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Show 1 1 " ' 1 " V ii i By DAVID GRAHAM PHILLIPS, wfcor e "77ECQS7Tc I CHAPTER III. Continued. "We'll nx It up later, Blacklock," said he. "All rlBht," said I. And from that inlmtto I was almost silent. It was something In her tono and manner that silenced me. I suddonly realized that I wasn't making as good nn Impression Im-pression as I had been nattering myself. my-self. When a man has money and is willing will-ing to spend It, ho can readily fool himself Into Imagining ho gets on grandly with women. Hut I had better bet-ter grounds than that for thinking mysolf not unattractive to them, as a rule. Women had liked mo when 1 had nothing; women had liked mo when they didn't know who I was. ( felt that this woman did not llko me. And yet, by tho way sho looked at mo In spite of her efforts not to do so, I could toll that I had bo mo sort of unusual Interest for hor. Why didn't sho llko mo? Sho mado mo feel tho reason. I didn't belong to her world. My ways and my looks offended offend-ed hor. Sho disliked mo a good deal; sho feared mo" n llttlo. Sho would have folt safer If sha had boon gratl-lying gratl-lying hor curiosity, gazing In at mo through tho bars of a cage. " 8am not without hesitation, as 1 rocacd afterward loft mo with her, ivhon I sent him to bring hor brough-im brough-im up to tho Broadway entrance. As the nnd I wero standing thero alone, malting la sllonco, I turned on hor luddenly, and blurted out: "You don't llko mo." Sho reddened a little, smiled slightly. slight-ly. "What a quaint romark!" said ilie. I looked straight at hor. "But you ihall." Our oyos mot. Hor chin camo out a llttlo, hor eyebrows lifted. Then, In scorn of horsolf as well as of mo, sho locked horsolf In behind a frozen haughtiness that Ignored mo. "Ah, hero Is tho carriage," sho said. I followed fol-lowed hor to tho curb; s.ho Just touched my hand, Just nodded hor fascinating llttlo head. "Sco you Saturday, old man," called 1 hor brother frlendllly. My' lowering f faco had alarmed him. "That party Is off," said I, curtly. And I lifted my hat and strode away. As I had formed tho habit of dismissing dis-missing tho disagreeable, I soon put her out of my mind. But sho took with hor my Joy In tho tasto of things. I couldn't got back my former keen satisfaction In all I had do'no nnd wns doing. Tho luxury, tho tanglblo ovldencos of my nchlovemont, no long- j or gavo mo pteasuro; they seemed to adil to my Irritation. I worked myself up, or rather, down, to Btich a mood that whon my ofllco boy told mo Mr. Langdon would llko mo to como tp his olllco ns soon as It wns convenient, I snapped out: "Tho hell ho does! Toll Mr. Langdon I'll bo glad fo sco him horo whonovor ho calls." That wus stupidity, a pro-mnturo pro-mnturo assertion of my right to bo treated as an equal. I had always Bono to Langdon, nnd to any other Iof tho rulors of finance, whonovor I had got a summons. For, whllo I was rich nnd powerful, I hold both wealth and power, In n sonso, on suf-foranco; suf-foranco; I know that, so long ns I had no nbsoluto control of nny great dopartmont of Industry, theso rulora , could dostroy mo should thoy dccldo that thoy needed my holdings or woro not satisfied with my uso of my' power. I was surprised whon Lang-1 don nppoarod In my olllco n fow minutes min-utes later. , Ho was a talllsh, alltn man, care-1 fully dressed, with n bored, wonry ' look and n Blow, borod way of talk-, Ing. I had always said that If I had i not boon myself I should hnvo wished to bo Langdon. j His oxpiesslon, as ho camo Into my ' ofllce, was ono of cynical amusement, j as If ho woro saying to himself: "Our friend Blncklonk hns caught tho swoll-1 on hoad at last." Not a suggestion of 111 humor, of rcsnntmont at my im-portlnonco im-portlnonco for, in tho circumstances, I had been guilty or nn Impertinence. Just languid, amused patlonco with tho frailty of a friend. "I sou," said ho, "that you havo got Toxtllo up to 85." Ho was tho head of tho Toxtllo trust, which had boon built by his brother-in-law and hail fallen to him In tho confusion following IiIb brother-in-law's death. As ho was