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The Shuttle Chapter 38 - At Shandy's · The Frances Hodgson Burnett Library

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Speaker 1: CHAPTER XXXVIII. AT SHANDY'S On a late summer evening in
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Speaker 1: New York, the atmosphere surrounding a certain corner table at
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Speaker 1: Shandy's cheap restaurant in Fourteenth Street was stirred by a
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Speaker 1: sense of excitement. The corner table in question was the
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Speaker 1: favourite meeting-place of a group of young men of the G.
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Speaker 1: Selden type, who usually took possession of it at dinner-time.
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Speaker 1: having decided that Shandy's supplied more decent food for fifty
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Speaker 1: cents or even for twenty-five than was to be found
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Speaker 1: at other places of its order. Shandy's was about all right,
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Speaker 1: they said to each other, and patronised it accordingly, three
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Speaker 1: or four of them generally dining together, with a friendly
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Speaker 1: and adroit manipulation of portions and half-portions, which enabled them
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Speaker 1: to add variety to their bill of fare. The street
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Speaker 1: outside was lighted. The tide of passers-by was less full
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Speaker 1: and more leisurely in its movements than it was during
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Speaker 1: the seething working hours of daylight, but the electric cars
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Speaker 1: swung past each other with whiz and clang of bell
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Speaker 1: almost unceasingly, their sound being swelled at short intervals by
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Speaker 1: the roar and rumbling rattle of the trains dashing by
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Speaker 1: on the elevated railroad. This, however, to the frequenters of
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Speaker 1: Shandy's was the usual accompaniment of everyday New York life,
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Speaker 1: and was regarded as a rather cheerful sort of thing.
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Speaker 1: This evening the four claimants of the favourite corner table
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Speaker 1: had met together earlier than usual. Jim Belter, who hammered
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Speaker 1: a typewriter at Schwab's Brewery, Tom Wetherby, who was in
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Speaker 1: a downtown office, Bert Johnson, who was out for the Delcoff,
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Speaker 1: and Nick Baumgarten, who having for some time beaten certain
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Speaker 1: streets as assistant salesman for the same illustrious machine, had
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Speaker 1: been recently elevated to a territory of his own, and
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Speaker 1: was therefore in high spirits.' Say,' he said,' let' s give
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Speaker 1: him a fine dinner.' We can make it between us.
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Speaker 1: Beefsteak and mushrooms and potatoes hashed brown. He likes them.
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Speaker 1: Good old G.S. I shall be right glad to see him.
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Speaker 1: Hope foreign travel has not given him the swell head.
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Speaker 1: Don't believe it's hurt him a bit. His letter didn't
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Speaker 1: sound like it. Little Georgie ain't a fool, said Jim Belter.
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Speaker 1: Tom Wetherby was looking over the letter referred to. It
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Speaker 1: had been written to the four conjointly toward the termination
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Speaker 1: of Selden's visit to Mr. Penzance. The young man was
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Speaker 1: not an ardent or fluent correspondent, but Tom Wetherby was
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Speaker 1: chuckling as he read the epistle.' Say, boys,' he said,'
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Speaker 1: this big thing he's keeping back to tell us when
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Speaker 1: he sees us is all right. But what takes me
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Speaker 1: is old George paying a visit to a parson. He
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Speaker 1: ain't no young man's Christian association.' Bert Johnson leaned forward
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Speaker 1: and looked at the address on the letter-paper.' Mount Dunstan Vicarage,'
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Speaker 1: he read aloud.' That looks pretty swell, doesn't it?' with
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Speaker 1: a laugh.' Say, fellas, you know Jepson at the office,
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Speaker 1: that chap that prides himself on reading such a lot?
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Speaker 1: He said it reminded him of the names of places
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Speaker 1: in English novels. That Johnny's the biggest snob you ever
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Speaker 1: set your tooth into. When I told him about the
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Speaker 1: Lord-fella that owns the castle, and that George seems to
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Speaker 1: have seen him, he nearly fell over himself. Never had
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Speaker 1: any use for George before, but just you watch him
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Speaker 1: make up to him when he sees him next.' PEOPLE
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Speaker 1: WERE DROPPING IN AND TAKING SEATS AT THE TABLES. THEY
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Speaker 1: WERE ALL OF ONE CLASS. YOUNG MEN WHO LIVED IN
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Speaker 1: HALL BEDROOMS, YOUNG WOMEN WHO WORKED IN SHOPS OR OFFICERS.
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Speaker 1: A COUPLE HERE AND THERE WHO LIVING FAR UP TOWN
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Speaker 1: HAD COME TO SHANDI'S TO DINNER THAT THEY MIGHT GO
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Speaker 1: TO CHEAP SEATS IN SOME THEATRE AFTERWARDS. IN THE LATTER
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Speaker 1: CASE THE GIRLS WORE THEIR BEST HATS, HAD BRIGHT EYES
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Speaker 1: AND CHEEKS LIGHTLY FLUSHED BY THEIR SENSE OF FESTIVITY. Two
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Speaker 1: or three were very pretty in their thin summer dresses
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Speaker 1: and flowered or feathered headgear, tilted at picturesque angles over
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Speaker 1: their thick hair. When each one entered, the eyes of
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Speaker 1: the young men at the corner table followed her with
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Speaker 1: curiosity and interest, but the glances at her escort were
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Speaker 1: always of a disparaging nature.' There' s a beaut,' said Nick Baumgarten.'
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Speaker 1: Get under that pink stuff on her hat, will you?
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Speaker 1: She's done it because it's just the colour of her cheeks.'
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Speaker 1: They all looked, and the girl was aware of it
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Speaker 1: and began to laugh and talk coquettishly to the young
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Speaker 1: man who was her companion.' I wonder where she got Clarence,'
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Speaker 1: said Jim Velter in sarcastic allusion to her escort.' The
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Speaker 1: things those lookers have fastened onto them gets me.'' If
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Speaker 1: it was one of us now,' said Bert Johnson, upon
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Speaker 1: which they broke into simultaneous good-natured laughter.' It' s queer, isn't it?'
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Speaker 1: Young Baumgarten put in. How a fella always feels sore
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Speaker 1: when he sees another fella with a peach like that.
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Speaker 1: It's just straight human nature, I guess.' The door swung
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Speaker 1: open to admit a newcomer, at the sight of whom
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Speaker 1: Jim Belter exclaimed joyously,' Good old Georgie! Here he is, fellas!
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Speaker 1: Get on to his gladrags!' Gladrags is supposed to buoyantly
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Speaker 1: describe such attire as, by its freshness or elegance of style,
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Speaker 1: is rendered a suitable adornment for festive occasions or loftier
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Speaker 1: leisure moments.' glad rags may mean evening dress when a
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Speaker 1: young gentleman's wardrobe can aspire to splendour so marked but
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Speaker 1: it also applies to one's best and latest purchased garb
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Speaker 1: in contradistinction to the less ornamental habiliments worn every day
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Speaker 1: and designated as office clothes g selden's economies had not
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Speaker 1: enabled him to give himself into the hands of a
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Speaker 1: bond street tailor but a careful study of cut and
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Speaker 1: material as spread before the eye in elegant coloured illustrations
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Speaker 1: in the windows of respectable shops in less ambitious quarters
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Speaker 1: had resulted in the purchase of a well-made suit of
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Speaker 1: smart english cut he had a nice young figure and
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Speaker 1: looked extremely neat and tremendously new and clean so much
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Speaker 1: so indeed that several persons glanced at him a little
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Speaker 1: admiringly as he was met halfway to the corner table
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Speaker 1: by his friends' Hello, old chap! Glad to see you!
