankly informed her.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Of course,” Arly immediately agreed, smiling down -into his eyes with more charm than she had seen fit to -exert on anybody in many months. “But you can -tell Miss Gail about it afterwards, if you like, or you -might tell me your littlest trouble and save your biggest -one for Miss Gail.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I ain’t got but one,” responded the boy, and he -looked searchingly into Arly’s black eyes. Her being -pretty, like Gail, was a recommendation.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“There’s a kid over in Black Creek that I used to -lick; but now he’s got me faded.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>From his intensity, this was a serious trouble, and -Arly considered it seriously.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Does he fight fairly?” she asked, and that one question -alone showed that she knew the first principles -of human life and conduct, which was rare in a girl or -woman of any type.</p> - -<p class='c012'>He came a step closer, and looked up into her eyes -with all his reservation gone.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Yessum,” he confessed, and there was something of -a clutch in his throat which would never grow up to -<span class='pageno' id='Page_173'>173</span>be a sob, but which would have been one in a girl. He’d -rather have lied, but you couldn’t get any useful advice -that way.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Maybe he’s growing faster than you.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Yessum. I eat all the oatmeal they give me, and -I take trainin’ runs every evening after school, clear up -to Scraggers Park and back; but it don’t do any good.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Arly pondered.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“When does he lick you?” she asked.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Right after supper when he catches me.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Do you play all day?”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I go to school.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Baseball?”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Yessum. Baseball, and one-old-cat, and two-old-cat, -and rounders, and marbles, and prisoner’s base, -and high-spy, but mostly baseball and marbles.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Arly studied the future citizen with the eye of a -practical physical culturist, who knew exactly how she -had preserved her clear complexion and lithe figure. -In spite of his sturdy build, there was not enough protuberance -to his chest, and, though his cheeks were full -enough, there was a hollow look about his jaws and -around his eyes.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“You’re over-trained,” she decisively told him. -“You mustn’t play marbles very often, or very long -at a time, because that stooping over in the dust isn’t -good for you, and you mustn’t take your training runs -up to that park. The other boy licks you because -you’re all tired out. I don’t believe it’s because he’s a -better fighter.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>That boy breathed with the sigh of one freed from a -mighty burden, and the eyes which looked up into -Arly’s were almost swimming with gratitude.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“She’s all right,” he told the next candidate. “She’s -<span class='pageno' id='Page_174'>174</span>a pippin! Say, do you know what’s the matter with -me? I’m over-trained,” and he smacked his chest resounding -whacks and felt of his biceps.</p> - -<p class='c012'>There were troubles of all sorts and shapes and sizes, -and Arly bent to them more concentrated wisdom than -she had been called upon to display for years. It was -a new game, one with a live zest, and Gail had invented -it. Her admiration for Gail went up a notch. One -boy was not so funny as his brother, and was never -noticed; another had to eat turnips; and Arly’s only -little girl, for she had started at the boy end, couldn’t -have little slippers that pinched her feet!</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I’m glad I came home with you,” commented -Arly, when she had finished her court and had distributed -her money, which Gail had permitted her just this -once, and they had driven up the block attended by -an escort of exactly twenty-five. “It makes me think, -and I’d almost forgotten how.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“It makes me think, too,” confessed Gail, very seriously. -“Suppose I should go away. They’d go right -on living, but I like to flatter myself that I’m doing -more good for them than somebody else could do.” Why -that thought had worried her she could not say. She -was home to stay now, except for the usual trips.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“You’d find the same opportunities anywhere,” Arly -quickly assured her.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Yes, but they wouldn’t be these same children,” worried -Gail. “I’d never know others like I know these.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“No,” admitted Arly slowly. “I think I’ll pick out -a few when I go back home. I’ve often wondered how -to do it, without having them think me a fool or a nosy, -but you’ve solved the problem. You’re tremendously -clever.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Here’s Granny Jones’s,” interrupted Gail, with a -<span class='pageno' id='Page_175'>175</span>smile for the compliment. “Don’t come in, for she’s -my worst specimen. She’s a duty,” and taking some -carnations and a package of tea, she hurried away.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Flowers and tea for the old ladies, tobacco and flowers -for the old men, and the bottle of whiskey for old -Ben Jackson, to whom his little nip every morning and -night was a genuine charity, though one severe worker -left the guild because Gail persisted in taking it to him.</p> - -<p class='c012'>At the house they found silver-haired old Doctor -Mooreman, the rector of the quaintly beautiful little -chapel up the avenue, and he greeted Gail with a smile -which was a strange commingling of spiritual virtue and -earthly shrewdness.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Well, how’s my little pagan?” he asked her, in the -few minutes they had alone.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Worse than ever, I’m afraid,” she confessed. “I -suppose you’re asking about the state of my mind and -the degree of my wickedness.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“That’s it exactly,” agreed the Reverend Doctor, -smiling on her fondly. “Are you still quarrelling with -the Church, because it prefers to be respectable rather -than merely good?”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I’m afraid so,” she laughed. “I still don’t understand -why Hell is preached when nobody believes it; -nor why we are told the material details of a spiritual -Heaven, when no one has proved its existence except -by ancient literature; nor why an absolutely holy man -whose works are all good, from end to end of his life, -can’t go to Heaven if he doubts the divinity of the -Saviour; nor why so much immorality is encouraged -in the world by teaching that marriage itself is sinful; -nor why a hundred other things, which are necessarily -the formulas of man, are made a condition of the worship -of the heart. You see, I’m as bad as ever.”</p> - -<p class='c012'><span class='pageno' id='Page_176'>176</span>The smile of Doctor Mooreman was a pleasant sight -to behold.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“You’re in no spiritual difficulties,” he told her. -“You’re only having fun with your mind, and laying -tragic stress on the few little innocent fictions which -were once well-meant and useful.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Gail looked at him in astonishment.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I never heard you admit that much!” she marvelled.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“You’re approaching years of discretion,” laughed -her old rector. “All these things are of small moment -compared with the great fact that the Church does -stand as a constant effort to inculcate the grace of -God. The young are prone to require roses without -a blemish, but even God has never made one.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I don’t understand,” she puzzled. “You’re not -combatting me on any of these things as you used to,” -and it actually worried her.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Let me whisper something to you,” and the Reverend -Doctor Mooreman, whose face had the purity -which is only visible in old age, leaned forward, with -his eyes snapping. “I don’t believe a lot of them myself; -but Gail, I believe much in the grace of God, and -I believe much in its refining and bettering influence on -humanity, so to the people who would discard everything -for the reason of one little flaw, I teach things -I don’t believe; and my conscience is as clean as a -whistle.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“You’re a darling old fraud!” Gail’s mind was -singularly relieved. She had worried how a man of -Doctor Mooreman’s intelligence could swallow so many -of the things which were fed him in his profession. The -conversation had done her good. It tempered her attitude -toward certain things, but it did not change her -<span class='pageno' id='Page_177'>177</span>steadfast principle that the Church would be better off -if it did not require the teachings of tenets and articles -of faith which were an insult to modern intelligence.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Had she been unfair with the Reverend Smith Boyd? -She could not shake off that thought. She must tell -him the attitude of Doctor Mooreman. That is, if she -ever saw him again. Of course she would, however.</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_178'>178</span> - <h2 class='c005'>CHAPTER XVII<br /> <span class='small'>SOMETHING HAPPENS TO GERALD FOSLAND</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_0_6 c011'>There was something radically wrong with the -Fosland household. Gerald’s man had for years -invariably said: “Good morning, sir; I hope you slept -well, sir.” This time he merely said: “Good morning, -sir”; and he forgot the salt. What was the matter -with the house? With the exception of William’s -slip, the every morning programme was quite as usual. -Gerald arose, had his plunge, his breakfast, read his -mail and his paper, went for a canter in the Park, had -luncheon at the Papyrus Club, and unless his morning -engagement slip had shown him some social duty for the -afternoon, he did not see Mrs. Fosland until he came -down, from the hands of William, dressed for dinner.</p> - -<p class='c012'>One can readily see that no deviation from this routine -confronted Gerald Fosland this morning. He had -had his plunge and his breakfast, his mail and his paper -laid before him, and yet there was something ghastly -about the feel of the house. It was as if some one were -dead! Gerald Fosland made as radical a deviation -from his daily life as William had done. He left his -mail unopened, after a glance at the postmark; he left -his paper unread, and he started for his canter in the -Park a full half hour early!</p> - -<p class='c012'>He arrived at the Papyrus Club a full half hour -early, and sat in the dimmest corner of the library, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_179'>179</span>taking himself seriously in hand. Somehow, he was -not quite fit, not quite up to himself. It seemed desperately -lonely in the Club. There were plenty of -fellows there, but they were merely nodders. They -were not the ones who came at his hour. He brightened -a shade as Tompkinson came in five minutes early. -He was about to wonder if all the world had started -a trifle early this morning, when he remembered that, -ordinarily on his arrival, he found Tompkinson there. -He could not analyse why this should be such a relief -to him, unless it was that he found mere normality comforting -to-day.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Good morning, Fosland,” drawled Tompkinson. -“Beautiful weather.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Yes,” said Gerald, and they sat together in voiceless -satisfaction until Connors came in.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Good morning,” observed Connors. “Beautiful -weather.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Yes,” replied Fosland and Tompkinson, and Connors -sat.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Depressing affair of Prymm’s,” presently remarked -Tompkinson, calling a boy for the customary -appetiser.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Rotten,” agreed Connors, with some feeling. All -his ancestors had been Irish, and it never quite gets out -of the blood.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I haven’t heard,” suggested Fosland, with the decent -interest one club-fellow should have in another.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Wife went to Italy with the sculptor who made her -portrait; Carmelli, that’s the name. Intense looking -fellow, you know. Prymm had him here at the club.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“You don’t tell me.” Gerald felt an unusual throb -of commiseration for Prymm. “Mighty decent chap.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Yes, Prymm’s all cut up about it,” went on Tompkinson. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_180'>180</span>“Has a sort of notion he should kill the fellow, -or something of the kind.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Why?” demanded Connors, with some feeling -again. Connors was a widower, and Fosland suddenly -remembered, though he could not trace a connection -leading to the thought, that Connors had not been a -frequenter of the club until after the death of his wife. -“Prymm’s a thoroughly decent chap, but he was so -wasteful.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>This being a new word in such connection, both Fosland -and Tompkinson looked at Connors inquiringly.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I hadn’t noticed.” This Tompkinson.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Wasteful of Mrs. Prymm,” explained Connors. -“She is a beautiful young woman, clever, charming, -companionable, and, naturally, fond of admiration. -Prymm admired her. He frequently intimated that he -did. He admired his horse, and an exceptional Botticelli -which hung in his music room, but his chief pleasure -lay in their possession. He never considered that -he should give any particular pleasure to the Botticelli, -but he did to the horse.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Gerald Fosland was aware of a particular feel of -discomfort. Rather heartless to be discussing a fellow -member’s intimate affairs this way.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“It is most unfortunate,” he commented. “Shall we -go down to lunch?”</p> - -<p class='c012'>In the hall they met Prymm, a properly set up fellow, -with neatly plastered hair and an air of unusually -perfect grooming. He presented the appearance of -having shaved too closely to-day.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Good morning,” said Prymm. “Beautiful weather.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Inconsiderate of Prymm to show up at the club. A -trifle selfish of him. It put such a strain on his fellow -<span class='pageno' id='Page_181'>181</span>members. Of course, though, he had most of his -mail there. He only stopped for his mail, and went -out.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“You’ll be in for the usual Tuesday night whist, -I dare say,” inquired Tompkinson perfunctorily.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Oh yes,” remembered Fosland, and was thoughtful -for a moment. “No, I don’t think I can come. -Sorry.” He felt the eye of Connors fixed on him curiously.</p> - -<p class='c012'>On Fosland’s book was a tea, the date filled in two -weeks ago; one of those art things to which men are -compelled. Arly had handed it to him, much like a -bill for repairs, or a memorandum to secure steamer -tickets. He drove home, and dressed, and when William -handed him his hat and gloves and stick he laid -them on the table beside him, in his lounging room, and -sat down, looking patiently out of the window. He -glanced at his watch, by and by, and resumed his inspection -of the opposite side of the street. He stirred -restlessly, and then he suddenly rose, with a little smile -at himself. He had been waiting for word from Mrs. -Fosland, that she was ready. For just a few abstracted -moments he had forgotten that he was to pay -the social obligations of the house of Fosland entirely -alone.</p> - -<p class='c012'>He picked up his hat and gloves and stick, and -started to leave the room. As he passed the door leading -to Arly’s apartments, he hesitated, and put his -hand on the knob. He glanced over his shoulder, as -a guilty conscience made him imagine that William was -coming in, then he gently turned the knob, and entered. -A tiny vestibule, and then a little French-grey salon, -and then the boudoir, all in delicate blue, and sweet -with a faint, delicate, evasive fragrance which was like -<span class='pageno' id='Page_182'>182</span>the passing of Arly. Something made him stand, for -a moment, with a trace of feeling which came to awe, -and then he turned and went out of the terribly solemn -place. He did not notice, until afterwards, that he -had tiptoed.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Gerald Fosland had never been noted for brilliance, -but he was an insufferable bore at the art tea. People -asked him the usual polite questions, and he either forgot -that they were talking or answered about something -else, and he entirely mislaid the fragments of art conversation -which he was supposed to have put on with -his ascot. Nearly every one asked about Arly, and -several with more than perfunctory courtesy. He had -always known that Arly was very popular, but he had -a new perception, now, that she was extremely well -liked; and it gratified him.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Occupied with his own reflections, which were not so -much thought as a dull feeling that he was about to -have a thought, he nevertheless felt that this was a -rather agreeable gathering, after all, until he accidentally -joined a group which, with keen fervour, was -discussing the accident to Prymm. He had a general -aversion to gossip anyhow, and shortly after that he -went home.</p> - -<p class='c012'>He wrote some letters, and, when it grew dark, he -rang for William.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I shall remain in for dinner to-night,” he observed, -and mechanically took up the evening paper which the -quiet William laid before him. A headline which made -his hand tremble, caught his eye, and he dropped the -paper. Prymm had shot himself.</p> - -<p class='c012'>No tragedy had ever shaken Gerald Fosland so much -as this. Why, he had met Prymm only that noon. -Prymm had said: “Good morning, beautiful weather.” -<span class='pageno' id='Page_183'>183</span>For a moment Fosland almost changed his mind about -remaining in for dinner, but, after all, the big panelled -dining room, with its dark wainscoting and its heavily -carved furniture and its super-abundant service, was -less lonely than the club. The only words which broke -the silence of the dim dining room during that dinner, -were: “Sauce, sir?”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Gerald took his coffee in his lounging room, and then -he went again to Arly’s door. He turned before he -opened it, and tossed his cigarette in the fireplace. He -did not enter by stealth this time. He walked in. He -even went on to the dainty blue bedroom, and looked -earnestly about it, then he went back to the boudoir and -seated himself on the stiff chair in which he had, on -rare occasions, sat and chatted with her. He remained -there perhaps half an hour. Suddenly he arose, and -called for his limousine, and drove to Teasdale’s. They -were out, he was told. They were at Mr. Sargent’s, -and he drove straight there. Somehow, he was glad -that, since they were out, they had gone to Sargent’s. -He was most anxious to see Lucile.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Just in time to join the mourners, Gerald,” greeted -Ted. “We’re doing a very solemn lot of Gailing.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I’ll join you with pleasure,” agreed Gerald, feeling -more at home and lighter of heart here than he had -anywhere during the day. Lucile seemed particularly -near to him. “Have you any intimation that Gail expects -to return soon?”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“None at all,” stated Aunt Helen, with a queer mixture -of sombreness and impatience. “She only writes -about what a busy time they are having, and how delightfully -eager her friends have been about her, and -how popular Arly is, and such things as that.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Arly is popular everywhere,” stated Gerald, and -<span class='pageno' id='Page_184'>184</span>Lucile looked at him wonderingly, turning her head -very slowly towards him.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“What do you hear from Arly?” she inquired, holding -up her hand as if to shield her eyes from the fire, -and studying him curiously from that shadow.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Much the same,” he answered; “except that she -mentions Gail’s popularity instead of her own. She had -her maid send her another trunkful of clothing, I believe,” -and he fell to gazing into the fireplace.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I am very much disappointed in Arly,” worried -Aunt Helen. “I sent Arly specifically to bring Gail -back in a week, and they have been gone nine days!”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I’m glad they’re having a good time,” observed -Jim Sargent. “She’ll come back when she gets ready. -The New York pull is something which hits you in the -middle of the night, and makes you get up and pack.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Yes, but the season will soon be over,” worried -Aunt Helen. “Gail’s presence here at this time is so -important that I do not see how she can neglect it. It -may affect her entire future life. A second season is -never so full of opportunities as the first one.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Oh nonsense,” laughed Jim. “You’re a fanatic -on match-making, Helen. What you really mean is -that Gail should make a choice out of the matrimonial -market before it has all been picked over.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Jim,” protested Mrs. Sargent, the creases of worry -appearing in her brow. Her husband and sister had -never quarrelled, but they had permitted divergences -of opinion, which had required much mutual forbearance.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“A spade is a spade,” returned Jim. “I think it’s -silly to worry about Gail’s matrimonial prospects. -Whenever she’s ready to be married, she’ll look them -all over, and pick out the one who suits her. All she’ll -<span class='pageno' id='Page_185'>185</span>have to say is ‘Eeny-meeny-miny-moe, you’re it,’ and -the fellow will rush right out and be measured for his -suit.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Just the same, I’d rather she’d be here when she -counts out,” laughed Lucile.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“So would I,” agreed Jim; “but, after all, there -are good men everywhere. Girls get married out in the -middle-west as well as here, and live happily ever after.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“They grow fine men out there,” stated Mrs. Sargent, -with a complimentary glance at her husband. She -had never wavered in her opinion of that fine man.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Right you are,” agreed Sargent heartily. “They -have not the polish of eastern men perhaps, but they -have a strength, and forcefulness, and virility, which -carries them through. There are men out there, stacks -of them, who would appeal to any bright and vivacious -woman, sweep her off her feet, carry her away by storm, -and make her forget a lot of things. If any handsome -woman is unappreciated in New York, all she has -to do is to go out to the middle-west.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Lucile, listening to the innocently blundering speech -of Gail’s proud uncle, watched Gerald with intense interest. -She could scarcely believe the startling idea -which had popped into her head! Gerald’s only apparent -deviation from his normal attitude had consisted -in abstractedly staring into the fire, instead of paying -polite attention to every one, but that he had heard -was evidenced by the shifting glance he gave Sargent. -Otherwise he had not moved.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“You scare me,” said Lucile, still watching Gerald. -“I’m not going to leave Gail out there any longer. I’m -going to have her back at once.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Gerald raised his head immediately, and smiled at -her.</p> - -<p class='c012'><span class='pageno' id='Page_186'>186</span>“Splendid,” he approved. “Fact of the matter is,” -and he hesitated an instant, “I’m becoming extremely -lonesome.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Even Ted detected something in Gerald’s tone and -in his face.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“It’s time you were waking up,” he bluntly commented. -“I should think you would be lonely without -Arly.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Yes, isn’t it time,” agreed Gerald, studying the -matter carefully. “You know, both having plenty of -leisure, there’s never been any occasion for us to travel -separately before, and, really, I miss her dreadfully.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I think I’ll have to get her for you, Gerald,” promised -Lucile, removing her hand from in front of her -eyes, and smiling at him reassuringly. She could smile -beautifully just now. The incredible thing she had -thought she detected was positively true, and it made -her excitedly happy! Gerald Fosland had been in love -with his wife, and had never known it until now!</p> - -<p class='c012'>“If you can work that miracle, and bring Gail back -with her, you’ll spread sunshine all over the place,” -declared Jim Sargent. “It’s been like a funeral here -since she went home. You’d think Gail was the most -important section of New York. Everybody’s blue; -Allison, Doctor Boyd; everybody who knew her inquires, -with long faces, when she’s coming back!”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“What do you propose?” inquired Mrs. Helen -Davies, with a degree of interest which intimated that -she was quite ready to take any part in the conspiracy.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I have my little plan,” laughed Lucile. “I’m going -to send her an absolutely irresistible reminder of -New York!”</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_187'>187</span> - <h2 class='c005'>CHAPTER XVIII<br /> <span class='small'>THE MESSAGE FROM NEW YORK</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_0_6 c011'>It was good to be home! Gail wondered that she -could ever have been content away from the loving -shelter of her many, many friends. She had grown -world weary in all the false gaiety of New York! She -was disillusioned! She was blasé. She was tired of -frivolity; and she immediately planned or enthusiastically -agreed to take part in a series of gaieties which -would have made an average hard-working man anticipate -them with an already broken constitution.</p> - -<p class='c012'>The house was full of them, morning, noon and night; -young girls, sedate and jolly, and all of them excitedly -glad that Gail was among them again; and young men, -in all the degrees from social butterflies to plodding -business pluggers, equally glad.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Good comfortable home folks these, who were deliciously -nice to the stately black-haired Arly, and voted -her a tremendous beauty, and stood slightly in awe of -her. The half cynical Arly, viewing them critically, -found in them one note of interesting novelty; a certain -general clean-hearted wholesomeness, and, being -a seeker after the unusual, and vastly appreciative, she -deliberately cultivated them; flattering the boys, but -not so much as to make the other girls hate her. To -the girls she made herself even more attractive, because -she liked them better. She complimented them individually -on the point of perfection for which each girl -<span class='pageno' id='Page_188'>188</span>most prided herself; she told them that they were -infinitely more clever than the women of New York, and -better looking, in general; for the New York women -were mostly clothes and make-up; and, above all, she -envied them their truer lives!</p> - -<p class='c012'>No group of young people could resist such careful -work as that, especially when performed by a young -woman so adroit and so attractive, and so well gowned; -so they lost their awkwardness with her, which removed -any sense of discomfort Gail might have felt, which was -the aim to be accomplished. In those first few days -Gail was the happiest of all creatures, in spite of the -fact that the local papers had carried a politer echo -of that despicable slave story. At nights, however, beginning -with the second one, when the girls had retired -to the mutual runway of their adjoining suites, the conversation -would turn something like this.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Let’s see, this is the seventeenth, isn’t it?” thus -Arly.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Yes; Tuesday,” concentratedly selecting a chocolate, -the box of which bore a New York name.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Mrs. Matson’s ice skating ball is to-night.” A -sidelong glance at the busy Gail.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Um-hum.” A chocolate between her white teeth.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“She always has such original affairs.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Doesn’t she!” Gail draws her sandalled feet up -under her and stretches down her pink negligee, so that -she looks like a stiff little statue in tinted ivory.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“And such interesting people. That new artist is -certain to be there. What’s his name? Oh yes, Vloddow. -I could adore him.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“You’re a mere verbal adorer,” laughs Gail, studying -anxiously over the problem of whether she wants -<span class='pageno' id='Page_189'>189</span>another piece of chocolate or not. Allison had sent -such good ones. “Vloddow eats garlic.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“That’s why I adore him, from a distance. Of -course all the nice regular fellows will be there; Dick -Rodley, and Ted, and Houston, and — Oh, oh! I -forgot to write Gerald,” and with a swift passing kiss -somewhere between Gail’s ear and her chin, she hurries -into her own dressing-room, with a backward glance -to make sure that Gail is staring, with softened brown -eyes, down into her chocolate box, and seeing there -amid the brown confections, the laughing, swirling skaters -in Mrs. Matson’s glistening ballroom. Dick, and -Ted, and Houston, and Willis, Lucile and Marion, Flo -Reynolds, and the gay little Mrs. Babbitt, and a host -of others. There were some who would not be at that -ball; Allison, and the Reverend Smith Boyd, and—Arlene -has plenty of time to write her formally dutiful -letter without disturbance.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Gail has letters, too, as the days wear on. She -scarcely has time for them amid all the impromptu -gaieties, but she does find a chance to read them; some -of them twice. Of course there are letters from -“home,” a prim and still affectionate one from Aunt -Helen Davies, and a loving one, full of worry about -Gail’s possible tonsilitis, from Aunt Grace, a hearty -scrawl from Jim, a bubbling little note from Lucile, -an absurd love letter from Ted, couched in terms of the -utmost endearment, and winding up with the proposition -to elope with her if she’d only come back. That -was the tenor of all her letters; if she’d only come back! -Bless their hearts, she loved them; and yes, longed for -them, even here in the happy, sheltering environment of -her own dear home and friends! There were still other -<span class='pageno' id='Page_190'>190</span>letters; a confidently friendly one from Allison, who -sent her regularly candy and flowers on alternate days; -a substantial one from Houston Van Ploon; a thoughtful -one from Willis Cunningham; a florid one from -Dick Rodley; nice little notes, calculated to relieve her -embarrassment, from all her “slaves” except the missing -Count; and a discussion from the Reverend Smith -Boyd. That was one of those which she read more -than once; for it was quite worth it.</p> - -<div class='lg-container-l c013'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Dear Miss Sargent:</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c014'>“This being our regular evening for discussion, I -beg to remind you that on our last debate, I shall not -call it a dispute, we had barely touched upon the necessity -for ritual, or rather, to avoid any quibble over the -word necessity, on my insistence for the need of a ritual, -when we decided that it was better to sing for the -balance of the evening. I was the more ready to acquiesce -in this, as we had, for the first time, hit upon -a theorem to which we could both subscribe; namely, -that it is just as easy for the human mind to grasp -the biblical theory of creation as to grasp the creation -of the life-producing chaos out of which evolution must -have proceeded.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Gail laid down the letter at this point and smiled, -with dancing eyes. She could see the stern face of the -young rector brightening with pleasure as she had herself -propounded this thought, and she could revisualise -his grave pleasure as he had clothed it in accurate -words for them both. It was, as he had said, an extremely -solid starting point, to which they could always -return.</p> - -<p class='c014'><span class='pageno' id='Page_191'>191</span>“That this belief is sufficient, even including a continuance -of the omnipresent personal regard which we -both admit to assume in that Creator, I deny. I can -see your cheeks flush and your brown eyes sparkle as -you come to this flat statement; and I am willing to -answer for you that you object to my making so far-sweeping -a statement, in the very beginning of what was -to have been a slowly deductive process. You may not -be wording it in just this manner, but this is, in effect, -what you are saying.</p> - -<p class='c014'>“With much patience, I reply that you have not -waited for me to finish, which, I must observe, in justice -to myself, you seldom do.</p> - -<p class='c014'>“Kindly wait just a minute, please. You have -thrown back your head, your brown hair tossing, your -pointed chin uptilted, and a little red spot beginning -to appear in your delicately tinted cheeks, but I hasten -to remind you that, if we take up this little side matter -of my unfortunate mention of one of your youthful -proclivities, we shall forget entirely the topic under -discussion. I apologise for having been so rude as -to remind you of it, and beg to state that when I pause -at a comma, you had heard but half a statement.</p> - -<p class='c014'>“At this point you remark that no discussion should -be based upon a half statement, and I admit, with -shame, that I am slightly indignant, for you have not -yet permitted me to finish my original proposition. -Now you are sitting back, with your slender white hands -folded in your lap, and the toe of one of your little -pointed slippers waving gently, your curved lashes -drooping, and your eyes carelessly fixed on my cravat, -which I can not see, but which I believe to have been -tied with as much care as a gentleman should expend -upon his attire.</p> - -<p class='c014'><span class='pageno' id='Page_192'>192</span>“Miss Sargent, you leave me helpless. I feel a chill -sensation in my cheeks, as if a cold draught had blown -upon them. You are firmly resolved to let me talk without -interruption for the next half hour, upon which -you will give me a most adroit answer to everything I -have said. Your answer will have all the effect of refuting -my entire line of logic, without having given -me an opportunity to defend the individual steps.</p> - -<p class='c014'>“I decline, with much patience, very much patience -indeed, to lay myself open to this conclusion, not because -of the undeserved sense of defeat it will force upon -me, but because the matter at issue is too grave and -important to be given a prejudiced dismissal.</p> - -<p class='c014'>“I can see you now, as I refuse to carry the subject -further at this session. You stiffen in your chair, -your eyes, which have seemed so carelessly indifferent, -suddenly glow, and snap, and sparkle, and flash. The -tiny red spots have deepened, enhancing the velvet of -your cheeks. Your red lips curl. You impatiently -touch back the waves of your rippling brown hair with -your slender white hand, which turns so gracefully upon -its wrist. You blaze straight into my eyes, and tell -me that I have taken this means of avoiding the discussion, -because I perceive in advance that I am -beaten.</p> - -<p class='c014'>“Miss Sargent, I do not tell you that you are unfair -and ungenerous to seize upon this advantage; instead, -I bite my lip, and compel my countenance to befitting -gravity, knowing that I should be above the petty emotions -of anger, impatience, and offended pride; but -humbly confessing, to myself, that I have not my nature -under such perfect subjection as I should like to -have.</p> - -<p class='c014'>“Consequently, I beg you to defer this step in our -<span class='pageno' id='Page_193'>193</span>logical deduction to another night, and turn, with grateful -relief, to the music. I need not say how heartily I -wish that you were here to sing with me.</p> - -<div class='lg-container-r c013'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Yours earnestly,</div> - <div class='line in16'>“<span class='sc'>Smith Boyd</span>.”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c012'>Gail shrieked when she first read that letter, then -she read it again and blushed. She had, as she came -upon his initial flat statement of denial, felt a flush in -her cheeks and a snap in her eyes. She had, as she -read, stiffened with indignation, and relaxed in scornful -disdain, and flashed with hot retort, in advance of -his discernment that she would do so! She was flamingly -vexed with him! On the third reading her eyes -twinkled, and her red lips curved deliciously with humour, -as she admired the cleverness which she had previously -only recognised. In subsequent readings this -was her continued attitude, and she kept the letter somewhere -in the neighbourhood where she might touch it -occasionally, because of the keen mental appreciation -she had for it. Were her eyes really capable of such an -infinite variety of expression as he had suggested? She -looked in the glass to see; but was disappointed. They -were merely large, and brown, and deep, and, just now, -rather softened.</p> - -<p class='c012'>There was an impromptu party at Gail’s house, a -jolly affair, indeed. All her old, steadfast friends, you -know, who were quite sufficient to fill her life; and this -was the night of the gay little Mrs. Babbitt’s affair in -New York. How much better than those great, glittering, -social pageants was a simple, wholesome little ball -like this, with all her dear girl chums, in their pretty -little Paris model frocks, and all the boys, in their shiny -white fronts. No one had changed, not even impulsive -<span class='pageno' id='Page_194'>194</span>Howard Clemmens. Poor Howard! He knew now -that his refusal was permanent and enduring, yet he -came right to the front with his same assumption of -proprietorship. She let him do it. You see, in all -these years, the boys had tacitly admitted that Howard -“had the inside track”; so, while they all admired and -loved her, they stepped aside and permitted him to -monopolise her. Back home there was a sort of esprit -de corps like that, though it was sometimes hard on -the girl. When Gail had flown home from the cruel -world to the sheltering arms of her mother and her -friends, she had firmly planned to set Howard in his -proper place as a formal friend, and thereafter be free. -There were quite a number of the boys who had, at one -time or another, seemed quite worth cultivation. When -she came to meet them again, however, with that same -old brotherly love shining in their eyes, she somehow -found that she did not care to be free. Anyhow, it -would humiliate Howard to reduce him so publicly to -the ranks, snip off his buttons and take his sabre, as -it were; so she allowed him to clank his spurs, to the -joy and delight of Arly.</p> - -<p class='c012'>This was the gayest party of which Gail had been -the bright particular ornament since her return, and -she quite felt, except for the presence of Arly, that she -had fallen back into her old familiar life. Why, it -seemed as if she had been home for ages and ages! -There was the same old dance music, the Knippel orchestra, -with the wonderfully gifted fat violinist, and -the pallid pianist with the long hair, who had four children, -and the ’cellist who scowled so dreadfully but -played the deep passages so superbly, and clarinettist, -whom every one thought should have gone in for concert -work, and the grey-haired old basso player, who -<span class='pageno' id='Page_195'>195</span>never looked up and who never moved a muscle except -those in his arms, one up and down and the other crosswise; -there was a new second violinist, a black-browed -man who looked as if he had been disappointed in life, -but second violinists always do.</p> - -<p class='c012'>At the end of the Sargent ballroom, where Gail’s sedate -but hospitable mother always sat until the “Home, -Sweet Home” dance was ended, were the same dear, -familiar palms, which Marty, the florist, always sent to -everybody’s house to augment the home collection. The -gorgeous big one had a leaf gone, but it was sprouting -two others.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Tremendously gay affair. Everybody was delighted, -and said so; and they laughed and danced and -strolled and ate ices, and said jolly nothings, and knew, -justifiably, that they were nice, and clever, and happy -young people; and Arly Fosland, with any number of -young men wondering how old her husband was, danced -conscientiously, and smiled immediately when any one -looked at her. Gail also was dancing conscientiously, -and having a perfectly happy evening. At about this -hour there would be something near four hundred people -in the ballroom, and the drawing-rooms, and the -conservatory of Mrs. Babbitt’s.</p> - -<p class='c012'>She was whirling near the balcony windows with a -tall young friend who breathed, when there was an -exclamation from a group of girls at the window. -Vivian Jennings turned. She was a girl with the sort -of eyes which, in one sweep, can find the only four-leafed -clover in a forty-acre field.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Gail!” she cried, almost dancing. “Gail! Do -come and see it!”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Gail did not desert her partner; she merely started -over to the window with one hand trailing behind her -<span class='pageno' id='Page_196'>196</span>as an indication to follow, and immediately, without -looking around, she called:</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Arly! Where’s Arly?”</p> - -<p class='c012'>What she saw was this. A rich brown limousine, in -which the dome light was brightly burning, had drawn -up to the steps. Inside, among the rich brown cushions -and hangings, and pausing to light a leisurely cigarette, -sat the most wickedly handsome man in the world! -He was black-haired, and black-moustached and black-goateed, -and had large, lustrous, melting black eyes, -while on his oval cheeks was the ruddy bloom of health. -Every girl in the window sighed, as, with a movement -which was grace in every changing line, he stepped out -of the brilliantly lighted limousine, and came slowly up -the steps, tall, slender, magnificent, in his shining silk -hat and his flowing Inverness, and his white tie, and his -pleated shirt front—Oh, everything; correct to the -last detail, except for the trifling touches of originality, -down to his patent leather tips! With a wave of -careless ease he flung back his Inverness over one -shoulder, and rang the bell!