Just then needing somo money for his uhuro In tho National Coal undertaking, ho had directed mo to push Toxtllo up toward Ij par and unload htm of two or threo S hundred thousand shares he, of ' course, to ropurchaso tho shares nftor t ho had taken profits and Toxtllo had ' dropped back to lis normal r0. "I'll hnvo It up to OS by tho mlddlo ' of noxt month," said I. "And there j I think we'd bottor stop." I "Stop nt about 00," said ho. "That will glvo mo all I find I'll need for this Coal business. I don't want to bo bothered with hunting up an lnvost-mont." lnvost-mont." I shook my head, "I must put It up to within a point or two of par," I do-clared. do-clared. "In my public letter I've been saying It would go nbovo 95, and I novor deceive my public." Ito smiled my notion of honesty always amused him. ''As you please," ho said, with a shrug. Then 1 saw a serious look Just n fleeting Hash of warning behind his smiling mask; nnd ho ndded carelessly: "Bo careful about your own personal play. I doubt if Textile can bo put any higher." It must havo been my mood that provented thoso words from making tho Impression on mo thoy should havo mado. Instead of appreciating nt once and nt Its full valuo this characteristic char-acteristic and amazingly friendly signal sig-nal of caution, I showed how stupidly Inattentive I was by saying: "Something "Some-thing doing? Something now?" But ho had already gono further than his notion of friendship warranted. war-ranted. So ho replied: "Oh, no. Simply that everything's uncertain nowadays." My mind had been all this time on thoso Munnsqualo mining properties. I now said: "Has Roebuck told you that I had to buy thoso mines on my own account?" "Yes," ho said. Ho hesitated, and again ho gave mo a look whoso meaning mean-ing camo to mo only wljen it was too late. "I think, Blacklock, you'd better bet-ter turn thorn over to mo." "I can't," I answered. "I gavo my word." "As you please," said ho. Apparently tho matter didn't Interest Inter-est him. Ho began to talk of tho performances per-formances of my llttlo two-year-old Beachcomber; and nftor 20 minutes "VOL'IUi BOUND TO WIN AND or so, ho drifted nway. "I envy you your enthusiasm," ho said, pausing in my doorway. "Wherovor I am, I wish 1 wero somewhere olso. Whatever I'm doing, 1 wish I woro doing something some-thing else. Where do you got all this Joy of tho fight? What tho dovil are you lighting for?" Ho didn't wait for n reply. I thought ovor my situation steadily for sovoral days. I went down to my country place, I looked everywhere among all my belongings, searching, searching, restless, Impatient. At last 1 know what allod mo what tho lack was that yawned so gloomily from everything I had onco thought beautiful, beauti-ful, had onco found sufficient. I wns In tho midst of tho splendid, torraccd pansy bods my gardonors had Just set out; I stopped short and slapped my thigh. "A woman!" I exclaimed. "That's what I need. A woman tho j'lslit sort of woman a wifo!" ' i IV. A CANDIDATE FOR "RESPECTABILITY," "RESPECTA-BILITY," To handlo this now buslnoss propor-ly propor-ly I must put myself In position to look tho whole Hold ovor, I must got In lino nnd In touch with "respectability." "respecta-bility." Whon Sam Kllorsly camo In for his "rations," I said: "Sam, I want you to put mo up nt tho Travelers Trav-elers Club." "Tho Travolors!" echoed ho, with a blank look, "Tho Travolors," said I. "It's about tho host of tho big clubs, Isn't It? And it has as members most of tho men I do business with and most of thoso I want to got Into touch with," He lauslind "'t can't bo done." "Why not?" I asked. "Oh 1 don't" know. You see tho fact well, they're a lot of old fogies up there. You don't want to bother with that push, Matt. Tako my advice. Do business with them, but uvold them socially." "I want to go In there," 1 Insisted, "I havo my own reasons. You put me up." "I tell you, lt'd be no uso," ho replied, re-plied, In a tone Unit Implied ho wished to hear no more of tho matter. "You put mo tip," I repeated. "And if you do your beat, I'll got In nil right. I've got lots of frlonds there. And you've got threo relatives