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Show WALiyriDi f (irOPGE RANDOLPH CE5TIIL -py LILLIAN CHESTER tTt liHTl 1LLUSTRATCD 4?-C.D.RnODE5 I . -OffPOftAV0N """" """" 1 iniiM " SYNOPSIS. -12 t a vPKtry mectins of the Market (Iiurch (Jail Surnt tells Rev. N. firryu that Market Square church ircnlly a lucrative business enter-v enter-v Allison takes Gall ridinK in his rar. She finds culd flisajjproval In .H of Itcv. Smith Boyd. Allison s a campaign fur consolidation and ii'td of tiu- entire transportation sys-in sys-in of the world. Gall becomes popular. Vinson Kalns control of transcontinental tr;!(Nc and arranges to absorb the Vedder Ved-der court tenement properly of Market finuniv church. Gall tells Boyd that the cathedral Market Ktiuare church proposes to build will be out of proiits wrtinft from fl'iualor. At a meeting of the seven financial finan-cial magnates of I he country. Allison organizes or-ganizes the International Transportation Vompany. Rev Smith Boyd undertakes .il's spiritual instruction and Gail un-J un-J sclnusly Rives Allison a hint that solves 1 Vedder court problem for him. On inspection trip In Allison's new sub-I sub-I the tunnel caves in. Gail poes back I ler home in the West, tier friends lure ' and Arly back to New York. In the '.iu.'t of a struggle with the dregs of humanity hu-manity in Vedder court Rev. Smith Boyd suddenly finds that he is a real living and loving man. He proposes to Gail tut. on the verge of acceptance, she remembers re-members their religious differences, and refuses. I CHAPTER XVII. The Public Is Aroused. Clad In ber filmy cream lace gown, Gail walked slowly into her boudoir, -and closed the door, and sauk upon her divan. She did not stop tonight 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 Teen before. Something in the depths 0v"fer nad leaped up into life, and cte'i out in agony, and would not stop crt'g until it was satisfled. .?d you t0 walk hand ln Dand f' .ryflbout the greatest work in .-, Oo'"1" That was it; the greatest "work in the world! And what wa3 that work? To live and teach ritual in place of religion; to turn worship Into a social observance; to use help tess belief as a ladder of ambition; to reduce faith to woids, and hope to a recitation, and charity to an obliga- -iisit; to make pomp and ceremony a substitute for conscience, and to interpose inter-pose a secretary-between the human heart and God! For just antnstant Gail'seyelids 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 v t. isely. 1 There was a knock on the door, and Gail smiled again as she said: "Come in." K Mrs. Helen Davies entered, tall and Biately in her boudoir frills and rallies She sat down in front of Gail and prepared to enact the role of con scientiotio mother. 3"ri"t s -i!byd proposed to you to-jhe to-jhe charged, with affectionate authority. "Yes. Aunt Helen," and Gail began ' to pull pins out of ber hair. A worried expression crossed the brew of Aunt Helen. "Did you accept him?" and she fair ly 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. "Gail. dear, you have shown a decree de-cree ",f carefulness which I am de-i de-i to find in you If you handle all"Vour affairs so sensibly, you have a brilliant future before you." "I must be an awful worry to you. Aunt Helen," observed Gail, and walking walk-ing over, she slipped her arm around Mis Davies' neck and kissed her and looked around for her chocolate box Gail's maid came In. and Mrs Da vies 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 ber face In ber pillows and sobbed silently; silent-ly; if. toward morning, she awoke with a little cry to find her face and Iter hands hot. all these things were but normal and natural. It Is enough tn know that she came to ber breakfast break-fast bnghl 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 sen-sation of the free and entirely un curbed metropolitan press! The free and entirely uncurbed metropolitan met-ropolitan pres3 had round Vedder court and had made it the sudden focus of the public eye. Those few who were privileged to know Intimately Inti-mately the workings of that adroit muster of the public weliaru, Tim Cor man could have recognized clearly his line hand in lb" "" ements 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, enthu-siasm, the work of poking the finger of scorn at Vedder court. It had published pub-lished 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 Dick-enses Dick-enses down there to write up the place. It had sent the sob sisters there in shoals to interview the downtrodden, down-trodden, and, above all things, it had put prominently before the public eye the immense profit which Market Square church wrung from this organized or-ganized misery! Gail turned sick at heart as she read. Uncle Jim permitted four morning papers to come to the house, and the drippipg details, with many variations, were in all of them. She glanced over toward the rectory and the dignified old church standing be yond it, with mingled indignation and humiliation. A sort of ignominy seemed to have descended up 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 por-tion 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 pos sibly 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 con-sidered 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 "Doctor Boyd Proposed to You Tonight," To-night," She Charged. 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. t. "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 Sar-gent 6hared the belief of Rev. Smith Boyd's mother, that Smith Boyd was the finest young man In the world; and Gail's aunt was speechless with dis may and disappointment. "I have ceased to worry about Gail's future," went on Mrs. Davies complacently. compla-cently. "It Is her present condition about which I am most concerned She Is so conscientious and self-ana lytical that she may distress herself over this affair, and I must get In Arly and Luclle, and plan a series of gay-eties gay-eties which will keep her mind occupied occu-pied from morning until night." In consequence of this kindly decision, deci-sion, Gail was plunged into gayety un til 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 gayety only added dismally to ber troubled burden. Meanwhile, the free and entirely uncurbed un-curbed metropolitan press went merrily mer-rily onward with Its righteous Vedder court crusade, until It had the public indignation properly aroused. The public Indignation rose to ruth a , itch that, if the public had not been ' with affairs of Its own, and If It pw not been In the habit of Ieav1',fi ythlng to be seen to by the peop. anclally liiten'.sied. and if it had V -'""Kli-,icil chiclly' of a few v-jf 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 