</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Dick!” cried a voice just behind Gail’s ear. Gail -had not known that any one was leaning heavily on -her shoulders, but now she and Arly, with one accord, -turned and raced for the vestibule!</p> - -<p class='c012'>“You handsome thing!” cried Arly, as he stepped -into the hall and held out a hand to each of them. “I’ve -a notion to kiss you!”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“All right,” he beamed down on her, sparing another -beam for Gail. No, Gail had not exaggerated in -memory the magic of his melting eyes. It could not -be exaggerated!</p> - -<p class='c012'>“There aren’t any words to tell you how welcome -<span class='pageno' id='Page_197'>197</span>you are!” said Gail, as the butler disappeared with his -hat and Inverness.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“What on earth brought you here to bless us?” -demanded Arly.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I came to propose to Gail,” announced Dick -calmly, and took her hand again, bending down on her -that wonderfully magnetic gaze, so that she was panic-stricken -in the idea that he was about to proceed with -his project right on the spot.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Wait until after the dance,” she laughingly requested, -drawing back a step and blushing furiously.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“We’re wasting time,” protested Arly. “Hurry on -in, Dick. We want to exhibit you.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I don’t mind,” consented Dick cheerfully, and -stepped through the doorway, where he created the -gasp.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Eleven girls dreamed of his melting eyes that night; -and Howard Clemmens lost his monopoly. Viewing -Gail’s victorious scramble with Arly for Dick’s exclusive -possession, Howard’s friends unanimously reduced -him to the ranks.</p> - -<p class='c012'>After the dance, Dick made good his threat with Gail, -and formally proposed, urging his enterprise in coming -after her as one of his claims to consideration; but -Gail, laughing, and liking him tremendously, told him -he was too handsome to be married, and sent him back -home with a fresh gardenia in his buttonhole. That -night Arly and Gail sat long and silently on the comfortable -couch in front of Arly’s fireplace, one in fluffy -blue and the other in fluffy pink, and the one in fluffy -blue furtively studying the one in fluffy pink from under -her black eyelashes. The one in pink was gazing -into the fire with far-seeing brown eyes, and was braiding -<span class='pageno' id='Page_198'>198</span>and unbraiding, with slender white fingers, a flowing -strand of her brown hair.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Gail,” ventured the one in blue.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Yes.” This abstractedly.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Aren’t you a little bit homesick? I am.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“So am I!” answered Gail, with sudden animation.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Let’s go back!” excitedly.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“When?” and Gail jumped up.</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_199'>199</span> - <h2 class='c005'>CHAPTER XIX<br /> <span class='small'>THE RECTOR KNOWS</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_0_6 c011'>The Reverend Smith Boyd came down to breakfast -with a more or less hollow look in his face, and -his mother, inspecting him keenly, poured his coffee -immediately. There was the trace of a twinkle in her -eyes, which were nevertheless extremely solicitous.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“How is your head?” she inquired.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“All right, thank you.” This listlessly.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Are you sure it doesn’t ache at all?”</p> - -<p class='c012'>The Reverend Smith Boyd dutifully withdrew his -mind from elsewhere, to consider that proposition justly.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I think not,” he decided, and he fell into exactly -such a state of melancholy, trifling with his grape fruit, -as Mrs. Boyd wished to test. She focussed her keen -eyes on him microscopically.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Miss Sargent is coming back to-night; on the six-ten -train.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>There was a clatter in the Reverend Smith Boyd’s -service plate. He had been awkward with his spoon, -and dropped it. He made to pick it up, but reached -two inches the other side of the handle. Mrs. Boyd -could have laughed aloud for sheer joy. She made up -her mind to do some energetic missionary work with -Gail Sargent at the first opportunity. The foolish notions -Gail had about the church should be removed. -Mrs. Boyd had long ago studied this matter of religion, -with a clear mind and an honest heart. It was -<span class='pageno' id='Page_200'>200</span>a matter of faith, and she had it; so why be miserable! -Her reverie was broken by the calm and mellow voice -of her son.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“That is delightful news,” he returned with a frank -enthusiasm which was depressing to his mother.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I think I shall have the Sargents over to dinner,” -she went on, persisting in her hope.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“That will be pleasant.” Frank again, carefree, -aglow with neighbourly friendliness; even affection!</p> - -<p class='c012'>Mrs. Boyd had nothing more to say. She watched -her son Tod start vigorously at his grape fruit, with -a vivacity which seemed to indicate that he might finish -with the rind. He drew his eggs energetically toward -him, buttered a slice of toast, and finished his breakfast. -Suddenly he looked at his watch.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I have an extremely busy day before me,” he told -her briskly. “I have Vedder Court this morning, some -calls in the afternoon, and a mission meeting at four-thirty. -I might probably be late for dinner,” and feeling -to see if he had supplied himself with handkerchiefs, -he kissed his mother, and was gone without another -word about Gail! She could have shaken him in her -disappointment. What was the matter with Tod?</p> - -<p class='c012'>The Reverend Smith Boyd sang as he went out of -the door, not a tune or any set musical form, but a -mere unconscious testing of his voice. It was quite -unusual for him to sing on the way to Vedder Court, -for he devoted his time to this portion of his duties -because he was a Christian. He had sympathy, more -than enough, and he both understood and pitied the -people of Vedder Court, but, in spite of all his intense -interest in the deplorable condition of humanity’s weak -and helpless, he was compelled to confess to himself -that he loathed dirt.</p> - -<p class='c012'><span class='pageno' id='Page_201'>201</span>Vedder Court was particularly perfect in its specialty -this morning. The oily black sediment on its pavements -was streaked with iridescence, and grime seemed -to be shedding from every point of the drunken old -buildings, as if they had lain inebriated in a soaking -rain all night, and had just staggered up, to drip. -They even seemed to leer down at the Reverend Smith -Boyd, as if his being the only clean thing in the street -were an impertinence, which they would soon rectify. -It had been comparatively dry in the brighter streets -of New York, but here, in Vedder Court, there was perpetual -moisture, which seemed to cling, and to stick, -and to fasten its unwholesome scum permanently on -everything. Never had the tangle of smudge-coated -children seemed so squalid; never had the slatternly -women seemed so unfeminine; never had the spineless -looking men seemed so shuffling and furtive and sodden; -never had the whole of the human fungi in Vedder -Court seemed so unnecessary, and useless, and, the -rector discovered in himself with startled contrition, so -thoroughly not worth saving, body or soul!</p> - -<p class='c012'>A half intoxicated woman, her front teeth missing -and her colourless hair straggling, and her cheekbones -gleaming with the high red of debauchery, leered up at -him as he passed, as if in all her miserable being there -could be one shred, or atom, to invite or attract. A -curly-headed youngster, who would have been angelically -beautiful if he had been washed and his native -blood pumped from him, threw mud at the Reverend -Smith Boyd, out of a mere artistic desire to reduce him -to harmony with his surroundings. A mouthing old -woman, with hands clawed like a parrot’s, begged him -for alms, and he was ashamed of himself that he gave -it to her with such shrinking. The master could not -<span class='pageno' id='Page_202'>202</span>have been like this. A burly “pan handler” stopped -him with an artificial whine. A cripple, displaying his -ugly deformity for the benefit and example of the unborn, -took from him a dole and a wince of repulsion.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“The poor ye have always with ye!” For ages that -had been the excuse for such offences as Vedder Court. -They were here, they must be cared for within their -means, and no amount of pauperising charity could -remove them from the scheme of things. In so far, -Market Square Church felt justified in its landlordship, -that it nursled squalor and bred more. Yet, -somehow, the rector of that solidly respectable institution -was not quite satisfied, and he had added a new -expense to the profit and loss account in the ledger of -this particular House of God. He had hired a crew -of forty muscular men, with horses and carts, and had -caused them to be deputised as sanitary police, and -had given them authority to enter and clean; which -may have accounted for the especially germ laden feel -of the atmosphere this morning. Down in the next -block, where the squad was systematically at work, there -were the sounds of countless individual battles, and loud -mouthings of the fundamental principles of anarchy. -A government which would force soap and deodorisers -and germicides on presumably free and independent citizens, -was a government of tyranny; and it had been -a particular wisdom, on the part of the rough-hewn -faced man who had hired this crew, to select none but -accomplished brick dodgers. In the ten carts which -lined the curb on both sides, there were piled such a -conglomerate mass of nondescript fragments of everything -undesirable that the rector felt a trace better, as -if he had erased one mark at least of the long black -<span class='pageno' id='Page_203'>203</span>score against himself. Somehow, recently, he had acquired -an urgent impulse to clean Vedder Court!</p> - -<p class='c012'>He turned in at one of the darkest and most uninviting -of the rickety stairways. He skipped, with a -practised tread, the broken third step, and made a mental -note to once more take up, with the property committee, -the battle of minor repairs. He stopped at the -third landing, and knocked at a dark door, whereupon -a petulant voice told him to come in. The petulant -voice came from a woman who sat in a broken rockered -chair, with one leg held stiffly in front of her. She was -heavy with the fat which rolls and bulges, and an empty -beer pail, on which the froth had dried, sat by her side. -On the rickety bed lay a man propped on one elbow, -who had been unshaven for days, so that his sandy -beard made a sort of layer on his square face. The -man sat up at once. He was a trifle under-sized, but -broad-shouldered and short-necked, and had enormous -red hands.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“How are you to-day, Mrs. Rogers?” asked the rector, -sitting on a backless and bottomless chair, with -his hat on his knees, and holding himself small, with -an unconscious instinct to not let anything touch him.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“No better,” replied the woman, making her voice -weak. “I’ll never know a well day again. The good -Lord has seen fit to afflict me. I ain’t saying anything, -but it ain’t fair.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>The Reverend Smith Boyd could not resist a slight -contraction of his brows. Mrs. Rogers invariably introduced -the Lord into every conversation with the rector, -and it was his duty to wrestle with her soul, if she -insisted. He was not averse to imparting religious instruction, -but, being a practical man, he could not enjoy -wasting his breath.</p> - -<p class='c012'><span class='pageno' id='Page_204'>204</span>“There are many things we can not understand,” -he granted. “What does the doctor say about your -condition?”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“He don’t offer no hope,” returned the woman, with -gratification. “This knee joint will be stiff till the -end of my days. If I had anything to blame myself -with it would be different, but I ain’t. I say my -prayers every night, but if I’m too sick, I do it in the -morning.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Can that stuff!” growled the man on the bed. -“You been prayin’ once a day ever since I got you, -and nothin’s ever happened.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I’ve brought you a job,” returned the Reverend -Smith Boyd promptly. “I have still ten places to fill -on the sanitary squad which is cleaning up Vedder -Court.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>The man on the bed sat perfectly still.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“How long will it last?” he growled.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Two weeks.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“What’s the pay?”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“A dollar and a half a day.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>The man shook his head.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I can’t do it,” he regretted. “I don’t say anything -about the pay, but I’m a stationary engineer.” -He was interested enough in his course of solid reasoning -to lay a stubby finger in his soiled palm. “If I -take this two weeks’ job, it’ll stop me from lookin’ for -work, and I might miss a permanent situation.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>The rector suppressed certain entirely human instincts.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“You have not had employment for six months,” he -reminded Mr. Rogers.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“That’s the reason I can’t take a chance,” was the -triumphant response. “If I’d miss a job through -<span class='pageno' id='Page_205'>205</span>takin’ this cheap little thing you offer me, I’d never forgive -myself; and you’d have it on your conscience, too.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Then you won’t accept it,” and the rector rose, -with extremely cold eyes.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I’d like to accommodate you, but I can’t afford -it,” and the man remained perfectly still, an art which -he had brought to great perfection. “All we need -is the loan of a little money while I’m huntin’ work.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I can’t give it to you,” announced the Reverend -Smith Boyd firmly. “I’ve offered you an opportunity -to earn money, and you won’t accept it. That ends -my responsibility.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“You’d better take it, Frank,” advised the woman, -losing a little of the weakness of her voice.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“You ’tend to your own business!” advised Mr. -Rogers in return. “You’re supposed to run the house, -and I’m supposed to earn the living! Reverend Boyd, -if you’ll lend me two dollars till a week from Saturday—”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I told you no,” and the rector started to leave the -room.</p> - -<p class='c012'>There was a knock at the door. A thick-armed man -with a short, wide face walked in, a pail in one hand -and a scrubbing brush in the other. On the back of -his head was pushed a bright blue cap, with “Sanitary -Police” on it, in tarnished braid. Mr. Rogers stood up.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“What do you want?” he quite naturally inquired.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Clean up,” replied the sanitary policeman, setting -down his pail and ducking his head at the rector, then -mopping his brow with a bent forefinger, while he picked -out a place to begin.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Nothin’ doing!” announced Mr. Rogers, aflame -with the dignity of an outraged householder. “Good-night!” -and he advanced a warning step.</p> - -<p class='c012'><span class='pageno' id='Page_206'>206</span>The wide set sanitary policeman paused in his survey -long enough to wag a thick forefinger at the outraged -householder.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Don’t start anything,” he advised. “There’s some -tough mugs in this block, but you go down to the places -I’ve been, and you’ll find that they’re all clean.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>With these few simple remarks, he turned his back -indifferently to Mr. Rogers, and, catching hold of the -carpet in the corner with his fingers, he lifted it up by -the roots.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“There’s no use buckin’ the government,” Mr. -Rogers decided, after a critical study of the sanitary -policeman’s back, which was extremely impressive. -“It’s a government of the rich for the rich. Has a -poor man got any show? I’m a capable stationary engineer. -All I ask is a chance to work—at my trade.” -This by an afterthought. “If you’ll give me two dollars -to tide me over—”</p> - -<p class='c012'>The Reverend Smith Boyd stepped out of the way -of the sanitary policeman, and then stepped out of the -door.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“And you call yourself a minister of the gospel!” -Mr. Rogers yelled after him.</p> - -<p class='c012'>That was a sample of the morning’s work, and the -Reverend Smith Boyd felt more and more, as he neared -luncheon time, that he merited some consideration, if -only for the weight of the cross he bore. There were -worse incidents than the abuse of men like Rogers; -there were the hideous sick to see, and the genuinely -distressed to comfort, and depthless misery to relieve; -and any day in Vedder Court was a terrific drain, both -upon his sympathies and his personal pocket.</p> - -<p class='c012'>He felt that this was an exceptionally long day.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Home in a hurry at twelve-thirty. A scrub, a complete -<span class='pageno' id='Page_207'>207</span>change of everything, and a general feeling that -he should have been sterilised and baked as well. -Luncheon with the mother who saw what a long day -this was, then a far different type of calls; in a sedate -black car this time, up along the avenue, and in and -out of the clean side streets, where there was little danger -of having a tire punctured by a wanton knife, as -so often happened in Vedder Court. He called on old -Mrs. Henning, who read her Bible every day to find -knotty passages for him to expound; he called on the -Misses Crasley, who were not thin but bony, who sat -frozenly erect with their feet neatly together and their -hands in their laps, and discussed foreign missions with -greedy relish; he spent a half hour with plump Mrs. -Rutherford, who shamelessly hinted that a rector -should be married, and who was the worried possessor -of three plump daughters, who did not seem to move -well from the shelves; he listened to the disloyal confessions -of Mrs. Sayers, who at heart liked her husband -because he provided her so many faults to brood upon; -he made brief visits with three successive parishioners -who were sweet, good women with a normally balanced -sense of duty, and with two successive parishioners who -looked on the Kingdom of Heaven as a respectable social -circle, which should be patronised like a sewing -girls’ club or any other worthy institution.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Away to Vedder Court again, dismissing his car at -the door of Temple Mission, and walking inside, out -of range of the leers of those senile old buildings, but -not out of the range of the peculiar spirit of Vedder -Court, which manifested itself most clearly to the olfactory -sense.</p> - -<p class='c012'>The organ was playing when he entered, and the -benches were half filled by battered old human remnants, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_208'>208</span>who pretended conversion in order to pick up -the crumbs which fell from the table of Market Square -Church. Chiding himself for weariness of the spirit, and -comforting himself with the thought that one greater -than he had faltered on the way to Golgotha he sat -on the little platform, with a hymn book in his hand, -and, when the prelude was finished, he devoted his wonderful -voice to the blasphemy.</p> - -<p class='c012'>The organist, a volunteer, a little old man who kept -a shoemaker’s shop around the corner, and who played -sincerely in the name of helpfulness, was pure of heart.</p> - -<p class='c012'>The man with the rough-hewn countenance, unfortunately -not here to-day, was also sincere in an entirely -unspiritual sort of way; but, with these exceptions, and -himself, of course, the rector knew positively that there -was not another uncalloused creature in the room, not -one who could be reached by argument, sympathy, or -fear! They were past redemption, every last man and -woman; and, at the conclusion of the hymn, he rose -to cast his pearls before swine, without heart and without -interest; for no man is interested in anything which -can not possibly be accomplished.</p> - -<p class='c012'>With a feeling of mockery, yet upheld by the thought -that he was holding out the way and the light, not only -seven times but seventy times seven times, to whatever -shred or crumb of divinity might lie unsuspected in -these sterile breasts, he strove earnestly to arouse enthusiasm -in himself so that he might stir these dead -ghosts, even in some minute and remote degree.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Suddenly a harsh and raucous voice interrupted him. -It was the voice of Mr. Rogers, and that gentleman, -who had apparently secured somewhere the two dollars -to tide him over, was now embarked on the tide. He -had taken just enough drinks to make him ugly, if that -<span class='pageno' id='Page_209'>209</span>process were possible, and he had developed a particularly -strong resentment of the latest injustice which -had been perpetrated on him. That injustice consisted -of the Reverend Smith Boyd’s refusal to lend him money -till a week from next Saturday night; and he had come -to expose the rector’s shallow hypocrisy. This he proceeded -to do, in language quite unsuited to the chapel -of Temple Mission and to the ears of the ladies then -present; most of whom grinned.</p> - -<p class='c012'>The proceedings which followed were but brief. The -Reverend Smith Boyd requested the intruder to stop. -The intruder had rights, and he stood on them! The -Reverend Smith Boyd ordered him to stop; but the intruder -had a free and independent spirit, which forbade -him to accept orders from any man! The Reverend -Smith Boyd, in the interests of the discipline -without which the dignity and effectiveness of the cause -could not be upheld, and pleased that this was so, ordered -him out of the room. Mr. Rogers, with a flood -of abuse which displayed some versatility, invited the -Reverend Smith Boyd to put him out; and the Reverend -Smith Boyd did so. It was not much of a struggle, -though Mr. Rogers tore two benches loose on his -way, and, at the narrow door through which it is difficult -to thrust even a weak man, because there are so -many arms and legs attached to the human torso, he -offered so much resistance that the reverend doctor -was compelled to practically pitch him, headlong, across -the sidewalk, and over the curb, and into the gutter! -The victim of injustice arose slowly, and turned to come -back, but he paused to take a good look at the stalwart -young perpetrator, and remembered that he was thirsty.</p> - -<p class='c012'>The Reverend Smith Boyd found himself standing -in the middle of the sidewalk, with his fists clenched -<span class='pageno' id='Page_210'>210</span>and his blood surging. The atmosphere before his eyes -seemed to be warm, as if it were reddened slightly. He -was tingling from head to foot with a passion which -he had repressed, and throttled, and smothered since -the days of his boyhood! He had striven, with a -strength which was the secret of his compelling voice, -to drive out of him all earthly dross, to found himself -on the great example which was without the cravings -of the body; he had sought to make himself spiritual; -but, all at once, this conflict had roused in him a raging -something, which swept up from the very soles of his -feet to his twirling brain, and called him man!</p> - -<p class='c012'>For a quivering moment he stood there, alive with -all the virility which was the richer because of his long -repression. He knew many things now, many things -which ripened him in an instant, and gave him the heart -to touch, and the mind to understand, and the soul to -flame. He knew himself, he knew life, he knew, yes, -and that was the wonderful miracle of the flood which -poured in on him, he knew love!</p> - -<p class='c012'>He reached suddenly for his watch. Six-ten. He -could make it! Still impelled by this new creature -which had sprung up in him, he started; but at the -curb he stopped. He had been in such a whirl of emotion -that he had not realised the absence of his hat. He -strode into the mission door, and the rays of the declining -sun, struggling dimly through the dingy glass, -fell on the scattered little assemblage—as if it had -been sent to touch them in mercy and compassion—on -the weak, and the poor, and the piteously crippled -of soul; and a great wave of shame came to him; shame, -and thankfulness, too!</p> - -<p class='c012'>He walked slowly up to the platform, and, turning -to that reddened sunlight which bathed his upturned -<span class='pageno' id='Page_211'>211</span>face as if with a benediction, he said, in a voice which, -in its new sweetness of vibration, stirred even the murky -depths of these, the numb:</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Let us pray.”</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_212'>212</span> - <h2 class='c005'>CHAPTER XX<br /> <span class='small'>THE BREED OF GAIL</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_0_6 c011'>Who was that tall, severely correct gentleman -waiting at the station, with a bunch of violets -in his hand, and the light in his countenance which was -never on sea or land? It was Gerald Fosland, and he -astonished all beholders by his extraordinary conduct. -As the beautiful Arly stepped through the gates, he -advanced with an entirely unrepressed smile, springing -from the ball of his feet with a buoyancy too active -to be quite in good form. He took Arly’s hand in his, -but he did not bend over it with his customary courteous -gallantry. Instead, he drew her slightly towards -him, with a firm and deliberate movement, and, bending -his head sidewise under the brim of her hat, kissed her; -kissed her on the lips!</p> - -<p class='c012'>Immediately thereafter he gave a dignified welcome to -Gail, and with Arly’s arm clutched tightly in his own, -he then disappeared. As they walked rapidly away, -Arly looked up at him in bewilderment; then she suddenly -hugged herself closer to him with a jerk. As -they went out through the carriage entrance, she -skipped.</p> - -<p class='c012'>It was good to see Allison, big, strong, forceful, typical -of the city and its mighty deeds. His eye had -lighted with something more than pleasure as Gail -stepped out through the gates of the station; something -so infinitely more than pleasure that her eyes -<span class='pageno' id='Page_213'>213</span>dropped, and her hand trembled as she felt that same -old warm thrill of his clasp. He was so overwhelming -in his physical dominance. He took immediate possession -of her, standing by while she greeted her uncle and -aunt and other friends, and beaming with justifiably -proud proprietorship. Gail had laughed as she recognised -that attitude, and she found it magnificent after -the pretentions of Howard Clemmens. The difference -was that Allison was really a big man, one born to command, -to sway things, to move and shift and re-arrange -great forces; and that, of course, was his manner in -everything. She flushed each time she looked in his -direction; for he never removed his gaze from her; -bold, confident, supreme. When a man like that is -kind and gentle and considerate, when he is tender and -thoughtful and full of devotion, he is a big man indeed!</p> - -<p class='c012'>She let him put her hand on his arm, and felt -restful, after the greetings had been exchanged, as he -led her out to the big touring car, asking her all sorts -of eager questions about how she found her home and -her friends, and if the journey had fatigued her, and -telling her, over and over, how good she looked, how -bright and how clear-eyed and how fresh-cheeked, and -how charming in her grey travelling costume. She felt -the thrill again as he took her hand in his to help her -into the car, and she loved the masterful manner in -which he cleared a way to their machine through the -crowded traffic. In the same masterful air, he gently -but firmly changed her from the little folding seat to -the big soft cushions in the rear, beside her Aunt -Grace.</p> - -<p class='c012'>The Reverend Smith Boyd was at the steps of the -Sargent house to greet her, and her heart leaped as she -<span class='pageno' id='Page_214'>214</span>recognised another of the dear familiar faces. This -was her world, after all; not that world of her childhood. -How different the rector looked; or was it that -she had needed to go away in order to judge her -friends anew? His eyes were different; deeper, steadier -and more penetrating into her own; and, yes, bolder. -She was forced to look away from them for a moment. -There seemed a warm eagerness in his greeting, as if -everything in him were drawing her to him. It was -indescribable, that change in the Reverend Smith Boyd, -but it was not unexplainable; and, after he had swung -back home, with the earnest promise to come over after -dinner, she suddenly blushed furiously, without any -cause, while she was talking of nothing more intense -than the excellent physical condition of Flakes.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Gay little Mrs. Babbitt brought her husband, while -the family group was still jabbering over its coffee, -and after them came the deluge; Dick Rodley and the -cherub-cheeked Marion Kenneth, and Willis Cunningham, -and a host of others, including the Van Ploons, -father, son, and solemn daughter. The callow youth -who had danced with her three times was there, with a -gardenia all out of proportion to him, and he sat in -the middle of the Louis XIV salon, where he was excessively -in everybody’s road, and could feast on Gail, -for the most of the evening, in numb admiration; for -his point of vantage commanded a view into the library -and all the parlours.</p> - -<p class='c012'>With a rapidity which was a marvel to all her girl -friends, Gail had slipped upstairs and into a creamy -lace evening frock without having been missed; and -she was in this acutely harmonious setting when the -Reverend Smith Boyd called, with his beautiful mother -on his arm. The beautiful mother was in an exceptional -<span class='pageno' id='Page_215'>215</span>flurry of delight to see Gail, and kissed that -charming young lady with clinging warmth. The rector’s -eyes were even more strikingly changed than they -had been when he had first met her on the steps, as they -looked on Gail in her creamy lace, and after she had -read that new intense look in his eyes for the second -time that evening, she hurried away, with the license of -a busy hostess, and cooled her face at an open window -in the side vestibule. There was a new note in the -Reverend Smith Boyd’s voice; not a greater depth nor -mellowness nor sweetness, but a something else. What -was it? It was a call, that was it; a call across the -gulf of futurity.</p> - -<p class='c012'>They came after her. Ted and Lucile had arrived. -She was in a vortex. Dick Rodley hemmed her in a -corner, and proposed to her again, just for practice, -within eye-shot of a dozen people, and he did it so that -onlookers might think that he was complimenting her -on her clever coiffure or discussing a new operetta; but -he made her blush, which was the intention in the depths -of his black eyes. It seemed that she was in a perpetual -blush to-night, and something within her seemed -to be surging and halting and wavering and quivering! -Her Aunt Helen Davies, rather early in the evening, -began to act stiff and formal.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Go home,” she murmured to Lucile. “All this excitement -is bad for Gail’s beauty.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>She felt free to give the same advice to the gay little -Mrs. Babbitt, and the departure of four people was -sufficient to remind the stiff Van Ploon daughter of the -conventions. She removed the elder Van Ploon’s eyes -from Gail, and gathered up Houston, who was energetically -talking horse with Allison. After that the exodus -became general, until only the callow youth and Allison -<span class='pageno' id='Page_216'>216</span>and the Reverend Smith Boyd remained. The latter -young gentleman had taken his flutteringly happy -mother home early in the evening, and he had resorted -to dulness with such of the thinning guests as had -seemed disposed to linger.</p> - -<p class='c012'>It was Aunt Helen who, by some magic of adroitness, -sent the callow youth on his way. He was worth any -amount of money to which one cared to add ciphers, -and his family was flawless except for him; but Aunt -Helen had decisively cut him off her books, because he -was so well fitted to be the last of his line. She thought -she had better go upstairs after that, and she glanced -into the music room as she passed, and knitted her brows -at the tableau. The Reverend Smith Boyd, who -seemed unusually fine looking to-night, stood leaning -against the piano, watching Gail with an almost incendiary -gaze. That young lady, steadily resisting an -impulse to feel her cheek with the back of her hand, sat -on the end of the piano bench furthest removed from -the rector, and directed the most of her attention to -Allison, who was less disconcerting. Allison, casting -an occasional glance at the intense young rector, seemed -preoccupied to-night; and Mrs. Helen Davies, pausing -to take her sister Grace with her, walked up the stairs -with a forefinger tapping at her well-shaped chin. She -seemed to have reversed places with her sister to-night; -for Mrs. Sargent was supremely happy, while Helen -Davies was doing the family worrying.</p> - -<p class='c012'>She could have bid Allison adieu had she waited a -very few minutes. He was a man who had spent a lifetime -in linking two and two together, and he abided -unwaveringly by his deductions. There was no mistaking -the nature of the change which was so apparent -in the Reverend Smith Boyd; but Allison, after careful -<span class='pageno' id='Page_217'>217</span>thought on the matter, was able to take a comparatively -early departure.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I’ll see you to-morrow, Gail,” he observed finally. -Rising, he crossed to where she sat, and, reaching into -her lap, he took both her hands. He let her arms -swing from his clasp, and, looking down into her eyes -with smiling regard, he gave her hands an extra pressure, -which sent, for the hundredth time that night, -a surge of colour over her face.</p> - -<p class='c012'>The Reverend Smith Boyd, blazing down at that -scene, suddenly felt something crushing under his hand. -It was the light runner board of the music rack, and -three hairs, which had lain in placid place at the crown -of his head, suddenly popped erect. Ten thousand -years before had these three been so grouped, Allison -would have felt a stone axe on the back of his neck, -but as it was he passed out unmolested, nodding carelessly -to the young rector, and bestowing on Gail a -parting look which was the perfection of easy assurance.</p> - -<p class='c012'>The Reverend Smith Boyd wasted not a minute in -purposeless hesitation or idle preliminary conversation.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Gail!” he said, in a voice which chimed of all the -love songs ever written, which vibrated with all the love -passion ever breathed, which pleaded with the love appeal -of all the dominant forces since creation. Gail -had resumed her seat on the end of the piano bench, and -now he reached down and took her hand, and held it, -unresisting. She was weak and limp, and she averted -her eyes from the burning gaze which beamed down on -her. Her breath was fluttering, and the hand which -lay in her lap was cold and trembling. “Gail, I love -you!” He bent his head and kissed her hand. The -touch was fire, and she felt her blood leap to it. “Gail -<span class='pageno' id='Page_218'>218</span>dear,” and his voice was like the suppressed crescendo -of a tremendous organ flute; “I come to you with the -love of a man. I come to you with the love of one -inspired to do great deeds, not just to lay them at your -feet, but because you are in the world!” He bent -lower, and tried to gaze into the brown eyes under those -fluttering lashes. He held her hand more tightly to -him, clasped it to his breast, oppressed her with the -tremendous desire of his whole being to draw her to -him, and hold her close, as one and a part of him for -all time to come, mingling and merging them into one -ecstatic harmony. “Gail! Oh, Gail, Gail!”</p> - -<p class='c012'>There was a cry in that repetition of her name, almost -an anguish. She stole an upward glance at him, -her face pale, her beautiful lips half parted, and in her -depthless brown eyes, alive now with a new light which -had been born within her, there was no forbiddance, -though she dropped them hastily, and bent her head -still lower. She had made herself an eternal part of -him just then, had he but seized upon that unspoken -assent, and taken her in his arms, and breathed to her -of the love of man for woman, the love that never dies -nor wavers nor falters, so long as the human race shall -endure.</p> - -<p class='c012'>He bent still closer to her, so that he all but enfolded -her. His warm breath was upon her cheek. The sympathy -which was between them bridged the narrow -chasm of air, and enveloped them in an ethereal flame -which coursed them from head to foot, and had already -nigh welded them into one.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I need you, Gail!” he told her. “I need you to -be my wife, my sweetheart, my companion. I need -you to go with me through life, to walk hand in hand -with me about the greatest work in the world, the redemption -<span class='pageno' id='Page_219'>219</span>of the fallen and helpless, into whose lives we -may shed some of the beauty which blossoms in our -own.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>There was a low cry from Gail, a cry which was half -a sob, which came with a sharp intake of the breath, and -carried with it pain and sorrow and protest. She had -been so happy, in what she fancied to be the near fulfilment -of the promptings which had grown so strong -within her. No surge of emotion like this had ever -swept over her; no such wave of yearning had ever -carried her impetuously up and out of herself as this -had done. It had been the ecstatic answer to all her -dreams, the ripe and rich and perfect completion of -every longing within her; yet, in the very midst of it -had come a word which broke the magic thrall; a -thought which had torn the fairy web like a rude storm -from out the icy north; a devouring genii which, dark -and frightening, advanced to destroy all the happiness -which might follow this first inrushing commingling of -these two perfectly correlated elements!</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I can’t!” she breathed, but she did not withdraw -her hand from his clasp. She could not! It was as -if those two palms had welded together, and had become -parts of one and the same organism.</p> - -<p class='c012'>There was an instant of silence, in which she slowly -gathered her swirling senses, and in which he sat, -shocked, stunned, disbelieving his own ears. Why, he -had known, as positively, and more positively, than if -she had told him, that there was a perfect response in -her to the great desire which throbbed within him. It -had come to him from her like the wavering of soft -music, music which had blended with his own pulsing -diapason in a melody so subtle that it drowned the -senses to languorous swooning; it had come to him with -<span class='pageno' id='Page_220'>220</span>the delicate far-off pervasiveness of the birth of a new -star in the heavens; it had come to him as a fragrance, -as a radiance, as the beautiful tints of spring blossoms, -as something infinitely stronger, and deeper, and -sweeter, than the sleep of death. That tremendous and -perfect fitness and accord with him he felt in her hand -even now.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I can’t, Tod,” she said again, and neither one noticed -that she had unconsciously used the name she had -heard from his mother, and which she had unconsciously -linked with her thoughts of him. “There could never -be a unity of purpose in us,” and now, for the first time, -she gently withdrew her hand. “I could never be in -sympathy with your work, nor you with my views. -Have you noticed that we have never held a serious dispute -over any topic but one?”</p> - -<p class='c012'>He drew a chair before her, and took her hand again, -but this time he patted it between his own as if it were -a child’s.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Gail, dear, that is an obstacle which will melt away. -There was a time when I felt as you do. The time will -come when you, too, will change.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“You don’t understand,” she gently told him. “I -believe in God the Creator; the Maker of my conscience; -my Friend and my Father. I am in no doubt, no -quandary, no struggle between faith and disbelief. I see -my way clearly, and there are no thorns to cut for me. -I shall never change.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>He looked at her searchingly for a moment, and then -his face grew grave; but there was no coldness in it, nor -any alteration in the blueness of his eyes.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I shall pray for you,” he said, with simple faith.</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_221'>221</span> - <h2 class='c005'>CHAPTER XXI<br /> <span class='small'>THE PUBLIC IS AROUSED</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_0_6 c011'>Clad in her filmy cream lace gown, Gail walked -slowly into her boudoir, and closed the door, and -sank upon her divan. She did not stop to-night to let -down her hair and change to her dainty negligee, nor -to punctiliously straighten the room, nor to turn on -the beautiful green light; instead, with all the electric -bulbs blazing, she sat with her chin in her hand, and, -with her body perfectly in repose, tried to study the -whirl of her mind.</p> - -<p class='c012'>She was shaken, she knew that, shaken and stirred as -she had never been before. Something in the depths -of her had leaped up into life, and cried out in agony, -and would not stop crying until it was satisfied.</p> - -<p class='c012'>The hardest part of the whirl from which to untangle -herself was the tremendous overwhelming attraction -there had been between them. The red wave of consciousness -rose up over her neck and crimsoned her -cheeks and flushed her very brow, as the nearness of -him came back to her. Again she could feel that marvellous -welding of their palms, the tingle of her shoulder -where he had accidentally brushed against it; the music -of his voice, which had set up that ecstatic answering -vibration within her. She felt again his warm breath -upon her cheek, the magnetic thrill of his arms as he -enfolded her, the breathless joy which had ensued when -<span class='pageno' id='Page_222'>222</span>he had drawn her to his breast, and held and held and -held her there, as an indivisible part of him, forever -and forever. The burning pressure of his lips upon -hers! That breathless, intolerable ecstasy when he had -folded her closer, and still closer! A sense of shame -flooded her that she had yielded so much, that she had -been so helpless in the might and the strength and the -sweep—</p> - -<p class='c012'>She raised her head with a jerk, and rubbed her -hands over her eyes. Why there had been no such -episode! He had not folded her in his arms, nor drawn -her to him, nor kissed her lips; though her breath was -fluttering and her wrists burning in the bare memory of -it; he had only drawn quite near to her, and held her -hand; and once he had kissed it! How then had she -reproduced all these sensations so vividly? Then indeed, -shame came to her, as she realised how much more -completely than he could know, she had, in one breathless -instant, given herself to him!