SHE COULD NOT READ TO-NIGHT, THOUGH SHE TEIED. 
 
 (Frontispiece. See page 147.) 
 
JOHN ANDBOSS. 
 
 BY 
 
 REBECCA HARDING DAVIS, 
 
 ATTTHOB OF "LIFE ix THE IKON MILLS," "DALLAS GALEHAI-TH." "WAITIXO FOB 
 
 THB VEKDICT," ETC., ETC, 
 
 ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 
 ORANGE JUDD COMPANY, 
 
 845 BROADWAY. 
 
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1874, by the 
 
 OEANGE JUDD COMPANY, 
 In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 
 
JOHN AKDBOSS. 
 
 M555074 
 
ILLUSTKATIONS. 
 
 She could not read to-night, though she tried Frontispiece. 
 
 "Why, Andross drew six thousand dollars the day before he was missing.". . . 32 
 
 Mother ! Mother I" he cried. He was turning from her forever 126 
 
 Braddock s mental anguish *^ 
 
 They fluttered fearlessly all about her. She and they seemed to belong 
 
 to the bright, pure morning 
 
 "Come to me at once. A great danger threatens me which you can 
 avert.-A." 193 
 
JOHN ANDBOSS. 
 
 CHAPT-ER I. 
 
 THE Niagara Express, just before sunset at the close 
 of a sultry July day, was puffing slowly into Lock 
 Haven, a small lumber-town which is the key of 
 access to the wild mountainous district of Pennsylvania, 
 from the rich coal and oil valleys below. As the smoking 
 engine came in sight, a runner from one of the inns 
 hastily pasted up a written placard on the wooden wall of 
 the station, where it would face the car windows, reading 
 it aloud to half a dozen lounging men and boys : 
 
 " Mysterious Disappearance /Supposed Murder. A 
 
 hope it a n t no murder, a m sure. But ," gloomily 
 
 wiping the paste off his fingers inside of his trousers 
 pockets, " Joe Vanderpoelen came down from the moun 
 tains last night, and he says there s them there as hints 
 of suicide, but a says, ( For what reason? a says. <A 
 man don t kill and bury hisself out of sight for no reason 
 at all, Joe, a says. A always did like to get at the com 
 mon sense of a matter." 
 
 "Them Vanderpoelens has always got some cock-and- 
 bull story going," observed the station-master scoffingly, 
 squirting tobacco more vigorously as the train approached. 
 7 
 
8 JOH^ ANDROSS. 
 
 " This a n t no Vanderpoelen story," patting down the 
 wet edges of the bill. " Old Judge Maddox is down his- 
 self about it. Hasn t been out of the mountains for two 
 years. Sending telegrams right and left. He come to 
 meet Doctor Braddock when he gets in. He s looked for 
 on this train." 
 
 " Rough news for Braddock." 
 
 "So a says," eagerly. "A thought of him first one. 
 A just sent Jimmy up for the bus, so s a d be here to 
 break it to him myself in case the judge s not about. 
 Never do for him to hear it first from strangers, or by the 
 placards. Hi! here she is ! " as the train came up along 
 side of the station. 
 
 Dr. Braddock and a stranger, a large showily dressed 
 man, came out of the cars and halted, as people do in 
 the country, to watch the train steam leisurely off, leav 
 ing a wavering line of bituminous smoke across the hot 
 blue sky. The bill-poster stood irresolute. There was 
 always something in the gloss and primness of the doc 
 tor s tall, lank figure which daunted one of the great 
 unwashed, but to come off of a long and dusty journey 
 immaculately gloved, and with such snowy shirt cuffs and 
 a high beaver hat instead of a slouchy felt, was to mark 
 the gulf between them offensively. 
 
 Dr. Braddock touched his hat. "My team here, 
 Joseph ? " 
 
 " No, sir. A ll drive you up to the Fallon House ? 
 A d better now ? " Joe needed to bolster his courage 
 before he offered himself as a sympathizing friend to a 
 man who touched his hat to him. The doctor s compan 
 ion had turned his bold laughing eyes on the men on the 
 platform, called one of them a lout for dropping his 
 valise, and so was hail-fellow-well-met with them already. 
 Dr. Braddock had never been hail-fellow-well-met with 
 anybody in his life. 
 
 "No, we ll wait," he said. " Andross," turning to his 
 
ANDBOSS. 9 
 
 friend with a polite mannerism that tried to be cordial, 
 " Andross promised to drive down from the mountains to 
 meet us. I depend on him to make your two weeks 
 holiday what it ought to be. He said the first thing to 
 look to was the larder, and he was right there. The air 
 up yonder makes a stranger ravenous. It s too late for 
 venison, but he promised to have trout and partridges for 
 supper if he scoured the Mttany range for them. Here 
 he is ! " as a wagon, swung low for mountain roads, and 
 drawn by a black horse dashed down the dusty street. 
 "Why, that is not John!" crossing the platform; 
 "that s the judge." 
 
 Joe, afraid that his ill news would be taken from him, 
 hurried after him. Braddock, zealous Presbyterian as he 
 was, was known to be so irritable a man and so easily 
 rasped by trifles that Joe had a curiosity to see how ke 
 would deport himself when met by a great disaster. 
 
 " You don t observe the placard, Doctor ? " carefully 
 standing in front of it. " Mysterious disappearance. 
 Murder in the Nittany Eange. Why there ha n t been 
 such eggsitement in Lock Haven since the war no, sir. 
 Mr. Andross being such a popular man too " 
 
 " Who is murdered ?" pushing him aside. " What is 
 this fellow chattering about Andross s popularity for ? " 
 sharply to Judge Maddox. But Joe, whose blear eyes 
 were as keen as a ferret s, noticed that the doctor was not 
 startled by the ill news. "If a d av told him Andross 
 hed killed hisself, he d not have been surprised. He was 
 lookin for ill news of him, take my word for that. 
 Lookin for it ; " he told up in the bar-room afterwards. 
 
 Judge Maddox, who in his blue cloth coat looked not 
 unlike one of the round-bellied, blue-painted oil-barrels 
 on the platform, gently patted Joe on the back with his 
 pudgy hand. Murder or not, there was no need of 
 offending a possible customer. " Ah ! Joseph, is it you? 
 And how s that mare you bought do ? Balky, eh ? Tut* 
 
10 JOHN 
 
 tut ! Just a word with Dr. Braddock. Come in this 
 office, Clay," rolling into a square closet where a man 
 stood writing. Mr. Stiles ? Just give the doctor and 
 me a moment here. Got rid of that dyspepsia yet ? Tried 
 podophyllin ? Don t dabble in medicines, hey ? Eight, 
 right ! " shutting Stiles out of his office. " It s Andross, 
 Clay. He s gone." 
 
 The judge s face was at blood heat, but he did not 
 wipe it. It was noticeable that Dr. Braddock made no 
 exclamation, and before he spoke at all shut the window. 
 " What do you mean by gone ? Is he dead ?" 
 " God knows ! How can I tell ? Busy at his accounts 
 at nine o clock Saturday evening, and walks out ; walks 
 out without a coat in his waistcoat leaves the blotter 
 on the open book, desk unlocked, lamp burning, and 
 never comes back. Just as if the earth had opened and 
 swallowed him. Place all alight from the furnace, yet 
 not one of the hands saw him. I ve not eaten a full 
 meal since. Nor slept. Counted the clock strike every 
 hour last night. I said to Anna, if Braddock were here 
 some of the horrible responsibility would be off my 
 shoulders. You and Andross being just like brothers. 
 Very rare to find such friendships between Americans. 
 Germans, now, are more addicted to that sort of thing. 
 Why I ve seen two six-foot red- whiskered fellows kiss like 
 school-girls ; but that s not Andross, poor fellow ! It s 
 wretched, wretched ! Got such a turn after the soup 
 yesterday thinking of him, I couldn t eat another mouth 
 ful. Such a light-hearted, jovial fellow you know ! 
 < Poor old baldhead Elisha, my little Joe called him," 
 chuckling. " I checked that in Joe promptly. Don t 
 like forward children. Well, what do you think, Brad- 
 dock ? I telegraphed for the police. None of your 
 country bunglers a sharp city practitioner. D ye think 
 it was suicide ? Or how about those old shafts on the 
 ridge ? The men tell me there s some man-traps near 
 
JOH3" AKDEOSS. 11 
 
 the ore banks sixty feet deep. Well, what d ye think, 
 Braddock?" 
 
 " You sent for the police ? I am sorry for that." 
 
 " Hey ? You don t say so ! Why, I told Anna first 
 words Braddock will speak will be, ( Have you sent for 
 the police ? And you really think we d better not have 
 them ? Well I am astonished ! I ll go and telegraph at 
 once for them not to come. Better trust to our own wits. 
 They re a pompous lot ! Low, uncultured fellows 
 generally, dressed in the little brief authority of billies 
 and white -gloves, you see ! Too much for them. Well, 
 what do you think, Braddock ? Was it murder ? " his 
 bulgy gray eyes quailing a little. 
 
 " Murder ? What possible motive could anybody have 
 in killing Andross ? " 
 
 " Just what I said. Best-hearted fellow ! Wouldn t 
 hurt a worm ! The old shafts now. He might have 
 wandered out, and accidentally there would not be a 
 chance for him there." 
 
 "John knows the Nittany Eidge thoroughly, and it 
 was not likely he would purposely wander beyond it." 
 
 Dr. Braddock paused before each reply as if to choose 
 his words. His whole bearing, since he heard the news, 
 had been noticeably cautious and repressed. Even the 
 judge, whose perception was of the dullest, observed this 
 unwonted reticence in the usually quick, outspoken young 
 man. He was, like Joe, disappointed that his news had 
 produced so little sensation. 
 
 , "I thought, Braddock," irritably, "you would have 
 some plausible theory at least about it ? " 
 
 "Yes, yes, certainly. Give me time." 
 
 "You re in a measure responsible for Andross. You 
 stood sponsor for him at the Works. It was on your 
 recommendation I put him in the office ; you know that." 
 
 "Well, you ve had no reason to regret it, Judge." 
 
 "No, not till now. But whatever it is to you this has 
 
12 JOHK ANDBOSS. 
 
 been a terrible shock to me. If the fellow had died in his 
 bed, like other people, it would have been another thing. 
 But at my age a man is shy of sensations. After fifty 
 all trouble is apt to go to the liyer or bowels. Jake at 
 the mill says it was suicide ; but that s absurd." 
 
 Braddock was silent. 
 
 " That s sheer nonsense. What trouble had that fellow 
 to make him go cut his throat ? If he had, more likely 
 his brain was affected, and he s wandered off into the 
 mountains and will turn up again all right." 
 
 " In that case he would not have left the desk open." 
 
 " Stuff ! Do you suppose if a man is so mad as not to 
 care for his life he ll care for my cash-box ? " 
 
 "Yes," promptly. "There s nothing sticks in even 
 the maddest brain like the idea of duty duty that has 
 been promised and paid for." 
 
 " Oh ! all men are not machines. Nor Braddocks," 
 chuckling. "You might go hang yourself at twelve 
 o clock, but you d wind the mill clock at eleven. Jack 
 was a different breed a different breed, sir. As jovial, 
 jolly a dog as ever I knew, especially after a glass or two 
 of dry sherry he always took his wine too dry but as to 
 a nice sense of honour, I don t know. No. I don t know 
 about that, Clay." 
 
 The doctor crossed the room and tried the door. 
 
 "Not so loud," he said, irritably. His mouth was 
 parched, and he had the uncertain haste of movement of 
 ahorse that has been under the curb too long. "You 
 forget, Judge, that Andross was my friend, and that in 
 all likelihood he is dead." 
 
 " "Why, nobody heard me. "Who is that strange fellow 
 that came with you, anyhow ? " 
 
 " His name is Ware. A poor devil of a newspaper man 
 out for a holiday." 
 
 " And what s he here for, eh ? Wants to write up the 
 
JOHX ANDROSS. 13 
 
 Works, I suppose ? I want nothing written about the 
 Works. I want to run the business clear of print." 
 
 This last idea had apparently banished Andross and his 
 mysterious fate from that fat substance inside his pulpy 
 head which the judge frequently mentioned as " the best 
 brain in the state, sir." Two ideas never subsisted there 
 together. Yet it was a serviceable brain in its way ; had 
 served to amass a fortune for its owner, and prompted 
 him to show kindness to every unlucky dog, whether 
 man or beast, that crossed his more fortunate path. 
 
 ( You know well enough, Braddock," he muttered, 
 ( that I mean to keep the Works out of sight of the pub 
 lic until Fm sole owner, and now you bring this interview 
 ing pump " 
 
 " He never heard of you or the Works," said Braddock, 
 uncivil and blunt as usual. " He wants," with a shrusr, 
 
 O 
 
 " to interview Nature. He has had a great deal to say on 
 the way up about the Great Mother." 
 
 " I wish him joy of her acquaintance. There s no need 
 for him to meddle in this mess about Andross." 
 
 "No. There is my horse and wagon at last. I ll 
 drive Ware out," opening the door. 
 
 "All right. I ll keep along-side. This ghastly busi 
 ness has knocked me up so that How this town is look 
 ing up, hey ? There s a new row of shops now, very neat 
 very neat. Pay eleven per cent, I judge. But oh ! 
 you re off, eh ? " turning to find himself alone, and puff 
 ing slowly out. 
 
 Dr. Braddock s sallow face relaxed as soon as the judge s 
 "chud, chud" of talk died out behind him. He halted 
 .a minute on the vacant side of the platform out of sight 
 of Ware and the men. He was a man accustomed to 
 fling all his emotion into words at once. Ill-conditioned 
 and bigoted, both words and emotions often were, per 
 haps, but always quite open and bare for God and his f el- 
 
14 JOHN ANDROSS. 
 
 low-man to judge. " It is either a fool or a knave who 
 must have secrets," he always said. 
 
 Yet a secret had just been forced on him, and a neces 
 sity for controul of tongue and even eye, at the very in 
 stant when he fairly staggered under the chance that 
 death had taken out of the world one of the two or three 
 people who were his friends in it. For Braddock was as 
 narrow and bigoted in his affections as his creed. 
 
 Mr. Ware, however, soon cut short his pause for 
 breath. 
 
 " Where the deuce have you been, Doctor ? Sick ? 
 You look pinched about the nose and jaws. Nothing 
 wrong, I hope ? I should dislike confoundedly to be con 
 fined in this dusty town over night. I catch a whiff of 
 the mountain air already !" his wide, red nostrils expand 
 ing. " Come, come ! Let s go. Why, I looked to see 
 you all fire at the first breath of your native hills. You 
 have no touch of the Swiss homesickness which should 
 belong to all mountaineers." 
 
 " There s no necessity for homesickness. I ve only been 
 gone two weeks." 
 
 " Shall we go ? " Mr. Ware drew long breaths as though 
 his chest was oppressed, stretched out his arms, the red 
 rising and fading in his large thin-skinned features. His 
 chest was so broad, the^grasp of his arms so wide, his ex 
 altation of feeling so assertant that even Joe repressed his 
 first inclination to snigger, and looked on respectfully. 
 " Pardon my impatience," he said, wiping his forehead 
 with a delicately fine handkerchief, " the near approach 
 to Nature is like music or a fine picture, it affects my 
 nerves like an electric battery and a . Some stamina 
 is lacking in my bodily organization which you more 
 phlegmatic, bony people have " 
 
 There he broke off abruptly, turning away as if con 
 scious that his audience would not understand him. It 
 was Mr. Ware s habit to make his small talk into an ora- 
 
JOHK ANDKOSS. 15 
 
 tion, and thus break off abruptly, his fine brown eyes gaz 
 ing rapt before him, " finishing his remarks/ as some 
 coarse joker had said, " to infinity." 
 
 Braddock meanwhile was sponging his horse s nostrils 
 as carefully as if he had been handling a baby. His 
 trouble might pinch his face and load the blood in his 
 veins, but assuredly his nag would not suffer for it. Had 
 he not been rebuked in church session for squandering 
 time and money at horse-fairs, and it was even hinted at 
 horse-races ? "He ought to have been fed two hours ago. 
 You know I never drive him on a full stomach ! " he said 
 to Joe so fiercely that the judge called from his wagon : 
 
 " There, there ! Come, Doctor, I want you to be up 
 on the ground early. We must take measures to-night ; " 
 and added aside, " What are you hectoring that man for, 
 Clay ? he might be of use to you yet ; and for a brute 
 beast, too ! It s unbecoming a professor of religion," and 
 then bowled off. 
 
 Dr. Braddock sat stiffly upright. His companion, big 
 and buoyant, had an air of laying claim to ownership of 
 the sun and all about him. With his rolling dark eyes 
 and large gesticulating hands he gave you the impression 
 that he would have settled himself just as easily on Char 
 lemagne s stone throne or a shoemaker s bench as the 
 buggy-seat. Braddock had no impression about him ex 
 cept to wish heartily that he was back in New York. He 
 had hoped this crisis would never come. Now that it had 
 come, it needed all his skill and well-known friendship for 
 Andross to cover it from ordinary observers. But what 
 could he do with this fellow s absorbing eyes and ready 
 note-book in pocket beside him ? 
 
 He never had learned to alter one of his words or to 
 conceal a look. 
 
 He found out presently that Ware was talking to him. 
 Ware s was a portly orotund voice for a young man, but 
 musical withal. 
 
16 JOHN AKDROSS. 
 
 " Yes, it was an old master s mate gave me that dress 
 ing-case thorough type of the old Jack-tar, as you find 
 him in Cooper. Bit of gratitude, that was. I heard a 
 man was down with Asiatic cholera ; went and offered 
 myself as nurse. Town was in an uproar, but I brought 
 the man through. So, after his next voyage he brought 
 me this. Chinese, you see, complete. Look at the carv 
 ing of that ivory and these inlaid flagons. But you don t 
 care for such things, Braddock ? Now I do. I want the 
 commonplaces of every day to be aesthetically shaped and 
 colored before they touch me. I ve been a blacksmith in 
 my day, and lived in the ashes and dust ; yet it pleases me 
 to think that when my dead bones are in the coffin, white 
 satin padding will come between them and the boards." 
 
 " Very sensible people do have such whims sometimes," 
 said Clay apologetically, wishing to be civil. 
 
 " Now you are not quite callous to outside impressions," 
 in an encouraging tone ; " not quite, or you would not be 
 here. Laird told me how you studied medicine and tried 
 journalism, a*nd finally left New York to be clerk in these 
 out-of-the-way iron works, because here was your home. 
 The mountains had their hold on you." 
 
 " I wanted to make money, and I came here as the 
 most likely place to make it." 
 
 " Laird told me you had saved some money and were 
 anxious to double it soon," with a quick side glance. 
 
 Braddock had no secrets. A trifle but my savings 
 for three years : about seven thousand dollars." 
 
 "You ought to have put it into Laird s hands. It 
 would have grown like weeds in a barn yard. He is head 
 of a ring in New York and Philadelphia. It s omnipo 
 tent, sir. It holds one city at least, lawmakers and law 
 givers, so " closing his large fingers on a dandelion seed 
 on his palm. "Yes. If Laird was a friend of yours 
 your money would have yielded a thousand-fold." 
 
 " He was well enough disposed to me. But I may 
 
JOHN A^DROSS. 17 
 
 have had a prejudice against planting my money in such 
 dirty ground." 
 
 " Oh-h ? " with the same quick, furtive glance. " Well, 
 I have had just such a fancy in my time. Porter, the 
 pork dealer in New Haven, asked me once to go in with 
 him. A sure thing it was, but I declined. ( I may have 
 stood over the forge, said I, but I can t see the name 
 of Julius Ware going all over the country cut into greasy 
 hams. Foolish. But I have these idiosyncrasies. Can t 
 cure myself of them any more than of my cleft chin." 
 
 Braddock was silent. They had run into another 
 blind alley of conversation, the only way out of which 
 was that by which they had entered Ware. 
 
 That never-wearied subject sat tranquil, combing his 
 magnificent red beard with his white fingers, and glanc 
 ing alternately admiringly down on it and questioningly 
 over the rolling hills, as though inquiring whether Na 
 ture knew who was coming. 
 
 " Oh, by the way ! " he said presently, this friend of 
 yours who was to have provided the trout Andross has 
 had some adventure, they say ? Missing, eh ? " 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 " Too bad if there has been murder or that sort of 
 thing. But not likely. We newspaper men know how 
 such reports grow. He ll turn up all right. Without 
 the trout, probably. More s the pity." 
 
 " Come up, Tom," said Braddock, with a queer tight 
 ening of his lips. 
 
 Tom was carrying them lightly from the farm lands 
 into the higher levels ; they had left Judge Maddox far 
 behind ; the sun was bright ; a cool damp wind met them 
 from the forests full of astringent piny smells. Ware 
 , heaved a sigh of luxury, threw his cap down at his feet, 
 and stretching back, clasped his hands behind his head. 
 He never could be still a moment. He had been the best 
 smith on the forge so far as thundering blows went ; now 
 
18 JOHI* ANDEOSS. 
 
 that he had neither hammer nor anvil, and was cased in 
 by broadcloth clothes and an education, some restless force 
 in his blood worked itself off in incessant motion of brain 
 or body. Just now, his brain having nothing before it but 
 Andross, he employed his body in what he would have 
 called "feeling of" himself the mass of hair (significant 
 live hair he knew it to be) ; the thick, white prize-fight 
 er s throat ; the white, stubby-fingered hands. He 
 glanced critically and approvingly down at his brawny, 
 well-shaped legs and then at Braddock s, all of whose 
 members unfortunately had a lean and hungry look. 
 
 "But," appearing to remember lazily after awhile the 
 subject of conversation, "don t you think now, Brad- 
 dock, it was a little Quixotic in you to bring this Andross 
 into the office with you ; to adopt christen him, eh ? A 
 middle-aged poor devil with neither kith nor kin, I hear." 
 
 "No ; neither kith nor kin." 
 
 " No friends but yourself. And you pick him up, char 
 coal burning and half starved, and get him work should 
 er him ? Now, I m one of the most impulsive of men, but 
 I never go into partnership with incompetency. Never." 
 
 "You don t know Andross or you would not use the 
 word." 
 
 " I know," with a triumphant laugh, " that he was a 
 man of education burning charcoal at middle-age when 
 you saddled yourself with him. Depend on it, if a man 
 reaches thirty-five without making his mark there s some 
 \ part of the machine lacking. I wonder what scrape the 
 fellow has tumbled into now ? A woman, eh ? I heard 
 a hint of that at Lock Haven." 
 
 " Your information seems to have been minute, Ware." 
 
 "Oh no ! Just a few words of gossip with the men 
 on the platform while you swabbed Tom s mouth. I 
 don t confine myself to the Brahmin caste for my friends, 
 I find companions among soldiers, priests, and Pariahs. 
 Besides, the press " touching himself lightly on his im- 
 
JOHK ANDKOSS. 19 
 
 maculately glossy white shirt " absorbs information 
 above ground as the long-armed polypi draw in their din 
 ners under water. And it is about as hopeless an under 
 taking to fight one as to fight the other, eh ? " 
 (( I suppose so." 
 
 Doctor Braddock sat more stiffly erect, while his com 
 panion lolled back again, feeling that he had, by a lucky 
 image, put the relative position of press and public forci 
 bly. His imagery, hair, beard, legs : here was unfailing- 
 matter for contemplation with which he never wearied 
 himself, and, oddly enough, seldom tired his companions. 
 There was something so genial and responsive and full- 
 blooded in the intent look of the brown eyes and grasp 
 of the hand of this big, warm-colored, confidential fel 
 low, that most women and all men turned to him with a 
 sense of relief from the ordinary mass of bilious, abstract 
 ed American citizens, and listened with interest to the 
 lively disquisitions of Ware on Ware. Just now, how 
 ever, he represented to the man beside him the world at 
 large. Braddock certainly had shouldered Andross ; and 
 he would have liked, according to his custom, to fight his 
 battle for him with a few furious, telling blows. It was 
 terribly hard, he thought, that he was forced to do no 
 thing but sit passive and speak inanely in monosyllables. 
 As for Ware and the press or the world, the simile held 
 good ; they were like flabby, long-armed polypi, trying to 
 draw his secret from him. 
 
 Stopping to water his horse at a wayside spring, Brad- 
 dock heard Judge Maddox signalling him behind. Night 
 was beginning to fall, and they had just turned into the 
 gloomy mountain passes ; the judge was tired of being 
 without a listener. 
 
 " My wagon is stouter than yours, Clay," he said, " I ll 
 take Mr. Ware, if you choose." 
 
 He began to reflect that he was horribly cut up just now, 
 and Braddock would be a dull companion for a few days 
 
ANDKOSS. 
 
 until this miserable business was settled, and Andross, 
 the only good company on the mountain, was gone. Be 
 sides, it might be as well to have a friend in a newspaper 
 man, in case he threw the Works into the market. 
 
 " I ll take charge of Mr. Ware to-night," he said, after 
 the exchange was made, "while you go to work at the 
 mystery ; and for God s sake, Clay, get to the bottom of 
 it to-morrow." 
 
 Braddock nodded curtly, and they drove off ; he turn 
 ed the horse up a sharp defile which would bring him half 
 an hour sooner to the Works. 
 
 " It s rough 011 you, I know, old fellow," he said, apolo 
 getically to Tom, just as if he had been a man. 
 
 Passing a gap he could see the lights twinkling in his 
 mother s window. It was there they were to have had 
 supper, and he thought of Jack, as he had seen him a 
 dozen times, in his shirt sleeves, anxiously broiling the 
 venison, " which nobody but the hunter ought to touch," 
 while his mother stood gravely by, dish in hand. He re 
 membered now another trouble, which this news had 
 driven out of his mind ; the difficulty he would have in 
 satisfying his mother that he had done wisely in refusing 
 his money to Laird. She had known Houston Laird when 
 he was a boy in the Jersey village where she was born, 
 and before Clay started had been sounding his praises. 
 
 "As pretty a boy as you would see, and good-natured 
 to silliness. No ; he played his marbles and mumble-the- 
 peg as fair as need be ; and if he were the scoundrel you 
 say, it would have showed itself then. Just as the twig 
 you know. Sent me a photograph of his wife when he 
 married quite the family man. You re too suspicious, 
 Clay. Siiiy, Houston Laird may be, but he has nothing 
 to do with packed election boxes and Eings, take my word 
 for it." 
 
 His mother was Scotch-Irish, and consequently was her 
 own pope, from rules of faith to the colour of a cap rib- 
 
JOHK ANDEOSS. 21 
 
 bon ; religiously loved her friends and hated her enemies. 
 She had the Scotch-Irish thrift too, undiluted by Ameri 
 can swagger or generosity. She knew to a dollar the 
 amount of Clay s hoardings, and what the especial chance 
 in life was that he hoped to command by them. 
 
 "She ll think I ought to have given it to Laird to turn 
 over for me, and asked no questions," moving uneasily 011 
 his seat. " But it s clean now anyhow." 
 
 He put his hand in his pocket. Braddock had his mo 
 ther s blood. At any other time he would have enjoyed 
 the rustle of the crisp bank-notes and even the smell of 
 them, and the plodding back over the last five years to 
 think how they had been earned. But he forgot them 
 now, even while he held them. Going by one of those 
 gorges of the Muncey range, in which the mountain 
 has been torn asunder ages ago by volcanic action, he look 
 ed into the chasm between the shattered walls of gray 
 rock rising to the sky, down which a low watery moon 
 threw uncertain shadows, and suddenly saw, as in a vis 
 ion, Andross lying there, his face turned upward to the 
 sky. Who knew but that he lay in that very chasm, 
 "with the old bulgy check suit on at which we laughed," 
 his thoughts ran on, " and the torn felt hat ? Such a 
 slouching follow as he was ! " The slouching, yet hand 
 some figure lay stiff, with a bullet through the heart, it 
 might be, or a cut in the throat, which to Braddock 
 meant worse than murder, for he could guess out of what 
 part of Andross s hidden past the stab might have come. 
 He urged Tom up the rocky path. Horses generally filled 
 too large a share of the world to this narrow-minded, 
 few-ideaed young fellow ; but just now there seemed to 
 be nothing in it but the slovenly, happy-go-lucky man who 
 lay dead somewhere in these gorges. He had shouldered 
 Andross soul and body, and he set out on the search for 
 him with much of the same feeling a woman has for the 
 child to whom she has given birth. 
 
JOHN ANDROSS. 
 
 CHAPTEE II. 
 
 rpHE Works, as the Gray Eagle Furnace was called, 
 -*- lay under the shadow of a spur of the mountain. 
 The roofs and Falls of the old wooden building, gray 
 with age and charred by falling sparks, were one in color 
 with the limestone rocks about them. Dull reflections 
 from the smouldering furnace threw bars of red light 
 through the rising fogs down as far as Bear Valley. The 
 men came from the inside and stood in the doorway, 
 leaning on their ash-rakes, as the doctor drove up, with 
 the curiosity with which they would look at the chief 
 mourner at a funeral, though every man there knew that 
 he understood Andross better than that fellow Braddock. 
 As for the story that had been whispered about, that 
 Braddock had brought him originally from some coalings 
 in Clinton county, that they could swear was all bosh. 
 Who ever heard of setting charcoal burners to keeping 
 books ? You didn t make silk purses out of such sow s 
 ears as that, and Andross was a silk purse ; the very 
 finest gentleman they had known ; a different make of a 
 man from that supercilious, pious prig, Braddock. 
 
 The mystery or murder had warmed all Gray Eagle Gap 
 into a genial, excited fellowship. One or two quarrels 
 had been made up, and double drinks had to be taken at 
 the usual times for bittering, such was the heat of public 
 feeling. The men detailed themselves in off hours in 
 voluntary searching parties ; popular prejudice ran high 
 against Maddox for not closing the Works, if for nothing 
 else than a mark of respect ; a dozen times a day some 
 body suggested how zealously Andross himself would 
 
JOHK AXDEOSS. 23 
 
 have gone into the thing and scoured the mountains day 
 and night. It was a thousand pities, as Spellin said, he 
 couldn t have joined in the row his death caused ; every 
 body felt that. Braddock would engineer the matter as 
 though he were on horseback and everybody else on foot. 
 Even Spellin the superintendent, when he came out to 
 meet him, spoke in a critical, defiant way. His broad 
 jaws were a shade less purple than usual, he having lop 
 ped off his whiskey a glass or two daily since the occur 
 rence took place. He nodded gruffly. 
 
 " I suppose you ll take this business in hand now. It s 
 not been suffered to drag so far. The two cricks has bin 
 dragged up to the gate, and the old ore banks searched ; 
 but there s hundreds of worn-out shafts there." 
 
 "Yes. Very good. Yes." 
 
 Braddock was trying to pass, but Spellin filled up the 
 doorway. 
 
 " In my opinion the place to operate in now is Bear 
 Valley. 1ST there s no time to lose," sharply. " If he s 
 fell inadvertently, we kin yet save the body." 
 
 " Certainly. You re quite right, Mr. Spellin." 
 
 " You ll go up to Bear Valley right away then ? In 
 fact I sent the men there to wait your orders." 
 
 "At twelve o clock," deliberately drawing out his 
 watch. " It is now ten. I have business in-doors in the 
 meantime. Don t let me be interrupted. Good evening, 
 Mr. Spellin." 
 
 Spellin turned into the Works, not deigning to glance 
 after Braddock as he crossed before the furnace to reach 
 his office. " He takes it as I thought he would, cursedly 
 cool," he thought ; " just like his Scotch-Irish blood ! " 
 But when one of the men hinted the same thing, he sent 
 him with an oath to the right about pretty quickly. 
 " Bosses " might be disagreeable to each other, but they 
 must preserve the prerogatives of their order. 
 
 Braddock shut the door and locked it. The room in 
 
24 JOHK A^DBOSS. 
 
 which he stood was his own office ; inside was Andross s 
 den, as he called it. He struck a light ; he had driven 
 with furious haste to come here ; had felt as though he 
 could scarcely keep from knocking Spellin down as he 
 barred his way ; yet now, being here, he trimmed and 
 re trimmed the lamp, threw some waste-paper in the empty 
 stove, and stood with his back to it, his hands behind 
 him, as if there were a fire, his neatly trimmed whiskers 
 oddly black against his pale face. 
 
 He was so sure of what he should find ! He looked 
 about his square office as though it were new and unfa 
 miliar to him. There was a queer, suggestive contrast 
 between its trig carpeted comfort and that den beyond. 
 Braddock made a home according to his notions of a 
 home, out of even that twelve by fourteen closet. The 
 stove was polished ; the waste-basket held every clipping 
 of paper ; desk, inkstand, pens, were in faultless order ; 
 the varnished book-shelves were lettered above each de 
 partment. History, poetry, belles lettres, etc., etc. To 
 be sure, there were not often more than a dozen books in 
 each. Braddock meant to have a complete library, and 
 after the text-books of his humanities, had begun with 
 English standard authors Hume, Addison, Scott, Chau 
 cer, etc., all bound alike in durable calf adding to them 
 steadily as he could. That a book suited his whim or 
 mood never yet had tempted him to buy it. Time to 
 gratify caprices when the proper solid foundation of 
 knowledge was laid. He went to the book-shelves now 
 and took from a locked drawer beneath, the sole volume 
 that was not new and shining. It was a first edition of 
 Dryden, tobacco-colored with age, the edges of the leaves 
 clinging in dead bits to his fingers. 
 
 When Braddock brought Andross to the Works, that 
 poor creature had only the decent suit which his discov 
 erer had bought at Belief onte for him ; at the end of the 
 first three months, therefore, Braddock handed him his 
 
JOHN AKDROS3, 25 
 
 salary, advising him to run down to Philadelphia and get 
 clothing for the winter. Two days after Jack dashed into 
 the office exultant, and unrolled this book from sheets of 
 tissue paper. 
 
 " Look at that, Braddock ! Heard of the auction of 
 old Pepitt s library in New York just in time to catch the 
 owl train arid go over. I knew nothing would delight 
 you more ! Just look there ! " his eyes sparkling and his 
 fingers unsteady as he turned the mouldy leaves. " A first 
 copy of Dryden, Glorious John ! There s no doubt 
 it s genuine, sir, genuine ! I know this very book. I 
 was with Louis Pepitt when he bought it. I d back that 
 old fellow s eye for a genuine first edition against any 
 man s in America ! and Lord ! what a palate he had for 
 wines. His decision was infallible. There, Braddock. 
 I am so glad to be able to give you a little pleasure," 
 looking full in his face as he handed him the book, with 
 his blue eyes wet and bright. 
 
 Braddock would very much have preferred a new copy, 
 in uniform binding with his other books, but he did not 
 say so, knowing that the poor fellow meant well. The 
 rest of his money he had laid out on a vase of rare Vene 
 tian glass, big enough to hold a single flower, which he 
 carried up to give to Clay s mother. He was a happy 
 man that morning. His miserable or terrible past, what 
 ever it may have been, weighed no heavier on his light 
 heart than did the shabby coat or trousers patched at the 
 knees. He put a fern leaf or two in the vase and set it on 
 Mrs. Braddock s mantel-shelf between the two enormous 
 potichomania urns of wax fruit which she had made her 
 self. 
 
 (i I know just wjiere to pick up such things, or of 
 course I could not have afforded it," he said, touching it 
 with a sigh of pleasure. (( Who knows now but this may 
 belong to the days before the Marano work ? There is 
 not a hint of color in it." 
 
26 jom* AXDROSS. 
 
 Oh, Venice, indeed ! " said the old lady vaguely. " I 
 remember reading a good deal about those doges and their 
 underhanded ways. When Clay was a baby I had more 
 time for secular reading than I ve ever had since. It was 
 kind of you to think of me, Mr. Andross." 
 
 She turned the vase about, looking at it admiringly, 
 though secretly she thought it but a poor thing, smoked 
 and cloudy, beside her real cut glass decanters, which 
 Mr. Braddock had given her just before he died, and 
 which were locked up in the spare chamber cupboard 
 with her red and gilt china. The old lady prided herself 
 upon her taste, and when Clay brought her anything 
 which did not suit it ("and Clay had no more eye for 
 colour than a turkey-cock"), she laughed at it and him ; 
 but she would no more have so hurt this Andross, whom 
 she had known but a month or two, than she would long 
 ago have thrust pins into her baby, when she had a baby 
 of her own. 
 
 Braddock could not help thinking of all this now, nor 
 of how Andross was always ready to go with his mother 
 to the little wooden church to listen to old Macintosh 
 during the long, hot mornings. How her clear, delicate 
 voice (Braddock had always been proud of his mother s 
 voice) was lifted up and strengthened by Jack s wonderful 
 baritone ! When the two sang together, all the rest of 
 the congregation halted in their race to get through the 
 tune, and Braddock, who had no ear for music, felt the 
 tears come to his eyes and his throat choke unaccounta 
 bly. He believed as gospel in the election and fore-or 
 dained damnation which Macintosh preached, but he had 
 often an excuse for staying at home ; while Andross, 
 whom he suspected of being an infidel, walked regularly 
 beside the old lady to hear the curses of the law, cheerful 
 and light-hearted as a child. 
 
 He was a child in too many of his ways, Braddock 
 thought, going into his den and carefully turning his 
 
JOHN ANDROSS, 27 
 
 back upon the desk. "When he had money to buy clothes, 
 had he not expended it all upon linen fine enough for a 
 prince of the blood ? The fellow dropped money as 
 water from a sieve, for any whim of his own or for who 
 ever chose to fleece him. JSTo use for Braddock to advise 
 or beg him to put his salary in a savings bank, to insure 
 his life, or buy western lands, or to tell him, as an exam 
 ple, of the seven thousand dollars which he himself had 
 been able to save. Look at these heaps of books, now ! 
 Some in paper covers, others in costly English editions 
 and bindings, thrown pell-mell in the corner as one would 
 orange rinds after the juice had been sucked. German, 
 French, Greek, all together. 
 
 One month Andross would take up Descartes old doc 
 trine of naturalism, and argue that the complete man 
 must first go back to the savage condition and imbibe all 
 human experiences as he rose slowly to civilization. 
 " Saint Simon had the idea, but was a coward. Could 
 not carry it out," he said. The next day he would be en 
 rapport with nothing but the product of generations of 
 culture ; there was a fine flavor of repose, he declared, of 
 certainty in knowledge and assured place in the universe 
 which belonged to the castes of the Brahmin, the Fau 
 bourg Saint Germain, the slaveholder in a nation ; of 
 course, tyranny, slavery, all such things went to make 
 it up, but wasn t it worth the whole of them ? A costly 
 thing, but all good things were costly, etc., etc. In an 
 hour he might break out a fiery Radical and outrant any 
 red bonnet of the Commune ; for Andross, who would 
 nurse a hurt dog" for weeks, was the blood-thirstiest of 
 men in his talk. But whatever the caprice of theory or 
 hobby of study, the books were not spared to humour it, 
 and once having served their purpose were thrown aside. 
 
 Braddock, usually as hasty of motion as of tongue, 
 stood hesitating and halting through the office, trying to 
 recall all these faults of the man how weak he was, viv- 
 
23 JOHN ANDROSS. 
 
 id, erratic : of different flesh and blood, indeed, from the 
 smart, common-sensed young men who had been Brad- 
 dock s class-mates in college, " any one of whom would 
 have snapped at the place which he had obtained for An- 
 dress." It was such steady-going hacks that were fit for 
 work, he thought, irritably, and not John ; John was 
 like those winged creatures you read of in the old my 
 thologies you never knew one minute whether in the next 
 they would be soaring in the clouds or grovelling in the 
 mud. His vices were vices of the blood, perhaps ; and 
 if so, hopeless. The clock pointed to the half hour. He 
 had tried in that wasted time to summon all of Andross s 
 petty faults before him, very much as the judge looks in 
 the face of the convict to find proofs of his evil nature 
 before he pronounces sentence of death on him. 
 
 But he could defer his work no longer. He had al 
 ready heard Spellin tap at the door once or twice and go 
 away swearing all his delay. He lowered the window- 
 shades, tried the lock of the door, turned up the lamp. 
 Then he put his key in the desk and opened it. 
 
 When Braddock was in haste to catch a train or finish 
 a job, he fumed and trembled with anxiety and impa 
 tience ; but once he had gone out to save a drowning man 
 at Cape May, and he had when making ready, they said, 
 been the coolest, quietest man on the beach. He was cool 
 and quiet now. His hand was as steady as that day when 
 it held the drowning wretch with a grip like iron, now 
 as he drew the account books out and opened them. 
 
 Nobody had access to these books but himself and An- 
 dross. The key to the desk he had in his pocket, the du 
 plicate had been left in the lock the night Andross disap 
 peared. 
 
 He turned over the leaves rapidly : when a man knows 
 what footmark he is looking for the trail is easily found. 
 Here in May, on the debit side, the company was charged 
 three thousand for timber : the last cipher was of paler 
 
JOHN AXDIiOSS. 29 
 
 ink than the first ; again in November another added ci 
 pher. Both marked paid. The alterations had been 
 made within a week ; a little more time and they would 
 have been as black as the original writing. Braddock 
 closed the books, took up the lamp, and shifted it to the 
 other side of the desk, set the blotter and pen-holder in 
 order, glanced furtively from side to side, and then took 
 from its inner hiding-place the bank-book. One would 
 have thought from his stealthy, colourless face that he 
 was a thief making his final successful haul, so strongly 
 were guilt and terror marked on it. 
 