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Speaker 1: What sort of a voyage! How did you leave the
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Speaker 1: royal family? Glad to get back?' They all greeted him
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Speaker 1: at once, shaking hands and slapping him on the back,
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Speaker 1: as they hustled him gleefully back to the corner table
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Speaker 1: and made him sit down.' C' est garçon,' said Nick Bomegarten
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Speaker 1: to their favourite waiter, who came at once in answer
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Speaker 1: to his summons.' Let' s have a porterhouse steak half the
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Speaker 1: size of this table, and with plenty of mushrooms and
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Speaker 1: potatoes hashed brown.'' Here' s Mr. Selden just returned from visiting
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Speaker 1: at Windsor Castle,' and if we don't treat him well
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Speaker 1: he'll look down on us.'' G. Selden grinned.' How have
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Speaker 1: you been getting on, Sam?' he said, nodding cheerfully to
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Speaker 1: the man.' They were old and tried friends.' Sam knew
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Speaker 1: all about the days when a fellow could not come
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Speaker 1: into Shandy's at all' or missatisfy his strong young hunger
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Speaker 1: with a bowl of soup or coffee in a roll.'
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Speaker 1: Sam did his best for them in the matter of
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Speaker 1: the size of portions— and they did their good-natured utmost
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Speaker 1: for him in the affair of the pool tip been
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Speaker 1: getting along as well as can be expected sam grinned
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Speaker 1: back hope you had a fine time mr selden fine
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Speaker 1: i should smile fine wasn't in it answered selden but
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Speaker 1: i'm looking forward to a shanty porterhouse steak all the
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Speaker 1: same did they give you a better one in the
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Speaker 1: strand asked bone garton in what he believed to be
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Speaker 1: a correct cockney accent You bet they didn't, said Selden.
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Speaker 1: Shandy's takes a lot of beating. That last is English.
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Speaker 1: The people at the other tables cast involuntary glances at them.
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Speaker 1: Their eager, hearty young pleasure in the festivity of the
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Speaker 1: occasion was a healthy thing to see. As they sat
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Speaker 1: around the corner table, they produced the effect of gathering
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Speaker 1: close around G. Selden. They concentrated their combined attention upon him,
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Speaker 1: Belter and Johnson leaning forward on their folded arms to
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Speaker 1: watch him as he talked. Billy Page came back in
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Speaker 1: August looking pretty bum, Nick Baumgarten began. He'd been painting
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Speaker 1: Gay Paris brick red and he'd spend more money than
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Speaker 1: he'd meant to, and that wasn't half enough. Landed dead broke.
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Speaker 1: He said he'd had a great time, but he'd come
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Speaker 1: home with rather a dark brown taste in his mouth
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Speaker 1: that he'd like to get rid of. He thought you
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Speaker 1: were a fool to go off cycling into the country,
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Speaker 1: put in Weatherby, but I told him I guessed that
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Speaker 1: was where he was way off. I believe you'd had
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Speaker 1: the best time of the two of you.' Boys,' said Selden,'
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Speaker 1: I had the time of my life.' He said it
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Speaker 1: almost solemnly, and laid his hand on the table.' It
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Speaker 1: was like one of those urns, Bert tells us. Half
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Speaker 1: the time I didn't believe it, and half the time
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Speaker 1: I was ashamed of myself to think it was all
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Speaker 1: happening to me, and none of you fellows were in it.'' Oh, well,'
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Speaker 1: said Jim Belter,' luck chases some fellows, anyhow. Look at
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Speaker 1: Nick there.'' Well,' Selden summed the whole thing up, I
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Speaker 1: just fell into it where it was so deep that
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Speaker 1: I had to strike out all I knew how to
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Speaker 1: keep from drowning. Tell us the whole thing, Nick Bomegarden
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Speaker 1: put in, from beginning to end. Your letter didn't give
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Speaker 1: anything away. A letter would have spoiled it. I can't
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Speaker 1: write letters anyhow. I wanted to wait until I got
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Speaker 1: right here with you fellows round, where I could answer questions.
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Speaker 1: First off, with the deliberation befitting such an opening, I'd
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Speaker 1: sold machines enough to pay my expenses and leave some over.'
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Speaker 1: You have? Gee whiz! Say, give us your prescription. Glad
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Speaker 1: I know you, Georgie.'' And who do you suppose bought
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Speaker 1: the first three?' At this point it was he who
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Speaker 1: leaned forward upon the table, his climax being a thing
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Speaker 1: to concentrate upon.' Reuben S. Vanderpool's daughter, Miss Bettina. And, boys,
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Speaker 1: she gave me a letter to Reuben S. himself, and
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Speaker 1: here it is.' he produced a flat leather pocket-book and
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Speaker 1: took an envelope from an inner flap, laying it before
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Speaker 1: them on the table-cloth. His knowledge that they would not
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Speaker 1: have believed him if he had not brought his proof
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Speaker 1: was founded on everyday facts. They would not have doubted
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Speaker 1: his veracity, but the possibility of such delirious good fortune.
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Speaker 1: What they would have believed would have been that he
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Speaker 1: was playing a hilarious joke on them. Jokes of this kind,
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Speaker 1: but not of this proportion, were common entertainments. Their first
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Speaker 1: impulse had been towards an outburst of laughter, but even
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Speaker 1: before he produced his letter a certain truthful seriousness in
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Speaker 1: his look had startled them. When he laid the envelope down,
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Speaker 1: each man caught his breath. It could not be denied
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Speaker 1: that Jim Belter turned pale with emotion. Jem had never
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Speaker 1: been one of the lucky ones. She let me read it,
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Speaker 1: said G. Selden, taking the letter from its envelope with
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Speaker 1: great care. And I said to her, Miss Vanderpool, would
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Speaker 1: you let me just show that to the boys the
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Speaker 1: first night I go to Shandy's? I knew she'd tell
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Speaker 1: me if it wasn't all right to do it. She
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Speaker 1: knew I'd want to be told, and she just laughed
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Speaker 1: and said, I don't mind at all. I like the boys.
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Speaker 1: Here is a message to them. Good luck to you all.
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Speaker 1: She said that, from Nick Baumgarten. Yes, she did, and
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Speaker 1: she meant it. Look at this. This was the letter.
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Speaker 1: It was quite short and written in a clear, definite hand.
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Speaker 1: Dear Father, This will be brought to you by Mr. G. Selden,
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Speaker 1: of whom I have written to you. Please be good
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Speaker 1: to him. Affectionately, Betty Each young man read it in turn.
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Speaker 1: None of them said anything just at first. A kind
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Speaker 1: of awe had descended upon them. not in the least
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Speaker 1: awe of Vanderpool, who, with other multi-millionaires, were served up
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Speaker 1: each week with cheerful neighbourly comment, or equally neighbourly disrespect,
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Speaker 1: in huge Sunday papers read throughout the land, but awe
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Speaker 1: of the unearthly luck which had fallen without warning to
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Speaker 1: good old G.S., who lived like the rest of them
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Speaker 1: in a hall-bedroom on Tenpur, earned by tramping the streets
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Speaker 1: for the Delcoff.' That girl,' said G. Selden gravely,' that
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Speaker 1: girl is a winner from Winnersville. I take off my
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Speaker 1: hat to her.' If it's the scheme that some people's
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Speaker 1: got to have millions and others have got to sell Delcoffs,
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Speaker 1: that girl's one of those that's entitled to the millions.