</p> - -<p class='c012'>It was that shame which came to her rescue, which -set her upon her defence, which started her to the seeking -for her justification. She had refused him, even -at the very height of her most intense yielding. And -why? She must go deeper into the detail of that. She -had to grope her way slowly and painfully back through -the quivering maze of her senses, to recall the point at -which she had been taken rudely from the present into -the future.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I need you to walk hand in hand with me about the -greatest work in the world!” That was it; the greatest -work in the world! And what was that work? To -live and teach ritual in place of religion; to turn worship -into a social observance; to use helpless belief as -a ladder of ambition; to reduce faith to words, and -<span class='pageno' id='Page_223'>223</span>hope to a recitation, and charity to an obligation; to -make pomp and ceremony a substitute for conscience, -and to interpose a secretary between the human heart -and God!</p> - -<p class='c012'>For just an instant Gail’s eyelids dropped, her long -brown lashes curved upon her cheeks, while beneath -them her eyes glinted, and a smile touched the corners -of her lips; then she was serious again. No, she had -decided wisely. They could not spend a lifetime in the -ecstasy of touch. Between those rare moments of the -rapture of love must come stern hours of waking. -Then she must live a constant lie, she must battle down -her own ideals and her own thoughts and her own worship -and subscribe to a dead shell of pretence, which -she had come to hold in contempt and even loathing. -She must appear constantly before the world as subscribing -to and upholding a sham which had been -formulated as thoroughly as the multiplication table; -and to do all these things she would be compelled to -throttle her own dear Deity, with whom she had been -friends since her babyhood, to whom she could go at -any hour with pure faith and simple confidence; always -in love and never in fear!</p> - -<p class='c012'>Yes, she had chosen wisely. Through all the years -to come there would be clash upon clash, until they -would grow so far apart spiritually that no human -yearning, no matter how long nor how strong, could -bridge the chasm. She was humiliated to be compelled -to confess to herself that the tremendous fire which had -consumed them, that the tremendous attraction which -had drawn them together, that the tremendous ecstasy -which had enveloped them, was by no means of the -soul or the spirit or the mind. And yet, how potent -that attraction had been, how it left her still quivering -<span class='pageno' id='Page_224'>224</span>with longing. Did she despise that tendency in herself? -Something within her answered defiantly “No!” Still -defiantly, she exulted in it; for many instincts which -the Creator has planted in humanity have been made -sinful by teaching alone. Moreover, a further search -brought a deserved approbation to the rescue of her -self-respect. Mighty as had been the call upon her -from without and from within, she had resisted it, and -driven it back, and leashed it firmly with the greater -strength of her faith! She gloried that she had not -been weak in this stormy test, and her eyes softened -with a smile of gratitude. Poor Tod!</p> - -<p class='c012'>There was a knock on the door, and Gail smiled -again as she said:</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Come in.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Mrs. Helen Davies entered, tall and stately in her -boudoir frills and ruffles. She gazed searchingly at -Gail’s now calm face, with its delicately tinted oval -cheeks and its curved red lips and its brown eyes, into -which a measure of peace had come. The face did not -tell her as much as she had expected to find in it, but the -fact that Gail had so far deviated from her unbreakable -habit of piling into a negligee and putting every minute -trace of disorder to rights before she did anything else, -was sufficient indication that something unusual had occurred. -Aunt Helen sat down in front of Gail and -prepared to enact the rôle of conscientious mother.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Doctor Boyd proposed to you to-night,” she -charged, with affectionate authority.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Yes, Aunt Helen,” and Gail began to pull pins out -of her hair.</p> - -<p class='c012'>A worried expression crossed the brow of Aunt -Helen.</p> - -<p class='c012'><span class='pageno' id='Page_225'>225</span>“Did you accept him?” and she fairly quivered with -anxiety.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“No, Aunt Helen.” Quite calmly, piling more hairpins -and still more into the little tray by her side, and -shaking down her rippling waves of hair.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Aunt Helen sighed a deep sigh of relief, and smiled -her approval.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I was quite hopeful that you would not,” and the -tone was one of distinct pleasure. “Doctor Boyd is -a most estimable young man, but I should not at all -consider him a desirable match for you.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Gail walked across to her dressing table, and rang -for her maid. Something within her flared up in defence -of Tod, but the face which, an instant later, she -turned toward the older woman, had its eyelids down -and the eyes glinting through that curving fringe and -the little smile at the corners of the lips.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Of course, he is perfectly eligible,” went on Aunt -Helen, studying the young man in question much as if -he were on the auction block, and guaranteed sound in -every limb. “While there would be no possibility of -gaiety, and no freedom of action for even an instant, -with the eyes of every one so critically fixed on a rector’s -wife, still she would have the entrée into the most -exclusive circles, and would have a social position of -such dignified respectability as could be secured in no -other way.” Interested in her own analysis, and perfectly -placid because, after all, Gail had refused him, -she did not notice that Gail, now brushing her hair, -stopped in the middle of a downward stroke, and then -fell to brushing furiously. “Moreover, the young man -is highly ambitious,” went on Aunt Helen. “The -movement for the magnificent new cathedral had lagged -<span class='pageno' id='Page_226'>226</span>for years before he came; but he had not been -here twelve months before he had the entire congregation -ambitious to build the most magnificent cathedral -the world has ever seen. My dear child, you’ll break -your hair with that rough brushing! Moreover, the -new rectory must, of course, be built in keeping with -the cathedral, and no multi-millionaire could erect a -home more palatial than Doctor Boyd will occupy.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Gail unfastened her necklace.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“However, Gail dear, you have shown a degree of -carefulness which I am delighted to find in you,” complimented -Aunt Helen. “If you handle all your affairs -so sensibly, you have a brilliant future before you.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I must be an awful worry to you, Aunt Helen,” -observed Gail, and walking over, she slipped her arm -around Mrs. Davies’ neck, and kissed her, and looked -around for her chocolate box.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Gail’s maid came in, and Mrs. Davies bade her sister’s -niece good-night most cordially, and retired with -a great load off her mind; and half an hour later the -lights in Gail’s pretty little suite went out.</p> - -<p class='c012'>If she lay long hours looking out at the pale stars, -if, in the midst of her calm logic, she suddenly buried -her face in her pillows and sobbed silently, if, toward -morning, she awoke with a little cry to find her face -and her hands hot, all these things were but normal -and natural. It is enough to know that she came to -her breakfast bright-eyed and rosy-cheeked and smiling -with the pleasant greetings of the day, and picked -up the papers casually, and lit upon the newest sensation -of the free and entirely uncurbed metropolitan -press!</p> - -<p class='c012'>The free and entirely uncurbed metropolitan press -had found Vedder Court, and had made it the sudden -<span class='pageno' id='Page_227'>227</span>focus of the public eye. Those few who were privileged -to know intimately the workings of that adroit master -of the public welfare, Tim Corman, could have recognised -clearly his fine hand in the blaze of notoriety -which obscure Vedder Court had suddenly received. -After having endured the contamination and contagion -of the Market Square Church tenements for so many -years, the city had, all at once, discovered that the condition -was unbearable! The free and entirely uncurbed -metropolitan press had taken up, with great enthusiasm, -the work of poking the finger of scorn at Vedder -Court. It had published photographs of the disreputable -old sots of buildings, and, where they did not -seem to drip enough, the artists had retouched them. -It had sent budding young Poes and Dickenses down -there to write up the place in all the horrors which a -lurid fancy could portray, or a hectic mind conceive; -and it had given special prominence to the masterly -effort of one litterateur, who never went near the place, -but, after dancing ably until three A.M., had dashed -up to his lonely room, and had wrapped a wet towel -around his head, and had conceived of the scene as it -would look in absolute darkness, with one pale lamp -gleaming on the Doréian faces of the passersby! It had -sent the sob sisters there in shoals to interview the -down-trodden, and, above all things, it had put prominently -before the public eye the immense profit which -Market Square Church wrung from this organised -misery!</p> - -<p class='c012'>Gail turned sick at heart as she read. Uncle Jim -permitted four morning papers to come to the house, -and the dripping details, with many variations, were -in all of them. She glanced over toward the rectory -and the dignified old church standing beyond it, with -<span class='pageno' id='Page_228'>228</span>mingled indignation and humiliation. A sort of ignominy -seemed to have descended upon it, like a man -whose features seem coarsened from the instant he is -doomed to wear prison stripes; and the fact which she -particularly resented was that a portion of the disgrace -of Market Square Church seemed to have descended -upon her. She could not make out why this -should be; but it was. Aunt Grace Sargent, bustling -about to see that Gail was supplied with more kinds of -delicacies than she could possibly sample, saw that unmistakable -look of distress on Gail’s face, and went -straight up to her sister Helen, the creases of worry -deep in her brow.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Mrs. Helen Davies was having her coffee in bed, and -she continued that absorbing ceremony while she considered -her sister’s news.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I did not think that Gail was so deeply affected by -the occurrences of last night,” she mused; “but of -course she could not sleep, and she’s full of sympathy -this morning, and afraid that maybe she made a mistake, -and feels perfectly wretched.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Grace Sargent sat right down.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Did the rector propose?” she breathlessly inquired.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Mrs. Davies poured herself some more hot coffee, -and nodded.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“She refused him.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Oh!” and acute distress settled on Grace Sargent’s -brow, with such a firm clutch that it threatened to -homestead the location. Mrs. Sargent shared the belief -of the Reverend Smith Boyd’s mother, that Smith -Boyd was the finest young man in the world; and Gail’s -aunt was speechless with dismay and disappointment.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I have ceased to worry about Gail’s future,” went -on Mrs. Davies complacently. “It is her present condition -<span class='pageno' id='Page_229'>229</span>about which I am most concerned. She is so -conscientious and self-analytical that she may distress -herself over this affair, and I must get in Arly and Lucile, -and plan a series of gaieties which will keep her -mind occupied from morning until night.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>In consequence of this kindly decision, Gail was -plunged into gaiety until she loathed the scrape of a -violin! The mere fact that she had no time to think -did not remove the fact that she had a great deal to -think about, and the gaiety only added dismally to her -troubled burden.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Meanwhile, the free and entirely uncurbed metropolitan -press went merrily onward with its righteous Vedder -Court crusade, until it had the public indignation -properly aroused. The public indignation rose to such -a pitch that it almost meant something. There is not -the slightest doubt that, if the public had not been -busy with affairs of its own, and if it had not been in -the habit of leaving everything to be seen to by the people -financially interested, and if it had not consisted -chiefly of a few active vocal cords, there is not the -slightest doubt, it is worth repeating, that the public -might have done something about Vedder Court! As -things were, it grew most satisfactorily indignant. It -talked of nothing else, in the subways and on the “L’s” -and on the surface lines, and on the cindery commuter -trains; and on the third day of the agitation, before -something else should happen to shake the populace -to the very foundation of its being, the city authorities -condemned the Vedder Court property as unsanitary, -inhuman, and unsafe, as a menace to the public morals, -health and life, and as a blot upon civilisation; this last -being a fancy touch added by Tim Corman himself, -who, in his old age, had a tendency to link poetry to his -<span class='pageno' id='Page_230'>230</span>practicability. In consequence of this decision, the -city authorities ordered Vedder Court to be forthwith -torn down, demolished, and removed from the face of -the earth; thereby justifying, after all, the existence -of the free and entirely uncurbed metropolitan press! -The exact psychological moment had been chosen. The -public, caught at the very height of its frenzy, applauded, -and ate its dinner in virtuous satisfaction; and -Gail Sargent’s distress crystallised into a much easier -thing to handle; just plain anger!</p> - -<p class='c012'>And so Market Square Church had persisted in -clutching its greedy hold on a commercial advantage -so vile that even a notoriously corrupt city government -had ordered it destroyed! Her mind was immensely -relieved about the Reverend Smith Boyd. She had -chosen well, and wisely!</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_231'>231</span> - <h2 class='c005'>CHAPTER XXII<br /> <span class='small'>THE REV. SMITH BOYD PROTESTS</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_0_6 c011'>The doves which in summer flitted about the quiet -little vestry yard, and cooed over the vestry door, -would have flown away had they been at home; for it -was a stormy affair, with loud voices and clashing wills -and a general atmosphere of tensity, which was somewhat -at variance with the red-robed figure of the Good -Shepherd in the pointed window of the vestry. The late -arrival was Joseph G. Clark, and his eye sought that of -Banker Chisholm, before he nodded to the others and -took his seat at the Gothic table. The Reverend Smith -Boyd, who was particularly straight and tall to-day, -and particularly in earnest, paused long enough for the -slight disturbance to subside, and then he finished his -speech.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“That is my unalterable position in the matter,” he -declared. “If Market Square Church has a mission, -it is the responsibility for these miserable human wrecks -whom we have made our wards.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“We can’t feed and clothe them,” objected Banker -Chisholm, whose white mutton chops already glowed -pink from the anger-reddened skin beneath.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“It doesn’t pay to pauperise the people,” supplemented -Willis Cunningham, stroking his sparse Vandyke -complacently. Cunningham, whose sole relationship -to economics consisted in permitting his secretary -<span class='pageno' id='Page_232'>232</span>to sign checks, had imbibed a few principles which sufficed -for all occasions.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I do not wish to pauperise them,” returned the rector. -“I am willing to accept the shame of having the -city show Market Square Church its duty, in exchange -for the pleasure of replacing the foul tenements in Vedder -Court with clean ones.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Joseph G. Clark glanced again at Chisholm.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“They’d be dirty again in ten years,” he observed. -“If we build the new type of sanitary tenement we shall -have to charge more rent, or not make a penny of profit; -and we can’t get more rent because the people who -would pay it will not come into that neighbourhood.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Are we compelled to make a profit?” retorted the -rector. “Is it necessary for Market Square Church -to remain perpetually a commercial landlord?”</p> - -<p class='c012'>The vestry gazed at the Reverend Smith Boyd in -surprised disapproval. Their previous rector had -talked like that, and the Reverend Smith Boyd had been -a great relief.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“So long as the church has property at all, it will -meet with that persistent charge,” argued Chisholm. -“It seems to me that we have had enough of it. My -own inclination would be to sell the property outright, -and take up slower, but less personal, forms of investment.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Old Nicholas Van Ploon, sitting far enough away to -fold his hands comfortably across his tight vest, -screwed his neck around so that he could glare at the -banker.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“No,” he objected; for the Van Ploon millions had -been accumulated by the growth of tall office buildings -out of a worthless Manhattan swamp. “We should -never sell the property.”</p> - -<p class='c012'><span class='pageno' id='Page_233'>233</span>“There are a dozen arguments against keeping it,” -returned the nasal voice of old Joseph G. Clark. “The -chief one is the necessity of making a large investment -in these new tenements.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>The Reverend Smith Boyd rose again, shutting the -light from the red robe of the Good Shepherd out of -quietly concentrated Jim Sargent’s eyes.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I object to this entire discussion,” he stated. “We -have a moral obligation which forbids us to discuss matters -of investment and profit within these walls as if we -were a lard trust. We have neglected our moral obligation -in Vedder Court, until we are as blackened with -sin as the thief on the cross.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Shrewd old Rufus Manning looked at the young rector -curiously. He was puzzled over the change in -him.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Don’t swing the pendulum too far, Doctor Boyd,” -Manning reminded him, with a great deal of kindliness. -These two had met often in Vedder Court. “Our sins, -such as they are, are more passive than active.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>It was, of course, old Nicholas Van Ploon who fell -back again on the stock argument which had been quite -sufficient to soothe his conscience for all these years.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“We give these people cheaper rent than they can -find anywhere in the city.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“We should continue to do so, but in cleaner and -more wholesome quarters,” quickly returned the rector. -“This is the home of all these poverty stricken -people whom Market Square Church has taken under -its shelter, and we have no right to dispose of it.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“That’s what I say,” and Nicholas Van Ploon nodded -his round head. “We should not sell the property.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“We can not for shame, if for nothing else,” agreed -the rector, seizing on every point of advantage to support -<span class='pageno' id='Page_234'>234</span>his intense desire to lift the Vedder Court derelicts -from the depth of their degradation. “We lie now under -the disgrace of having owned property so filthy that -the city was compelled to order it torn down. The -only way in which we can redeem the reputation of -Market Square Church is to replace those tenements -with better ones, and conduct them as a benefit to the -people rather than to our own pockets.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“That’s a clever way of putting it,” commended Jim -Sargent. “It’s time we did something to get rid of -our disgrace,” and he was most earnest about it. He -had been the most uncomfortable of all these vestrymen -in the past few days; for the disgrace of Market -Square Church had been a very reliable topic of conversation -in Gail Sargent’s neighbourhood.</p> - -<p class='c012'>The nasal voice of smooth-shaven old Joseph G. Clark -drawled into the little silence which ensued.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“What about the Cathedral?” he asked, and the -hush which followed was far deeper than the one which -he had broken. Even the Reverend Smith Boyd was -driven to some fairly profound thought. His bedroom -and his study were lined with sketches of the stupendously -beautiful cathedral, the most expensive in the -world, in which he was to disseminate the gospel.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Suppose we come back to earth,” resumed Clark, -who had built the Standard Cereal Company into a -monopoly of all the breadstuffs by that process. “If -we rebuild we set ourselves back in the cathedral project -ten years. You can’t wipe out what you call our disgrace, -even if you give all these paupers free board and -compulsory baths. My proposition is to telephone for -Edward E. Allison, and tell him we’re ready to accept -his offer.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Not while I’m a member of this vestry,” declared -<span class='pageno' id='Page_235'>235</span>Nicholas Van Ploon, swivelling himself to defy Joseph -G. Clark. “We don’t sell the property.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I put Mr. Clark’s proposition as a motion,” jerked -W. T. Chisholm, and in the heated argument which ensued, -the Good Shepherd in the window, taking advantage -of the shifting sun, removed from the room the -light of the red robe.</p> - -<p class='c012'>In the end, the practical minded members won over -the sentimentalists, if Nicholas Van Ploon could be -classed under that heading, and Allison was telephoned. -Before they were through wrangling over the decision -to have him meet them, Allison was among them. One -might almost have thought that he had been waiting for -the call; but he exchanged no more friendly glances -with Clark and Chisholm, of the new International -Transportation Company, than he did with any of the -others.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Well, Allison, we’ve about decided to accept your -offer for the Vedder Court property,” stated Manning.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I haven’t made you any, but I’m willing,” returned -Allison.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Jim Sargent drew from his pocket a memorandum -slip.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“You offered us a sum which, at three and a half per -cent., would accrue, in ten years, to forty-two million -dollars,” he reminded the president of the Municipal -Transportation Company. “That figures to a spot-cash -proposition of thirty-one millions, with a repeating -decimal of one; so somebody will have to lose a cent.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“That offer is withdrawn,” said Allison.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I don’t see why,” objected Jim Sargent. “The -property is as valuable for your purpose as it ever -was.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I don’t dispute that; but in that offer I allowed you -<span class='pageno' id='Page_236'>236</span>for the income earning capacity of your improved property. -Since that capacity is stopped, I don’t feel -obliged to pay you for it, or, in other words, to make -up to you the loss which the city has compelled you to -sustain.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“There is some show of reason in what Allison says,” -observed Joseph G. Clark.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Chisholm leaned forward, with his elbows on the table, -around the edge of which were carved the heads of -winged cherubs.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“What is your present offer?”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Twenty-five million; cash.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“We refuse!” announced Nicholas Van Ploon, bobbing -his round head emphatically.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I’m not so sure that we do,” returned Clark. “I -have been studying property values in that neighbourhood, -and I doubt if we can obtain more.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Then we don’t sell!” insisted Nicholas Van Ploon.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I scarcely think we wish to take up this discussion -with Mr. Allison until we have digested the offer,” observed -the quiet voice of Manning, and, on this hint, Allison -withdrew.</p> - -<p class='c012'>He smiled as he heard the voices which broke out in -controversy the moment he had closed the door behind -him. Being so near, he naturally called on Gail Sargent, -and found her entertaining a little tea party of -the gayest and brightest whom Aunt Helen Davies could -bring together.</p> - -<p class='c012'>She came into the little reception “cosy” to meet -Allison, smiling with pleasure. There seemed to be a -degree of wistfulness in her greeting of her friends since -the night of her return.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Of course I couldn’t overlook an opportunity to -drop in,” said Allison, shaking her by both hands, and -<span class='pageno' id='Page_237'>237</span>holding them while he surveyed her critically. There -was a tremendous comfort in his strength.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“So you only called because you were in the neighbourhood,” -bantered Gail.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Guilty,” he laughed. “I’ve just been paying attention -to my religious duties.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I wasn’t aware that you knew you had any,” returned -Gail, sitting in the shadow of the window jamb. -Allison’s eyes were too searching.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I attend a vestry meeting now and then,” he replied, -and then he laughed shortly. “I’d rather do -business with forty corporations than with one vestry. -A church always expects to conduct its share of the -negotiations on a strictly commercial basis, while it expects -you to mingle a little charity with your end of the -transactions.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“The Vedder Court property,” she guessed, with a -slight contraction of her brows.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Still after it,” said Allison, and talked of other -matters.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Jim Sargent returned, and glancing into the little -reception tête-à-tête as he passed, saw Allison and came -back.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I didn’t expect to see you so soon,” wondered Allison.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“We broke up in a row,” laughed Jim Sargent. -“Clark and Chisholm were willing to accept your price, -but the rest of us listened to Doctor Boyd and Nicholas -Van Ploon, and fell. We insist on our cathedral, and -Doctor Boyd’s plan seems the best way to get it, though -even that may necessitate a four or five years’ delay.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“What’s his plan?” asked Allison.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Rebuilding,” returned Sargent. “We can put -up tenements good enough to pass the building inspectors -<span class='pageno' id='Page_238'>238</span>and to last fifteen years. With the same rents we -are now receiving, we can offer them better quarters, -and, as Doctor Boyd suggested, redeem ourselves from -some of the disgrace of this whole proceeding. Clever, -sensible idea, I think.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Gail was leaning forward, with her fingers clasped -around her knee; her brown eyes had widened, and a -little red spot had appeared in either cheek; her red lips -were half parted, as she looked up in wonder at her -Uncle Jim.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Is that the plan upon which they have decided?” -and Allison looked at his watch.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Well, hardly,” frowned Sargent. “We couldn’t -swing Clark and Chisholm. At the last minute they -suggested that we might build lofts, and the impending -fracas seemed too serious to take up just now, so we’ve -tabled the whole thing.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Allison smiled, and slipped his watch back in his -pocket.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“It’s fairly definite, however, that you won’t sell,” -he concluded.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Not at your figure,” laughed Sargent. “If we -took your money, Doctor Boyd would be too old to -preach in the new cathedral.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“He’ll pull it through some way,” declared Allison. -“He’s as smart as a whip.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Neither gentleman had noticed Gail. She had settled -back in her chair during these last speeches, weary -and listless, and overcome with a sense of some humiliation -too evasive to be properly framed even in thought. -She had a sense that she had given away something -vastly precious, and which would never be valued. -Neither did they notice that she changed suddenly to -relief. She had been justified in her decision.</p> - -<p class='c012'><span class='pageno' id='Page_239'>239</span>She took the reins of conversation herself after Uncle -Jim had left, and entertained Allison so brightly that -he left with impatience at the tea party which monopolised -her.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Later, when the Reverend Smith Boyd dropped in, -he met with a surprising and disconcerting vivacity. -In his eyes there was pain and suffering, and inexpressible -hunger, but in hers there was only dancing frivolity; -a little too ebullient, perhaps, if he had been wise enough -to know; but he was not.</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_240'>240</span> - <h2 class='c005'>CHAPTER XXIII<br /> <span class='small'>A SERIES OF GAIETIES</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_0_6 c011'>Gaiety consists in rising in the morning so tired -that it takes three hours of earnest work with a -maid, a masseuse, a physical directress, a hairdresser, -and a <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">bonnetiere</span>, before one can produce a spontaneous -silvery laugh, which is never required, expected or considered -good form before two P.M. Gail Sargent went -in for gaiety, and, moreover, she enjoyed it. She rode, -she drove, she went calling and received, she attended -teas and gave them, she dined out and entertained, in the -name of her eager Aunt Grace, she went to theatres, -the opera, concerts, and the lively midnight cafés, which -had all gone nervously insane with freak dancing, she -attended balls, house parties, and all the in-between diversions -which her novelty-seeking friends could discover -or invent, and she flirted outrageously! She used -her eyes, and the pretty pout of her red lips, and the -toss of her head, and all the wiles of coquetry, to turn -men into asses, and she enjoyed that, too! It was a -part of her feminine birthright to enter with zest into -this diversion, and it was only envy which criticised her. -Aunt Helen Davies, who knew her world by chapter and -verse, stood behind the scenes of all this active vaudeville, -and applauded. It was at the opera that Aunt -Helen could no longer conceal her marvel.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“My dear,” she said, under cover of the throbbing -<span class='pageno' id='Page_241'>241</span>music of Thais, “I have never seen anything like you!”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I don’t quite know whether to take that as a compliment -or not,” laughed Gail, who had even, in her new -stage of existence, learned to pay no attention to music.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“The remark was not only intended to be complimentary, -but positively gushing,” replied Aunt Helen, -returning with a smile the glance of their hostess, the -stiff Miss Van Ploon. “After two weeks of the gayest -season I have ever witnessed, you are as fresh and vivacious -as when you started.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“It’s a return to first principles,” stated Gail, considering -the matter seriously. “I’ve discovered the secret -of success in New York, either commercial or social. -It is to have an unbreakable constitution.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>The dapper little marquis, who was laying a very -well conducted siege for the heart and hand of Miss -Van Ploon, leaned over Gail’s velvet shoulder and whispered -something in her ear. Gail leaned back a trifle -to answer him, her deep brown eyes flashing up at him, -her red lips adorably curved, that delicate colour -wavering in her cheeks; and Mrs. Davies, disregarding -entirely the practised luring of the dapper little marquis, -who was as harmless as a canary bird, viewed Gail -with admiration.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Houston Van Ploon, surveying Gail with pride, made -up his mind about a problem which he had been seriously -considering. Gail Sargent, taken point by point, -appearance, charm, manner, disposition and health, had -the highest percentage of perfection of any young -woman he had ever met, an opinion in which his father -and sister had agreed, after several solemn family discussions.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Nicholas Van Ploon leaned over to his daughter.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“She has dimples,” he catalogued, nodding his round -<span class='pageno' id='Page_242'>242</span>head in satisfaction and clasping his hands comfortably -over his broad white evening waistcoat.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Dick Rodley irrupted into the box with Lucile and -Arly, just as Thais started for the convent, and they -were only the forerunners of a constant stream which, -during the intermission, came over to laugh with Gail, -and to look into her sparkling eyes, and exchange -repartee with her, and enjoy that beauty which was like -a fragrance.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Who was the most delighted person in the Van Ploon -box? Aunt Helen Davies! She checked off the eligibles, -counting them, estimating them, judging the exact -degree in which Gail had interested them, and the -exact further degree Gail might interest them if she -chose.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Gail, standing, was a revelation to-night, not alone -to Nicholas Van Ploon, who nearly dislocated his neck -in turning to feast his gaze on her in numb wonder, -but to Aunt Helen herself. Gail wore an Egyptian -costume, an absurdly straight thing fashioned like a -cylinder, but which, in some mysterious and alluring -way, suggested the long, slender, gracefully curving -lines which it concealed. The foundation colour was -tarnished gold, on which were beaded panels in dark -blue stones, touched here and there with dull red. Encircling -her small head was an Egyptian tiara, studded -in the front with lapis lazuli and deep red corals, with -one great fire opal glowing in the centre; and her shining -brown hair was waved well below the ears, and -smoothly caught under around the back of her perfect -neck. On her cheeks and on her lips were the beautiful -natural tints which were the envy and despair of -every pair of lorgnette shielded eyes, but on her eyelashes, -as part of her costume, Gail had daringly lined -<span class='pageno' id='Page_243'>243</span>a touch of that intense black which is ground in the -harems of the old Nile.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“You’re the throb of the evening, sweetheart,” Dick -Rodley laughed down at her, as they stood at the door -of the box with the function passing in and out.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Thank you, Dicky dear,” she responded, smiling -up at him. Since her earnest gaieties had begun, Dick -had been her most frequent companion. He was one -of the component members of that zestful little set composed -of Gail, Lucile and Arly, and the bubbling little -Mrs. Babbitt, the cherub-cheeked Marion Kenneth, the -entirely sophisticated Gwen Halstead, and whatever -nice men happened to be available. Dick and Ted and -Gerald were, of course, always available.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I’m disappointed,” complained Dick. “You don’t -blush any more when I am affectionate with you.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“One loses the trick here,” she laughed. “The demands -are too frequent.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>He bent a little closer to her.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I’m going to propose to you again to-night,” he -told her.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“You’re so satisfactory,” she returned carelessly. -“But really, Dicky, I don’t see how you’re going to -manage it, unless you perform it right here, and that’s -so conventional.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Play hooky,” he mischievously advised. “I’ll tell -you what we’ll do. You shoo Houston out of the house -the minute you get in; then Lucile and Ted and Arly -and Gerald and I will sail up and carry you off to -supper, after which I’ll take you home and propose.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Gail’s eyes snapped with the activity of that disloyal -programme, and the little silvery laugh, for which -she had been so noted, welled up from her throat.</p> - -<p class='c012'><span class='pageno' id='Page_244'>244</span>“You have to wait around the corner until he goes -away,” she insisted.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I’ll bring a guitar if you like,” Dick promised, with -so much avidity that she feared, for an instant, that -he might do it.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“You’re monopolising me scandalously,” she protested. -“Go away,” and she turned immediately to -the dapper little marquis, who was enduring the most -difficult evening of his life. Gail was so thoroughly -adapted to a grand affair, one in which he could avow -universes; and the Miss Van Ploon was so exacting.</p> - -<p class='c012'>The study door was open when Houston Van Ploon -sedately escorted Mrs. Davies and Gail into the library, -one of those rooms which appoint themselves the instinctive -lounging places of all family intimates. Gail turned -up her big eyes in sparkling acknowledgment as the -punctilious Van Ploon took her cloak, and, at that moment, -as she stood gracefully poised, she caught the -gaze of the Reverend Smith Boyd fixed on her with such -infinite longing that it distressed her. She did not -want him to suffer.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Uncle Jim strode out with a hearty greeting, and, -at the sound of the voices of no one but Gail and Mrs. -Davies and Houston Van Ploon, old “Daddy” Manning -appeared in the doorway, followed by the rector.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“The sweetest flower that blows in any dale,” quoted -“Daddy” Manning, patting Gail’s hand affectionately.</p> - -<p class='c012'>The rector stood by, waiting to greet her, after -Manning had monopolised her a selfish moment, and -the newly aroused eye of colour in him seized upon the -gold and blue and red of her straight Egyptian costume, -and recognised in them a part of her endless -variety. The black on her lashes. He was close enough -<span class='pageno' id='Page_245'>245</span>to see that; and he marvelled at himself that he could -not disapprove.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Gail was most uncomfortably aware of him in this -nearness; but she turned to him with a frank smile of -friendship.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“This looks like a conspiracy,” she commented, -glancing towards the study, which was thick with -smoke.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“It’s an offensively innocent one,” returned Manning, -giving the rector but small chance. “We’re discussing -the plans for the new Vedder Court tenements.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Oh!” observed Gail, and radiated a distinct chill, -whereupon the Reverend Smith Boyd, divesting himself -of some courteous compliment, exchanged inane -adieus with Mrs. Davies and young Van Ploon, and -took his committee back into the study.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Mrs. Davies remained but a moment or so. She even -seemed eager to retire, and as she left the library, she -cast a hopeful backward glance at the dancing-eyed -Gail and the correct young Van Ploon, who, with his -Dutch complexion and his blonde English moustache -and his stalwart American body, to say nothing of his -being a Van Ploon, represented to her the ideal of masculine -perfection. He was an eligible who never did -anything a second too early or a second too late, or -deviated by one syllable from the exact things he should -say.</p> - -<p class='c012'>If the anxious Aunt Helen had counted on any important -results from this evening’s opportunities, she -had not taken into her calculations the adroitness of -Gail. In precisely five minutes Van Ploon was on the -doorstep, with his Inverness on his shoulders and his -silk hat in his hand, without even having approached -the elaborate introduction to certain important remarks -<span class='pageno' id='Page_246'>246</span>he had definitely decided to make. Gail might not have -been able to rid herself of him so easily, for he was a -person of considerable momentum, but he had rather -planned to make a more deliberate ceremony of the -matter, impulsive opportunities not being in his line of -thought.</p> - -<p class='c012'>A tall young man in an Inverness walked rapidly -past the door while Van Ploon was saying the correctly -clever things in the way of adieu; and shortly after she -had closed the door on Van Ploon, a pebble struck the -side window of the library. Gail opened the window -and looked out. Dick Rodley stood just below, with -his impossibly handsome face upturned to the light, -his black eyes shining with glee, his Inverness tossed -romantically back over one shoulder, and an imaginary -guitar in his hands. Up into the library floated the -familiar opening strains of Tosti’s Serenade, and the -Reverend Smith Boyd glanced out through the study -door at the enticing figure of Gail, and knitted his -brows in a frown.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“You absurd thing,” laughed Gail to the serenader. -“No, you daren’t come in,” and she vigorously closed -the window. Laughing to herself, she bustled into her -wraps.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Here, where are you going?” called her Uncle -Jim.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Hush!” she admonished him, peering, for a glowing -moment, in the study door, a vision of such disturbing -loveliness that the Reverend Smith Boyd, for the -balance of the evening, saw, staring up at him from the -Vedder Court tenement sketches, nothing but eyes and -lips and waving brown hair, and delicately ovalled -cheeks, their colour heightened by the rolling white fur -collar. “None of you must say a word about this,” -<span class='pageno' id='Page_247'>247</span>she gaily went on. “It’s an escapade!” and she was -gone.