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Show I by the way," he continued, "you will please have an extra plate on the dining din-ing table. Your future daughter-in-law will likely dine with us this evening." WHEN THE BANK CRASH CAME. By JAMES 8. EVANS. (Copyrieht, 1908, by DaUy Storj Pub. Co.) n brighter day. Instead of getting better, the market had gone wild and hi was at the end of his resources The young man went out of his father's office greatly sorrowed. True, he did not have a thing, possessed not a single professional accomplishment accomplish-ment that was convertible into cash. But he was strong, he said to himself; him-self; he could do something; his father should not want in his old age if he could prevent it. So thinking, he went to one of the most prominent law firms in the city and offered his services as a clerk. A clerk? No one knew of the elder Herndon's financial straits except his creditors i;i New York. Why, they would be glad to take the young man in as a partner. And so, the following morning morn-ing another name was added to the influential firm of Caruthers & Lee, attorneys at law. A month elapsed after his return before be-fore your.g Herndon saw Miss McKee. Sne was at the residence of Mr. Ca-rutheis. Ca-rutheis. the occasion being the debut of Miss Caruthers. "I am delighted to see you horn? agn::i," she snid, with cordial frankness. frank-ness. "Really I have missed you. We have discussed you quite often, and 1 have never forgotten your excellent voice." Her smile, the cordial grasp of her hand, the honest look of her clear eyes, wer.t through him like a volt of electricity. In twenty minutes he was as deeply enmeshed as he was Thomas Jefferson Bradley Herndon was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. His father was a prosperous business man and Thomas attended the best of schools and colleges. He had clothes enough to fill a box car, a valet, a stable of horses for private purposes only, an unlimited bank ac-, ac-, count and a chest that measured 42 inches, long before he had arrived at the age of majority. He became an athlete at college and when he returned home he was the pride of the town.' He tried law, got tired; took up medicine, became wearied ; wrestled with the teller's desk in his father's bank where, by his carelessness, the cash was short every night; abandoned the bank and took a whirl at farming; gave that up and then fell head-over-heels in love with Grace McKee, one of the belles of Ohio. Miss McKee was not wealthy. Her father was a lawyer who got just enough money out of his practice to settle accounts with the butcher and baker. But the family could trace its blood back to the kings of Scotland, and Miss McKee showed in every movement of body, in every flash of her blue eyes, that she was of royal lineage. The family stood aloof from its .neighbors and that is one of the reasons old man McKee got so little practice. stay until you have sargotten Tier." "Oh, you needn't worry," replied Herndon. "When I come back I'll be as free from her as a billiard ball is of hair. But it's going to be hard. This thing you call love, what is it? Why God gave us that passion, I cannot can-not understand. Still, it is an inexorable inexor-able law that long before man has reached the legal age, he finds some woman that will make him look like the monkey wards of a Zoo. You rei.2 from poets that it is the sublime of 11 passions; that love will conquer all things; make honest men of thieves and temperance lecturers of drunkards. Bah! It's a disease, worse I than yellow fever or the black ci- '.-era. '.-era. Once it has seized you, it-clings it-clings and stifles every ambition. It gnaws at one's very vitals: it's worse than swallowing powdered glass; and, if I should ever recover from this attack at-tack I'll avoid women as I would a pestilence.'-' He hesitated for awhile and thou continued: "Do you know what I think? No, and I don't suppose you give a continental. But I'll tell you just the same. You know my dalldy isn't what you'd call one of the F. P. V.'s. He has aboul as much style as a corn cob pipe; short on society's ways, but long on raking in the almighty dollar. He's rich; he could the night he left for Europe two years before. That night, while tossing between be-tween the s-heets, he cursed himself until he was black in the face; he should have remained in Africa; if not that he should have married married if he had to take even a Sioux squaw. Then he would have ueen at least free from Mlsu McKee. Now the disease was on him again with full force, and he could not leave again, run away from her as he had done before, for the crash in his father's affairs was expected at any minute. ' But before themorning he had made resolutions; he would steel himself t gainst her; he would avoid her; he would learn to hate her. All of which resolves were broken within fourteen hours, for at 8 o'clock that evening he was violently ringing the bell at her father's door. He proceeded with his case as if he were a lawyer at the bar. He told her of his love; why he had gone away; his determination not to see her again; the sufferings he had experienced. experi-enced. "I have loved you with a passion pas-sion that knows no understanding. For why, I do not understand nor do I try to understand. We have seen little of each other and I am, I know, presumptuous in speaking to you as I am doing, I have followed you, unobserved un-observed by yow-with doting persistence; persist-ence; have engrossed opportunities to meet you; have pursued you as love has pursued me, which has been on the wing of all occasions. The result? Scant courtesy. I have, had nothing from you unless it be experience a jewel that I have purchased at an infinite in-finite rate, and that has taught me to say this: " 'I.ove, like a shadow flies when sub- , stance love pursues, , Pursuing that that flies', and flying what pursues.' "You have dwelt ro securely upon the excellency of your honored family's fam-ily's name that I have braved myself that my soul should now present itself." While Herndon spoke Miss McKee stood with bowed head. When she looked at him her eyes were dim with tears. She struggled with herself her-self for a moment before replying. "You do me great honor, Mr. Herndon. This confession was not unexpected. By a woman's intuition I have known that you love me. But to marry you is out of the question. At first I imagined im-agined you uncouth; that riches had made you vulgar; that associations had caused you to forget the finer Thomas Jefferson Bradley Herndon met Miss McKee