sub-ways and on the "L's" and on the surface sur-face lines, and on the cindery commuter com-muter 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 Ved-der court property as unsanitary, Inhuman In-human and unsafe, as a menace to the public morals, health and life, and as a blot upon civilization; this last being be-ing a fancy touch added by Tim Cor-man Cor-man himself, who, in his old age, had a tendency to link poetry to his practicability. prac-ticability. In consequence of this decision, de-cision, the city authorities ordered Vedder court to be forthwith torn down, demolished and removed from the face of the earth; thereby justify ing, after all, the existence of the free and entirely uncurbed metropolitan press! The exact psychological moment mo-ment had been chosen. The public, caught at the very height of its frenzy, applauded, and ate its dinner In virtuous virtu-ous satisfaction; and Gail Sargent's distress crystallized into a much easier eas-ier tiling 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 Rev. Smith Boyd. She had chosen well and wisely! CHAPTER XVIII. 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 Josepn G. Clark, and his eye sought that of Banker Chisholm, before he nodded to the others oth-ers and took his seat at the Gothic table. Rev. Smith Boyd, who was particularly straight and tall today, and particularly in earnest, paused long enough for the slight disturbance disturb-ance 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"1 beneath. be-neath. "It doesn't pay to pauperize the people," supplemented Willis Cunningham, Cun-ningham, stroking his sparse Vandyke complacently. Cunningham, whose sole relationship to economics consisted con-sisted in permitting his secretary to sign checks, had imbibed a few principles prin-ciples which sufficed for all occasions. "1 do not wish to pauperize 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 re-placing the foul tenements in Vedder Ved-der 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 jew 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 neighborhood." "Are we compelled to make a profit?" retorted the rector. "Is It necessary nec-essary for Market Square church to remain perpetually a commercial landlord?" land-lord?" The vestry gazed at Rev. Smith Boy.d in surprised disapproval. Their previous rector had talked like that, and Itev. 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, forma of investment." Old Nicholas Van Ploon, sitting far enough away to fold bis hands comfortably com-fortably 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 tene merits " Rev. Smith Boyd rose again, shutting shut-ting the light from the red robe of the Good Shepherd out of quietly concentrated con-centrated Jim Sargent's eyes. "I object to this entire discussion," he stated "We have a moral obligation obliga-tion which forbids us to discuss matters mat-ters of investment and profit within these walls as If we were a lard trust We have neglected our moral obllga tion 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. Ho puzzled over the change llw'i' , "Don't swing the n-vj two had met often In Vedder court. "Our sins, such as they are, are mora j 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," quar-ters," quickly returned the rector. "This Is the home of all these poverty-stricken poverty-stricken people whom Market Square church has taken under its shelter, and we have no right to dispose of it." "That's what 1 say," and Nicholas Van Ploon nodded his round head. "We should not sell the property." "We cannot for shame, if for nothing noth-ing else." agreed the rector, seizing on every point of vantage 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 urn ''wmK She Came Into the Little Reception "Cosy" to Meet Allison. conduct them as a benefit to the people rather than to our own pockets." pock-ets." "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 un-comfortable 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 neighborhood 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 Rev, Smith Boyd was driven to some fairly profound thought. His bedroom and his study were lined with sketches of the stupendously stu-pendously 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 mon-opoly of all the breadstuffs by that process. "If we rebuild we set ourselves our-selves 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, swiveling himself to defy Joseph G. Clark "We don't sell the property." "1 put Mr. Clark's proposition as a motion." jerked W T. Chisholm, and in the heated argument which ensued, en-sued, the Good Shepherd in the window, win-dow, 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 sentimental ists, if Nicholas Van Ploon could be classed under that heading, and Allison Alli-son was telephoned. Before thev were through wrangling over the decision de-cision to have him meet them. Allison Alli-son was anions them. One miRht al most have thought that he had been waiting for the call; but he exchanged ex-changed no more friendly glances with Clark and Chisholm, of the new International Transportation company, com-pany, than he did with any of the others. "Well, Allison, we've decided to accept ac-cept 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, ac-crue, In ten years, to forty-two million mil-lion dollars." he reminded the president presi-dent of the Municipal Transportation company. "That figures to a spot-cash proposition of thirty-one millions, with a repeating decimal of one; so somebody some-body will have to lose a cent." - j withdrawn," said Al- """"""Shv," ohpo-teri Jim Snr-11 Snr-11 luabherur "I don't dispute that; but ln that offer I allowed, you for the income-earning 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 com-pelled 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 re-turned Clark. "I have been studying property values in that neighborhood, 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 enter-taining a little tea party of the gayest and brightest whom Aunt Helen Davies Da-vies could bring together. She came into the little reception "cozy" to meet Allison, smiling with pleasure. There seemed to be a degree de-gree of wistfulness. in her greeting of her friends since the night of her return. "Of course I couldn't overlook an opportunity op-portunity to drop in," said Allison, shaking her by both hands, and holding hold-ing them while he surveyed her critically. criti-cally. There was a tremendous comfort com-fort in his strength. "So you only called because you were in the neighborhood," bantered Gail. "Guilty," he laughed. "I've just been paying attention to my religious duties." du-ties." "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. (TO BE CONTINUED.) |