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Uncle Jim, laughing, but nevertheless intent upon -his responsibilities, grabbed her as she opened the front -door, but on the step he saw Dick Rodley, and, in the -machine drawing up at the curb, Arly and Gerald and -Lucile and Ted, so he kissed Gail good-night, and passed -her over to the jovial Dick, and returned to the study -to brag about her.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Gaiety reigned supreme once more! Lights and -music and dancing, the hum of chatter and laughter, -the bustle and confusion of the place, the hilarity -which brings a new glow to the cheek and sparkle to the -eye, and then home again in the crisp wintry air, and -Dick following into the house with carefree assurance.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Gracious, Dicky, you can’t come in!” protested -Gail, with half frowning, half laughing remonstrance. -“It’s a fearful hour for calls.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I’m a friend of the family,” insisted Dick, calmly -closing the door behind them and hanging his hat on -the rack. He took Gail’s cloak and threw off his Inverness. -“I guess you’ve forgotten the programme.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Oh, yes, the proposal,” remembered Gail. “Well, -have it over with.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“All right,” he agreed, and taking her arm and tucking -her shoulder comfortably close to him, he walked -easily with her back to the library. Arrived there, he -seated her on her favourite chair, and drew up another -one squarely in front of her.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I’m going to shock you to death,” he told her. -“I’m going to propose seriously to you.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Some laughing retort was on her lips, but she caught -a look in his eyes which suddenly stopped her.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I am very much in earnest about it, Gail,” and his -<span class='pageno' id='Page_248'>248</span>voice bore the stamp of deep sincerity. “I love you. I -want you to be my wife.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Dick,” protested Gail, and it was she who reached -out and placed her hand in his. The action was too -confidingly frank for him to mistake it.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I was afraid you’d think that way about it,” he -said, his voice full of a pain of which they neither one -had believed him capable. “This is the first time I ever -proposed, except in fun, and I want to make you take -me seriously. Gail, I’ve said so many pretty things -to you, that now, when I am in such desperate earnest, -there’s nothing left but just to try to tell you how much -I love you; how much I want you!” He stopped, and, -holding her hand, patting it gently with unconscious -tenderness, he gazed earnestly into her eyes. His own -were entirely without that burning glow which he had, -for so long, bestowed on all the young and beautiful. -They were almost sombre now, and in their depth was -an humble wistfulness which made Gail’s heart flow out -to him.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I can’t, Dick,” she told him, smiling affectionately -at him. “You’re the dearest boy in the world, and -I want you for my friend as long as we live; for my -very dear friend!”</p> - -<p class='c012'>He studied her in silence for a moment, and then he -put his hands on her cheeks, and drew her gently towards -him. Still smiling into his eyes, she held up her -lips, and he kissed her.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I’d like to say something jolly before I go,” he said -as he rose; “but I can’t seem to think of it.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Gail laughed, but there was a trace of moisture in -her eyes as she took his arm.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I’d like to help you out, Dicky, but I can’t think -of it either,” she returned.</p> - -<p class='c012'><span class='pageno' id='Page_249'>249</span>She was crying a little when she went up the stairs, -and her mood was not even interrupted by the fact that -Aunt Helen’s door was ajar, and that Aunt Helen stood -just behind the crack.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Why, child, that Egyptian black is running,” was -Aunt Helen’s first observation.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Gail dabbed hastily at the two tiny rivulets which -had hesitated at the curve of her pink cheeks, and then -she put her head on Aunt Helen’s shoulder, and wept -softly.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Poor Dicky,” she explained, and then turning, disappeared -into her own room.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Mrs. Helen Davies looked after her speculatively for -a moment; but she decided not to follow.</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_250'>250</span> - <h2 class='c005'>CHAPTER XXIV<br /> <span class='small'>THE MAKER OF MAPS</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_0_6 c011'>There began to be strange new stirrings in the -world. Money! From the land which was its -home and place of abode it leaned over cross the wide -seas, and made potent whisperings in the ears of the -countries where money is despised and held vulgar. -They all listened. The particular potency lay in the -fact that the money was so big, which took away tremendously -from its despicableness and its vulgarity.</p> - -<p class='c012'>A black-bearded Grand Duke from the wide land of -the frozen seas humbled himself to plain Ivan Strolesky -at the sound of that whisper, and hurried westward. -A high dignitary of an empire upon which the sun -never sets, hid his title under a plebeian <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">nom de plume</span>, -and stalked stolidly away westward to that whisper of -despised American money. From the land of fashion, -from the land of toys, from the land of art and music, -from the land of cherry blossoms, from the land of the -drowsing drug, from the land of the flashing jewels, -from the lands of the burning sands and the lands of -the midnight sun, there came the highest of power; and -they all, light and swarth, and bearded and smooth, and -large and small, and robed and trousered, centred toward -the city of strong men, and, one by one, presented -themselves, in turn, to a grave and silent kinky-haired -old darky by the name of Ephraim.</p> - -<p class='c012'>One motive alone had dragged them over sterile -<span class='pageno' id='Page_251'>251</span>plains and snowy mountains and bounding seas; the -magic whisper of Money!</p> - -<p class='c012'>Through Ephraim they came to the stocky, square-standing, -square-faced chess player who was called Allison. -They found him pleasant, agreeable, but hardly -of their class. He was so forceful as to be necessarily -more or less crude, and he had an unpleasant fashion -of waving aside all the decent little pretences about -money. That was the fault of this whole rude country, -where luxury had been brought to the greatest -refinement ever known in the history of the world; it -was so devoted to money, and the cultured gentlemen -did their best to get all they could.</p> - -<p class='c012'>To Ivan Strolesky Allison was frank and friendly, -for there was something in the big Russian which was -different from these others, so he hastened to have -business out of the way.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Here are your lines,” he said, spreading down a -map which had been brought up-to-date by hand. -“The ones I want are checked in blue. The others I -do not care for.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>The Grand Duke looked them over with a keen eye.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I am rather disappointed,” he confessed in excellent -English. “I had understood that you wished to -control our entire railway system.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I do,” assented Allison; “but I don’t wish to pay -out money for them all. If I can acquire the lines -I have marked, the others will be controlled quite easily -from the fact that I shall have the only outlet.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>The Grand Duke, who had played poker in America and fan-tan in China and roulette in Monte Carlo, and -all the other games throughout the world, smiled with -his impressive big eyes, and put his hand up under his -beard.</p> - -<p class='c012'><span class='pageno' id='Page_252'>252</span>“The matter then seems to resolve itself into a question -of price,” he commented.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“No; protection,” responded Allison. “If I were -buying these railroads outright, I should expect my -property interests to be guarded, even if I had to appeal -to international equity; but I am not.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“No,” admitted the Grand Duke. “They can not -be purchased.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“The proposition resolves itself then into a matter -of virtual commercial seizure,” Allison pointed out.</p> - -<p class='c012'>The Grand Duke, still with his hand in his beard, -chuckled, as he regarded Allison amusedly.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I shall not mind if you call it piracy,” he observed. -“We, in Russia, must collect our revenues as we can, -and we are nearly as frank as Americans about it. Returning -to your matter of protection. I shall admit -that the only agreement upon which we can secure what -you want, would not hold in international equity; and, -in consequence, the only protection I can give you is -my personal word that you will not be molested in anything -which you wish to do, providing it is pleasant to -myself and those I represent.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Then we’ll make it an annual payment,” decided -Allison, putting away some figures he had prepared. -“We’ll make it a sliding scale, increasing each year -with the earnings.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>The Grand Duke considered that proposition -gravely, and offered an amendment.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“After the first year,” he said. “We shall begin -with a large bonus, however.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Allison again put out of his mind certain figures he -had prepared to suggest. Apparently the Grand Duke -needed a large supply of immediate cash, and the annual -payments thereafter would need to be decreased accordingly, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_253'>253</span>with still another percentage deducted for -profit on the Duke’s necessities.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Let us first discuss the bonus,” proposed Allison, -and quite amicably they went into the arrangement, -whereby Ivan Strolesky filched the only valuable railroad -lines in his country from the control of its present -graft-ridden possessors, and handed it over to the -International Transportation Company.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“By the way,” said Allison. “How soon can we -obtain possession?”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Ivan Strolesky put his hand in his beard again, and -reflected.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“There is only one man who stands in the way,” he -calculated. “He will be removed immediately upon -my return.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>There was something so uncanny about this that -even the practical and the direct Allison was shocked -for an instant, and then he laughed.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“We have still much to learn from your country,” he -courteously confessed.</p> - -<p class='c012'>When Ivan Strolesky had gone, Allison went to his -globe and drew a bright red line across the land of the -frozen seas.</p> - -<p class='c012'>There came a famous diplomat, a heavy blonde man -with a red face and big spectacles and a high, wide, -round forehead.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I do not know what you want,” said the visitor, regarding -Allison with a stolid stare. “I have come to -see.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I merely wish to chat international politics,” returned -Allison. “There is an old-time feud between -you and your neighbours to the west.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“That is history,” replied the visitor noncommittally. -“We are now at peace.”</p> - -<p class='c012'><span class='pageno' id='Page_254'>254</span>“Never peace,” denied Allison. “There will never -be friendship between phlegmatism and mercurialism. -You might rest for centuries with your neighbours to -the west, but rest is not peace.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Excuse me, but what do you mean?” and the visitor -stared stolidly.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“In your affairs of mutual relationship with the land -to the west, there are not less than a dozen causes upon -which war could be started without difficulty,” went on -Allison. “In fact, you require perpetual diplomacy -to prevent war with that country.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>The visitor locked his thick fingers quietly together -and kept on stolidly staring.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I hear what you say,” he admitted.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“You are about to have a war,” Allison advised -him.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I do not believe so,” and the visitor ponderously -shook his head.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I am sorry to correct you, but you yourself will -bring it about. You will make, within a month, an -unfortunate error of diplomatic judgment, and your -old strip of disputed territory will be alive with soldiers -immediately.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“No, it is not true,” and the visitor went so far, in -his emphasis, as to unlock his fingers and rest one hand -on the back of the other.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I think I am a very fair prophet,” said Allison -easily. “I have made money by my prophecy. I have -more money at my command at the present time than -any man in the world, than any government; wealth -beyond handling in mere currency. It can only be conveyed -by means of checks. Let me show you how easy -it is to write them,” and drawing a blank book to him, -he wrote a check, and signed his name, and filled out the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_255'>255</span>stub, and tore it out, and handed it to the visitor for -inspection. The visitor was properly pleased with Allison’s -ease in penmanship.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I see,” was the comment, and the check was handed -back. He drew his straight-crowned derby towards -him.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I have made a mistake,” said Allison. “I have left -off a cipher,” and correcting this omission with a new -check, he tore up the first one.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I see,” commented the visitor, and put the second -check in his pocket.</p> - -<p class='c012'>That had required considerable outlay, but when Allison -was alone, he went over to his globe and made another -long red mark.</p> - -<p class='c012'>A neat waisted man, with a goatee of carefully selected -hairs and a luxuriant black moustache, called on -Allison, and laid down his hat and his stick and his -gloves, in a neat little pile, with separate jerks. He -jerked out a cigarette, he jerked out a match, and -jerkily lit the former with the latter.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I am here,” he said.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I am able to give you some important diplomatic -news,” Allison advised him. “Your country is about -to have a war with your ancient enemy to the east. It -will be declared within a month.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“It will be finished in a week,” prophesied the neat waisted -caller, his active eyes lighting with pleasure.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Possibly,” admitted Allison. “I understand that -your country is not in the best of financial conditions -to undertake a war, particularly with that ancient -enemy.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“The banking system of my country is patriotic,” -returned the caller. “Its only important banks are -controlled under one system. I am the head of that -<span class='pageno' id='Page_256'>256</span>system. I am a patriot!” and he tapped himself upon -the breast with deep and sincere feeling.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“How much revenue does your position yield you -personally?”</p> - -<p class='c012'>A shade of sadness crossed the brow of the neat waisted caller.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“It does not yield you this much,” and Allison pushed -toward him a little slip of paper on which were inscribed -some figures.</p> - -<p class='c012'>The caller’s eyes widened as they read the sum. He -smiled. He shrugged his shoulders. He pushed back -the slip of paper.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“It is droll,” he laughed, and his laugh was nervous. -He drew the slip of paper towards him again with a -jerky little motion, then pushed it back once more.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“If your banking system found it impossible to be -patriotic, your government would be compelled to raise -money through other means. It would not withdraw -from the war.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Never!” and the neat waisted caller once more -touched himself on the breast.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“It would be compelled to negotiate a loan. If -other governments, through some understanding among -their bankers, found it difficult to provide this loan, -your government would find it necessary to release its -ownership, or at least its control, of its most valuable -commercial possession.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>The caller, who had followed Allison’s progressive -statement with interest, gave a quick little nod of his -head.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“That most valuable commercial possession,” went -on Allison, “is the state railways. You were convinced -by my agent that there is a new and powerful force in -the world, or you would not be here. Suppose I point -<span class='pageno' id='Page_257'>257</span>out that it is possible to so cramp your banking system -that you could not help your country, if you would; -suppose I show you that, in the end, your ancient enemy -will lose its identity, while your country remains intact; -suppose I show you that the course I have proposed is -the only way open which will save your country from -annihilation? What then?”</p> - -<p class='c012'>The neat waisted caller, with the first slow motion -he had used since he came into the room, drew the slip -of paper towards him again.</p> - -<p class='c012'>There followed another banker, a ruddy-faced man -whose heavy features were utterly incapable of emotion; -and he sat at Allison’s table in thick-jowled solidity.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“There are about to begin international movements -of the utmost importance,” Allison told him. “There -is a war scheduled for next month, which is likely to -embroil the whole of Europe.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>The banking gentleman nodded his head almost imperceptibly.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Mr. Chisholm advised me that your sources of information -are authentic,” he stated. “What you tell -me is most deplorable.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Quite,” agreed Allison. “I am informed that the -company you represent and manage has the practical -direction of the entire banking system of Europe, with -the exception of one country. Besides this, you have -powerful interests, amounting very nearly to a monopoly, -in Egypt, in India, in Australia, and in a dozen -other quarters of the globe.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“You seem to be accurately informed,” admitted the -banking gentleman, studying interestedly the glowing -coals in Allison’s fireplace.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“If I can show you how a certain attitude towards -<span class='pageno' id='Page_258'>258</span>the international complications which are about to ensue -will be of immense advantage to your banking system, -as well as to the interests I represent, I have no -doubt that we can come to a very definite understanding.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>The solidly jowled banking gentleman studied the -glowing coals for two minutes.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I should be interested in learning the exact details,” -he finally suggested.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Allison drew some sheets of paper from an indexed -file, and spread them before the financier. It was -largely a matter of credits in the beginning, extensions -here, curtailments there, and all on a scale so gigantic -that both gentlemen went over every item with the imaginative -minds of poets. In every line there was a -vista of vast empires, of toppling thrones, of altered -boundaries, of such an endless and shifting panorama -of governmental forces, that the minds of men less inured -to the contemplation of commercial and political -revolutions might have grown fagged. On the third -page, the solid banking gentleman, who had not made -a nervous motion since his grandfather was a boy, looked -up with a start.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Why, this affects my own country!” he exclaimed. -“It affects our enormous shipping interests, our great -transportation lines, our commercial ramifications in -all parts of the globe! It cripples us on the land and -wipes us from the sea! It even affects my own government!”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Quite true,” admitted Allison. “However, I beg -you to take notice that, with the international complications -now about to set in, your government has -reached its logical moment of disintegration. Your -colonies and dependencies are only waiting for your -<span class='pageno' id='Page_259'>259</span>startlingly shrunken naval and land forces to be embroiled -in the first war which will concentrate your -fighting strength in one spot. When that occurs, you -will have revolutions on your hands in a dozen quarters -of the globe, so scattered that you can not possibly -reach them. India will go first, for she thirsts for -more than independence. She wants blood. Your other -colonies will follow, and your great shipping interests, -your transportation lines, your commercial ramifications -in all parts of the globe, will be crushed and -crumbled, for the foundation upon which they rest has -long ago fallen into decay. Your country! Your -country is already on the way to be crippled on the -land and swept from the sea! I know the forces which -are at work; the mightiest forces which have ever -dawned on the world; the forces of twentieth century -organised commerce!”</p> - -<p class='c012'>The banking gentleman drew a long breath.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“What you predict may not come to pass,” he maintained, -although the secret information which had -brought him to Allison had prepared him to take every -statement seriously.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I can show you proofs! The war which is to be -started next month is only the keystone of the political -arch of the entire eastern hemisphere. There are a -dozen wars, each bigger than the other, slated to follow, -if needed, like the pressing of a row of electric buttons. -Knowing these things as you shall, it is only a -question of whether you will be with me on the crest, or -in the hollow.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>The caller moistened his lips, and turned his gaze -finally from the glowing coals to Allison’s face.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Show me everything you know,” he demanded.</p> - -<p class='c012'>They sat together until morning, and they traversed -<span class='pageno' id='Page_260'>260</span>the world; and, when that visitor had gone, Allison -gave his globe a contemptuous whirl.</p> - -<p class='c012'>The balance of them were but matters of detail. -With a certain prideful arrogance, of which he himself -was aware, he reflected that now he could almost leave -these minor powers and potentates and dignitaries to -a secretary, but nevertheless he saw them all. One -by one they betrayed their countrymen, their governments, -their ideals and their consciences, and all for -the commodity to which Allison had but to add another -cipher when it was not enough! It was not that there -were none but traitors in the world, but that Allison’s -agents had selected the proper men. Moreover, Allison -was able to show them a sceptre of resistless might; -the combined money, and power, and control, and wide-reaching -arms of the seven greatest monopolies the -world had ever known! There was no strength of resistance -in any man after he had been brought, face to -face, with this new giant.</p> - -<p class='c012'>It was in the grey of one morning, when Allison was -through with his last enforced collaborator, and, walking -over to his globe, he twirled it slowly. It was lined -and streaked and crossed, over all its surface now, with -red, and it was the following of this intricate web which -brought back to him the triumph of his achievement. -He had harnessed the world, and now he had but to -drive it. That was the next step, and he clenched -his fist to feel the sheer physical strength of his muscles, -as if it were with this very hand that he would do the -driving.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Intoxicated with a sense of his own power, he went -back into his study, and drew from a drawer the photograph -of a young and beautiful girl, who seemed to -look up at him, out of an oval face wreathed with waving -<span class='pageno' id='Page_261'>261</span>brown hair, and set with beautifully curved lips -which twitched at the corners in a half sarcastic smile, -from two brown eyes, deep and glowing and fraught -with an intense attractiveness. Every morning he had -looked at this photograph, the priceless crown of his -achievement, the glittering jewel to set in the head of -his sceptre, the beautiful medallion of his valour!</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Only a little longer, Gail,” he told her with a smile, -and then he saluted the photograph. “Gail, the -maker of maps!” he said.</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_262'>262</span> - <h2 class='c005'>CHAPTER XXV<br /> <span class='small'>A QUESTION OF EUGENICS</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_0_6 c011'>Callers for Mrs. Helen Davies, and a huge bouquet -of American beauties for Gail. The latter -young lady was in the music room, engaged with Chopin -and a great deal of pensiveness, when the interruption -occurred, and not quite understanding the specific division -of ceremonies, crossed up into the Louis XIV -room, where Nicholas Van Ploon and Miss Van Ploon -sat with unusual impressiveness.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“We don’t wish to see any frivolous young people,” -said Miss Van Ploon playfully, kissing Gail and pinching -her cheek affectionately.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“You can’t mean me,” laughed Gail, turning to receive -the outstretched palm of Nicholas, who, to her -intense surprise, bent his round head and kissed her -hand.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Just you,” returned Miss Van Ploon, drawing Gail -down beside her. “We consider you the most delightfully -frivolous young person in existence.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“That’s flattering, but is it complimentary?” queried -Gail, and she was astounded that Nicholas Van Ploon -laughed so heartily. He had folded his hands over -his entirely uncreased vest, and now he nodded at her -over and over.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Clever,” he said, “very clever;” and he continued -to beam on her.</p> - -<p class='c012'><span class='pageno' id='Page_263'>263</span>Miss Van Ploon turned sidewise, to inspect Gail with -a fondly critical estimate. The pensiveness which had -needed Chopin for its expression, and which had been -rather growing since the night of Dick Rodley’s final -proposal, had begun to set its slightly etherealising -mark upon her.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“You are a trifle pale, my dear,” said Miss Van -Ploon anxiously. “We must not allow the roses to -fade from those beautiful cheeks,” and Nicholas Van -Ploon was at once seriously concerned. He straightened -his neck, and bore the exact expression of a careful -head of the family about to send for a doctor.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“That’s the second scolding I’ve had about it to-day,” -smiled Gail, a feeling of discomfort beginning to -tighten itself around her. “Aunt Grace is worrying -herself very much because I do not sleep sufficiently, -but Aunt Helen tells her that the season will soon be -over.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“It has been very gay,” observed Miss Van Ploon -approvingly. “However, I would like to see you finish -the season as gloriously as you began it.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“You should systematise,” advised Nicholas Van -Ploon earnestly, and in an almost fatherly tone. “No -matter what occurs, you should take a half hour nap -before dinner every day.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Mrs. Davies came into the room, arrayed in the black -velvet afternoon gown which gave her more stateliness -and more impressive dignity than anything in her -wardrobe. Miss Van Ploon, who was a true member of -the family, in that she considered the Van Ploon entity -before any individual, quite approved of Mrs. Davies, -and was in nowise jealous of being so distinctly outshone -in personal appearance. Nicholas Van Ploon also surveyed -Mrs. Davies with a calculating eye, and bobbed -<span class='pageno' id='Page_264'>264</span>his round head slightly to himself. He had canvassed -Mrs. Helen Davies before, and had discussed her in -family council, but this was a final view, a dress parade, -as it were.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I suppose I am dismissed,” laughed Gail, rising, -in relief, as Mrs. Davies exchanged the greetings of the -season with her callers.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Yes, run away and amuse yourself, child,” and -Miss Van Ploon, again with that assumption that Gail -was a pinafored miss with a braid down her back and -a taffy stick in one hand, shook at her a playful finger; -whereupon Gail, pretending to laugh as a pinafored -miss should, escaped, leaving them to their guild matters, -or whatever it was.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“What a charming young woman she is!” commented -Miss Van Ploon, glancing, with dawning -pride, at the doorway through which Gail had disappeared.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Indeed, yes,” agreed Mrs. Davies, with a certain -trace of proprietorship of her own. “It has been very -delightful to chaperon her.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“It must have been,” acquiesced Miss Van Ploon; -“and an extremely responsible task, too.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Quite,” assented Mrs. Davies. Both ladies were -silent for a moment. Nicholas Van Ploon, watching -them in equal silence, began to show traces of impatience.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“We shall miss Gail very much if she should return -to her home at the end of the season,” ventured Miss -Von Ploon, and waited.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“We dread to think of losing her,” admitted Mrs. -Davies, beginning to feel fluttery. The question had -been asked, the information given.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Miss Van Ploon turned to her father, and bowed with -<span class='pageno' id='Page_265'>265</span>formal deliberation. Nicholas Van Ploon looked at her -inquiringly. He had not detected any particular -meaning in the conversation, but that bow was a letter -of instructions. He drew a handkerchief from his -pocket, and touched his lips. He arose, in his completely -stuffed cutaway, and deliberately brought forward -his chair. He sat down facing his daughter and -Mrs. Helen Davies. The latter lady was tremulous -within but frigid without. Mr. Van Ploon cleared his -throat.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I believe that you are the acknowledged sponsor -of Miss Sargent,” he inquired.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Mrs. Davies nodded graciously.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“May I take the liberty of asking if your beautiful -ward has formed a matrimonial alliance?”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I am quite safe in saying that she has not.” Thus -Mrs. Davies, in a tone of untroubled reserve.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Then I feel free to speak,” went on the head of the -Van Ploons, in whose family the ancient custom of having -a head was still rigidly preserved. “I may state -that we should feel it an honour to have Miss Sargent -become a member of the Van Ploon family.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Since he seemed to have more to say, and since he -seemed to have paused merely for rhetorical effect, Mrs. -Helen Davies only nodded her head, suppressing, meantime, -the look of exultation which struggled to leap into -her face.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“My son Houston, I am authorised to state, is devoted -to Miss Sargent. We have discussed the matter -among us, and beg to assure you that Miss Sargent -will be received with affection, if she should consent to -honour us with this alliance.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>The pause this time was not for rhetorical effect. It -was a period, which was emphasised by the fact that -<span class='pageno' id='Page_266'>266</span>Nicholas leaned back in his chair to restore his hands -to their natural resting place.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“We are honoured,” observed Mrs. Davies, with excellent -courtesy suppressing a gasp. The Van Ploons! -The Van Ploons amid the stars! Why, they were so -high in the social firmament that they dared live and -talk and act like common people—and did it. To be -above the need of pretence is greatness indeed! “I -shall take up the matter with my niece.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I thank you,” responded the head of the Van -Ploons. “You have rendered it possible for me to inform -my son that he is at liberty to speak to Miss Sargent. -He is anxious to call this evening, if he may,” -whereupon he smiled indulgently, and his daughter also -smiled indulgently, and Mrs. Davies smiled indulgently.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“If you will pardon me, I will ascertain if my niece -will be at liberty this evening,” offered Mrs. Davies, -rising.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“We shall be highly gratified,” accepted Mr. Van -Ploon, rising and bowing.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“We are so fond of Gail,” added Miss Van Ploon, -beaming with sincerity, and the beam was reflected in -the face of her father, who nodded his spherical head -emphatically.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Mrs. Helen Davies paused at the head of the stairs -to calm herself. The Mrs. Waverly-Gaites’ annual -faded into dim obscurity. Mrs. Waverly-Gaites would -beg Gail on her bended knees to attend the annual, and -Mrs. Helen Davies could attend if she liked. She -went into her own room, and took a drink of water, and -sat down for thirty or forty seconds; then she went into -Gail’s suite, where she found that young lady, all unconscious -of the honour which was about to befall her, -reading a six hundred page critique of Chopin’s music, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_267'>267</span>and calmly munching chocolates out of a basket decorated -with eight shades of silk roses.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Sit down and have a chocolate, Aunt Helen,” hospitably -offered Gail, slipping a marker in her book.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Mrs. Davies consumed a great deal of time in selecting -a chocolate, but she did not sit down.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Shall you be at liberty this evening, Gail?” she inquired, -with much carelessness.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Why?” and Gail, whose feet were stretched out and -crossed, in lazy ease, looked up at her aunt sidewise -from under her curving lashes.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Mrs. Davies hesitated a moment.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Houston Van Ploon would like to call.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Are they still downstairs?” Gail suddenly unveiled -her eyes, and brought her slippers squarely in -front of her divan. Also she sat bolt upright.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Yes,” and Mrs. Davies betrayed signs of nervousness.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Are they making the appointment for Houston?”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Yes.” The word drawled.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Why?” and Gail’s brown eyes began to crackle.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Mrs. Davies thought it better to sit down.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“My dear, a great honour has come to you.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Gail leaned forward towards her aunt, and tilted her -chin.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Houston wants to propose, and he’s sent his father -and sister to find out if he may!” she charged.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Yes,” acknowledged Mrs. Davies, driven past the -possibility of delay or preparation, and feeling herself -unjustly on the defensive.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I shall not be at home this evening,” announced -Gail decisively, and stretched out her feet again, and -crossed her little grey slippers, and took a chocolate. -“Or any other evening,” she added.</p> - -<p class='c012'><span class='pageno' id='Page_268'>268</span>Mrs. Davies lost her flutter immediately. This was -too stupendously serious a matter to be weakly treated.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“My dear, you don’t understand!” she protested, -not in anger, but in patient reason. “Houston Van -Ploon has been the unattainable match of New York. -He is a gentleman in every particular, a desirable young -man in every respect, and gifted with everything a -young girl would want. He has so much money that -you could buy a kingdom and be a queen, if you chose -to amuse yourself that way. He has a dignified old -family, which makes mere social position seem like an -ignominious scramble for cotillion favours; and it is -universally admitted that he is the most perfect of all -the Van Ploons for many generations. Not exceptionally -clever; but that is one of the reasons the Van Ploons -are so particular to find a suitable matrimonial alliance -for him.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Gail, nibbling daintily at her chocolate, closed her -eyelids for a second, the long, brown lashes curved -down on her cheeks, and from beneath them there escaped -a sparkle like the snap of live coals, while the -corners of her lips twitched in that little smile which she -kept for her own enjoyment.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“You can not appreciate the compliment which has -been paid you, Gail. Every débutante for the past -five years has been most carefully considered by the -Van Ploons, and I sincerely believe this to be the first -time they have unanimously agreed on a choice. It is -a matter of eugenics, Gail, but in addition to that, Mr. -Van Ploon assures me that Houston is most fervently -interested.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“How careless of them,” criticised Gail. “They -have neither asked for my measurements nor examined -my teeth.”</p> - -<p class='c012'><span class='pageno' id='Page_269'>269</span>“Gail!” Her chaperon and sponsor was both -shocked and stern.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I positively decline to even discuss the Van Ploon -eugenics,” stated Gail, pushing aside her chocolates, -while a red spot began to appear on her cheeks. “I -shall not, as I stated before, be at home to Houston -Van Ploon this evening—or any other evening.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I shall not deliver that message,” announced Mrs. -Davies, setting her lips. “As your present sponsor, I -shall insist that you take more time to consider a matter -so important.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I shall insist on refusing to consider it for one second,” -returned Gail quietly. “I am very fond of Houston -Van Ploon, and I hope to remain so, but I wouldn’t -marry him under any circumstances. This is firm, flat, -and final.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Mrs. Helen Davies dropped patient reason instantly. -She was aware of an impulsive wish that Gail were in -pinafores, and her own child, so she could box her ears.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Gail, you compel me to lose my patience!” she declared. -“When you came, I strained every influence -I possessed to have you meet the most desirable eligibles -this big city could offer, just as if you were my -own daughter! I have succeeded in working miracles! -I have given you an opportunity to interest the very -best! You have interested them, but I have never seen -such extravagance in the waste of opportunities! You -have refused men whom thousands in the highest circles -have sought; and now you refuse the very choice of -them all! What or whom do you want?”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Gail’s red spots were deepening, but she only clasped -her knee in her interlocked fingers, her brown hair waving -about her face, and her chin uptilted.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“You can’t always expect to retain your youth, and -<span class='pageno' id='Page_270'>270</span>beauty and charm!” went on her Aunt Helen. “You -can’t expect to come to New York every year and look -over the eligibles until you find one to suit your fastidious -taste! You’re capricious, you’re ungrateful, and -you’re unsatisfactory!”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Gail’s eyes turned suddenly moist, and the red flashed -out of her cheeks.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Oh, Aunt Helen!” she exclaimed in instant contrition. -“I’m so very, very sorry that I am such a disappointment -to you! But if I just can’t marry Mr. -Van Ploon, I can’t, can I? Don’t you see?” She was -up now and down again, sitting on a hassock in front -of Mrs. Davies, and the face which she upturned had -in it so much of beautiful appeal that even her chaperon -and sponsor was softened. “I was nasty a while ago, -and I had no excuse for it, for you have been loving -and sincere in your desire to make my future happy. -I’m so very, very sorry! I’ll tell you what I’ll do! -You may go down and tell Mr. Van Ploon and his -daughter that I will see Houston this evening,” and then -she smiled; “but you mustn’t say ‘with pleasure.’”</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_271'>271</span> - <h2 class='c005'>CHAPTER XXVI<br /> <span class='small'>AN EMPIRE AND AN EMPRESS</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_0_6 c011'>The soft air which blew upon Gail’s cheek was like -the first breath of spring, and there was the far-off -prophecy of awakening in the very sunshine, as she -sped out the river road with Allison in his powerful -runabout. For days the weather had been like this, -mild and still invigorating, and it had been a tremendous -rest from the protracted crispness of the winter. -There was the smell of moist earth, and the vague sense -of stirring life, as if the roots and the seeds, deep in -the ground, were answering to the thrill of coming -birth.</p> - -<p class='c012'> “It’s glorious!” exclaimed Gail, her cheeks answering -to the caress of the air with a flush of blossom-like -delicacy. She was particularly contented to-day. Allison -had been so busy of late, and she had missed him. -With all his strength, he was restful.