at a ball one evening even-ing and he did not sleep for two nights afterward. He sent her a bouquet of flowers the next day, tried to see her the next, wrote her foolish fool-ish verses and walked by her house twenty times every night after dinner; din-ner; called on the old man at his office, where he was uncivilly treated and then went outside and began drinking high-balls until he finally shot up straight in the air. When he came down he went to a hospital out of town, got sober and then returned home with the nanje of Grace McKee ringing In his ears. Eventually he got a friend to take him to her house where she received them in a little parlor where a log- fire burned brightly in the wide grate. She was dressed in a thin, muslin sort of an affair, cut low enough to show the white skin below her neck. On her corsage she wore a bunch of vio- lets; in her hair was a rose as red as her lips. Her manner was somewhat some-what strained and repressed, and it soon became apparent to Herndon that she did not like him. They talked on common place subjects for " awhile; then she went to the piano and played while Herndon sang. His voice was good and presently she joined join-ed hers with his, which was a glorious, glori-ous, rich contralto. Before Herndon had bid her good-night he was in better bet-ter favor than when he was first received. But at that Miss McKee did not invite him to return. Once or, twice afterward Herndon met her at social functions to be treated with respect, and nothing more. He battered at her gates of , dignified indifference with all the im-' im-' plements of a devoted lover. It was clear to those that slyly watched the affair that Herndon might as well attempt to make a cannon ball out of a straw hat as to win any sort of admiration from the idol of his heart. One night he said to Jim . Batley, his chum: "I am going away to-morrow; to Europe. When I'll return, I don't know. I can not remain here loving this girl with the entire strength of my heart, to be treated with the indifference that I receive. Why, hang it, man, I'll go crazy in another month!" "Crazy in another month?" replied Batley. "Humph! Two-thirds of the Inmates of the asylum for the insane "To Marry You Is Out of the Question." Ques-tion." buy a county and then have change left. And that is the reason of Miss McKee's aversion to my society. Now, if I had a family tree it would be different; dif-ferent; if a name, a family crest, I'll bet I could ride up to her house with an old hat that had seen service before be-fore the war, a pair of breeches thrice turned, boots that had been used for candle cases, an old sword with a broken hilt, my horse hipped with a mothy saddle, possessed of the spavin, troubled with the glanders, rayed with the "yellows," short of breath because of the hives, stark spoiled'with the staggers, full of wind-galls, wind-galls, begnawn with the bots, swayed in the back, near-legged before and a head-stall of sheep's leather, one girth six times patched with' a woman's crupper of velour containing my initials ini-tials and crest, why, I'd bet seven dollars dol-lars that she would run to the gate to meet me. It's this blamed, silly, stiff-necked family pride that holds her in restraint. That might be all right for Virginia or Brandon, Miss., I but these characteristics have no place in Ohio, the state, sir, that has given to the country its noblest men, its bravest s soldiers, its four presidents presi-dents and its " Hi I ill Pill "Oh, cut that out," replied Batley, hastily. "And go to bed, or take a drink, or shoot craps or kick the cat, or do something. You talk like a glass of water. If you keep on with your ravings I'll be constrained to send for the doctor." Two hours later Herndon was in bed: But he did not sleep. At 6 o'clock he was up; at 7 his trunks were packed; at 12. he took a train for New York and sailed for London. On the decks at night he paced to and fro muttering to himself: "Anywhere, anywhere, to get out of her sight." Once in England, he "plunged in all scrts of gaiety; he went to Nice and lost more money than his father bad made the year previous; at Paris he spent the nights in high revelry; in Madrid he went tb bullfights and in South Africa he went into the gold mines. Nothing satisfied him arid again he went traveling. Two years later, when he was satisfied in his mind that Miss Grace McKee of Bladon Springs, Ohio, might marry a Siowash Indian for all he cared, he took a steamer and sailed for home. When he met his father it did not take that gentleman fifteen minutes to tell him that he was a bankrupt and that he was liable to go to the wall any moment. He had invested his all In copper stock only to see the market slide down hill with swiftness so cruel and so strong that all of his money had been used in margins, hoping for sensibilities, qualities that are essential essen-tial to a gentleman. But I know better bet-ter now. ' I sincerely and honestly prize your friendship. Ours is a poor family; yours at the top of fortune's wheel. I have heard of the many generous gen-erous and noble deeds you have done; I know your worth as a man, and were our stations equal I should hesitate hesi-tate before sending you away. But as it is you must go. Please leave me." When Herndon reached his father's residence, he saw that a number of men were in the study. When his father came out his face was blanched. blanch-ed. As he went upstairs to his room tears were flowing freely from his eyes while he muttered to himself, "all gone; all gone; my God, my God!", . .. , j , v . The morning newspapers were filled with news of the crash and long before be-fore noon arrived the failure of Herndon Hern-don had been flashed to the world. In the midst of his duties that afternoon, after-noon, young Herndon received a note. After reading it he called a messenger. messen-ger. "Take this," said he, "to Mr. McKee's residence as fast as you can get it there." Then he turned to the telephone and called his mother. "See," he said, "that all the roses in the garden are divided between father's room and the diningroom tonight to-night by 8 o'clock, and tell him to be brave. I have discovered that a piece of paper he holds as valueless Is worth its face va'ue, $70,000. And, Her Manner Was Somewhat Strained and Repressed. at Columbus are philosophers compared com-pared to you now. Really, your case deserves sympathy. -You've been going around here for the past month without enough gray matter in your head to grease a pair of shoestrings. It's time you were going somewhere; - and, when you get on the other side. |