In tho committee com-mittee on membership." At this ho gave mo h queer, sharp glance a llttlo fright In It. I laughed. "You sco, I've been looking look-ing Into It, Sam. I novor tako a Jump till I've measured It.", "You'do bettor wait a fow years, until " ho began, then stepped and turned red. "Until what?" said I. "I want yon to speak frankly." "Well, you'vo got a lot of enemies a lot of follows who'vo lost money In deals you'vo engineered. And thoy'd say nil sorts of things." "I'll tako caro of that," said I, qulto easy In mind. "Mowbray Langdon's president, Isn't he? Well, ho's my closest friend." I spoko qulto hon-ostly. hon-ostly. It sliows how simple-minded I 'was In certain ways that I had novor onco noted tho Important clrcum-stance clrcum-stance .1 this "closest friend" had never Invited mo to his house, or any-whoro any-whoro whero I'd moot his up-town associates as-sociates at Introducing distance Sam looked surprised. "Oh, In that case," ho said. "I'll see what can bo done." But his tono wns not, qulto cof-dial cof-dial enough to satisfy me. To stimulate him nnd to glvo him an earnest of what I Intended to do for him, when our llttlo soclnl deal had boen put through, I showod him how ho could win $10,000 In tho noxt threo days. "And you needn't bother about putting up margins," said I, as I often had before. "I'll take care of that." Ho stammered a refusal and went out; but ho camo back within nn hour, and, In a strained sort of way, accepted accept-ed my tip and offer. "That's sensible." said I. "When Br I'LL aiili THAT YOU DON'T LOSE." will you nttond to tho mattor at tho Travolors? I want to bo warned so I can pull my own sot of wires In concert." con-cert." "I'll lot you know," ho arisworod, hanging his head. I didn't understand his queer notions no-tions then. Though I wns an export ,ln finance, I hadn't yet mado a study of that" other gnmo tho game of "gontloman." And I didn't know how Boriously tho frauds and faklrB who play It tako it anil thomsolves. I attributed his confusion to n ridiculous ridicu-lous mock modosty ho had about accepting ac-cepting favors; It struck mo as being particularly silly on this occnslon. bo-causo bo-causo for onco ho was to glvo ns well as to tako. Ho didn't call for his profits, but wrote asking mo to mnll htm tho chock for thorn. I did so, putting In tho onvelop with It a llttlo Jog to his memory on tho club mnttor. I didn't seo him ngaln fqr nearly a month; and though I searched and sent, I couldn't got his trail. On opon-Ing opon-Ing day nt Morris Park, I was going along the pnasago bohlnil tho boxes In tho grand stand, on my way to tho paddock, I wanted to see my horse that was about to run for tho Salmagundi Sal-magundi Sweepstakes, and to toll my lockoy that I'd give him $15,000, instead in-stead of $10,000, If ho won for I had ppt qulto a bunch down. In ono of tho boxes I splod my shy I frlond, Sammy. Ho was looking bettor bet-tor than I Jiad ovor soon him. Loss hoavy-oyed, loss pallid nnd pasty, loss like a man who had boon shirking bed and keeping up on cocktails and cold baths, Ho waa.-at tho roar of tho box, talking with a lady and a gontloman. As sof.tt ns I saw that lady, 1 knaW what It was that had been hiding ni I tho bM'.im of my mlud nnd rr.nkllng there, wacklly I wns nlonc; over sumo that 'ill i had been cutting looso from tho old erowd from all Its women, ind from nil Its men except two or threo ronl friends who wero good follows fol-lows straight through, In spite of their having mndo tho mlstnke of crossing tho dend lino between 'amateur "sport" nnd professional. I leaned ovor nnd tapped Sammy on tho shoul-dor. shoul-dor. Ho glance:! round, nnd when ho saw me, looked us If I wero a policeman who hnd caught him In the net. "Howdy, Sam?" said I. "It's boon so long slnco I've sqcn you that 1 couldn't resist tho temptntlon to interrupt. in-terrupt. Hopo your friond'll excuso me. Howdy do, Miss Ellorsly?" And I put out my hnnd. Sho took It reluctantly. Sho was giving mo n very unpleasant look-as look-as If she wero seeing, not somobody, but somo thing she didn't caro to sco, or woro seeing nothing nt nil. I liked thnt look; I