Show OF MONSIEUR inan THE CONQUEST OF CANAAN ew I 1 CHAPTER continued 16 4 old man sheridan goes to bibbs room to console the boy about mary vertrees rejection of his proposal of marriage instead against his will the father rants about his sons need for hard work and suddenly halts his abuse in the middle of a sentence bibbs looked up patiently an old old look yes father im listening all said sheridan frowning heavily thata all I 1 came to say and you better see it t you remember it he shook his head bead warningly and went out closing the door behind him with a crash however no sound of footsteps indicated iris ills departure UP ile stopped just outside the door and stood there a minute or more then abruptly lie he turned the knob and exhibited to his big son soil a forehead liberally covered with perspiration look here he be said crossly that girl over yonder wrote jim a letter 1 I know said bibbs she told me e well I 1 thought you feel so much upset about it the door closed on bis big voice as lie he withdrew but the conclusion of the sentence was nevertheless audible if you knew she have jim either and he stamped his way downstairs to tell hla big wife to quit her frettin ln anti and not bother him with any more fools errands she was about to inquire what bibbs said eald but after a second thought she decided not to td speak at all she bhe merely murmured a wordless ascent and verbal communication was given over between them for the rest of the afternoon bibbs and his father were gone when sirs mrs sheridan woke the next nest morning and she had bad lt a dreary day she missed edith woefully and she worried about what might be taking place in the sheridan building she felt that everything depended on oil how bow bibbs took hold bold and upon her husbands return in the evening she seized upon the first opportunity to ask him how bow things hart bar gone he was noncommittal what could anybody tell by the first day hed seen plenty go at things well enough right nt at the start and then blow up pretty near anybody could show up fair the firby day or so there was a big jot job ahead this material such as it was bibbs in fact had bad to be broken in to handling the work roscoe had dorte doile and then at least as an 01 he must take jims position in tho the realty company as well ile he told her to ask him again in a 1 month but during the course of dinner she gathered from some disjointed remarks offis that he be and bibbs had lunched together at the small restaurant where it had been Sheri dans custom to lunch with jim and she took this to be an encouraging sign bibbs went to his big room as soon as they left the table and her husband was not communicative after reading his paper she became an anxious spectator 0 of bibbs progress as a man of business although it was a progress she could glimpse but dimly and only lit in the evening through his remarks and his fathers at dinner usually bibbs was silent except when directly addressed but buton on the first evening ot of the third week of his new career he be offered an el opinion which had bad apparently been the subject of previous argument id like you to understand just what I 1 meant about those storage rooms father he said as jackson placed his coffee before him abercromble agreed with me but you listen to him you can talk II if you want to and ill listen sheridan returned but you show me that hat jim ever took up with a bad thing the roof fell because it had time to settle anti and on account of weather conditions I 1 want that building put just the way sim am planned it you cant have it said bibbs you cant because jim planned for the building to stand up and it wont do it the other one the one that fall Is so shot with cracks we dared use it tor for storage it wont stand weight theres only one i thing to do get both buildings down as quickly as we can and build over bricks the best and cheapest in the long run for that type sheridan looked sarcastic elnel what we goin to do for storage rooms W while e we were re battin for those few bricks to be laid rent keut babbs returned promptly well lose money it if we dont rent anyhow they were waiting so long for you to give the warehouse matter your attention after the root roof fell ell you dont know what an amount of stuff got plied piled up on us over over there wed have to rent until we could patch up those process perils and the Kriv kravitch itch manufacturing companas comp anys plant Is empty right across the street I 1 took lau lau option on it for us this morning J Sheri dans expression was queer r re he said sharply DM you go and do that without consulting me it cost anything said bibbs its only until tomorrow afternoon at two I 1 undertook to convince you before then oh ob you did Sheri dans tone was sardonic well just suppose you convince me in e 1 I can though and I 1 intend to said bibbs 1 I dont think you understand the condition of those buildings you want patched up now see here said sheridan with slow emphasis suppose 1 I 1 had my mind set about about this jim thought stand and suppose it was well kind of a matter of sentiment with me to prove he be was right bibbs looked at him compassionately im sorry if you have a sentiment about it father he be said but whether you have or not cant make a difference get other people