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I feel like a new -man at this time of the year,” -returned Allison, glancing at Gail with cool appreciation. -A car full of men passed them, and the looks -they cast in his runabout pleased him. “Gail, do you -remember the first time we drove out here?”</p> - -<p class='c012'> “Indeed yes,” she laughed. “With the snow in our -eyes, and the roads all white, with the lights gleaming -through the flakes like Arctic will-o’-the-wisps. We ran -away that night, and dined at Roseleaf Inn, and worried -<span class='pageno' id='Page_272'>272</span>the folks to death, for fear we had had an accident.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I had more than an accident that night,” said Allison. -“I had a total wreck.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Gail glanced at him quickly, but his face was clear of -any apparent purpose. He was gazing straight ahead, -his clean-cut profile, always a pleasant thing to look -upon, set against the shifting background of rocky -banks as if it were the one steadfast and unalterable -thing in the universe; and he was smiling introspectively.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“It was about here that it happened,” he went on. -“I think I’d been bragging a little, and I think you -meant to slyly prick my balloon, which I will admit -seemed a kind and charitable thing to do.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“What was it?” wondered Gail, trying to recall that -unimportant conversation.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Oh, a gentle intimation that I hadn’t done so much,” -he laughed. “I had just finished consolidating all the -traction cars in New York, subways, L’s, and surface: -and I felt cocky about it. I even remarked that I had -achieved the dream of my life, and intended to rest a -while. All you said was, ‘Why?’” and his laugh -pealed out. Four birds in a wayside bush sprang into -the air and flew on ahead.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I used to be conspicuous for impertinence,” smiled -Gail. “I’m trying to reform.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I’m glad you hadn’t started when I met you,” returned -Allison, steering around a sharp stone with the -firm accuracy which Gail had so often admired. “I -never had so stinging a reproof as that little why. It -did me more good than any sermon I ever heard.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“That’s positively startling,” replied Gail lightly. -“I usually hear from my impertinences, long after, as a -source of discomfort.”</p> - -<p class='c012'><span class='pageno' id='Page_273'>273</span>“‘Why?’” repeated Allison. “I took that why -home with me. If you had said, ‘Why should you -rest a while?’ or ‘Why should you stop when you’ve -just made a start?’ or something of that nature, it -might not have impressed me so much; but just the one -unexplained word was like a barbed hook in my mind. -It wouldn’t come out. I asked myself that why until -daylight, and I found no answer. Why, when I was -young and strong, and had only tasted of victory, -should I sit by the fireside and call myself old? If I -had ability to conquer this situation with so much ease, -why should I call it a great accomplishment; for great -accomplishments are measured by the power employed.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Gail looked at him in questioning perplexity. She -could not gather what he meant, but she had a sense -of something big, and once more she was impressed with -the tremendous reserve force in the man. His clear -grey eyes were fixed on the road ahead, and the very -symbol of him seemed to be this driving; top speed, a -long road, a steady hand, a cool determination, a sublime -disregard of hills and valleys which made them -all a level road.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Why? That word set me out on a new principle -that never, while I had strength in me, would I consider -my work finished, no matter how great an achievement -I had made. I am still at work.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Something within her leaped up in answer to the -thrill of exultation in his voice. To have been the inspiration -of great deeds, even by so simple an agency -as the accidental use of a word, was in itself an exalting -thing, though an humbling one, too. And there -were great deeds. She was sure of that as she looked at -him. He was too calm about it, and too secure to have -been speaking of trifles.</p> - -<p class='c012'><span class='pageno' id='Page_274'>274</span>“When I was a boy I lived on ancient history,” he -went on, with a smile for the bygone dreamer he had -been. “I wanted to be a soldier, a great general, a warrior, -in the sturdy old sense, and my one hero was -Alexander the Great, because he conquered the world! -That’s what I wanted to do. I wanted to go out and -fight and kill, and bring kingdom after kingdom under -my sway, and finally set myself on a mighty throne, -which should have for its boundaries the north and the -south pole! When I grew older, and found how small -was the world which Alexander had conquered, not -much bigger than the original thirteen states, I grew -rather disillusioned, particularly as I was working at -about that time for a dollar and a quarter a day. I -spent a few busy years, and had forgotten the dream; -then you said ‘why’ and it all came back.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Hurry!” commanded Gail. “Curiosity is bad for -me.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Allison laughed heartily at her impatience. He had -meant to arouse her interest, and he had done so. She -would not have confessed it, but she was fascinated by -the thing he had held in reserve. It was like the cruelty -of telling a child of a toy in a trunk which is still at -the station.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I conquered it,” he told her, with an assumption -of nonchalance which did not deceive her. There was -too much of under-vibration in his tone, and the eyes -which he turned upon her were glowing in spite of his -smile. “In my hand I hold control of the transportation -of the world! If a pound of freight is started -westward or eastward from New York, addressed to me -at its starting point, it will circle the globe, and on -every mile of its passage it will pay tribute to me. If -a man starts to travel north or south or east or west, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_275'>275</span>anywhere on the five continents or the seven seas, he -must pay tribute to me. With that shipment of every -necessity and luxury under my control, I control the -necessities and luxuries themselves; so there is no human -being in the world who can escape contributing -tithes to the monster company I have consolidated.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>He was disappointed, for a moment. She seemed -almost unimpressed. In reality, she was struggling to -comprehend what he had just said to her. It was so -incredibly huge in its proportions, so gigantic, so extravagantly -far reaching that she had only words in -her ears. He must be speaking in hyperbole.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I don’t understand,” she said.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“It is difficult to grasp,” he admitted. “When I -first conceived of it, in answer to your why, I could not -myself comprehend any more than that I had thought -of an absurdity, like the lover who wished that the sea -were ink and the land a pen that he might seize it, and -write across the sky ‘I love you!’ It was as fantastic -as that in my mind, at first, and in order to reduce the -idea to actual thought, I had to break it into fragments; -and that is the way I set about my campaign.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Gail was listening eagerly now. She was beginning -to dimly comprehend that Allison had actually wrought -a miracle of commerce, probably the most stupendous -in this entire century of commercial miracles; and her -admiration of him grew. She had always admired great -force, great strength, great power, and here, unfolding -before her, was the evidence of it at its zenith.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Let me build it up, step by step, for you. Incidentally, -I’ll give you some confidential news which you -will be reading in months to come. I hope,” and he -laughed, “that you will not tell your friends the reporters -about it.”</p> - -<p class='c012'><span class='pageno' id='Page_276'>276</span>“Cross my heart, I won’t,” she gaily replied. The -sting of her one big newspaper experience had begun to -die away.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“When you asked me why, I was trying to secure -Vedder Court for a terminal station for my city traction -lines. Vedder Court quickly became, in my imagination, -the terminal point not only of the city traction -lines, but of the world’s transportation. From that I -would run a railroad tube to the mainland, so that I -could land passengers, not only in the heart of New -York, but at the platforms of every street car and L -and subway train.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“How wonderful!” exclaimed Gail, in enthusiasm. -This was an idea she could grasp. “And have you secured -Vedder Court?”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“It’s a matter of days,” he returned carelessly. -“The next step was the transcontinental line. I built -it up, piece by piece, and to-day, under my own personal -control, with sufficient stock to elect my own directors, -who will jump when I crack the whip, I possess -a railroad line from the Atlantic to the Pacific so direct, -so straight, and so allied with ninety-five per cent. -of the freight interests of the United States that, within -two years, there will not be a car wheel turning in -America which does not do so at the command of the -A.-P. Railroad. That is the first step leading out of -Vedder Court. The news of that consolidation will be -in to-morrow morning’s papers, and from that minute -on, the water will begin to drip from railroad stocks.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“How about Uncle Jim’s road?” Gail suddenly interrupted.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I am taking care of him,” he told her easily. -“From Vedder Court run subways along the docks.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I see!” interrupted Gail. “You have secured control -<span class='pageno' id='Page_277'>277</span>of the steamship companies, of the foreign railroads, -of everything which hauls and carries!”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Airships excepted,” he laughingly informed her. -“Gail, it’s an empire, and none so great ever existed in -all the world! The giant monopolies of which so much -has been said, are only parts of it, like principalities in -a kingdom. There isn’t a nook or corner on the globe -where one finger of my giant does not rest. The armies -which swept down from the north and devastated Europe, -the hordes which spread from Rome, the legions -which marched to Moscow, even those mighty armies -of the Iliad and the Odyssey were insignificant as compared -to the sway of this tremendous organisation! All -commerce, all finance, all politics, must bow the knee to -it, and serve it! Maps will be shifted for its needs. -Nations will rise and fall as it shall decree, and the -whole world, every last creature of it, shall feed it and -be fed by it!”</p> - -<p class='c012'>He paused, and turned to her with a positive radiance -on the face which she had always considered heavy. -She had looked on him as a highly successful money-grubber, -as a commercial genius, as a magician of -manipulation, as a master of men; but he was more than -all these; he was a poet, whose rude epics were written -in the metre of whirling wheels and flying engines and -pounding propellers; a poet whose dreams extended beyond -the confines of imagination itself; and then, above -that, a sorcerer who builded what he dreamed!</p> - -<p class='c012'>There is a magic thrill in creation. It extends beyond -the creator to the created, and it inspires all who -come in contact with it. Gail’s eager mind traversed -again and again the girdle he had looped around the -world, darting into all its intricacies and ramifications, -until she, too, had pursued it into all the obscure nooks -<span class='pageno' id='Page_278'>278</span>and crannies, and saw the most remote and distant peoples -dependent upon it, and paying toll to it, and swaying -to its command. This was a dream worthy of accomplishment; -a dream beyond which there could be no -superlative; and the man beside her had dreamed it, -and had builded it; and all this would not have happened -if she had not given him the hint with one potent -word which had spurred him, and set his marvellously -constructive mind to work.</p> - -<p class='c012'>In so far they were partners in this mighty enterprise, -and he had been magnanimous enough to acknowledge -her part in it. It drew them strangely near. -It was a universe, in the conception of which no other -minds than theirs had dabbled, in the modelling of -which no other hand had been thrust. What agile mind, -gifted with ambition, and broad conception, and the -restlessness which, in her, had not only ranged world -wide but beyond the æther and across the vast seas of -superstition and ignorance and credulity to God himself; -what mind such as this could resist the insidious -flattery of that mighty collaboration?</p> - -<p class='c012'>She was silent now, and he left her silent, brooding, -himself, upon the vast scope of his dreaming, and planning -still to centre more and more the fruits of that -dreaming within his own eager hand.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Roseleaf Inn. Gail recognised it with a smile as they -turned in at the drive. She was glad that they had -come here, for it was linked in her mind with the beginnings -of that great project of which she had been the -impulse, and in which the thing in her that had been -denied opportunity because she was a woman, claimed -a hungry share. At his suggestion—it was more like -a command, but she scarcely noticed—she telephoned -that she was going to remain to dinner with Allison; -and then they enjoyed a two hour chat of many things, -trivial in themselves, but fraught now with delightful -meaning, because they had to think on so many unexpressed -things, larger than these idle people about them -could conceive, or grasp if they knew.</p> - -<div id='fp_278' class='figcenter id003'> -<img src='images/fp_278.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic001'> -<p>She telephoned that she was going to remain to dinner with Allison; and they enjoyed a two hour chat of many things</p> -</div> -</div> - -<p class='c012'><span class='pageno' id='Page_279'>279</span>Homeward again in the starlit night, still in that -whirl of exultation. It was somewhat chillier now, and -Allison bundled her into the machine with rough tenderness. -She felt the thrill of him as he sat beside her, -and the firm strength with which he controlled the -swiftly speeding runabout, was part her strength. They -were kindred spirits, these two, soaring above the affairs -of earth in the serene complacency of those who make -trifles of vastness itself. They did not talk much, for -they had not much to talk about. The details of a -scheme so comprehensive as Allison’s were not things to -be explained, they were things to be seen in a vision. -Once she asked him about the bringing of the foreign -railroads into the combination, and he told her that -this would only be accomplished by a political upheaval, -which would take place next month, and would -probably involve the whole of Europe. It was another -detail; and it seemed quite natural. She was so interested -that he told her all about his foreign visitors.</p> - -<p class='c012'>In the Park, Allison stopped at the little outlook -house where they had climbed on that snowy night, and -they stood there, with the stars above and the trees -below and the twinkling lights stretching out to the -horizon, all alone above the world of civilisation. Below -sounded the clang of street cars, and far off to -the left, high in the air, there gleamed the lights of a -curving L train. That was a part of Allison’s world -which he had long since conquered, a part which he -already held in the hollow of his hand; and the fact that -<span class='pageno' id='Page_280'>280</span>every moving thing which clung upon a track in all this -vast panorama was under his dominion, served only to -illustrate and make plain the marvel of the accomplishment -which was now under way. Beyond that dim -horizon lay another and still another, and in them all, -wherever things moved or were transported, the lift of -Allison’s finger was to start and stop the wheels, to the -uttermost confines of the earth! Oh, it was wonderful; -wonderful! And she was part of it!</p> - -<p class='c012'>It was there that he proposed to her. It did not surprise -her. She had known it when they had entered the -Park, and that this was the place.</p> - -<p class='c012'>He told her that all this empire was being builded -to lay at her feet, that she was the empress of it and -he the emperor, but that their joy was to be not in the -sway, not in the sceptre and crown, but in the doing, -and in the having done, and in the conceiving and having -conceived!</p> - -<p class='c012'>Was this a cold painting of pomp and glory and advantage -and reward? He added to it the fire of a -lover, and to that the force and mastery and compulsion -of his dynamic power. She felt again the potent thrill -of him, and the might and sweep and drive of him, and -with the hot, tumbling words of love in her ears, and -her senses a-reel, and her mind in its whirling exultation, -she felt between them a sympathy and a union -which it was not in human strength to deny! Something -held her back, something made her withhold the -word of promise, on the plea that she must have more -time to think, to consider, to straighten out the tangle -of her mind; but she suffered him to sweep her in his -arms, and rain hot kisses upon her face, and to tell -her, over and over and over and over, that she belonged -to him, forever and forever!</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_281'>281</span> - <h2 class='c005'>CHAPTER XXVII<br /> <span class='small'>ALLISON’S PRIVATE AND PARTICULAR DEVIL</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_0_6 c011'>The free and entirely uncurbed enjoyed an unusual -treat. It had a sensation which did not -need to be supported by a hectic imagination or a lurid -vocabulary. Vedder Court had been condemned for the -use of the Municipal Transportation Company! A -new eight track, double-deck tube was to be constructed -through Crescent Island to the mainland!</p> - -<p class='c012'>Grand climax! Through this tube and into Vedder -Court, at the platforms of the surface and L and subway -cars, was to come the passenger trains of the new -Atlantic-Pacific Railroad, a line three hundred miles -shorter than any now stretching between Broadway and -the Golden Gate! Any reader of the daily press, of -whom there are several, knows precisely what the free -and entirely uncurbed did with this bit of simon-pure -information. The glittering details began on the first -page, turned on the second, continued on the fourth, -jumped over to the seventh, and finished back among -the real estate ads. It began early in the morning, -and it continued until late at night, fresh details piling -upon each other in mad profusion, their importance -limited only by the restrictions of type!</p> - -<p class='c012'>Extra! The trick by which the A.-P. ran through -the mountains over the Inland Pacific’s track!</p> - -<p class='c012'>Extra, extra! The compulsion by which the Midcontinent -<span class='pageno' id='Page_282'>282</span>was brought to complete the big gap in the -new A.-P. system!</p> - -<p class='c012'>Tremendous extra! The contracts of freightage, -subject strictly to the Inter-State Commerce law, between -the A.-P. and the cereal trust, the metal trust, -the fuel trust, the cloth trust, and all the other iniquitous -combinations in restraint of everything! Wow! -Zowie! That was the hot one! The A.-P. was the -main stem, and within thirteen seconds of the appearance -on the streets of the tremendous extra, every other -fragile branchlet of a railroad not under the immediate -protection of the A.-P., was reduced to a shrivel, -and its stocks began to drop with the sickening plunge -of an unopened parachute!</p> - -<p class='c012'>Gail Sargent kept Nanette on the rush for extras -from the first yell on the streets, and she read every -word, including the underlines on the miscellaneous portraits -of Allison and the funny pi-lines which invariably -occurred in the middle of the most interesting -sentences.</p> - -<p class='c012'>It was true, all true! Here was the first step in Allison’s -tremendous project an accomplished fact. The -rest of it would be gradually revealed, from day to day, -as suited his needs, and the empire he had planned would -spread, until its circles touched, and overlapped, and -broke into an intricate webbing, over all the land and -water of the earth! And she was to be the Empress!</p> - -<p class='c012'>Was she? Through all the night she had battled -that question, and the battle had left traces of -darkness around her luminous eyes. First, she -had been in the swirl of his tremendous compulsion, -overwhelmed by the sheer physical force of -him, captured not by siege but by sortie. Then -had come the dazzling splendour of his great plan, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_283'>283</span>a temptation of power, of might, of unlimited rulership, -in the spoils of which, and the honour of which, -and the glory of which, she would share. Next, in the -midst of her expanding anticipation, there had come, -as out of a clear sky, a sudden inexplicable fear. It -was a shrinking, almost like a chill, which had attacked -her. Allison himself! The sheer physical dominance -of him; the tempestuous mastery of him; and again -she felt that breathless sensation of utter helplessness -which she had experienced in the little lookout house. -It was as if he were pulling the very life out of her, -to the upbuilding of his own strength! It was in the -very nature of him to sweep her away by storm; it -was a part of his very bigness. He was colossal, gigantic, -towering! And she had conquered this giant, -had been the motive of his strength, the very pinnacle -of his cloud-topping ambition! There was pride in -that, pride and to spare. It distressed her that again -and again came that impulse of fear, that shrinking. -A new thought dawned. Perhaps this was the thing -which she had desired, the thing for which she had been -waiting; to be taken, and crushed.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Another disturbance came to her. This mighty -plan of Allison’s. The exaltation of achievement, the -dazzling glory of accomplishment, had blinded her to -the processes by which the end must be gained, and -the fact which drew her attention to this was the remembrance -that her Uncle Jim was to be protected! -What about the others? For Allison to gain control -and dominion over thousands of now segregated interests, -those thousands must lose their own control. -What would become of them?</p> - -<p class='c012'>Pshaw! That was the way of the world, particularly -of the commercial world. As her father had -<span class='pageno' id='Page_284'>284</span>often expressed it, the big fish ate the little fish because -fish was the only food for fish; and Allison was -the biggest one of them all. That was the way of -him; to devour that he might live. Even here, far from -him, and safe in her dainty little chintz hung suite, she -felt the dominance of him. Turn her eyes where she -would, with the lids open or closed, he filled her vision, -not in his normal stature, but grown to the dimensions -of his force, filling the sky, the earth, the sea, blotting -out everything! There was no escaping him. He -had come to claim her, and she belonged to him; that is, -unless she chose to call upon a strength still latent in -her. There was a something else which she could not -define just now, which seemed to call to her persistently -through the darkness. A voice—but the typo for colossus -stood between! She wondered if she were happy. She -wondered what her Aunt Helen would say. Bigness -and power and dominance; she had admired them all -her life.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Late in the afternoon Jim Sargent came home, -drawn, fagged, and with hollows under his eyes. He -had a violent headache, and he looked ten years older. -He walked slowly into the library where Mrs. Sargent -and Mrs. Davies and Gail were discussing the future -of Vedder Court, and dropped into a chair.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Grace Sargent rang a bell instantly. When Jim -felt that way, he needed a hot drink first of all.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“What is the matter?” she asked him, the creases -of worry flashing into her brow.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“It’s been a hard day,” he explained, forcing himself, -with an effort, to answer. Years of persistent -experience had taught him to follow the line of least -resistance. “There has been a panic on ’Change. -Railroads are going to smash all up and down the line. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_285'>285</span>Allison’s new A.-P. road. It’s the star piracy of the -century. Allison has brought into the railroad game -the same rough-shod methods he used in his traction -manipulations.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Has your company been hurt, Jim?” asked his -wife, fully prepared for the worst, and making up her -mind to bear up bravely under it.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Not yet,” replied Sargent, and he passed his hand -over his brow. He was already making a tremendous -effort to brace himself for to-morrow’s ordeal. “I -escaped to-day by an accident. By some mistake the -Towando Valley was mentioned as belonging to the -new A.-P. combination. Of course I didn’t correct it, -but by to-morrow they’ll know.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Mr. Allison was responsible for that statement,” -Gail serenely informed her uncle. “He promised he’d -take care of you.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Great guns!” exploded her uncle. “What did you -know about this thing?”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“All of it,” smiled Gail. She had known that Allison -would keep his word, but it gave her a strange -sense of relief that he had done so.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Her Aunt Helen turned to her with a commanding -eye; but Gail merely dimpled.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Of course I couldn’t say anything,” went on Gail. -“It was all in confidence. Isn’t it glorious, Uncle -Jim!”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“You wouldn’t have thought so if you’d been down -town to-day,” responded her uncle, trying again to -erase from his brow the damage which had been done -to his nerves. “They wanted to mob Allison! He -has cut the ground from under the entire railroad business -of the United States! Their stocks have deflated -an aggregate of billions of dollars, and the slump is -<span class='pageno' id='Page_286'>286</span>permanent! He has bankrupted a host of men, rifled -the pockets of a million poor investors; he has demoralised -the entire transportation commerce of the United -States; and he gave no one the show of a rat in a trap!”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Isn’t that business?” asked Gail, the red spots beginning -to come into her cheeks.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Not quite!” snapped her Uncle Jim. “Fiction -has made that the universal idea, but there are decent -men in business. The majority of them are, even in -railroading. Most roads are organised and conducted -for the sole purpose of carrying freight and passengers -at a profit for the stockholders, and spectacular -stock jobbing deals are the exception rather than the -rule.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Has Mr. Allison been more unfair than others who -have made big consolidations?” demanded Gail, again -aware of the severely inquiring eye of Aunt Helen.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Rotten!” replied her uncle, with an emphasis in -which there was much of personal feeling. “He has -taken tricky advantage of every unprotected loophole. -He won from the Inland Pacific, at the mere cost of -trackage, a passage which the Inland built through -the mountains by brilliant engineering and at an almost -countless cost.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Isn’t that accounted clever?” asked Gail.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“So is the work of a confidence man or a wire-tapper!” -was the retort. “But they are sent to jail -just the same. The Inland created something. It -built, with brains and money and force, and sincere -commercial enterprise, a line which won it a well-earned -supremacy of the Pacific trade. It was entitled to -keep it; yet Allison, by making with it a tricky contract -for the restricted use of the key to its supremacy, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_287'>287</span>uses that very device to destroy it. He -has bankrupted, or will have done so, a two thousand -mile railroad system, which is of tremendous commercial -value to the country, in order to use a hundred -miles of its track and remove it from competition! Allison -has created nothing. He has only seized, by -stealth, what others have created. He is not even a -commercial highwayman. He is a commercial pickpocket!”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Gail had paled by now.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Tell me one thing,” she demanded. “Wouldn’t -any of the railroad men have employed this trick if -they had been shrewd enough to think of it?”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“A lot of them,” was the admission, after an awkward -pause. “Does that make it morally and ethically -correct?”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“You may be prejudiced, Jim,” interpolated Aunt -Helen, moving closer to Gail. “If they are all playing -the game that way, I don’t see why Mr. Allison -shouldn’t receive applause for clever play.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“You bet I’m prejudiced!” snarled Sargent, overcoming -his weariness and pacing up and down the library -floor. “He came near playing my road the same -trick he did the Inland Pacific. He secured control -of the L. and C., because it has a twenty-year contract -for passage over fifty miles of our track. He’d throw -the rest of our line away like a peanut hull, if he had -not promised Gail to protect me. I’m an object of -charity!”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Oh!” It was a scarcely audible cry of pain. Aunt -Helen moved closer, and patted her hand. Gail did -not notice the action.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Why did he make you that promise, Gail?” demanded -<span class='pageno' id='Page_288'>288</span>her uncle, turning on her suddenly, with a -physical motion so much like her father’s that she was -startled.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“He wants me to marry him,” faltered Gail.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Aunt Grace sat down by the other side of Gail.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Have you accepted him, dear?” she asked.</p> - -<p class='c012'>There was a lump in Gail’s throat. She could not -answer!</p> - -<p class='c012'>“She’ll never marry him with my consent!” stormed -her Uncle Jim. “Nor with Miles’s! The fellow’s an -unscrupulous scoundrel! He’s made of cruelty from -his toes to his hair! He stops at nothing! He even -robbed Market Square Church of six million dollars!”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Gail’s head suddenly went up in startled inquiry. -She wanted to still defend Allison; but she dreaded -what was to come.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“We wouldn’t sell him Vedder Court at his price; -so he took it from us at six million less than he originally -offered. He did that by a trick, too.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>All three women looked up at him in breathless interest.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“He had the city condemn Vedder Court,” went on -Sargent. “If he had condemned it outright for the -Municipal Transportation Company, he would have -had to pay us about the amount of his original offer; -but his own private and particular devil put the idea -into his head that the Vedder Court tenements should -be torn down anyhow, for the good of the public! So -he had the buildings condemned first, destroying six -million dollars’ worth of value; then he had the ground -condemned! Tim Corman probably got about a million -dollars for that humanitarian job!”</p> - -<p class='c012'>A wild fit of sobbing startled them all.</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_289'>289</span> - <h2 class='c005'>CHAPTER XXVIII<br /> <span class='small'>LOVE</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_0_6 c011'>Allison swept Gail into his arms, and rained hot -kisses upon her, crushing her closely to him. She -offered no resistance, and the very fact that she held -so supinely in his arms, made Allison release her sooner -than he might otherwise have done. She had known -that this experience must come, that no look or gesture -or word of hers could ward it off.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“You must never do that again,” she told him, stepping -back from him, and regaining her breath with an -effort. She had lingered in the front parlours to receive -him before her Uncle Jim should know that he -was in the house, and she had led him straight into the -little tête-à-tête reception room. She meant to free -herself quickly.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Why not?” he laughed, and advanced toward her, -taking her attitude lightly, ascribing her action to a -girlish whim, confident in his power over her. He meant -to dispose of her coyness by taking her in his arms -again. She belonged to him.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Mr. Allison.” The tone was cold enough, and -deadly in earnest enough to arrest him.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“What’s the matter, Gail?” he protested, ready to -humour her, to listen to what she had to say, to smooth -matters out.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“You have no right,” she told him.</p> - -<p class='c012'><span class='pageno' id='Page_290'>290</span>“Yes I have,” he jovially assured her. “I hope I -don’t have to wait until after marriage for a kiss. If -that’s the case I’ll take you out and marry you right -now.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>There was an infection in his laugh, contagion in -the assumption that all was right between them, and -that any difference was one which could be straightened -out with jolly patience, and Gail, though her determination -would not have changed, might have softened -toward him, had she not seen in his face a look which -paled her lips. Ever since last night he had anticipated -her, had rejoiced in his possession of her, had -dreamed on the time when he should take her for his -own; and his eyes were cloudy with his thoughts of her.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Let us have a clear understanding, Mr. Allison.” -She was quite erect, and looking him directly in the -eyes. Her own were deep and troubled, and the dark -trace which had been about them in the morning had -deepened. “I told you last night that I should need -time in which to decide; and I have decided. I shall -not marry you.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>He returned her gaze for a moment, and his brow -clouded.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“You’ve changed since last night,” he charged her.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Possibly,” she admitted. “It is more likely, however, -that I have merely crystallised. I prefer not to -discuss it.” She saw on his face the growing instinct -to humiliate her.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“You must discuss it,” he insisted. “Last night -when I took you in my arms you made no objection. -I was justified in doing it again to-night. You’re not -a fool. You knew from the first that I wanted you, -and you encouraged me. Now, I’m entitled to know -what has made the change.”</p> - -<p class='c012'><span class='pageno' id='Page_291'>291</span>The telltale red spots began to appear in her cheeks.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“You,” she told him. “Last night, your scheme of -world empire seemed a wonderful thing to me, but since -then I’ve discovered that it cannot be built without dishonesty -and cruelty; and you’ve used both.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>His brow cleared. He laughed heartily.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“You’ve been reading the papers. There isn’t a -man in the financial field who wouldn’t do everything -I’ve done; and be proud of it. I can make you see -this in the right light, Gail.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“It’s a proof of your moral callousness that you -think so,” she informed him. “Can you make me see -it in the right light that you even used me, of whom -you pretended to think sacredly enough to marry, to -help you in your most despicable trick of all?”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Look here,” he protested. “That would be impossible! -You’re misinformed.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I wish I were,” she returned. “Unfortunately, -it is a matter of direct knowledge. You caused Vedder -Court to be torn down because I thought it should -be wiped out of existence, and in the process you cheated -Market Square Church out of six million dollars!”</p> - -<p class='c012'>He could not have been more shocked if she had -struck him.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I knew you did not understand,” he kindly reproved -her. “I didn’t want those old buildings. They -couldn’t have sold them for the wreckage price. When -you suggested that they should be torn down, I saw it. -They were a public menace, and the public was right -with the movement. The condemnation price will cover -all they could get from the property from any source. -You see, you don’t understand business,” and his tone -was forgiving. “I’d have been foolish to pay six million -dollars for something I couldn’t use. You know, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_292'>292</span>Gail, when the building commissioners came to look -over those buildings, they were shocked! Some of them -wouldn’t have stood up another year. It was only the -political influence of Clark and Chisholm and a few of -the other big guns of the congregation, which kept them -from being condemned long ago. You shouldn’t interfere -in business. It always creates trouble between -man and wife,” and he advanced to put his arm around -her, and soothe her.</p> - -<p class='c012'>The hand with which she warded him off was effective -this time. She stared at him in wonder. It seemed -inconceivable that the moral sense of any intelligent -man should be so blunted.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“There’s another reason,” she told him, despairing -of making him realise that he had done anything out -of the way. “I do not love you. I could not.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>For just a moment he was checked; then his jaws -set.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“That is something you must learn. You have -young notions of love, gleaned from poetry and fiction. -You conceive it to be an ideal stage of existence, a mysterious -something almost too delicate for perception -by the human senses. I will teach you love, Gail! -Look,” and he stretched up his firm arm, as if in his -grip he already held the reins of the mighty empire he -was hewing out for her. “Love is a thing of strength, -of power, of desire which shakes, and burns, and consumes -with fever! It is like the lust to kill! It whips, -and it goads, and it drives! It creates! It puts new -images into the brain; it puts new strength into sinews; -it puts new life into the blood! It cries out! It -demands! It has caused me to turn back from middle-age -to youth, to renew all my ambitions, a thousandfold -enhanced by my maturity! It has caused me -<span class='pageno' id='Page_293'>293</span>to grapple the world by the throat, and shake it, throttle -it; so that I might drag it, quivering, to your feet -and say, this is yours; kick it! That is love, Gail! -It drives one on to do great deeds! It gives one the -impulse to recognise no bounds, no bars, no obstacles! -It has put all my being into the attainment of things -big enough to show you the force of my will, and what -it could conquer! Do you suppose that, with such love -driving me on, any objection which you may make will -stop me? No! I set out to attain you as the summit -of my desire, the one thing in this world I want, and -will have!”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Again that great fear of him possessed Gail. She -feared many things. She feared that, in spite of her -determination, he would still have her, and in that possibility -alone lay all the other fears, fears so gruesome -that she did not dare see them clearly! She knew that -she must retain absolute control of herself.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I shall not discuss the matter any further,” she -quietly said, and walking straight towards the door, -passed by him, quite within the reach of his arm, without -either looking at him or away from him. Something -within his own strength respected hers, in spite -of him. “I have said all that I have to say.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“So have I,” he replied, coming closer to her as she -stood in the doorway, and he gazed down at her with -eyes in which there was insolent determination, and -cruelty. “I have said that I mean to have you, and I -will.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Without a word, she went into the hall. He followed -her, and took his hat.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Good evening,” he said formally.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Good evening,” she replied, and he went out of the -door.</p> - -<p class='c012'><span class='pageno' id='Page_294'>294</span>When he had gone, she flew up to her rooms, her first -coherent thought being that she had accomplished it! -She had seen Allison, and had given him her definite -answer, and had gotten him out of the house while the -others were back in the billiard room. She had held -up splendidly, but she was weak now, and quivering in -every limb, and she sank on her divan, supported on -one outstretched arm; and in this uncomfortable position, -she took up the eternal question of Gail. The -angry tears of mortification sprang into her eyes!</p> - -<p class='c012'>A half hour later her Aunt Grace came up, and -found her in the same position.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Mrs. Boyd and Doctor Boyd are downstairs, dear,” -she announced.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Gail straightened up with difficulty. Her arm was -numb.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Please make my excuses, Aunty,” she begged.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“What’s the matter?” asked Aunt Grace, the -creases jumping into her brow as if they lay somewhere -in the roots of her hair, ready to spring down at -an instant’s notice. “Aren’t you feeling well? Shall -I get you something?”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“No, thank you,” smiled Gail wanly. “I’m just a -little fatigued.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Then don’t you come a step,” and Aunt Grace -beamed down on her niece with infinite tenderness. She -had an intuition, these days, that the girl was troubled; -and her sympathies were ready for instant production. -“You’ll have to tell me what to say, though. I’m so -clumsy at it.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Just tell them the truth,” smiled Gail, and punching -two pillows together, she stretched herself at full -length on the divan.</p> - -<p class='c012'><span class='pageno' id='Page_295'>295</span>Her Aunt Grace regarded her with a puzzled expression -for a moment, and then she laughed.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I see; you’re lying down.” She looked at Gail -thoughtfully for a moment. “Dear, could you close -your eyes?”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Certainly,” agreed Gail, and the brown lashes -curved down on her cheeks, though there was a sharp -little glint from under the edges of her lids.