 He opened at the last cut pages : 1 1 July 18th/" the 
 day before Andross s disappearance, a check drawn for 
 six thousand dollars. There was no proof there. The 
 company, of course, banked in Lock Haven, and either 
 Braddock or Andross brought up the money for the 
 monthly payment of the hands, or the debts due on lum 
 ber, whenever it was convenient to go .down and return 
 in daylight, not deeming it safe to carry large sums of 
 money through the wild, mountainous passes. July the 
 18th was not the time for paying the hands, but there 
 was no matter for suspicion in the fact that Andross had 
 drawn it then. The fact that the cash-box was empty 
 proved nothing ; for only the two men knew of the secret 
 lining in an old unlocked chest of drawers in Andross s 
 room where it was their wont to . put the money until 
 pay-day. There was still a chance ; what if, after all, 
 he should put his hand into the old hiding-place and pull 
 out the roll of notes ? If it was empty Andross was 
 dead. He would never live after he had been dragged so 
 low as to steal. Braddock lay down the check-book, got 
 up from the desk-stool, and crossed the room. Heaven 
 knows what spasmodic whim made him try to hum a tune 
 as he went, but it was an effort ghastly enough. He 
 pulled out the rattling drawer (in which, for precaution 
 sake, Andross had stowed some ragged winter clothes, 
 
30 JOHN AKDEOSS. 
 
 laughing at his skill in blinding the always expected bur 
 glar), lifted a thin board at the back and thrust in his 
 hand. 
 
 It was empty when he took it out. 
 
 Five minutes afterward an authoritative bang came to 
 the door, very different from Spellin s rap. 
 
 " Braddock ! Doctor, I say ! It s not possible the 
 man s asleep ! Here, it s I." 
 
 " Coming, Judge, coming," unlocking the door. Mad- 
 dox s round figure pushed it open. 
 
 "Just got your friend off to bed. Lord, what a 
 tongue that man has ! Always was considered a good 
 listener, but he wore me out ! Mixes a nice salad, 
 though ; deucedly nice. You might as well have come 
 down to supper as stayed drowsing here. Spellin came 
 to say somebody had better be sent to Bear Valley, but 
 I told him you knew what you were about, and then I 
 just walked over to see what it was you were about." 
 
 Braddock not answering, the judge dragged a bench 
 out and sat down on it with a thump. 
 
 " Hu ! What a pull up hill this is ! Here, let me trim 
 that lamp; your hands shake like a drunkard s that hasn t 
 got his bitters. Well, well. No wonder it knocked you 
 
 up. Andross was as good a fellow " heaving a sigh 
 
 and smoothing his fat little legs with melancholy strokes. 
 " Aha ! you ve been looking over accounts, eh ? Well, 
 you are the devil of a fellow for business. Newcome, 
 down at Lock Haven this evening, was running me pretty 
 hard about leaving my affairs to you and Andross. Any 
 body could cheat you out of your eyes, Maddox, he said. 
 Always could. Just the reason, says I, ( that I get 
 these fellows about me whose eyes nobody will throw sand 
 in. Eh ? But I keep a sharp look out myself," wag 
 ging his head. " I mean to go over the books with you 
 and see if Andross had them straight. By the way, 
 there s the check-book. Meant to go into the bank down 
 
WHY, ANDBOSS DEEW SIX THOUSAND DOLLABS THE DAY 
 
 WAS MISSING! " 
 
JOHN AtfDKOSS. 33 
 
 in town to-day if I d thought of it. Hand it over here, 
 Clay." 
 
 Braddock handed it over. He walked quickly to the 
 window, and stood there with his hands thrust deep into 
 his pockets. The judge spoke to him once or twice, but 
 he did not answer. 
 
 In his right breast-pocket there was a roll of green 
 backs which he had taken to town to give to Laird. He 
 could feel them pressing against his chest. It seemed to 
 him as if all the days and years of work which he had 
 paid for them came back in that moment. 
 
 When he had drawn these savings of his from bank, a 
 short time ago, his mother had touched the money with 
 her finger, laughing significantly. " There is your chance 
 to marry, Clay," she said. She knew very well that 
 Clay, like most quiet, long-headed men, had looked for 
 ward to marriage since lie was a boy, but she did not 
 know that lately he had done it with a definite, settled 
 purpose. So definite, that these notes seemed to carry 
 not only all his past life but all his future with them. 
 
 An dross was dead, of that he felt convinced. To pro 
 tect his name from shame was he to give up 
 
 " Why, God bless my soul, Braddock, here s 
 
 Why, Andross drew six thousand dollars the day before 
 he was missing ! By George, this puts a different face 
 on the affair ! " 
 
 " In what way ?" Braddock came up to him slowly. 
 
 He did not leave one dollar in the cash box. Not 
 one single red cent ! I searched it myself." The judge 
 was standing now, the blood heating his flabby face, his 
 voice thick. 
 
 Braddock took the check-book from him, the leaves 
 of which he was flapping excitedly, and shut it quietly. 
 "Andross never kept large sums of money in the office, 
 sir. We had a place in his chamber where we hid it." 
 
 He stopped, took up the lamp and set it down again. 
 
34 JOHN ANDKOSS. 
 
 "Well? Well?" 
 
 " I ll go and look there." 
 
 " Yes. Of course, go and look there. I tell you, if 
 that fellow was a thief, after all - 
 
 He was out of the room but a minute, and came back 
 with a small brown roll in his hand. 
 
 " There is your money, Judge. Six thousand. Count 
 it and see if it is correct." 
 
 The judge did count it, wetting his thumb and filliping 
 the notes down on his knee with shaking hands. 
 
 Six thousand yes. All right. Well, thank God for 
 that ! It wasn t the vally of the money, Clay. But I d 
 not for ten times the sum have thought Andross a thief. 
 One has such a regard for that fellow, you see." 
 
 Braddock stood buttoning up his waistcoat, which was 
 open. The dull light made his face ghastly. "Yes, 
 one has a regard for him," he said quietly. 
 
JOHN ANDEOSS. 35 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 "TTTHEN" the two men were outside of the office and 
 * Braddock had locked it, the judge folded the 
 money and put it in his pocket. "I ll take charge of 
 this until you come back from Bear Valley, Clay. By 
 the way, you re to stop at the house, and take a cup of 
 coffee or something." 
 
 " I haven t time for that." 
 
 "Anna wants to speak with you about Andross." 
 Braddock went without reply, as a matter of course. 
 Anna Maddox when she was a baby in arms had been 
 able to do what she pleased with her father ; he had had 
 half a dozen other children, but none of them he thought 
 had a hand so soft or eyes so innocent and affectionate. 
 Every man or boy who came near her since had followed 
 his example. They might love other women better, but 
 it was she whom they obeyed ; her whims that they de 
 lighted to humour ; they wished their own wives or sweet 
 hearts had such soft clinging hands, or knew the affec 
 tionate trick of her blue eyes. 
 
 Braddock, with the stunning fresh weight of his sac 
 rifice upon him, with the thoughts of Andross s dead 
 body so real that he felt as if he could stretch out his 
 hand and touch it, would have given much for one cheery 
 word from the woman whom he meant to make his wife, 
 but would not allow himself or her that comfort ; yet he 
 gave half an hour to Anna. Any other man would have 
 done the same. Braddock remembered too as he came 
 up to the door that his trousers were muddy, and his face 
 unwashed. Whereas, if it had been Isabel s door, and ho 
 
36 JOHN ANDROSS. 
 
 had been covered with Andross s blood, he would not 
 have once thought of any annoyance or feeling she might 
 have had about it. 
 
 The garden through which he passed was a real rest and 
 pleasure for any hard-worked eyes and brain. Andross 
 had planted and kept it in order. Andross always said 
 Anna was only an educated Maud Muller, and ought to 
 be framed by all the gracefullest simplicity and freshness 
 of Nature ; no tree but the elm or waving willow should 
 hedge the house in which she lived ; no flower without 
 perfume should bloom in her garden. The very lights, 
 Braddock thought, as he knocked at the hall door, burned 
 more softly here than elsewhere ; the lamp-shades were 
 of Andross s choosing ; the bow -window for flowers back 
 of the hall he had planned, and, in fact, for lack of 
 carpenters and glaziers, almost built. It made a back 
 ground of massed colour now for Anna, as she walked up 
 and down the matted floor waiting for Braddock. The 
 scent of the flowers was faint, her dress was delicate and 
 cool ; that was all he saw. No man ever went away from 
 Anna and remembered her muslins or merinos ; they 
 only felt as never before that they had been in the pres 
 ence of a woman, and were apt to talk a good deal there 
 after of how the tenderer sex was vine-like and helpless 
 and loveable, and to think of themselves in the relation 
 of an oak. 
 
 Braddock, when he was with his betrothed, had always 
 been so busy confiding his plans and consulting her that 
 he seldom remembered whether she was a good-looking 
 woman or not, but he noticed the face of the judge s lit 
 tle girl every day. Sometimes she would put roses or 
 starry white flowers in her curly, light hair, and so 
 plumed and vaunted herself that the dullest man would 
 be enchanted with her vanity, as apparent as that of a 
 baby just beginning to be conscious of its body. 
 
 To-night, however, her hair was straight, her nose 
 
AKDEOSS. 3? 
 
 pinched, and her eyes had dark purple rings about them. 
 She hurried up to Braddock, the moment he opened the 
 door, in a timid, fluttering way that rendinded him, 
 modest man as he was, of a little boat scudding under 
 shelter of a man-of-war. 
 
 " You ve heard it ?" she cried in her little falsetto of a 
 voice. " Oh, Dr. Braddock, it s so dreadful so dread 
 ful ! You men can bear to talk about him as dead, but 
 it is quite a different thing to me. " 
 
 The voice was such a weak and plaintive pipe, she 
 looked up at him, patting her hands over her hair, so 
 helplessly, there was such a bloom of youth and innocent 
 passion over her whole delicate body, that Braddock, 
 with all his Scotch common sense and coolness, was be 
 wildered with a new rush of emotion. He felt as if he 
 had not half mourned for Andross, now that this little 
 creature unconsciously gave him a glimpse into her heart. 
 
 "I did not know," he said bluntly, " that Andross and 
 you were lovers, Miss Maddox. This makes the matter 
 worse, and God knows it was bad enough." 
 
 " Oh, no, no," she protested, " it was not love at all. 
 It was only friendship. But if he is dead, what shall I 
 do ? Oh dear, what shall I do ? " She shook with her 
 sobs from head to foot, the tears rolled over her small, 
 pale-tinted face as she stood looking up to him. 
 
 " Tut, tut ! " said Braddock, and took her hand. 
 
 He was seriously -pained for the silly, indiscreet little 
 thing ; but what the deuce had the judge been about to 
 allow a man like Andross to obtain such a control over 
 her ? "Was he blind ? Of course, in the office or with 
 men, John, though taken from a coaling-hearth, was fit 
 for any place. But with this lovely woman, frail and 
 pure as a white rose-bud . 
 
 " Mr. Andross was a friend to us all, Miss Maddox. I 
 am going now to Bear Valley to see what can be done. 
 In the meantime " 
 
38 JOHN ANDKOSS. 
 
 tt 
 
 Not was. Don t say was ! He is only a friend to 
 you, but he is all I have. All! " 
 
 " In my opinion/ sharply, " that s not right. Where 
 is your father, child ? Do all his care and love for you 
 go for nothing against this how-window and flower-pots 
 and jimcracks which a stranger has made for you in a 
 year ? " 
 
 She drew Back from him with a certain childlike dig 
 nity which had its force. 
 
 " What are his gifts to me ?" with an indignant ges 
 ture. " He was congenial with me. He understood me. 
 No one else does. I am quite alone now. You do not 
 understand what I have lost." 
 
 Dr, Bracldock looked down at her in a dumb dismay 
 and then he looked at his watch. 
 
 " If there is any chance that Andross is not dead, ev 
 ery moment we lose may be worth his life. I must go at 
 once. Tell me what can I do for you ? " stooping over 
 her with that caressing tone which all men used to Anna. 
 
 " Take me with you. It was for that I sent for you." 
 
 " With me ? To Bear Valley ? Impossible." 
 
 " It does not matter to me about the possibility," smil 
 ing. " I intend to go." 
 
 " You forget the danger of the road, and the time of 
 
 night and " stammered Braddock. He could not, 
 
 with those clear blue eyes looking into his, hint at any 
 other objection which worldlier women would have fore 
 seen. " There comes your father. He will tell you it is 
 impracticable." 
 
 " Dr. Braddock," laying her hand on his, " my father 
 is no judge of this matter. Neither are you. If An 
 dross is dead or in danger, it is my right to go to him. 
 If," looking him full in the eye, " he has done wrong, I 
 can bring him back. I am nearer to him than you." 
 
 Braddock was silenced as by a blow. After all, there 
 was a higher law of love and helpfulness before which 
 
JOHN ANDEOSS. 39 
 
 danger and conventionality were trifles. If she loved 
 this poor criminal, a word from her might do more to 
 save him than all his efforts or Macintosh s exhortations. 
 But how did she come to suspect there had been wrong 
 doing ? Women had eyes like ferrets, no matter what 
 their youth and innocence. 
 
 Judge Maddox came in while he was searching for a 
 word. 
 
 " What, Braddock, not off yet ? Anna, you ought to 
 consider poor Andross and not detain the doctor. An- 
 dross has been kind to you, I m sure. The handiest fel 
 low about a house, you see, Braddock." 
 
 " So kind that he is quite necessary to me, papa, and 
 I propose to go with Doctor Braddock to find him," tying 
 on a pink opera cloak and drawing its bewitching hood 
 over her head. 
 
 "Absurd, Anna! Are you mad?" But Braddock 
 noted that the judge s face wore a look of alarm which 
 hinted that he thought the matter settled when Anna 
 planned it. " Why, the road to Bear Valley is up the 
 steepest side of Gray Mountain, dangerous for the sur 
 est-footed horse in daylight. It was there that Roskyns 
 killed a panther last January ; and as for rattlesnakes 
 . Besides, what would people say if you went scour 
 ing the country at the dead of night with one young 
 man in search of another ? " 
 
 Anna s fair skin crimsoned a little. 
 
 "Yes, I knew there were snakes, and Roskyns told me 
 himself about the panther," she said so regretfully that 
 Braddock doubted for the moment if the hope of an ad 
 venture had not tempted her, and looked at her in per 
 plexed wonder. 
 
 It is women like Anna that are sphinxes to men, and 
 are therefore treated with a sort of awe-struck homage. 
 
 "Then you ll not go, my dear ? " blustered the judge, 
 but doubtfully. 
 
40 JOHN AXDItOSS. 
 
 " Certainly not, papa, if you disapprove of it," with, a 
 bright, affectionate smile which caused Braddock as 
 never before to reflect how exquisite a thing was filial 
 oJsnedience. The judge began a dribble of directions, 
 warnings, and advice to him, in the midst of which An 
 na disappeared. 
 
 " Here s your horse," as they went out of the door. 
 (( Joe has brought him up. Now be off, and good luck, 
 and God bless you." 
 
 Braddock lost no time. The heels of his horse struck 
 sparks from the flinty road. In half an hour he had 
 left the Works and all trace of human habitation behind 
 and reached the gorge between the mountains. His only 
 path up the heights was the bed made by the current 
 from a mountain spring, dry in summer, but in which 
 the mossy boulders lay green arid slimy. The solitude 
 was absoluto ; the unbroken forest, filled with the inex 
 plicable noises which belong to the woods at night, 
 stretched like a vast wall on either side of him to the ho 
 rizon. VThere was an opening at last, where an old Indian 
 trail crossed the bed of the brook, and in the dim moon 
 light which the thinner foliage admitted, he saw a dark 
 moving figure waiting apparently for him. Coming closer, 
 he found it to be a horse and a woman on it a woman 
 with a small-featured, baby face, looking beseechingly at 
 him out of a pink hood. 
 
JOHJS" AJSDROSS. 41 
 
 CHAPTER IY. 
 
 i 
 
 u T TOLD you I was coming," said Anna gently. 
 
 -*- "What the deuce," Braddock began inwardly, 
 but he only answered, " Yes, Miss Maddox," and quietly 
 dismounted to lead her horse by the rein. If it had been 
 Isabel or anybody amenable to reason, he would havS^on- 
 tinued hot in his wrath ; but who could crush such a 
 white dove as this by displeasure ? Before he had gone 
 a dozen yards he forgot, in the feeling of how sublime an 
 act of devotion this was in the child, the discomfort of 
 stumbling up a mountain pass, leading two horses, one 
 or the other of which perpetually tramped upon his 
 shins. She had forgotten danger, propriety, even the 
 obedience to her father which he had thought so admira 
 ble, to follow the call from the one human being she 
 loved. Braddock, narrow, clean-mindecl man, looked at 
 her from time to time with a wordless awe and tender 
 ness. She had dropped the reins instantly at his bidding 
 and sat quite helpless but for his guidance, her hands 
 folded outside of the cloak over her breast, her pure face 
 turned heavenward. As a chance ray of light touched it 
 she seemed a saint to him. If she had persisted in hold 
 ing the reins and managing for herself, very probably he 
 would have turned back and marched her straight to her 
 father as a self-willed little minx. 
 
 Braddock was a commonplace fellow who liked life to 
 go on in an orderly jog-trot way : breakfast, office, din 
 ner, bed, like so many due bills to duty paid and receipt 
 ed. But to-night with his hand on this girl s rein, 
 passing through these dreadful solitudes, he felt as if he 
 
42 JOHN ANDROSS. 
 
 had suddenly opened up the depth of the realities of hu 
 man life in all its vague mystery God overhead, the fires 
 of hell waiting, and death at hand. Andross, the stout 
 "bright-faced fellow who counted pig-iron with him every 
 day, was in fact a lost soul, that for years had been strug 
 gling out of vice and the darkness and underside of life 
 into higher levels with what fierce agony of effort Brad- 
 dock now could see. He had failed; if he were dead yon- 
 \ der in the mountains, had failed for all eternity. This 
 little girl at whose silly vain chatter Braddock had 
 laughed indulgently every day, suddenly rose into a 
 height far above him, as one of God s messengers, going 
 through night and danger and risk of shame unappalled 
 upon her errand. 
 
 He wondered, with the awe with which one would look 
 at a drama whereof heaven and hell were the background, 
 whether if Andross was alive she could save him; whether 
 he were one of the elect or one of that countless multi 
 tude condemned before Time was. These were terrible 
 realities, to which Braddock had hitherto approached 
 only through vague Sunday reflections or Doctor Macin 
 tosh s prayers. He had an uncomfortable sense of sacri 
 lege in applying them to this every-day business and these 
 every-day people. 
 
 If any human agency could be sent as a Saviour to the 
 ; lost wandering soul, surely this pure woman was fit for 
 the errand. He thought of Jephthah s daughter going 
 out upon the mountains ere she offered herself a sacrifice; 
 of Una unharmed on her pilgrimage by beasts of prey; 
 whatever images his narrow imagination and scanty read 
 ing supplied him with, of fair, of saintly, he bestowed 
 upon her as he walked humbly at her side. 
 
 Anna bent down to look curiously at the wet rocks. 
 (t Now, I suppose if there are any rattlesnakes anywhere 
 they would be here?" 
 
JOHX ANDHOSS. 43 
 
 "Nothing would harm you on your errand," cried 
 Braddock, almost in a state of religious exaltation. 
 
 " No, I don t really suppose a snake could reach me up 
 * here/ she piped in her sweet, pleading little voice, draw 
 ing her legs up higher on the horse. " Besides, it would 
 attack you first. Of course you re armed in case we 
 should meet a hear?" 
 
 "No. There s no danger from bears in this time of 
 the year. Don t be frightened. Keep your thoughts 
 clear, for your great errand. Though if we find him 
 alive, it will be given to you what to speak. " 
 
 "Oh! I m never at a loss for words. Papa calls me a 
 perfect chatter-box. I shall scold Mr. Andross roundly 
 for giving us all such a fright; he ll have no petting from 
 me, you may rest assured of that. Well, now, I was sure 
 we would meet a panther or something," in a most 
 pathetic cadence. "My cousin, Mrs. Large, w as in a 
 party once which was attacked by wolves in the Pyrenees, 
 and such a talk as all her family have kept up about it! 
 It has been their clieval de lataille of conversation ever 
 since, and here have I lived all my life right beside wild 
 beasts, plenty of them, and never had an adventure! I 
 was quite sure of one to-night." 
 
 There was something dampening to Braddock s enthu 
 siasm, it is true, in these little dribbles, but the fountain 
 was so pure! He looked up at the clear, delicately cut 
 face, and felt the small hand laid confidingly on his 
 shoulder, and was with Una and all the heroic, saintly 
 company again. The child was but a child, but because 
 of her simplicity the fitter for G-od s messenger. After 
 she had kept silence five minutes it seemed to him that 
 the chance rays of light made a halo for her head. 
 
 Anna was thinking what a pretty pose hers was on a 
 horse. Braddock was like a knight a much better 
 figure for a knight than Andross, who was undeniably 
 stout and wore no beard either; and this cloak she had 
 
44 JOHN ANDEOSS. 
 
 on, how lucky it was soft cashmere instead of any stiff er 
 stuff it draped so well. Only, white would have looked 
 better than pink. 
 
 They came out now from the thick forest into an open 
 space a range of ridges from which the underbrush and 
 trees had been partially cleared. Here and there upon 
 the cleared space lay portentous dark shadows. 
 
 "You must dismount here," said Braddock. They 
 had reached the district of the abandoned ore-banks full, 
 as he knew, of old shafts from sixty to two hundred feet 
 deep and left open, save for the brambles and berry 
 bushes which covered their tops. " You could not take 
 ten steps here on horseback without peril of your life, 
 and I really don t see/ in perplexity, "how it is possible 
 for you to advance even on foot. " 
 
 " Oh, I am sure you will take care of me," murmured 
 Anna. 
 
 Yesterday, indeed up to nine o clock this evening, 
 Anna had cared for nothing in the world so much as 
 Andross. When she suspected him of guilt, her devotion 
 (very genuine of its kind) rose to fever heat. She remem 
 bered one of her songs about the " one who ne er would 
 flee from the tiger slain, but soothe its dying pain," etc., 
 etc., and had been singing it through her tears all day. 
 
 But Andross was so provokingly long in being found, 
 and Braddock was like Greatheart or Sir Galahad. 
 Really, she never had observed how finely cut a nose and 
 chin he had, nor how well his pale, lean face was thrown 
 into relief by the black whiskers. She had always 
 thought him a bigoted and sour sort of man, and a good 
 deal of a prig; but now 
 
 "You will take care of me," she said again, in a musi 
 cal whisper which would have reminded a sharp woman 
 of Rosalind s murmured, "Woo me, woo me," which 
 thrilled the listening forest of Ardenne. 
 
 It thrilled Braddock uncomfortably. 
 
JOHN AXDEOSS. 45 
 
 " Perhaps I had better get you to shelter," he said, 
 with awkward haste. "I had a superstitious fancy that 
 you would be guided somehow to Andross, but I can find 
 him as well by myself, probably. " 
 
 "What are you going to do with me, then?" holding 
 his arm with fluttering, feeble hands. 
 
 " I ll take you to Colonel Latimer s. There is a light 
 from his windows that red speck yonder." 
 
 " Oh, dear! Isabel Latimer is such a dreadfully sensi 
 ble, unfeeling creature! But one would not like to be 
 dragged out of an old shaft like a rat in a hole, to be 
 sure. Well, Dr. Braddock, you can take me wherever 
 you choose." 
 
 They reached the colonel s house in a few minutes. It 
 lay in the mouth of the gorge, surrounded by the brawl 
 ing waters of the creek, but Braddock knew the way too 
 well to be in danger of pitfalls. He knew, too, that the 
 light was in Isabel s window; she had waited, perhaps, 
 for some message, on his return, which he had forgotten 
 to send. No matter; she would forget her disappoint 
 ment now, in sympathy with this child and her errand. 
 He lifted Anna from her horse as reverently as though it 
 had been Godiva herself, and opened the door, which was 
 unlocked, according to the habit of the mountains. 
 
 Miss Latimer came down the stairs the next moment 
 with a light in her hand. Her eyes sparkled at sight of 
 Braddock. The doctor was in such haste to show his 
 heroine to her that he forgot he had not seen her for a 
 week. People were more apt to think of Isabel s sympa 
 thy than of Isabel herself. 
 
 He left the little pink-draped figure by the door. 
 
 "It is Anna, Miss Maddox, Bell; come and help the 
 poor child ! She I was going in search of Andross and 
 she would come with me. I thought it would be better 
 to leave her here. You could take care of her." 
 
 The sparkle was quite gone out now from Isabel s eyes. 
 
46 JOHN ANDBDS8. 
 
 " Miss Maddox would not be very efficient in a search 
 ing party, I imagine/ eyeing her across the hall with an 
 amused laugh in her face. 
 
 Braddock remembered angrily that women were always 
 hard on women, yet even the hardest, he would have 
 supposed, might soften to that lovely little enthusiast. 
 
 "At least you will be kind to her, and give her what 
 comfort you can?" 
 
 " I should suppose that, just now, would be water and 
 towels. Why, Nannie!" advancing cheerfully, "what a 
 woe-begone, drabbled object you are ! Go up to the front 
 chamber, you know the way, and go to bed directly. I 
 must speak to Dr. Braddock alone a moment." 
 
 " Sending me off like a baby that she may take posses 
 sion of the doctor!" thought Anna; and then the vine- 
 like creature, after the habit of vines, being thus summa 
 rily robbed of one support, put out its tendrils in search 
 of another. 
 
 "To bed, Isabel?" she said coldly. " How can any 
 oi. us sleep when Mr. Andross is lying dead in the 
 mountains?" 
 
 Braddock s face was filled with the tenderest pity, but 
 Isabel listened calmly. 
 
 "You at least will be much more apt to sleep if you 
 are in bed," she said good-humouredly, and watched her 
 without speaking until she had gone up the stairs. Then 
 she turned to Braddock : 
 
 "You need look no further," she said, "Andross is 
 here." 
 
JOHN AXDROSS. 47 
 
 OHAPTEK V. 
 
 A LIVE? Alive?" He could not say anything 
 
 -"- more. The blood in his veins stood still; some 
 thing choked his throat. Braddock was surprised at 
 himself; he had not known he cared so much for any 
 body, much less this idle fellow. 
 
 Isabel turned to him suddenly. "You love like a 
 v woman, Clay." She had only touched him on the arm, 
 but her eyes grew wet and her cheek burned so that it 
 seemed as if she had kissed him. 
 
 "Why didn t you tell that poor little creature and 
 send her to bed comforted?" 
 
 "Time enough for her to know to-morrow. Mr. 
 An dross is in the front room. He thought you would 
 be here early in the evening, and has been waiting for 
 you." 
 
 "I ll go to him. Good-night, Bell." After he had 
 taken the lamp from her and hurried across the hall, he 
 remembered that they had been separated longer than 
 ever before. He ought to have been more tender in his 
 greeting have kissed her, he thought, reddening. But 
 then Bell was not a woman to care for caresses or any 
 trivial expressions of affection. Andross was nearly right 
 when he talked of her Roman head; both features, he 
 thought, and character were of the old Roman mould 
 graver, more liberal than American types. Yet she need 
 not have put that poor little Maddox girl so utterly out 
 of the question to-night in her large, good-humoured way, 
 as though it were a gnat she was brushing aside. 
 
 He stopped a minute at the door, behind which was 
 
48 JOHN ANDROSS. 
 
 Andross, not to steady his nerves, for Braddock would go 
 about all the business of life in a matter-of-fact way, 
 would die most probably, as he had made love, in a 
 politely respectable fashion. He would have been very 
 glad if Andross could have come right into the office 
 to-morrow morning, and they could have gone on with 
 work, smoking cigars and talking over the morning s 
 Herald and Tribune together as usual, without any 
 pother of welcome or confession or reconciliation. Brad- 
 dock, the Presbyterian, might hate sin, but Braddock, 
 the man, hated a scene more, and besides he had that 
 terrible embarrassment of shame upon him with which 
 an innocent man faces a guilty one dear to him. 
 
 When he opened the door and Andross came to meet 
 him, it was Braddock who looked the criminal. 
 
 The men shook hands. 
 
 "Ah, Braddock! You came up this evening?" said 
 Andross, gulping through commonplaces as men do, 
 though death be tugging at their throats. 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 " Have a good run up?" 
 
 " No, behind time. The train was delayed at Williams- 
 port as usual. The company takes no oversight of these 
 branch roads. Why, Andross ! " as they came up to the 
 light. "You ve been ill. Sit down, man, sit down!" 
 
 Braddock had never in his life perhaps expressed sym 
 pathy with mental trouble, but the gaunt face and sunken 
 eyes of the man whom he had left a fortnight ago plump 
 and hearty were things he could talk of fluently. " What 
 is it, Andross? You look as if you were struck with 
 death!" 
 
 " No. I m too toughly built. A man of my constitu 
 tion don t die of grief or shame; more s the pity. Twice 
 out in the mountains I tried to put an end to myself this 
 week, but it ended like Gothe s going to bed with a 
 dagger and poison. It seemed to me there must be a 
 
JOHN AXDROSS.. 49 
 
 cliance for me yet, if only in the fact that you could be 
 as patient with such a man of straw as you have been 
 with me." The face he turned on Braddock was full of 
 a fine sensitiveness, and eager and appealing as a woman s. 
 But the doctor turned from it impatiently. A man of 
 straw, indeed ! He had not will enough to put the knife 
 to his throat after he had made a thief of himself. Brad- 
 dock walked up and down once or twice before he could 
 reply. 
 
 " Your nervous system is run down, I suspect/ he said 
 drily. " Go to bed now, and in the morning I ll see what 
 will be best to give you. Quinine, probably, or bromide 
 of potassium." 
 
 Andross laughed. "You re more practical than I 
 thought. You dragged me out of hell once, and you 
 know it; and now, when I have gone back again, you 
 give me bromide of potassium." 
 
 "You forget, Andross, that I know nothing of your 
 past life. I never knew what curse had brought you as 
 low as you were when I found you whether it was drink 
 or cards or women. Nor do I know how it took hold of 
 you again. What does that matter for me ? My words 
 of advice would prevail nothing if there is a sentence 
 
 against you " He stopped short there. He could 
 
 not believe Andross was one of the multitude foredoomed 
 for destruction. He was standing in front of Braddock 
 in his shirt sleeves. The light fell on his bared neck and 
 uplifted head. In spite of the gauntness and haggard- 
 ness of the man there was still that certain air of youth 
 and springiness and wholesome energy about him which 
 Braddock always had told himself could only belong to 
 one whose life had been temperate and cleanly. 
 
 "He has been neither profligate nor debauchee," he 
 thought, trying as usual to find a reason for the blind 
 faith he had put in him. 
 
 t( No, It was none of those ordinary vices that dragged 
 
50 JOHN ANDROSS. 
 
 me down. There never seemed to me to be any great 
 temptation in them." He paused a minute. "I don t 
 know why I should say anything more to you. I have 
 no wish to come whining to you about any exceptional 
 hardness in my lot." 
 
 " I have no wish to know your secret, An dross," 
 coldly. At that there was a weak, uncertain quiver in 
 the face of the guilty man, peculiar to him. The mo 
 ment, like a woman, that he had thrust sympathy away, 
 he craved it more greedily. 
 
 "It has been harder than other men s. I ve been 
 tangled in a net, by no fault of my own, since I was a 
 boy, and it has held me down. You know whether I 
 have struggled faithfully against it or not. It s not 
 worth while to struggle now any longer." 
 
 "Bah! That is sheer folly," vehemently. "If you 
 tell me that all your struggles may be unavailing to 
 insure your salvation for the next world, I can under 
 stand you. But there s no power which can prevent a 
 man from leading a decent and honest life in this, if he 
 chooses." 
 
 Andross had turned from him and stood leaning on the 
 mantel-shelf, still looking down into the open, fireless 
 hearth. He did not move, although the tall, black-a- 
 vised man beside him, in his eagerness, had caught him 
 almost roughly by the arm. Outside, a sickly gray light 
 began to struggle through the night at the east. The 
 wind had died out. There was silence that might be 
 felt in the mountains and in the sky. Even to Brad- 
 dock s unimaginative soul it seemed as though there was 
 a listening pause in Nature while this man s soul that 
 had come so close at times to God, stood for the last time 
 at the crossing of the ways, to choose between life and 
 death. 
 
 And only he, Braddock, held him by the hand. It 
 was he who had been appointed his brother s keeper. It 
 
ANDROSS. 51 
 
 would have been so natural and comfortable to go back 
 to every-day ways and gossip about politics or the next 
 week s yield of pig-iron, and to shut their eyes to this 
 awful undercurrent of sin and remorse and death below. 
 It was the first time in his life Braddock had dared to 
 speak in such wise to a man. The shame and the novelty 
 of it made his voice hoarse and his commonplace sales 
 man s face set and rigid, while Andross, usually all nerve 
 and fire, was heavy and motionless as a log. 
 
 ( I am not fit to talk to you. I never can talk of relig 
 ious matters, Jack. If it was Dr. Macintosh now . 
 
 But for God s sake, be a man. It seems to me as if you 
 stood on the edge of the pit. There s no force that need 
 compel you to go down it. There are no devils to enter 
 into a man now as in old times." 
 
 He stopped, confused. His creed, taught him in the 
 village church, told him that there were devils; that 
 there was no hope for Andross if he had not been born 
 with his name written beforehand in an invisible, unal 
 terable list yonder; but the every-day experience ho had 
 gained knocking around from the Works to New York 
 forced him to believe that no man was a thief or liar but 
 by his own free will. A theologian might reconcile the 
 two; but Clay was no theologian. 
 
 Andross answered as from far-off reasonings of his own. 
 "You re mistaken. There are forces outside of a man 
 nowadays here, all about him just as strong to compel 
 him to ill-doing as ever there were in the wilderness or in 
 hell. Talk of your devils Satan and Apollyon ! " with a 
 sudden discordant laugh. "/ don t know them! I d 
 sooner run the risk of facing the whole batch of them 
 than one little red-headed man I know. They d do my 
 soul less harm. ISTone of their flames are as terrible as a 
 policeman s tap on the shoulder that is," catching his 
 breath, "if I were a poor wretch who knew he was in 
 danger of a jail cell while he was trying to be an honest 
 
52 JOHN ANDROSS. 
 
 man and a gentleman." He pushed up the window as 
 though choking for air, but none came: a sullen torpor, 
 dark and breathless, held the night. 
 
 " I don t follow you- clearly," said the doctor drily. 
 He sat down by the table, pushed some books back to 
 make room for his elbow, looked at his pink, well-shaped 
 nails with a face of grave rebuke. " I know that sort of 
 infidel heterodoxy is fashionable, but I confess I never 
 understood it. To compare the Author of all evil to a 
 policeman is a belittling view of the truths of Holy Writ, 
 to my mind." 
 
 "I ll tell you frankly, Braddock, where I stand," as 
 though he had not heard him. "For years I have been 
 in the hold not of a man, nor a devil, but of a corpora 
 tion. That sounds commonplace enough, don t it? You 
 could easily get out of that halter? Wait one minute, 
 Braddock. The purpose of this club or organization is 
 unmixed evil. As for its power it has money. Unlim 
 ited money. It buys and sells at will the government 
 and interests of the city where it belongs : it controls the 
 press, the pulpit, the courts. The best men are muzzled 
 by it, are forced against their will to serve it. What was 
 I to fight against it? It needed me, and it has an abso 
 lute hold on me I can t tell you now how it gained it." 
 Just then he caught the doctor s keen black eyes under 
 their suspicious brows fixed on him. 
 
 "No, I m not making melodrama out of this matter. 
 I ve been the slave of this Thing. I ve been forced to 
 work for it with both body and brain; though, you would 
 say, God gave me both to make an honest Christian man 
 
 out of me. I suppose He did " 
 
 r "I think I should have been able to master any such 
 force as that," dogmatically. "If a thing is wrong, 
 there s the law. There s public opinion to back you in 
 putting it down." 
 
 "You might fight against a man, But a powerful 
 
JOHN ANDROSS. 53 
 
 corporation meets you with the brain power of a multi 
 tude of men, but with no conscience, nothing to which 
 you can appeal. It buys the law. It buys public opinion." 
 
 Braddock had been reading Andross s face with its pro 
 truding forehead and weak chin. 
 
 "Now I understand you pretty thoroughly, John," he 
 said frankly. " You ll not mind if I m candid, eh? Fm 
 a pretty sharp reader of human nature, you know, and it 
 strikes me that the difficulty has been in yourself. Your 
 imagination is always at white heat, you know: you ve 
 exaggerated some ordinary political club into a monster 
 that devours men s souls and bodies. You do that sort 
 of thing a good deal, Andross. And then you well, I 
 don t say that you re not strong in a certain way, but " 
 
 "I understand, a man of straw." 
 
 "Now don t be hasty. If you d said a man of wax . 
 I mean that you are influenced by people whom you like, 
 unwarrantably. Now / should have said to these people 
 calmly, ( I can not do as you require. It is wrong. To 
 the law and the testimony. What possible hold could 
 they have on you which would resist that?" 
 
 There was a pause. 
 
 "No matter. They did have it. They have it yet. 
 I can not explain that to you, Braddock," hastily. " I 
 went to the coaling hearths to escape them. When I 
 came here I thought I was still out of their reach. It 
 was the first time I had ever seen the way clear for me to 
 be like other men, even in the matter of earning money 
 honestly and being paid for it. You and Maddox had 
 confidence in me. I thought I could make a position for 
 myself here, and some day marry, and have a home and 
 wife and children as other men can do." 
 
 " Yes, J understand, Andross," gently, thinking of the 
 child up stairs. < Well ? " 
 
 "That was only a week ago. Then they found me 
 out. I am in their power, Braddock, as if they had a 
 
54 JOH^ ANDROSS. 
 
 halter about my neck. I had the choice to go with them 
 or buy them off." 
 
 Both men were silent for awhile. 
 
 " Go on," said Braddock. 
 
 "I bought them off." 
 
 He watched the doctor furtively. Braddock stood 
 with his back to him. A damp, chilly wind blew through 
 the room, heavy with fog. There was a break in the 
 solid rampart of gray behind the Muncey range, an open 
 ing as into a new firmament full of shifting, uncertain 
 colour. Andross long afterward remembered that red 
 watery depth together with the breathless pause of 
 waiting. 
 
 Braddock, he saw, was not surprised at his last words; 
 he knew him already then to be a thief? 
 
 "While he stood like a miserable convict, his weak 
 mouth open, staring at the doctor s back, Braddock was 
 running over the whole situation in his own mind. 
 
 He could not bear that this poor creature should go on 
 and confess his crime; he would as lief have had him 
 commit hari-kari beside him. Let him confess it to God. 
 If they did talk of the money, then he must explain that 
 he had replaced it, and that would be a miserably mean 
 bit of bragging. It would crush Andross to the earth; 
 for he knew how the money had been saved and for what. 
 ( He d never look me in the face, going about the "Works, 
 knowing he owed me such a sacrifice as that," he thought. 
 And he was going to bring back Andross to the Works. 
 He believed he would be honest in future, not because of 
 this rubbish he had told him about a King, but because, 
 because - Well, he always had believed in Andross. 
 
 For Braddock could give no better reasons for any of 
 his opinions than for having an aquiline nose on his face. 
 
 While he was thus sharply debating the matter, and 
 deciding that when Andross was in the office he could 
 keep a supervision over him, that the judge should suffer 
 
JOHIST AKDROSS. 55 
 
 no loss, that poor wretch, came up behind him, and laying 
 his hands on his shoulders, turned him around. His face 
 was ghastly. 
 
 "Look here, I m in your hands, Braddock; you re the 
 only friend I ve got in the world. Do what you please 
 with me." 
 
 For a moment the doctor could not collect his wits to 
 reply. 
 
 "There now! there now!" loosening Andross s hold. 
 " I don t like scenes, John. Go to bed, and report your 
 self at the "Works early in the morning. That s all I can 
 say to you." 
 
 "Do you mean " Could it be that the loss of the 
 money was not yet discovered? There was a chance then 
 that he might replace it? He had meant to replace it 
 until the consciousness of being a thief had driven him 
 mad. 
 
 " I mean that you are to come back to the office and go 
 to work. If your old enemies trouble you let me know. 
 I ll attend to them," with an inflexible crook of the eye 
 brows and cocking of the chin, which in anybody else, 
 Andross would have quizzed as intolerable conceit and 
 priggishness. But the humbled fellow looked up to the 
 young doctor as one of the saints of the earth. 
 
 "I ll go down then, Clay. If you say so. It s a 
 chance for me to be a man again." 
 
 "Very well. I m going back to-night. Explain to 
 Miss Latimer in the morning that I ve gone." 
 
 "Yes. She it was Miss Latimer found me in the 
 
 mountain to-day. If it had not been for her I should 
 not have been alive now. 1 1 think God made her differ 
 ent from other women." 
 
 "Oh, it was she that found you, eh? Well, good 
 night." He took Andross s cold hand and dropped it 
 quickly, going out hurriedly without meeting the dread 
 ful pleading look which he knew was fastened upon, him. 
 
56 JOHN ANDEOSS. 
 
 " He does not know! " said Andross with, a long breath. 
 He felt for the minute as though he were an innocent 
 man. 
 