liked tho woman who had It in hor to glvo it. Sho mado mo fool that sho was dllllcult nnd thoreforo worth while, nnd Jhnt's what all wo human beings nro In business busi-ness for to mako each other fool that wo'ro worth while. "Just, a momont," said Sam, red as a cranberry and stuttering. And ho mado a motion to come out of tho box and Join mo. At tho samo time Miss , Vnlta and tho othor fellow began to turn away. But I was not tho man to bo cheated in that fashion. I wanted to seo hor, and I compollod her to sco It nnd to fool It. "Don't let mo take you from your friends," said I to Sammy. "Per-haps "Per-haps they'd llko to como with you and mo down to look nt my horse. I can glvo you a good tip ho's bound to win. I've had my boys out on the rails ovory morning nt tho trials of all tho other possibilities. Nemo of 'em's In It with Mowghll." "Mowghll!" said tho young lady sho had begun to turn toward mo as soon ns I spoko tho magic word "tip." Thero may be men who can resist thnt word "tip" at tho race track, but thero never was a woman. "Mowghll!" 'said Miss Kllorsly. "What n quaint namo!" "My trainer gavo It," said I. "I'vo got a second son of ono of thoso broken-down English noblemen at tho head of my stables. Ho's trying to got money enough together to bo able to show up at Nowport and tnko a shy nt an helross." At this tho follow who was fourth In our party, nnd who had been glv-Ing glv-Ing mo a nasty, glassy stare, got ns red as wns Sammy. Then I noticed that ho was an Engllshmnn.vand I all but chuckled with delight. Howovor, I said: "No offonso Intended," nnd clapped him on tho shoulder with a friendly smllo. "Ho's 'n good follow, my man Monson, nnd knows a lot nbout horses." Miss Kllorsly bit her Hp nnd colored, col-ored, but I noticed nlso thnt hor eyes woro dancing. Sam Introduced tho Englishman to mo Lord Somobody-or-othor, I forgot what, ns I novor saw him again. I turned llko a bulldog from a toy terrier ter-rier and was nt Mls3 Ellorsly ngaln. "Let mo put n llttlo something on Mowghll for you," said I. "You're bound to win and I'll seo that you don't lose. I know how you ladles hate to loso." That was a bit stiff, as I know well onough now. Indeed, my Instinct would havo told mo better thon, If 1 hadn't been so used to tho sort ot women thnt Jump at such an offor, nnd ll icon ensltog- noouT sd desperately and In such confusion foi somo way to pleaso her. At any rate, i hardly dosorved hor sudden frozen look. "I bog pardon," I stnmmerod, ind I think my look at her must have boon very humble for mo. Tho othors In tho box wero staring round at us. "Como on," crlod Sam, dragging at my arm, "lot's go." "Won't you como?" I said to his sister. sis-ter. I shouldn't havo been nblo to keep my stnto of mind out of my volco, II I hnd tried. And I didn't try. Trust tho right sort of woman to seo tho right sort of thing In a mnn through any and all kinds of barrlors of casto and mannors and breeding Hor volco wns much softer ns sho said: "I think I must stuy horo Thank you, Just tho same" As soon ns Sam and I wero nlono, I npologized. "I hopo you'll tell your slater I'm sorry for that break," said I, "Oh, that's all right," ho answered,' easy ngaln, now that wo woro away from tho others. "You meant well nnd motive's tho thing." "Motive holl!" cried I In my nngor at mysolf. "Nobody but a man's God knows his motives; ho doesn't evon know thoin himself. I Judge othoro I by what thoy do, and I expect to ud Judgod In the snmo way. I sco I'vo got a lot to loarn." Thon I suddenly remembered tho Travolors Club, and asked him what ho'd dono about it. "I I'vo' boon thinking It ovor," I said ho. "Aro you bupi you want to run tho risk of an ugly croupor, Matt?" I turnod him round so thnt wo woro fuclng each other. "Do you want tc do mo that favor, or don't you?" 1 demanded. "I'll do whatever you Bay," ho replied. re-plied. "I'm thinking only of your In lerosts." "Lot mo tako caro of thorn," said (. "You put mo up nt that club tomor-row. tomor-row. I'll send you tho name of h socondor not lator than noon." "Up goes your nnmo," ho Bald. "But don't blnino mo for tho cons quoucos," (To bo Continued.) |