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Speaker 1: It's all right she should have them. There's no kick
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Speaker 1: coming from me. Nick Boomgarten was the first to resume
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Speaker 1: wholly normal condition of mind. Well, I guess after you've
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Speaker 1: told us about her there'll be no kick coming from
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Speaker 1: any of us. Of course there's something about you that
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Speaker 1: royal families cry for and they won't be happy until
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Speaker 1: they get. All of us boys knows that. but what
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Speaker 1: we want to find out is how you worked it
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Speaker 1: so that they saw the kind of pearl-studded hairpin you were.''
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Speaker 1: Worked it?' Selden answered.' I didn't work it. I've got
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Speaker 1: a good bit of nerve, but I never should have
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Speaker 1: had enough to invent what happened. Just happened. I broke
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Speaker 1: my leg falling off my bike and fell right into
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Speaker 1: a whole bunch of them. Earls and Countesses and Viscounts
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Speaker 1: and Vanderpools. And it was Miss Vanderpool who saw me first,
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Speaker 1: lying on the ground.' and I was in Stornham Court,
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Speaker 1: where Lady Anstruthers lives, and she used to be Miss
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Speaker 1: Rosalie Vanderpool. Boys, said Bert Johnson, with friendly disgust, he's
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Speaker 1: been up to his neck in them. Cheer up, the
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Speaker 1: worst is yet to come, chaffed Tom Weatherby. Never had
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Speaker 1: such a dinner taken place at the corner table, or
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Speaker 1: in fact at any other table at Shandy's. Sam brought beefsteaks,
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Speaker 1: which were princely, mushrooms and hashed brown potatoes in portions
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Speaker 1: whose generosity reached the heart. Sam was on good terms
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Speaker 1: with Shandy's carver, and had worked upon his nobler feelings.
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Speaker 1: Steins of lager beer were ventured upon. There was hearty
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Speaker 1: satisfying of fine hungers. Two of the party had eaten
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Speaker 1: nothing but one quick lunch throughout the day, one of
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Speaker 1: them because he was short of time, the other for
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Speaker 1: economy's sake because he was short of money. The meal
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Speaker 1: was a splendid thing. The telling of the story could
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Speaker 1: not be wholly checked by the eating of food, It
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Speaker 1: advanced between mouthfuls, questions being asked, and details given in answers.
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Speaker 1: Shandies became more crowded as the hour advanced. People all
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Speaker 1: over the room cast interested looks at the party at
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Speaker 1: the corner table, enjoying itself so hugely. Groups sitting at
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Speaker 1: the tables nearest to it found themselves excited by the
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Speaker 1: things they heard.' That young fellow in the new suit
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Speaker 1: has just come back from Europe,' said a man to
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Speaker 1: his wife and daughter.' He seems to have had a
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Speaker 1: good time.'' Papa,' the daughter leaned forward and spoke in
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Speaker 1: a low voice,' I heard him say Lord Mount Dunstan
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Speaker 1: and Lady Anstruthers and Miss Vanderpool were at the garden party.
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Speaker 1: Who do you suppose he is?'' Well, he's a nice
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Speaker 1: young fella, and he has English clothes on, but he
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Speaker 1: doesn't look like one of the four hundred. Will you
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Speaker 1: have pie or vanilla ice-cream, Bessie?'' Bessie, who chose vanilla ice-cream?'
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Speaker 1: lost all knowledge of its flavour in her absorption in
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Speaker 1: the conversation at the next table, which she could not
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Speaker 1: have avoided hearing, even if she had wished. She bent
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Speaker 1: over the bed and laughed, just like any other nice girl,
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Speaker 1: and she said,' You are at Stornham Court, which belongs
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Speaker 1: to Sir Nigel Anstruthers. Lady Anstruthers is my sister. I
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Speaker 1: am Miss Vanderpool. And, boys, she used to come and
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Speaker 1: talk to me every day.'' George,' said Nick Baumgarten, you
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Speaker 1: take about seventy-five bottles of warner's safe cure and rub
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Speaker 1: yourself all over with st jacob's oil luck like that
15:02
Speaker 1: ain't healthy mr vanderpoel sitting in his study wore the
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Speaker 1: interestedly grave look of a man thinking of absorbing things
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Speaker 1: he had just given orders that a young man who
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Speaker 1: would call in the course of the evening should be
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Speaker 1: brought to him at once and he was incidentally considering
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Speaker 1: this young man as he reflected upon matters recalled to
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Speaker 1: his mind by his impending arrival They were matters he
15:24
Speaker 1: had thought of with gradually increasing seriousness for some months,
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Speaker 1: and they had at first been the result of the
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Speaker 1: letters from Stornham which each steamer day brought. They had
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Speaker 1: been of immense interest to him, these letters. He would
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Speaker 1: have found them absorbing as a study, even if he
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Speaker 1: had not deeply loved Betty. He read in them things
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Speaker 1: she did not state in words, and they set him thinking.
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Speaker 1: He was not suspected by men like himself of concealing
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Speaker 1: an imagination beneath the trained steadiness of his exterior— but
15:53
Speaker 1: he possessed more than the world knew, and it singularly
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Speaker 1: combined itself with powers of logical deduction. If he had
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Speaker 1: been with his daughter, he would have seen day by
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Speaker 1: day where her thoughts were leading her, and in what
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Speaker 1: direction she was developing, but at a distance of three
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Speaker 1: thousand miles he found himself asking questions and endeavouring to
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Speaker 1: reach conclusions. His affection for Betty was the central emotion
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Speaker 1: of his existence. He had never told himself that he
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Speaker 1: had outgrown the kind and pretty creature he had married
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Speaker 1: in his early youth, and certainly his tender care for
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Speaker 1: her and pleasure in her simple goodness had never wavered.
16:29
Speaker 1: But Betty had given him a companionship which had counted
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Speaker 1: greatly in the sum of his happiness. Because imagination was
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Speaker 1: not suspected in him, no one knew what she stood
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Speaker 1: for in his life. He had no son. He stood
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Speaker 1: at the head of a great house, so to speak,
16:45
Speaker 1: the American parallel of what a great house is in
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Speaker 1: non-Republican countries. The power of it counted for great things,
16:52
Speaker 1: not in America alone, but throughout the world. As international
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Speaker 1: intimacies increased, the influence of such houses might end in
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Speaker 1: aiding in the making of history. Enormous, constantly increasing wealth
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Speaker 1: and huge financial schemes could not confine their influence, but
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Speaker 1: must reach far. The man whose hand held the lever
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Speaker 1: controlling them was doing well when he thought of them gravely.
17:15
Speaker 1: Such a man had to do with more than his
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Speaker 1: own mere life and living. This man had confronted many
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Speaker 1: problems as the years had passed. He had seen men
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Speaker 1: like himself die, leaving behind them the force they had controlled,
17:28
Speaker 1: and he had seen this force, controlled no longer, let
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Speaker 1: loose upon the world, sometimes a power of evil, sometimes
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Speaker 1: scattering itself aimlessly into nothingness and folly, which wrought harm.
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Speaker 1: He was not an ambitious man, but perhaps because he
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Speaker 1: was not only a man of thought, but a Vanderpool
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Speaker 1: of the blood of the first Reuben, these were things
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Speaker 1: he did not contemplate without restlessness. When Rosie had gone
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Speaker 1: away and seemed lost to them, he had been glad
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Speaker 1: when he had seen Betty growing day by day into
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Speaker 1: a strong thing. Feminine though she was, she sometimes suggested
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Speaker 1: to him the son who might have been his, but
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Speaker 1: was not. As the closeness of their companionship increased with
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Speaker 1: her years, his admiration for her grew with his love.