 " He would have been alive whether Bell found him or 
 not/ ran the doctor s thoughts. " He has not strength 
 of mind enough to kill himself. And as for Bell, how is 
 she different from all other women? That little thing of 
 the judge s, now her devotion and exaltation of nature 
 were something really remarkable. Bell is the dearest 
 girl in the world, but as for being different from other 
 women nonsense 
 
JOHN ANDEOSS. 57 
 
 CHAPTEK VI. 
 
 A S long as the night lasted, Jack Andross knew that 
 -*- in spite of his reprieve he never should hold up his 
 head among men again. He felt his hands, muttering to 
 himself that this was the flesh of a thief; he recalled the 
 faces of all the men he had seen in rogues galleries and 
 the dock, and told himself again and again that he was 
 no better than they: just as he had been talking to him 
 self for days up in the hills, taking out his pistol now 
 and then and cocking it. Why in God s name had he 
 not used it, and put an end to all this intolerable misery? 
 Presently, however, the day began to break, and, being 
 feverish, he went to the window to catch the cold air, 
 and then waited to see the red light on the creek beside 
 the house. The water went brawling over the stones; it 
 was like voices talking; another minute and one could 
 tell what they said; the colonel s big dog came rushing 
 through the currant-bushes up to the house knocking the 
 dew off them like rain. Andross whistled to him: " Hah, 
 you scoundrel! After sheep, eh?" he said. Then he 
 leaned farther out to see the chickens come clucking up 
 from the barn, and finding some crackers in his pocket, 
 whistled to them and threw out the crumbs. He must 
 remember to bring the colonel some Poland hens next 
 time he drove over to Millhall. Just then the old black 
 man who was Bell s cook and maid of all work opened 
 the kitchen door, and looking up touched his hat to 
 Andross. 
 
 "Pretty fa h mohnin, sah. Gwine take a bath s 
 usual?" For Andross often came up to spend the night 
 
58 JOHN AXDROSS. 
 
 with the colonel. He nodded and went down to Otho 
 for towels. " Rival in de night, sah! Doctor from de 
 Wohks and young Miss Maddox." 
 
 Andross threw the towels over his arm, and crossed the 
 yard stopping at the gate. "Is Miss Maddox here now, 
 Oth?" he said, without looking back. ^ 
 
 "Yes, sah. Doctor s gone back." 
 
 As he passed along the creek bank he was conscious 
 .only of an agony of shame, not remorse. He could face 
 God or the world, but not this woman. 
 
 But the water in the creek was deliciously cold, and as 
 he came back from his bath the wind blew in his face, a 
 flock of king-birds flew about him chirping, his feet sank 
 up to the ankle in mosses : through the brown needles of 
 the pine the Indian pipe thrust its fairy pillars of carved 
 ivory. He stooped to dig out a clump for Bell, remem 
 bering that she preferred them to flowers, and then 
 climbed the rocks to gather the laurel whose waxen clus 
 ters tinged the whole mountain pink. The laurel and 
 the cold and the dawn, even the chirping birds, in spite 
 of himself, filled him with a strange delight with which 
 Eings and stolen greenbacks had nothing to do. He 
 would not give up his chance! The world was a good 
 and kindly world ! If he told the whole story to all his 
 friends in the mountains they would understand and for 
 give him. He would go and make his confession to Anna 
 now! 
 
 He went scrambling down the cliffs, loaded with his 
 laurel, when he caught sight of the colonel near the barn. 
 After all, what was the use of confessing to everybody? 
 These people were not in God s place to forgive sin. He 
 would tell Braddock, of course. He wished he had done 
 it last night. But he would replace the money he 
 always meant to replace it before he told Anna. He 
 could not drive her from him now, until he had won her. 
 In the meantime there was Colonel Latimer, a man of 
 
JOH1S" ANDROSS. 59 
 
 honour like no other, why not consult him? He would 
 go at once and tell him the whole story. So he scrambled 
 on dropping his laurel with his face in quite a glow of 
 satisfaction at his rational decision. The colonel was a 
 man of the world as well as honour. He would know 
 what a Ring was, and why he had been as one might say, 
 compelled to borrow this money, and would set it in the 
 proper light to Braddock. 
 
 The colonel had dragged on his trousers and run down 
 barefooted to stop Towers, the miller, whom he saw going 
 by with a string of eels. " The very thing! " he whispered 
 excitedly to Bell, nearly upsetting her in the hall. " I ve 
 lain awake half the night contriving a decent breakfast ! " 
 He had just paid Towers double price as Andross came 
 up, and was soothing Oth s wrath about it. 
 
 " God bless my soul, man, suppose it was swindling. 
 When you look closely into the matter Towers has eleven 
 children and an aguish wife. Eels are eels in a case like 
 that. Halloo! Mr. Andross," with the eels still in one 
 hand and holding out the other. "I was chagrined 
 beyond measure to be in bed last night when you came. 
 It s this confounded leg of mine. Neuralgic. Not a 
 symptom of gout in it. I m a little careless, too, for a 
 man of my age. Just ran down barefoot pressing busi 
 ness with well, Otho. Look at that, sir. You can 
 understand a sunrise like that better than any man I 
 know. " 
 
 Rain which was in the air thickened the sky without 
 darkening it, so that it absorbed the dawn into retreating 
 depths of nebulous gray, within which shone a golden 
 lustre. Below, the unbroken hills of green forest rolled 
 wave after wave to the horizon s edge, except where the 
 precipitous heights of the Nittany Range heaped their 
 gray rocks in inextricable confusion. 
 
 The colonel s house, standing in the gorge, was shut in 
 on every side by these threatening recesses, which even at 
 
JOHN ANDROSS. 
 
 noon were gloomy, and fit haunts apparently for any 
 beast of prey; but the damp soft light gave to them now 
 a strange tenderness and cheerfulness: the gigantic cedars 
 on the upper peaks showed but a black fringe againbt the 
 sky; the mountain springs, discoloured by the pine roots, 
 ran in glittering brown threads over the rocks to the 
 pasture lands. The morning framed it all into one glad 
 homelike picture; the very windows of the dilapidated 
 old house in the gorge behind them shone yellow in the 
 glow, but the whiff of smoke from the chimney was red; 
 the blood-coloured beet-tops and the tomato vines were 
 thick set with dew, eyery chicken and duck or pigeon 
 scrambling for corn about Oth s heels at the kitchen door 
 had its cheery cackle or coo. The colonel stood in the 
 gateway swinging his eels to and fro in his enthusiasm, 
 waving them to the finest points of view. His suspenders 
 dangled about his legs; his thin, high-nosed face cut the 
 wind like the prow of a boat; his bald pate rose into 
 heights above it as if to assert its baldness; never before, 
 .Andross thought, in all his length and leanness, had he 
 been so absurdly long and lean as now. But there had 
 always been something about the colonel from the days 
 when he was a dashing young fellow on the town, which 
 attracted all women: it attracted Andross in precisely the 
 same way now. Braddock was a little ashamed of his 
 father-in-law s vagaries, but Jack watched him with a 
 good deal more tender respect than he would have showed 
 to the colonel s noble daughter. 
 
 The colonel turned away with a half sigh when the 
 glow began to fade. " Here, Otho, take your eels. No, 
 Mr. Andross, town can t give us that, eh? Fve no doubt 
 that you are homesick as I am sometimes for it; opera, 
 theatre, libraries, and the people, sir, and the stir the 
 being close to the heart of things, eh? But the sight of 
 the sun coming up over old Nittany sets me all right 
 again. I don t wonder the young fellows born here come 
 
JOHIT AXDROSS. Cl 
 
 back, after trying the West, and fall to ploughing over 
 the boulders. Pon my soul ! I m glad to see you ! " ener 
 getically as they went into the house. "Do you know 
 it s tw" months since anybody has broken bread with us?" 
 A- -oss glanced down at his muddy and ragged trou 
 sers; he was beginning to come bacl^ to the world and 
 the ways of it. Colonel Latimer whispered more ener 
 getically than before: "I see! Hunting rig is not the 
 thing to appear in before the ladies. Now don t say a 
 word, my dear fellow. I ll bring up a pair in five min 
 utes a little too long, but we ll turn them up. Nothing 
 like soldiering for making a man a tailor. Go right up 
 to your room." 
 
 Andross went up dazed and silenced. How could he 
 break in on the old man s single-hearted delight in his 
 guest, or in the pure beauty of the morning with his vile 
 nightmare story of Eings and robbery? Presently, after 
 breakfast, as soon as they were alone. How in the deuce 
 was he to get into the colonel s trousers? He laughed, 
 and with the laugh the story of the stolen money was a 
 dimmer nightmare than ever. 
 
 "Here you are!" The colonel tapped at the door. 
 fe They re very loose for me there is a difference in our 
 size probably. Now come down as soon as possible. Bell 
 has a delightful surprise for you: a companion for you 
 over to the Works, if you persist in going." 
 
 He knew, of course, that the colonel meant Miss Mad- 
 dox. She had often last winter driven up with Andross 
 to the gorge and spent the night with them. 
 
 Everything then was to go in the old way. Just as 
 though he were not a thief! 
 
 He was standing before the glass ready to shave, and 
 saw his face red with pleasure, and his eyes kindled at 
 the thought of Anna. He looked at the razor. Better 
 he should draw it across his bare throat now than deceive 
 her and be as he had been to her! 
 
62 JOH^ ANDKOSS. 
 
 Here s linen, Mr. Andross; and put this pink bud in 
 your button-hole, and no woman will see the fit of your 
 trousers." He heard the door close behind the colonel, 
 and his steps as he went into his own room, and after 
 wards, being dressed, down-stairs; but he still stood 
 irresolute, not yet Determined how he should go to meet 
 Anna. 
 
 In the meantime the poor little woman had seen her 
 lover, whom she supposed to be dead, standing in the 
 gate with the colonel, and had sobbed and cried her joy 
 out behind the window-curtain. The tears were little 
 drops, and the sobs little sobs, perhaps, but they were 
 real. She would like to have gone down and hung on 
 his broad breast, and combed his shaggy hair with her 
 tiny pink fingers and smoothed the pain or trouble out of 
 his heart with her touch. He was all the dearer because 
 of his breadth and shagginess and mysterious grief. A 
 different man from that lank, neat Braddock, that resume 
 of all the moral virtues! She was glowing through all 
 her delicate flesh while he was in sight, and chilly and 
 shivering from head to foot as soon as he was gone; she 
 was the woman Shakspeare loved to draw; her bounty as 
 boundless as Juliet s, looking and longing from a window 
 long ago, her love (while it lasted) quite as deep. 
 
 Usually she did not favour Isabel with her society when 
 in the house, but she crept into her room now, and asked 
 leave to dress there, and hung about Bell, taking down 
 her mass of fine brown hair, and dressing it again with 
 her more skillful, swift fingers. How white and stately 
 your neck is ! " she said, kissing it, and then curling her 
 arm about it and resting her head on Isabel s bosom just 
 as a baby would. Usually Bell was irritable when indif 
 ferent people kissed or touched her, but she patted the 
 pale little face kindly enough as she lifted it off. 
 
 " Your head aches, Pussy?" 
 
 Anna sighed but said nothing. (f She thinks nobody 
 
JOHIST AXDROSS. 63 
 
 can have feelings but herself, the the intellectual Glum- 
 dalclitch," she thought spitefully. She had a nice little 
 talent for giving well-fitting nicknames, and was rather 
 pleased with this. " I did not care for her," she thought, 
 still looking at Bell with wide, tearful eyes. There was 
 an aching weight of love under her doll-like waist to give t 
 to somebody, and the soft, red lips were hungry to bo 
 kissed. "I ll go down to your father until breakfast is 
 ready. " The colonel was always overflowing with tender 
 ness for the pretty little girl, and she felt that she sadly 
 needed a comforter. 
 
 "Very well, Nannie." 
 
 " I see that Mr. Andross is back," stopping to chirp to 
 the birds pecking at the window-sill. "So nice to see 
 him back all safe again. We re all so fond of Mr. An 
 dross. Tweet! tweet! How can you make these wild 
 birds know you? I have canaries always: Lily, I call 
 my little darling now." 
 
 "Don t like to cage things," gruffly. 
 
 " Oh, I must have something to pet and love! " turn 
 ing her pleading eyes to Bell. "I ve had such a disap 
 pointment in Fidele ! I gave her gin regularly every day 
 to keep her the proper size, and in spite of all my care 
 she s grown into a great coarse beast ! I had to send her 
 away. I ll run down now. By-by birdies!" and she 
 went down singing in a bird-like voice that made the old 
 house alive with music. 
 
 Bell looked after her perplexed. " Well, she s an affec 
 tionate little thing! But I really thought she cared for 
 Jack!" She never could have guessed Anna s habit of 
 suddenly folding up her secrets and hiding them just as 
 she did her lace collars and little puffs of scent-bags. 
 The little lady s thoughts did not run into the Land o 
 the Leal of which she was singing. "Jack called her 
 the ox-eyed. She s like an ox!" nodding her head 
 viciously back. " Just as slow and stupid and obstinate 
 
64: JOHK ANDROSS. 
 
 when her feet are down. I threw her off the trail about 
 Andross, at any rate. Poor fellow ! " and the soft eyes 
 slowly filled. 
 
 " Oh, Colonel! I thought I should find you here! 7 
 running up with both hands out. The colonel, his 
 coarse, gray clothes in martinet order, his scant gray 
 hair brushed up in a top-knot to cover the bald pate, 
 took them in his and bowed in a tender, soldierly fashion 
 over them. But Anna could not wait to hear his old- 
 fashioned compliments. "Come out to the garden; 
 we ve plenty of time before breakfast, and I I have 
 something to say to you. Don t be frightened ! " with a 
 piteous sob, when they were seated behind the grape- 
 trellis "Oh, you dear Colonel, you look more frightened 
 than I am! Oh, if I had such a father as you!" 
 
 "Why, the judge spoils you, my child! You re noth 
 ing but a petted little baby! Tut! tut!" as her warm 
 tears rained on his wrinkled hand, wondering if Maddox 
 could possibly be stern with such a creature. "Really, 
 my dear! I ll call Bell. Bell is the kindest soul if there s 
 trouble " 
 
 "No, no!" drying her hot cheeks. "I m quiet now. 
 But I could not control myself any longer. I ve been so 
 unhappy ! It s about Mr. Andross, sir. " 
 
 " Mr. Andross?" gravely. " Yes. Well, my dear?" 
 
 The colonel suspected no acting in Anna, and indeed 
 there was none. The whole of her force of body and soul 
 spoke truthfully in every look and word. 
 
 " He has had some great mysterious trouble, and I 
 must help him. I want to be of some use in the world, 
 and I m so little!" twisting the soft, snowy hands to 
 gether. "He s he s a good friend of mine, sir." 
 
 " Yes. I understand, my child." 
 
 Her lovely, imploring face was upturned to his. "ISTow 
 I think," chirping like a bird, "that he has committed 
 some dreadful crime." 
 
JOHK ANDROSS, 65 
 
 " God bless my soul! Andross!" 
 
 "Yes, indeed, sir. I suppose that is why he went 
 away the other day. So I thought I d ask you what it 
 was. Was it drinking? or gambling? or what?" 
 
 "Tut! tut! These women! I thought you d discov 
 ered a murder at least. Why no, Miss Maddox. Mr. 
 Andross always appeared to me to be a perfectly temper 
 ate man, and so far as I know, can t tell one card from 
 another. I suppose he was out gunning or fishing. It s 
 hardly fair to ask a man to expose every hour of his life, 
 when you look at the thing closely." 
 
 "You don t think he is very fond of women, sir? Sup 
 pose he had a wife concealed somewhere?" 
 
 The colonel reddened like a girl; he turned away from 
 the innocent face watching his. " I never have seen any 
 more dangerous affections in him than for old china or 
 rare editions. " He looked at her with a meaning smile. 
 "It s not for me to hint that he cares for her," he 
 thought. "Now, my dear," rising, "we must go into 
 breakfast. My advice to you is to talk to Mr. Andross 
 himself, and offer your aid to reform him. You have 
 some unwholesome megrims in your head, and I think 
 Jack can cure them." 
 
 He led her gallantly along the unweeded path, joking ^ 
 about every subject but her lover. " For he must be her 
 lover," he thought. "And Maddox approves, or he 
 would not throw them together. God bless them both. 
 I ve helped them together with that advice, or I m mis 
 taken." 
 
 For the colonel was a born match-maker. Every young , 
 man in his eyes was a noble fellow, and every maiden 
 exceptionally pure and beautiful, and all that was needed 
 to regenerate the world was to drill them in couples, as 
 Noah did the animals into the ark. 
 
AHDROSS. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 ANNA, with the conviction full upon her that she 
 was the heroine of a tragic drama, thought fit to 
 greet Andross, who was waiting at the hall-door, with a 
 shy blushing dignity, very sweet and lovable. 
 
 "You look so well this morning!" said Isabel, holding 
 out her hand to him heartily. 
 
 "Come, children! To breakfast! to breakfast!" cried 
 the colonel, as Oth, having slipped on a white apron and 
 turned from cook into waiter, opened the door with a 
 nourish. 
 
 The table was bright, the scent of roses and coffee 
 mingled deliciously. They all hurried in together. How 
 could he stop then and there, and begin the dreadful story 
 of*Ris life? He had come down prepared to make confes 
 sion, and here he was instead, opening his napkin and 
 telling the colonel the price of beef in Lock Haven. 
 
 " Try a piece of this sirloin, now. They killed their 
 young heifer at Judge Maddox s yesterday, and Sam 
 brought over this steak a few minutes ago." 
 
 "Yes, sah, just in time. Very lucky, sah!" ejaculated 
 Oth. 
 
 "It s our turn to kill a sheep to-morrow; don t forget, 
 Bell. The beans are ripe enough to send round with it 
 to the neighbors." 
 
 It was just the commonplace homely talk to bring Jack 
 back to his old self. If Braddock had had the weight of 
 crime on his conscience he could neither have eaten nor 
 drunken; but Andross was made of different metal. He 
 
JOHK ANDROSS. 67 
 
 had been half starved on the mountains, and the beef was 
 deliriously cooked, the butter fragrant with vernal grass; 
 they all laughed and talked gossip and of the news in last 
 week s papers; they lingered lazily over the meal, after 
 the colonel and Bell s careless, happy fashion; the win 
 dow was open, and beyond rose old Nittany, his robe of 
 sombre cedar white with chestnut-blooms; the running 
 water outside whispered and talked aloud at times; it 
 was impossible to Jack not to fancy that they were real 
 footsteps and voices growing cheerfuller every minute. 
 The sun struck a warm beam across Anna s tender little 
 face, but he would not look at that; he turned to watch 
 it light the bunch of laurel on the table into rosy splen 
 dour. He was going to drive Anna back to Gray Eagle 
 mountain presently, and then go to his work in the office. 
 As for crime or danger it began to be as far off and long 
 ago to him as the old stories of the war which the colonel 
 was telling. He, too, had his old stories to tell, and he 
 knew how Anna hung on every syllable, as Desdemona 
 on the Moor s. 
 
 " It was my short-sight that always bothered me," the 
 colonel said. " It never played me such a trick though 
 as in the battle at Antietam you know, Bell? I ve told 
 you the story a dozen times. I suddenly saw an opening 
 where I thought my regiment could be used with effect, 
 Mr. Andross, and brought them up at a gallop, cheering 
 as we came, when I met Joe Thompson Thompson of 
 Chicago you may have heard of him; a grain man form 
 erly, colonel like myself; shot before Eichmond, poor 
 fellow, plumb through the heart. Where the deuce are 
 you going, Tom? he shouts. To the front! I cry. 
 Stop, stop! he hallooes after me, like John Gilpin s 
 wife when the mare ran away with him. But on we went 
 up the hill, my men cheering louder than ever, and, I 
 fancied, laughing. Well, sir, it wasn t until we had gone 
 up the hill and come back again, bringing the enemy s 
 
68 JOHtf AKDBOSS. 
 
 cannon with us, that I discovered it was Joe s regiment I 
 had taken and left my own in the van. One-third of his 
 poor fellows were left on the ground. But we took the 
 guns!" 
 
 " Short sight," laughed Andross, "would have been a 
 serious obstacle in my way; for, when I was appointed to 
 my captaincy, I did not precisely take Hardee s tactics on 
 the parade-ground, but I copied the orders I had to give 
 in shorthand on the palm of my glove, and read them 
 off." 
 
 "You were in the army, then?" asked the colonel. 
 
 "Yes," with some embarrassment, " for two years. I 
 was forced to give up my commission then and go back 
 to business." 
 
 Colonel Latimer caressed his scanty imperial triumph 
 antly and looked at Anna. " Here s a vicious criminal 
 for you! This brave soldier!" his eyes said. 
 
 Andross saw the glance, and was driven by it into reso 
 lution. The colonel was his ally; he should know all as 
 soon as breakfast was over. 
 
 Just as they rose from the table the splash of a horse s 
 feet coming through the ford was heard, and the next 
 minute Braddock came in with an odd air of repressed 
 excitement in his stiff figure and lean face. Anna was 
 first to coo out a welcome, especially cordial because of 
 the admiration she felt for his neat new office suit and 
 dazzlingly white linen. 
 
 Andross, dear fellow, always had a towzled look, like a 
 brigand in the chorus of an opera. It was picturesque, 
 but not gentlemanly. 
 
 "I came to drive youT>ver home, Miss Maddox," the 
 doctor said. " But I started so early that I shall be glad 
 of a cup of coffee if Miss Latimer will give me one." He 
 sat down by Isabel with that change in his voice as he 
 named her which always brought the blood to her cheeks. 
 
 "Why, Andross could have taken charge of our little 
 
JOHN" AXDROSS. 69 
 
 girl/ said Colonel Latimer, bluntly. "Maddox has 
 trusted her to his driving a hundred times." 
 
 "I feel responsible for her safe return this time/ 
 replied the doctor drily. ({ A drop more cream, please." 
 
 Anna leaned back in her chair looking at him through 
 her half -shut eyes. She knew as plainly as though he 
 had told her, that for some reason he would not trust her 
 to Andross for an hour. Was it because Jack was less 
 his friend than he had been, or that she was more? 
 She got up and sauntered thoughtfully out into the gar 
 den. Andross, after one angry stare at Braddock, rose 
 with a sudden cowed look. 
 
 " Can I speak to you one moment, colonel, before I 
 go?" he said. 
 
 Braddock nodded to him kindly as he passed. " I told 
 Sam to bring over the mare for -you, Jack." 
 
 f Thank you. I don t know yet whether I shall 
 whether I shall go back to the "Works at all or not. " 
 
 After they had gone out, the doctor said abruptly: " If 
 that man does not come back to the Works, Isabel, it 
 would hurt me as though some one had died. Yet he s 
 very faulty very faulty, indeed." 
 
 (( Why would you not leave Anna with him, Clay ?" 
 
 Now Isabel was too blunt and large-natured to be sus 
 ceptible to small jealousy; but she was startled at a cer 
 tain expression in his face, and the effort he made to hide 
 it from her. She had been leaning over to put a laurel- 
 bud in his button-hole; she waited, her gray eyes fixed 
 on his. "You came for that reason? You have had no 
 sleep at all, and certainly did not come directly back to 
 take a cup of coffee with me f " 
 
 "No, not you, dear. But Anna really she s nothing 
 but an innocent baby; and the judge gives her her way 
 too much. She is one of those women whose love is for 
 life and death, Bell. And if she were disappointed in a 
 man it would kill her. She has not your resources of 
 
70 JOHN ANDROSS. 
 
 strong common-sense, you see. I think somebody ought 
 to protect her." 
 
 " You are very kind, Clay; and right," she added, after 
 a pause. But she began to crumble bread for her spar 
 rows, and the bit of laurel fell to the floor. 
 
 " There he is with her now!" starting up. "I must 
 go at once, Isabel," hurrying out to his buggy. 
 
 Miss Latimer stood silent and grave in the door for a 
 minute or two, and then went down to the gate, bidding 
 the doctor and his companion good-by, ready to laugh 
 with them both as usual. " One never knows whether 
 Miss Latimer is in earnest or not when she jests with 
 one," complained Anna as they drove off. 
 
 The doctor did not answer. Bell s easy good-nature 
 jarred on him. He wished indeed her sensibilities were 
 deeper, more earnest like this dear little creature s, for 
 instance. 
 
 The little creature was dumb and cold to him all the 
 way home however. Andross had spoken but a few 
 words to her, and they were of no import. But his face 
 had appalled her. "What bar did he see between us?" 
 she wrote in her diary that evening. "Was he taking 
 leave of me forever? He is in imminent need and peril. 
 
 /will be true to him. As for C. B. ? I shall not 
 
 deny that there have been times when his soul has called 
 to me and mine has answered. But I am tired of hearing 
 Aristides called the just! I wash my hands of him. I 
 shall leave him to his proper tailor, and proper church, 
 and proper wife ! Let them dwell in decencies forever. 
 While I alas! What fate betides Andross? There 
 just Heaven, lies my doom!!" 
 
JOHN ANDROSS. 71 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 ~T/ r ~OU wished to consult me about something, eh? 
 
 -*- Take a cigar," said the colonel when they were 
 alone. (i He wants to know how best to ask the judge 
 for his daughter," he thought. " The poor fellow has 
 but a clerk s salary, and Maddox has laid by a pretty 
 sum; there s the hitch, no doubt." And the old man 
 knitted his brows, studying over for Jack the old problem 
 which he had not solved for himself, of an empty pocket 
 and the ills which it is heir to. 
 
 e( I wish," said Andross in a sharp, hurried tone, "to 
 make a plain statement of a business affair to you, and to 
 ask your opinion as a man of honour and of the world. 
 I I hardly can tell what is right and what is wrong " 
 leaning against the fence, his hand to his mouth. The 
 colonel, however, unlike Braddock, did not speculate on 
 its weakness. 
 
 " Business? Very well, go on," nodding. "I know 
 nothing more of honour than yourself, Mr. Andross; but 
 as for the world, I d be very sorry," straightening his hat 
 on his gray hair solemnly, "very sorry that such a lad as 
 you had detected the insincerity, the iniquity of it as I 
 have done! Necessarily, sir, necessarily! Age brings us 
 that wisdom." He stopped and waited with the air of a 
 blase Solomon and Areopagite judge rolled into one. 
 Andross was tempted to laugh, but went on: 
 
 "About 1857 a man of much repute in Philadelphia 
 died. He was the father of of a friend of mine. He 
 
72 JOHN ANDROSS. 
 
 belonged to an old Irish-Kentucky family headlong, 
 generous, fond of good living. A scholarly man, too, 
 but with no more knowledge of money " 
 
 "Than to count the debts he couldn t pay," laughed 
 the colonel. "Bless you, I know dozens of that old 
 stock. Never paid butcher or baker until they came as 
 beggars, and then flung them all that was in his pockets, 
 eh?" 
 
 "Something very like that. But no character stood 
 higher than this man s in the city for integrity and 
 benevolence. It does so still. The boy was left at his 
 father s death at college, his bills unpaid, without a 
 penny. A friend of his father s took notice of him 
 studied his capabilities pretty closely, I suspect, and 
 finally charged himself with his support and education. 
 When he was ready to go to work, through this friend s 
 influence, a situation as superintendent of certain manu 
 factories in an inland town in Pennsylvania was found for 
 him, with a high salary." 
 
 " A very unusual post for a college boy." 
 
 "Yes; he was totally ignorant of the business, and is 
 so to this day." 
 
 "How s that? The friend dropped him into what in 
 Bowery talk was a good thing, eh? Pay and no work?" 
 
 "He worked well for his wages," bitterly. "This 
 friend was the president of a great corporation; it does 
 not matter what, but one that needed bills passed at Har- 
 risburgh sometimes, and was able to pay for the passage. 
 To do this they must have tools in the Legislature, and 
 to help elect these tools was the business of this young 
 fellow. He was popular with the workmen ; he soon 
 found that his duty was to manipulate them; any man 
 who voted against his employers was discharged. The 
 man was a careless dog, but not unjust; there was much 
 in this sort of work which disgusted him, but what could 
 he do? His benefactor had indulged him like a petted 
 
JOHN ANDROSS. 73 
 
 boy, humoured his every whim., nursed expensive and 
 fantastic tastes in him. He loved the man. It was not 
 only for his salary he bent his head until they put the 
 yoke about his neck." 
 
 "I m sure of that!" energetically. "I m sure he was 
 a noble fellow! Blood tells, sir. He came of a good 
 strain. " 
 
 "After awhile other work was exacted of him. He 
 was sent to Harrisburgh to lobby ! You know what that 
 is. He soon found that the little of good which he had, 
 the lazy good-humour, the friendly manner, was the 
 stock in trade upon which these men were working. 
 They presumed on it they took him into their secrets, 
 and then, when he rebelled and would have left them and 
 made an honest man of himself, they dared not lose him. 
 He knew too much." 
 
 Colonel Latimer nodded gravely, but said nothing. 
 He began to watch Andross closely as he talked, finding 
 apparently some new meaning in his carefully-worded 
 sentences. 
 
 " Matters went on in this way for a year. They made 
 him the cat s-paw by which much of the trickery and 
 bribery or dirty work of any kind needed by an unscrupu 
 lous, powerful body of men was done. "When he " 
 
 " Pardon me ! One moment. Your friend s story does 
 not hang together well. A young fellow with abilities as 
 fair as his could have made enough in any legitimate 
 business in six months, to pay off the trifling sum in 
 which he was indebted to his patron. Men are not held 
 as serfs by an I. 0. U., Mr. Andross. Or perhaps," 
 noting his change of countenance, "you have not told 
 me all the hold they had upon him." 
 
 "No, I have not." After a moment s pause he went 
 on, with a still more guarded and cold manner: "When 
 he began to make arrangements to go into some other 
 business, his patron, as you call him, came to him one 
 
74 JOHN ANDROS3. 
 
 day. There was no hint of threat, you understand, of 
 dishonesty in the work they had set him, or of dread that 
 he would "betray them. It was all civil, friendly business 
 talk. You re talking of leaving us/ he said. I m sorry 
 for that. You ve got into the ways of the office and the 
 routine in which the company like things to he done. It 
 will he hard to find another man to fill your place. By 
 the way, and he drew out his pocket-hook and began to 
 unstrap it, here is an old document I have had in my 
 possession some ten or twelve years. As long as you were 
 one of the firm, as I might say, it was properly kept in 
 the firm. But when you leave us, of course we shall not 
 feel entitled to retain it. The matter there is of public 
 interest, as you see." 3 
 
 "What was in the paper?" eagerly. " A bribe to keep 
 quiet, eh?" 
 
 " Such a bribe as no money could have equalled. This 
 this poor tool s father, it seems, had committed a forg 
 ery. It was known only to the leaders of the Eing. 
 They reaped the benefit of it, and afterwards held him 
 by the neck throttled, and drove him as they chose, just 
 as they had driven his son. When you leave us, said 
 this kind guardian, to make an honest livelihood, as 
 you say, your love of justice, no doubt, will be gratified by 
 seeing this document in print. It will cause a little stir 
 in Philadelphia, I suppose, for the old man was a favorite 
 there, and it seems a pity, too; now, don t it? for his 
 reputation stands fair to this day." J 
 
 "What did the boy do?" 
 
 "He could not sacrifice his father," said Anaross, 
 whose excitement had died out and who stood dully, his 
 hands in his pockets and head sunk on his breast. "Very 
 likely it was all a lie. What did these blood-suckers care 
 for an old man s good name who was dead long ago? But 
 he had no way of proving the lie; and he stayed in the 
 works." 
 
JOHN ANDROSS. 75 
 
 "That was the end of it then?" with a long breath. 
 " He was wrong, sir. He should have held by his integ 
 rity. And yet if I thought my child would give up my 
 
 honourable name from the grave Well, well! The 
 
 boy had rough lines." 
 
 " So rough and so vile that he escaped; ran ~away abso 
 lutely like a thief in the night, and found a shelter where 
 they could not follow him. As long as they did not know 
 where he was, he was safe from their plan of vengeance. 
 He found at last honourable work and friends; one day 
 an agent, one of the underlings, the spies of this com 
 pany, stumbled upon him by accident, and threatened to 
 tell of his whereabouts. He was a man to be bought off 
 by a comparatively small sum, and this poor, weak wretch 
 bought him off with money that he had stolen." 
 
 " Good God! What insensate folly!" 
 
 "Perhaps so. You would not have done it. Brad- 
 dook would not have done it. He was a weak man, as I 
 said. Now, Colonel Latimer, what can be done with 
 such a man? Say that I am his friend; am I to stand by 
 him? is there any hope for him, that after knowing his 
 story, you, for example, would take him by the hand 
 that he could work his way in the business community, 
 in society, love, and marry as other men do?" 
 
 Now the colonel, knowing the astuteness of his own 
 judgment and Jack s youthful ignorance of the ways of 
 the world, had been forming during the whole narration 
 his own sagacious interpretation of it. It never occurred 
 to him that Andross was the hero of his own story; but 
 he knew it was some sharper who had trumped it up to 
 impose upon him. The colonel had been, since he was a 
 boy, the victim of every impostor who chose to practice 
 on his credulity; to-morrow, as to-day, he would empty 
 his pockets to the most palpable cheat and swear he was 
 a true man; but in the meantime he inveighed vehe 
 mently against the world in general as iniquitous, and per- 
 
76 JOHN ANDROSS. 
 
 petually guarded his friends against imaginary swindlers. 
 He was fairly mounted on his hobby, now. 
 
 "My dear boy," he said energetically, "depend upon 
 it, you ve been scandalously imposed upon! I know the 
 world. Be guided by me. This friend of yours wants, 
 no doubt, to borrow money of you." 
 
 " No," with a queer smile. 
 
 " Well, he wants you to indorse him socially, back him 
 up somehow; take my word for it." A vivid and bright 
 idea flashed on the colonel. It was this unknown scoun 
 drel lurking in the neighborhood, no doubt, who had 
 tempted Jack into the mountains; he wanted to drag him 
 down into his own slough; it was this disreputable inti 
 macy which stood between Andross and Anna, which she 
 suspected to be secret crime; and Braddock, having dis 
 covered it, began to look upon Andross himself with sus 
 picion, as he had seen that morning. 
 
 "Now, sir," with vivacity. " Let me judge this man 
 impartially for you. " 
 
 " It is just that which I ask you to do," said Jack with 
 a pallor about his clean-shaven jaws. All morning he 
 had despised himself, as he talked, for his confidences. 
 Braddock, any other man, in the toils of these men, 
 would have fought out of them, not have gone whining 
 his story to one or another. Andross, like a woman, 
 must have sympathy at every step. But he was satisfied 
 now that it was a wise thing to do. The colonel was a 
 more merciful judge than any other he would meet; if he 
 condemned him it was useless to struggle back for hon 
 esty or honourable position again. If he said there was a 
 
 chance . "I want your judgment," he repeated. 
 
 " Much depends on it for me." 
 
 "Yes, I see. I see. Well, it is my opinion that this 
 fellow, according to his own story, is a dead-beat, as the 
 police would call him, of the worst kind. Why, look at 
 it; he s the son of a man careless about money, and a 
 
AtfDROSS. 77 
 
 forger. Blood tells, sir. No sooner does he leave college 
 than he goes into the business of bribery and corruption 
 up to the elbows; according to his own showing, mind 
 you! Then he runs off from his employers, and when 
 traced by them, steals another man s money to buy them 
 off! It all looks badly, Mr. Andross. Even if the exten 
 uating facts be true, I shall be very much inclined to 
 question whether his birth and the influence of his busi 
 ness had not demoralized his moral sense, so that stealing 
 came confoundedly easy to him. An honest man would 
 never have thought of bribing the agent, certainly not 
 have robbed another man to do it. My advice to you is 
 to let him alone, to dree his own wierd. Don t saddle 
 yourself with a weak, wicked fellow at your age. You 
 have a good prospect before you now, and such a man as 
 that would drag you back irretrievably, injure you in 
 every way, in business, or or your plans nearer home. 
 You follow me?" 
 
 "Yes. You are easily understood, Colonel." 
 Jack began to button his coat mechanically, turned his 
 face, which was as unlike to the real Jack and as vague and 
 hard as a mask taken after death, down the road, as a 
 man does whose business is finally over, and who is in 
 haste to go. 
 
 " One minute, Mr. Andross." The colonel, vain of 
 his shrewd judicial decision, wanted to give the whole of 
 it. "I am the more convinced of the falsity of the whole 
 story, because I happen to know that the statement 
 respecting the power and corruption of the Kings is 
 grossly overstated. That sort of abuse of great e<fr- 
 porations is all political jobbery. AVh^, td credit the 
 newspapers, you d suppose these men scruple at nothing 
 not even murder! All clap-trap! Oh! T know the 
 world. These stories are set afloat- just before election. 
 Very naturally these great corporations have their favorite 
 candidates, and these vile rumours are started by men 
 
78 JOHN ANDKOSS. 
 
 envious of their better luck, or by some discharged work 
 men. Your friend, if not one of those who have origi 
 nated the scandals, has been weak and wicked enough to 
 believe them." 
 
 "Weak and wicked? Yes, I believe you are right." 
 
 Was he right? 
 
 Andross s brilliant dark eyes stared at the colonel as 
 though he saw a ghost in the daylight; but it was the 
 spectre of himself, as this man showed him. Was all the 
 honesty of which he had boasted a sham? Had his father 
 been a forger and given his tainted blood to him? He 
 had slipped easily into the work of bribery at first : had 
 taken the money with but little hesitation to bribe the 
 spy last Saturday. Braddock would never have been so 
 tempted. To be sure he had been in a hell of remorse 
 ever since, but what did that matter? 
 
 "Yes, trust me," the colonel broke in; "the man, 
 even if his story be true, is thoroughly demoralized. 
 Better leave him to his fate. " 
 
 "Yes, he had better be left, to his fate." 
 
 "That s all right, then. The fact is, Mr. Andross, I 
 don t want to see you ruin yourself. I take an interest 
 in you everybody does to a curious degree. You ve got 
 that sort of magnetism, that strong personality about 
 you, which makes people your foes or friends on sight." 
 He unlatched the gate, for they had turned to the house, 
 and gossiped on, not noticing that Jack neither heard 
 nor answered. "It s a power, sir. It s not exactly 
 virtue, nor good looks either. Henry Clay had it. By 
 George! there are some tones of that dead man s voice 
 which have more power over me even yet than any living 
 man s logic; anof that little doctor, the Boston laureate, 
 he s full of it aV# Connecting wire with electricity. I 
 dined with all those fellows once, and Emerson appeared 
 to me to be a bit of sneer intellect, looking at men and 
 women as a profitable drama; every one of us gave him 
 
JOHN ANDKOSS. 79 
 
 our best. Why, even I, a dull experimenter in furnaces, 
 believed I had something for him. Hawthorne was like 
 one of his own beautiful uncanny ghosts; but Holmes 
 was a man of men. Well, you have that same human 
 attraction in you," looking down at him kindly. " Odd, 
 isn t it? Men that have it impress one as women do; 
 that s why I talk in this unpractical fashion to you, I 
 suppose," breaking off with a laugh. "Well, now that 
 this business is settled, what shall we do? stay with us 
 to-day, Mr. Andross, or must you go down to the 
 Works?" 
 
 Jack roused himself; he had heard only the last sen 
 tence. "I ll go down to the Works. I must see Miss 
 Maddox again before before I go." 
 
 Must he go? Even as he spoke that desperate courage 
 which belongs to men who lack backbone, nerved him. 
 Why not stay, work his way, keep his secret marry 
 Anna? Why not catch some good from life as it passed? 
 
 " I wish you could stay. Or come back this evening. 
 There is a friend of mine coming up to-day from Phila 
 delphia, whom I should like you to meet, to convince 
 you how unjust these stories about Kings are. My friend 
 controls one of the most powerful in Philadelphia and 
 New York, and a more estimable man I defy you to find, 
 in every relation of life. Tender husband and father, 
 head of Christian associations, aged workmen s homes, 
 hospitals I don t know what charities " 
 
 "What is his name?" Andross stopped short in the 
 wet path. He looked for an instant, white man as he 
 was, like a slave when the bloodhounds catch sight of 
 him hidden in the swamp. But the colonel was busy 
 lifting his tomato-vines on to the posts, and did not 
 answer at once. 
 
 "What did you say was your friend s name?" 
 
 "Oh? I beg your pardon. These vines are so beaten 
 down by the rain. He s really more a business acquaint- 
 
80 JOH:S ANDBOSS. 
 
 ance than a friend Laird is his name. Houston Laird. 
 Are you not going to the house?" as Andross turned and 
 walked hastily but uncertainly away. He followed and 
 fell in step again with him. There was silence which 
 the colonel found awkward. 
 
 "How long does Laird stay with you?" 
 
 " Only a day or two," looking suddenly at Andross, 
 struck by a change in his tone. "I ll bring him over to 
 the Works to-morrow. In fact, he mentioned having 
 business there with some one, in his letter; probably 
 Maddox. But I want," heartily, pressing closer, "I 
 really am anxious, Mr. Andross, for you to meet Laird. 
 It would tend to disabuse you of your prejudices; and 
 besides he might be able to serve you in business relations. 
 He is really a financial power in the country, as you 
 know; and the most genial, friendliest fellow! He de 
 lights in gathering young men about him in his office 
 religious clubs and so forth and shaping their future 
 course. " 
 
 "Yes, I have heard of Mr. Laird and the influence he 
 has over young men." 
 
 "Ah?" with another perplexed scrutiny of Andross s 
 face. "I wished to mention you to him especially. It 
 can do no harm?" 
 