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Her Aunt Grace stooped and kissed the smooth white -brow, then she went downstairs and entered the library.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Gail is lying down,” she primly reported. “Her -eyes are closed.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>The library was quite steadily devoted to Vedder -Court to-night. A highly important change had come -into the fortunes of Market Square Church. It was -as if a stone had been thrown into a group of cardboard -houses. All the years of planning had gone the -way of the wind, and the card houses had all to be built -over again. The Cathedral had receded by a good five -years, unless the force and fire of the Reverend Smith -Boyd should be sufficient to coax capital out of the -pockets of his millionaire congregation; and, in fact, -that quite normal plan was already under advisement.</p> - -<p class='c012'>The five of this impromptu counsel were deep in the -matter of ways and means, when a slender apparition, -in clinging grey, came down the stairs. It was Gail, -who, for some reason unknown, even to her, had decided -that she was selfish; and the Reverend Smith Boyd’s -heart ached as he saw the pallor on her delicately tinted -cheeks and the dark tracing about her brown eyes. -She slipped quietly in among them, her brown hair -loosely waved, so that unexpected threads of gold shone -in it when she passed under the chandelier, and she -<span class='pageno' id='Page_296'>296</span>greeted the callers pleasantly, and sat down in the corner, -very silent. She was glad that she had come. It -was restful in this little circle of friends.</p> - -<p class='c012'>A noise filled the hall, and even the lights of the -library seemed to brighten, as Lucile and Ted, Arly -and Gerald, and Dick Rodley, came tumbling in, laughing -and chattering, and carrying hilarity in front of -them like a wave. Gail shoved her tangle of thoughts -still further back in her head, and the sparkle returned -into her eyes.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“We’re bringing you a personal invitation to Arly -and Gerald’s yacht party,” jabbered Lucile, kissing -everybody in reach except the Reverend Smith Boyd.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“You might let Arly extend the invitation herself,” -objected Ted.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I’ve given the pleasure to Gerald,” laughed Arly, -with a vivacious glance at that smiling gentleman. -“He does it so much better. Now listen.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“It’s a little informal week-end party, on the <i>Whitecap</i>,” -Gerald informed them, with a new something in -him which quite satisfactorily took the place of cordiality. -“Sort of a farewell affair. Arly and I are -about to take a selfish two months’ cruise, all by ourselves,” -and he glanced fondly at the handsome black-haired -young woman under discussion. “We should -be pleased to have you join us,” and he included Mrs. -Boyd and the young rector with a nod.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Of course we’ll come,” agreed Gail. “Doctor -Boyd, can’t you arrange for a week-end party once in -your life?”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Unfortunately custom has decreed that week-end -parties shall cover Sundays,” he regretted, but there -was a calculating look in his eye which sent Lucile -over to him.</p> - -<p class='c012'><span class='pageno' id='Page_297'>297</span>“Play hooky just once,” she begged. “This is only -a family crowd, the Babbitts and Marion Kenneth, and -we who are here.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>The Reverend Smith Boyd looked at his mother, and -that lady brightened visibly.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“When is it to be?” he asked.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Saturday,” Arly informed him, joining Lucile, -who had sat on the arm of Mrs. Boyd’s chair. Arly -sat on the other one, and Gerald Fosland, with an entirely -new appreciation of beauty, thought he had never -seen a prettier picture than the sweet-faced old lady -with the fresh and charming young women on either -side of her.</p> - -<p class='c012'>The Reverend Smith Boyd glanced, for just an instant, -at Gail, who was now sitting on the leather couch -leaning confidingly against her Aunt Grace. He had -been at some pains to avoid this young lady recently, -for it is natural to spare one’s self distress; but there -was a look of loneliness about her which sent his heart -out to her in quick sympathy.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I think I’ll play hooky,” he announced, with a -twinkle in the eyes which he now cast upon his mother.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“That’s being a good sport,” approved Ted. “Stay -away a Sunday or two, and Market Square Church -will appreciate you better.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Let’s have some music,” demanded Lucile.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Gail and Doctor Boyd must sing for you,” announced -Aunt Grace, in whom there was a trace of wistfulness. -“They do sing so beautifully together!”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I’m afraid I can’t to-night,” refused Gail hastily, -and indeed she had good reason why her voice should -not have its firm and true quality just now. “I will -accompany Doctor Boyd, though, with pleasure,” and -she started toward the music room.</p> - -<p class='c012'><span class='pageno' id='Page_298'>298</span>The Reverend Smith Boyd was cut off from the ordinary -lies about not being in good voice, and suffering -from a slight cold, and such things. He hesitated a -moment, and then he followed.</p> - -<p class='c012'>The Bedouin Love Song, the Garden of Sleep, and -others of the solo repertoire which Gail had selected -for him, came pulsing out of the music room, first hesitantly, -and then with more strength, as the friendly -nearness between himself and the accompanist became -better established.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Presently, the listeners in the library noticed an unusual -pause between the songs, a low voiced discussion, -and then, the two perfectly blended voices rose in a -harmony so perfect that there was moisture in the eyes -of two of the ladies present.</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_299'>299</span> - <h2 class='c005'>CHAPTER XXIX<br /> <span class='small'>GAIL FIRST!</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_0_6 c011'>Allison, springing forward with a jerk as he left -Jim Sargent’s house, headed his long, low runabout -up the Avenue. He raced into the Park, and -glanced up at the lookout house as he sped on past; -but it was only a fleeting look. He needed no reminder -of Gail, and he scarcely noticed that he was following -the same road which they had so often taken together. -His only impulse had been to drive somewhere at top -speed, and he had automatically chosen this path. The -night was damp and chill, but his evening top coat was -open, revealing the white glint of his shirt front. He -did not seem to mind. As he passed Roseleaf Inn, he -slowed down. The roadhouse may have given him, and -probably did, another reminder of Gail, in such a manner -as to concrete him into logical thought; for he -slowed down the terrific speed which had been the accompaniment -of his unreasoning emotion. The driving -required too much concentration for specific -thought.</p> - -<p class='c012'>With this turning of his mental attitude, even the -slow running of the car seemed to disturb him, and, -about half a mile past Roseleaf Inn, he came slowly to -a stop, sitting at the wheel, with his head bent slightly -forward, and staring at the spot where the roadway -had ceased to roll beneath his machine. Presently he -<span class='pageno' id='Page_300'>300</span>became aware of the cold, and running his car to the -side of the road, he stepped out, and, buttoning his coat -around him, crossed a fence and walked through the -narrow strip of trees to the river bank, where he stood -for a moment looking out upon the misty Hudson, -sparkling under the moonlight. He began to walk up -and down the bank presently, the turf sinking spongily -under his feet, and it was noticeable that his pace grew -more and more rapid, until he was striding at a furious -rate of speed.</p> - -<p class='c012'>The man was in a torment of passion. He had spent -a lifetime in the deliberate acquisition of everything -upon which he had set his will; and it was one of the -things upon which he had built his success, that, once -he had fixed his desire deliberately upon anything, he -had held unwaveringly to that object, employing all the -forces of which strong men are capable; patient waiting, -dogged persistence, or vicious grappling, whichever was -best adapted to gain his ends.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Gail! If there had been tender thoughts of her, they -were gone now. He saw her in a thousand enchantments; -sitting beside him, clad in the white furs which -added such piquancy to her rosy cheeks and sparkling -eyes; lounging in the library, in some filmy, clinging -robe which defined her grace, half concealing and half -suggesting the long, delicately curving lines which had -so appealed to his ruthlessness; sitting at the piano, -her beautiful small head slightly bent forward, displaying -the requisite line at the nape of her neck, her brown -hair waving backward to a simple knot, her rounded -white arms free from the elbows, and her slender fingers -flashing over the keys; coming down the stairway, in -the filmy cream lace gown which had made her seem -so girlishly fragile, her daintily blue slippered feet and -<span class='pageno' id='Page_301'>301</span>her beautifully turned ankles giving a hint of the grace -and suppleness of her whole self; in her black beaded -ball costume, its sparkling deadness displaying the exquisite -ivory tints and beautiful colouring of her neck -and shoulders and bosom with startling effectiveness. -In these and a thousand other glowing pictures he saw -her, and with every added picture there came a new -pain in his thought of her.</p> - -<p class='c012'>He felt the warmth of her hand upon his arm, the -brush of her shoulder against his own, the mere elbow -touch as she sat beside him in the car, the many little -careless contacts of daily life, unconscious to her, but -to him fraught always with flame; and, finally, that -maddening moment when he had crushed her in his -arms, and so had made, for all time to come, the possession -of her a necessity almost maniacal in the violence -of its determination! He heard the sound of her voice, -in all its enchanting cadences, from the sweetness of -her murmured asides to the ring of her laugh; and the -delicate fragrance which was a part of her overwhelmed -him now, in remembrance, like an unnerving faintness!</p> - -<p class='c012'>It was so that he had centred his mind upon her, and -himself and his will, until, in all creation, there was -nothing else but that was trivial; ambition, power, -wealth, fame, the command of empires and of men, were -nothing, except as they might lead to her!</p> - -<p class='c012'>As a boy Allison had been endowed with extraordinary -strength. From a mother who had married -beneath her socially he had inherited a certain redeeming -refinement of taste, a richness of imagination, a -turn of extravagance, a certain daring and confidence. -Had his heredity been left to the father alone, he would -have developed into a mere brute, fighting for the love -of inflicting pain, his ambitions confined to physical -<span class='pageno' id='Page_302'>302</span>supremacy alone. As it was, the combination had made -of him a brute more dangerous by the addition of intelligence. -In spite of gentle surroundings, he had -persistently ran away to play in a rough and tumble -neighbourhood, where he had been the terror of boys -a head taller than himself, and had established an unquestioned -tyranny among them. He had a passion -at that time for killing cats, and a devilish ingenuity -in devising new modes of torture for them, saturating -them with gasolene and burning them alive, and other -such ghastly amusements. The cruelty of this he had -from the father, the ingenuity from the mother. -In a fleeting introspection, a review which could have -occupied but a few seconds of time, he saw back through -the years of his passion, for every year had been a passion -of supremacy, as if the cinematograph of his life -had flashed swiftly before him, pausing for illumination -at certain points which had marked the attainment of -hard-won goals.</p> - -<p class='c012'>The days of his schooling, when the mother in him -had made him crave knowledge in spite of the physical -instincts which drove him out doors. He accomplished -both. He went at his lessons viciously, perhaps because -they were something which had a tendency to baffle -him, and he had made no braver fights in life than -on those lonely nights when, angry and determined, he -had grappled with his books and conquered them. He -had won football honours at the same time. It was -said that half the victories of his team came through -the fear of Allison on the opposing elevens. He had -the reputation of being a demon on the gridiron. His -eyes became slightly bloodshot in every contest, and he -went into every battle with a smile on his lips which -was more like a snarl. His rise to football supremacy -<span class='pageno' id='Page_303'>303</span>was well remembered all through life by a dozen cripples. -He had been extremely fond of football, even -after one of his strongest opponents had been carried -from the field with a broken neck.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Then business. A different sort of cruelty entered -there. He had a method of advancement which was -far more effective than adroitness. With the same vicious -fever of achievement which had marked the conquering -of his books, he had made himself flawlessly efficient, -and had contrasted himself deliberately with -whatever weakness he could find in his superiors. On -the day when the superintendent drank, Allison took -especial pains to create an emergency, a break-down in -the power plant, and showed himself side by side with -the temporarily stupid superintendent, clear-eyed, -firm-jawed, glowing cheeked, ready to grapple with his -own emergency. He became superintendent. Trickery, -now. A block of stock here, a block of stock -there, a combination of small holdings by which an unsuspected -group of outsiders swept in with control of -that first little street car company. Allison’s was the -smallest block of shares in that combination, infinitesimal -as compared with the total capitalisation of the -company, the investment of his small savings combined -with all the borrowing he could manage. Yet, since -he had organised the rebellion, he was left in its control -by the same personal dominance with which he had -brought together the warring elements. Less than two -years after his accession to management, he had frozen -out the associates who had put him in power. They -none of them knew how it was done, but they did know -that he had taken advantage of every tricky opportunity -his position gave him, and they were bitter about -it. He laughed at them, and he thrashed the man who -<span class='pageno' id='Page_304'>304</span>complained loudest, a man who had lost every cent of -his money through Allison’s manipulations. Well, that -was the way of business. The old rule of conquest that -might makes right had only gone out of favour as applied -to physical oppression. In everything else, it -still prevailed; and Allison was its chief exponent.</p> - -<p class='c012'>The years of manhood. The panorama was a swiftly -moving one now. Combinations and consolidations had -followed closely one upon the other; brilliant and bewildering -shiftings of the pieces on the chess board of -his particular business. Other players had become confused -in all these kaleidoscopic changes, some of which -had seemed meaningless; but not Allison. Every shift -left him in a position of more ruthless advantage, even -in those moves which were intended only to create confusion; -and he pushed steadily forward towards the -one mark he had set; that there should eventually be -none other in the field than himself! It was because -he never flagged that he could do this. At no summit -had he ever paused for gratification over the extent of -his climb, for a backward glance over his fiercely contended -pathway, for refreshment, for breath; but, with -that exhaustless physical vitality inherited from his -father and mental vitality inherited from his mother, -he had kept his pace forward, plunging onward, from -summit to still higher summit, and never asking that -there might be one highest peak to which he could attain, -and rest! True, sometimes he had thought, on -the upward way, that at the summit he might pause, -but had that summit been the highest, with none other -luring him in the distant sky, he would have been disappointed.</p> - -<p class='c012'>So it was that he had come this far, and the roadway -to his present height was marked by the cripples he had -<span class='pageno' id='Page_305'>305</span>left behind him, without compunction, without mercy, -without compassion. Bankrupts strewed his way, -broken men of purpose higher than his own, useful factors -in the progress of human life, builders and creators -who had advanced the interest of the commonwealth, -but who had been more brilliant in construction than -they had been in reaping the rewards of their building. -It was for Allison to do this. It had been his specialty; -the reaping of rewards. It had been his faculty to permit -others to build, to encourage them in it, and then, -when the building was done, to wrest it away from the -builders. That marked him as the greatest commercial -genius of his time; and he had much applause -for it.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Women. Yes, there had been women, creatures of a -common mould with whom he had amused himself, had -taken them in their freshness, and broken them, and -thrown them away; this in his earlier years. But in -his maturity, he had bent all his strength to a greater -passion; the acquirement of all those other things which -men had wanted and held most dear, among them acquisition, -and power, and success. Perhaps it had been -bad for him, this concentration, for now it left him, at -the height of his maturity, with mistaken fancies, with -long pent fires, with disproportionate desires. Bringing -to these, he had the tremendously abnormal moral -effect of never having been thwarted in a thing upon -which he had set his mind, and of believing, by past -accomplishment, that anything upon which he had set -his wish must be his, or else every victory he had ever -gained would be swept aside and made of no value. He -must accomplish, or die!</p> - -<p class='c012'>He was without God, this man; he had nothing within -him which conceded, for a moment, a greater power -<span class='pageno' id='Page_306'>306</span>than his own. In all his mental imagery, which was -rich enough in material things, there was no conception -of a Deity, or of a need for one. To what should he -pray, and for what, when he had himself to rely upon? -Worship was an idealistic diversion, a poetic illusion, -the refuge of the weak, who excused their lack of -strength by ascribing it to a mysterious something beyond -the control of any man. He tolerated the popular -notion that there must be a God, as he tolerated -codes of social ethics; the conventions which laid -down, for instance, what a gentleman might or might -not do, externally, and still remain a gentleman. In -the meantime, if a man-made law came between him and -the accomplishment of his ends, he broke it, without a -trace of thought that he might be wrong. Laws were -the mutual safeguard of the weak, to protect themselves -against the encroachment of the strong; and it was in -the equally natural province of the strong to break -down those safeguards. In the same way he disregarded -moral laws. They, too, were for the upholding -of the weak, and the mere fact that they existed was -proof enough that they were an acknowledgment of the -right of the strong to break them.</p> - -<p class='c012'>There is a mistake here. It lies in the statement -that Allison recognised no God. He did. Allison. -Not Allison, the man, but the unconquerable will of Allison, -a will which was a divinity in itself. He believed -in it, centred on it all his faith, poured out to it all the -fervidness of his heart, of his mind, of his spirit, of his -body. He worshipped it!</p> - -<p class='c012'>So it was that he came to the consideration of the -one thing which had attempted to deny itself to him. -Gail! It seemed monstrous to him that she had set -<span class='pageno' id='Page_307'>307</span>herself against him. It was incredible that she should -have a will, which, if she persisted, should prove superior -to his own. Why, he had set his mind upon her from -the first! The time had suddenly arrived when he was -ripe for her, and she had come. He had not even given -a thought to the many suitors who had dangled about -her. She was for none of them. She was for him, and -he had waited in patience until she was tired of amusing -herself, and until he had wrought the big ambition towards -which her coming, and her impulse, and the new -fire she had kindled in him, had directed him. She had -been seriously in earnest in withholding herself from -him. She was determined upon it. She believed now, -in her soul, that she could keep to that determination. -At first he had been amused by it, as a man holds off -the angry onslaught of a child; but, in this last interview -with her, there had come a moment when he had -felt his vast compulsion valueless; and it had angered -him.</p> - -<p class='c012'>A flame raged through his veins which fairly shook -him with its violence. It was not only the reflex of his -determination to have her, but it was the terrific need -of her which had grown up in him. Have her? Of -course he would have her! If she would not come to -him willingly, he would take her! If she could not -share in the ecstasy of possession which he had so long -anticipated, she need not. She was not to be considered -in it any more than he had considered any other adverse -factor in the attainment of anything he had desired. -He was possessed of a rage now, which centred -itself upon one object, and one alone. Gail! She was -his new summit, his new peak, the final one where he -had planned to rest; but now his angry thought was to -<span class='pageno' id='Page_308'>308</span>attain it, and spurn it, broken and crumbled, as had -been all the other barriers to his will, and press ruthlessly -onward into higher skies, he knew not where. It -was no time now, to think on that. Gail first!</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_309'>309</span> - <h2 class='c005'>CHAPTER XXX<br /> <span class='small'>THE FLUTTER OF A SHEET OF MUSIC</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_0_6 c011'>Gail, in a pretty little rose-coloured morning robe, -with soft frills of lace around her white throat -and at her white elbows, sat on the floor of the music -room amid a chaos of sheet music. She was humming -a gay little song suggested by one of the titles through -which she had leafed, and was gradually sorting her -music for the yacht party; instrumental pieces here, -popular things there, another little pile of old-fashioned -glees which the assembled crowd might sing, just here -a little stack of her own solos, nearby the rector’s favourites, -between the two their duets. It was her part -in one of the latter she was humming now, missing, as -she sang, the strong accompaniment of the Reverend -Smith Boyd’s mellow voice. She was more peaceful this -morning than she had been for many days.</p> - -<p class='c012'>The butler came through the hall, and Gail looked -up with a suppressed giggle as she saw him pass the -door. She always had an absurd idea that his hinges -should be oiled.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Miss Gail is not at home, sir,” she heard the butler -say, and Gail paused with a sheet of music suspended -in her hand, the whole expression of her face changing. -She had only given instructions that one person should -receive that invariable message.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I beg your pardon, sir!” was the next observation -<span class='pageno' id='Page_310'>310</span>Gail heard, in a tone of as near startled remonstrance -as was possible to the butler’s wooden voice.</p> - -<p class='c012'>There was a sound almost as of a scuffle, and then -Allison, with his top coat on his arm and his hat in his -hand, strode to the doorway of the music room, followed -immediately by the butler, who looked as if his hair -had been peeled a little at the edges. Allison had apparently -brushed roughly past him, and had disturbed -his equanimity for the balance of his life.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Gail was on her feet almost instantaneously with the -apparition in the doorway, and she still held the sheet -of music which she had been about to deposit on one -of the piles. Allison’s eyes had a queer effect of being -sunken, and there was a strange nervous tension in him. -Gail dismissed the butler with a nod.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“You were informed that I am not at home,” she -said.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I meant to see you,” he replied, with a certain determined -insolence in his tone which she could not escape. -There was a triumph in it, too, as if his having -swept the butler aside were only a part of his imperious -intention. “I have some things to say to you to which -you must listen.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“You had better say them all then, because this is -your last opportunity,” she told him, pale with anger, -and with a quaver in her voice which she would have -given much to suppress.</p> - -<p class='c012'>He cast on her a look which blazed. He had not -slept since he had seen her last. He smiled, and the -smile was a snarl, displaying his teeth. Something -more than anger crept into Gail’s pallor.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I have come to ask you again to marry me, Gail. -The matter is too vital to be let pass without the most -serious effort of which I am capable. I can not do -<span class='pageno' id='Page_311'>311</span>without you. I have a need for you which is greater -than anything of which you could conceive. I come -to you humbly, Gail, to ask you to reconsider your -hasty answer of last night. I want you to marry me.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>For just a moment his eyes had softened, and Gail -felt a slight trace of pity for him; but in the pity itself -there was revulsion.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I can not,” she told him.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“You must!” he immediately rejoined. “As I -would build up an empire to win you, I would destroy -one to win you. You spoke last night of what you -called the cruelty and trickery of the building up of my -big transportation monopoly. If it is that which stands -between us, it shall not do so for a moment longer. -Marry me, and I will stop it just where it is. Why, -I only built this for you, and if you don’t like it, I shall -have nothing to do with it.” In that he lied, and consciously. -He knew that the moment he had made sure -of her his ambition to conquer would come uppermost -again, and that he would pursue his dream of conquest -with even more ardour than before, because he had been -refreshed.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“That would make no difference, Mr. Allison,” she -replied. “I told you, last night, that I would not -marry you because I do not, and could not, love you. -There does not need to be any other reason.” There -was in her an inexplicable tension, a reflex of his own, -but, though her face was still pale, she stood very -calmly before him.</p> - -<p class='c012'>The savageness which was in him, held too long in -leash, sprang into his face, his eyes, his lips, the set -of his jaws. He advanced a step towards her. His -hands contracted.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I shall not again ask you to love me,” he harshly -<span class='pageno' id='Page_312'>312</span>stated; “but you must marry me. I have made up -my mind to that.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Impossible!” Angry now and contemptuous.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I’ll make you! There is no resource I will not use. -I’ll bankrupt your family. I’ll wipe it off the earth.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Gail’s nails were pressing into her palms. She felt -that her lips were cold. Her eyes were widening, as -the horror of him began to grow on her. He was glaring -at her now, and there was no attempt to conceal the -savage cruelty on his face.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I’ll compromise you,” he went on. “I’ll connect -your name with mine in such a way that marriage with -me will be your only resource. I’ll be an influence you -can’t escape. There will not be a step you can take in -which you will not feel that I am the master of it. -Marry you? I’ll have you if it takes ten years! I’ll -have no other end in life. I’ll put into that one purpose -all the strength, and all the will that I have put -into the accomplishment of everything which I have -done; and the longer you delay me the sooner I’ll break -you when I do get you.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Out of her very weakness had come strength; out of -her overwhelming humiliation had come pride, and -though the blood had left her face waxen and cold, -something within her discovered a will which was as -strong in resistance as his was in attack. She knew -it, and trembled in the knowledge of it.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“You can’t make me marry you,” she said, with infinite -scorn and contempt.</p> - -<p class='c012'>He clenched his fists and gritted his teeth. Into his -eyes there sprang a blaze which she had never before -seen, but dimly, in the eyes of any man; but she needed -no experience to tell her its despicable meaning. His -lips, which had been snarling, suddenly took a downward -<span class='pageno' id='Page_313'>313</span>twitch, and were half parted. His nostrils were -distended, and the blood, flooding into his face, empurpled -it.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Then I’ll have you anyhow!” he hoarsely told her, -and, his arms tensed and his head slightly lowered forward, -he made as if to advance toward her. He saw -in her frightened eyes that she would scream, but he did -not know that at that moment she could not. Her -heart seemed to have lost its action, and she stood, trembling, -faint, in the midst of her strewn music, with the -sensation that the room was turning dark.</p> - -<p class='c012'>The house was very quiet. Mrs. Sargent and Mrs. -Davies were upstairs. The servants were all in the -rear of the house, or below, or in the upper rooms, at -their morning work. He turned swiftly and closed the -door of the music room, then he whirled again towards -her, with ferocity in his eyes. He came slowly, every -movement of him alive with ponderous strength. He -was a maniac. He was insane. He was frenzied by -one mad thought which had swept out of his universe -every other consideration, and the glut to kill was no -more fearful than the purpose which possessed him -now.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Gail, standing slight, fragile, her brown eyes staring, -her brown hair dishevelled about her white brow, felt -every atom of strength leaving her, devoured in the -overwhelming might of this monstrous creature. The -sheet of music, which she had been holding all this time, -dropped from her nerveless fingers and fluttered to the -floor!</p> - -<p class='c012'>That noise, slight as it was, served to arrest the -progress of the man for just an instant. He was in no -frame to reason, but some instinct urged him to speed. -He crouched slightly, as a wild beast might. But the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_314'>314</span>flutter of that sheet of music had done more for Gail -than it had for him. It had loosed the paralysis which -had held her, had broken the fascination of horror with -which she had been spellbound. Just behind her was -a low French window which led to a small side balcony. -With one bound she burst this open, she did not know -how, and had leaped over the light balcony rail, and -ran across the lawn to the rectory gate, up the steps -and into the side door, and into the study, where the -Reverend Smith Boyd sat toiling over a sermon.</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_315'>315</span> - <h2 class='c005'>CHAPTER XXXI<br /> <span class='small'>GAIL BREAKS A PROMISE</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_0_6 c011'>The <i>Whitecap</i> would have been under way except -for the delay of the gay little Mrs. Babbitt and -her admiring husband, who sent word that they could -not arrive until after dinner, so the yacht, long and -low and slender and glistening white, lay in the middle -of the Hudson River, while her guests, bundled warmly -against the crisp breeze, gathered in the forward shelter -deck and watched the beginnings of the early sunset.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I like Doctor Boyd in his yachting cap,” commented -Lucile, as that young man joined them, with a happy -mother on his arm.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“It takes away that deadly clerical effect,” laughed -Arly. “His long coat makes him look like the captain, -and he’s ever so much more handsome.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I don’t mind being the topic of discussion so long -as I’m present,” commented the Reverend Smith Boyd, -glancing around the group as if in search of some one.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“It rather restricts the conversation,” Mrs. Helen -Davies observed, at the same time watching, with a smile, -the tableau of her sister Grace and Jim Sargent. Gail -and herself had taken Grace out shopping, and had -forced on her sedate taste a neat and “fetching” yachting -costume, from flowing veiled cap to white shoes, -which had dropped about twenty years from her usual -<span class='pageno' id='Page_316'>316</span>appearance, and had brought a renewed enthusiasm to -the eyes of her husband.</p> - -<p class='c012'>The cherub-cheeked Marion Kenneth glanced wistfully -over at the rail where Dick Rodley, vieing with -the sunset in splendour, stood chatting with easy Ted -Teasdale and the stiff Gerald Fosland.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Where’s Gail?” demanded the cherub-cheeked one.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“It’s time that young lady was up on deck,” decided -Arly, and rose.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“She’s probably taking advantage of the opportunity -to dress for dinner,” surmised Mrs. Davies. “In -fact, I think it’s a good idea for all of us,” but the sunset -was too potent to leave for a few moments, and she -sat still.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Where indeed was Gail? In her beautiful little curly -maple stateroom, sitting on the edge of a beautiful little -curly maple bed, and digging two small fists into the -maple-brown coverlet. The pallor of the morning had -not yet left her face, and there were circles around the -brown eyes which gave them a wan pathos; there was a -crease of pain and worry, too, in the white brow.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Gail had come to the greatest crisis in her life. To -begin with, Allison. She would not permit herself to -dwell on the most horrible part of her experience with -him. That she put out of her mind, as best she could, -with a shudder. She hoped, in the time to come, to be -free of the picture of him as he advanced slowly towards -her in the music room, with that frenzied glare in -his eyes and that terrifying evil look upon his face. -She hoped, in the time to come, to be free of that awful -fear which seemed to have gripped her heart with a -clutch that had left deep imprints upon it, but, just -now, she let the picture and the fear remain before her -<span class='pageno' id='Page_317'>317</span>eyes and in her heart, and centred upon her grave responsibilities.</p> - -<p class='c012'>So far she had told no one of what had occurred that -morning. When she had rushed into the rector’s study -he had sprung up, and, seeing the fright in her face -and that she was tottering and ready to fall, he had -caught her in his strong arms, and she had clung trustfully -to him, half faint, until wild sobs had come to her -relief. Even in her incoherence, however, even in her -wild disorder of emotion, she realised that there was -danger, not only to her but to every one she loved, in -the man from whom she had run away; and she could -not tell the young rector any more than that she had -been frightened. Had she so much as mentioned the -name of Allison, she instinctively knew that the Reverend -Smith Boyd, in whom there was some trace of -impetuosity, might certainly have forgotten his cloth -and become mere man, and have strode straight across -to the house before Allison could have collected his -dazed wits; and she did not dare add that encounter to -her list of woes. It was strange how instinctively she -had headed for the Reverend Smith Boyd’s study; -strange then, but not now. In that moment of flying -straight to the protection of his arms, she knew something -about herself, and about the Reverend Smith -Boyd, too. She knew now why she had refused Howard -Clemmens, and Willis Cunningham, and Houston -Van Ploon, and Dick Rodley; poor Dick! and Allison, -and all the others. She frankly and complacently admitted -to herself that she loved the Reverend Smith -Boyd, but she put that additional worry into the background. -It could be fought out later. She would have -been very happy about it if she had had time, although -<span class='pageno' id='Page_318'>318</span>she could see no end to that situation but unhappiness.</p> - -<p class='c012'>These threats of Allison’s. How far could he go -with them, how far could he make them true? All the -way. She had a sickening sense that there was no idleness -in his threats. He had both the will and the power -to carry them out. He would bankrupt her family; -he would employ slander against her, from which the -innocent have less defence than the guilty; he would -set himself viciously to wreck her happiness at every -turn. The long arm of his vindictiveness would follow -her to her home, and set a barrier of scandalous report -even between her and her friends.</p> - -<p class='c012'>But let her first take up the case of her Uncle Jim. -She had not dared go with her news to hot-tempered -Jim Sargent. His first impulse would have been one of -violence, and she could not see that a murder on her -soul, and her Uncle Jim in jail as a murderer, and her -name figuring large, with her photograph in the pages -of the free and entirely uncurbed metropolitan press, -would help any one in the present dilemma. Yet even -a warning, to her Uncle Jim, of impending financial -danger might bring about this very same result, for -he had a trick of turning suddenly from the kind and -indulgent and tremendously admiring uncle, into a -stern parent, and firing one imperative question after -another at her, in the very image and likeness of her -own father; and that was an authoritative process -which she knew she could not resist. Yet Uncle Jim -must be protected! How? It was easy enough to say -that he must be, and yet could he be? Could he even -protect himself? She shook her head as she gazed, with -unseeing eyes, out of the daintily curtained port hole -upon the river, with its swarm of bustling small craft.</p> - -<p class='c012'><span class='pageno' id='Page_319'>319</span>Where to turn for advice, or even to have a sharer -in the burden which she felt must surely crush her. -There was no one. It was a burden she must bear alone, -unless she could devise some plan of effective action, -and the sense of how far she had been responsible for -this condition of affairs was one which oppressed her, -and humbled her, and deepened the circles about her -woe-smitten eyes.</p> - -<p class='c012'>She had been guilty. In a rush of remorse and repentance, -she over-blamed herself. She did not allow, -in her severe self-injustice, for the natural instincts -which had led her into a full and free commingling with -all this new circle; for, as Arly later put it for her by -way of comfort, how was she to know if she did not -find out. Now, however, she allowed herself no grain -of comfort, or sympathy, or relief, from the stern self-arraignment -through which she put herself. She had -been wicked, she told herself. Had she delved deeply -enough into her own heart, and acknowledged what she -saw there, and had she abided by that knowledge, she -could have spared her many suitors a part of the pain -and humiliation she had caused them by her refusal. -She had not been surprised by any of them. With the -infliction of but very slight pain, she could have stopped -them long before they came to the point of proposal, -she saw that now. Why had she not done so? Pride! -That was the answer. The pleasure of being so eagerly -sought, the actually spoken evidence of her popularity, -and the flattery of having aroused in all these big men -emotions so strong that they took the sincere form of -the offering of a lifetime of devotion. And she, who -had prated to herself so seriously of marriage, had held -it as so sacred a thing, she had so toyed with it, and -had toyed, too, with that instinct in these good men!</p> - -<p class='c012'><span class='pageno' id='Page_320'>320</span>In the light of her experience with Allison, she began -to distrust her own sincerity, and for some minutes she -floundered in that Slough of Despond.</p> - -<p class='c012'>But no, out of that misery she was able to emerge -clear of soul. Her worst fault had been folly. An instinctive -groping for that other part of her, which nature -had set somewhere, unlabelled, to make of the twain -a complete and perfect human entity, had led her into -all her entanglements, even with Allison. And again -the darkness deepened around her troubled eyes.</p> - -<p class='c012'>After all, had she but known it, she had a greater -fault than folly. Inexperience. Her charm was another, -her youth, her beauty, her virility—and her -sympathy! These were her true faults, and the ones -for which every attractive girl must suffer. There is -no escape. It is the great law of compensation. Nature -bestows no gift of value for which she does not -exact a corresponding price.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Gail took her little fists from their pressure into the -brown coverlet, and held her temples between the fingertips -of either hand; and the brown hair, springing into -wayward ringlets from the salt-breeze which blew in -at the half opened window, rippled down over her slender -hands, as if to soothe and comfort them. She had -been wasting her time in introspection and self-analysis -when there was need for decisive action! Fortunately -she had a respite until Monday morning. In the past -few days of huge commercial movements which so vitally -interested her, she had become acquainted with business -methods, to a certain extent, and she knew that nothing -could be done on Saturday afternoon or Sunday; therefore -her Uncle Jim was safe for two nights and a day. -Then Allison would deny the connection of her Uncle -Jim’s road with the A.-P., and the beginning of the destruction -<span class='pageno' id='Page_321'>321</span>of the Sargent family would be thoroughly -accomplished! She had been given a thorough grasp -of how easily that could be done. What could she do -in two nights and a day? It was past her ingenuity -to conceive. She must have help!</p> - -<p class='c012'>But from whom could she receive it? Tod Boyd? -The same reason which made her think of him first made -her swiftly place him last. Her Uncle Jim? Too hotheaded. -Her Aunt Grace? Too inexperienced. Her -Aunt Helen? Too conventional. Lucile, Ted, Dick? -She laughed. Arly?</p> - -<p class='c012'>There was a knock on her door, and Arly herself appeared.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Selfish,” chided Arly. “We’re all wanting you.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“That’s comforting,” smiled Gail. “I have just -been being all alone in the world, on the most absolutely -deserted island of which you can conceive. Arly, sit -down. I want to tell you something.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>The black hair and the brown hair cuddled close together, -while Gail, her tongue once loosened, poured out -in a torrent all the pent-up misery which had been accumulating -within her for the past tempestuous weeks; -and Arly, her eyes glistening with the excitement of it -all, kept her exclamations of surprise and fright and -indignation and horror, and everything else, strictly to -such low monosyllables as would not impede the gasping -narration.