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Speaker 1: power left in her hands must work for the advancement
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Speaker 1: of things, and would not be idly disseminated if no
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Speaker 1: antagonistic influence wrought against her. He had found himself reflecting that,
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Speaker 1: after all was said, the marriage of such a girl
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Speaker 1: had a sort of parallel in that of some young
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Speaker 1: royal creature, whose union might make or mar things which
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Speaker 1: must be considered. The man, who must inevitably strongly colour
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Speaker 1: her whole being, and vitally mark her life, would in
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Speaker 1: a sense lay his hand upon the lever also, If
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Speaker 1: he brought sorrow and disorder with him, the lever would
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Speaker 1: not move steadily. Fortunes such as his grow rapidly, and
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Speaker 1: he was a richer man by millions than he had
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Speaker 1: been when Rosalie had married Nigel Anstruthers. The memory of
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Speaker 1: that marriage had been a painful thing to him, even
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Speaker 1: before he had known the whole truth of its results.
18:59
Speaker 1: The man had been a common adventurer and scoundrel, despite
19:03
Speaker 1: the facts of good birth and the air of decent breeding.
19:06
Speaker 1: If a man who was as much a scoundrel, but cleverer,
19:09
Speaker 1: It would be necessary that he should be much cleverer,
19:12
Speaker 1: made the best of himself to Betty. It was folly
19:15
Speaker 1: to think one could guess what a woman, or a
19:17
Speaker 1: man either for that matter, would love. He knew Betty,
19:21
Speaker 1: but no man knows the thing which comes, as it were,
19:23
Speaker 1: in the dark, and claims its own, whether for good
19:26
Speaker 1: or evil. He had lived long enough to see beautiful,
19:28
Speaker 1: strong-spirited creatures do strange things, follow strange gods, swept away
19:33
Speaker 1: into seas of pain by strange waves. Even Betty, he
19:37
Speaker 1: had said to himself now and then, Even my Betty,
19:40
Speaker 1: good God, who knows?' Because of this he had read
19:44
Speaker 1: each letter with keen eyes. They were long letters, full
19:47
Speaker 1: of detail and colour, because she knew he enjoyed them.
19:51
Speaker 1: She had a delightful touch. He sometimes felt as if
19:54
Speaker 1: they walked the English lanes together. His intimacy with her
19:58
Speaker 1: neighbours and her neighbourhood was one of his relaxations. He
20:01
Speaker 1: found himself thinking of old Dobie and Mrs. Weldon as
20:04
Speaker 1: a sort of soporific measure when he lay awake at night.
20:08
Speaker 1: She had sent photographs of Stornham, of Dunham Castle, and
20:11
Speaker 1: of Dole, and had even found an old engraving of
20:14
Speaker 1: Lady Allenby in her youth. Her evident liking for the
20:18
Speaker 1: Dunhams had pleased him. They were people whose dignity and
20:21
Speaker 1: admirableness were part of general knowledge. Lord Westholt was plainly
20:25
Speaker 1: a young man of many attractions. If the two were
20:28
Speaker 1: drawn to each other, and what more natural, all would
20:31
Speaker 1: be well. He wondered if it would be Westholt. But
20:35
Speaker 1: his love quickened a sagacity which needed no stimulus. He
20:38
Speaker 1: said to himself in time that, though she liked and
20:41
Speaker 1: admired Westholt, she went no further. That others paid court
20:45
Speaker 1: to her he could guess without being told. He had
20:48
Speaker 1: seen the effect she had produced when she had been
20:50
Speaker 1: at home, and also an unexpected letter to his wife
20:53
Speaker 1: from Millie Bowen had revealed many things. Millie, having noted Mrs.
20:57
Speaker 1: Vanderpool's eager anxiety to hear direct news of Lady Anstruthers,
21:02
Speaker 1: was not the person to let fall from her hand
21:04
Speaker 1: a useful thread of connection. She had written quite at
21:07
Speaker 1: length— managing adroitly to convey all that she had seen
21:10
Speaker 1: and all that she had heard. She had been making
21:13
Speaker 1: a visit within driving distance of Stornham, and had had
21:16
Speaker 1: the pleasure of meeting both Lady Anstruthers and Miss Vanderpool
21:19
Speaker 1: at various parties. She was so sure that Mrs. Vanderpool
21:23
Speaker 1: would like to hear how well Lady Anstruthers was looking,
21:26
Speaker 1: that she ventured to write. Betty's effect upon the county
21:30
Speaker 1: was made quite clear, as also was the interested expectation
21:33
Speaker 1: of her appearance in town next season. Mr. Vanderpool perhaps
21:37
Speaker 1: gathered more from the letter than his wife did. In
21:40
Speaker 1: her mind relieved happiness and consternation were mingled.' Do you think, Reuben,
21:46
Speaker 1: that Betty will marry that Lord Westholt?' she rather faltered.'
21:49
Speaker 1: He seems very nice, but I would rather she married
21:52
Speaker 1: an American. I should feel as if I had no
21:55
Speaker 1: girls at all if they both lived in England.'' Lady
21:58
Speaker 1: Bowen gives him a good character,' her husband said, smiling.
22:02
Speaker 1: but if anything underword happens, Annie, you shall have a
22:05
Speaker 1: house of your own halfway between Dunham Castle and Stornham Court.
22:10
Speaker 1: When he had begun to decide that Lord Westholt did
22:12
Speaker 1: not seem to be the man fate was veering towards,
22:15
Speaker 1: he not unnaturally cast a mental eye over such other
22:18
Speaker 1: persons as the letters mentioned. At exactly what period his
22:22
Speaker 1: thought first dwelt a shade anxiously on Mount Dunstan, he
22:25
Speaker 1: couldn't have told, but he at length became conscious that
22:28
Speaker 1: it so dwelt. He had begun by feeling an interest
22:32
Speaker 1: in his story, and had asked questions about him, because
22:35
Speaker 1: a situation such as his suggested query to a man
22:38
Speaker 1: of affairs. Thus it had been natural that the letters
22:42
Speaker 1: should speak of him. What she had written had recalled
22:45
Speaker 1: to him certain rumours of the disgraceful old scandal. Yes,
22:49
Speaker 1: they had been a bad lot. He arranged to put
22:51
Speaker 1: a casual-sounding question or so to certain persons who knew
22:55
Speaker 1: English society well. What he gathered was not encouraging. The
23:00
Speaker 1: present Lord Mount Dunstan was considered rather a surly brute,
23:04
Speaker 1: and lived a mysterious sort of life which might cover
23:06
Speaker 1: many things. It was bad blood, and people were naturally
23:10
Speaker 1: shy of it. Of course the man was a pauper,
23:13
Speaker 1: and his place a barrack falling to ruin. There had
23:16
Speaker 1: been something rather shady in his going to America or
23:19
Speaker 1: Australia a few years ago. Good-looking? Well, so few people
23:23
Speaker 1: had seen him. The lady who was speaking had heard
23:26
Speaker 1: that he was one of those big, rather lumpy men,
23:29
Speaker 1: and had an ill-tempered expression. She always gave a wide
23:32
Speaker 1: berth to a man who looked nasty-tempered. One or two
23:35
Speaker 1: other persons who had spoken of him had conveyed to Mr.