 "No. It can do no harm. The truth is, Colonel 
 Latimer," abruptly, "I am probably the person Mr. 
 Laird wishes to see in the Works. We have met before 
 in a business relation." 
 
 "In a business relation I did not know that!" stam 
 mered the colonel, and a moment after began to talk of 
 his turnips. It was not like Andross to be so reticent, 
 and, considering his anxious efforts to serve him, scarcely 
 civil. 
 
JOHN ANDKOSS. 
 
 81 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 rpOWERS, the miller, who was down in Lock Haven 
 J- that day, drove Mr. Laird up in his buck wagon. 
 He charged him a dollar and a half: "putting on the 
 fifty cents extra, Colonel," he explained a week after 
 ward, "because he druv the mare as no hurs shud be 
 druv. She s lame ever since. He s a millionaire, he can 
 stan it, I said to myself. But he lays me down seventy- 
 five cents. It was cursedly shabby." 
 
 "Tut, tut, Towers, Mr. Laird had not any change; 
 here s your money," tossing down a note, one of the very 
 thin roll in his watch fob. " The next time, don t talk 
 in that way of a gentleman." 
 
 " So he left this fur me, did he, eh?" with a suspicious 
 glance from the note to the colonel. 
 
 "That fellow, who brought me up, Latimer," Laird 
 had said ten minutes after arriving, "wanted to over 
 charge me. Talk of rural simplicity! I find Hodge has 
 just as itching a palm at the plough as his cousin in 
 town. But I let him see I was not to be imposed on." 
 , "Well, well. The poor devil has eleven children and 
 an aguish wife," hesitated the colonel. 
 
 "No doubt," promptly. "And I m*ready to give lib 
 erally to the wife and children," thrusting his hands into 
 his pockets, his blue eyes lighting his face agreeably as 
 he touched the money. "But how could I give alms if I 
 did not watch these rascally workmen? I venture to say, 
 Latimer, that I pay my employes, from the head clerk to 
 
82 JOH^ ANDKOSS. 
 
 the porter, ten per cent, less than any other man in my 
 business. By prudence like that I am able to give to the 
 poor pay my tithes to the Lord." 
 
 Mr. Laird withdrew to dress for dinner, which he did 
 always as carefully for the colonel s picnicky board as for 
 his own. He stopped on the stairs, however, as Colonel 
 Latimer escorted him up. "You did not answer my 
 letter, Colonel? You have a couple of thousand left of 
 your capital, you say. Let me take charge of it for you. 
 Put it into this new National Transit stock, and I insure 
 it to pay a hundred per cent." 
 
 "Tut, Laird. I can t be hampered with thinking of 
 money. Besides, next month I expect to succeed wholly 
 with my experiment. Maddox has consented to give me 
 the furnace for a few days for a final trial, and I shall 
 need all the money I can raise to reimburse him and pay 
 my expenses." They had reached the upper landing by 
 this time. Laird stopped and bridged his hawk-like nose 
 with his glasses. "Ton my soul! I ve known many a 
 mad inventor, but you re the worst of the lot. Think of 
 the fortune you ve sunk in this thing already, Thomas. 
 You have no right to sacrifice your daughter to your 
 whim: leave her at least enough to keep her from beg 
 gary." 
 
 The colonel laughed. "What do you want for her? 
 She has plenty to eat and to wear, and that fiddle-faddle 
 work of designing brings her in abundance of pin-money. 
 Bell s like myself. She likes to vagabondize leisurely 
 through life, looking out for the green, warm places, and 
 carrying no impediment in the shape of unnecessary bag 
 gage. No, sir. Isabel would rather I should use that 
 money and succeed in making one bar of pig-iron, with 
 wood instead of charcoal, than that you should pay me a 
 thousand per cent." 
 
 Laird laughed, looking back with the door-knob of his 
 chamber in his hand. " If the discovery would pay you 
 
JOHN ANDROSS. 83 
 
 anything when you make it, there would be some sense 
 in your having made ducks and drakes of all that your 
 father left you." 
 
 "Pay me?" his thin face heating. "Why, you cer 
 tainly understand, Laird, my object is to make this busi 
 ness less a monopoly, to put money into the pockets of 
 the poor man, not to take it out with a royalty. Smelt 
 ing can be done at one-third the cost by using lumber 
 instead of charcoal, the price of the pig-iron reduced pro 
 portionately and I ll go for my papers and show you 
 the whole thing in a nutshell. Just wait one minute." 
 
 " To-night after dinner. I m quite sure I understand 
 all about it now," nodding and laughing as he went in 
 and shut the door. He laughed again to himself now 
 and then while he was dressing, muttering "of all the 
 cursed idiots ! " but in the same tone with which he would 
 have spoken to his own children when their childish folly 
 pleased him. 
 
 Laird, especially now in his trousers and shirt-sleeves, 
 was a gross-looking fellow : short, squat, his heavy-jawed, 
 high-featured face set off by red whiskers, and mustache. 
 One could guess at a glance that the power indicated in 
 this face was that of a bold, unscrupulous speculator, and 
 that the strongest taste and enjoyment of the man lay in 
 his wine and dinner, the "feeds" with which he and two 
 or three of his clique usually finished the day; but there 
 was a trait, a sixth sense, which lay under his relish for 
 high percentage, or terrapins, that insensibly raised him 
 a level above his compatriot feeders: it hindered him 
 from ever saying a coarse word before his children or such 
 a man as Latimer. When all the betting world was down 
 at Jerome Park, Laird went off for a lazy day s fishing in 
 the hills; when his friends filled their boxes at the Acad 
 emy of Music, chuckling over the broad shoulders and 
 broader jokes of the Opera Bouffe, or delighted at Edwin 
 Booth s pretty pictures, Laird jeered at them; yet he 
 
84 JOHN AXDROSS. 
 
 went night after night to watch old Rip s parting, with 
 his daughter, and was not ashamed to be seen wiping the 
 tears off as he came away. The colonel s unconscious 
 self-sacrifice touched him now with a certain pathos, just 
 as did the white hairs of the old man coming hack to his 
 own to find himself forgotten. It was a thing which he 
 felt Houston Laird might have done in another and a 
 better world. " Can t be hampered with thinking of 
 money? " he repeated, drawing on his boot and looking 
 reflectively at the toe. " That was finely said in Latimer! 
 Confoundedly finely said! And he means it! That old 
 fool don t care for money any more than I do for the dust 
 on my shoes. Neither does old Farroll, starving himself 
 and his family to found his Inebriate Asylum drunken 
 bloats!" Laird felt himself a better man for Latimer 
 and Farroll s whims just as lie did after listening to Joe 
 Jefferson s wonderful rendition of nature, or one of 
 Thomas s noble symphonies; but it did not follow that 
 he had the least intention of imitating those heroic old 
 idiots, any more than he had of going about the country 
 acting or fiddling. 
 
 When his boots were on, he dressed himself with scru 
 pulous care and quiet, hanging as sole ornament to his 
 plain black watch-guard a dull, cracked antique, of which 
 he had lately become the blest possessor. He never risked 
 wearing it in town. 
 
 " She will appreciate it," he thought. In the hurry of 
 pushing the National Transit stock during the spring he 
 had really forgotten that when he met the Latimers in 
 town at Christmas he had asked Isabel to marry him. 
 Of course it all came freshly back now, and as he trim 
 med his well-shaped nails he half made up his mind to 
 do it again. I can afford to marry whom I choose," he 
 thought. It was in obedience to this sixth sense of his 
 that the ideas of a wife and money were kept strictly apart. 
 When he went down the stairs he found Isabel, drawing, 
 
JOHK ASTDKOSS. 85 
 
 as usual, sitting in the window. It was a hot day. 
 Laird s eyes, used to the fulness and rainbow colouring 
 of city drawing-rooms, Persian carpets, brocatelle, buhl 
 pictures, and old china, opened with a sudden sense of 
 coolness and rest on the bareness and still, pale lights of 
 this room; the floor of yellow pine, the sweeping curtains 
 of thin gray lawn, the big round table covered by books, 
 papers, pipes, and sewing, in most comfortable disorder. 
 The light was sifted in through a honeysuckle, its crim 
 son tubes flaming in the sun, and touched Isabel s white 
 neck and reddish-brown hair as she bent over her pencil 
 and blocks of wood. Outside, a purple butterfly sat on 
 the moth-eaten window-sill, and flapped its gold-dusted 
 wings drowsily in the still heat; the mountain alone 
 looked threatening and gloomy, its gray boulders shoul 
 dering aside the grass, and coming offensively to view in 
 the bright light; the water of the creek babbled sleepily 
 over the stones all about the house. Miss Latimer turned 
 with a ready smile to meet Laird, and then went on with 
 her work; he put his eye-glass over his nose to regard her. 
 Women just then wore large hoops and stiff stuffs ruffled 
 and fluted and buttoned at every inch. Isabel s lavender- 
 coloured gown was soft and heavy, clung closely, and 
 moved with every motion of her body. It was the fash 
 ion, too, to heap the head with false curls and pomatum 
 and jute, height on height, while Bell s own soft hair 
 waved loosely up to a knot above her high, narrow crown. 
 Her truthful appearance, her simple, direct manner, was 
 the charm that had conquered Laird. He began to run 
 over in his mind the lovely girls with their trained man 
 ners and artistic dress, whom he was used to see, against 
 the background of those brilliant city rooms. This was 
 like a strain of one of Beethoven s symphonies they were 
 the Opera Bouffe. 
 
 He drew a hickory-woven chair up, and, lying back in 
 it, looked at her at his leisure. Bell dotted and rubbed 
 
86 JOHN AN DROSS. 
 
 on composedly. Isabel and her charms were, as usual, so 
 far from her own thoughts that a man s gaze upon her 
 produced no more blushes or shrinking than if he had 
 betaken himself to staring at the mantel-shelf. Men 
 never show fantastic homage to such women, and Laird 
 did not. 
 
 "Up in town," he said abruptly, "what with the 
 hurly-burly and the trading, it is hard to imagine the 
 mountain wrapped in his solemn gown, like a monk yon 
 der, and you here, cool and quiet. I wish I could take a 
 picture of you both with me. I ve a picture of a winter 
 landscape that I often like to look at in summer; very 
 nicely done, indeed. It s by Richards." 
 
 She adjusted her tools. 
 
 "I wish old Nittany could have his likeness taken," 
 glancing up the height with kindling eyes. 
 
 "And for yourself . Ah, Miss Latimer," smiling, 
 
 "it is not your pictured presentment I wish to take with 
 me it is the real woman. You know that." 
 
 "You think so when you see me with old Nittany for 
 a background; but in town you would find me as out of 
 place as one of those boulders stripped of its grass and 
 moss." 
 
 There was a short pause. 
 
 "You have not reconsidered the subject of which I 
 spoke to you last winter, then?" lowering his voice and 
 leaning forward, his arms resting on his knees. "You 
 have never thought of giving me a different answer?" 
 
 Bell looked at him. 
 
 "Never. I supposed you had forgotten that matter 
 long ago, Mr. Laird." 
 
 Laird could not tell her that he had not thought of her 
 for six months; he heaved a profound sigh and shook his 
 head sadly, sinking back in his chair. She might at least 
 show some little sign of interest in it; a downcast eye, a 
 blush. Her whole mind was given, instead, to trailing 
 
JOH;N~ ANDROSS. 87 
 
 tlie partridge-berry vine properly over the moss which she 
 was copying. When Houston Laird talked of marriage, 
 Bell saw no more cause for blushes than if he had con 
 sulted her on the colour of his coat or any other business. 
 
 "I wish," he resumed presently, in a low voice which 
 over most women would not have lacked power, "I wish 
 I could make you understand how you represent some 
 thing which I have not in my life, but should like to 
 have. It is your great simplicity. You are so downright, 
 do you see? I like the very sweep of your garments 
 straight and full. Yes, I like that in you very much," 
 eyeing her from head to foot. " I wish you would marry 
 me, Isabel. It would be well, wholesome for me. I 
 could get back to a simpler way of life. I prefer simplic 
 ity, a classical severity in dress and music, even in relig 
 ious rites. Now you did not think that of me, eh? You s 
 never would have thought of me as living or dying in the 
 high Roman fashion, Fm certain?" 
 
 6 ( No," she laughed. Cato s was not the role I should 
 have chosen for you. To tell you the truth, I always 
 think of you as the modern Aladdin, building palaces of 
 jewels by rubbing on miraculous nothings called stocks, 
 as unreal as old lamps." 
 
 He shot a keen glance of suspicion at her; but Isabel 
 never was guilty of a sarcasm in her life. She worked on 
 tranquilly. 
 
 "Why not let Aladdin build for you, then, or your 
 father? Put the idea of marriage aside for the present, 
 and let me be your friend. Miss Latimer, I do under 
 stand the old lamp, Speculation; with a touch or two on 
 it, Colonel Latimer shall be as rich a man as he was 
 before the war." 
 
 Bell was rubbing out a false stroke. She finished before 
 she answered. 
 
 " He was no happier man then than now. He slept on 
 the same iron bedstead, wore as coarse clothes, ate a baked 
 
88 JOHN ANDROSS. 
 
 potato for his dinner. If lie had one dollar or a million, 
 it would go alike into lumber and ore." 
 
 "And come out slag?" 
 
 "I m afraid so," choking down a sigh. 
 
 He watched her with a perplexed frown for awhile. 
 "Perhaps," suddenly, "it is this very wealth and luxury 
 you would dread as my wife? The responsibility of the 
 children? They should not be in your way. John is at 
 Annapolis, and the little girl has her governess, and as 
 for the rest it should be in your hands. I d be glad if 
 you d remodel the house, unfurnish and ungild as you 
 choose. Now, there s the carriages," thoughtfully; " that 
 gold-mounted harness: I never liked it. It drives every 
 body to talking of Laird s patent stirrup. I began as a 
 saddler, you know, Miss Latimer. That harness was to 
 please the children s mother. But we would drive in 
 an undertaker s wagon, if you wished it!" 
 
 "I do not wish it. I will never take the place of your 
 children s mother in any way." Isabel s tones were more 
 gentle than before, but Laird knew that he was answered. 
 
 "I m very sorry, Isabel," he said gravely. "You are 
 mistaken, I think." 
 
 The pencil paused irresolute in her hand an instant 
 over the block. The natural and decisive way of ending 
 the matter would be to tell him of her engagement; but 
 at the mere remembrance of Braddock, hot blood crept 
 up into Isabel s honest face which had not warmed under 
 the smothered passion of Laird s glances. Even to her 
 father she had never spoken of her lover. She thought 
 of his love secretly even to herself with a shyness akin to 
 pain. 
 
 Laird saw the blush and mistook its cause. " I ll have 
 her, soul and body, before the year s out," he thought; 
 her coldness had roused a balked sense of indolent pas 
 sion within *him. But he determined to let the matter 
 rest for the present. 
 
JOHN" AKDKOSS. 89 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 A FTEE Mr. Laird s rejection he leaned back so 
 -"- quietly in his chair and looked so persistently at 
 his intaglio in the sun that Miss Latimer began to feel 
 alarmed. He was suffering more deeply than he showed, 
 no doubt, poor man! No matter how little nonsense a 
 woman has in her, she always has a sentimental regard 
 for a rejected lover, and bewails secretly the irreparable 
 wound which she feels he must bear to the grave. 
 
 "Aha! "he cried presently. "Who s here? Coming 
 with your father?" 
 
 Isabel sighed with relief, but answered rather shortly 
 that " she did not know the man." 
 
 " Surely I know that roll and the patriarchal length of 
 beard, and the hat set cock-a-hoop on one side! It cer 
 tainly is Ware! Prepare yourself for black-mail, Miss 
 Latimer." 
 
 "Who is he?" 
 
 " Eeporter for the Daily Critic. If there s a shameful 
 story to be told of you, he ll write it and charge you so 
 much a line to keep it out of print; if there s a chance 
 for gross flattery of you, he ll print it first, and send you 
 the bill for it as an advertisement next day. But what 
 brings him here?" anxiously. "Ware goes nowhere 
 without the chance of grist to his mill. He follows a 
 crime as a buzzard the carrion. What can he want here?" 
 He rose uncertainly, but sat down again and was idly 
 turning his seal in the sun, and smiling when colonel and 
 Ware entered. The colonel presented his guest with a 
 
90 JOHN ANDROSS. 
 
 good deal of mpressement to his daughter. He had a 
 measureless respect and awe for the press, and the least 
 worker on it. He only read the papers which defended 
 the opinions he had formed beforehand, and therefore 
 found in them nothing but pure truth. 
 
 " Mr. Ware represents the New York Critic, Bell," 
 with an effort to speak coolly. " They have heard of my 
 experiments in New York, it appears. The public want 
 information on the subject, and Mr. Ware is going to 
 furnish it to them." 
 
 Miss Latimer s face was in a glow at the words. She 
 stood up. "My father is doing a great work, sir," she 
 said, "for humanity. / don t care so very much about 
 humanity, but I shall be very glad if he is to become 
 famous." She was always a woman of such few words, 
 that now being moved to speech, there was a certain slow, 
 stately force in what she said that for the moment struck 
 Ware dumb. " I never met a woman so lovable or so 
 infernally .stupid," he confessed to Laird afterward. "I 
 went on my knees to her at first sight." 
 
 It was all because she thought the coarse, blatant fellow 
 held the trump of Fame ready to sound for her father: 
 she always had known the world sometime would recog 
 nize with her the colonel and Braddock as demi-gods in 
 it; it was no wonder therefore that Ware was impressed 
 with his welcome; Isabel of Spain could have given no 
 more royal one to the discoverer who had opened to her 
 the treasures of a marvellous unknown world. Ware, who 
 had been quizzing the colonel unmercifully outside, turned 
 to Mr. Laird, flushed and stammering, bowing humbly. 
 
 "I am glad to have the honour of meeting you, sir; I 
 hastened up from Gray Eagle as soon as I heard there was 
 a chance of meeting Mr. Laird here. I I am really 
 going to illustrate Colonel Latimer s process," with an 
 uneasy side glance at the old man s radiant face, "for the 
 Critic. It will make a most readable article practical, 
 
JOHK AKDROSS. 91 
 
 statistical, embellished with fanciful descriptions of scen 
 ery such as the ore drifts and shafts, and charcoal 
 hearths." 
 
 "I know very little of the cookery of such literary 
 messes/ drily, turning indifferently away. Indeed, an 
 odd change had taken place in Laird since Ware entered. 
 Alone with Bell, he had been an ordinary blunt, out 
 spoken man on the same level as herself. Now, from the 
 glossy curl in his red whiskers to every puffy roll of his 
 stout body he asserted himself a prince of millionaires. 
 Money and the power of it hinted itself, from the com 
 fortable crossing of his feet to the cool gleam of his blue 
 eyes. He had put on the armour before which the aver 
 age American is always worsted. He held Ware off at a 
 distance, as one does a dangerous dog which may spring, 
 we know not when. 
 
 However, the dinner was hearty and pleasant enough. 
 Diogenes himself would have warmed into a tolerably 
 good fellow at Thomas Latimer s table. The old man, 
 when money was plenty with him years ago, had delighted 
 to give splendid banquets to his friends, but none of them 
 had ever paid him then more deference and sincere hom 
 age than this Laird, whose soul was popularly believed to 
 be made of money, or this poor reporter known every 
 where as a "dead beat," did now, although the cloth was 
 coarse cotton and the forks but plated. How blind they 
 were too, to the homoeopathic size of the roast of mutton 
 which he pressed on them so anxiously; how they passed 
 and repassed the bottle of execrable sherry (the colonel 
 never had been a judge of wine), and ate and drank so 
 heartily that he whispered, delighted, to Bell as they 
 went back to the other room, how that the dinner had 
 been a thorough success, that those fellows thought 
 everything delicious and choice searching in his pockets 
 for the last fifty cents for Oth because the right hand of 
 that famous cook had not lost its cunning. 
 
92 JOES ANDROSS. 
 
 Bell, happy in the present dinner and future fame, was 
 disposed to be less silent than was her habit. Her father 
 and Ware sat out on the dilapidated old porch to smoke. 
 
 "This Mr. Ware appears to be a most discriminating 
 person," she said sententiously. "You were certainly 
 mistaken in all you said about black-mail. It must have 
 been some other Ware. " 
 
 Mr. Laird was watching him with half -shut eyes, as he 
 had done all evening. "What could have brought him 
 here?" he said. 
 
 Ware leaned in the window just then, his big body 
 crushing the honeysuckles. "I found your confidential 
 clerk, An dross, at Gray Eagle, Mr. Laird." 
 
 Laird s face suddenly cleared. " Ah-h! Now we have 
 it!" he muttered. "Yes, I understand he is in business 
 here," carelessly^, 
 
 Ware drew leisurely long whiffs from his cigar into his 
 mouth, and then emitted it in blue rings; Laird leaned 
 back in his chair as leisurely, fingering Bell s tools, but 
 the eyes of each man were fixed on the other without 
 faltering. "What does he know? What will it cost to 
 buy him?" Laird s would have said if they had been 
 suffered to speak, but they were dull and unmeaning; 
 Ware s were eager to articulation. He had almost probed 
 a secret, and a secret of Houston Laird s or- his Ring was 
 equal to a good "business connection." 
 
 " It was young Kenny who discovered him," he said at 
 last. "He met him accidentally while trouting up in 
 these hill streams." 
 
 Laird nodded civilly. The matter apparently did not 
 interest him so much as the sharpening of Miss Latimer s 
 pencils. "Another, Miss Isabel," pausing, penknife in 
 hand. 
 
 But Ware was not so easily bluffed. " Kenny," knock 
 ing the ashes from his cigar on the sill, "came back to 
 town flush with greenbacks. He s usually as impecunious 
 
JOHiJ AKDEOSS. 93 
 
 as the rest of us. He said he had found the Mttany 
 Eange a lucky ground for speculation. He put five thou 
 sand in Erie the day after he got back." 
 
 "Ridiculous!" growled the colonel from outside. 
 "What chance for speculation is there among these trees 
 and boulders? Must have been trading in Lock Haven." 
 
 Mr. Laird thought it time now to face the reporter 
 deliberately. The fellow held a checkline and knew that 
 he held it. But what did it amount to ? He had discov 
 ered that Andross was a confidential agent of the Ring, 
 and was trying to shake loose from their hold. But the 
 man knew that every such organization had such agents, 
 and that once used, for them to be turned loose to chatter 
 and blab was not expedient. That was all. Andross 
 was not the man to chatter secrets to Ware, however he 
 might loathe and hate the Ring. Laird saw that Miss 
 Latimer also had turned her steady attentive eyes on 
 Ware. But she was too slow a woman to suspect any 
 thing. 
 
 "Ware," he said gravely. 
 
 "Yes?" The big handsome head was thrust eagerly 
 forward. 
 
 " I am afraid your cigar ashes will be blown over Miss 
 Latimer s moss; be more careful, pray. That is all." 
 
 The protruding brown eyes stared defiantly at Laird a 
 moment, then Ware laughed. " He forgets," he thought, 
 "that when a man lives by his wits, the wits are apt to 
 be a tolerably well managed capital. But," he said aloud, 
 "don t you think it remarkable that Kenny in two days 
 should have turned such a pretty penny among these 
 woods and boulders, as the colonel says?" 
 
 "I suppose," said Laird, "that seeing Kenny s big 
 yield of grapes of Eshcol, you hurried up to pluck a 
 bunch from the same vine." 
 
 "Precisely." He was suffered to puff away in silence 
 so long that when he spoke again he went directly to the 
 
9G JOHST ANDROSS. 
 
 |s 
 
 She could smell the fresh mould and grass on the damp 
 air. There was not an inch of it which was not dear to 
 the quiet, affectionate girl, simply because her father s 
 feet had so long trod in it; the stars hung burning be 
 tween the mountain shadows overhead so near that it 
 seemed to her that happy other life into which she and 
 her father were going some day, was close at hand. But 
 the dark figures of Ware and Laird down by the creek 
 were alien; they did not belong here. This little moun 
 tain gap, her father, Braddock this was her share of the 
 world. What had these men, with their schemes of poli 
 tics and plunder, to do with it? Isabel, as anybody might 
 know from her firm flesh, square jaws, and large, sweet- 
 tempered ^inouth, was subject to -none of the poignant 
 little loves and hates of Anna Maddox, but a chance 
 word dropped to-night had caused her to put both men 
 into her scales of judgment; and, her mind once made 
 up, it was not likely that any reason would change it. 
 
 She looked steadily at the two figures, measuring her 
 strength against them. They should go out of this place 
 and away from her father. 
 
 Just then their voices, raised so as to be heard over the 
 rippling of the water, reached her. 
 
 "You have a hold on him, then?" said Ware. 
 "Yes. But I doubt its efficiency, if there be a woman 
 in the case. If he have a fair prospect here, with a chance 
 to marry, the line I have held him by so long will not be 
 strong enough to bring him back." 
 
 " But you forget the money he paid to Kenny?" eagerly. 
 " He did pay it in cash. It is impossible that he could 
 have earned that amount since he came here. There s a 
 thumbscrew for you ready to use. And I m here to back 
 you. The press, sir! Next to a jail-cell there s nothing 
 a guilty man dreads like the daily newspaper. We report 
 ers are the unpaid police of the country. You had better 
 let me bring Andross over to-night. What d ye say?" 
 
JOHN ANDEOSS. 97 
 
 "I shall see him in the morning," coolly. 
 
 The money king however apparently appreciated the 
 power of the unpaid police, and had chosen in the last 
 five minutes to use a much more civil tone to Ware, even 
 while he snubhed him. The fellow had his influence, as 
 he reflected, and it might as well he secured for the com 
 pany as not. Nothing could be more annoying to a man 
 or a corporation than the incessant barking of these 
 smaller dogs of the press. 
 
 "Take a cigar," said Ware confidentially, pulling out 
 a curious Turkish case. " They were brought to me by 
 a friend straight from " 
 
 "Thanks, no," drawing back coldly. 
 
 Now this old fellow, the colonel ? " anxiously. What 
 a queer party he is, anyhow, eh? With his mixture of 
 intelligence and stupidity, and his big bones and flying 
 hair, and then, going hungry to make us eat his bit of 
 roast mutton a very unusual sort of person, it seems to 
 me. What an excellent figure-head he would make, Mr. 
 Laird." 
 
 "I don t understand you." 
 
 "In your business. For the company. Agent, say. 
 The kind of man in whom everybody puts confidence; 
 why, his word would go as far as the sight of your securi 
 ties. Upon my word, sir, he somehow put me so in mind 
 of my childhood and of some that are dead, sitting at the 
 table yonder, that I could hardly command my voice. It 
 would be a capital thing for the company to bring him 
 into their employ, and a capital thing for the old man, 
 too." 
 
 "Yes, very probably," but in a tone which dismissed 
 the subject. 
 
 "A hold upon An dross? A rod to drive him to their 
 work when he chooses to live and marry here?" Women 
 reason by hints, not syllogisms. Bell saw as though she 
 had heard all the facts. The life-long struggle for free- 
 
98 JOHis ANDKOSS. 
 
 dom which drove Andross first to coaling, half naked, up 
 in the gorges, and then to theft, perhaps, and to hiding 
 half mad like a beast among the rocks. The secret of his 
 struggle might be found quite as much, perhaps, in his 
 own weak jaw and uncertain womanish eyes as in any 
 power of Laird s, but Bell made no allowance for such 
 side issues or reasons. 
 
 Did money then rule? Did this man Laird, dull and 
 uncultured, and a liar at heart, think because of his 
 foundation of solid dollars that her father and Andross 
 were to go under his yoke and become part of his machin 
 ery? To her heated brain it was as though she had heard 
 the very words of the devil as he stood plotting in the 
 garden; but beyond the circling mountain range, every 
 thing bent to Laird s money. She knew well the world 
 to which he belonged fashion, false show, plunder 
 gambling in stock by the pennies or by the millions. Were 
 her father and Andross to go back and take part of that? 
 
 "Does he think there is nothing in this world but 
 greed and money? He forgets who will take part against 
 him." The words came out slowly on her tongue. It 
 seemed to her as though He, the great elder Brother, stood 
 on the bank of the creek, brawling yonder down the gorge, 
 as ready to help poor Andross, as he had been to stretch 
 out his hand, eighteen hundred years ago, to any poor 
 Jewish cripple or profligate. 
 
 Bell s religion, being a woman without fancy or senti 
 mentality, was as real and hourly a matter of thought to 
 her as the work which her hands fingered. She stood in 
 the unlighted room now until the darkness closed in over 
 the gorge and the house. Laird and Ware had disap 
 peared. She did not know by what strategy or tricks 
 they would attack her father or Andross. The danger 
 was actual and imminent to her. But what was danger, 
 or Laird, or that awful invisible power of evil lurking 
 everywhere? One benignant presence, of all men most a 
 
JOHK AKDROSS. 99 
 
 man, was here, close to them all, to bring, as he had done 
 for ages, right out of wrong. Bell never had been sure 
 whether she believed in Apostolic Succession or Paedo- 
 baptism or Predestination or not. She used to toil and 
 tug with her illogical brain through doctrinal books every 
 Sunday afternoon in order to make out a proper creed for 
 herself, and they only wreaked upon her utter confusion 
 of spirit. But she knew Him and trusted Him; and she 
 was so sure now that He would make it all right that she 
 went about the room, closing the curtains, and lighting 
 the lamp, singing at first a hymn, but very soon a song 
 with a merry ringing burden, of which she and her father 
 were both fond. Indeed, she heard presently his cracked 
 voice as he came in from the barn joining in the chorus, 
 and went out to hold the light for him. 
 
 That s right, my dear. Our friends have strolled 
 along the creek; they ll be in presently. We must be up 
 early to-morrow morning; Mr. Laird is going over to the 
 Works." 
 
 " Mr. Laird s business here is with Jack?" 
 
 " Yes, I suppose it is," in the guarded tone with which 
 the colonel always warned women off the sacred precincts 
 of business. I am glad Laird knows Andross. He can 
 give him a lift in the world as few men are able to do." 
 
 "You think Mr. Laird a good man then, father? hon 
 est, fair dealing?" 
 
 "Bless my soul! Houston Laird! Why, he is the 
 very centre of commercial activity in this state, and head 
 of religious clubs and what are you thinking of?" 
 
 " I had an impression " 
 
 " Oh, an impression? No, I never knew a woman who 
 would not throw a man s character to the winds, and all 
 the testimony of the world in his favour to boot, if she 
 had an impression against him. You are all alike, Bell ! " 
 
 Isabel smiled and held fast to her opinion. Her father, 
 she saw, would be no ally on her side. 
 
100 JOHK AXDROSS. 
 
 CHAPTEK XI. 
 
 DR. BRADDOCK drove Tom back at a spanking pace. 
 If he talked at all, it was of the buckwheat crop 
 or Buck s heifers or pig iron. The little creature beside 
 him was no less Una and Godiva than the night before; 
 but somehow this sublimated homage would not find 
 words in common daylight, and it occurred to him to 
 wonder what Isabel would think of it with an irritated 
 feeling of being in a jail of which Miss Latimer kept the 
 key. 
 
 Anna ran up to her room after he had left her (stop 
 ping to kiss and hug her papa into good humour on the 
 way) ; then she prepared to receive Andross in a white 
 frilled wrapper, laughing to think how silly Braddock s 
 scheme was to keep them apart. She knew Jack would 
 follow her in half an hour. Then she ran down to coax 
 Miss Shanks (the "help") into making her favorite pud 
 ding for dinner. She was so pretty, and so overflowing 
 with love and wilful baby ways, that that young lady laid 
 aside a sacque she was braiding for camp-meeting and 
 humoured her. Anna having only nibbled a little break 
 fast, then ate a slice of pound-cake and some pickles, and 
 filled her pockets with nuts, and went back to her cham 
 ber to write in her diary. Then she cried over Andross s 
 hard fate (she was really very fond of Andross and her 
 father and Miss Shanks and anything else that came in 
 her way), and slept sweetly until dinner-time. After 
 dinner she dressed again, and it was while she was eating 
 an orange or two in the seclusion of her own chamber, 
 
JOHH A^DKOSS. 101 
 
 that she finally resolved to marry An dross. Her new 
 poodle, Puck, was there, and she had nursed and kissed 
 and made him beg for cake, before she was led to reflect 
 that one could manage men quite as easily as poodles. It 
 was so absurd and priggish in Dr. Braddock to interfere, 
 when Andross really loved her! It was so absurd in men, 
 at any rate, to wrap themselves up in the dignity of their 
 political schemes and business plans, "when I can do 
 with any of them what I please-^just what I please!" 
 nodding her little head. This poor Jack now? What a 
 big, stout fellow he was ! and how much more he knew of 
 the world than Dr. Braddock; and yet Anna stroked 
 and kneaded the fluffy little ball on her lap with her 
 white hands, thinking that Jack was in their grasp more 
 absolutely than this little beast. "Whether he goes up 
 or down in this world or the next depends pretty much 
 on me/ murmured the rosebud lips aloud. " He ll be a 
 Christian or a sinner, as I choose to use him, I m sure. 
 It s a great responsibility ! " and she sighed and put Puck 
 down and went for some more pound-cake. 
 
 Andross, meantime, at the Works had appeased the 
 curiosity of the men as he best could, and worked steadily 
 at his desk all day. The fingers that held the pen were 
 the fingers of a thief, and Laird was at his back. It 
 would be better he should never look in Anna s face 
 again; and in this mind he remained until evening; then 
 he shut his desk, flung on his hat, and with Braddock 
 looking him sternly in the face, nodded to him, and going 
 out of the door went directly up the path to Judge Mad- 
 dox s. v 
 
 Long afterwards it seemed to him that if Braddock had 
 stretched out a kind hand to him at that minute, spoken 
 a single word to him as a friend and a Christian, it would 
 have made his life different to the end. But Braddock 
 could give all his savings and make no sign; yet he could 
 not greet Andross heartily, or keep from snappish answers 
 
102 JOHIS A^DROSS. 
 
 or suspicious looks. It is yery likely, however, that noth 
 ing he could have done would really have had any effect. 
 Jack had every reason to be a miserable, despairing 
 man that evening; but in fact he was reasonably happy. 
 Except in the cleared acre or two about the Works, the 
 great Nittany forest crept down from the mountains and 
 choked all the valleys to the creek s edge. Jack s way 
 lay through it. He could not help noticing how full of 
 rainbow-glimmering dust were the wide beams of light 
 which the low westering sun struck through the aisles of 
 oaks and chestnuts, and how the thick trunks stood out 
 in it, painted green and yellow and crimson with lichen. 
 His feet sank deep in the leaves, rotting for years; he 
 stooped to untwist a creeping vine of morning glory from 
 about his legs, its pink blossoms yet open in the shade. 
 He halted to look down into the strange, green funnel- 
 shaped hollows which the people called witch s holes; at 
 the swarming ant-hills higher than his shoulder; at a 
 fungus standing like a scarlet star on a dung-heap; at the 
 brilliant blue butterflies which he had never seen else 
 where, that darted across the tan-coloured mountain 
 stream; at a saffron night-moth with a white cross on its 
 back, that, shaken from its bough, hung in the air dazed 
 with the late daylight. The air was damp, heavy with 
 wood-scents. He could no more help forgetting himself 
 to notice these things, than the ant could help its poison 
 ous bite, or the moth its blinded eyes. He lay down for 
 awhile on the thick layers of leaves, and actually forgot 
 all about money or the avenger coming, or Anna, in feel 
 ing that his clothes were warm and comfortable, and his 
 bed soft, and the air deliciously light to his lungs. There 
 was too, under all, a vague assurance that the Power who 
 had made the world such a delight and comfort, must 
 know that he, Jack, was not a bad sort of a fellow after 
 
 all, and would have done right if if 
 
 At any rate it was not hard to do right now. He 
 
JOHK AKDROSS. 103 
 
 sprung up and walked buoyantly along, his hat in his 
 hands, that were clasped behind him. His womanish, 
 brilliant eyes glowed with the great thought that had 
 come to him in some way out of the slanting beams and 
 the floating moth and wood-growths. It was the easiest 
 thing to be right! He would own the theft, and if he 
 were allowed to do it, go away to some obscure part of 
 the country, where Laird and his father were unknown, 
 and work until he had paid the money. When he came 
 back with clean hands Anna would marry him. Her 
 love was like that of some redeeming saint it would be 
 
 most tender to the sinner. If she did not he stopped 
 
 at that suddenly. No matter; he could live alone to the 
 end. "I will lift up my hands unto Thee, Lord!" he 
 repeated, remembering some of his mother s hymns or 
 psalms. He hurried on; his pulse throbbed; the tears 
 came to his eyes. He reached the judge s house, opened 
 the gate and, crossing the garden paths, came to the win 
 dow where Anna, after writing in her diary that his doom 
 was hers, and giving her hair a crowning touch of halo- 
 like fluffiness, sat and waited for him. 
 
 He tapped at the pane. "Won t you come out?" hum 
 bly. " There is a thunder-storm coming up the valley, 
 and the air really takes hold of you like live, damp 
 fingers." 
 
 " He looks excited as though he had been drinking," 
 thought Anna, but she only raised her white-lidded eyes 
 to his and put out her hand. 
 
 Andross did not touch it. " Come out. I feel as if I 
 could not breathe in-doors to-night. See, old Nittany has 
 wrapped himself in mist already; it is lightening beyond 
 the Muncey mountains." He leaned his elbow on the 
 window-sill, his eyes wandering up and down the valley, 
 while Anna pouted that they could leave her face. Look 
 at that bird with the flash of red on its wing; how low 
 and straight its flight is to its nest. I knew the storm 
 
104 JOHN AXDROSS. 
 
 was coming as soon as any swallow of them all," with a 
 boyish exultation. " See how the hollyhocks burn red as 
 the sun goes down! And this clematis about the window; 
 its mass of feathery green makes the right framing for 
 your pale-tinted face." 
 
 Anna s rocking-chair was comfortable, and she had her 
 usual fear when lazy of taking cold. But she was that 
 ideal of all men, a yielding woman; if her lover had felt 
 his mission to be a journey into Africa or to the Xorth Pole 
 she would have gone with him with effusion, though if 
 he had left her behind to pack the trunks, she might 
 have married another man before the ship sailed. 
 
 She shivered but wrapped her lace shawl about her 
 head and came out. Andross was waiting. He looked at 
 her furtively from head to foot, and then turned away. 
 
 " Come to the seat under the chestnut. You can com 
 mand the valley there. It won t rain for an hour," going 
 before her hastily. 
 
 "Won t you take cold?" touching his arm softly; once, 
 no more. Jack laughed from sheer delight. There was 
 something immeasurably exhilarating and delicious to the 
 big, stout fellow in the idea of being taken care of by this 
 feeble mite of a creature. Samson found Delilah, with 
 out doubt, a little, gentle woman; who petted and cod 
 dled his strength out of him. " I forgot," chirped she, 
 like a sweet-voiced bird, "that you were used lately to 
 the night air. Oh! where did you go, Jack?" clasping 
 both hands about his arm and looking straight up into 
 his eyes, " Oh! how could you vex and frighten me so?" 
 
 " Did I vex you? God knows " Jack stopped, pulled 
 her hands from his arms roughly, and walked away. 
 
 The chestnut stood over a spring, that bubbled out 
 with a sleepy whisper over the mossy rocks. 
 
 " It s easy to be right," Andross said to himself, again 
 and again. " But the sleepy, lapping whisper seemed to 
 drown the words. If it had been Bell who sat there he 
 
JOHX AXDROSS. 105 
 
 could have grappled with his trouble, told it to her in 
 plain words as to a man, and she would have helped him. 
 But Anna was only a delicate child; he must never forget 
 that. 
 
 "Yes, you did. You always do vex me," she moaned. 
 She had seated herself on a knob of the trunk; thick trees 
 shut them in, except where, in front, the valley opened in 
 a gash through the hills, to the gorge in the west, behind 
 which the sun set. Clouds walled this far-off gorge; you 
 could see that it was already raining there ; but the light 
 struck up behind the clouds, and filled the upper sky 
 with fervid warmth and colour. The mountain spring 
 sparkled in it, the leaves, with that still shiver of a com 
 ing storm, grew darker green in it, but to Andross, the 
 woman, with her reddening cheeks and parted lips, the 
 brown snaky blossoms of the chestnut dropping down on 
 her loose hair and uncovered shoulders, was the centre 
 and meaning of all the heat and brightness the meaning 
 of life. 
 
 " You did vex me," her eyes following him, compelling 
 his to turn. "I knew you fled from here because you 
 were in trouble or shame. Yes, 111 speak the truth. / 
 knew vou had committed a crime!" 
 
 "What do you mean ? " Jack said, drawing farther away. 
 
 She sat quite still, her hands held out towards him. 
 " Did I ever ask what it was? Did / care? You are my 
 friend. I would have shared your trouble. I would have 
 gone with you." Still Andross did not take the begging 
 hands. She clasped them over her burning face. "I 
 did what I could. I followed you. I forced Doctor 
 Braddock to take me with him to search for you." 
 
 Then a hot drop of water or two forced its way between 
 the little fingers, and rolled over the back of her hand. 
 At that Jack gave a groan. No thought now as to 
 whether it was easy to do right or not. He dragged the 
 little fingers from the flushed, lovely face and looked at 
 
106 JOHN ANDROSS. 
 
 it. Her eyes were wet, but laughing. Was this whole 
 dreadful business only a comedy then? 
 