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I’d like to kill him!” said Arly, in a low voice of -startling intensity, and jumping to her feet she paced -up and down the confines of the little stateroom. Among -all the other surprises of recent events, there was none -more striking than this vast change in the usually -cool and sarcastic Arly, who had not, until her return -from Gail’s home, permitted herself an emotion in two -<span class='pageno' id='Page_322'>322</span>years. She came back to the bed with a sudden swift -knowledge that Gail had been dry-eyed all through this -recital, though her lips were quivering. She should -have cried. Instead she was sitting straight up, staring -at Arly with patient inquiry. She had told all her -dilemma, and all her grief, and all her fear; and now -she was waiting.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“The only way in which that person can be prevented -from attacking your Uncle Jim, which would be -his first step, is to attack him before he can do anything,” -said Arly, pacing up and down, her fingers -clasped behind her slender back, her black brows knotted, -her graceful head bent toward the floor.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“He is too powerful,” protested Gail.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“That makes him weak,” returned Arly quickly. -“In every great power there is one point of great -weakness. Tell me again about this tremendously big -world monopoly.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Patiently, and searching her memory for details, Gail -recited over again all which Allison had told her about -his wonderful plan of empire; and even now, angry and -humiliated and terror stricken as she was, Gail could -not repress a feeling of admiration for the bigness of -it. It was that which had impressed her in the beginning.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“It’s wonderful,” commented Arly, catching a trace -of that spirit of the exultation which hangs upon the unfolding -of fairyland; and she began to pace the floor -again. “Why, Gail, it is the most colossal piece of -thievery the world has ever known!” And she walked -in silence for a time. “That is the thing upon which -we can attack him. We are going to stop it.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Gail rose, too.</p> - -<p class='c012'><span class='pageno' id='Page_323'>323</span>“How?” she asked. “Arly, we couldn’t, just we -two girls!”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Why not?” demanded Arly, stopping in front of -her. “Any plan like that must be so full of criminal -crookedness that exposure alone is enough to put an -end to it.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Exposure,” faltered Gail, and struggled automatically -with a lifelong principle. “It was told to me in -confidence.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Arly looked at her in astonishment.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I could shake you,” she declared, and instead put -her arm around Gail. “Did that person betray no -confidence when he came to your uncle’s house this morning! -Moreover, he told you this merely to over-awe -you with the glitter of what he had done. He made that -take the place of love! Confidence! I’ll never do anything -with so much pleasure in my life as to betray -yours right now! If you don’t expose that person, I -will! If there’s any way we can damage him, I intend -to see that it is done; and if there’s any way after -that to damage him again and again, I want to do -it!”</p> - -<p class='c012'>For the first time in that miserable day, Gail felt a -thrill of hope, and Arly, at that moment, had, to her, -the aspect of a colossal figure, an angel of brightness -in the night of her despair! She felt that she could -afford to sob now, and she did it.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Do you suppose that would save Uncle Jim?” she -asked, when they had both finished a highly comforting -time together.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“It will save everybody,” declared Arly.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I hope so,” pondered Gail. “But we can’t do it -ourselves, Arly. Whom shall we get to help us?”</p> - -<p class='c012'><span class='pageno' id='Page_324'>324</span>The smile on Arly’s face was a positive illumination -for a moment, and then she laughed.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Gerald,” she replied. “You don’t know what a -dear he is!” and she rang for a cabin boy.</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_325'>325</span> - <h2 class='c005'>CHAPTER XXXII<br /> <span class='small'>GERALD FOSLAND MAKES A SPEECH</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_0_6 c011'>Gerald Fosland, known to be so formal that -he had once dressed to answer an emergency call -from a friend at the hospital, because the message came -in at six o’clock, surprised his guests by appearing before -them, in the salon just before dinner, in his driving -coat and with his motor cap in his hand.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Sorry,” he informed them, with his stiff bow, “but -an errand of such importance that it can not be delayed, -causes Mrs. Fosland and myself to return to the -city immediately for an hour or so. I am sincerely -apologetic, and I trust that you will have a jolly dinner.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Is Gail going with you?” inquired the alert Mrs. -Helen Davies, observing Gail in the gangway adjusting -her furs.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“She has to chaperon me, while Gerald is busy,” -Arly glibly explained. “Onery, Orey, Ickery, Ann, -Filison, Foloson, Nicholas, John; Queevy, Quavy, English -Navy, Stigalum, Stagalum, Buck. You’re it, Aunt -Grace,” counted out Arly. “You and Uncle Jim have -to be hosts. Good-bye!” and she sailed out to the deck, -followed by the still troubled Gail, who managed to accomplish -the laughing adieus for which Arly had set -the precedence.</p> - -<p class='c012'>A swift ride in the launch, in the cool night air, to -<span class='pageno' id='Page_326'>326</span>the landing; a brisk walk to the street, and, since no -one had expected to come ashore until Monday, a search -for a taxi; then Gerald, chatting with correct pleasantness -through his submerged preoccupation, having seen -the ladies safe under shelter, even if it were but the roof -of a night hawk taxi, stopped at the first saloon, a queer -place, of a sodden type which he had never before seen -and would never see again. There he phoned half a -dozen messages. There were four eager young men -waiting in the reception room of the Fosland house, -when Gerald’s party arrived, and three more followed -them up the steps.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Gerald aided in divesting the ladies of their -wraps, and slipped his own big top coat into the hands -of William, and saw to his tie and the set of his waistcoat -and the smoothness of his hair, before he stalked -into the reception parlour and bowed stiffly.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Gentlemen,” he observed, giving his moustache one -last smoothing, “first of all, have you brought with -you the written guarantees which I required from your -respective chiefs, that, in whatsoever comes from the -information I am about to give you, the names of your -informants shall, under no circumstances, appear in -print?”</p> - -<p class='c012'>One luckless young man, a fat-cheeked one, with a -pucker in the corner of his lips where his cigar should -have been, was unable to produce the necessary document, -and he was under a scrutiny too close to give him -a chance to write it.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Sorry,” announced Gerald, with polite contrition. -“As this is a very strict condition, I must ask you to -leave the room while I address the remaining gentlemen.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>The remaining gentlemen, of whom there were now -<span class='pageno' id='Page_327'>327</span>eleven, grinned appreciatively. Hickey would have -been the best newspaper man in New York if he were -not such a careless slob. He was so good that he was -the only man from the <cite>Planet</cite>. The others had sent -two, and three; for Gerald’s message, while very simple, -had been most effective. He had merely announced -that he was prepared to provide them with an international -sensation, involving some hundreds of billions of -dollars—and he had given his right name!</p> - -<p class='c012'>The unfortunate Hickey made a violent pretence of -search through all his pockets.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I must have lost it,” he piteously declared. -“Won’t you take my written word that you won’t be -mentioned?” and he looked up at the splendidly erect -Gerald with that honest appeal in his eyes which had -deceived so many.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Sorry,” announced Gerald; “but it wouldn’t be -sportsmanlike, since it would be quite unfair to these -other gentlemen.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Hold the stuff ’til I telephone,” begged Hickey. -“Say, if I get that written guarantee up here in fifteen -minutes, will it do?”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Gerald looked him speculatively in the eye.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“If you telephone, and can then assure me, on your -word of honour, that the document I require shall be in -the house before you leave, I shall permit you to remain,” -he decreed; and Hickey looked him quite soberly -in the eye for half a minute.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I’ll have it here all right,” he decided, and sprang -for the telephone, and came back in three minutes with -his word of honour. They could hear him, from the -library, yelling, from the time he gave the number until -he hung up the receiver, and if there was ever urgency -in a man’s voice, it was in the voice of Hickey.</p> - -<p class='c012'><span class='pageno' id='Page_328'>328</span>Gerald Fosland took a commanding position in the -corner of the room, where he could see the countenances -of each of the eager young gentlemen present. He -stood behind a chair, with his hands on the back of it, -in his favourite position for responding to a toast.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Gentlemen; Edward E. Allison (<i>Twelve young -gentlemen who had been leaning forward with strained -interest, and their mouths half open to help them hear, -suddenly jerked bolt upright. The little squib over -under the statue of Diana, dropped his lead pencil, and -came up with a purple face. Hickey, with a notebook -two inches wide in one hand, jabbed down a scratch to -represent Allison</i>) is about to complete a transportation -system encircling the globe. (<i>The little squib on -the end choked on his tongue. Hickey made a ring on -his note pad, to represent the globe, and while he waited -for the sensation to subside, put a buckle on it.</i>) The -acquisition of the foreign railroads will be made possible -only by a war, which is already arranged. (<i>The -little squib got writer’s cramp. Hickey waited for details. -The hollow-cheeked reporter grabbed for a cigarette, -but with no intention of lighting it.</i>) The war, -which will be between Germany and France, will begin -within a month. France, unable to raise a war fund -otherwise, will sell her railroads. The Russian line is -already being taken from its present managers, and will -be turned over to Allison’s world syndicate within a -week. The important steamship lines will become involved -in financial difficulties, which have already been -set afoot in England. Following these events will come -a successful rebellion in India, and the independence of -all the British colonies. (<i>The little squib laid down -his pencil, and sat in open-mouthed despair. He was -three sentences behind, and knew that he would be compelled -<span class='pageno' id='Page_329'>329</span>to trust his memory and his imagination, and -neither were equal to this task. Hickey had seven serene -jabs on his notebook, and was peacefully framing -his introductory paragraph. A seraphic smile was on -his thick lips, and his softened eyes were gazing fondly -into the fields of rich fancy. The hollow-cheeked young -man had cocked his cigarette perpendicularly, and he -was writing a few words with artistic precision. The -red-headed reporter was tearing off page after page of -his notebook and stuffing them loosely in his pocket. -One of the boys, a thick-breasted one with large hands, -was making microscopic notes on the back of an envelope, -and had plenty of room to spare.</i>) You will -probably require some tangible evidence that these large -plans are on the way to fulfilment. I call your attention -to the fact that, last week, the Russian Duomo began -a violent agitation over the removal of Olaf Petrovy, -who was the controller of the entire Russian railroad -system. Day before yesterday, Petrovy was unfortunately -assassinated, and the agitation in the -Duomo subsided. (<i>Hickey only nodded. His eyes -glowed with the light of a poet. The little squib sighed -dejectedly.</i>) This morning I read that France is -greatly incensed over a diplomatic breach in the German -war office; and it is commented that the breach -is one which can not possibly be healed. Kindly take -note of the following facts. From the first to the eighth -of this month, Baron von Slachten, who is directly responsible -for Germany’s foreign relations, was seen in -this city at the Fencing Club, under the incognito of -Henry Brokaw. Chevalier Duchambeau, director of -the combined banking interests of France, was here in -that same week, and was seen at the Montparnasse -Cercle. He bore the name of Andree Tirez. The -<span class='pageno' id='Page_330'>330</span>Grand Duke Jan, of Russia, was here as Ivan Strolesky. -James Wellington Hodge, the master of the banking -system of practically all the world, outside the United -States, was here as E. E. Chalmers. Prince Nito of -Japan, Yu-Hip-Lun of China and Count Cassioni of -Rome, were here at the same time; and they all called -on Edward E. Allison. (<i>Furious writing on the part -of all the young gentlemen except the little squib and -Hickey; the former in an acute paralysis of body and -mind and soul, and Hickey in an acute ecstasy. He had -symbols down for all the foreign gentlemen named, a -pretzel for the Baron, and had the local records of Ivan -Strolesky and Baron von Slachten up a tree. He had -seen them both, and interviewed the former.</i>) Furthermore, -gentlemen, I will give you now the names of the -eight financiers, who, with Edward E. Allison, are interested -in the formation of the International Transportation -Company, which proposes to control the -commerce of the world. These gentlemen are Joseph -G. Clark (<i>the little squib jumped up and sat down. -Hickey produced a long, low whistle of unbounded joy. -The hollow-faced one jerked the useless cigarette from -his mouth and threw it in the fireplace. The red-headed -reporter laughed hysterically, though he never stopped -writing. Every young gentleman there made one or another -sharp physical movement expressive of his astonishment -and delight</i>), Eldridge Babbitt (<i>more sensation</i>), -W. T. Chisholm (<i>Hickey wrote the rest of the -list</i>), Richard Haverman, Arthur Grandin, Robert E. -Taylor, A. L. Vance. I would suggest that, if you -disturb these gentlemen in the manner which I have -understood you to be quite capable of doing, you might -secure from some one of them a trace of corroboration -of the things I have said. This is all.” He paused, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_331'>331</span>and bowed stiffly. “Gentlemen, I wish to add one word. -I thank you for your kind attention, and I desire to -say that, while I have violated to-night several of the -rules which I had believed that I would always hold -unbroken, I have done so in the interest of a justice -which is greater than all other considerations. Gentlemen, -good-night.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Have you a good photograph handy?” asked the -squib, awakening from his trance.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Nine young gentlemen put the squib right about that -photograph. Hickey was lost in the fields of Elysian -phantasy, and the red-headed reporter was still writing -and stuffing loose pages in his pocket, and the one -with the beard was making a surreptitious sketch of -Gerald Fosland, to use on the first plausible occasion. -He had in mind a special article on wealthy clubmen -at home.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Company incorporated?” inquired Hickey, who -was the most practical poet of his time.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I should consider that a pertinent question,” -granted Gerald. “Gentlemen, you will pardon me for -a moment,” and he bowed himself from the room.</p> - -<p class='c012'>He had meant to ask that one simple question and -return, but, in Arlene’s blue room, where sat two young -women in a high state of quiver, he had to make his -speech all over again, verbatim, and detail each interruption, -and describe how they received the news, and -answer, several times, the variously couched question, -if he really thought their names would not be mentioned. -It was fifteen minutes before he returned, and -he found the twelve young gentlemen suffering with -an intolerable itch to be gone! Five of the young men -were in the library, quarrelling, in decently low voices, -over the use of phone. The imperturbable Hickey, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_332'>332</span>however, had it, and he held on, handing in a story, embellished -and coloured and frilled and be-ribboned as he -went, which would make the cylinders on the presses -curl up.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I am sorry to advise you, gentlemen, that I am -unable to tell you if the International Transportation -Company is, or is about to be, incorporated,” reported -Gerald gravely, and he signalled to William to open -the front door.</p> - -<p class='c012'>The air being too cold, however, he had it closed presently, -for now he was the centre of an interrogatory -circle from every degree of which came questions so -sharply pointed that they seemed to flash as they darted -towards him. Gerald Fosland listened to this babble -of conversation with a courtesy beautiful to behold, but -at the first good pause, he advised them that he had -given them all the information at his command, and -once more caused the door to be opened; whereupon -the eager young gentlemen, with the exception of the -squib, who was on his knees under a couch looking for -a lost subway ticket, shook hands cordially and admiringly -with the host of the evening, and bulged out into -the night.</p> - -<p class='c012'>As the rapt and enchanted Hickey passed out of -the door, a grip like a pair of ice tongs caught him by -the arm, and drew him gently but firmly back.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Sorry,” observed Gerald; “but you don’t go.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Hasn’t that damn boy got here yet?” demanded -Hickey, in an immediate mood for assassination. He -was a large young man, and defective messenger boys -were the bane of his existence.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“William says not,” replied Gerald.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“For the love of Mike, let me go!” pleaded Hickey. -“This stuff has to be handled while it’s still sizzling! -<span class='pageno' id='Page_333'>333</span>It’s the biggest story of the century! That boy’ll be -here any minute.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Sorry,” regretfully observed Gerald; “but I shall -be compelled to detain you until he arrives.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Can’t do it!” returned the desperate Hickey. “I -have to go!” and he made a dash for the door.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Once more the ice tongs clutched him by the shoulder -and sank into the flesh.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“If you try that again, young man, I shall be compelled -to thrash you,” stated the host, again mildly.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Hickey looked at him, very thoroughly. Gerald was a -slim waisted gentleman, but he had broad shoulders and -a depressingly calm eye, and he probably exercised -twenty minutes every morning by an open window, after -his cold plunge, and took a horseback ride, and walked -a lot, and played polo, and a few other effete things -like that. Hickey sat down and waited, and, though -the night was cold, he mopped his brow until the messenger -came!</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_334'>334</span> - <h2 class='c005'>CHAPTER XXXIII<br /> <span class='small'>CHICKEN, OR STEAK?</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_0_6 c011'>On the outbreak of a bygone rudeness between the -United States and Spain, one free and entirely -uncurbed metropolitan paper, unable to adequately express -its violent emotions on the subject, utilised its -whole front page with the one word “War!” printed -in red ink, and since this edition was jumped off the -press as fast as that word could be matrixed and cast, -there was not another line anywhere in the paper about -the subject which was so prominently indexed, and the -read-overs about the latest briberies and murders and -scandals had no beginnings at all. But that was good -journalism. The public had been expecting war for -some days. They knew what it was all about, and here -it was. They bought up that edition with avidity, and -read the one word of news, which they had seen from -afar, and threw down the paper, satisfied.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Now, however, the free and entirely uncurbed, having -risen most gloriously in the past to every emergency, -no matter how great, positively floundered in the very -wealth of its opportunities. To begin with, the free -and entirely uncurbed, usually a unit in what constituted -the news of the day, found itself ignominiously -scattered, foozled in its judgment, inadequate in its -expression of anything; and one brilliant head writer, -after trying in vain to combine the diverse elements of -this uncomfortably huge sensation, landed on the single -<span class='pageno' id='Page_335'>335</span>word “Yow!” and went out, in a daze, for a drink. -One paper landed on the Franco-German War as the -leading thrill in this overly rich combination of news, -one took up the greed of Allison, one featured the world -monopoly, one the assured downfall of England, and -one, that represented by the squib, the general absorption -of everything by the cereal trust.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Saturday night, however, saw no late extras. The -“story” was too big to touch without something more -tangible than the word of even so substantial a man as -Gerald Fosland; and long before any of the twelve -eager young gentlemen had reached the office, the scout -brigade, hundreds strong, were sniffing over every trail -and yelping over every scent.</p> - -<p class='c012'>They traced the visiting diplomats from the time they -had stepped down their respective gangplanks to the -time they walked up them again. They besieged and -bombarded and beleaguered the eight members of the -International Transportation Company, or as many of -them as they could locate, and they even found their -way out to Gerald Fosland’s yacht, in mad pursuit of -Eldridge Babbitt. Here, however, they were foiled, -for Gerald, ordering the anchor hoist at the first -hail, stepped out on the deck from his belated dinner, -and informed the gentlemen of the press that the -rights of hospitality on his yacht would be held inviolate, -whereupon he headed for Sandy Hook. The -scout brigade were also unable to locate Joseph G. -Clark, the only multi-millionaire in America able to -crawl in a hole and pull the hole in after him, Robert -E. Taylor, who never permitted anybody but a personal -friend to speak to him from dinner time on, and -Edward E. Allison, of whom there had been no trace -since noon. They might just as well not have found -<span class='pageno' id='Page_336'>336</span>the others, for neither Chisholm, nor Haverman, nor -Grandin, nor Vance, could be induced to make any admissions, -be trapped into a yes or no, or grunt in the -wrong place. They had grown up with the art of interviewing, -and had kept one lap ahead of it, in obedience -to nature’s first law, which, as every school boy -knows, though older people may have forgotten it, is -the law of self-preservation.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Until three o’clock in the morning every newspaper -office in New York was a scene of violent gloom. -Throughout all the city, and into many outside nooks -and crannies, were hundreds of human tentacles, burrowing -like moles into the sandy soil of news, but unearthing -nothing of any value. The world’s biggest -sensation was in those offices, and they couldn’t touch it -with a pair of tongs! Nor were libel suits, or any such -trivial considerations, in the minds of the astute managers -of the free and entirely uncurbed. The deterrent -was that the interests involved were so large that -one might as well sit on a keg of gunpowder and light -it, as to make the slightest of errors. The gentlemen -mentioned as the organisers of the International Transportation -Company collectively owned about all the -money, and all the power, and all the law, in the gloriously -independent United States of America; and if -they got together on any one subject, such as the -squashing of a newspaper, for instance, something calm -and impressive was likely to happen. On the other -hand, if the interesting story the free and entirely uncurbed -had in its possession were true, the squashing -would be reversed, and the freeness and entirely uncurbedness -would be still more firmly seated than ever, -which is the palladium of our national liberties; and -Heaven be good to us.</p> - -<p class='c012'><span class='pageno' id='Page_337'>337</span>It was a distressing evening. Whole reams of copy, -more throbbing than any fiction, more potent than any -explosion, more consequential than any war, hung on -the “hold” hooks, and grew cold! Whole banks of -galleys of the same gorgeous stuff stood on the racks, -set and revised, and ready to be plated, and not a line -of it could be released!</p> - -<p class='c012'>Towards morning there was an army of newspaper -men so worried and distressed, and generally consumed -with the mad passion of restraint, that there was -scarcely a fingernail left in the profession, and frightened-eyed -copy boys hid behind doors. Suddenly a -dozen telegraph operators, in as many offices, jumped -from their desks, as if they had all been touched at the -same instant by a powerful current from their instruments, -and shouted varying phrases, a composite of -which would be nearest expressed by:</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Let ’er go!”</p> - -<p class='c012'>It had been eight o’clock in the evening in New York -when Gerald Fosland had first given out his information, -and at that moment it was one A.M. in Berlin. -At three A.M., Berlin time, which was ten P.M. -in New York, the Baron von Slachten, who had been -detained by an unusual stress of diplomatic business, -strolled to his favourite café. At three-five, the -Baron von Slachten became the most thought -about man in his city, but the metropolitan press -of Berlin is slightly fettered and more or less -curbed, and there are certain formalities to be observed. -It is probable, therefore, that the Baron -might have gone about his peaceful way for two -or three days, had not a fool American, in the advertising -branch of one of the New York papers, in an -entire ignorance of decent formalities, walked straight -<span class='pageno' id='Page_338'>338</span>out <span lang="de" xml:lang="de">Unter den Linden</span>, to Baron von Slachten’s favourite -café, and, picking out the Baron at a table with -four bushy-faced friends, made this cheerful remark, in -the manner and custom of journalists in his native land:</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Well, Baron, the International Transportation -Company has confessed. Could you give me a few -words on the subject?”</p> - -<p class='c012'>The Baron, who had been about to drink a stein of -beer, set down his half liter and stared at the young -man blankly. His face turned slowly yellow, and he rose.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“<span lang="de" xml:lang="de">Lass bleiben</span>,” the Baron ordered the handy persons -who were about to remove the cheerful advertising -representative and incarcerate him for life, and then -the Baron walked stolidly out of the café, and rode -home, and wrote for an hour or so, and ate a heavy -early breakfast, and returned to his study, and obligingly -shot himself.</p> - -<p class='c012'>This was at seven A.M., Berlin time, which was two -A.M., in New York; and owing to the nervousness of -an old woman servant, the news reached New York at -three A.M., and the big wheels began to go around.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Where was Edward E. Allison? There was nothing -the free and entirely uncurbed wanted to know so much -as that; but the f. and e. u. was doomed to disappointment -in that one desire of its heart. Even as he had -stumbled down the steps of the Sargent house, Allison -was aware of the hideous thing he had done; aware, -too, that Jim Sargent was as violent as good-natured -men are apt to be. This thought, it must be said in -justice to Allison, came last and went away first. It -was from himself that he tried to run away, when he -shot his runabout up through the Park and into the -north country, and, by devious roads, to a place which -had come to him as if by inspiration; the Willow Club, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_339'>339</span>which was only open in the summertime, and employed -a feeble old caretaker in the winter. To this haven, -bleak and cold as his own numbed soul, Allison drove -in mechanical firmness, and ran his machine back into -the garage, and closed the doors on it, and walked -around to the kitchen, where he found old Peabody -smoking a corncob pipe, and laboriously mending a -pair of breeches.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Why, howdy, Mr. Allison,” greeted Peabody, rising, -and shoving up his spectacles. “It’s a treat to -see anybody these days. I ain’t had a visitor for nigh -onto a month. There ain’t any provisions in the house, -but if you’d like anything I can run over to the village -and get it. I got a jug of my own, if you’d like -a little snifter. How’s things in the city?” and still -rambling on with unanswered questions and miscellaneous -offers and club grounds information, he pottered to -the corner cupboard, and produced his jug, and poured -out a glass of whiskey.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Thanks,” said Allison, and drank the liquor mechanically. -He was shuddering with the cold, but he -had not noticed it until now. He glanced around the -room slowly and curiously, as if he had not seen it -before. “I think I’ll stay out here over night,” he told -Peabody. “I’ll occupy the office. If any one rings -the phone, don’t answer.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Yes-sir,” replied Peabody. “Tell you what I’ll -do, Mr. Allison. I’ll muffle the bell. I guess I better -light a fire in the office.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Eh? Yes. Oh yes. Yes, you might light a fire.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Get you a nice chicken maybe.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Eh? Yes. Oh yes. Yes.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Chicken or steak? Or maybe some chops.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Anything you like,” and Allison went towards the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_340'>340</span>office. At the door he turned. “You’ll understand, -Peabody, that I have come here to be quiet. I wish -to be entirely alone, with certain important matters -which I must decide. If anybody should happen to -drop in, get rid of him. Do not say that I am here -or have been here.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Yes-sir,” replied Peabody. “I know how it is that -away. I want to be by myself, often. Shall I make -up the bed in the east room or the west room? Seems -to me the west room is a little pleasanter.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Allison went into the office, and closed the door after -him. It was damp and chill in there, but he did not -notice it. He sat down in the swivel chair behind the -flat top desk, and rested his chin in his hands, and stared -out of the window at the bleak and dreary landscape. -Just within his range of vision was a lonely little creek, -shadowed by a mournful drooping willow which had -given the Club its name, and in the wintry breeze it -waved its long tendrils against the leaden grey sky. -Allison fixed his eyes on that oddly beckoning tree, and -strove to think. Old Peabody came pottering in, and -with many a clang and clatter builded a fire in the capacious -Dutch stove; with a longing glance at Allison, -for he was starved with the hunger of talk, he went out -again.</p> - -<p class='c012'>At dusk he once more opened the door. Allison had -not moved. He still sat with his chin in his hands, -looking out at that weirdly waving willow. Old Peabody -thought that he must be asleep, until he tiptoed -up at the side. Allison’s grey eyes, unblinking, were -staring straight ahead, with no expression in them. It -was as if they had turned to glass.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Excuse me, Mr. Allison. Chicken or steak? I -<span class='pageno' id='Page_341'>341</span>got ’em both, one for supper and one for breakfast.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Allison turned slowly, part way towards Peabody; -not entirely.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Chicken or steak?” repeated Peabody.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Eh? Yes. Oh yes. Yes. The chicken.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>The fire had gone out. Peabody rebuilt it. He -came in an hour later, and studied the silent man at -the desk for a long minute, and then he decided an important -question for himself. He brought in Allison’s -dinner on a tray, and set it on a corner of the desk.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Shall I spread a cloth?”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“No,” returned Allison. The clatter had aroused -him for the moment, and Peabody went away with a -very just complaint that if he had to be bothered with -a visitor on a grey day like this, he’d rather not have -such an unsociable cuss.</p> - -<p class='c012'>At eleven Peabody came in again, to see if Allison -were not ready to go to bed; but Allison sent him away -as soon as he had fixed the fire. The tray was untouched, -and out there in the dim moonlight, which -peered now and then through the shifting clouds, the -long-armed willow beckoned and beckoned.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Morning came, cold and grey and damp as the night -had been. Allison had fallen asleep towards the dawn, -sitting at his desk with his heavy head on his arms, and -not even the clatter of the building of the fire roused -him. At seven when Peabody came, Allison raised up -with a start at the opening of the door, but before he -glanced at Peabody, he looked out of the window at -the willow.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Good morning,” said Peabody with a cheerfulness -which sounded oddly in that dim, bare room. “I -brought you the paper, and some fresh eggs. There -<span class='pageno' id='Page_342'>342</span>was a little touch of frost this morning, but it went -away about time for sun-up. How will you have your -eggs? Fried, I suppose, after the steak. Seems like -you don’t have much appetite,” and he scrutinised the -untouched tray with mingled regret and resentment. -Since Allison paid no attention to him, he decided on -eggs fried after the steak, and started for the door.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Allison had picked up the paper mechanically. It -had lain with the top part downwards, but his own picture -was in the centre. He turned the paper over, so -that he could see the headlines.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Peabody!” No longer the dead tones of a man -in a mental stupor, a man who can not think, but in -the sharp tones of a man who can feel.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Yes-sir.” Sharp and crisp, like the snap of a whip. -Allison had scared it out of him.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Don’t come in again until I call you.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Yes-sir.” Grieved this time. Darn it, wasn’t he -doing his best for the man!</p> - -<p class='c012'>So it had come; the time when his will was not God! -A God should be omnipotent, impregnable, unassailable, -absolute. He was surprised at the calmness with -which he took this blow. It was the very bigness of -the hurt which left it so little painful. A man with his -leg shot off suffers not one-tenth so much as a man -who tears his fingernail to the quick. Moreover, there -was that other big horror which had left him stupefied -and numb. He had not known that in his ruthlessness -there was any place for remorse, or for terror of himself -at anything he might choose to do. But there was. -He entered into no ravings now, no writhings, no outcries. -He realised calmly and clearly all he had done, -and all which had happened to him in retribution. He -saw the downfall of his stupendous scheme of worldwide -<span class='pageno' id='Page_343'>343</span>conquest. He saw his fortune, to the last penny, -swept away, for he had invested all that he could raise -on his securities and his business and his prospects, -in the preliminary expenses of the International Transportation -Company, bearing this portion of the financial -burden himself, as part of the plan by which he -meant to obtain ultimate control and command of the -tremendous consolidation, and become the king among -kings, with the whole world in his imperious grasp, a -sway larger than that of any potentate who had ever -sat upon a throne, larger than the sway of all the monarchs -of earth put together, as large terrestrially as -the sway of God himself! All these he saw crumbled -away, fallen down around him, a wreck so complete that -no shred or splinter of it was worth the picking up; -saw himself disgraced and discredited, hated and ridiculed -throughout the length and breadth and circumference -of the very earth he had meant to rule; saw -himself discarded by the strong men whom he had inveigled -into this futile scheme and saw himself forced -into commercial death as wolves rend and devour a crippled -member of their pack; last, he saw himself loathed -in the one pure breast he had sought to make his own; -and that was the deepest hurt of all; for now, in the -bright blaze of his own conflagration, he saw that, beneath -his grossness, he had loved her, after all, loved -her with a love which, if he had shorn it of his dross, -might perhaps have won her.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Through all that day he sat at the desk, and when -the night-time came again, he walked out of the house, -and across the field, and over the tiny foot-bridge, under -the willow tree with the still beckoning arms; and -the world, his world, the world he had meant to make -his own, never saw him again.</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_344'>344</span> - <h2 class='c005'>CHAPTER XXXIV<br /> <span class='small'>A MATTER OF CONSCIENCE</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_0_6 c011'>Gail stood at the rail of the <i>Whitecap</i>, gazing out -over the dancing blue waves with troubled eyes.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Penny,” said a cheerful voice at her side.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“For my thoughts,” she replied, turning to the impossibly -handsome Dick Rodley who had strolled up, in -his blue jacket and white trousers and other nautical -embellishments. “Give me your penny.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>He reached in his pockets, but of course, there was -no money there. He did, however, find a fountain pen -and a card, and he wrote her a note for the amount.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Now deliver the merchandise,” he demanded.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Well, to begin with, I’m glad that the fog has been -driven away, and that the sun is shining, and that so -many of my friends are on board the <i>Whitecap</i>.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“You’re not a conscientious merchant,” objected -Dick. “You’re not giving me all I paid for. No one -stands still so long, no matter how charming of figure -or becomingly gowned, without a serious thought. I -want that thought.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Gail looked up into his big black eyes reflectively. -She was tremendously glad that she had such a friend -as Dick. He was so agreeable to look at, and he was -no problem to her. The most of her friends were.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“The news in the paper,” she told him. “It’s so -big.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Dick looked down at her critically. Her snow-white -<span class='pageno' id='Page_345'>345</span>yachting costume, with its touches of delicate blue, -seemed to make her a part of the blue sea and the blue -sky, with their markings of white in foam and cloud, -to enhance the delicate pallor of her cheeks, to throw -into her brown eyes a trace of violet, to bring into relief, -the rich colour of the brown hair which rippled -about her face, straying where it could into wanton little -ringlets, sometimes gold and sometimes almost red -in the sun. She was so new a Gail to Dick that he -was puzzled, and worried, too, for he felt, rather than -saw, that some trouble possessed this dearest of his -friends.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Yes, it is big news,” he admitted; “big enough -and startling enough to impress any one very gravely.” -Then he shook his head at her. “But you mustn’t -worry about it, Gail. You’re not responsible.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Gail turned her eyes from him and looked out over -the white-edged waves again.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“It is a tremendous responsibility,” she mused, whereupon -Dick, as became him, violently broke that thread -of thought by taking her arm and drawing her away -from the rail, and walking gaily with her up to the -forward shelter deck, where, shielded from the crispness -of the wind, there sat, around the big table and -amid a tangle of Sunday papers, Jim Sargent and the -Reverend Smith Boyd, Arly and Gerald Fosland, all -four deep in the discussion of the one possible topic -of conversation.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Allison’s explosion again,” objected Dick, as Gail -and he joined the group, and caught the general tenor -of the thought. “I suppose the only way to escape -that is to jump off the <i>Whitecap</i>. Gail’s worse than -any of you. I find she’s responsible for the whole -thing.”</p> - -<p class='c012'><span class='pageno' id='Page_346'>346</span>Arly and Gerald looked up quickly.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I neither said nor intimated anything of the sort,” -Gail reprimanded Dick, for the benefit of the Foslands, -and she sat down by Arly, whereupon Dick, observing -that he was much offended, patted Gail on the shoulder, -and disappeared in search of Ted.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I’d like to hand a vote of thanks to the responsible -party,” laughed Jim Sargent, to whom the news meant -more than Gail appreciated. “With Allison broke, -Urbank of the Midcontinent succeeds to control of the -A.-P., and Urbank is anxious to incorporate the Towando -Valley in the system. He told me so yesterday.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>The light which leaped into Gail’s eyes, and the trace -of colour which flashed into her cheeks, were most comforting -to Arly; and they exchanged a smile of great -satisfaction. They clutched hands ecstatically under -the corner of the table, and wanted to laugh outright. -However, it would keep.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“The destruction of Mr. Allison was a feat of which -any gentleman’s conscience might approve,” commented -Gerald Fosland, who had spent some time in definitely -settling, with himself, the ethics of that question. “The -company he proposed to form was a menace to the liberty -of the world and the progress of civilisation.