23:38
Speaker 1: Vanderpool about the same amount of vaguely unpromising information. The
23:42
Speaker 1: episode of G. Selden had been interesting enough with its
23:46
Speaker 1: suggestions of picturesque contrasts and combinations. Betty's touch had made
23:50
Speaker 1: the junior salesman attracting. It was a good type, this,
23:54
Speaker 1: of a young fellow who, battling with the discouragements of
23:57
Speaker 1: a hard life, still did not lose his amazing good
23:59
Speaker 1: cheer and patience, and found healthy sleep and honest waking
24:03
Speaker 1: even in the hall bedroom. He had consented to Betty's
24:06
Speaker 1: request that he would see him, partly because he was
24:09
Speaker 1: inclined to like what he had heard, and partly for
24:11
Speaker 1: a reason which Betty did not suspect. By extraordinary chance, G.
24:16
Speaker 1: Selden had seen Mount Dunstan and his surroundings at close range. Mr.
24:20
Speaker 1: Vanderpool had liked what he had gathered of Mount Dunstan's
24:23
Speaker 1: attitude towards a personality so singularly exotic to himself. Crude, uneducated,
24:29
Speaker 1: and slangy, the junior salesman was not in any degree
24:32
Speaker 1: a fool. To an American father with a daughter like Betty,
24:36
Speaker 1: the summing up of a normal, nice-natured, common young denizen
24:39
Speaker 1: of the United States, fresh from contact with the effete,
24:42
Speaker 1: might be subtly instructive and well worth hearing if it
24:45
Speaker 1: was unconsciously expressed. Mr. Vanderpool thought he knew how, after
24:50
Speaker 1: he had overcome his visitor's first awkwardness, if he chanced
24:53
Speaker 1: to be self-conscious, he could lead him to talk. What
24:56
Speaker 1: he hoped to do was to make him forget himself
24:59
Speaker 1: and begin to talk to him as he had talked
25:00
Speaker 1: to Betty, to ingeniously reveal impressions and points of view.
25:05
Speaker 1: Young men of his clean, rudimentary type were very definite
25:08
Speaker 1: about the things they liked and disliked, and could be
25:10
Speaker 1: trusted to reveal admiration or lack of it without absolute
25:14
Speaker 1: intention or actual statement. Being elemental and undismayed, they saw
25:19
Speaker 1: things cleared of the mists of social prejudice and modification. Yes,
25:23
Speaker 1: he felt he should be glad to hear of Lord
25:25
Speaker 1: Mount Dunstan and the Mount Dunstan estate from G. Selden
25:29
Speaker 1: in a happy moment of unawareness. Why was it that
25:32
Speaker 1: it happened to be Mount Dunstan he was desirous to
25:35
Speaker 1: hear of? Well, the absolute reason for that he could
25:38
Speaker 1: not have explained either. He had asked himself questions on
25:41
Speaker 1: the subject more than once. There was no well-founded reason, perhaps.
25:46
Speaker 1: If Betty's letters had spoken of Mount Dunstan and his home,
25:49
Speaker 1: they had also described Lord Westholt and Dunham Castle. Of
25:53
Speaker 1: these two men she had certainly spoken more fully than
25:56
Speaker 1: of others. Of Mount Dunstan she had more to relate
25:59
Speaker 1: through the incident of G. Selden. He smiled as he
26:02
Speaker 1: realized the importance of the figure of G. Selden. It
26:06
Speaker 1: was Selden and his broken leg the two men had
26:08
Speaker 1: ridden over from Mount Dunstan to visit. But for Selden
26:11
Speaker 1: Betty might not have met Mount Dunstan again. He was
26:14
Speaker 1: reason enough for all she had said. And yet, perhaps
26:18
Speaker 1: between Betty and himself there existed the thing which impresses
26:21
Speaker 1: and communicates without words. Perhaps, because their affection was unusual,
26:26
Speaker 1: they realized each other's emotions. The half-defined anxiety, he felt now,
26:31
Speaker 1: was not a new thing, but he confessed to himself
26:33
Speaker 1: that it had been spurred a little by the letter
26:35
Speaker 1: the last steamer had brought him. It was not Lord Westholt,
26:39
Speaker 1: it definitely appeared. He had asked her to be his wife,
26:42
Speaker 1: and she had declined his proposal.' I could not have
26:45
Speaker 1: liked a man any more without being in love with him,'
26:48
Speaker 1: she wrote.' I like him more than I can say.
26:51
Speaker 1: So much, indeed.' that I feel a little depressed by
26:54
Speaker 1: my certainty that I do not love him. If she
26:57
Speaker 1: had loved him the whole matter would have been simplified.
27:00
Speaker 1: If the other man had drawn her the thing would
27:02
Speaker 1: not be simple. Her father foresaw all the complications, and
27:07
Speaker 1: he did not want complications for Betty. Yet emotions were
27:10
Speaker 1: perverse and irresistible things, and the stronger the creature swayed
27:14
Speaker 1: by them the more enormous their power. But as he
27:17
Speaker 1: sat in his easy chair and thought over it all,
27:20
Speaker 1: The one feeling predominant in his mind was that nothing
27:22
Speaker 1: mattered but Betty. Nothing really mattered but Betty. In the meantime, G.
27:28
Speaker 1: Selden was walking up Fifth Avenue, at once touched and
27:31
Speaker 1: exhilarated by the stir about him and his sense of homecoming.
27:35
Speaker 1: It was pretty good to be in little old New
27:36
Speaker 1: York again. The hurried pace of the life about him
27:39
Speaker 1: stimulated his young blood. There were no streetcars in Fifth Avenue,
27:44
Speaker 1: but there were carriages, wagons, carts, motors, all pantingly hurried,
27:47
Speaker 1: and fretting and struggling when the crowded state of the
27:50
Speaker 1: thoroughfare held them back. The beautifully dressed women in the
27:53
Speaker 1: carriages wore no light air of being at leisure. It
27:56
Speaker 1: was evident that they were going to keep engagements, to
27:59
Speaker 1: do things, to achieve objects. Something doing, something doing, was
28:03
Speaker 1: his cheerful self-congratulatory thought. He had spent his life in
28:07
Speaker 1: the midst of it, he liked it, and it welcomed
28:09
Speaker 1: him back. The appointment he was on his way to
28:13
Speaker 1: keep thrilled him into an uplifted mood. Once or twice
28:16
Speaker 1: a half-nervous chuckle broke from him as he tried to
28:19
Speaker 1: realise that he had been given the chance which a
28:21
Speaker 1: year ago had seemed so impossible that by its mere
28:24
Speaker 1: incredibleness had made it a natural subject for jokes. He
28:28
Speaker 1: was going to call on Ruben S. Vanderpool, and he
28:31
Speaker 1: was going because Ruben S. had made an appointment with him.
28:35
Speaker 1: He wore his London suit of clothes, and he felt
28:37
Speaker 1: that he looked pretty decent. He could only do his
28:40
Speaker 1: best in the matter of bearing— He always thought that
28:43
Speaker 1: so long as a fellow didn't get chesty and kept
28:45
Speaker 1: his head from swelling, he was all right. Of course,
28:48
Speaker 1: he'd never been in one of these swell Fifth Avenue houses,
28:51
Speaker 1: and he felt a bit nervous. But Miss Vanderpool would
28:54
Speaker 1: have told her father what sort of a fellow he was,
28:57
Speaker 1: and her father was likely to be something like herself.