hurt it if you trust that process and that wont do and if you want a monument to jim at least you want one that will stand resides besides I 1 dont think you can reasonably defend sentiment in this particular kind of affair oh you dont no but im sorry you tell me you felt it sheridan was puzzled by his sons tone why are you sorry he asked curiously De because cause I 1 had the building inspector up there this noon said bibbs and I 1 had bad him condemn both those buildings what hed been afraid to do it before until he be heard beard from us afraid see he lost his job but he cant un condemn them got to come down now sheridan gave him a long and piercing in stare from beneath lowered brows finally lie he said how long iong did they give you on that option to convince me until two welock tomorrow afternoon all right light said sheridan sharidan not relaxing im convinced bibbs jumped up 1 I thought you would be ill telephone bone the KrIvI krivites teh agent lie he gave me the option until tomorrow but I 1 told him id settle it this evening sheridan gazed after him as lie he left the room and then though his expression did not a iter alter in the slightest a 40 A V 54 agi 1 y X got to come down now sound came from him that sta startled hla his wife it had been a long time since she had heard beard anything resembling a chuckle from him and this sound although it was grim and dry bore that resemblance she brightened eagerly looks like he was starton start ln tn right well dont IT papa lord loral lie ile got me on the hip alp why he knew what I 1 wanted why he had the inspector up there so it t hed have me beat before we even started to talk about it and did you hear him cant reasonably defend sentiment and the way he say Us took an option tor for Us stuff plied piled up on Us there was always an alloy tor for sirs mrs sheridan 1 I dont just like the way he looks though papa oh theres got to be something only one chick left at home so BO you start to frettin frett ln about it no hes changed theres a kind of a took look to hla his face and 1 I picas guess the common sense comin out on him then said sheridan see symptoms like that in a good many men I 1 x hect well and he be dont have as good food color as he was gettin before and hed begin to till 1111 out some but I 1 sheridan gave orth forth another dry chuckle and going round the table to her patted her upon the shoulder with his left hand his right being sull still heavily bandaged though lie he no longer wore a sling the way it Is with you mamma got to take your frettin frett ln out one wity way it if you dont another no he dont look well it aint exactly the way he looked when he begun to get sick that time but lie kind 0 seems to be losin some way yes he may a lost something said sheridan 1 I expect hes lost a whole lot 0 foolishness besides his godforsaken notions about poetry and no his wife persisted 1 I mean he looks rl right bt and yesterday when he was settin with us ile he kept lookin out the window he well why he look out the window ne he was over there ue he never read a word all afternoon I 1 dont believe look here said sheridan bibbs might a kept goin on over there the lest of uis his life moon ift on and on but what he heard sibyl say did one big thins thing anyway it woke him up out of his trance well he had to go and bust clean out with a bang and that stopped slopped his coln over there and it stopped its his poetry but I 1 reckon lies bei begun to get pretty fair pay for what he lost I 1 guess it 11 good many young men have had to get over worries like his they got to lose something if galil to keep ahead 0 the procession nowadays and it kind 0 looks to me mamma like bibbs might keep quite a 11 considerable long iong way ahead why a year from now ill bet you lie wont know there ever was such a tiling thing as aa poetry and aint lie he funny ile he wanted to stick to the shop sos he could think what he meant was think about something useless well I 1 guess hes keepin his mind pretty occupied the other way these days yes sir it took a pretty fair sized shock to get him out of his trance but it certainly did the business HP he patted his cifes shoulder again and then without any prefatory symptoms broke into a boisterous laugh honest mamma he wo works like it a gorilla borilla eo rilla CHA CHAPTER TER and so bibbs sat bat in the porch of the temple with the money changers but no one came to scourge him forth for this w was s the temple ot of bigness and the changing of money was holy worship and true religion the priests wore that look bibbs mother had seen beginning to develop about his mouth and eyes a wary look which she could not define but it comes with service at the temple and it was the more marked upon bibbs tor for his bis sharp awakening to the feces necessities of th that at a service erv I 1 cc ho he did as little useless thinking as P possible os sible giving himself no time for it ile he worked continuously keeping his thoughts still on his big work when he came home at night and lie he talked of nothing whatever except his work but lie he did not sing at it he was often lit in the streets and people were not allowed to sing in the streets they might make any manner of hideous uproar they could shake buildings they could the thunder deafen the deaf and kill the