 "You can t deceive me," she said; "Spillen says you 
 were out fishing. Papa says the moon had something to 
 do with it, that it affects people who are not quite right," 
 touching her forehead, and that no man can be quite 
 right and care so much for ragged books and cracked pot 
 tery. It was the change of the moon did it, he says." 
 
 Jack laughed. 
 
 "But I knew it was neither the moon nor fishes. 
 What is this dreadful mystery that hangs over you?" 
 She peered closer into his face, with the ready pout on 
 her lips, when she saw thoughts there that lay deeper 
 than any love for her. 
 
 "There s no mystery," said Jack. "I ve not been a 
 lucky man. I ve never been able to go straight on a 
 beaten road, like Braddook or the colonel. I ve been 
 hampered by business relations, dragged this way and 
 dragged that. I ve been handcuffed, hobbled. I didn t 
 mind it for awhile. But it seems to me now as if x the 
 hold on me was turning into iron, and was going to drag 
 me down always; after I m dead, even into that place 
 they call hell, if I can name such a place to you safe, com 
 fortable people." 
 
 Even Anna could feel the bitterness under his joking 
 tone. Her responsibility as to his soul s safe conduct 
 flashed upon her. Now was the time to take charge of it. 
 
 "I think you re very irreligious, Mr. Andross. You 
 ought not to use such language at all. And besides, it s 
 all nonsense to say any man out of a jail is hampered in 
 this free country. You are free. You can go into busi 
 ness and marry, and vote, or go to housekeeping, or be 
 sent to the legislature, or any of those things. And you 
 can go to church regularly and so on, and then there s no 
 danger of going to that other place. It is all plain and 
 easy, in my opinion." 
 
AOTROSS. 107 
 
 The words from anybody else might have seemed silly 
 and unfeeling to Jack. But from Anna the way opened 
 before him in them plain and easy, as she said. The way 
 to safety, to love, to heaven. 
 
 "Don t hold my arm so tight. You hurt me!" she 
 cried. "Why do you look at me in that way? You 
 know it s all true what I say. It doesn t matter what 
 
 you have done, even if it s murder " shivering with 
 
 excitement. "God will forgive you. And ":she 
 
 looked away, "if there is any woman in the world that 
 loves you, she would forgive it too." 
 
 "Do you mean " 
 
 In the sudden silence Anna looked up. She started 
 back with a little cry, as if she had thrust her hand into 
 the fire. 
 
 " I m afraid of you." In a moment she controlled her 
 self. "Why do you frighten me so?" patting her wet 
 eyes and burning cheeks with a perfumed handkerchief. 
 
 "Oh!" groaned Jack, "for God s sake don t say more 
 than you mean. It s life or death with me to-day. I 
 misunderstood you, may be. But I thought you meant 
 that even if I had committed crime, you could forgive 
 me, and and love me, Anna." 
 
 He did not make love as she had planned it many a 
 time; that was certain. He did not tremble at her touch, 
 nor touch her at all, indeed, but walked off and stood by 
 the spring, with his back to her, grinding the bits of rot 
 ten wood under his boot-heel, his hands thrust deep into 
 his pockets. But she felt somehow that the body and 
 soul of the man, both bigger than her own, were under 
 going some physical or mental torture. She remembered 
 how Gertrude Von der Wart stood by her dying husband 
 on the rack and put water to his lips. She was sure she 
 loved Jack enough to do that. 
 
 "I can t tell you what I mean if you turn your back 
 to me." 
 
108 JOHN ANDROSS. 
 
 He came back slowly. 
 
 " If I were a man of honour, I would never look you in 
 the face again." 
 
 She drew back. 
 
 "Your secret has nothing to do with another wife?" 
 
 Jack laughed. 
 
 ( No. There is no woman in the world who has come 
 into my life in any way but you. You must know that." 
 
 Her head dropped on her heaving bosom. 
 
 " Then you you do care for me a little?" 
 
 " Care for you?" he cried, still standing off and looking 
 at her as banished Satan might at his lost crown. 
 
 After all, why was it lost? This girl, this wife, was 
 his crown of manhood. He was a man like otjier men; 
 why should he let it slip from him? If she went now, 
 she would never return. 
 
 At whatever risk, then . He put out his hand, but 
 uncertainly, as she saw. 
 
 "Why can not he be funny or agreeable when he comes 
 a^wooing, as he used to be?" she thought, impatiently. 
 "A person don t want tragedy all day." 
 
 This young Lotohinvar came wooing with a mortal sick 
 ness at his heart, apparently. All the gayety and electric 
 vigo^; that had made Andross, Andross, was gone. 
 
 He drew her slowly toward him. 
 
 " G6~d knows whether I care for you or not. Did you 
 mean just now that you would be my wife? No matter 
 what I have done that you would marry me?" 
 
 " Oh, indeed yes, Jack," she whispered. 
 
 I Her head sank on his breast, the soft perfumed hair 
 was blown against his mouth, her arms were around his 
 neck. Anna s frail? body always exposed every feeling 
 within. Her skin was pale, her eyes languid, her breath 
 came slowly. Nothing could seem more weak or loving 
 or loyal than she, lying there. John Andross had never 
 kissed a pure woman s lips before. When he touched 
 
 t 
 
AKDEOSS. 109 
 
 
 
 them the warmth and brightness of the day struck home 
 to him. His face glowed, his eyes flashed. What was 
 Laird or stolen money or Rings ? He kissed her but once, 
 and then placing her gently on the rock, sat down before 
 her. He had such a reverence for her such tenderness, 
 akin to pain ! He held a bit of her muslin dress in his 
 hand; if he let her go altogether, it seemed as if he should 
 drift away, he knew not into what abyss. That old 
 dreadful life of a minute ago was gone as far as past ages. 
 The time when he doubted, was guilty . He remem 
 bered quickly that she had no mother to guard her now, 
 that love was coming to her. It was quite in the nature 
 of the man to feel, above the hot passion surging in his 
 blood for this woman, an unspeakable respect and awe for 
 her, and all women through her such as a mother feels 
 for her maiden child. He would take good care of her, 
 from even his own love. Anna put her hand shyly again 
 into his. 
 
 "What do you see yonder, Jack? Why are you so 
 quiet? Why, your eyes are wet! I thought a man was 
 glad when he was loved, and did not cry like a woman." 
 
 Jack put the little hand on his eyes. 
 
 "I never thought this would come to me," he said 
 quietly. "It seems as if He stopped. He could 
 
 not say even to her that he felt as if Christ had forgiven 
 him, and laid His hand on him through her. " I ve been 
 a worthless dog," forcing a laugh. "I never thought, 
 since my mother died, that God or man took much 
 account of Jack An dross until now." 
 
 It was very disappointing! She had flung herself intp 
 the abyss of his despair, and he began to talk about his 
 dead mother ! She had never, in opera or tragedy, known 
 a situation which was more dramatic, and Andross always 
 used to look so delightfully like a brigand; and yet he 
 made nothing of it; he was as quiet and respectable in 
 his wooing as Braddock would be, or that old deacon who 
 
110 JOHN ANDROSS. 
 
 said grace when he kissed his wife. And she had always 
 known she was a frail, lonely creature ! She did so need 
 to be protected by an engrossing, warm passion ! 
 
 The rising storm concentrated the heat and light about 
 them; the lapping of the brook grew more drowsy, the 
 shiver of the oaks audible. Oaks and low swooping birds, 
 and the water, red in the oblique light, grew distinct, as 
 the world seemed to Andross to stand off and regard this 
 woman and himself. Her eyes were lowered, her crimson 
 lips apart, her soft hands held one of his between them. 
 He dared not look at her. 
 
 "Anna," he said, rising and standing before her, "I m 
 going to do what s right in this thing. If you are really 
 given to me, I ll take you with clean hands, so help me, 
 God. I ll have no deception about it. I ll go to your 
 father now and tell him my whole story, and then ask 
 you for my wife." 
 
 "Yes, Jack," she whispered. 
 
 "I know he will give you to me," earnestly. "I 
 believe in myself to-day as I never did before, and I am 
 sure he will believe in me." 
 
 "Yes; but papa s such a practical man," cooed Anna, 
 "he is not apt to be influenced by people s moods. I m 
 afraid he would wish for some indorsement of the future 
 beyond your faith in yourself." 
 
 Jack s face fell as if he had received a dash of very cold 
 water indeed. " Then I must prove my faith by my 
 works," smiling. " At least my honest confession of the 
 past will argue in my favour. It would with any man, 
 Anna," he urged as she shook her head, "a practical 
 man, especially." 
 
 "W-ell, of course you know. Won t you sit down?" 
 pleadingly. "Keep the sun from me with your broad 
 shoulders there. And when must you go to papa with 
 this story?" nestling closer, and picking the threads from 
 his cheviot coat. 
 
ANDROSS. Ill 
 
 "I shall not wait a day." If he had stopped there, 
 Anna would have persisted no further. Silence was an 
 unknown quantity, a sign of masculine will which puz 
 zled and daunted her. But there was no argument, how 
 ever logical, against which she would not fly bird-like, to 
 peck a flaw in it. Andross began to give a reason for his 
 faith to himself. " I never felt what my life was worth 
 until to-day. I must act like a man." 
 
 "If it was winning me made you feel that, you are in 
 strange haste to lose me." 
 
 "Lose you!" 
 
 ({ Of course, lose me! You go to papa with a crime in 
 one hand, to ask for me for the other! Just as I thought 
 all was so pleasant and nice! I ve been so lonely! I 
 thought I had you to care for me and to protect me!" 
 sobbing and cowering close to his side. 
 
 "What would you have me do?" He put his arm 
 about her, looking down with stupid dismay. 
 
 "Am I to conceal the past frcm your father? Win 
 you like a thief?" 
 
 " Oh! dear, dear! What has papa to do with the past? 
 Of course you must tell him, but not to-day. Let mo 
 have one hour of sunshine. To-morrow will do." 
 
 Why would not to-morrow do? Why should not he, 
 too, have an hour of sunshine? 
 
 The sunlight grew dimmer, the light rose and rested 
 on the tree tops; Andross saw nothing but the face 
 upturned to his. 
 
 " Now," she cooed, " tell me your plans for us." 
 
 Plans for us? Here was his very dream of a wife ! How 
 could a man go wrong who could bring all his practical 
 work-day thoughts to this little fair woman, whose soul 
 within her was meant to be a pure counsellor a messen 
 ger of God? 
 
 He spoke more cheerfully and confidently than he had 
 ever dom in his life. " One thing I know, I ll never go 
 
112 JOHN AKDBOSS. 
 
 astray from the right with you to guide me, Anna. I 
 have not decided on any certain plan, except that we will 
 go as far from the seaboard cities as possible to the West, 
 probably." 
 
 "Chicago? There s a great deal of style in Chicago, 
 I ve heard." 
 
 "And you want to still hide in the woods, Maud Mul- 
 ler? But you must be practical, darling. I could earn a 
 living more readily in a large city. I could get a position 
 on a paper in Milwaukee, I m sure news editor or some 
 thing until I looked about me; that would keep us in 
 bread and butter." 
 
 "About how much would that pay you?" 
 
 "Pay?" a little surprised. "I don t know. Say 
 fifteen or twenty dollars a week." 
 
 Anna s cheek was very hot. She sat quite erect. 
 
 " But you quite forget papa, Mr. Andross. Of course 
 / don t care for money. I d be glad to live with you in a 
 hut or a cave. But papa is a very practical man." 
 
 "And he would not be willing for me to try to support 
 you on twenty dollars a week?" anxiously. 
 
 " Oh! it is absurd to talk of that!" the ready, vexed 
 tears on her lashes. "Heaven knows I would go with 
 you if it was in the dead of night, and you had nothing 
 but your steed and spurs, like the old knights. But papa 
 has refused me to two gentlemen because their incomes 
 were less than his own." 
 
 Something very like an oath choked Jack s throat. 
 
 " I ve neither steed nor spurs," he said. " Nor is there 
 any way for me to gain an income equal to your father s, 
 that I can use even for you." 
 
 "But there is such a way, you mean?" her head 
 dropped plaintively on his bosom. 
 
 "Yes. But I shall not use it." 
 
 A long silence followed. Anna raised her head at last, 
 and looked at him with swimming eyes. 
 
JOHN AKDKOSS. 113 
 
 "I don t blame you, God knows!" cried Jack vehe 
 mently. " But you re the only thing in this earth un 
 tainted by the greed for money, money! Surely," after a 
 pause, "you wrong your father? He would not insist 
 when he knew you loved me " 
 
 "Oh! but indeed he would !" hastily. "If he knew 
 it would kill me to forbid it (and I wouldn t be surprised 
 it would drive me into a decline) he would never let me 
 marry even a reasonably poor man. But twenty dollars a 
 week! Why, he would think you mad!" 
 
 " I suppose I have been mad." 
 
 "I really must go now," rising. " There are some 
 people coming for supper 
 
 "Anna! Can you talk of supper and people now? 
 There, there! Don t look at me in that terrified implor 
 ing way," calling her in his passion and rage a white dove 
 and an injured angel, and himself a brute, walking beside 
 her to the gate, frightened into silence when she resorted 
 again to tears and the handkerchief. 
 
 "You you must not be unjust to poor papa," she 
 sobbed. " It isn t greed. But he s so foolishly fond of 
 me, he thinks nothing good enough for his Nannie 
 
 "Nothing is good enough! If one of God s angels 
 came down, I couldn t find clothes or lodging fit for it, 
 and that s the way I feel about you. But I ve loved you 
 so! It seems as if my love ought to be enough 
 
 "And so it would to me," softly. "But poor papa! 
 Those gentlemen were very worthy men, and of the very 
 best position in society, and quite wealthy. And then if 
 you went to him and said I am John An dross, and I have 
 twenty dollars a week, and, and " 
 
 "In danger of the penitentiary. No," with a loud 
 laugh. "You reason correctly; my recommendations are 
 not of the best." 
 
 They had reached the gate now. The light was gone. 
 The sycamore trees in front of the house swayed wildly to 
 
114 JOHK ANDROSS. 
 
 and fro, and a few large drops fell from the darkness 
 overhead on Anna. " Go, go!" she cried, hurrying under 
 the porch and holding her hand to Jack without. " I can 
 not ask you to come in. Your agitation would betray all." 
 
 The door and windows were open, the house was bril 
 liantly lighted: it seemed as if the warmth and light were 
 about to absorb the fair little creature in her fluttering 
 curls and lace; he, without in the rain and night. 
 
 "I don t wish to go in. Why should I?" wrenching 
 her hand in his pain until he hurt her. " I may as well 
 say good-by to you now, I suppose, and be done with it 
 all, as any other time." 
 
 She leaned a little farther out. " It must be good-by 
 then?" 
 
 Andross was silent. 
 
 " There is no other way?" 
 
 " No," sharply. " There is no other way." 
 
 "Because," her breath was warm against his cheek 
 
 now, "if there was another If I could be your wife 
 
 oh Jack ! I do love you ! " 
 
 Her lips touched his and she was gone. 
 
 Andross went down the mountain, not knowing that 
 the night had come, and a drenching rain was falling. 
 It seemed to his excited brain as if the hell of which 
 Braddock talked lay below, and that he was walking 
 steadily and purposely into it. 
 
 Anna hurried to the kitchen to see that Miss Shanks 
 had the best napkins out for tea, and then went to dress. 
 She wore a rose-tinted silk, while lace and tags of ribbon 
 and tiny gold chains made a soft shimmer all over her. 
 She fastened some blue stars of the succory weed in her 
 curls of pale gold, and then stood back from the mirror. 
 
 "It is precisely like the pictures of the French mar 
 quises that one sees painted on porcelain. He will be 
 sure to notice that." 
 
 "He," was Mr. Ware, who was coming for tea. 
 
JOHST AtfDROSS. 115 
 
 CHAPTEE XII. 
 
 8PELLIN", who came into the office next morning for 
 the monthly accounts, was particularly friendly to 
 Jack. " Andross is pulled down as if he d had a tug with 
 the typhoid/ he told the judge that evening. " I had a 
 capital joke on Jake to tell him, and he laughed (he d 
 laugh in the jaws of death), and then looked at Dr. Brad- 
 dock as if scared that he d done it. He s got into some 
 devil of a hobble, Judge. You ought to see to it. I 
 think it s a pity a good-natured, jolly fellow like that 
 can t have his laugh out in this world. Now the doctor 
 he rayther enjoys trouble; what with his civility and 
 his backbone and religion, he knows how to meet it. " 
 
 The judge hurried Spellin off., as two gentlemen were 
 going to walk over with him to the Works to see a casting 
 by night Colonel Latimer, who stood smoking by the 
 stile, and Mr. Laird from Philadelphia. They were wait 
 ing on Mr: Laird, in fact, who was lingering beside Miss 
 Maddox in the little parlor. You could hear, now and 
 then, Anna s sweet little pipe of a voice from within and 
 bursts of musical laughter. 
 
 "I must go, now," Mr. Laird was saying, as he bent 
 over the piano by which she sat. There is a young fel 
 low, Andross, at the Works, whom I wish to see. I m 
 going to tempt him back with me to seek his fortune," 
 looking closely into her face. 
 
 " His fortune? Oh! Can you ? But it is no affair 
 
 of mine," dropping her eyes. 
 
 "Can I f" smiling. "Well, lam no magician 
 
 with old lamps or magic purses for the young man, Miss 
 
116 JOHN ANDROSS. 
 
 Maddox. But I can promise him work suited to his 
 capacity; and if he has that, a brilliant career is before 
 him. It is absurd to see such a man as that at a clerk s 
 desk." 
 
 "Yes, indeed!" said Anna warmly, though she had 
 always looked on Jack as necessarily a weak, illiterate fel 
 low, owing to the coaling hearth where he originated. 
 She pinned a rose in Laird s button-hole, and stood by 
 the window waving good-bys to him. 
 
 "Your daughter, Judge, is the freshest and sweetest 
 creature I have seen lately! She reminds me of of 
 strawberries and cream," said Laird gallantly, as they 
 walked down the hill. " She is a good deal interested in 
 young Andross, I find." 
 
 " Mr. Laird has promised me to do something for An 
 dross, Judge," interposed the colonel. 
 
 "Ah! that s clever of you, Mr. Laird. Yes, Anna s 
 interested in him. We re all interested in poor Jack. If 
 you hold out your hand, the young man s fortune is made, 
 of course." 
 
 Maddox was secretly annoyed, and showed it. Where 
 was he to get a clerk who would do Jack s work for such 
 wages? 
 
 Andross saw them coming down the side of the hill, 
 picking their steps, for last night s rain had made the 
 ground wet and clammy as a sponge. 
 
 He laid down his pen and looked back at the door. 
 
 "Mr. Andross!" called Braddock. 
 
 Andross did not answer. 
 
 Nothing was easier than to go out of that door, and in 
 the gathering shadows of evening take the hill-road to 
 Millheim, and somewhere, in some corner of the world 
 where Laird was unknown, live an honest life. But then 
 he should leave Anna behind him. 
 
 If he waited, in five minutes Houston Laird would be 
 in the office. He would offer him the way to win her. 
 
JOHN ANDROSS. 117 
 
 He got down from the desk-stool and took his coat from 
 the peg, being at the time in his shirt sleeves. 
 
 "Andross," said the doctor, coming in, "I wish you 
 would notify Spellin that Forbes s account is overdue. 
 There were five loads of slag against flour and 
 
 He stopped. Jack had not been drinking? His face 
 was livid, his eyes blazed. Braddock tapped on the table. 
 
 "What is the matter with you? What are you laugh 
 ing at?" 
 
 " I was thinking how you were bringing me slag and 
 flour to balance just now," wildly. " I beg your pardon, 
 Braddock," after a moment. " I ll attend to it. I am a 
 little worried about about 
 
 His coat was on, and he had taken up his felt hat, and 
 was brushing it without looking at it. 
 
 " You are going out?" said Braddock. " I ll make out 
 the account for Spellin at once, then. Or will you wait 
 until the judge is gone? I see him at the gate yonder 
 with some men." 
 
 Jack stood one moment, then he laid down his hat. 
 
 "I ll not go," he said. 
 
 He sat down and took up his pen, dipped it in the ink. 
 The gate slammed behind them. He could see where 
 their umbrellas shook the rain from the old cedar by the 
 fence. Their heavy boots creaked along the wet boards; 
 they came into Braddock s office; the door was ajar 
 enough for him to hear them as they stood talking and 
 joking with him. 
 
 How was this? Laird was not only a companion of 
 Colonel Latimer s, but Braddock met him as an old 
 friend; Braddock had dined with him in Philadelphia; 
 was urging him to go up and see his mother. Had he 
 been mistaken? What if Laird were the genial, honour 
 able man and Christian they held him to be, and he a 
 morbid, suspicious fool? 
 
 He shook his head. No. No need to try to hoodwink 
 
118 JOHN ANDROSS. . 
 
 himself. Right was right, and wrong, wrong clearly 
 enough before him to-night; he knew the man. What 
 he was going to do would be done with his eyes open. 
 He lighted the lamp, stirred the fire which the chilly rain 
 had rendered necessary, until the little office was in a glow 
 of light, then turned to pull down the window shade and 
 shut out the mountain, that filled the melancholy twi 
 light and lowered down on him like an accusing ghost. 
 
 -While his back was to the door, it was pushed open, 
 and turning he met Houston Laird, the light falling full 
 on his stout, well-dressed figure, his pleasant blue eyes 
 smiling, his fat white hand held out. The other men 
 were behind. 
 
 "Here is another old friend! Why, Andross, how hot 
 you are here !" adroitly covering the fact that his hand 
 was not taken, by lifting his beaver hat off, and wiping his 
 forehead. -"Jack always had something tropical in his 
 nature," looking back to Maddox. " He has that love of 
 colour, music and the like which we Americans lack. I 
 never ventured on buying a piece of furniture, much less 
 a picture, without consulting him. The fitting of our 
 club-house was left to your taste altogether, you remem 
 ber, Andross. He s more daring in his effects than most 
 men would venture to be, simply because he knows his 
 ground. " 
 
 "Yes, I remember the old club-house/ said Andross 
 stiffly. "I suppose there is a different set of men there 
 now?" 
 
 "No. Very much the old clique : on Friday nights at 
 least, excepting Noyes, who is married, and is given over 
 to literary lectures and family dinners, and poor Fanning, 
 who was sent to Nice on account of his lungs. But they 
 don t make the gap your going did." 
 
 Jack smiled. He knew the men had missed him; they 
 were good genial fellows, alive with that ready energy and 
 wit and every-day wisdom which belongs to the present 
 
JOHN ANDROSS. 119 
 
 generation of cultured young men in towns; in the club 
 too, Jack knew lie was an authority, while Laird, who had 
 nothing but his money, was admitted on sufferance. He 
 warmed insensibly. "And Koyes is married, is he? He 
 was in love once a week. How did the battle about the 
 reading-room end? There was some money to be spent 
 there, and Stewart wanted to put it into a couple of 
 Hamilton s marines, and Fetridge to buy some old histor 
 ical relics of his family." 
 
 "I suppose blood carried it tlicn^. There are some 
 rusty swords and chairs and such lumber there." 
 
 The bell of the Works tolled. 
 
 " That is for the cast, I believe, Mr. Andross. Bring 
 your friend in. Come, gentlemen," said the judge. 
 There was an odd change in his manner to Andross, just 
 as Laird intended there should be. The intimate friend 
 of Houston Laird, a fashionable club-man and diner-out, 
 was a totally different person from Braddock s protege, 
 picked up at a coaling hearth. 
 
 " There s a queer story going now about Fetridge., by 
 the way," said Mr. Laird, taking Jack s arm as they went 
 out of the office. They stood apart by tlie furnace, while 
 Laird told it, and when it was finished, Jack shouted 
 with laughter. It brought the old pleasant times vividly 
 before him. Half an hour ago he would have said that 
 this man on whose arm he leaned came there to lead him 
 back into hell; he forgot all about that now. The men 
 gathered in at the tap of the bell : they were covered with 
 grime and naked to the waist. The furnace threw uncer 
 tain red gleams through the large wooden shed, on the 
 heaps of cinders and green glassy slag out to the pitchy 
 darkness without, where the rain was beginning to fall 
 and the wind to sough ominously through the mountain 
 gorge. Andross stood apparently watching, like the 
 others, the men draw troughs in the wet sand of the 
 floor. How like the winking eye of a beast of prey the 
 
220 JOHN ANDROSS. 
 
 furtive dull gleam of the fire was! there was a fierceness, 
 a homelessness in the moan of the wind which the invig 
 orating breezes in town never had; the men, too (good 
 fellows every one, Jack had thought them in the morn 
 ing), there was a savage quality in their ignorant face?, 
 due doubtless to the solitude of the huge mountain fast 
 ness about them. Fetridge and the others just now were 
 at dinner together somewhere; the gas burned softly; 
 there were flowers on the table; the talk was of the old 
 pictures which Whitten had brought back after the siege 
 of Paris, or of Tom Pool s book, or of any other trifle; 
 but with the subtle free-masonry under all which gave 
 to every word a fine unspoken humour and meaning. 
 After dinner they would drop into the Walnut, or go to 
 listen to Nilsson as Gretchen in the great cathedral scene. 
 The opera with its lights and tier on tier of beautiful 
 women, and music that uttered all passion and pain- 
 that was different from this dingy shed and the slag and 
 
 rain ! 
 
 Very picturesque thing, a casting by night," said the 
 judge, coming up to Laird. "At least so Mr. Andross 
 thinks, and he has a good artistic eye, as you say, sir. 
 Known him long?" lowering his voice. 
 
 < Since he was a boy," promptly. " He belongs to a 
 good Delaware county family none better." For he was 
 determined to smooth all obstacles between Jack and 
 Anna. There, he saw, was his future hold upon him. 
 
 "Queer now, his going out to burn charcoal? Brad- 
 dock found him at a hearth in the mountains. Fact, sir; 
 how do you account for it, eh?" 
 
 " Pooh! A boy s whim. He fancied himself tired of 
 excess of civilization, and tried solitude, just as W3 older 
 men change our liquor, when the taste of one palls." 
 
 "You intend to take him back with you?" anxiously. 
 
 "If I can. We need a man of just such qualities. 
 There s a high ladder ready for him to climb. But per- 
 
JOH:N" ANDROSS. 121 
 
 haps some mountain beauty has made him too much in 
 love with solitude," with a significant smile. 
 
 "Tut! tut! Nothing of that!" But the judge bent 
 anxious looks on the ground. What if this handy, clever 
 fellow, who had been so ready to fetch and carry, should 
 turn out all that Laird prophesied? Where would he 
 find such a match for Anna? " Even if there were such 
 a thing," he said aloud, "it would be better for him to 
 go earn a social position for his wife than to stay drudg 
 ing here on a sub-clerk s pay." 
 
 "Certainly! certainly! Did you speak, Latimer?" 
 
 " They are going to draw, now. The melted metal has 
 accumulated behind that iron flap, and the firemen will 
 let it out into the wet troughs of sand." 
 
 "I see, I see." 
 
 There was some delay, however, in the drawing, and 
 Laird meanwhile went back to Andross where he stood 
 alone. "Jack!" he said, with a certain blunt friendli 
 ness in his tone. " Jack, I came up to the mountains 
 purposely to find you." 
 
 " I know you did." 
 
 Neither of the men lowered his voice. Latimer and 
 Braddock, with some of the workmen, were within hear 
 ing. Now that the hand-to-hand struggle had come 
 which was to end in a mastery for life of one over the 
 other, nobody who heard them detected any deeper mean 
 ing in their words than an ordinary business parley. 
 
 " Yes," said Laird carelessly; " I heard you were here, 
 and I ran up from Harrisburgh to see you. What the 
 deuce is that fellow with the ash-rake doing now? I want 
 you to drop this folly, Jack, and come back to your desk 
 in the office, and to the club, and to your old place in 
 every respect. It will pay you to come." 
 
 "And you," quietly. 
 
 "And me, of course," smiling. "What else should I 
 come here for? I am not acting as a philanthropist in 
 
122 JOHN ASTDROSS. 
 
 the matter, by any means." Whatever covert threat lay 
 under Andross s words lost half its force when thus coolly 
 met as a plain, practical argument. " I know your value 
 to the company in a business point of view. You know 
 our routine, our secrets every company has its secrets;" 
 nodding to Maddox, who stood by attentive, "eh, judge? 
 We have found nobody to take Mr. Andross s place; and, 
 in fact, we want to find nobody. We re ready to bid 
 high for him again. " 
 
 "Ton my word, I wish such a chance had been put 
 before me at your age, Jack," chuckled the judge. 
 
 Andross spoke as deliberately as Braddock would have 
 done, when he did reply, which was after the pause of a 
 minute or two. "You overrate the necessity of my 
 return. Whatever tricks of the trade I may know are 
 safe with me. I shall not disclose them. It is only fair, 
 before you bid, to tell you that." 
 
 "As if he expects me to trust him," sneered Laird to 
 himself, "when ten words from him could ruin the busi 
 ness for years," applying inwardly, as he never failed to 
 do, the salving reflection that the business was honest, 
 though it chanced to be run counter to popular preju 
 dices. "Why! you talk as if you were gray-headed!" 
 aloud. "Where is the old headlong Jack gone? You 
 f used to be ready to tumble into whatever pitfall offered; 
 but now you mean to pick your steps?" meaningly. 
 
 "Yes, I do. I fully expected you to make some offer 
 to me to-night, and I mean to stand quite free-footed in 
 considering it. None of the old reasons which induced 
 me to remain in the employ of the company will weigh 
 with me now." 
 
 " One moment, Andross," beckoning him aside but not 
 altering his pleasant voice, and nodding confidentially; 
 "ten words can settle this matter between us now that 
 we are out of hearing of these people. I want you. You 
 know how and why. I am willing to pay you your price. 
 
JOHN ABTDROSS. 123 
 
 You want me just as much. The company were naturally 
 indignant at your defection; but no exposure has been 
 made by them of that old business concerning your father 
 stop; hear me out nor shall be made, if I can prevent 
 it, whether you return or not. Revenge is not business. 
 But look at the matter in the light of your own interest. 
 You remain here, an underling of that prig, Braddock; 
 obscure, poor, unknown. Suppose you wanted to marry 
 (every young man ought to marry, and that early), what 
 chance have you?" eyeing him sharply, and quite aware 
 when he had touched the quick. " Whereas, if you come 
 with me, in one year, I assure you, not a competency, but 
 what even in town would be called a large fortune. The 
 opportunities thrown in your way of turning over money 
 are treble what they used to be. In addition, I intend 
 that you shall be elected to the state senate this winter. 
 You know what that means. Sheffield, of our district, is 
 dying. A man must go in for the remaining six months. 
 You have the certainty, at option, oj: reelection. There 
 is not a mercenary father who would not bestow his 
 daughter as cheerfully upon you as upon Aladdin with 
 his house built out of jewels." 
 
 "Now, Mr. Laird," called out the judge, "you observe 
 the man withdraws that block against the hearth " 
 
 "Yes, Fm watching. What do you say, Andross?" 
 
 Andross thought that he had made up his mind before 
 he met Laird, and that the struggle was over. But for a 
 man worthy the name to give up his manhood forever, 
 costs more actual pain usually than the physical loss of 
 life. 
 
 "What do you say?" Laird repeated, coming close in 
 the darkness to look up to him. At the moment there 
 was a flash of blinding light from the furnace, and seeing 
 Jack s face close beside him, Laird drew back appalled. 
 
 "Poor devil! I wish Fd let him alone in the begin 
 ning!" he thought to himself, and walked hastily away. 
 
124 JOHN ANDROSS. 
 
 Braddock and Latimer came up to explain the process. 
 The melted iron, like white fiery serpents, crept through 
 the troughs drawn in the wet sand, flinging off myriads 
 of burning sparks. The sooty overhanging roof, the men 
 standing about, the shining glitter of rain in the outside 
 blackness, the far oft mountains, were suddenly illumi 
 nated with a red, angry glare. Laird could have seen 
 Andross distinctly, but Jie kept his back turned to him. 
 He was heartily sorry for him, and if the actual existence 
 of the Company had not been involved, would have "let 
 up on him," as he said. But what would become of the 
 National Transit Association, if Andross chose to disclose 
 that it was, in fact, a band of distillers? And where 
 would Houston Laird be in church, or the "Christian 
 Brotherhood," if it crept into print that their president 
 was head of a Whiskey Eing? As for Jack s religious or 
 honest scruples that was balderdash. But Laird could 
 appreciate a young fellow s dislike to the weight of a yoke 
 about his neck; it Appealed to his sentimental nature as 
 would a strain of music. 
 
 { It s cursedly hard lines on Jack to have a lot of men 
 say go or come at their pleasure ! I wish I could turn 
 the thing for him! But he knows too much. No pad 
 lock will serve on a man s mouth, but death or money. 
 Yes, very fine, Judge, very fine ! I should like to have 
 seen the effect from a distance through the rain. Ah! 
 Mr. Andross, did you speak?" turning sharply as Jack 
 touched his shoulder. 
 
 f f I ll go. On my own terms." 
 
 "Very well. I m heartily glad for the sake of the 
 
 Company," rubbing his hands with congratulation. But 
 
 , he had not the bad taste to offer one of them to Andross. 
 
 " Our friend Jack has consented to go with me, Judge," 
 
 in a loud voice. 
 
 "Aha! Well done, Andross! Your fortune s made, 
 my lad!" coming up. Latimer and Braddock followed 
 
"MOTHER! MOTHER!" HE CRIED. HE WAS TURNING FROM 
 FOREVER. 
 
JOHN" ANDROSS. 127 
 
 him. But Jack was gone. The momentary illumination 
 was over, and but for a dull glimmer the shed was in 
 darkness. 
 
 While the men in a cheerful group took their way to 
 the judge s, a dark figure lagged dully along toward the 
 mountain in the rain. "All for love and the world well 
 lost!" he said aloud with a laugh. But it was not a pleas 
 ant laugh to hear. He knew it was his last night in the 
 mountains, where he had tried to be honest and cour 
 ageous. 
 
 God had weighed him for the last time in the balances, 
 and found him wanting. 
 
 He could not keep his mind on Fetridge and the club, 
 nor on Anna. He found himself chanting in his rolling 
 baritone, "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want." 
 It sounded like a devil s voice mocking him. It seemed 
 but an hour ago that he lay, a little fellow of eight, on 
 his trundle-bed, his face chapped with the wind and his 
 hands black with bruises, and his mother sat beside him 
 on the foot of the bed teaching him that psalm. A little 
 pock-marked woman with a coarse brown stuff dress; but 
 no face in the world had ever been to him as fair and 
 dear as that one. 
 
 " The Lord is my shepherd." Why could he not drive 
 the cursed words out of his head? " He is the shepherd 
 of a lot of pious people in church," he said, walking 
 faster, "but I don t see but that the rest of us have to 
 shift for ourselves as best we can. The green pastures 
 of this world belong to them who can pay for them. It 
 is men like Laird who sit beside the still waters, " with 
 a bitter chuckle. 
 
 But even as he said it he stopped on the side of the 
 mountain, looking to the one gray break in the rain- 
 drenched sky. 
 
 " Mother! mother!" he cried, though his dry lips made 
 no sound. He was turning from her forever. Was there 
 
128 JOHN^ ANDROSS. 
 
 no help for him? Was it all money money? "Was this 
 talk of the Lord a lie with which weak women fooled 
 themselves? 
 
 When Jack was a little fellow learning his psalm, his 
 mother knew that the next day at school he would be 
 wholly ruled by whatever boy sat nearest to him. It was 
 with the old boyish affectionate eyes and uncertain mouth, 
 he stood now choosing his way of life. If he could go to 
 Braddock for help? But he was afraid of Braddock and 
 Braddock s God. To Anna? He shook his head. Anna s 
 only thought, dear child, was a good salary for him. 
 Salary and clubs, work, here was enough to reach for. 
 He went on to meet them, but he did not look back to 
 the gray break in the sky. A chance for another life lay 
 behind him in the mountains, which should never come 
 to him again. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 IT was in the middle of December when Mr. Laird 
 came up to the mountains again. Colonel Latimer 
 met him at the Lock Haven station one nipping, bright 
 winter s day, and rescued him from two local editors, who 
 were taking notes of every word, wink, and garment, of 
 the Great Railroad King," for their next issue. 
 
 "Why don t you ask what the deuce brought me here 
 in such weather ? I know you think it," tucking the 
 buffalo skin tightly about his knees in the sleigh as they 
 drove off. 
 
 " I did think it. Nothing wrong ?" 
 
 "For one thing, I felt qualmish; I don t know 
 whether it s an inactive liver or disgust at trade, and the 
 town and life in toto, but I do know there s something 
 in the mountain air and the solitude, and well, your 
 
JOHX A^DROSS. 129 
 
 daughter, Latimer that acts like a tonic or galvanic bat 
 tery on me keys me right up. When I go down from 
 here I always am resolved to turn over a new leaf for both 
 soul and stomach ; forswear late suppers, and money- 
 making, and all the rest of it." 
 
 "Morbid, morbid! If every man could have your 
 record! "said the colonel gravely. "Why, look at the 
 Christian Brotherhood you founded, and the homes 
 for 
 
 "Yes, yes," uneasily. "Never mind that now. I 
 was joking, of course. My other reason for coming was 
 to bring you back with me, Latimer. I want to convince 
 you what folly it is to bury yourself and Isabel here in 
 snow and ice doing nothing, while you ought to be laying 
 up a snug sum for her future." 
 
 "You will leave nobody in Mttany. First you took 
 Andross, and then the judge and Anna, and then Brad- 
 dock. Bell will think of you as the spider with the flies, 
 if you tempt me down into your web." 
 
 The colonel s attempted pleasantry was not successful. 
 "I am aware that Miss Latimer has a remarkable relig 
 ious prejudice against towns," said Laird irritably. " She 
 refers most of the usual ways of earning a decent liveli 
 hood directly to the devil. As for Maddox, he was sell 
 ing his iron at a loss after October ; he consulted me, and 
 I advised him to stop the Works, unlock his capital, give 
 it to me to invest for him and to come down to town to 
 keep an eye over it, as I might say. The change has 
 certainly been of advantage to him pecuniarily. As for 
 that brilliant little girl of his, she needed society she 
 opens in it like a flower in hothouse air. I certainly had 
 nothing to do with young Braddock s desertion of Nit- 
 tany. It seemed a sensible move enough when he was 
 thrown out of employment here. Even Miss Latimer, 
 surely, could not have objected to that." 
 The colonel was silent. He jerked the reins, glancing 
 
130 JOHX ANDROSS. 
 
 anxiously at his companion as they hurried over the icy 
 path. Laird, he knew, was ignorant of the right Isabel 
 had to a share in Braddock s movements. He did not 
 want to tell him the whole story ; how the marriage had 
 been arranged for August, and postponed by Braddock 
 without farther reason than lack of funds on which to 
 support a wife. Part of the matter, however, he could 
 lay before Laird with advantage ; but just as he was 
 planning how to begin, his companion abruptly turned 
 to him : 
 
 " The fact is, I should like to explain what it is I wish 
 you to do before encountering Isabel s prejudices. There s 
 an end, I understand, to your experiments here ? " 
 
 " Oh ! altogether. When the Works stopped there w^as 
 no chance for me. I could afford to hire the hands now 
 and then for a day, but not to run the furnace. Well, 
 to tell the truth," laughing, " Bell and I have to draw 
 the lines tolerably close, even in the house." 
 
 Laird nodded gravely. "I thought so. Now listen. 
 You know a man in my business railroads, transporta 
 tion, etc. has a good deal of surplus capital. I have 
 put it into a business about which I say little because of 
 a popular prejudice against it. This is all sub-rosa, of 
 course ?" 
 
 "Of course." 
 
 "Well, since the government put that absurd tax on 
 distilled liquors, thousands of barrels are secretly made in 
 Philadelphia in Irish cabins ; poison, sir, sheer poison ! 
 Made out of the vile deck-scrapings of sugar vessels, and 
 seasoned with vitriol or strychnine. But the profits are 
 e-normous ! Well, to prevent this sort of thing, respect 
 able men have gone properly into the business on a large 
 scale, and they have induced me to invest a good share 
 of capital in it ! " 
 
 " In distilling whiskey I" 
 
 " JS T ow, you re not a teetotal fanatic. I m sure of that, 
 
JOHK ASTDROSS. 131 
 
 Colonel. You take wine. Can t you see the propriety 
 of giving the poor devils who don t take wine a pure arti 
 cle to drink instead of liquid death ? I may have been 
 wrong," with an anxious frown, "but I did it for the 
 sake of humanity. Of course I only draw my dividends. 
 I never was in the distillery in my life." 
 
 " But I don t see," evasively, "what I have to do with 
 this?" 
 
 " Oh," eagerly, "now we come to the point! There 
 is a certain office vacant in the city Collector and 
 these gentlemen this organization for putting down 
 illicit distillers " 
 
 "The Whiskey King, Andross called it, I think?" 
 
 " Very probably. Mr. Andross s imagination is a fer 
 tile one. Did he tell you that /belonged to it ?" 
 
 Now the colonel, dull as he was in such matters, saw 
 that Laird was in a smothered white heat of rage at the 
 bold, coarse name of his business. He stammered out, 
 " No ; " that Jack had not spoken of him as one of the 
 Ring, but continued to ponder and eye him like a con 
 fused owl, with some vague remembrance of Andross s 
 story, and a notion that there was a mystery and disgrace 
 with which Laird had had something to do, under the 
 matter, which he ought to be able to understand. Brad- 
 dock, no doubt, if he were here, could see to the bottom 
 of it in a minute. 
 