29:00
Speaker 1: The house, which had been built since Lady Anstruther's marriage,
29:03
Speaker 1: was well uptown, and was big and imposing. When a
29:06
Speaker 1: manservant opened the front door, the square hall looked very
29:09
Speaker 1: splendid to Selden. It was full of light and of
29:12
Speaker 1: rich furniture, which was like the stuff he had seen
29:15
Speaker 1: in one or two special shop windows in Fifth Avenue,
29:18
Speaker 1: places where they sold magnificent gilded or carven coffers and vases,
29:23
Speaker 1: pieces of tapestry and marvellous embroideries, antiquities from foreign palaces.
29:28
Speaker 1: Though it was quite different, it was as well in
29:31
Speaker 1: its way as the house at Mount Dunstan, and there
29:33
Speaker 1: were gleams of pictures on the walls that looked fine
29:36
Speaker 1: and no mistake. He was expected. The man led him
29:40
Speaker 1: across the hall to Mr. Vanderpool's room. After he had
29:43
Speaker 1: announced his name, he closed the door quietly and went away. Mr.
29:47
Speaker 1: Vanderpool rose from an armchair to come forward to meet
29:50
Speaker 1: his visitor. He was tall and straight. Betty had inherited
29:54
Speaker 1: her slender height from him. His well-balanced face suggested the
29:58
Speaker 1: relationship between them. He had a steady mouth and eyes
30:02
Speaker 1: which looked as if they saw much and far.' I' m
30:06
Speaker 1: glad to see you, Mr. Selden,' he said, shaking hands
30:08
Speaker 1: with him.' You have seen my daughters and can tell
30:11
Speaker 1: me how they are. Miss Vanderpool has written to me
30:14
Speaker 1: of you several times.' He asked him to sit down,
30:18
Speaker 1: and as he took his chair Selden felt that he
30:20
Speaker 1: had been right in telling himself that Rubin S. Vanderpool
30:23
Speaker 1: would be somehow like his girl.' She was a girl,
30:27
Speaker 1: and he was an elderly man of business, but they
30:29
Speaker 1: were like each other. There was the same kind of
30:32
Speaker 1: straight way of doing things, and the same straight-seeing look
30:35
Speaker 1: in both of them. It was queer how natural things
30:39
Speaker 1: seemed when they really happened to a fellow. Here he was,
30:42
Speaker 1: sitting in a big leather chair, and opposite to him
30:45
Speaker 1: in its fellow sat Reuben S. Vanderpool, looking at him
30:48
Speaker 1: with friendly eyes. And it seemed all right, too, not
30:52
Speaker 1: as if he'd managed to butt in, and would find
30:54
Speaker 1: himself politely fired out directly. He might have been one
30:58
Speaker 1: of the four hundred making a call. Ruben S. knew
31:01
Speaker 1: how to make a man feel easy and no mistake.
31:04
Speaker 1: This he seldom observed at once, though he had, in fact,
31:08
Speaker 1: no knowledge of the practical tact which dealt with him.
31:11
Speaker 1: He found himself answering questions about Lady Anstruthers and her sister,
31:16
Speaker 1: which led to the opening up of other subjects. He
31:19
Speaker 1: did not realise that he began to express ingenious opinions
31:22
Speaker 1: and describe things. His listeners' interest led him on. A
31:26
Speaker 1: question here, a rather pleased laugh there, were encouraging. He'd
31:30
Speaker 1: enjoyed himself so much during his stay in England, and
31:33
Speaker 1: had felt his experiences so greatly to be rejoiced over,
31:37
Speaker 1: that they were easy to talk of at any time.
31:39
Speaker 1: In fact, it was even a trifle difficult not to
31:42
Speaker 1: talk of them. But stimulated by the look which rested
31:45
Speaker 1: on him, by the deft word and ready smile, words
31:48
Speaker 1: flowed readily and without the restraint of self-consciousness.' When you
31:53
Speaker 1: think that it all sort of began with a robin,'
31:55
Speaker 1: it' s queer enough,' he said.' But for that robin I
31:58
Speaker 1: shouldn't be here, sir,' with a boyish laugh.' And he
32:01
Speaker 1: was an English robin, a little fella,' not half the
32:03
Speaker 1: size of the kind that hops about Central Park.'' Let
32:06
Speaker 1: me hear about that,' said Mr. Vanderpool.' It was a
32:10
Speaker 1: good story, and he told it well,' though in his
32:12
Speaker 1: own junior salesman phrasing.' He began with his bicycle ride
32:16
Speaker 1: into the green country,' his spin over the fine roads,'
32:20
Speaker 1: his rest under the hedge during the shower— and then
32:23
Speaker 1: the song of the robin perched among the fresh wet leafage,
32:26
Speaker 1: his feathers puffed out, his red young satin-gloss breasts pulsating
32:30
Speaker 1: and swelling. His words were colloquial enough, but they called
32:33
Speaker 1: up the picture.' Everything sort of glittering with the sunshine
32:37
Speaker 1: on the wet drops, and things smelling good like they
32:40
Speaker 1: do after rain, leaves and grass and good earth. I
32:43
Speaker 1: tell you, it made a fellow feel as if the
32:45
Speaker 1: whole world was his brother.' And when Mr. Robb lit
32:49
Speaker 1: on that twig and swelled his red breast out as
32:51
Speaker 1: if he knew the whole thing was his, and began
32:53
Speaker 1: to let them notes out, calling for his lady friend
32:56
Speaker 1: to come and go halves with him, I just had
32:58
Speaker 1: to laugh and speak to him. And that was when
33:01
Speaker 1: Lord Mount Dunstan heard me and jumped over the hedge.
33:04
Speaker 1: He'd been listening too. The expression Rubin S. Vanderpool wore
33:08
Speaker 1: made it an agreeable thing to talk, to go on.
33:11
Speaker 1: He evidently cared to hear. Sir Selden did his best
33:14
Speaker 1: and enjoyed himself in doing it. his style made for
33:18
Speaker 1: realism and brought things clearly before one. The big-built man
33:22
Speaker 1: in the rough and shabby shooting-clothes, his way when he
33:25
Speaker 1: dropped onto the grass to sit beside the stranger and talk,
33:28
Speaker 1: certain meanings in his words which conveyed to Vanderpool what
33:31
Speaker 1: had not been conveyed to G. Seldon. Yes, the man
33:34
Speaker 1: carried a heaviness about with him and hated the burden.
33:38
Speaker 1: Seldon quite unconsciously brought him out strongly. I don't know
33:42
Speaker 1: whether I'm the kind of fellow who's always making breaks,
33:45
Speaker 1: he said, with his boy's laugh again, but if I
33:48
Speaker 1: am I never made a worse one than when I
33:50
Speaker 1: asked him straight if he was out of a job
33:52
Speaker 1: and on the tramp. It showed what a nice fellow
33:55
Speaker 1: he was that he didn't get hot about it. Some
33:57
Speaker 1: fellows would. He only laughed sort of short and said
34:01
Speaker 1: his job had been more than he could handle and
34:03
Speaker 1: he was afraid he was down and out. Mr. Vanderpool
34:07
Speaker 1: was conscious that so far he was somewhat attracted by
34:09
Speaker 1: this central figure. G. Selden was also proving satisfactory in
34:13
Speaker 1: the matter of revealing his excellently simple views of persons
34:17
Speaker 1: and things. The only time he got mad was when
34:20
Speaker 1: I wouldn't believe him when he told me who he was.