sick with noise or they could walk the streets or drive through them bawling squawking or screeching as they th y chose it if the noise was traceably connected with business though street musicians wore were not tolerated being considered a nuisance and an all interference A man or woman who ho went sin singing ing for pleasure through the streets like a crazy neapolitan would have been stopped and belike beelike locked up for freedom does not mean that a citizen Is allowed to do every outrageous thing that comes into his head bead the streets were dangerous enough in all conscience without any singing and the motor federation issued public warnings declaring that the pedestrians life was in his own hands and giving directions how to proceed with the least peril however bibbs sheridan had bad no desire to sing in the streets or anywhere lif had gone to his big work with an energy that tor for the start at least was bitter and there was waa tie no song left lu in him he began to know his active fellow citizens here and there among them lie he found fauna a leisurely kind soul a relic celii of the old period of neighborliness pioneer stock usually and were men particularly among the merchants and manufacturers so BO honest they leaned backward reputations sometimes attested by stories of berelc heroic sacrifices to honor nor were there lacking some instances of generosity even nobler nere here and there too were bookmen bookmon boo kmen in their little leisure and among the germans music men and these with the others worshiped bigness and the growth each man serving for hla big own sake and tor for what lie he could get out of it but all united in their falth faith in the abo beneficence and glory of their god to almost all alike that service stood as the most important thing in life except on occasion of some such vital brief interregnum as the dangerous illness of a wife or child in the way of relaxation some of the servers took golf some took fishing some took shows a mixture of infantile and negroid humor stockings and tin music some took an occasional debauch some borne took trips some took cards and some borne took nothing the high priests were vigilant to watch that no relaxation should affect the service when it a man attended to anything outside his bis business eyes were upon him hla his I 1 credit was wag in dan danger g er that la Is his big life was lii in danger and the old priests were ere as ardent as the young ones the million was as eager to 6 be bigger its as the thousand seventy was as busy as seventeen they strove mightily against one another nud the old priests were the most wary the most plausible and the most dangerous bibbs learned he be must walk charily among these he be must wear a thousand eyes and beware of spiders and outside the temple itself were the pretenders the swarming thieves and shar pers and fleeces flee cers the sly rascals and the open rascals but these were feeble folk not dangerous once he be knew them and bi hia had a good guide to point them out to him they useful sometimes lie he learned and many of them served as go in matters where business must touch politics nc ile learned also how breweries and traction companies and banks and other institutions fought oue one another for the political control of 0 I 1 41 40 14 14 il 1 that stuffs De adern adams catl the city the newspapers lie he discovered had lost their ancient political influence especially with the knowing who looted looked upon them with a skeptical humor believing the journals either to be retained partisans like lawyers or else striving to forward the personal ambitions of their owners the control ot of the city lay not with them but was usually obtained by giving the floating boating voters gin money and by other lar gesses the revenues of the people were then distributed as fairly as possible among a ber of men who had bad assisted the winning side bide names and titles of of ofa cices went with many of the prizes and most of these title holders were expected to present a busy appearance at times and indeed some among them did honestly and faithfully bibbs had been vory very ignorant all these simple things lings ti so BO well known and customary ast astonished him bim at first and once in a brief moment of forgetting forget tiu that lie he was done with writing he be thought that if lie he had known them and written of them how like a satire the plainest relation of them must leave alave seemed emeil se strangest of all to him was the vehement and sincere patriotism on every side he heard beard it it was wag a permeation the newest school schoolchild child caught it though just from hungary and learning to stammer a few words of the local language ei everywhere where the people shouted of the power the size the riches and the growth of their city not only that they said that the people of their city were the greatest the finest the strongest the alg biggest est people on earth they cited no authorities thorit ties leg and felt the need of none being themselves uhe people thus celebrated and ana if the thin thing was questioned or it if it was hinted that there might bo be one small virtue in which they wore were not perfect and su supreme premel they wasted no time examining them selves to see if what the critic said was |