 "This organization," said Laird, after a moment s 
 pause, "have, as I was going to say, a good deal of 
 power in city affairs. We can give this Collectorship to 
 whom we please ; and as soon as I heard of it on Friday, 
 I said, Latimer s the man ! Pontifex tne banker, you 
 know wanted it for his brother-in-law. But I said, 
 No, Latimer s the man! So I determined to take a 
 holiday, and run right up about it." 
 
 "It was very kind in you, Laird, I m sure." 
 
 " Not at all. But it s a snug thing, I can tell you, 
 
132 JOH^ AXDROSS. 
 
 Colonel. Why, Prideaux, who had it before, built a ducal 
 /palace out Broad street, and lived in it like a duke, too !" 
 
 "I had no idea that government paid its civil service 
 officers at such rate. Now, in the army we - " 
 
 Laird shot a doubtful, keen look at the colonel. Ware 
 had hinted that the " innocent old patriarch" would not 
 only make a fine figure-head for the business, but would 
 soon be wide enough awake to all the tricks of the trade. 
 But Laird knew better. The very invincible integrity of 
 the colonel was the capital they needed with which to 
 face the public. It must be genuine, or it was worth 
 nothing. He had made a misstep in hinting at bribes. 
 
 " There are some perquisites attached to the office," he 
 replied quietly. "The salary is not large in itself. 
 Probably they were larger when Prideaux held it than at 
 present. " 
 
 " Oh, I shall not object to the size of the salary ! If I 
 take the office, the money will be my only object. If I 
 sell my birthright, let the mess of pottage be as large as 
 possible." 
 
 "You mean by your birthright - ?" 
 
 " Bell and I have been very happy here, and contented. 
 I doubt whether money would bring us either happiness 
 or content." 
 
 "Yet you want it like the others ?" laughing. 
 
 "I ve a reason for that," anxiously. "The man who 
 was to have been Bell s husband has different notions 
 from mine about dollars and cents. I ve gone through 
 the world head over heels. He has Scotch canniness; 
 you understand ? Very praiseworthy, no doubt. He is 
 afraid to marry, unless, as he says, he can feel the ground 
 under his feet. So, for the child s sake, if I had a few 
 hundreds ahead - " 
 
 "Quite right. I did not know that Miss Larimer s 
 choice was made," drily. 
 
 Mr. Laird remained silent after that. Certainly his 
 
JOHN ANDROSS. 133 
 
 pangs of disappointment at the knowledge that Miss 
 Latimer could never be his wife could not be extreme, 
 his passion for her having been of the most leisurely and 
 well-bred description ; they quite equalled, however, the 
 anger and annoyance he felt when his friend Patterson 
 outbid him the week before for a Gerome which he 
 admired. Neither Bell nor the Gerome would have been 
 in keeping with his drawing-room furniture, perhaps ; 
 he was not quite sure that he really wanted either of 
 them ; but why should any other man have them ? The 
 other man in this case, he guessed at once to be that 
 pious prig, Braddock, who ha< been afraid to trust him 
 with his paltry savings. He would take care that the 
 course of true love did not run smooth in that quarter. 
 
 "I am sure that Isabel s choice, whoever it may be, is 
 a wise one," he said presently. " Better, perhaps, if he 
 had not been of so practical a turn ; if she lacks any 
 thing, it is imagination. But as for you, Colonel, it is 
 your business to enable them to marry. Experimenting 
 for humanity is all very well ; but if a man has children, 
 he is bound to furnish them with a solid foundation for 
 happiness." 
 
 "In the shape of money?" smiling. 
 
 "In the shape of money. I want you to think over 
 this offer of mine to-night, Latimer. I ve a paper in my 
 pocket with the details set down. Hillo ! here we are at 
 Millhall already." 
 
 CHAPTEK XIV. 
 
 , Bell, there is no reason in what you say." 
 "But it is true, father." They were waiting in 
 the supper-room for Mr. Laird, and had been talking in 
 an eager, low tone for some time. A red heat had come 
 into Isabel s cheeks as they talked, and her eyes burned. 
 
134 JOHK AKDROSS. 
 
 "You talk as if the earning an honest livelihood were 
 worship of the devil. For my part," said the colonel, 
 stretching his long legs before the fire, "I feel that dab 
 bling in philanthropy and science has been too lazy a busi 
 ness for me. It s high time I went to hard work. I don t 
 understand your objections. I can see no sin in a large 
 salary any more than," glancing at the supper-table, 
 "I can see the grace of God in cheap meat and no 
 butter." 
 
 "I don t like dry bread either," with a shrug, "but 
 
 I nobody here thinks the worse of us that we eat it. I sup 
 pose it is because the mountains are so huge, and the sky 
 so near, but you know it is a fact that money or the want 
 of it is a trifling matter here. "We take so little account 
 of it, that we have time to think of other things. But in 
 town, one smells the dollar everywhere. People are not 
 ranked by their birth, as they were down in Virginia, or 
 by their creative power, as they used to say up in Con 
 cord, but by their money. Very soon, papa, you and I 
 would take the fever with the others. We would spend 
 _one half of our lives grubbing for the money, and the 
 other in displaying it to shame our neighbours." 
 
 "Here is a moralist!" laughed Mr. Laird, who had 
 come in unseen behind her. " But I m inclined to doubt 
 the effect of your huge mountains and sky as a cure for 
 that fever, Miss Latimer," placing her chair behind the 
 urn. " You must remember that I know your modern 
 Arcadias tolerably well : I ve not had the luck to find 
 Cincinnatus at the plough, or Una at the churn. Take 
 your Berks county Dutchman, for instance who lives 
 on the refuse potatoes and pork of his farm, and hoards 
 his penny savings in the clock-case ; and his daughter has 
 just as keen a zest for fashion as any city belle; she loops 
 up her calico into a panier, and strings wax-beads in her 
 hair instead of pearls." Isabel laughed, but Laird was in 
 no humour for jesting. "I did not know," turning 
 
JOHIN A^DROSS. 135 
 
 sharply on the colonel, " that yon proposed telling Miss 
 Latimer of my proposal immediately ! " 
 
 " Oh yes ! " calmly. Bell and I are partners." 
 
 Mr. Laird sat down at the table, disarranging the 
 napkin and plate while he leaned forward to renew the 
 argument with her ; suddenly silent again when he re 
 membered that she never argued, and had none of the 
 modern glibness of women. He knew her to be as slow 
 of speech as Moses, except to her father. She had no 
 brilliancy, no accomplishments, no beauty such as was 
 possessed by a dozen girls in New York, who would not 
 be unfavourable to his suit, and who as wives could bring 
 both influence and money. What was there in the girl 
 that always made him, when near her, feel how shabby a 
 thing his life was, of how little import his money ? He 
 certainly had never felt any love or passion for her ; it 
 was rather an overwhelming conviction that as his wife 
 she could and would lift him to a higher level than any 
 man would have thought it possible for Houston Laird to 
 attain. 
 
 " It s maudlin sentiment," he thought, staring medi 
 tatively at her from under his red eyebrows. " I ve had 
 the same sort of impression looking at old Nittany or 
 listening to the vesper anthems, yet Houston Laird is 
 hardly the man to spend his time mooning about moun 
 tains or churches. Yet what could that priggish bigot 
 Braddock do with such a woman ?" 
 
 Isabel, meantime, quite unconscious of any element of 
 sublimity in her akin to Nittany or church music, was 
 yet aware of the storm in the air, and wondered what 
 had put their guest in such ill-humour, while the colonel 
 carved the tough meat with chagrin. The game supper? 
 he would give to Laird and the other boys when that is, 
 if he took the office ! 
 
 "There can be no doubt," said Laird suddenly "yes, 
 coffee if you please no doubt, whatever, that American 
 
136 JOHN ANDROSS. 
 
 society is corrupted to the very root by this greed for 
 money. Yes, to the very root, sir ! Chicanery and bribery 
 in the very highest places, truckling and toadyism in the 
 lowest, and, all to make a little more show than our 
 neighbour. What else makes our men bilious dyspeptics 
 and the women nervous wrecks at middle age ? Yes, 
 Colonel, you, passing your life in a farm in Virginia or 
 experimenting here, have no idea of the rottenness of our 
 social life. Isabel was right, sir ! Her fine instinct showed 
 it to her. The boy is trained from his cradle to make 
 money, and the girl to marry a rich husband. It s all 
 
 push, climb, heat, and struggle from the beginning to 
 
 I swear, I m tired of it, Latimer ! " 
 
 He spoke with vehemence, stirring his cup hurriedly, 
 and keeping his eyes down. Bell was silent, turning care 
 fully away from him with a queer feeling of having sur 
 prised him undressed. " There s something in the air 
 here/ trying to recover himself with an uneasy laugh, 
 "that forces these things home on me. I always look 
 down from this place on that gang of jobbers and gam 
 blers at Harrisburgh, and think what cursed folly it all 
 is drive and cheat and steal for a handful of greenbacks 
 more or less, and in a year or two lie down in a wooden 
 box in a cut in the clay, and there s the end ! " 
 
 Isabel met his blue eyes fixed on her. Their rims were 
 red, they were altogether off guard. 
 
 "Why do you tempt father down into the crowd then ? " 
 she said gently. 
 
 Some far-off thought crept into his eyes, shrewd, wary, 
 humourous. "Don t take me at disadvantage, Miss 
 Latimer/ quickly,. with a total change of tone. "Your 
 father is incorruptible. I mean to serve him ; I mean 
 that, honestly. Besides, what would you have him do ? 
 His experiments here are stopped." 
 
 "My father," earnestly, "is a great inventor, Mr. 
 Laird. He has something better to do than to make 
 
JOHN AOTROSS. 137 
 
 money. You have certainly heard of his new hygro 
 meter?" 
 
 "Yes," respectfully. "What became of that, Latimer ? " 
 
 " Some fellow in Boston was beforehand with me, I 
 found when I went to patent it." 
 
 "And the machine for surgeons to use, and the 
 plough, and the attachment to sewing machines ? " she 
 held the cream-jug suspended, speaking so fast as to be 
 scarcely intelligible. 
 
 " Bell only finds speech when defending me," said her 
 father laughing. "Every one of those were really great 
 inventions, Laird. But the difficulty was they were too 
 intricate: the attachments cost double the price of the 
 original machines." 
 
 " There is no reason why you should not go on invent 
 ing until you achieve something of use," with rising 
 colour. "When my father," turning to Laird, "is in the 
 army, or when he is experimenting, I go to bed every 
 night, thinking how he is fighting or working for others. 
 Never for himself. Some day the world will know what he 
 is. I have known it always. I can not make you under 
 stand," stammering. "But he is the only great man I 
 have known. I don t mind hunger or cold as long as 
 there is a chance for him to do his work. But I will not 
 have him go down to grub for money with the rest." 
 She put both her hands suddenly on her father s shoulder, 
 and looking at Laird, tried to smile, but her chin trem 
 bled, and the water stood in her eyes. 
 
 "I only hope," said Laird lightly, making a sudden 
 flank movement of argument, "that he maybe as suc 
 cessful as the rest who have come from Nittany. Andross 
 is one of the luckiest, gayest fellows about town. What 
 ever he touches turns to gold. The judge, too, is on the 
 high road to fortune ; and as to Braddock, if he keeps to 
 legitimate business," significantly, "I have no doubt of 
 his success." 
 
138 JOHN ANDROSS. 
 
 "What do you mean by legitimate business, Laird ?" 
 said the colonel, while Isabel sat down quietly. 
 
 " Well, Braddock is, I fancy, in haste to be rich. The 
 fever," glancing furtively at Isabel, "which Miss Lati- 
 mer dreads, has attacked him violently; it was in the 
 blood, you know : Scotch-Irish. " 
 
 " I never knew any man," she said composedly, " who 
 was less disposed to overrate money than Dr. Braddock." 
 
 " I really ought not to differ with you, for I don t 
 know the young man," carelessly. "I offered for his 
 mother s sake to be of use to him when he came up to 
 town last July. He had saved some money, a mere pit 
 tance, but his all, and I proposed one or two safe and 
 
 profitable investments " He paused, noticing the 
 
 eagerness with which she followed him. It was part of 
 Bell s dulness to have no curiosity, but it was not in wo 
 man s nature to refuse to listen now. She had known 
 how every dollar of this pittance, which seemed to her 
 so large, had been saved. How many hundred times 
 had they consulted over its investment ! Secretly Bell 
 would have been willing to marry long ago without a 
 penny, and to trust in the Lord ; but Braddock had not 
 been so minded. When the seven thousand were secure, 
 however, he thought the future was safe. He had gone 
 from her full of hope, meaning, as she knew, to put the 
 money in Laird s hands for investment ; the Nevada 
 mines, or National Transit Stock, as everybody knew, 
 were sure ground on which to grow dollars out of pennies. 
 After he came back he never had once named the money 
 to her ; he had not, in the anxiety to conceal the real 
 disposition he had made of it, even told her the different 
 opinion he had formed of Laird on reaching town. She 
 only knew that the money was not to be the basis of their 
 future ; that her lover had cooled and hesitated, and 
 finally postponed the marriage on the plea of want of 
 funds. She sat motionless as Laird went on. 
 
JOHST ANDROSS. 139 
 
 "I proposed these investments, but he would have 
 nothing to do with them ; carried his money off to turn 
 over according to his own judgment. I hope it was a wise 
 judgment, I am sure. But there are so many sharpers 
 about town ready to seize on a credulous fellow like 
 Braddock, and so many ways of risking money " 
 
 " Do you mean dishonest ways ? " said Isabel, from 
 the lofty height of her lover s innocence. 
 
 "Well not precisely. Young ladies hardly under 
 stand financial operations clearly enough to comprehend 
 technicalities. Without being gambling, strictly so called, 
 there are certain ways of making money which are not 
 clean, while legitimate brokerage is clean. I can scarcely 
 explain it to you without " 
 
 " It is not necessary. Dr. Braddock never invested in 
 any dishonourable undertaking knowingly. And he is 
 not at all < a credulous person/ either," tartly. 
 
 " I am very glad to hear you speak so positively of the 
 young man, Miss Latimer. Your judgment is, of course, 
 unbiassed," heartily. "For his mother s sake, I should 
 be sorry that he lost his little savings." 
 
 An awkward silence followed. "Laird," said the 
 colonel, leaning over the table anxiously after taking 
 council with himself, "the truth is that I wished- to 
 speak to you about this very matter. Braddock is a 
 friend of ours. There is a reason why I am interested 
 about his conduct in regard to that money. A business 
 reason, you see?" feeling himself a very Talleyrand of 
 diplomacy. " But there have been very unpleasant whis 
 pers about that affair of the money in the neighbourhood. 
 People in a sparsely settled place know each others busi 
 ness, and are the very deuce to gossip. Braddock took 
 the money away, and came home without it ; began to 
 save and stint himself in every way. There was talk of 
 his having been drawn into a gambling-house, or to a 
 but the lad is a professor of religion. I 
 
140 JOHX ANDROSS. 
 
 could not credit that. But now that you speak of those 
 other modes " 
 
 "Papa," said Bell, in an unnecessarily firm voice, 
 "You may be sure that whatever disposition Doctor 
 Braddock has made of his money was the very most hon 
 est and wisest disposition that could be made." 
 
 "That settles the question, Latimer." Mr. Laird 
 forced a laugh. 
 
 " Not to my mind," eagerly rubbing both hands along 
 his thin knees. "Heaven knows I have no desire to 
 meddle in his or any man s business affairs. But this 
 concerns concerns a friend of mine, a woman whose 
 
 future depends on him. Her happiness " he glanced 
 
 at Bell, wishing that she should understand, and quite 
 sure that Laird would never penetrate the inscrutable 
 mystery in which he wrapped his meaning. 
 
 "Of course," said Laird cheerfully, "he gave an ac 
 count of his disposal of the money to anybody who had a 
 right to such an account. Neither you nor I have that, 
 Colonel. The natural supposition for us outsiders, when 
 a young fellow from the country lets six or seven thou 
 sand slip from him in town, and makes no explanation 
 about it, is that he has lost it in some disgraceful way. 
 Miss Latimer must not think us harsh." 
 
 "That rule would not apply in this case," interposed 
 Isabel calmly. "It would be simply impossible for Clay 
 Braddock to be concerned in anything disgraceful." 
 
 She stopped, swallowing once or twice. Mr. Laird 
 
 1 paused, his cup in his hand, looking at her in astonish- 
 
 I ment. He had always thought her a plain woman before. 
 
 Something about her at the moment startled her father 
 
 ! also. His wife had possessed a rare beauty which had 
 
 made her everywhere a woman of mark, and it had often 
 
 vexed him that her daughter had not one of her features, 
 
 and passed unnoticed through life. But now . It 
 
 occurred to him also suddenly to think what the child 
 
JOHN ANDROSS. 141 
 
 must have suffered during her lover s long neglect and 
 silence, about this same cursed money on which their 
 future hinged. If he could but cure her of her love for 
 the fellow ! 
 
 "It looks badly," he blurted out. "And there is 
 more than that which looks badly. Nobody knows it 
 but Maddox ; God forbid it should be whispered about 
 but I can tell you two. Braddock s books did not turn 
 out right the judge detected altered numbers, for years 
 back. He said nothing to Braddock, because he could 
 not find where the money was missing exactly ; but the 
 numbers were undoubtedly altered " 
 
 " This is too much !" rising. " Mr. Laird, you do not 
 know Dr. Braddock. / assure you it is all false. I won 
 der my father allowed Judge Maddox to hint such a 
 thing to him ! Clay never wronged a man of a penny." 
 
 "You have proof of that, of course, Miss Latimer." 
 
 ( Proof ? why, I know it is not true. That is enough," 
 haughtily. "And as for any woman, papa, whose future 
 is in his hands you need have no fear for her whatever. 
 Her future is safe. Perfectly safe." 
 
 She walked across the room, while the two men, not 
 exchanging a glance, watched her as if mesmerized. 
 
 Laird drew a long breath. " To think," his thoughts 
 ran, "that pride in such a respectable stick as that Brad- 
 dock could lift her out of herself into that wonderful 
 woman. It s just the difference between a scrawny flan 
 nelled race-horse in its stable, and the creature as it 
 bounds into the goal, full of fire and beauty from head to 
 foot. If she had loved a man, now a man." His blood 
 was strangely heated, but he helped himself to bread, 
 composedly choosing a soft piece. 
 
 She took up her fur mantle, and began to hurriedly 
 button it about her. Her father went to her. "Bell, 
 where are you going?" 
 
 "I I don t know, papa. If I could tell him" with 
 
142 JOHN ANDROSS. 
 
 a bewildered IOOJK around her, the tears coining slowly up 
 to her eyes. 
 
 " It s not like you to be nervous, child. Your hands 
 are as cold come to the fire." He began to take off the 
 mantle ; but in a minute she was herself again. 
 
 "I am chilly; I think I ll keep it on," going back to 
 her chair. "I beg your pardon, Mr. Laird. Dr. Brad- 
 dock is a friend of ours, and " 
 
 " There are no half-way measures in your friendship ! 
 I only wish I had so loyal an ally. There must be a very 
 genuine worth in that young fellow," he added with 
 heartiness, "to gain such genuine friends as he has had 
 the luck to make here and in town." 
 
 "I did not know that he had any friends in town," 
 said Isabel quickly, "or even acquaintances." 
 
 "Why, you would not have the boy turn hermit, 
 Bell ?" her father interposed impatiently. 
 
 " He told me that his time was fully occupied in his 
 work and study," she said. 
 
 Oth came in to remove the supper dishes. At Laird s 
 proposal they sat still about the roaring fire of pine logs. 
 
 "I have taken a fancy to this room," he said lazily; 
 "to the broad hearth and the red curtains, and the 
 white hills without, and the deer s heads on the wall, and 
 the bear s skin under foot." 
 
 The truth was, he did not wish to disturb Isabel ; he 
 wanted to watch her as she sat, her head bent forward 
 from the fur, looking moodily in the fire, her hands 
 folded idly in her lap. 
 
 " These suspicions of Braddock are having their effect 
 on her," whispered the colonel, quite forgetting that he 
 was keeping Bell s secret from Laird. "It s time she 
 demanded an explanation from him, as Maddox said. 
 The whole business has an ugly look. Clay ought to set 
 it right, sir." 
 
 " She would not believe if she saw him pick Maddox s 
 
JOHK ANDROSS. 143 
 
 pocket. It would only be a pretext for exalting him into 
 a more honest hero/ laughed Laird. " Tut, tut. You 
 don t know women, Latimer." 
 
 Oth piled up fresh logs and swept the hearth ; the two 
 men plunged into a discussion of the internal revenue 
 tax, but still Miss Latimer s gray eyes were fixed immov 
 ably on the shifting blaze. 
 
 "Now, if it is the intention of the government to wipe 
 out the debt " said the colonel, pointing his argu 
 ment off with his forefinger on his scuffed trousers. 
 
 " How many evenings in the week does he give to his 
 friends, as you call them?" she said, looking up sud 
 denly at Laird. 
 
 "Who the deuce ?" cried the colonel. 
 
 "Very nearly all, I judge," said Laird readily. "I 
 meet him at Judge Maddox s every time I drop in there, 
 and I see him at concerts, in opera boxes, and so on, con 
 stantly." 
 
 " Miss Maddox s opera box ?" 
 
 "Yes, I believe so. That is well, I have seen him 
 with them twice this winter. What a charming creature 
 that little girl is, Latimer, by the way ?" 
 
 "Yes, very pretty. Not regular enough features to 
 please me, however," absently, and glancing at Isabel, 
 whom he felt, with a dog-like sort of instinct, was in 
 fresh trouble of some kind. 
 
 "Anna Maddox s face has not a fault !" she said ener 
 getically. "I am sure, papa, you never saw such exqui 
 site form and colour." 
 
 " Tut, tut. Nothing of the kind. The child is very 
 pleasing, to be sure. The most innocent, ingenuous lit 
 tle creature " 
 
 Mr. Laird laughed. 
 
 " On the contrary ! I don t know a shrewder little 
 practitioner in society." 
 
 "You are perfectly right, Mr. Laird," said Isabel, 
 
144 JOHN AKDROSS. 
 
 rising hastily. "She is full of art. I never knew any 
 body who was more persistent in laying her plans, o* 
 showed more skilful duplicity in carrying them out." 
 
 "Why, Bell, you certainly used to laugh at Anna as a 
 silly child." 
 
 " Then I was very much mistaken. She has had sense 
 enough to choose the man best worth any woman s choice 
 for her husband, and she has succeeded in winning him, 
 that is plain. Oh, that is quite plain ! " 
 
 The face within the dark fur had suddenly lost its 
 colour, and showed how thin and worn it had grown in 
 the last few months. 
 
 "It is intolerably hot in this room !" pushing off the 
 mantled "I must go out for some fresh air. I ll see if 
 Oth has has put Eosy in her stall." 
 
 " Rosy ! What the deuce has she to do with the cow ? 
 God bless me ! the ways of women ! " ejaculated the 
 colonel, hurrying after her, while Laird, thrusting his 
 hands in his pockets and stretching out his feet on the 
 fender, laughed. 
 
 Her father found her pacing up and down the back 
 porch, only prevented from pacing in the yard by the 
 snow, which was up to her knees. 
 
 " Bell ! " trying to part her hands, shut on each other. 
 
 "Yes, papa." 
 
 "This is unlike you. This is abject folly. Doctor 
 Braddock " 
 
 "Don t name him to me! Never again. That he 
 could be so weak as to be deceived by that that miser 
 able little creature ! And then to deceive me ! Oh, to 
 deceive me ! " 
 
 "Bell, you have no warrant for even accusing the man. 
 Be reasonable. You have heard nothing except that he 
 visits sometimes at the judge s, and was twice in their 
 box at the opera. Could anything be more natural ? And 
 you go off at a tangent, and believe him in love with her." 
 
JOHIf AKDROSS. 145 
 
 "I believe more than that/ with solemn calmness. 
 "I believe that I have now the key to the whole mystery 
 he means to marry her. He meant it from the night 
 she tricked him into wandering through the mountains, 
 pretending she was searching for Andross. He has in 
 vested the money with a view to marrying her. Why 
 should he not tell me what he had done with it else? 
 
 It s just as clear . He went to town to please her 
 
 followed her . " 
 
 " Because the Works stopped and left him without a 
 dollar, Bell. Be just, child. You are not lacking in 
 common-sense. " 
 
 " Papa, my instinct told me all this long ago. It is 
 all perfectly plain to me. He is married, very likely, by 
 this time. I knew by instinct, the very day her cunning- 
 eyes turned on him and her wiles began to tell on him. 7 
 
 < Oh ! confound instinct ! " muttered the colonel. But 
 Isabel s hands were beginning to feel cold and limp, and 
 her forehead like fire ; in spite of her low voice and swift 
 steps he felt that she very likely would fall the next 
 minute like a rag in his hands. " And what am I to do 
 with her then?" said the bewildered and imbecile co 
 lonel. She had always been like a son to him, a ready 
 staff on which to support his vagaries or griefs or rheu 
 matism, and now at this first touch of idiotic jealousy 
 she crumbled as it were into a senseless, helpless dead 
 weight on his hands. 
 
 "Bell, dear, won t you at least come to your room? 
 You ll certainly have the influenza again. And as for 
 poor Olay- 
 
 "If you think," with slow emphasis, "that I care 
 about Clay, or that his going will cost me a single tear, 
 you are mistaken, papa. If he could be beguiled by such 
 a painted, shallow actress as Anna " 
 
 "I thought," slyly, "you considered her beauty with 
 out a flaw?" 
 
146 JOHN ANDROSS. 
 
 "Ah ! you are laughing at me ?" She stopped, look 
 ing up at him ; her wrists which he caught trembled, the 
 pulse was gone ; she began to sob in a noiseless, stifled 
 way. X 
 
 "Laugh at you ! God help you, my darling, no," cried 
 the colonel, picking her up in his arms like a baby. 
 "But you re such a fool! Come to bed directly." He 
 pushed open the door of her room, and laying her in a 
 great easy chair began to build up the fire, blowing it 
 vigorously. " They re all alike every woman of them !" 
 he muttered half aloud. "She d love him all the better 
 if he d committed burglary, but let him speak civilly to a 
 pretty girl and there is no forgiveness for him. There," 
 glancing over his shoulder, "she s crying comfortably, 
 thank heaven ! It ll all come right now." 
 
 The colonel wisely left Isabel to her tears. When he 
 was going to bed a tall white-robed figure beckoned him 
 to her room door. 
 
 "Papa, I ve been considering Mr. Laird s proposal, 
 and I think we had better accept it. There s no need 
 that we should worship Mammon, if we do live in town." 
 
 "No," looking at her dubiously. "I thought we 
 would take a month or two to talk it over. When would 
 you wish to go, Bell ? " 
 
 "To-morrow, papa." 
 
 "Oh!" said the colonel, and in that exclamation 
 buried both his difficulties and amazement. 
 
 Bell went back to the clear fire, and the bear s skin in 
 front, on which she had been sitting, and the low stool 
 set on it, with the lamp, and her little old Testament 
 open beside it. She had read it every day since she was 
 a child, but so cheerful had been her life that this was 
 the first time that its pages were wet with tears. Perhaps 
 because she had had no mother, this Elder Brother of 
 hers was more real and nearer to her than to other people. 
 
JOHN" AKDROSS. 147 
 
 She could not read to-night, though she tried. No com 
 mon-sense, no argument would have comforted her. But 
 when she pushed away the lamp, and kneeling down laid 
 her head on the stool, and cried without any words, she 
 knew that He understood all of her story ; how dear this 
 old home was, and how innocent ; what the man was to 
 her who had loved her there, and how she had lost him. 
 
 He knew. 
 
 When she rose at last to get into bed it was with the 
 quiet, almost happy, face of a child who has sobbed itself 
 to sleep on its mother s bosom. She laid her cheek on 
 her hand on the pillow, thinking with a smile that He 
 would bring it all right, and that this world was a happy 
 one after all, and full of good, friendly people. Ex 
 cepting one," she murmured, as she closed her eyes. 
 "Artful little creature!" 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 . LAIRD passed most of that winter in New 
 York, because, as he said, he must supervise the 
 business of the National Transit Company in person, but 
 in reality, to keep the Whiskey Ring at a distance from 
 which none of the ill-odour of their doings could cling to 
 his garments. The best chess-players are those who do 
 not need to see the board. 
 
 One evening in March he dropped in as usual to the 
 Century Club, which gave a reception that night to a 
 distinguished English poet who had just arrived. Mr. 
 Laird carefully avoided the public apartments, however, 
 and hurried to a window where, half -hidden by the lace 
 curtains, a small, fair-haired young man was alternately 
 looking out at the moon and down at his dainty feet. 
 
148 JOHN ANDROSS. 
 
 On every Saturday evening he found this same fair- 
 haired little man waiting for him at the same window. 
 " Ah, Willitts, you are here ?" drawing up a chair. 
 "Yes, I ve been here for an hour," balancing his 
 * eye-glass on his nose. " Perrott came over from Phil 
 adelphia with me, and we ve been surveying the crowd. 
 Some most remarkable faces there, sir," waving his little 
 ringed hand to the mob of men who, in full evening 
 dress, were gathered about the stranger. " But I doubt 
 if the .poet gets a fair glimpse of them through the cigar 
 smoke. Tell him this is an aesthetic club, and then 
 stifle him in their own parlour with the smell of tobacco 
 and whiskey! It is simply indecent, nasty, as I tell 
 Efcrrott." 
 
 " If you had not come I should have run over on the 
 12:20 train," said Laird heavily. There was an intent- 
 ness in his manner, a rigidity in* his solid features, which 
 showed a marked departure from his usual easy indolent 
 bearing when discussing business. " No additional news 
 which could not be trusted to the wires, Willitts ? " 
 
 "No," carelessly dropping his glass. " Good type of 
 John Bull, that fellow yonder of the lean, smug kind ! 
 No, nothing tangible. But a certain uneasiness and a 
 good deal of talk about a tornado coming, nobody knows 
 from whence. Pity somebody had not a nose for a finan 
 cial crisis, as Jack Andross has for a thunder gust. That 
 fellow scents it days beforehand ! It is remarkable to 
 find such magnetic sensibility in a healthy, stout man." 
 
 "I am not particularly interested in Mr. Andross as a 
 barometer," drily. " Has he attended to that matter at 
 Harrisburgh-?" 
 
 "Well, no," beginning to take off his gloves. The 
 gentlemen down on Franklin street your^ partners," 
 hesitating. 
 
 "Very well, go on." 
 
 "They bade me tell you that the o-risis is too imminent 
 
JOHX AKDROSS. 149 
 
 to risk anything. At least three votes are needed in ,the 
 House to pass the bill " * 
 
 "I know all that ! I told you last week that those 
 votes could be bought as easily as any others. It is only 
 a question of price. I told you to charge Andross not to 
 spare expense. It s no time for haggling !" He got up 
 suddenly, throwing up the window ; the March wind x 
 wet with sleet, rushed in, flapping the curtains. 
 
 ^Ugh ! Allow me," gently, closing it. " You forgot 
 the hail. The difficulty," taking the dampened tea-rose 
 from his coat, "is not with the legislators, but Andross. 
 The gentlemen think it advisable to ask somebody else to 
 negotiate the matter. Jack has some scruples, it ap 
 pears. Heaven knows what they are," laughing. " Those 
 fellows are for sale, and why not buy them as you would 
 a pound of sugar ? " 
 
 "No one can approach them so well as Andross," 
 
 thoughtfully. "I don t wish to compel him But 
 
 we shall need his vote also. " 
 
 " Oh ! That, of course, will be a debt of friendship. 
 Jack has done nothing for us since you gave him his seat 
 in the Senate. No price to pay there." 
 
 Mr. Laird was silent. "Andross is a working member 
 of the Senate, I hear ? " he said presently. 
 
 "Yes," laughing. "He has laid the axe to the roof 
 of the tree with a vengeance. No bill passes unques 
 tioned, Perrott tells me. No snakes creep in with them 
 this session. Some of the men think Andross is another 
 name for honesty ; and some, that he is only making a 
 reputation to command a higher price presently ! " 
 
 " He is quite sincere." There was a marked respect in 
 his tone. 
 
 " Oh ! yes. I ve no doubt of it. I d trust Jack s honour 
 as I would my own. Now, if he makes any difficulty, I 
 think I could go down and manipulate those fellows, 
 Mr. Laird ?" 
 
150 JOH^ A^DROSS. 
 
 "No, Ned. They are gentlemen and statesmen for 
 their constituencies. Transactions with them must be 
 strictly under cover. It would not do to have you buzzing 
 too much about Harrisburgh. You d tell your errand 
 everywhere, like a mosquito." 
 
 "All right," goodhumouredly. "But I think you ve 
 overrated Andross s possible usefulness to you. A man of 
 business for the company he will never be, that s certain." 
 
 " No. But there s something about Jack that attracts 
 people, and that s v.hat I want. To me he has always 
 seemed a weak, vacillating fellow, but his influence over 
 the poorer classes is simply incalculable. No man could 
 serve me better if he chose. But to make him choose " 
 
 Ned Willitts twisted the waxed ends of his fair mus 
 tache meditatively, bending his little brain to the solving 
 of this problem. At home Ned was a harmless, kindly, 
 light-hearted fellow, ready to escort his sisters to ball or 
 opera, and a famous referee in all matters of dancing or 
 ball etiquette ; in the office he had been taught since he 
 could speak that man s duty was to make money to 
 "get on." In his neat little body, from feather head to 
 feather heels, there was no troublesome monitor to ask 
 meddling questions as to the "how." 
 
 "It would not be easy to reach Andross through his 
 pocket," he said. " He has gone into a set who are so 
 cursedly independent as to pretend to have souls above 
 greenbacks ; a lot of journalists, actors, and the like ; 
 very nice fellows really, but full of whims. I don t see 
 but that they charge full value for their wares, though," 
 laughing. 
 
 "What women does he visit ?" 
 
 " Oh ! a dozen. He s a social fellow, you know. But 
 he s a perfect slave to that little girl of Maddox s. He 
 does not care who sees that." 
 
 "And she will rate herself at a high figure when it 
 comes to marriage." 
 
JOHK AtfDKOSS. 151 
 
 "Very possibly; she s not a fool. She s worth it. 
 But social position is of more weight with her than 
 money ; though / should not be at all surprised- she d 
 make a love-match some of these days without either. 
 She s an affectionate little thing." 
 
 "You seem to be quite behind the scenes, Ned." 
 
 "Well, yes. It s only a sisterly sort of friendship, but 
 she really gives me more of her confidence than anybody 
 else." The sentence ended in a conscious giggle. " Of 
 course," he resumed gravely, "she depended on Andross 
 a good deal to get into society. She s not the sort of 
 woman to wait five or ten years of probation according to 
 Philadelphia custom, so she began by going to all the 
 public balls, meaning to pick up acquaintances there, 
 but Andross soon stopped that. She has made her way 
 into a certain fashionable set, however, to his great dis 
 gust. Girls who lead in petticoats and bonnets, and who 
 are noticeably decollete at the opera. Jack is fastidious 
 about women." 
 
 "Yes. She will lose her hold on him." If she did, 
 Laird had lost his hold on him. 
 
 For the moment a rash impulse seized him, to let the 
 gallant young fellow go. He was now doing an honest 
 man s work honestly ; saving money, as Laird knew, to 
 replace that which he had stolen ; well-clothed, light- 
 hearted, going among all kinds of people, carrying a cor 
 dial cheerfulness with him. Everybody who met him, 
 like Spellin at the furnace, had the feeling that Jack was 
 a man who ought to have his laugh out in the world ; 
 and Laird was no exception to the rule. 
 
 But this was no time for generous impulses. He had 
 educated and reared this man to serve him, and now 
 when this service was needed to stand between him and 
 ruin, it was no time to take off the yoke. 
 
 "I ll come over on Wednesday and see how matters 
 stand." 
 
A>N T DltOSS. 
 
 "You mean in the Transit office ?" 
 No. That business is clear enough/ 3 gloomily. 
 "No trouble ahead, really?" nodding and smiling, as 
 he stood behind Laird s chair, to his acquaintances in the 
 crowd. Curious glances were thrown now and then at 
 the great Railroad King and his jackal, as they called 
 Willitts, but they were not disturbed. Laird made no 
 reply to the last question. Certainly the business was 
 clear to him ! Destruction waited for him on every side. 
 He remembered the old story of the prisoner inclosed in 
 a cell with movable walls, which each day shut in upon 
 him with inexorable steadiness, until he was crushed be 
 tween them. There was no chance except in the relief 
 which ought to come from the profits of the distilling 
 business in Philadelphia, and if the bill he had drawn up 
 did not pass the Pennsylvania legislature, these profits 
 would be diminished one-half. To pass that bill, An- 
 dross s help was necessary. It was plain enough ! 
 , " That is the Rev. Dr. Hyde, under the chandelier," 
 said Ned over his head. "No better brain in the city 
 than that fellow s. He was coining money in trade, and 
 threw it all up to preach to drunken sailors. By George, 
 a thing like that makes me believe in religion ! Ah, 
 how reye, Whalley?" winking with his eyelids and mus- 
 tachiod upper lip at once ; a familiar frisky recognition 
 for which he was known on Chestnut street. "That 
 bald man was Whalley, leading gentleman at Wallack s. 
 By the way," lowering his voice with gravity, " that bal 
 let-girl I told you of, and for whom you gave me carte 
 blanche f" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "Well, it was worse than I thought, though when I 
 heard her coughing in her tulle and tights in the cold 
 flies, it was so horrible it fairly sickened me. I told you 
 about that, though. I found she lived with her mother 
 in a squalid little court Melon alley. They had nothing 
 
JOHK ANDEOSS. 153 
 
 but what the girl made mother was crippled ; the girl 
 actually crept out of bed, night after night, with the death 
 sweats on her, to go down to the Varieties to dance. 
 Perrott went with me ; we had them both taken to the 
 hospital, and put in one room together. All comfortable. 
 I got Eoberts he s a clergyman, a friend of mine to go 
 at once to her ; his wife took jelly and things " 
 
 " You ought to have sent fruit. The fever is intoler 
 able in that disease sometimes." 
 
 "Yes, I did. So did Cram, the Varieties manager; 
 he s not a bad fellow, Cram, but careless ; he ought to 
 have seen to the girl before. Oh ! it was all very com 
 fortable for them, and Roberts told me she she felt 
 ready to go at the last. Roberts was quite satisfied with 
 her state of mind, sir. The poor thing only lived two 
 weeks." 
 
 "I am glad you attended to the matter so well, Ned," 
 earnestly. "Any other cases of real want that come in 
 your way, remember to call on me." 
 
 "Well. I generally keep out of sight of such things, 
 but sometimes they force themselves on one. As for 
 street-beggars they never get a rap from me." 
 
 Mr. Laird drew out his watch, and said something 
 about supper, when Willitts stopped him. 
 
 "Oh ! I meant to tell you, there was the very devil to 
 pay in the distilleries." 
 
 Laird s dislike was so great to being openly identified 
 with the business, that he affected indifference, even to 
 this confidential messenger ; who had for so many years 
 been a go-between for the actual distillers and capitalists 
 who furnished the means, that he had dubbed himself 
 the Mercury of the whiskey-barrels ; and who knew just 
 how deeply he was involved with them. 
 
 "Ah ! what is the trouble, Willitts ?" 
 
 "An old officer named Latimer is the trouble, and a 
 tolerably obstinate one, too. He is the new collector, and 
 
154 JOHN ANDROSS. 
 
 Wilkins and Brady and every other whiskey manufacturer 
 are up in arms against him, and inquiring how the deuce 
 he got the appointment. But he has it, and is likely to 
 give them a Waterloo defeat before long, if all accounts 
 be true." 
 
 "I gave him the appointment," coldly. 
 
 " I beg your pardon, Mr. Laird. I did not know that." 
 
 "Now if you can lay aside jesting for awhile, perhaps 
 you will explain the business so that you can be under 
 stood. I gave Colonel Latimer the place, because he was 
 a brave, honourable man ; the party has not so many of 
 that kind in its service just now in Philadelphia." 
 
 Ned shook his head, listening attentively. 
 
 "Latimer" (Mr. Laird continued slowly, choosing his 
 words) "is a man of invincible integrity. No bribe can 
 touch him. He needed the place, and the place 
 
 "Needed him," supplying the pause. "I under 
 stand. One such man will strengthen the party in public 
 estimation, beyond the power of any Citizen s Keforni 
 Party to damage it. A cloak, like charity, to cover a 
 multitude of sins. But, confound it, the old fellow need 
 not have made honesty an epidemic ! It s likely to prove 
 more fatal to the distillers than the small-pox." 
 
 " In what way ?" Laird motioned Willitts to come in 
 front of him, and leaning both hands on his knees, looked 
 steadily not at the flippant young man, but at the 
 disaster behind him. 
 
 "Well, hitherto, the distillers and officers have been as 
 one family brethren dwelling together in unity. Now 
 but to make you understand, Mr. Laird, I must enter 
 into details, which hitherto you have avoided." 
 