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“The destruction didn’t go far enough,” snapped -Jim Sargent. “Clark, Vance, Haverman, Grandin, -Babbitt, Taylor, Chisholm; these fellows won’t be -touched, and they built up their monopolies by the -same method Allison proposed; trickery, force, and -plain theft!”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Harsh language, Uncle Jim Sargent, to use toward -your respectable fellow-vestrymen,” chided Arly, her -black eyes dancing.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Clark and Chisholm?” and Jim Sargent’s brows -<span class='pageno' id='Page_347'>347</span>knotted. “They’re not my fellow-vestrymen. Either -they go or I do!”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I would like you to remain,” quietly stated the Reverend -Smith Boyd. “I hope to achieve several important -alterations in the ethics of Market Square Church.” -He was grave this morning. He had unknowingly been -ripening for some time on many questions; and the revelations -in this morning’s papers had brought him to -the point of decision. “I wish to drive the money -changers out of the temple,” he added, and glanced at -Gail with a smile in which there was acknowledgment.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“A remarkably lucrative enterprise, eh Gail?” -laughed her Uncle Jim, remembering her criticism on -the occasion of her first and only vestry meeting, when -she had called their attention to the satire of the stained -glass window.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“You will have still the Scribes and Pharisees, Doctor; -‘those who stand praying in the public places, so -they may be seen of all men,’” and Gail smiled across -at him, within her eyes the mischievous twinkle which -had been absent for many days.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I hope to be able to remove the public place,” replied -the rector, with a gravity which told of something -vital beneath the apparent repartee. Mrs. Boyd, -strolling past with Aunt Grace Sargent, paused to look -at him fondly. “I shall set myself, with such strength -as I may have, against the building of the proposed -cathedral.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>He had said it so quietly that it took the little group -a full minute to comprehend. Jim Sargent looked with -acute interest at the end of his cigar, and threw it overboard. -Arly leaned slowly forward, and, resting her -piquant chin on her closed hand, studied the rector earnestly. -Gerald stroked his moustache contemplatively, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_348'>348</span>and looked at the rector with growing admiration. By -George, that was a sportsmanlike attitude! He’d have -to take the Reverend Smith Boyd down to the Papyrus -Club one day. All the trouble flew back into Gail’s -eyes. It was a stupendous thing the Reverend Smith -Boyd was proposing to relinquish! The rectorship of -the most wonderful cathedral in the world! Mrs. Boyd -looked startled for a moment. She had known of Tod’s -bright dreams about the new cathedral and the new -rectory. He had planned his mother’s apartments himself, -and the last thing his eyes looked upon at night -were the beautifully coloured sketches on his walls.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Don’t be foolish, Boyd,” protested Sargent, who -had always felt a fatherly responsibility for the young -rector. “It’s a big ambition and a worthy ambition, -to build that cathedral; and because you’re offended -with certain things the papers have said, about Clark -and Chisholm in connection with the church, is no reason -you should cut off your nose to spite your face.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“It is not the publication of these things which has -determined me,” returned the rector thoughtfully. “It -has merely hastened my decision. To begin with, I -acknowledge now that it was only a vague, artistic -dream of mine that such a cathedral, by its very magnificence, -would promote worship. That might have -been the case when cathedrals were the only magnificent -buildings erected, and when every rich and glittering -thing was devoted to religion. A golden candlestick -then became connected entirely with the service of the -Almighty. Now, however, magnificence has no such -signification. The splendour of a cathedral must enter -into competition with the splendour of a state house, -a museum, or a hotel.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“You shouldn’t switch that way, Boyd,” remonstrated -<span class='pageno' id='Page_349'>349</span>Sargent, showing his keen disappointment. -“When you began to agitate for the cathedral you -brought a lot of our members in who hadn’t attended -services in years. You stirred them up. You got -them interested. They’ll drop right off.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I hope not,” returned the rector earnestly. “I -hope to reach them with a higher ambition, a higher -pride, a higher vanity, if you like to put it that way. -I wish them to take joy in establishing the most magnificent -living conditions for the poor which have ever -been built! We have no right to the money which is -to be paid us for the Vedder Court property. We have -no right to spend it in pomp. It belongs to the poor -from whom we have taken it, and to the city which has -made us rich by enhancing the value of our ground. -I propose to build permanent and sanitary tenements, -to house as many poor people as possible, and conduct -them without a penny of profit above the cost of repairs -and maintenance.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Gail bent upon him beaming eyes, and the delicate -flush, which had begun to return to her cheeks, deepened. -Was this the sort of tenements he had proposed -to re-erect in Vedder Court? Perhaps she had been -hasty! The Reverend Smith Boyd in turning slowly -from one to the other of the little group, by way of establishing -mental communication with them, rested, for -a moment, in the beaming eyes of Gail, and smiled at -her in affectionate recognition then swept his glance on -to his mother, where it lingered.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“You are perfectly correct,” stated Gerald Fosland, -who, though sitting stiffly upright, had managed nevertheless -to dispose one elbow where it touched gently the -surface of Arly. “Market Square Church is a much -more dignified old place of worship than the ostentatious -<span class='pageno' id='Page_350'>350</span>cathedral would ever be, and your project for -spending the money has such strict justice at the bottom -of it that it must prevail. But, I say, Doctor -Boyd,” and he gave his moustache a contemplative tug; -“don’t you think you should include a small margin -of profit for the future extension of your idea?”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“That’s glorious, Gerald!” approved Gail; and -Arly, laughing, patted his hand.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“You’re probably right,” considered the rector, -studying Fosland with a new interest. “I think we’ll -have to put you on the vestry.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I’d be delighted, I’m sure,” responded Gerald, in -the courteous tone of one accepting an invitation to -dinner.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Do you hear what your son’s planning to do?” -called Jim Sargent to Mrs. Boyd. He was not quite -reconciled. “He proposes to take that wonderful new -rectory away from you.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>The beautiful Mrs. Boyd merely dimpled.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I am a trifle astonished,” she confessed. “My son -has been so extremely eager about it; but if he is relinquishing -the dream, it is because he wants something -else very much more worth while. I entirely approve -of his plan for the new tenements,” and she did -not understand why they all laughed at her. She did -feel, however, that there was affection in the laughter; -and she was quite content. Laughing with them, she -walked on with Grace Sargent. They had set out to -make twenty trips around the deck, for exercise.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I find that I have been at work on the plans for -these new tenements ever since the condemnation,” went -on the rector. “I would build them in the semi-court -style, with light and air in every room; with as little -woodwork as possible; with plumbing appliances of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_351'>351</span>simple and perfect sanitation; with centralised baths -under the care of an attendant; with assembly rooms -for both social and religious observances and with self -contained bureaus of employment, health and police protection—one -building to each of six blocks, widening -the street for a grass plot, trees, and fountains. The -fact that the Market Square Church property is exempt -from taxation, saving us over half a million dollars -a year, renders us able to provide these advantages -at a much lower rental to my Vedder Court people -than they can secure quarters anywhere else in the -city, and at the same time lay up a small margin of -profit for the system.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Gerald Fosland drew forward his chair.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Do you know,” he observed, “I should like very -much to become a member of your vestry.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I’m glad you are interested,” returned the rector, -and producing a pencil he drew a white advertising -space towards him. “This is the plan of tenement I -have in mind,” and for the next half hour the five of -them discussed tenement plans with great enthusiasm.</p> - -<p class='c012'>At the expiration of that time, Ted and Lucile and -Dick and Marion came romping up, with the deliberate -intention of creating a disturbance; and Gail and the -Reverend Smith Boyd, being thrown accidentally to the -edge of that whirlpool, walked away for a rest.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“They tell me you’re going abroad,” observed the -rector, looking down at her sadly, as they paused at -her favourite rail space.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Yes,” she answered quietly. “Father and mother -are coming next week,” and she glanced up at the rector -from under her curving lashes.</p> - -<p class='c012'>There was a short space of silence. It was almost -as if these two were weary.</p> - -<p class='c012'><span class='pageno' id='Page_352'>352</span>“We shall miss you very much,” he told her, in all -sincerity. They were both looking out over the blue -waves; he, tall, broad-shouldered, agile of limb; she, -straight, lithe, graceful. Mrs. Boyd and Mrs. Sargent -passed them admiringly, but went on by with a -trace of sadness.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I’m sorry to leave,” Gail replied. “I shall be very -anxious to know how you are coming on with your new -plan. I’m proud of you for it.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Thank you,” he returned.</p> - -<p class='c012'>They were talking mechanically. In them was an -inexpressible sadness. They had come so near, and yet -they were so far apart. Moreover, they knew that -there was no chance of change. It was a matter of -conscience which came between them, and it was a divergence -which would widen with the years. And yet -they loved. They mutually knew it, and it was because -of that love that they must stay apart.</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_353'>353</span> - <h2 class='c005'>CHAPTER XXXV<br /> <span class='small'>A VESTRY MEETING</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_0_6 c011'>There was a strained atmosphere in the vestry -meeting from the first. Every member present -felt the tension from the moment old Joseph G. Clark -walked in with Chisholm. They did not even nod to -the Reverend Smith Boyd, but took their seats solidly -in their customary places at the table, Clark, shielding -his eyes, as was his wont, against the light which -streamed on him from the red robe of the Good Shepherd. -The repression was apparent, too, in the Reverend -Smith Boyd, who rose to address his vestrymen -as soon as the late-comers arrived.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Gentlemen,” said he, “I wish to speak to you as -the treasury committee, rather than as vestrymen, for -it is in the former capacity which you always attend. -I am advised that we have been paid for Vedder Court.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Chisholm, to whom he directed a gaze of inquiry, nodded -his head.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“It’s in the Majestic,” he stated. “I have plans -for its investment, which I wish to lay before the committee.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I shall lay my own before them at the same time,” -went on the rector. “I wish, however, to preface these -plans by the statement that I have, so far as I am concerned, -relinquished all thought of building the new -cathedral.”</p> - -<p class='c012'><span class='pageno' id='Page_354'>354</span>Nicholas Van Ploon, who had been much troubled -of late, brightened, and nodded his round head emphatically.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“That’s what I say,” he declared.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“The decision does not lay in your hands, Doctor -Boyd,” drawled a nasal voice with an unconcealed sneer -in it. It was clean-shaven old Joseph G. Clark, who -was not disturbed, in so much as the parting of one -hair, by all the adverse criticism of him which had -filled column upon column of the daily press for the -past few days. “The rector has never, in the history -of Market Square Church, been given the control of -its finances. He has invariably been hired to preach -the gospel.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Sargent, Cunningham, Manning, and even Van -Ploon, looked at Clark in surprise. He was not given -to open reproof. Chisholm manifested no astonishment. -He sat quietly in his chair, his fingers idly -drumming on the edge of the table, but his mutton-chop -beard was pink from the reddening of the skin -beneath.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“The present rector of Market Square Church means -to have a voice in its deliberations so long as he is the -rector!” announced that young man emphatically, and -Jim Sargent looked up at him with a jerk of his head. -The Reverend Smith Boyd was pale this afternoon, but -there was a something shining through his pallor -which made the face alive; and the something was not -temper. Rufus Manning, clasping his silvery beard -with a firm grip, smiled encouragingly at the tall young -orator. “I have said that I have, so far as I am concerned, -relinquished the building of the cathedral,” the -rector went on. “For this there are two reasons. The -first is that its building will bring us further away from -<span class='pageno' id='Page_355'>355</span>the very purpose for which the church was founded; -the worship of God with an humble and a contrite heart! -I am ready to confess that I found, on rigid self-analysis, -my leading motive in urging the building of the -new cathedral to have been vanity. I am also ready -to confess, on behalf of my congregation and vestry, -that their leading motive was vanity!”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“You have no authority to speak for me,” interrupted -Chisholm, his mutton chops now red.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Splendour is no longer the exclusive property of -religion,” resumed the rector, paying no attention to -the interruption. “It has lost the greater part of its -effectiveness because splendour has become a mere adjunct -to the daily luxury of our civilisation. The new -cathedral would be only a surrounding in keeping with -the gilded boudoirs from which my lady parishioners -step to come to worship; and the ceremony of worship -has become the Sunday substitute, in point of social -recognition, for the week day tea. If I thought, however, -that the building of that cathedral would promote -the spread of the gospel in a degree commensurate with -the outlay, I would still be opposed to the erection of -the building; for the money does not belong to us!”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Go right on and develop our conscience,” approved -Manning, smiling up at the old walnut-beamed ceiling -with its carved cherub brackets.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“The money belongs to Vedder Court,” declared the -rector; “to the distorted moral cripples which Market -Square Church, through the accident of commerce, -has taken under her wing. Gentlemen, in the recent -revelations concerning the vast industrial interests of -the world, I have seen the whole blackness of modern -corporate methods; and Market Square Church is a -corporation! Corporations were originally formed for -<span class='pageno' id='Page_356'>356</span>the purpose of expediting commerce, and it is the mere -logic of opportunity that their progress to rapacity, -coercion, and merciless strangulation of all competition, -has been so swift. They have at no time been -swayed by any moral consideration. This fact is so -notorious that it has given rise to the true phrase ‘corporations -have no souls.’ I wish to ask you, in how -far the Market Square Church has been swayed, in its -commercial dealings, by moral considerations?”</p> - -<p class='c012'>He paused, and glanced from man to man of his -vestry. Sargent and Manning, the former of whom -knew his plans and the latter of whom had been waiting -for them to mature, smiled at him in perfect accord. -Nicholas Van Ploon sat quite placidly, with his -hands folded over his creaseless vest. Willis Cunningham, -stroking his sparse brown Vandyke, looked uncomfortable, -as if he had suddenly been introduced into -a rude brawl; but his eye roved occasionally to Nicholas -Van Ploon, who was two generations ahead of him in -the acquisition of wealth, by the brilliant process of -allowing property to increase in valuation. Chisholm -glared.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“You’ll not find any money which is not tainted,” -snapped Joseph G. Clark, who regarded money in a -strictly impersonal light. “The very dollar you have -in your pocket may have come direct from a brothel.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Or from Vedder Court,” retorted the rector. “We -have brothels there, though we do not ‘officially’ know -it. We have saloons there; we have gambling rooms -there; and, from all these iniquities, Market Square -Church reaps a profit! For the glory of God? I dare -you, Joseph G. Clark, or W. T. Chisholm, to answer me -that question in the affirmative! In Vedder Court there -are tenements walled and partitioned with contagion, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_357'>357</span>poison, with miasmatic air, reeking with disease; and -from the poor who flock into this fetid shelter, because -we offer them cheap rents, Market Square Church takes -a profit as great as any distillery combine! For the -glory of God? Out of very shame we can not answer -that question! We have bought and sold with the -greed of any conscienceless individual, and our commodity -has been filth and degradation, human lives -and stunted souls! No decent man would conduct the -business we do, for the reason that it would soil his -soul as a gentleman; and it is a shameful thing that -a gentleman should have finer ethics than a Christian -church! In the beginning, I was a coward about this -matter! It was because I wished to be rid of our responsibility -in Vedder Court that I first urged the conversion -of that property into a cathedral. We can -not rid ourselves of the responsibility of Vedder Court! -If it were possible for a church to be sent to hell, Market -Square Church would be eternally damned if it -took this added guilt upon it!”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“This talk is absurd,” declared Chisholm. “The -city has taken Vedder Court away from us.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Only the property,” quickly corrected Rufus Manning, -turning to Chisholm with sharpness in his deep -blue eyes. “If you will remember, I told you this same -thing before Doctor Boyd came to us. I have waited -ever since his arrival for him to develop to this point, -and I wish to announce myself as solidly supporting -his views.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Your own will not bear inspection!” charged -Clark, turning to Manning with a scowl.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I’ll range up at the judgment seat with you!” -flamed Manning. “We’re both old enough to think -about that!”</p> - -<p class='c012'><span class='pageno' id='Page_358'>358</span>Joseph G. Clark jumped to his feet, and, leaning -across the table, shook a thin forefinger at Manning.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I have been attacked enough on the point of my -moral standing!” he declared, his high pitched nasal -voice quavering with an anger he had held below the -explosive point during the most of his life. “I can -stand the attacks of a sensational press, but when spiteful -criticism follows me into my own vestry, almost in -the sacred shadow of the altar itself, I am compelled -to protest! I wish to state to this vestry, once and -for all, that my moral status is above reproach, and -that my conduct has been such as to receive the commendation -of my Maker! Because it has pleased Divine -Providence to place in my hands the distribution -of the grain of the fields, I am constantly subject to -the attacks of envy and malice! It has gone so far -that I, last night, received from the Reverend Smith -Boyd, a request to resign from this vestry!” He -paused in triumph on that, as if he had made against -the Reverend Smith Boyd a charge of such ghastly -infamy that the young rector must shrivel before his -eyes. “I have led a blameless life! I have never -smoked nor drank! I have paid every penny I ever -owed and fulfilled every promise I ever made. I have -obeyed the gospel, and partaken of the sacraments, -and the Divine Being has rewarded me abundantly! -He has chosen me, because of my faithful stewardship, -to gather the foods of earth from its sources, and feed -it to the mouths of the hungry; and I shall not depart -from my stewardship in this church, because I am here, -as I am everywhere, by the will of God!”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Perhaps W. T. Chisholm was not shocked by this -blasphemy, but the dismay of it sat on every other face, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_359'>359</span>even on that of Nicholas Van Ploon, who was compelled -to dig deep to find his ethics.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“You infernal old thief!” wondered Manning, recovering -from his amazement. “Was it Divine Providence -which directed you to devise the scheme whereby -the railroads paid you two dollars rebate on every car -of wheat you shipped, and a dollar bonus on every -car of wheat your competitors shipped? I could give -you a string of sins as long as the catechism, and you -dare not deny one of them, because I can prove them -on you! And yet you have the effrontery to say that -a Divine Providence would establish you in your monopoly, -by such scoundrelly means as you have risen -to become the greatest dispenser of self advertising -charities in the world! You propose to ride into -Heaven on your universities and your libraries, and on -the fact that you never smoked nor drank nor swore -nor gambled; but when you come face to face with this -horrible new god you have created, a deity who would -permit you to attain wealth by the vile methods you -have used, you will find him with a pitch-fork in his -hands! I am glad that Doctor Boyd, though knowing -your vindictive record, has had bravery enough to demand -your resignation from this vestry! I hope he -receives it!”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Joseph G. Clark had remained standing, and his head -shook, as with a palsy, while he listened to the charge of -Manning. He was a very old man, and it had been -quite necessary for him to restrain his passions throughout -his life.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“You will go first!” he shouted at Manning. “I -am impregnable; but you have no business on this vestry! -You can be removed at any time an examination -<span class='pageno' id='Page_360'>360</span>is ordered, for I have heard you, we have all heard you, -deny the immaculate conception, and thereby the Divinity -of Christ, in whom alone there is salvation!”</p> - -<p class='c012'>A hush like death fell on the vestry. The Reverend -Smith Boyd was the first to break the ghastly silence.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Gentlemen,” said he, “I do not think that we are -in a mood to-day for further discussion. I suggest -that we adjourn.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>His voice seemed to distract the attention of Clark -from Manning, at whom he had been glowering. He -turned on the Reverend Smith Boyd the remainder of -the wrath which marked his first break into senility.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“As for you!” he snarled, “you will keep your fingers -out of matters which do not concern you! You -were hired to preach the gospel, and you will confine -your attention to that occupation, preaching just what -you find sanctioned in this book; nothing more, nothing -less!” and taking a small volume which lay on the table, -he tossed it in front of the Reverend Smith Boyd.</p> - -<p class='c012'>It was the Book of Common Prayer, containing, in -the last pages, the Articles of Faith.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Clark seized his hat and coat, and strode out of the -door, followed by the red-faced Chisholm, who had also -been asked to resign. Nicholas Van Ploon rose, and -shook hands with the Reverend Smith Boyd.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Sargent has told me about your plan for the new -tenements,” he stated. “I am in favour of buying -the property.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“We’ll swing it for you, Boyd,” promised Jim Sargent. -“I’ve been talking with some of the other members, -and they seem to favour the idea that the new -Vedder Court will be a great monument. There’ll be -no such magnificent charity in the world, and no such -impressive sacrifice as giving up that cathedral! I -<span class='pageno' id='Page_361'>361</span>think Cunningham will be with us, when it comes to a -vote.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Certainly,” interposed Nicholas Van Ploon. “We -don’t need to make any profit from those tenements. -The normal increase in ground value will be enough.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Yes,” said Cunningham slowly. “I am heartily in -favour of the proposition.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Coming along, Doctor,” invited Manning, going -for his coat and hat.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“No, I think not,” decided the Reverend Smith Boyd -quietly.</p> - -<p class='c012'>He was sitting at the end of the table facing the -Good Shepherd, at the edge of whose robe still sparkled -crystalline light, and in his two hands he thoughtfully -held the Book of Common Prayer.</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_362'>362</span> - <h2 class='c005'>CHAPTER XXXVI<br /> <span class='small'>HAND IN HAND</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_0_6 c011'>The Reverend Smith Boyd walked slowly out into -the dim church, with the little volume in his hand. -The afternoon sun had sunk so low that the illumination -from the stained-glass windows was cut off by -the near buildings, and the patches of ruby and of -sapphire, of emerald and of topaz, glowed now near -the tops of the slender columns, or mellowed the dusky -spaces up amid the arches.</p> - -<p class='c012'>It was hushed and silent there, deserted, and far -from the thoughts of men. The young rector walked -slowly up the aisle to a pew in the corner near the main -entrance, and sat down, still with the little Book of -Common Prayer in his hand, and, in the book, the Articles -of Religion. From them alone must he preach; -nothing more and nothing less. That was the duty for -which he was hired. His own mind, his own intelligence, -the reason and the spirit and the soul which -God had given him were for no other use than the clever -support of the things which were printed here. And -who had formulated these articles? Men; men like -himself. They had made their interpretation in solemn -conclave, and had defined the Deity, and the form -in which he must be addressed, as one instructs a servant -in the proper words to use in announcing the arrival -of a guest or the readiness of a dinner. The -interpretation made, these men had arrogantly closed -<span class='pageno' id='Page_363'>363</span>the book, and had said, in effect, this is the way of salvation, -and none other can avail. Unless a man believes -what is here set down, he can in nowise enter -the Kingdom of Heaven; and a pure life filled with good -works is for naught.</p> - -<p class='c012'>The Reverend Smith Boyd had no need to read those -Articles of Religion. He had been over them countless -times, and he knew them by heart, from beginning to -end. He had opened wide the credulity of his mind, -and had forced his belief into these channels, so that -he might preach the gospel, not of Christ, but of his -church, with a clean conscience. And he had done so. -Whatever doubts there had lurked in him, from -that one period of infidelity in his youth, he had shut -off behind a solid wall over which he would not peer. -There were many things behind that wall which it were -better for him not to see, he had told himself, lest, from -among them, some false doctrine may creep up and -poison the purity of his faith. He had thrown himself -solidly on faith. Belief implicit and unfaltering was -necessary to the support of the dogmatic theology he -taught, and he gave it that belief; implicit and unfaltering. -Reason had no part in religion or in theology; -and for good cause!</p> - -<p class='c012'>But here had come a condition where reason, like a -long suppressed passion of the body, clamoured insistently -to be heard, and would have its voice, and strode -in, and took loud possession. Joseph G. Clark, so filled -with iniquity that he could not see his own sins, so rotted, -to the depths of his soul, that he could twist every -violation of moral law into a virtue, so sunken in the -foulness of every possible onslaught upon mercy and -justice and humanity that millions suffered from his -deeds, this man could sit in the vestry of Market -<span class='pageno' id='Page_364'>364</span>Square Church, and control the destinies of an organisation -built ostensibly for the purpose of saving souls -and spreading the gospel of mercy and justice and -humanity, could sit in the seat of the holy, because, with -his lips he could say: “I acknowledge Christ as my -Redeemer”! Rufus Manning, whose life was an open -page, whose record was one upon which there was no -blot, who had lived purely, and humanely, and mercifully -and compassionately, who had given freely of his -time and of his goods for the benefit of those who were -weak and helpless and needy, who had read deeply into -human hearts, and had comforted them because he was -gifted with a portion of that divine compassion which -sent an only begotten Son to die upon the cross, that -through his blood the sins of man might be washed -away, this man could be driven from the vestry of Market -Square Church, itself guilty and stained with sin, -because he could not, or would not say with his lips, -“I acknowledge Christ as my Redeemer”!</p> - -<p class='c012'>Reason made a terrific onslaught against faith at -this juncture. Familiar as he was with the book, the -Reverend Smith Boyd turned to the Articles of Religion.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“We are accounted righteous before God, only for -the merit of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ by -Faith, and not for our own works or deserving....</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Works done before the grace of Christ, and the Inspiration -of His Spirit, are not pleasant to God, for -as much as they spring not of faith in Jesus Christ; -neither do they make men meet to receive grace, or deserve -grace of congruity: yea, rather, for that they are -not done as God hath willed and commanded them to -be done, we doubt not but they have the nature of sin.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>There was some discrepancy here between the works -<span class='pageno' id='Page_365'>365</span>and the faith of Clark and the works and the faith of -Manning. The Reverend Smith Boyd made no doubt -that the Great Judge would find little difficulty in distinguishing -between these two men, and in deciding -upon their respective merits; but that was not the point -which disturbed the young rector. It was the attitude -of the church towards these men, and the fact -that he must uphold that attitude. It was absurd! -The Reverend Smith Boyd was a devout and earnest -and consistent believer, not merely in the existence of -God, but in his greatness and his power and his glory, -his justice and his mercy and his wisdom; but the Reverend -Smith Boyd suddenly made the startling discovery -that he was not preaching God! He was preaching -the church and its creed!</p> - -<p class='c012'>Started, now, he went through the thirty-nine Articles -of Religion, one by one, slowly, thoughtfully, and -with a quickened conscience. Reason knocked at the -door of Faith, and entered; but it did not drive out -Faith. They sat side by side, but each gave something -to the other. No, rather, Reason stripped the -mask from Faith, tore away the disguising cloak, and -displayed her in all her simple beauty, sweet, and gentle, -and helpful. What was the faith he had been -called upon to teach? Faith in the thirty-nine Articles -of Religion! This had been cleverly substituted -by the organisers of an easy profession, for faith in -God, which latter was too simple of comprehension for -the purposes of any organisation.</p> - -<p class='c012'>For a long time the Reverend Smith Boyd sat in the -corner pew, and when he had closed the book, all that -had been behind the wall of his mind came out, and was -sorted into heaps, and the bad discarded and the good -retained. He found a wonderful relief in that. He -<span class='pageno' id='Page_366'>366</span>had lived with a secret chamber in his heart, hidden -even from himself, and now that he had opened the door, -he felt free. Above him, around him, within him, was -the presence of God, infinite, tender, easy of understanding; -and from that God, his God, the one which -should walk with him through life his friend and comforter -and counsellor, he stripped every shred of pretence -and worthless form and useless ceremony!</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I believe in God the Creator; the Maker of my -conscience; my Friend and Father.” The creed of -Gail!</p> - -<p class='c012'>He walked out into the broad centre aisle, now, amid -the solemn pews and the avenue of slender columns, -and beneath graceful arches which pointed heavenward -the aspirations of the human soul. Before the -altar he paused and gazed up at the beautiful Henri -Dupres crucifix. The soft light from one of the clerestory -windows flooded in on Him, and the compassionate -eyes of the Son of God seemed bent upon the young -rector in benign sympathy. For a moment the rector -stood, tall and erect, then he stretched forth his -arms:</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I know that my Redeemer liveth!” he said, and -sank to his knees.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Two high points he had kept in his faith, points -never to be shaken; the existence of his Creator, his -mercy and his love, and the Divinity of his Son, who -died, was crucified and buried, and on the third day -arose to ascend unto Heaven. Reason could not destroy -that citadel in a man born to the necessity of -Faith! Man must believe some one thing. If it was -as easy, as he had once set forth, to believe in the biblical -account of the creation of the world as to believe -in a pre-existent chaos, out of which evoluted the spirit -<span class='pageno' id='Page_367'>367</span>of life, and all its marvels of growing trees and flying -birds and reasoning men, it was as easy to go one step -further, and add the Son to the Father and to the Holy -Ghost! Even chaos must have been created!</p> - -<p class='c012'>Fully satisfied, the Reverend Smith Boyd walked into -the vestry, and wrote his resignation from the rectorship -of Market Square Church, for he could no longer -teach, and preach, Faith—in the thirty-nine Articles -of Religion! Within his grasp he had held a position -of wealth, of power, of fame! He scarcely considered -their loss; and in the ease with which he relinquished -them, he knew that he was self-absolved from the -charge of using his conscience as a ladder of ambition! -If personal vanity had entered into his desire to build -the new cathedral, it had been incidental, not fundamental. -It made him profoundly happy to know this with -positiveness.</p> - -<p class='c012'>He called up the house of Jim Sargent, and asked -for Gail.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Come over,” he invited her. “I want to see you -very much. I’m in the church. Come in through the -vestry.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“All right,” was the cheerful reply. “I’ll be there -in a minute.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>He had been very sly! He was tremendously -pleased with himself! He had kept out of his voice -all the longing, and all the exultation, and all the love! -He would not trust even one vibration of his secret to -a cold telephone wire!</p> - -<p class='c012'>He set the door of the vestry open wide. Within -the church, the organist had conquered that baffling -run in the mighty prelude of Bach, and the great dim -spaces up amid the arches were pulsing in ecstasy with -the tremendous harmony. Outside, upon the background -<span class='pageno' id='Page_368'>368</span>of the celestial strain, there rose a fluttering, -a twittering, a cooing. The doves of spring had returned -to the vestry yard.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Just a moment and Gail appeared, poised in the doorway, -with a filmy pink scarf about her shoulders, a -simple frock of delicate grey upon her slender figure, -her brown hair waving about her oval face, a faint -flush upon her cheeks, her brown eyes sparkling, her -red lips smiling up at him.</p> - -<p class='c012'>He had intended to tell her much, but instead, he -folded her in his arms, and she nestled there, content. -For a long, happy moment they stood, lost to the world -of thought; and then she looked up at him, and laughed.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I knew it from your voice,” she said.</p> - -<p class='c012'>He laughed with her; then he grew grave, but there -was the light of a great happiness in his gravity.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I have resigned,” he told her.</p> - -<p class='c012'>That was a part of what she had known.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“And not for me!” she exulted. It was not a question. -She saw that in him was no doubt, no quandary, -no struggle between faith and disbelief.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I see my way clearly,” he smiled down at her; “and -there are no thorns to cut for me. I shall never -change.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“And we shall walk hand in hand about the greatest -work in the world,” she softly reminded him, and -there were tears in her eyes. “But what work shall -that be, Tod?” She looked up at him for guidance, -now.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“To shed into other lives some of the beauty which -blossoms in our own,” he replied, walking with her into -the great dim nave, where the shadows still quivered with -the under-echoes of the mighty Bach prelude. “I -have been thinking much of the many things you have -<span class='pageno' id='Page_369'>369</span>said to me,” he told her, “and particularly of the need, -not for a new religion, but for a re-birth of the old; -that same new impulse towards the better and the -higher life which Christ brought into the world. I -have been thinking on the mission of Him, and it was -the very mission to the need of which you have held so -firmly. He came to clear away the thorns of creed -which had grown up between the human heart and God! -The brambles have grown again. The time is almost -ripe, Gail, for a new quickening of the spirit; for the -Second Coming.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>She glanced at him, startled.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“For a new voice in the wilderness,” she wondered.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Not yet,” he answered. “We have signs in the -hearts of men, for there is a great awakening of the -public conscience throughout the world; but before the -day of harvest arrives, we must have a sign in the sky. -No great spiritual revival has ever swept the world -without its attendant supernatural phenomena, for -mysticism is a part of religion, and will be to the end -of time. Reason, by the very nature of itself, realises -its own limitations, and demands something beyond its -understanding upon which to hang its faith. It is -the need of faith which distinguishes the soul from the -mind.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“A sign,” mused Gail, her eyes aglow with the -majesty of the thought.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“It will come,” he assured her, with the calm prescience -of prophecy itself. “As no great spiritual revival -has ever swept the world without its attendant -supernatural phenomena, so no great spiritual revival -has ever swept the world without its concreted symbol -which men might wear upon their breasts. The cross! -What shall be its successor? A ball of fire in the sky? -<span class='pageno' id='Page_370'>370</span>Who knows! If that symbol of man’s spiritual rejuvenation, -of his renewed nearness to God, were, in -reality, a ball of fire, Gail, I would hold it up in the -sight of all mankind though it shrivelled my arm!”</p> - -<p class='c012'>The thin treble note stole out of the organ loft, -pulsing its timid way among the high, dim arches, as -if seeking a lodgment where it might fasten its tiny -thread of harmony, and grow into a song of new glory, -the glory which had been born that day in the two -earnest hearts beneath in the avenue of slender columns. -The soft light from one of the clerestory windows -flooded in on the compassionate Son of Man above -the altar. The very air seemed to vibrate with the new -inspiration which had been voiced in the old Market -Square Church. Gail gazed up at Smith Boyd, with -the first content her heart had ever known; content in -which there was both earnestness and serenity, to replace -all her groping. He met her gaze with eyes in -which there glowed the endless love which it is beyond -the power of speech to tell. There was a moment -of ecstasy, of complete understanding, of the perfect -unity which should last throughout their lives. In that -harmony, they walked from the canopy of dim arches, -out through the vestry, and beneath the door above -which perched the two grey doves, cooing. For an instant -Gail looked back into the solemn depths, and a -wistfulness came into her eyes.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“The ball of fire,” she mused. “When shall we see -it in the sky?”</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c003'> - <div><span class='small'>VAIL-BALLOU CO., BINGHAMTON AND NEW YORK</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c004' /> -</div> -<div class='tnotes'> - -<div class='section ph2'> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c001'> - <div>TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES</div> - </div> -</div> - -</div> - - <ol class='ol_1 c003'> - <li>Silently corrected typographical errors and variations in spelling. - - </li> - <li>Archaic, non-standard, and uncertain spellings retained as printed. - </li> - </ol> - -</div> - - - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Ball of Fire, by -George Randolph Chester and Lilian Chester - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BALL OF FIRE *** - -***** This file should be named 62653-h.htm or 62653-h.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/6/2/6/5/62653/ - -Produced by Richard Tonsing and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive) - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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