34:23
Speaker 1: I was a bit hot in the collar myself. I'd
34:26
Speaker 1: felt sorry for him because I thought he was a
34:28
Speaker 1: chap like myself, and he was up against it. I
34:31
Speaker 1: know what that is, and I'd wanted to jolly him
34:33
Speaker 1: along a bit. When he said his name was Mount
34:35
Speaker 1: Dunstan and the place belonged to him, I guess he
34:38
Speaker 1: thought he was making a joke. So I got on
34:41
Speaker 1: my wheel and started off, and then he got mad
34:43
Speaker 1: for keeps. He said he wasn't such a damn fool
34:46
Speaker 1: as he looked, and what he'd said was true, and
34:48
Speaker 1: I could go and be hanged.' Ruben S. Vanderpool laughed.
34:52
Speaker 1: He liked that. It sounded like decent British hot temper,
34:55
Speaker 1: which he had often found accompanied honest British decencies. He
34:59
Speaker 1: liked other things as the story proceeded. The picture of
35:03
Speaker 1: the huge house with the shut windows made him slightly restless.'
35:07
Speaker 1: The concealed imagination, combined with financier's resentment of dormant interests,
35:11
Speaker 1: disturbed him. That which had attracted Selden in the Reverend
35:15
Speaker 1: Louis Penzance strongly attracted himself. Also a man was a
35:19
Speaker 1: good deal to be judged by his friends. The man
35:23
Speaker 1: who lived alone in the midst of stately desolateness, and
35:25
Speaker 1: held as his chief intimate a high-bred and gentle-minded scholar
35:29
Speaker 1: of ripe years, gave in doing this certain evidence which
35:32
Speaker 1: did not tell against him. The whole situation meant something
35:36
Speaker 1: a splendid, vivid-minded young creature might be moved by, might
35:39
Speaker 1: be allured by, even despite herself. There was something fantastic
35:44
Speaker 1: in the odd linking of incidents. Selden's chance view of
35:47
Speaker 1: Betty as she rode by, his next day's sudden resolve
35:50
Speaker 1: to turn back and go to Stornham, his accident and
35:53
Speaker 1: all that followed seemed, if one were fanciful, part of
35:56
Speaker 1: a scheme prearranged.' When I came to myself,' G. Selden said,
36:02
Speaker 1: i felt like that feller in the shakespeare play that
36:04
Speaker 1: they dress up and put to bed in the palace
36:06
Speaker 1: when he's drunk i thought i'd gone off my head
36:09
Speaker 1: and then miss vanderpoel came he paused a moment and
36:13
Speaker 1: looked down on the carpet thinking gee whiz it was
36:17
Speaker 1: queer he said betty vanderpoel's father could almost hear her
36:21
Speaker 1: voice as the rest was told he knew how her
36:24
Speaker 1: laugh had sounded and what her presence must have been
36:26
Speaker 1: to the young fellow his delightful human always satisfying betty
36:32
Speaker 1: Through this odd trick of fortune Mount Dunstan had begun
36:34
Speaker 1: to see her, since, through the unfair endowment of nature,
36:38
Speaker 1: that it was not wholly fair, he had often told himself,
36:41
Speaker 1: she was all the things that desire could yearn for.
36:44
Speaker 1: There were many chances that when a man saw her
36:46
Speaker 1: he must long to see her again, and there were
36:49
Speaker 1: the same chances that such a one as Mount Dunstan
36:51
Speaker 1: might long also, and if fate was against him, long
36:54
Speaker 1: with a bitter strength. Selden was not aware that he
36:58
Speaker 1: had spoken more fully of Mount Dunstan and his place
37:00
Speaker 1: than of other things. That this had been the case
37:03
Speaker 1: had been because Mr. Vanderpool had intended it should be so.
37:07
Speaker 1: He had subtly drawn out and encouraged a detailed account
37:10
Speaker 1: of the time spent at Mount Dunstan Vicarage. It was
37:13
Speaker 1: easily encouraged. Selden's affectionate admiration for the vicar led him
37:17
Speaker 1: on to enthusiasm. The quiet house and garden, the old books,
37:21
Speaker 1: the afternoon tea under the copper beach, and the long
37:24
Speaker 1: talks of old things which had been so new to
37:27
Speaker 1: the young New Yorker, had plainly made a mark upon
37:29
Speaker 1: his life not likely to be erased even by the
37:32
Speaker 1: rush of after years.' The way he knew history was
37:35
Speaker 1: what got me,' he said,' and the way you got
37:38
Speaker 1: interested in it when he talked.' It wasn't just history
37:41
Speaker 1: like you learn at school' and forget and never see
37:43
Speaker 1: the use of anyhow.' It was things about men, just
37:46
Speaker 1: like yourself,' hustling for a living in their way' just
37:49
Speaker 1: as we're hustling in Broadway.' Most of it was fighting,'
37:53
Speaker 1: and there are mounds scattered about' that are the remains
37:55
Speaker 1: of their forts and camps.' Roman camps, some of them.
37:59
Speaker 1: He took me to see them. He had a little
38:01
Speaker 1: old pony chaise we trundled about in, and he'd draw
38:04
Speaker 1: up and we'd sit and talk. There were men here
38:07
Speaker 1: on this very spot, he'd say, looking out for attack, eating, drinking,
38:12
Speaker 1: cooking their food, polishing their weapons, laughing and shouting, men seldom,
38:17
Speaker 1: fifty-five years before Christ was born, and sometimes the New
38:21
Speaker 1: Testament times seemed to us so far away that they're
38:23
Speaker 1: half a dream. That was the kind of thing he'd say,
38:27
Speaker 1: and I'd sometimes feel as if I heard the Romans shouting.
38:30
Speaker 1: The country about there was full of queer places, and
38:33
Speaker 1: both he and Lord Dunstan knew more about them than
38:36
Speaker 1: I know about Twenty-third Street.' You saw Lord Mount Dunstan often?' Mr.
38:40
Speaker 1: Vanderpool suggested.' Every day, sir, and the more I saw
38:44
Speaker 1: him the more I got to like him. He's all right,
38:47
Speaker 1: but it's hard luck to be fixed as he is.
38:48
Speaker 1: That's stone-cold truth. What's a man to do? The money
38:52
Speaker 1: he ought to have to keep up his place was
38:54
Speaker 1: spent before he was born.' His father and his eldest
38:58
Speaker 1: brother were a bum lot, and his grandfather and great-grandfather
39:01
Speaker 1: were fools. He can't sell the place, and he wouldn't
39:03
Speaker 1: if he could. Mr. Penzance was so fond of him
39:06
Speaker 1: that sometimes he'd say things, but hastily, perhaps I'm talking
39:10
Speaker 1: too much. You happen to be talking about questions I
39:14
Speaker 1: have been greatly interested in. I have thought a good
39:17
Speaker 1: deal at times of the position of the holders of
39:19
Speaker 1: large estates they cannot afford to keep up. This special
39:22
Speaker 1: instance is a case in point. G. Selden felt himself
39:27
Speaker 1: in luck again. Rubenes, quite evidently, found him. his subject
39:30
Speaker 1: worthy of undivided attention. Selden had not heartily liked Lord
39:35
Speaker 1: Mount Dunstan, and lived in the atmosphere surrounding him, looking
39:38
Speaker 1: about him with sharp young New York eyes, without learning
39:41
Speaker 1: a good deal. He had seen the practical hardship of
39:44
Speaker 1: the situation, and laid it bare. What Mr. Penzance says
39:48
Speaker 1: is that he's like the men that built things in
39:50
Speaker 1: the beginning, fought for them, fought Romans and Saxons and Normans,
39:54
Speaker 1: perhaps the whole lot at different times. I used to
39:57
Speaker 1: like to get Mr. Penzance to tell stories about the
40:00
Speaker 1: Mount Dunstans. They were splendid. It must be pretty fine
40:04
Speaker 1: to look back about a thousand years and know your
40:07
Speaker 1: folks have been something. All the same, it's pretty fierce
40:10
Speaker 1: to have to stand alone at the end of it,
40:13
Speaker 1: not able to help yourself because some of your relations
40:15
Speaker 1: were crazy fools.' I don't wonder he feels mad.'' Does he?' Mr.