 Laird coughed doubtfully. "I don t like them, Ned," 
 frankly. "The tricks and the air of the distilleries are 
 something totally alien to my habits or nature. When I 
 put my money into the business, it was with the proviso 
 that I was to have nothing to do with them. Still there 
 
JOHK AXDROSS. 155 
 
 seems to be brain-work needed now, and I must under 
 stand the situation. I have no doubt, now, that there is 
 a good deal of deception practised on the government 
 officers ! " 
 
 " I am afraid there is/ dropping his eyes to hide their 
 twinkle. " In a dozen ways. If there were not, the pro 
 fits would be small indeed. The most common trick is 
 the sending out twenty barrels of liquor for one on which 
 the tax is paid. The detectives, under controul of the col 
 lector, have been in the habit of taxing, every day, only 
 the barrels on which they found no greenback laid. 
 Neither of your distilleries have been taxed for one-tenth 
 of the article they sold. " 
 
 " I did not know how the thing was done. But the 
 tax is really too exorbitant," said Laird calmly. "My 
 distillers, I believe, are reckoned exceptionally honest, 
 because they pay a tax at all." 
 
 " They will have a chance to grow in grace under Co 
 lonel Latimer s discipline, then," laughing. 
 
 "What do you mean? Nobody attempted to bribe 
 him?" 
 
 "No. But his man Bowyer, special detective, has 
 taken the collection of the tax in his own hands. Wilkins 
 himself sent him in last night to count the barrels, hav 
 ing left on each one a crisp new note, and found them 
 untouched. This morning Wilkins was arrested on 
 charge of illicit distillation. In fact, that was the news I 
 came over to give you. The other distillers are looking 
 for arrest on Monday morning. Their houses will be 
 closed if that be done." 
 
 " If they close now I am ruined," Laird said, so calmly 
 that Ned rejoined lightly : "Not so bad as that, of course. 
 What is to be done ? Latimer can not be removed. There 
 has been too much gratulation on his honesty. To be 
 head him, on any pretext, would be for the party to plead 
 guilty, in so many words." 
 
156 JOHN ANDKOSS. 
 
 " Tell the men to pay the tax on every gallon. We 
 can stand it for a week or two. " 
 
 " You will not throw Bowyer off his guard in that 
 way. The fellow has the eye of a lynx. And he really 
 seems to do his duty for the duty s sake. A dull kind of 
 fellow, I suspect, with no idea of making his way in the 
 world. In case he is as wide-awake as ever, after this 
 spasm of honesty in the distillers, what are they to do ?" 
 
 Mr. Laird got up and walked impatiently down the 
 room. Coming back he beckoned Willitts. "It is 
 quite time for supper," he said, as though he had forgot 
 ten the subject altogether. It was not until, with his 
 napkin spread over his portly chest, he had discussed the 
 bill of fare with the waiter, and settled himself to wait 
 for the first dishes, that he replied, leaning back and 
 directing his eyes to the chandelier overhead : 
 
 " This part of the matter I have nothing to do with, 
 Ned. Isn t it enough that I furnish money to those fel 
 lows, but must I furnish both brains and hands ? 
 Wilkins ought to know how to manage such obstacles as 
 this Bowyer. He used to have a way and tools with 
 which to force such obstacles to stand aside." 
 
 Willitts nodded, poured out a glass of sherry, sipped it 
 and nodded again. " Y-es, I know," he said deliberately. 
 " It is a good while since anything of that kind was done 
 though, and it is risky, always. I don t know, exactly, 
 how the thing was managed, but Wilkins could engineer 
 it, no doubt. There was a fellow called Rourke or Voss, 
 or any other convenient name, who was a useful person 
 to have about, Wilkins said. The fighting manager, they 
 called him at the distillery. Andross had the man under 
 his thumb, they said." 
 
 "Jack got him out of the penitentiary four years be 
 fore his sentence ran out," Laird said, with ill concealed 
 irritation that he was obliged to answer. " I can send 
 him back to-morrow if I choose. He fought with Mace 
 
JOHN AKDROSS. 157 
 
 last week in Brooklyn. Wilkins knows where to find 
 him, if he wants him. Now, let us be done with this, 
 Willitts. It s not a subject I fancy." 
 
 "That s true. It spoils digestion. Though if the 
 worst come to the worst, it can only give Major Bowyer 
 a month or two of seclusion in which to mend a broken 
 head, and meditate on his own virtues. " 
 
 " Try this salmi ? Whatever is done to Bowyer, let it 
 be effectual. Don t let there be any bungling. Don t 
 let him be attacked and made more furious, like a beast 
 half mangled by dogs." 
 
 "That is the objection to using that kind of men. 
 You never know how much they will do, or leave un 
 done. I object to coarse tools always." 
 
 Laird did not answer. 
 
 " By the way," asked Ned presently, delicately wiping 
 his mustache with his napkin, " in case Wilkins is obliged 
 to have recourse to our friend s aid, what is to be done 
 with him afterwards ? There will be no difficulty in 
 bringing him through a trial scot free, if you choose the 
 judge and counsel, or would you prefer to have him 
 locked up for a few years ? " 
 
 " Time enough to discuss that hereafter. He may not 
 be needed at all. But if he is," stooping forward with a 
 suddenly startled face, "remember Colonel Latimer is to 
 be held as safe as I am. Bowyer is the point of attack. 
 If one of old Latimer s gray hairs are touched, every man 
 concerned in it shall suffer as for murder. Make Wilkins 
 understand that." 
 
 "Very well," composedly disjointing his bird. But 
 secretly he thought the blow had better be aimed at the 
 real cause of difficulty, and he had little doubt that 
 Wilkins would agree with him, and follow his own 
 counsel. In fact Wilkins, infuriated by his arrest, had 
 threatened this very morning to take matters in his own 
 hands in future, and hinted that Laird s capital did not 
 
156 JOHN AKDEOSS. 
 
 " Tell the men to pay the tax on every gallon. "We 
 can stand it for a week or two." 
 
 " You will not throw Bowyer off his guard in that 
 way. The fellow has the eye of a lynx. And he really 
 seems to do his duty for the duty s sake. A dull kind of 
 fellow, I suspect, with no idea of making his way in the 
 world. In case he is as wide-awake as ever, after this 
 spasm of honesty in the distillers, what are they to do ?" 
 
 Mr. Laird got up and walked impatiently down the 
 room. Coming back he beckoned Willitts. "It is 
 quite time for supper," he said, as though he had forgot 
 ten the subject altogether. It was not until, with his 
 napkin spread over his portly chest, he had discussed the 
 bill of fare with the waiter, and settled himself to wait 
 for the first dishes, that he replied, leaning back and 
 directing his eyes to the chandelier overhead : 
 
 " This part of the matter I have nothing to do with, 
 Ned. Isn t it enough that I furnish money to those fel 
 lows, but must I furnish both brains and hands ? 
 Wilkins ought to know how to manage such obstacles as 
 this Bowyer. He used to have a way and tools with 
 which to force such obstacles to stand aside." 
 
 Willitts nodded, poured out a glass of sherry, sipped it 
 and nodded again. " Y-es, I know," he said deliberately. 
 " It is a good while since anything of that kind was done 
 though, and it is risky, always. I don t know, exactly, 
 how the thing was managed, but Wilkins could engineer 
 it, no doubt. There was a fellow called Eourke or Voss, 
 or any other convenient name, who was a useful person 
 to have about, Wilkins said. The fighting manager, they 
 called him at the distillery. Andross had the man under 
 his thumb, they said." 
 
 "Jack got him out of the penitentiary four years be 
 fore his sentence ran out," Laird said, with ill concealed 
 irritation that he was obliged to answer. "lean send 
 him back to-morrow if I choose. He fought with Mace 
 
JOHN ANDEOSS. 157 
 
 last week in Brooklyn. Wilkins knows where to find 
 him, if he wants him. Now, let us be done with this, 
 Willitts. It s not a subject I fancy." 
 
 "That s true. It spoils digestion. Though if the 
 worst come to the worst, it can only give Major Bowyer 
 a month or two of seclusion in which to mend a broken 
 head, and meditate on his own virtues." 
 
 " Try this salmi ? Whatever is done to Bowyer, let it 
 be effectual. Don t let there be any bungling. Don t 
 let him be attacked and made more furious, like a beast 
 half mangled by dogs." 
 
 "That is the objection to using that kind of men. 
 You never know how much they will do, or leave un 
 done. I object to coarse tools always." 
 
 Laird did not answer. 
 
 " By the way," asked Ned presently, delicately wiping 
 his mustache with his napkin, " in case "Wilkins is obliged 
 to have recourse to our friend s aid, what is to be done 
 with him afterwards ? There will be no difficulty in 
 bringing him through a trial scot free, if you choose the 
 judge and counsel, or would you prefer to have him 
 locked up for a few years ? " 
 
 " Time enough to discuss that hereafter. He may not 
 be needed at all. But if he is," stooping forward with a 
 suddenly startled face, "remember Colonel Latimer is to 
 be held as safe as I am. Bowyer is the point of attack. 
 If one of old Latimer s gray hairs are touched, every man 
 concerned in it shall suffer as for murder. Make Wilkins 
 understand that." 
 
 "Very well," composedly disjointing his bird. But 
 secretly he thought the blow had better be aimed at the 
 real cause of difficulty, and he had little doubt that 
 Wilkins would agree with him, and follow his own 
 counsel. In fact Wilkins, infuriated by his arrest, had 
 threatened this very morning to take matters in his own 
 hands in future, and hinted that Laird s capital did not 
 
158 
 
 JOHN ANDROSS. 
 
 counterbalance the personal risk run by the actual distil 
 lers, or give him the right to dictate. 
 
 Willitts was forced to hurry his supper to catch the 
 midnight train. Mr. Laird walked with him to the door 
 of the club-house. He detained him a moment at 
 
 parting. -, , 
 
 "Ned if you know any means which can be brougli 
 to bear on Andross to induce him to vote with his party, 
 I wish you d use them. I have a sure hold on the fellow, 
 but I d rather not have recourse to it, if possible, 
 fact is, I like Jack." 
 
 " Everybody does. I ll think of it." 
 
 Ned stretched at ease in his sleeping berth, had leisure 
 to think of it seriously. Andross used to be an easy 
 fellow, ready to turn this way or that at anybody s beck 
 or call. Since he came down from the mountains he had 
 been wholly changed economical, plodding, obstinate in 
 trudging on his own path. "It s partly religion, and 
 partly love for that little witch that ails him," shrewdly 
 guessed Ned. " He thinks he can pass through the 
 Harrisburgh legislature like Shadrach and his friends 
 through the fiery furnace. Every time he turns his 
 back on a fee, or plumps an honest vote, he thinks it 
 brino-s him nearer to heaven and Anna." He lay quiet 
 for a" minute or two, and then whistled, his merry, good- 
 natured faced twinkling. 
 
 " Aha I that will do ! We can put a ring through any 
 bull s nose in that way. Master Jack will find he can t 
 slip the party traces. I wonder we did not think of that 
 plan before. But Anna must manage it." And he com 
 posed himself to a balmy sleep. 
 
JOHK AXDKOSS. 159 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 ~\ /TE. WILLITTS had an early opportunity of carrying 
 his plan into effect, as he found a note with 
 Anna s monogram in daintiest pink and gold on the seal, 
 inviting him to dine with her father the next evening. 
 Miss Maddox usually controulled her father s efforts at 
 hospitality. 
 
 As the church-bells were ringing for evening service, 
 Ned found himself in the hall of the judge s gay little 
 house on Spruce street. Every gas-burner that could 
 give a light was blazing at its full head from garret to 
 basement; frescoes and brilliant chromos and gilding, 
 Axminster carpets and brocatelle curtains sent back the 
 light all over the house ; from the open parlor doors came 
 a buzz of voices, amid which Anna s sweet, shrill little 
 pipe cut the air incessantly. Ned drew off his overcoat 
 quickly ; he liked the house and the overdressed manner 
 of it ; it was like a brassy opera of Verdi s. 
 
 In the hall he met Ware. 
 
 " Is Andross here ?" hurriedly asked Ned. 
 
 " No, but he is coming, I believe. He runs down from 
 Harrisburgh every Friday to pay his court here until 
 Monday, they tell me. What ehance has he, do you 
 think? Maddox will want his daughter to marry for 
 money or position, I fancy." 
 
 "I do not know," said Ned coldly. 
 
 Ware was a good fellow, but in danger of forgetting 
 the anvil from which he dated, if he was not snubbed 
 now and then. 
 
 There were half a dozen men for dinner, but no women 
 excepting Mrs. General Ralston, one of those ponderous 
 matrons so common in Philadelphia, whose bulk and 
 black velvet and hook nose and turrets of shining white 
 hair atop symbolize a sort of social Gibraltar, commanding 
 any position. Mrs. Ralston was there as a chaperone for 
 
160 . JOHN ANDROSS. 
 
 Miss Maddox, who held herself, however, carefully aloof 
 from her, having her own business to transact with every 
 man present. 
 
 Anna, grown thinner, her complexion more delicate, 
 and dressed by Worth with a regard to her peculiar style, 
 was a much finer study of Simplicity and Youth than in 
 her crude state in the mountains. 
 
 Willitts secured a seat beside her at dinner, and on 
 somebody regretting the absence of " our young senator, 7 
 remarked carelessly that he heard that Andross was de 
 termined to slip the party yoke, voting as he pleased, 
 according to his conscience. 
 
 "Yes, by George, sir!" said General Ralston, a little, 
 lean, bewhiskered man, with a bass voice ; "the young 
 man forgets himself, sir ! We don t send representatives 
 to Harrisburgh to exercise the right of private judgment, 
 but to serve their constituency. It is lucky for the dis 
 trict that his term expires so soon. " 
 
 "The meaning of which is," whispered Ware, "that 
 Ralston took an axe up to Jack last week, and brought it 
 back unground." 
 
 "An "axe?" said Anna, bewildered. "But will not 
 Mr. Andross go back to the senate after this term?" 
 turning to Ned. 
 
 "I m afraid not," laughing. "His tactics are not 
 popular with the drum-majors of the party, as you see." 
 
 "But really, Mr. Willitts," said the judge, lowering 
 his tones, "it is very wrong in Andross, as well as im 
 politic, to oppose the men that elected him. It s un 
 grateful ! Ralston tells me he refused absolutely refused 
 point-blank a position to his son-in-law, on the ground of 
 incompetency. Now, without Ralston, Laird never could 
 have got that seat for Andross. No use for Jack to butt 
 his head against customs in force before he was bom. 
 It s cursedly Quixotic." 
 
 " Do you really think he will not be sent back next 
 
^ AXDROSS. 161 
 
 term?" persisted Anna, as soon as the voices drowned 
 her whisper. Her fair forehead was knit, and there was 
 an angry glitter in the blue eyes which Jack called 
 saintly. "He has not so much social rank or money, 
 Heaven knows, that he can afford to throw away the little 
 his friends have got for him ! What is the matter with 
 his tactics ? How does he offend these men ?" 
 
 Ned was idly speculating, as she talked, how this 
 shrewish tone would sound thirty years hence, when the 
 nose and dimpled chin were sharp, and crow s-feet had 
 come into the neck. 
 
 " Tactics ?" he said hastily, catching himself. " Well, 
 Andross has set himself against these men in every way ; 
 he is a rigid impersonation of virtue. He might be as 
 honest as he pleased, but not run counter to every man s 
 prejudices. Apropos to prejudices, I am glad to see that 
 you are not a fanatic about temperance," glancing at the 
 half empty champagne glass which she had absently 
 raised to her lips. 
 
 " Do you think it looks unwomanly for a young girl to 
 take wine ?" looking sharply at him. 
 
 "I? Oh dear, no! All fashionable girls take it.s 
 You ought to see Netty Ford after supper ! By the way, 
 that is one of Jack s delinquencies. He is abstinent to 
 an absurd degree ; makes himself a sort ~ of living sermon 
 at every dinner or card-party in Harrisburgh. Now," 
 leaning closer, as he saw how intently she listened, "he 
 is precisely one of the men to whom wine in moderation 
 would be an advantage. A glass or two would make him 
 more genial, pliable popular; you understand?" 
 
 "I shouldn t like," shaking her head gravely, "to see 
 him a drunkard." 
 
 "Am I a drunkard ? Is your father ? Be reasonable, 
 Miss Maddox. It is your duty, as his friend, to advise 
 Andross for his good ; and you see the imminent danger 
 he is in of losing his seat." 
 
162 JOHN" AKDROSS. 
 
 " Oh, if he loses that little bit of respectability, he 
 need not count me as his friend, I can tell you," tossing 
 her daintily coiffured head. " Let us talk of something 
 else. I m tired of Andross !" 
 
 Ned obeyed. But he saw that she only meant to gain 
 fcime to make up that bundle of small particles, her mind. 
 There was a slight bustle in the hall presently, and An- 
 dross s voice, loud and hearty, was heard. A pleasant 
 stir passed round the tablets though a fresh wind had 
 suddenly come into the room. " There he comes !" said 
 one to another, smiling. Even Ealston relaxed his scowl : 
 he could not help but like the fellow in spite of himself. 
 
 "Why, Jack my boy ! " cried the judge, going to the 
 door as Andross in full evening dress, his handsome face 
 glowing and ruddy with the frost, came in. He shook 
 hands with everybody, joked with Ned, touched Anna s 
 hand with a furtive lopk, which Willitts caught, and 
 thought how like a woman the man was, with all his 
 tremendous muscular power. Ned had never seen a wo 
 man s eyes so brilliant and tender. 
 
 " You think if he would be friendly and drink moder 
 ately with those people it would bring all right ? " 
 breathlessly whispered Anna. 
 
 "He would undoubtedly become more ductile. The 
 party complain he won t work in harness, as you heard. " 
 
 " He ought to work in harness or in anything they 
 give him," irritably. " What right has he to oppose the 
 party, when they can take his salary from him ? " 
 
 " I would not argue with him on political grounds if I 
 were you," cautiously suggested Ned. 
 
 "Oh, I never argue!" quickly. "Nothing disgusts 
 men with a woman so much. As for politics I owe all I 
 know to you, Mr. Willitts," with an upward confiding 
 glance, which for the moment rendered Ned dumb. 
 "But if the wine is a remedy I will administer that," 
 smiling across the table to Andross who, unable to hear 
 
ANDKOSS. 163 
 
 her words, was watching her lovely, mobile face with, de 
 light. 
 
 " I went into Holy Trinity church, Miss Maddox, as I 
 came up," he said, "and heard Phillips Brooks lecture. 
 I am glad you have chosen that church." 
 
 Anna bowed and smiled. Her care in choosing a 
 church had been to find one in a fashionable neighbour 
 hood, and when found, to secure a foremost seat in it. 
 
 "Yes," responded Mrs. Ealston, "one comes out of it 
 with a new faith in humanity." 
 
 Andross felt as if he did not need Phillips Brooks to 
 give him faith in humanity to-night. Life was so differ 
 ent with him from the best which he had hoped, when 
 he put on Laird s yoke. Nothing had interfered with his 
 resolve to be honest. To-day he had seen a chance where 
 by a lucky stroke he might honestly earn the money to 
 replace to the Gray Eagle account. That done he could 
 look God and the world in the face again. As for this 
 depravity in mankind, to which Mr. Brooks had referred, 
 that was a far-off matter for theologians to deal with. 
 No doubt there was truth somewhere in those old sym 
 bolic legends of a pilgrim soul beset in its dark and 
 lonely way by tempting fiends, which, when it was van 
 quished, dragged it down to abodes of unknown, unutter 
 able woe. But what place was there for tempted souls or 
 evil spirits in Judge Maddox s drawing-room ? Jack s 
 heart was light as he walked by Anna s side into it ; his 
 eyes full of laughter. These men, all the men he knew 
 in the city, in fact, were such a cordial lot of good fel 
 lows ! sensible, practical, attaching too much importance 
 to money, perhaps, but ready to help on with any useful 
 work of science or knowledge ; charitable, too, and sup 
 porters of churches and asylums. Ned Willitts, for in- N 
 stance ; why, that featherheaded fellow had a heart 
 as easily moved as a girl s by a fine poem, or a touching 
 song, or a tale of suffering. And then there were the 
 
164 JOHS" AXDROSS. 
 
 women with their beauty and tenderness, as if God had 
 sent them purposely to help a poor striving fellow back 
 to Him. 
 
 He paused by the door, holding it open for Anna to pass 
 through. She halted one moment uncertainly, and then 
 motioned to a servant : 
 
 "You did not take wine with me, Mr. Andross," 
 smiling, the glass in her outstretched hand. " We must 
 drink to your reelection." 
 
 Jack held it carelessly, watching her with kindling 
 face. " I care very little about my reelection. I shall 
 have no trouble in finding work out of Harrisburgh." 
 
 " The toast ought to take a wider range, then, Miss 
 Maddox," said Ned. "Your success, Andross; you 
 can t refuse that." 
 
 " No," draining his glass. " To my success." 
 
 Anna blushed shyly as she took his arm, having 
 caught the look with which he gave the word signi 
 ficance. 
 
 "I wish I could think wine or anything else would 
 help me to speedier success," whispered Jack, as she 
 leaned upon his arm. " But you are so far removed from 
 me now." 
 
 "You must act differently," eagerly. "You must 
 l^eep your position if we hope to marry at all. Papa is a 
 prosaic, practical man, as I have told you before. And 
 to keep it, you must be more friendly with the leading 
 men of your party ; join their parties play cards drink 
 with them. You are not afraid to do it ? " 
 * "Why, who has been filling your little head with 
 politics ?" laughing. "As to those men, they know me, 
 and what I am worth, tolerably well. I am no hero in 
 their eyes as in yours," softly ; "and as for drinking, of 
 course, I m not afraid. I never cared for liquor in any 
 shape, and never shall. It is rather disagreeable than 
 * otherwise. Tobacco is the fatal temptation to. me." 
 
JOHN ANDROSS. 165 
 
 Yet at the time he felt strangely warmed and heart 
 ened, whether by the wine or the fervour of Anna s re 
 peated soft glances he could not tell. 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 "YTT HEN Andross left the judge s house that evening, 
 * * he saw a man crossing one of the squares, and 
 waited under a lamp for him to come up. 
 
 "It looks like Braddock; but it can t be the old fellow, 
 surely?" he muttered anxiously. Braddock had been 
 for the last three months in Washington, which had pre 
 vented their meeting. This man was just off a journey, 
 carried his satchel in his hand ; but where was the im 
 maculate broadcloth, the glossy shirt-cuffs, the high hat 
 by which Clay was wont to be known afar off to all men ? 
 Andross noted the stooped shoulders, the worn coat, the 
 general air of shabbiness and depression. The change 
 startled and touched him so sharply that he stood still t - 
 instead of hurrying forward. 
 
 "What trouble can he have had? What can he have 
 done ?" He always had, thought of Clay, with his firm 
 ness and virtue, as one of the people who jog safely along 
 a straight but pleasant path from the baptismal font to 
 the gate of Heaven; very much with the unutterable 
 envy with which the prodigal come back from feeding 
 the swine, regarded the elder brother who never had left 
 home or respectability behind him. Yet there was some 
 thing of the hungry and disreputable air of the prodigal 
 in Braddock now. 
 
 Perhaps nothing could have made it plainer to himself 
 that he was "going down hill" than the scuffed trousers 
 and unblackened boots ; but it would have been hard for 
 him to explain what was the trouble. He had been 
 
166 JOHN ANDROSS. 
 
 barely able to earn bread and butter in the city, was ono 
 thing. When the time came for him to dispatch his 
 weekly remittance to his m6ther, he had more than once 
 been driven to a pawn-shop to obtain it. In Washing 
 ton it was worse. One young fellow after another said 
 to him, " There s no room for patient, honest effort in a 
 city. You must have capital, or influence, or cheek, 
 which is better than either. Money-making is a great 
 game of grab, and a modest man stands no chance. Look 
 
 at Fisk or Tweed, in New York, or ," naming two 
 
 or three Philadelphians, whose liveried and gold -mounted 
 equipages dazzled the street. "Did they achieve suc 
 cess by modest industry ? " 
 
 He could not but remember that he had put Laird s 
 influence and his own little capital away from him for 
 the best motives ; k and where was his reward ? The wicked 
 were exalted and the righteous man cast down. Clay, 
 standing with his empty pocket at the street corners 
 while these carriages flung mud from their wheels in his 
 face, was tried by the old problem which thousands of 
 years ago vexed David. And what chance had he to 
 marry now ? 
 
 As for Andross, he heard of him as rich and prosper 
 ous ; a touch from Laird s sceptre had opened every way 
 to him. Now although Braddock had carefully hidden 
 from Jack the sacrifice he made for him, he was galled 
 that he did not know it, and angry at his ingratitude. 
 He had heard in Washington this morning that he was 
 to marry Anna Maddox, and had come on purposely to 
 stop it. It was a righteous errand, and justified the 
 Sabbath travel, he told himself. It was his own fault if 
 this marriage took place. His mawkish feeling for An 
 dross had kept him silent made him shelter him when 
 he should- have warned Judge Maddox against him as a 
 thief. It was not yet too late. The innocent child 
 could yet be saved. He would be silent not a day longer. 
 
JOHN ANDROSS. 167 
 
 And under all this disappointment and bitterness and 
 rage there was another feeling at the remembrance of the 
 innocent child, which gnawed at Braddock s conscience, 
 and made him more wretched than them all. 
 
 It was in this mood, hurrying to deliver himself of his 
 message, that, looking up as he came under the lamp, he 
 faced Andross. 
 
 "Braddock?" He caught him both hands on the 
 shoulders. " Have you been ill ? Don t you know me, 
 Clay ? " 
 
 The light shone full on the erect, gallant figure, the 
 fine, sensitive face. There was a peculiar warmth, a 
 gayety about Andross in these his happiest days which 
 stirred even passers-by into momentary cordiality and 
 cheerfulness. Braddock resented it ; he resented the up 
 right, prosperous bearing of the man ; the very rose in 
 his button-hole, the anxious, alarmed scrutiny of himself, 
 which seemed to assert their friendship on its old footing. 
 
 "No. I have been quite well," settling his hat on his 
 head and forcing a civil smile. "I ought to have known 
 you, Andross. You are not altered." 
 
 "I did not know you were coming up," he went on 
 eagerly; "I asked Miss Latimer to-day when you would 
 be at home, but she did not expect you." 
 
 "No;" with the old mannerism which Jack remem 
 bered he had used to others. " Since I was obliged to 
 postpone our marriage I have not written to her as re 
 gularly as I ought. My resolve to come up to-night was 
 sudden, prompted by some news that I heard." 
 
 "Where are you going now, Clay?" walking beside 
 him and holding his arm as an affectionate school-boy 
 might. 
 
 "To Judge Maddox s." 
 
 " I came from there just now. The house is closed by 
 this time. Come to my , room. You can see them to 
 morrow, but I must be gone by the early train. Come." 
 
1G8 JOHN ANDROSS. 
 
 Braddock went. There was something in the manner 
 and touch of the man which he could not resist. He 
 walked slowly, angry at himself for yielding to the old 
 unaccountable influence. 
 
 Andross talked on, too excited and eager to be con 
 scious of the chilly reserve. There was nobody, not even 
 Anna, who came as near to the headlong fellow as Brad- 
 dock. Other men were his friends, but a brother might 
 have done to him what Clay had done. 
 
 " Were you sorry to leave old Mttany ? And how does 
 it go in Washington ? Miss Latimer tells me she thinks 
 you have been successful there." 
 
 " I have succeeded as much as I had a right to expect, 
 probably," coldly. 
 
 "Every time I came up from Harrisburgh I hoped to 
 find you here. I wrote; you know, but you did not 
 answer. I knew you were too busy; don t think I 
 minded that, old fellow." They walked on in silence for 
 a square, when Jack broke in : " It s odd, Braddock, but 
 whenever I think of you, it is as you looked to me that 
 day out by the coaling hearth, you remember ? My go 
 ing there was a mad freak, and yet to go back seemed 
 madness, and when you, a gentleman, spoke to me, half 
 naked and covered with ashes, as your equal, it was like 
 a voice calling me out of the pit. You remember you 
 bought clothes for me at Belief onte, and took me straight 
 into the office. No man ever trusted another as blindly 
 as you did me. " He was so much moved that he did not 
 notice Braddock s unbroken silence. 
 
 They stopped at a modest little house on a narrow 
 street. Andross opened the door, and led the doctor up 
 to a small room plainly furnished. An open fire was the 
 only sign of comfort. " Come in," cried Jack heartily. 
 "This is my boarding-house while I m in town. It s 
 clean, at at events. Put your feet up to the fire," wield 
 ing the poker vigorously. 
 
169 
 
 Braddock looked curiously about him. "I certainly 
 expected to find you in more luxurious quarters. I 
 thought you were on the high road to fortune ? " 
 
 "Not precisely/ carelessly. "The salary s fair 
 
 enough, but I m sailing close to the wind, you see. By 
 
 j George, I turn a penny over twice now, before I spend it." 
 
 "May I ask why?" standing eagerly before him. 
 "You are going to marry soon ?" 
 
 "No. It s not for that," colouring, and beating a 
 tattoo on the bars of the grate. " It s a debt that I want 
 to pay. Six thousand dollars. It was a terrible criminal 
 piece of business God forbid you should know anything 
 about it, Clay. I ve had the weight of it to carry until 
 sometimes I thought I never could rise under it. But, 
 God willing, I ll clear it off by spring." 
 
 The doctor, shabby and thin, stood looking down at 
 him for a minute. "Stop rattling that poker, Jack," 
 he said, laying his hand on his shoulder. "You behave 
 like a school-boy." 
 
 Something in the touch of the hand made Andross 
 look up, and the two men laughed. 
 
 "Why, I forgot. You ve had nothing to eat!" cried 
 Andross jumping up. " I m as hungry myself as a Nittany 
 wolf. I was at Judge Maddox s for dinner, but I never 
 can eat in that house. " He had thrown off his coat, and 
 was hurrying from the table to a little closet. "Pull off 
 your boots there are slippers. We ll have supper in no 
 time. I board myself, you see. Oh ! I m a model miser, 
 Clay," fastening a wire stand over the gas-burner, from 
 which presently came a whiff of stewing oysters and 
 coffee. Dr. Braddock put on the slippers and toasted 
 his feet before the fire with an odd sense of comfort and 
 good fellowship which he had almost forgotten was in 
 the world. It was not possible for him to show affection 
 by words and glances like Andross, any more than he 
 could have laid aside his dignity to stew oysters in his 
 
170 JOHN AISDROSS. 
 
 shirt sleeves. But the man who could took his heart 
 and fancy by storm. 
 
 " You said it would have been madness in you to go 
 back from the coalings to Laird and the Eing again. 
 Yet you have gone back, Andross ? " 
 
 "Yes, I have," sitting down beside him while the 
 cooking went on by itself. "Laird offered to put me 
 into Sheffield s place you know how two or three men 
 here controul the election. When I accepted his offer 
 that night at the furnace I felt as if I had sold my soul 
 to the devil." 
 
 "Yet you did it?" 
 
 "Yes, and like the first man, for a woman," with an 
 attempt to laugh. "I was mad, I suppose. But I am 
 not cured of the madness," going uneasily about the 
 room to hide his agitation. " I supposed," after a pause, 
 "that I would be the tool of Laird and his clique. But 
 as yet I have been wholly untrammelled. I have voted 
 and spoken in the Senate in every case out of my honest 
 conviction, in the best service of the party not the Ring. 
 They have not once interfered with me." 
 
 "It is an unusual result," said Braddock drily, "that 
 the yielding to temptation should help you on the way 
 both to honesty and success. My experience has been 
 different. " 
 
 " Yes. I don t know how it is. I m tempted to think 
 sqmetimes there is not such a strict watch kept over us 
 above after all. It really seems as if there was no devil 
 nor special Providence ; just a lot of fellows struggling 
 together to get ahead of each other. God knows, Brad- 
 dock, I have yielded sunk about as low as a man could. 
 Yet here I have the chance to win back my own self- 
 respect to be a rich man, honestly, and to marry some 
 day the only woman I ever loved," his fine face heating 
 again. 
 
 "You- mean Miss Maddox, of course!" with such 
 
S- AKDROSS. 171 
 
 marked reserve in his manner that Jack became more 
 anxiously cordial. " Yes, I think there is no doubt of 
 the judge s consent if I am reflected. There are three or 
 four men madly in love with her : Bislow and Hoar, the 
 diamond dealer. Hoar has enormous wealth and is well 
 preserved in spite of his age. But the judge would prefer 
 me, provided, as I said, I go back to the Senate." 
 
 "And Anna?" 
 
 " Oh, I have no doubt of Anna !" 
 
 Doctor Braddock turned in his chair and scanned his 
 face ; his own curiously haggard at the moment. But 
 Jack s countenance was so bright and genuine ; the man 
 himself, affectionate and hopeful, looked out of it so 
 frankly that Braddock turned away. How could he tell 
 him that his errand to-night was to take this wom^n 
 from him by proclaiming him a criminal ? He clasped 
 his bands behind his head agaiii, and leaned back in his 
 chair. 
 
 " You were born for success, Andross." 
 
 " It looks like it now ! It really looks like it ! Come 
 Braddock, come ; supper is ready. " 
 
 About midnight, Andross left Braddock in his room 
 and started to take the one o clock train. The doctor 
 stood at the door of the little house and watched him go 
 whistling down the street, his springy step ringing on 
 the pavement; the policeman touched his hat and 
 wished him good night, cheerfully ; the driver of the 
 street-car woke up and brightened into a human being as 
 he jumped aboard with a hearty, Hillo ! 
 
 But the charm was off of Braddock when his back was 
 turned. "Uncertain as* water, thou shall not excel," he 
 muttered. 
 
 Jack at the same moment was summing up his own 
 future. "When I am clear of this cursed theft, I m 
 safe," he thought. " No danger that I should ever slip 
 again. I ll be successful, as he says, and deserve success." 
 
172 JOHN ANDKOSS. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 "pvOCTOE Braddock called on Miss Maddox before 
 -*-^ finding Colonel Latimer s the next morning. He 
 told himself the reason for this was that the house lay 
 
 \ directly in his way ; yet he despised himself for the lie, 
 as he did it. 
 
 Anna, when his card was brought to her, was especially 
 in need of the soothing influence of friendship : love, she 
 felt this morning, was harassing beyond endurance. If 
 she had to begin manoeuvring for Andross as a lover now, 
 to keep him up to a decent grade of salary and society, 
 what would she not have had to do had they been mar 
 ried ? Had he not invited her once to a blissful union to 
 be founded on honesty and twenty dollars a week ? In 
 the vexation caused by such blind pig-headedness, the 
 advent of Doctor Braddock, who regarded her as a. be 
 witching saint, was opportune and refreshing : she hur 
 ried down to meet him. 
 
 Outside, the sky was thick with fog, a heavy rain 
 falling ; streets and pavement deep with mud ; the jarring 
 of carts and cars, the patter of rain on umbrellas the 
 only sounds heard ; inside, the gay little room was filled 
 with floweis, birds sang, a delicate Italian grayhound 
 slept on a Turkish rug before the sparkling fire, and 
 Anna, in white, her fair hair flowing about her shoulders, 
 was the personification of summer. Doctor Braddock 
 had but little imagination ; but that small share was 
 
 .taken captive by the scene and the actor. He was 
 guarded to dulness in his manner, however, through his 
 fear of betraying Andross s secret, which he knew she 
 already suspected, and perhaps from some deeper reason. 
 But the morning was too wet for her to go out or to ex 
 pect visitors, and the stiff, pale man in his unfashionable 
 suit of black, and green necktie, on the other side of the 
 fireplace, was the only support offered for Anna s clinging 
 
JOHX ANDROSS. 173 
 
 nature. Scuffed trousers and green necktie were trifling 
 drawbacks compared to the stupidity which would make 
 a man fly in the face of his salary. 
 
 She did not propose, however, to confide this individual 
 grief to her friend. She gave him very clearly the gen 
 eral idea of her lonely and isolated condition in the 
 fashionable crowd ; of her homesickness for the moun 
 tains ; he penetrated to the depths of her nature, he 
 thought with delight, as one would look into a clear 
 forest spring she all unconscious of his gaze. She was 
 Maud Muller without the desire to be the Judge s bride, 
 decked in silken gown. Then she concerned herself 
 gently for his well-being ; was sure his feet were damp ; 
 ran to feel his overcoat as an anxious mother might, 
 brought him a cup of hot coffee " to take the chill off," 
 and stood, her innocent eyes upturned to his, holding the 
 saucer while he drank it. 
 
 A mother ? A wife. 
 
 And Andross, with all other good fortune, was to have 
 this lovely creature to wait on him, to be waited on, 
 cherished, held in his arms. 
 
 "You are chilly you are so deathly pale ! Will you 
 have some more ?" drawing back in unfeigned fright. 
 
 "No, thank you. I saw Andross last night, Miss 
 Maddox," forcing a smile. " Faithful to his allegiance 
 still?" 
 
 Unmistakable sadness clouded her fair brow. She was 
 silent a moment, and then her confidence ebbed slowly 
 forth. Her father and Mr. Andross looked upon their 
 marriage as a certainty : she herself felt as though she 
 were tangled in a net which drew her in more closely 
 every day. Mr. Andross was a dear friend to her, he was 
 a dear friend to everybody. " But, oh ! Doctor Brad- 
 dock," her head sinking on her breast, " there is some 
 thing in him that I dread ! He is in some points totally 
 alien from me ! " 
 
174 JOHN ANDROSS. 
 
 "Ah! I believe that, Miss Maddox. And yet Jack is 
 a loyal friend, and he would be a most faithful husband." 
 
 I know by your voice you are forcing yourself to say 
 that !" without looking up. "You know he is a grown 
 up child, and so am I. I ought to have a stronger guide 
 than he is. I have fancied that when I married " 
 
 Doctor Braddock set down the cup. Why should he not 
 listen to her innocent talk ? She was but a spoiled child, 
 as she said. " What was your dream of a lover or hus 
 band then ?" with an awkward laugh. 
 
 "I hardly can put it into words," gazing with absent 
 eyes into the fire, while the tall figure in black stood 
 stiffly before her. "A man strong in principle and piety. 
 Yes, of all things, principle would be first in my eyes." 
 
 "You would respect such a man; but would you love 
 him?" Doctor Braddock passed his forefinger over his 
 mouth once or twice after he had spoken ; a most un 
 gainly, stupid gesture, but some motion must break the 
 intense strain which he had put upon himself. The rain 
 pattered hard upon the pane, the cat purred and turned 
 sleepily over, but Anna was silent. Her fingers pressed 
 clo.ser on each other until the delicate tips sunk into the 
 pink flesh. 
 
 "Love and friendship," the doctor s harsh voice broke 
 the silence, " are such different things. You you could 
 not love such a man ?" 
 
 She suddenly raised her dovelike eyes to his, a fiery red 
 dyed her face and neck and bosom ; she started up and 
 shyly began twisting the dried fern leaves in the vases. 
 
 Braddock made a hasty step towards her, and then 
 dropped into a chair by the table, covering his eyes with 
 his hand. What fight he fought with himself in that 
 minute no one ever knew but himself and God. He 
 stood up again angular and stiff, wiping his pale face 
 with his handkerchief; "precisely," as Anna told her 
 self, "like a Presbyterian elder beginning an exhortation." 
 
BBADDOCK S MENTAL ANGUISH. 
 
AKDKOSS. 177 
 
 "Your idea of what married life should be coincides 
 with mine, Miss Maddox," he said formally; "I chose a 
 wife whose principle of action is higher than than mine. 
 God help me!" with a sudden break, "I love her very 
 truly. I respect her too as I do no other human being," 
 emphatically, and talking as Anna well knew, to himself. 
 
 "Ah ! but we can not all deserve her happiness !" with 
 a tearful smile. " There are few Bell Latimers among 
 womankind!" 
 
 The magnanimity of the lovely child ! How she strug 
 gled against her pain lest she might trouble him ; strug 
 gled against could it be ? her love for him ? 
 
 Again a sudden silence fell upon the room, the dreary 
 beat of the rain again grew audible. For one rapt mo 
 ment Doctor Braddock saw only the mellow tinting of a 
 delicate cheek turned from him, across which a bit of 
 fair hair had fallen ; then he began to pull on his worn 
 gloves, took up his hat, and muttering he knew not what, 
 stumbled out of the room and the house. 
 
 "The awkward wretch!" said Anna, "he almost fell 
 into my jardiniere. His feet are such scows like coal 
 barges. To think me in love with him of all the con 
 ceited " But seeing at that moment his umbrella 
 
 pass the window, with his stern, thin face under it, and 
 realizing how much more picturesque it was than Jack s 
 merry phiz, and that he was gone from her forever, she 
 sat down and dribbled out some of her ever-ready tears. 
 
 A few minutes later, Doctor Braddock, seated in An- 
 dross s room, without taking off his overcoat, wrote the 
 following letter : 
 
 "Dear Isabel: It is with the most thorough trust in 
 your love for me that I ask you to prove it. There is no 
 need of our waiting longer for more money on which to 
 marry. You do not care for it, and God knows I have 
 need of that which no wealth can buy just now, but 
 which you may give me." He stopped, dipped his pen 
 
178 JOHN. ANDROSS. 
 
 in the ink once or twice, conscious that he had strayed 
 from the main subject into one which it was not easy to 
 pursue further. Doctor Braddock was suffering from 
 none of the mental agony expressed by cold sweats, pallor, 
 etc. , common to Anna s imagined heroes ; he felt as if 
 he had been struck a blow from which he would never 
 recover ; the feeling he had for Anna was so different 
 from any he had known that he fancied it deeper and 
 truer ; but was he not playing the Christian hero by con 
 quering it ? He had never felt better satisfied with him 
 self than as he wrote "Dear Isabel" upon the blank 
 page, and his self-respect and complacency increased 
 with every word. He ended by asking her to set their 
 marriage-day a week hence; he would come up from 
 Washington on Wednesday morning, and the wedding 
 could take place that evening; begging in conclusion 
 that it might be as quiet as possible ; and was always hers 
 sincerely, H. Clay Braddock. 
 