40:20
Speaker 1: Vanderpool inquired.' He' s straight,' said G. Selden sympathetically.' He' s all right,
40:26
Speaker 1: but only money can help him, and he's got none,
40:29
Speaker 1: 'so he has to stand and stare at things falling
40:31
Speaker 1: to pieces.' And, well, I tell you, Mr. Vanderpool, he
40:35
Speaker 1: loves that place.' He' s crazy about it, and he's proud.'
40:39
Speaker 1: I don't mean he's got the swell head, because he hasn't,
40:42
Speaker 1: but he's just proud.' Now, for instance, he hasn't any
40:45
Speaker 1: use for men like himself that marry just for money.
40:48
Speaker 1: He's seen a lot of it, and it's made him sick.
40:50
Speaker 1: He's not that kind.' He had been asked and had
40:54
Speaker 1: answered a good many questions before he went away, but
40:57
Speaker 1: each had dropped into the talk so incidentally that he
40:59
Speaker 1: had not recognised them as queries. He did not know
41:03
Speaker 1: that Lord Mount Dunstan stood out a clearly defined figure
41:05
Speaker 1: in Mr. Vanderpool's mind, a figure to be reflected upon,
41:09
Speaker 1: and one not without its attraction.' Miss Vanderpool tells me, Mr.
41:14
Speaker 1: Vanderpool said, when the interview was drawing to a close,
41:18
Speaker 1: that you are an agent for the Delcoff typewriter. G.
41:21
Speaker 1: Selden flushed slightly. Yes, sir, he answered, but I didn't.
41:27
Speaker 1: I hear that three machines are in use on the
41:29
Speaker 1: Stornham estate and that they have proved satisfactory. It's a
41:32
Speaker 1: good machine, said G. Selden, his flush a little deeper. Mr.
41:37
Speaker 1: Vanderpool smiled. You are a businesslike young man, he said.'
41:41
Speaker 1: and I have no doubt you have a catalogue in
41:43
Speaker 1: your pocket.'' Gee, Selden was a businesslike young man.' He
41:47
Speaker 1: gave Mr. Vanderpool one serious look and the catalogue was
41:50
Speaker 1: drawn forth.' It wouldn't be business, sir, for me to
41:53
Speaker 1: be caught out without it,' he said.' I shouldn't leave
41:56
Speaker 1: it behind if I went to a funeral.' A man's
41:58
Speaker 1: got to run no risks.' I should like to look
42:01
Speaker 1: at it.'' The thing had happened.' It was not a dream.'
42:06
Speaker 1: Ruben S. Vanderpool, clothed and in his right mind, had,
42:09
Speaker 1: without pressure being exerted upon him, expressed his desire to
42:13
Speaker 1: look at the catalogue, to examine it, to have it
42:15
Speaker 1: explained to him at length. He listened attentively while G.
42:20
Speaker 1: Selden did his best. He asked a question now and then,
42:23
Speaker 1: or made a comment. His manner was that of a
42:25
Speaker 1: thoroughly composed man of business, but he was remembering what
42:29
Speaker 1: Betty had told him of the ten per and a
42:31
Speaker 1: number of other things. He saw the flush come and
42:34
Speaker 1: go under the still boyish skin. He observed that G.
42:37
Speaker 1: Selden's hand was not wholly steady, though he was making
42:40
Speaker 1: an effort not to seem excited. But he was excited.
42:44
Speaker 1: This actually meant, this thing so unimportant to multimillionaires, that
42:49
Speaker 1: he was having his chance, and his young fortunes were
42:52
Speaker 1: perhaps in the balance.' Yes,' said Ruben S. when he
42:56
Speaker 1: had finished.' It seems a good, up-to-date machine.'' It' s the
43:00
Speaker 1: best on the market,' said G. Selden.'' Out and out
43:03
Speaker 1: the best.'' I understand you are only junior salesmen?'' Yes, sir.
43:09
Speaker 1: Ten per and five dollars on every machine I sell.
43:12
Speaker 1: If I had a territory I should get ten.'' Then, reflectively,
43:17
Speaker 1: the first thing is to get a territory.'' Perhaps I
43:21
Speaker 1: shall get one in time if I keep at it,'
43:23
Speaker 1: said Selden courageously.' It' s a good machine. I like it,'
43:27
Speaker 1: said Mr. Vanderpool.' I can see a good many places
43:30
Speaker 1: where it could be used.' Perhaps if you make it
43:33
Speaker 1: known at your office that when you are given a
43:35
Speaker 1: good territory I shall give preference to the Delcoff over
43:38
Speaker 1: other typewriting machines, it might, eh?' A light broke out
43:43
Speaker 1: upon G. Seldon's countenance, a light radiant and magnificent. He
43:47
Speaker 1: caught his breath, a desire to shout, to yell, to whoop,
43:51
Speaker 1: as when in the society of the boys was barely
43:53
Speaker 1: conquered in time.' Mr. Vanderpool,' he said, standing up,' I— Mr. Vanderpool, sir,
44:00
Speaker 1: I feel as if I was having a pipe dream.
44:03
Speaker 1: I'm not, am I?'' No,' answered Mr. Vanderpool,' you are not.
44:09
Speaker 1: I like you, Mr. Selden. My daughter liked you. I
44:11
Speaker 1: do not mean to lose sight of you. We will begin, however,
44:15
Speaker 1: with the Territory and the Delcoff. I don't think there
44:18
Speaker 1: will be any difficulty about it.' Ten minutes later G.
44:22
Speaker 1: Selden was walking down Fifth Avenue, wondering if there was
44:25
Speaker 1: any chance of his being arrested by a policeman upon
44:27
Speaker 1: the charge that he was reeling instead of walking steadily.
44:31
Speaker 1: He hoped he should get back to the hall bedroom safely.
44:34
Speaker 1: Nick Baumgarten and Jem Bolter both roomed in the house
44:37
Speaker 1: with him. He could tell them both. It was Jem
44:40
Speaker 1: who had made up the yarn about one of them
44:42
Speaker 1: saving Ruben S. Vanderpool's life. There had been no life-saving,
44:46
Speaker 1: but the thing had come true. But if it hadn't
44:50
Speaker 1: been for Lord Mount Dunstan, he said, thinking it over excitedly,
44:54
Speaker 1: I should never have seen Miss Vanderpool, and if it
44:57
Speaker 1: hadn't been for Miss Vanderpool I should have never got
44:59
Speaker 1: next to Ruben S. in my life. Both sides of
45:03
Speaker 1: the Atlantic Ocean got busy to do a good turn
45:05
Speaker 1: to Little Willie. Holly gee!' In his study Mr. Vanderpool
45:10
Speaker 1: was re-reading Betty's letters. He felt that he had gained
45:14
Speaker 1: a certain knowledge of Lord Mount Dunstan. End of Chapter
45:18
Speaker 1: 38