 Was he not hers ? He thought, as he directed the en 
 velope, his whole life would be given to her service, and 
 she never should be troubled by knowing that he might 
 have married a woman of such different mould. For 
 there was the difference between them of fine porcelain 
 and plain Delft. He was very fond of Isabel, and would 
 give her the homely, domestic love which her homelier 
 nature craved. So resolving, he put the letter in his 
 pocket-book, to be mailed at Washington, and started to 
 catch the southern train ; wretched enough at resigning 
 Anna, but with a comfortable enjoyment of his own mar 
 tyrdom. 
 
JOHX ANDROSS. 179 
 
 CHAPTEE XIX. 
 
 ~j~ DON T see, Colonel Latimer, what we can do to 
 - them if they pay the tax. It s only a trick to 
 throw me off the watch, but they certainly have been 
 ordered to pay it on every gallon since Wilkins s arrest, 
 though it hasn t been done, as yet." 
 
 Colonel Latimer, at one side of his office table, sat 
 watching the speaker, who stood at the other a broad, fat 
 man with a queer cast in one of his eyes and a stubbly 
 crop of iron-gray hair and whisker. 
 
 6 ( These distilleries, you tell me, are those in which 
 Houston Laird owns a share ? " 
 
 "He is the principal owner, sir." 
 
 " Then I have no doubt, Bowyer, he has been apprised 
 of this rascality, and ordered a stop to be put to it ; so 
 that it is no trick, but a permanent reform. You ll have 
 no further trouble, Bowyer. Laird is a man whose orders 
 must be obeyed. I know him. I know how outraged he 
 would be by such villany under his name. " 
 
 " I don t know him," rejoined Bowyer bluntly. ( But 
 them that do, say "Wilkins is the honester man of the 
 two." 
 
 "You make a mistake in repeating that to me," said 
 the colonel with peculiar mildness. " Mr. Laird is my 
 friend and a gentleman." 
 
 , Bowyer took off his hat. He had forgotten before that 
 it was on his head. " In case, sir, however," he said in 
 a subdued tone, "that I find Wilkins and the others are 
 at their old practices, I m to close in on them without 
 consulting Mr. Laird ? " 
 
 "Certainly. Why, I tell you, Laird will be as hearty as 
 any man in the town in his approval of your energy. It s 
 a personal stigma on himself, d ye see ? The fact is, he 
 
180 JOHN AOTROSS. 
 
 went into the distilling business from good motives 
 inistaken, but good." 
 
 Bowyer bowed, fixing on his employer the puzzled, 
 amused scrutiny with which he often favored him. 
 
 " I shall not be able to come down to the office to-mor 
 row," said the colonel rising. I have left schedules 
 for Joseph to fill. We have a wedding up at the house," 
 colouring as though it were his own. "My daughter 
 marries. A gentleman from Washington." 
 
 "I hope he is good enough for her," energetically. 
 Bowyer had a Westerner s disregard of social distinction. 
 "Sudden, is it not, Colonel?" 
 
 " It has been a long time under consideration," turning 
 the key in his desk. " Now I trust to you, Bowyer, to 
 keep a sharp lookout on Wilkins and his confederates. I 
 wish we could change work for awhile. You re hardly 
 fit to deal with those fellows ; it s a sheep among foxes. 
 They d never deceive me. I know the ways of them." 
 
 Bowyer came down the stairs after him gravely ; but 
 at the bottom met one of his aids and winked to him to 
 wait. " Houston Laird is pulling the wool over the old 
 man s eyes. He ll have no more trouble about it than if 
 he were a baby. I mean to play my own game after this. 
 Laird will find he has met his match. I d feel as if I d 
 done one good job in my life, if I could have a wrastle 
 with that tremendous humbug, and throw him." 
 
 His deputy said nothing. Nick Bowyer s honesty was 
 all very well ; nobody ever had doubted that or his pluck 
 either ; but what was your honesty or your pluck against 
 Laird s money ? " Millions !" gasped the fellow, thrust 
 ing his hands deeper into his pockets. 
 
 Colonel Latimer hurried home. His house was on one of 
 the quiet side streets ; a large, many-windowed dwelling, 
 set in an ample garden, which gave to the passers-by the 
 idea of comfort and a home. It had a wide reputation 
 already as one of the pleasantest houses in the city in 
 
JOHK ANDKOSS. 181 
 
 which to visit. The Latimers were originally from 
 Virginia, and descendants of the Fairfaxes and Pages had 
 started from all corners of the city to claim cousin ship 
 with them ; old army officers gathered about the colonel ; 
 Andross had brought his friends, artists, a few well-born 
 and bred women, and three or four gray-haired old gen 
 tlemen, who adopted Bell, after one visit, and transferred 
 their chess-playing and musty-flavored gossips about 
 dead Shippens and Duanes, from the Athenaeum and 
 Historical Society to her quiet library. The young girl 
 lacked the beauty of the belles of their youth, they 
 thought ; but she had a simple high-breeding which had 
 belonged to them. It brought back the days of their 
 love and gallantry, as did the faint perfume which hung 
 about the long empty flagons on their dressing-tables. 
 The artists laughed with her at her designs ; the wo 
 men declared to her she followed the fashion of two 
 years before. She had no especial wit or wisdom or ability 
 on which to hang a compliment, yet her house was be 
 sieged every day, and all who came were friends. Of all 
 houses it was the most hospitable ; guests dropped in at 
 breakfast, dinner, supper the colonel and Bell coming 
 and going with the rest ; Oth presiding loftily down 
 stairs, the meals well or ill served as it happened. By 
 and by a certain peculiarity developed itself in the major 
 ity of the guests ; people came there who went nowhere 
 else. Lonely old people, morbid young ones, everybody 
 whose life was stinted and bare, coming once into the 
 warm, sunny, disorderly house, and having once shaken 
 Bell s large, healthy hand, came again and constantly. 
 Andross called the house a moral pool of Bethesda, and 
 came himself, as often as he could leave Anna, to be 
 cured. A certain cousin Arabella Morgan had established 
 kinship with the Latimers a few weeks ago. Out of 
 sheer pity for them, she gave up her rooms in her respect 
 able boarding-house, and came on a winter s visit. Her 
 
182 JOHN ANDROSS. 
 
 arrival was immediately followed by the rebellion of every 
 servant in the house ; but Cousin Arabella had by this 
 time conquered a peace. 
 
 Bell, as usual, was waiting that afternoon for her 
 father, by the church. "I did not think you would 
 come for me to-day, sweetheart," touching her hand 
 slightly as she took his arm. Neither of them would 
 say to the other that it was the last day she could 
 come. The Latimers seldom expressed feeling that was 
 deep. 
 
 "Cousin Arabella," laughing, "was outraged at such 
 a breach of decorum. I ought to have been in-doors for 
 a week, she says. There she comes ! These are happy 
 days for her ; she finds so many loose ends, as she calls 
 them, to tie up." 
 
 " She ties them a little too tight," said the colonel, 
 shrugging his bony shoulders. " I wish we could have 
 had our walk alonS But she is a kind soul," smiling 
 and bowing as the little plump woman bustled up, her 
 jetty fringes and little bobs of glossy ringlets and cheap 
 purple feather shaking and dangling together. 
 
 "My dear Bell, it is not usual for a young girl to be 
 rampaging the streets at such a time. Heaven knows 
 I scorn etiquette ; the Morgans are well known as the 
 only family among old Philadelphians who can dare to be 
 Bohemian, and that is solely owing to their literary 
 achievements. / can set society at defiance. But it is a 
 very different case with you." 
 
 A man muffled in an overcoat came quickly up abreast 
 with them at the moment. "I beg your pardon," nod 
 ding, "but can you give me the time ?" 
 
 Colonel Latimer stopped, and, with anxious courtesy, 
 took out a ponderous old watch. "Just six o clock, my 
 friend." 
 
 "Thank you; I m making a train." The man had 
 eyed the colonel eagerly from head to foot; his build, 
 
JOHK AtfDKOSS. 183 
 
 carnage, height, while he stood in front of him ; he 
 hastily turned now, and disappeared down an alley. 
 
 "I hope the poor fellow won t be late," said the 
 colonel, looking after him. "He seems to be laboring 
 under some excitement." 
 
 (< That fellow had no train to make," snapped Cousin 
 Arabella, shaking her head. "He followed you for two 
 squares, walking slowly. I saw him as I came to meet 
 you. He had some sinister purpose, Colonel Latimer. 
 He has the worst eyes I ever saw." 
 
 " Tut, tut 1 It was the milkman that you suspected 
 of being a heavy villain yesterday, wasn t it ? There are 
 not half the burglars and rogues in the world that you 
 good people suspect, Cousin Arabella ! " 
 
 " But this man I know to be a rogue ! " triumphantly. 
 "I knew I had seen him before. It was down at Cape 
 May last summer, and when an excursion came down, 
 Brother Ben told me to come out, and see some of the 
 worst roughs in the city. I declare to you, Bell, they 
 were in broad-cloth, the latest fashion ; this man s wife 
 wore a brocade silk flounced to the waist, and a white 
 Rabagas bonnet and rubies ; yes, I assure you, rubies, a 
 full set on that creature and very fine stones they 
 were, for I made Ben take me past her to be sure about 
 them. And this fellow what was his name now ? Ben 
 said was the ringleader of all the ruffians in town ; 
 just out of the penitentiary, where he had been sent for 
 burglary, and curiously enough, Colonel, it was either 
 your friend, Mr. Andross or Laird, who got him out. 
 They called him Laird s protege. Voss yes, that was 
 the name, Voss. Now, what grudge can the fellow have 
 against you ? " 
 
 "Mr. Laird s position draws that kind of idle slander 
 upon him," gravely. " As for me, set your mind at rest. 
 I haven t an enemy in the world." 
 
 They walked on in silence. Bell and her father forgot 
 
184 JOHK AKDROSS. 
 
 the incident the next moment ; the coming day weighed 
 heavily on the old man, and Bell knew it. But Cousin 
 Arabella fell a step behind, and eyed the colonel with a 
 vague notion of keeping watch over him. She had a 
 presentiment of danger ; afnd the Morgans presentiments 
 were by no means to be despised. They had dabbled in 
 spiritualism, mesmerism, etc., with gloves on, as one 
 might say, and, according to Cousin Arabella, had ac 
 quired thereby a sense beyond the legal five. 
 
 She intercepted the colonel as they entered the house, 
 and drew him aside to the library. 
 
 "Now here s the paper of day s duties, " drawing it 
 out. " You know I always make one out every morning, 
 and tick off each as it is done. You d find such a system 
 invaluable in your business, Colonel." 
 
 "I don t doubt it." 
 
 " First, Bell s clothes. Of course a proper trousseau 
 is a hopeless matter with a week s notice, but everything 
 essential is in now but stockings, and as for bonnets " 
 
 " That will all come right. I really wish to talk to 
 Isabel " 
 
 "About the supper ? Oh ! that s all arranged. I have 
 the bill of fare regularly made out. But what I wanted 
 to speak to you about was the guests. Half a hundred 
 people will feel hurt if you neglect them." 
 
 " I d like to have them all everybody I know," and the 
 colonel s hospitable soul heaved a sigh. " But, you know, 
 Dr. Braddock especially requested a private wedding. " 
 
 " That is the point. Wtiy did he suggest it ? Heaven 
 forbid I should suggest an unworthy doubt, but the 
 young man s course is exceedingly suspicious. I love 
 Isabel, Colonel," her florid face growing redder "the 
 child has no mother, and you know so little of the ways 
 of the world 
 
 The colonel bowed laughing. 
 
 " Oh ! it s true ! Why, everybody down to rats and 
 
JOHN" ANDBOSS. 185 
 
 beggars were devouring your income till I came. You re 
 no more fitted to take care of yourselves than the babes 
 in the wood. It behooves me to keep a sharp eye about 
 me, and I ve fixed it on Dr. Braddock. This marrying 
 at a week s notice none of the Morgans would risk of 
 fending public opinion to that extent, much as they 
 trampled on conventionality. Such haste and secrecy! 
 It looks as if he were afraid. What story was that Judge 
 Maddox told about a missing six thousand dollars ?" 
 
 " Braddock referred to that most satisfactorily in a let 
 ter which I received to-day. . He had lent the money to a 
 friend, and was in hopes it would soon be returned." 
 
 Miss Morgan began to untie her bonnet strings with a 
 jerk. 
 
 " Of course it s all right ! I ve no wish to wrong the 
 young man. I have never even seen him. I ve no right 
 to exact more for your daughter than you do; but the 
 present generation of men make love and marry in a free 
 and easy manner throw the handkerchief I might say, 
 in a way unknown to our days, Colonel. Bell, foolish 
 child, in her joy at his letter, showed it to me. /thought 
 it arrogant ; taking it for granted she was waiting, with 
 all her spring dresses made, for the sign to marry him ! 
 I should never have consented without time to send for a 
 proper veil, at least." 
 
 "You did not consider that the letter showed proper 
 affection for Bell?" anxiously. "I thought the young 
 man was deeply moved. Clay is not demonstrative." 
 
 " Moved by something else than love for Bell," nodding 
 shrewdly. "I have given you warning. You ought to 
 make inquiry as to his habits ; to keep a sharp watch on 
 him if they are married." 
 
 "Where the Latimers trust, they trust wholly," the 
 colonel said quietly. "I can not give my daughter to a 
 man as his wife one day, and follow him like a policeman 
 the next." 
 
186 JOHK ANDKOSS. 
 
 CHAPTEE XX. 
 
 southern train halted in the Philadelphia depot 
 the next morning long enough for an erect, prim 
 man to step off, which he did, deliberately. It was 
 Braddock, who, as we know, in his normal condition, 
 was a cheerful, business-like fellow ; but now he looked 
 about him as if ready to offer to the sun or wind or even 
 the freight-master a cowed, miserable apology for cum 
 bering the earth. He had been talking to himself all 
 night, recounting his generosity toward. Andross, his 
 honourable dealing with Bell, assuring himself that he 
 loved her loved her purely, tenderly as he did his 
 mother, the mountains where he was born, his religion 
 that his passion for Anna was a mad, unclean frenzy. 
 
 But all would not do. He felt dishonoured in every 
 drop of his blood ; he had no relish for his mother or the 
 mountains or domestic bliss just then ; he had not drunk 
 the cup of passion, and he wanted to do it ; he was the 
 Prodigal, forced back to the tedious elder brother and 
 insipid fatted calf before he had tasted of the riotous 
 living, or proved how bitter were the husks which the 
 swine did eat. All night, Anna, her cloying amiabilities, 
 looks, and gestures that had brought her beauty close to 
 him, the very tones of her shrill voice, had been present 
 with him, clung about him, stifled him like a delicious 
 nightmare. 
 
 Outside of the car the keen wind of dawn woke him 
 from his passionate torpor ; the night mists yet lay on 
 the river and shipping as he crossed the bridge ; the wind 
 blew in his face, full of gusts of glistening frost; he 
 passed down the vacant street through stately rows of 
 silent dwellings, their brown stone carvings greened and 
 softened by the winter s damp. In daylight this street 
 always taunted Braddock with his poverty ; it was aggres- 
 
THEY FLUTTERED FEARLESSLY ALL ABOUT HER. SHE AND THEY SEEM 
 ED TO BELONG TO THE BRIGHT, PUBE MORNING. 
 
JOHN ANDROSS. 189 
 
 sive with wealth. Now there was nothing in it but noble 
 form, and the beauty of the coming day. The bare trees 
 of Kittenhouse square lengthened in the shadows into 
 interminable aisles with black, high, fine-lined arches; 
 where he had been used to plough through dust, lay the 
 white sheet of untrodden snow ; where liveried carriages 
 had wheeled mud in his face only the mist rolled, full of 
 golden light. There was but a solitary figure in the dis 
 tance, a lady, tall and slight, and of singularly noble 
 carriage. She had stopped below the trees near the hun 
 dreds of sparrows which were pecking the grain that 
 some kindly soul had sprinkled on the snow. They flut 
 tered fearlessly all about her. She and they seemed to 
 belong to the bright, pure morning, Braddock thought, 
 in his heated fancy, and when she came up to him out of 
 the golden mist, he thought so still. Surely in all these 
 multitudes of people there was not another face so clear 
 or happy. It succeeded Anna s as did the morning air to 
 the hot atmosphere of the car. He hurried to her. 
 
 " It is you, Bell ! What are you doing here ?" 
 
 "I came to meet you, Clay," holding out her hands. 
 "Are you not glad to see me ?" after awaiting moment. 
 
 "Certainly; how can you ask such a question ? Only 
 I did not expect to meet you here," with a grave hint of 
 
 rebuke in his voice. "Is it usual ? What will 
 
 people say ? " 
 
 "How can I tell?" laughing softly. "I know that 
 I am here." 
 
 He drew her hand in his arm. "When he did not speak 
 of his errand, she began to talk to cover her shy happiness. 
 
 " See the birds, Clay how hungry and tame they are ! 
 They were brought from England for these trees. They 
 are not our great Nittany trees. But look at them how 
 they glitter in the frost." 
 
 " I can only look at you ! " energetically. " You are a 
 woman that I never knew ! " 
 
190 JOHN ANDROSS. 
 
 "I can not have changed so much in four months," 
 hastily. 
 
 Miss Latimer had her own feeling about love; how 
 that it was a fine, subtle kinship; how that no change of 
 body, even the going to another world, could touch it. 
 Yet here was her lover criticising her precisely as a 
 stranger would ! She knew that every thought of a true 
 wife and husband were known to each other, their very 
 souls became as one ; yet now her husband stood apart as 
 though totally alien to her, with a half alarmed inspec 
 tion of her face, her very dress. But Bell never had yet 
 put her theories or her love into words for Braddock ; 
 she walked on in almost unbroken silence, often replying 
 to him only in a sudden, sweet little laugh, which meant 
 far more than words, and was, like her dress and her 
 look, new and startling to him. 
 
 "When they reached the house she ran up the steps be 
 fore him, throwing back the fur hood as she looked 
 down. "I hoped that perhaps you would ask me to go 
 wandering about all day in search of adventures ; there 
 are such queer solitary places about Philadelphia; and 
 then all our lives we could say, we went here or there on 
 our wedding journey ; and in the evening we would have 
 come in and been married. I should have liked that ! 
 But now there will be veils and supper and trunks in 
 stead!" 
 
 "You always had a drop of vagabond blood that I 
 lacked, Isabel," smiling with a good deal of his old fond 
 ness down on her. But at heart he regarded her with 
 something very different from that humdrum affection ; 
 a surprise and alarm which drove the thought of Anna 
 away for the moment. This was not the Isabel he used 
 to know ; something about her impressed him as a fine 
 strain of music does a man who is not educated to under 
 stand it, or a wide landscape one whose eye would grasp 
 it all, but can not. 
 
^ AJTDROSS. 191 
 
 "You, at least, I thought, belonged to me," following^ 
 her into her sewing-room. 
 
 She seated him in her own chair ; the fire blazed on 
 the hearth ; the morning light shone in at his back ; his 
 feet rested on the bear skin she had brought from Nit- 
 tany. There he was at last, her household god, her own 
 private and particular joss, safe from any other woman s 
 worship than her own ! 
 
 For how many years had she prayed for him every 
 morning, blushing, though she did not utter his name ! 
 There was no need . for her now to blush ; this morning 
 her Master had answered her prayers. But Isabel, like 
 other big-natured people, had no petty coquetry of lids 
 and lips ; there was no way to guess at the deep delight 
 of the loyal creature except the kindling of her slow fine 
 face. She stood off at the other side of the fire-place, 
 not looking at him. 
 
 "There is one thing I ought to confess to you, Clay," 
 a laugh trembling about her mouth. "I doubted you, 
 once. It seems absurd to me now. Just like a child ! " 
 
 "You heard some story about money?" frowning. 
 
 "Yes, but that was nonsense, of course. My trouble 
 was about Anna. I absolutely hated the poor little crea 
 ture. I was so long alone, and you wrote so seldom. I 
 know you had not time," eagerly. 
 
 Braddock .stood up. " Miss Maddox is nothing to us 
 now, Isabel." 
 
 " I knew that when your letter came," gravely. 
 
 But it never entered into his head to go into the con 
 fessional, and never would. 
 
 There were no tea-roses in this room, no canaries nor 
 faint perfume ; only the big fire burning briskly, and the 
 fresh daylight and the woman with an unfamiliar fine 
 face standing apart from him. If he could get out of 
 this fog that was about him back to the daylight and 
 Bell again ! 
 
192 JOHN ANDROSS. 
 
 He went across the bear skin presently, and took her 
 hand. " I have been but a dull lover, Isabel." 
 
 "I did not think that, Clay." At his first touch a 
 soft warmth reddened her firm flesh. 
 
 There was a knock at the door. Oth came in, a pre 
 ternatural solemnity struggling to overcome his delighted 
 grin at sight of " de bride and groom." 
 
 "Doctor Braddock, sah yes, sah. Fse quite well; 
 town agrees wid me fuss-rate it s a telegram foh you, 
 sah." 
 
 He tore it open. " Come to me at once. A great dan 
 ger threatens me which you can avert. A. 9 
 
 "Is it bad news? is it from your mother, Clay?" 
 watching him as he refolded the paper and slowly put it 
 in his pocket. 
 
 "It is a poor woman who is in trouble which she 
 thinks I can help. I can not go to her. This is the day 
 on which I came to marry you. 7 
 
 "How far would you have to go ?" asked practical Bell. 
 
 "Only a few squares. Do not speak of it again." 
 
 He took her hand again mechanically ; but there was a 
 strained unwonted look in his eyes that startled her. 
 "If the poor creature needs you, go to her, Clay. I can 
 spare you for an hour or two, as you are going to be mine 
 all of your life," smiling. 
 
 "I shall not go," almost fiercely. "I am here now. 
 What do you drive me away for ? This is our wedding- 
 day. I think you are mad to drive me from you." 
 
 Poor Clay ! No doubt, she thought, he was nervous 
 from overwork and loss of sleep. "Very well," she said, 
 cheerfully. " We will hope that she exaggerates her need 
 of you. Only do not look so anxious about her." 
 
 " She is not a woman who exaggerates ; I know what 
 I can do for her, but my place is here." 
 
 He might sacrifice himself, but Bell should not wrong 
 the little creature who loved him so hopelessly. 
 
"COME TO MB AT ONCE. A GREAT DANGER THREATENS ME WHICH 
 YOU CAN AVERT. A." 
 
JOHN AKDEOSS. 195 
 
 Another knock. Oth again at the door. 
 
 " A lady, sah, to speak with you. Won t leave de car 
 riage, sah." 
 
 Doctor Braddock followed him hastily to the street, 
 where a close, shabby hack stood before the door. In 
 five minutes he came into the room again, labouring 
 under some uncontrolled excitement. 
 
 " She is there. I must go, Isabel," stopping short on 
 the other side of the hearth. " There is danger of 
 danger " 
 
 "Danger of what?" 
 
 " Oh ! God knows. It is all a horrible horrible mud 
 dle." He held his clasped hands up to his mouth, and 
 stared at her irresolutely over them, then turned sud 
 denly to the door. 
 
 " When will you be back, Clay ? In an hour ?" 
 
 "Yes, in an hour," vacantly; "but why should I go 
 at all ? What can I do ?" He went out without a word 
 or look of good-bye. 
 
 Poor Clay ! thought Isabel again. Never was there so 
 sensitive a nature ; the grief of this poor creature, who 
 ever she might be, had made him half crazed, as though 
 it were his own. She rang the bell, and ordered Oth to 
 keep back the breakfast for an hour. Doctor Braddock 
 had been called away by sudden business. When they 
 were married, she would stand between him and such 
 appeals so she went on with her revery and take the 
 brunt of pain from him. As she sat alone for the next 
 hour looking in the wood fire, she smiled once or twice 
 to herself, thinking how jealous she would have been a 
 few months ago if any woman had so carried off her 
 lover. She had outgrown such notions since she came 
 to town, .and had been drawn out of her shell, as Miss 
 Morgan often put it ; adding that a change of food and 
 air was as wholesome for the brain as the digestive 
 organs. 
 
196 JOHN A2STDRO3S. 
 
 Breakfast was served and eaten. 
 
 "I thought," said Cousin Arabella, marvellous in the 
 freshness of purple ribbons and jet fringes, " that Doctor 
 Braddock, probably, would have been here on the early 
 train." 
 
 "Bless me, I forgot the lad!" cried the colonel; 
 "He ll be here by noon, all right !" He talked so fast 
 and energetically of a dozen things at once, that Bell had 
 no room for explanation. 
 
 The baggage must be ready for expressage by five, as 
 they would go through this tomfoolery of a wedding 
 journey; the old Virginia customs were best, etc., etc., 
 his eyes fixed on Bell, with a quiet sadness and hunger, 
 oddly belying his jerky, impatient sentences, which often 
 ended half spoken. He was losing Bell. Baggage or 
 wedding journey or Braddock himself were mere surface 
 trifles in the colonel s brain compared to that. When 
 the noon train was in and Doctor Braddock did not ap 
 pear, however, he became, as usual, immeasurably anx 
 ious and restless, and coming bustling in to console 
 Isabel, was amazed to find her composedly mending his 
 old coat, her cheeks unusually rosy, and eyes clear. 
 
 "I knew Cousin Arabella would forget it, and you 
 would miss it before I came back," snipping off the 
 threads. 
 
 " Thank you, my dear. I m exceedingly anxious about 
 Clay, Bell. The train has been in for an hour. I m 
 going to telegraph." 
 
 ie Clay is a more impetuous lover than you think," 
 with a shy smile, telling her story as she folded up the 
 coat, and ending with, "Now I shall go and dress, so 
 that we can all be together when he comes." She pleased 
 herself with thinking how impatient he would be with 
 the poor creature, and her grief which detained him. 
 What other man would make such a noble sacrifice on 
 his wedding-day ? If the Women s Club, whose president 
 
JOHN ANDROSS. 19? 
 
 Mr. Ware had introduced to her, only knew Clay Brad- 
 dock, they would hold very different opinions on the 
 marriage question, and the proper authority of a husband 
 over a wife ! 
 
 The day had proved rainy, the golden mists going 
 down into clammy fog that clung to the outside of 
 Isabel s window, as she bathed and made herself fair for 
 her lover ; nothing could be heard but the dull patter of 
 the rain on the panes, and the jingle of car bells, and 
 tramp of the horses in the muddy street. 
 
 Miss Morgan bustled in. "Well, well! Here s four 
 o clock. The supper s all arranged, and the carriage 
 ready to go for Dr. Croly. Why, Bell, how bright and 
 
 sweet your room is, and you " surveying her from 
 
 head to foot at arm s length. The little old maid had a 
 mother s heart in her bosom ; she put her hands softly 
 on Bell s head and drew it to her breast. " There, I ll 
 leave the kiss for your husband. I ll not take it." 
 
 She went out, moved in spite of herself. She could 
 not utter a word of her suspicions of Braddock, or her 
 wrath at the disrespect implied in his delay, or the other 
 thousand remarks with which she effervesced ; she was 
 usually a little afraid of Bell, as a woman of stronger 
 brain and better culture than her own ; but the girl to 
 day, in her simplicity and happy faith in her lover, was 
 so like an innocent child, so different from shrewd city 
 women, that Miss Morgan had not the heart to hurt her. 
 
 She went down to the parlours and supper-room, already 
 lighted and filled with flowers, and there hid her rage. 
 
 An hour later, Oth, the delighted grin quite gone from 
 his mouth, and his wrinkled face under the gray hair as 
 grave as his master s, tapped softly at the door of the 
 room, where Colonel Latimer sat waiting for Isabel. She 
 came in by another door, as she heard the knock. 
 
 "Has he come ?" glancing from one to the other. 
 
 The old man lifted both hands. " De Lohd bless de 
 
198 JOHN Atf DROSS. 
 
 chile ! "When I used to ride de little gull on my knee to 
 Babylon, neber tought to see dat lubly face and de bride s 
 dress, all train and lace ! " 
 
 The colonel, whom Miss Morgan had driven to dress in 
 his full uniform, stood up straightening his cuffs. "I 
 thought you came to say Doctor Braddock had arrived." 
 
 "No, sah," lowering his voice and carefully closing 
 the door. "Fact is, when I saw de lady in de car age 
 dis mornin I mistrusted somefin. She was veiled, but 
 I knowed her. It was Miss Maddox, and / neber put 
 no stock in dat ar, sah." He turned his back to his 
 young mistress, with a delicate wish not to see her 
 face, and went on hurriedly. " Dis aft noon I escaped 
 from Miss Arabel s sight and I goes down to Judge Mad- 
 dox s, and dey tells me dar dat Doctor Braddock wid 
 Miss Anna took the noon train to Harrisburgh. De judge 
 am out of town too, an not to be back until to-morrow." 
 
 "Doctor Braddock left a message ?" said the colonel. 
 
 " No, sah. I inquired particular, but dah was none." 
 
 " He has telegraphed, and it has been delayed at the 
 office. You can go, Oth, I m very much obliged to you, 
 my good fellow," said the colonel quietly. He had no 
 intention of subjecting his daughter to the pity of even 
 this old servant. When the door closed again he took 
 her in his arms : " You ve come back to me again, child ; 
 that is all." 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 MISS MADDOX had not ventured on her errand to 
 Dr. Braddock alone, or without premeditation. 
 The judge had had his usual whist party the night be 
 fore. Anna had chosen to set up her work-table in the 
 ^ corner of the room, where she could listen to the political 
 
JOHtf ASTDBOSS. 199 
 
 discussions which interrupted the game, toy with her 
 silks and crewels, or grow confidential with the two or 
 three men lounging about her, at her pleasure. When 
 the cards were thrown aside and the voices about the 
 table grew more eager and repressed, she got up, fluttered 
 over to her father, and perched herself, blushes, lace, 
 tags of ribbon and all, on the elbow of his chair. M. de 
 Mille, the French journalist whom Ware had in charge 
 that evening, hastily rose and would have led her to the 
 piano. 
 
 "They talk but of affairs," he earnestly assured her; 
 whereat Anna shook her head saucily, and sat still. Her 
 whim that evening was to understand these very 
 "affairs" ; as she had already heard Andross s name once 
 or twice in the discussion. 
 
 "There is no staving off the bill later than to-morrow 
 evening," said General Ealston, tapping with the pack of 
 cards on the table to mark his words : "and do what you 
 will, the vote on it will be, if not a tie, the closest this 
 session. One vote will probably win or lose it." 
 
 " Mr. Laird knows that," remarked Ware, drawing out 
 his thick beard through his hand admiringly. " He has 
 had Ned Willitts up there lobbying for a week." 
 
 " It behooves him to lobby," said the general. " If 
 the bill is lost, Laird s great Transit scheme will shrivel 
 up like a bladder that has been pricked. He ought to 
 have drilled the tools of his King better than he has that 
 fellow Andross, before he allowed his fortune to hinge on 
 their votes on a single measure." 
 
 " He can do as he pleases with his own money ; but he 
 had no right to drag other men into such a hobble," said 
 Judge Maddox. Something in the judge s tone made the 
 other men look at him, and then glance significantly at 
 each other. He had been noticeably quiet all evening ; 
 his usual leaky dribble of talk having ebbed down into an 
 occasional curt, snappish sentence. They noticed that 
 
200 JOHtf AXDROSS. 
 
 his daughter, too, sitting poised like a pet hird beside 
 him, turned quickly at his words, with an odd change on 
 her pretty face, and put her hand on his. The rumour 
 was true, then, that Maddox had risked all he had in this 
 scheme of Laird s, and would in all probability be ruined 
 by the non-passage of the bill ? 
 
 There was an awkward silence for a moment, which 
 nobody was able to break with tact, when, to the aston 
 ishment of M. de Mille, at least, the bird-like little girl 
 began to chirp. 
 
 " If I understand this tiresome talk, you all want a 
 bill or an act or something to pass to-morrow night ?" 
 looking at General Ealston. 
 
 He nodded gruffly. 
 
 "And one vote will count for a good deal? I think / 
 can manage it for you ; ah, papa ? " putting her arm 
 about his neck. 
 
 General Ealston threw down the cards impatiently. "I 
 would not encourage my child in that style of talking, 
 Maddox. We ve enough of it from petticoated brokers 
 and reformers. You ought to have sense enough to keep 
 your little head steady on your waltzes and dresses, Anna. 
 A woman s strength lies in her feminity." 
 
 ( Nevertheless, I shall pass the bill for you, General, 
 while you sit growling at home," clapping her hands and 
 laughing like a baby. " Be good enough to ring for me, 
 monsieur ; " and when the servant appeared at the door : 
 " Order a hack to be at the door by seven o clock to-morrow 
 morning," she said, with a sharp little nod of command. 
 "No, papa, my own carriage would not do; this is a 
 particularly private business of mine. We will have some 
 music now, if you choose, Monsieur de Mille ; " and in a 
 moment she was rattling over the keys in a fashion 
 which made Ware who had a sensitive ear shiver. 
 
 M. de Mille* left the house with him soon after. "But 
 your American women take the breath from me every 
 
JOHN ANDBOSS. 201 
 
 Ti 
 
 day ! " he exclaimed. " In France this young lady would 
 be with the good sisters, learning the music or bead-work, 
 and here she sets out alone to cajole the state Cham 
 bers I" 
 
 "Not so bad as that," said Ware uneasily. "She has 
 one or two lovers there whose votes she may influence. " 
 
 "Ah ? I understood from the Judge Maddox that his 
 daughter was, as you say, betrothed to that Monsieur 
 Bislow ; a man of large estate, as I heard. It appeared 
 to me a very suitable marriage. The young lady could 
 expect wealth ; she has a good dot, they tell me, and, 
 without doubt, great beauty." 
 
 Ware s usual fluency had deserted him ; he made no 
 reply. 
 
 " Probably you do not recall this, Monsieur Bislow ? 
 A fat man, with the hair quite gray." 
 
 " I know the fellow well enough. He is old enough to 
 be her father." 
 
 "So much the better," lifting his eyebrows. "He 
 will be the better guardian. Madame Bislow shall not 
 hire the hack and go away to cajole the Chambers, that I 
 will bet with you, if you please. But these things are not 
 incroyable to us of Paris, monsieur. We know the Amer 
 ican ladies. Why, one, I shall not say her name, finds 
 her husband unable to yield the support to her, and she 
 buys of a poor Berliner the patent for an engine which he 
 invents, sells it again for sums enormous to the city 
 governments in France, England, here, to use in the , 
 water works. Young a mere child, monsieur ! With 
 cheeks like the rose ! Peddles her engines here there ! 
 Talks ? Ah ! men Dieu ! how she talks ! how they all 
 talk!" 
 
 But Ware made no defence of his countrywomen ; they 
 had reached a street corner, and he bade the garrulous 
 Frenchman a curt good-night, and turned off uncivilly 
 enough. The case was clear to M. de Mille ! Ware was 
 
202 JOHi* AXDROSS. 
 
 one of the victims of this insatiate little huntress, whose 
 game was man. She might have spared this poor wretch, 
 he thought, with an amused smile ; empty pockets were 
 hard enough to bear without an aching heart. 
 
 Ware was in reality so much discomposed by some 
 chance word of de Mille s, that he went back to Judge 
 Maddox s, and entering the hall abruptly, caught sight 
 of Anna sitting in a shaded corner, blushing and sweet, 
 with all the weight of Mr. Bislow s ponderous and amor 
 ous regards upon her. Mr. Ware walked directly to her 
 side, and stood there in the attitude, and with the gravity 
 of a footman. Oddly enough, Miss Maddox did not flut 
 ter into one of her pretty vixenish passions at this marked 
 rudeness, but became suddenly speechless and motionless, 
 with an expression on her face of a much older woman 
 than she had ever seemed before. It startled Mr. Bislow 
 as much as the advent of the very uncivil young man at 
 his back, and as he was a man who carefully shunned 
 both emotions or uncivility, he rose and took leave of 
 Anna ; the leave-taking being no less impressive or affec 
 tionate for Ware s presence. 
 
 Ware, who was in one of the dumb rages which his 
 fellow-workmen in the blacksmith shop used to dread, 
 did not break the ominous silence, and Anna, for the first 
 time in her life, was apparently ill at ease, and insecure 
 of her pecking, chirping self. She fidgeted on the sofa, 
 pulled at her lace sleeves, glanced up atliim timidly. 
 
 "Mr. Bislow was remonstrating with me about my 
 bringing votes for that bill : such a wise, fatherly old 
 man as he is I The principal idea I used to have of him 
 was, Fat. Yes, indeed," giggling, "but when one is 
 intimate with him, his good qualities come out. In 
 ternal qualities, I mean. I really never think now how 
 much he weighs." 
 
 "I was told just now that your father had promised 
 you should marry him." 
 
JOHN ANDROSS. 203 
 
 Anna made no answer ; the colour went slowly out of 
 her little pinched face, her mouth stood weakly open as 
 she looked up at him. Whatever secret hold or power 
 the man had over her, he was not moved, apparently, to 
 relax it, by any pity or sympathy. 
 
 "I believe in my soul you are sincere in your feeling 
 for that mass of flesh," scanning her coolly. " I used to 
 think you were only a clever little actress, when you led 
 a dozen men to believe you were in love with each one of 
 them. But you mean it ; you are like an oyster. You 
 cling to the first solid substance that touches you. And 
 you are just as bloodless and as cold." 
 
 Still no hint of resentment from her ; her red lips 
 opened and shut once or twice, irresolutely, before she 
 spoke. 
 
 " Then you don t think as Mr. Bislow does of my try 
 ing to pass that bill ?" 
 
 " The bill ! Fd be very glad if the bill was passed. I 
 have some shares in the National Transit myself. But 
 what can you do ? Wheedle that poor fool, Andross ?" 
 
 The very tone of Ware s voice, coarse and direct, was 
 so different from the caressing softness with which all 
 men addressed Anna, that it attracted curious glances 
 from the other side of the room. She looked up at him 
 scared, imploring, trying to don again her poor little 
 tricks of archness and coquetry. 
 
 "No, no, I will have nothing to do with poor Jack. 
 I have a better plan than that : I will bring Doctor Brad- 
 dock to work upon him. Braddock makes up the larger 
 half of Andross s religion. Oh ! it s a very complete plan 
 I have, I assure you !" nodding complacently. 
 
 "You can do nothing with Braddock," he growled. 
 " He s to be married to-morrow." 
 
 "I know that!" Her whole face and figure dilated 
 and glowed radiant. {e I mean to bring him here to do 
 as I wish, if he has been married but an hour ! That log 
 
204 JOHN ANDROSS. 
 
 of ^ woman shall see what power I have, silly child as 
 
 she calls me ! You, too ! " rising with a feeble little 
 
 cackle of defiance. " There are men who would not hold 
 me in this miserable bondage, even if they had the power. 
 They serve me as slaves they are glad of one kind look. 
 They do not guess what I am ! " The always ready tears 
 stood in the beautiful eyes, but Ware was unmoved, 
 stroking, as usual, his curly red beard. 
 
 "Are you tired of your bondage ?" he said quietly. 
 
 "No, Julius ; oh ! no," with a half sob. She put her 
 hand on his arm, and led him to the farther room, where 
 they walked up and down talking earnestly. 
 
 Miss Maddox had usually an affectionate manner, more 
 pleasing to her companion of the instant than to the 
 envious lookers on ; but it was observed that her attitude 
 toward Ware to-night was unusually clinging and vine- 
 like ; in fact, General Ealston commented to the judge 
 on the familiar footing which the young journalist had 
 obtained in the house. 
 
 "I know little about the fellow," the judge replied 
 gruffly, shaking off a moody fit. "Anna admires his 
 courage, I believe, in this last move of his. He has 
 given up his profession and taken to preaching. Some 
 New Light of his own Spiritualism, Broad Church, 
 Eitualism, I don t know what. He goes about from 
 town to town, and is having great success, Nannie tells 
 me. Come out, Ealston, and have a bite of supper," 
 with a sigh from the depths of his fat paunch. "There s 
 some comfort left in well-cooked terrapin, however the 
 bill may go." 
 
JOHN AKDROSS. 205 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 W 
 
 "HEN the hack drove to the door for Anna, the 
 next morning, the servant handed her a note. 
 It was mysterious and melo-dramatic enough to tingle 
 her small soul with delight. 
 
 " My own, you are at liberty to carry out your plans 
 to-day, as you choose ; remembering only that a day of 
 reckoning will come, and that before long, and for every 
 misstep, you will be held strictly to account." 
 
 It was without signature. 
 
 But neither Anna s soul nor body tingled with delight. 
 She read it over again and again, and then tore it up, 
 leaning back against the shabby, ill-smelling cushions, 
 with a sick and miserable look of uncertainty. 
 
 The stoppage of the carriage at Colonel Latimer s door, 
 and the sight of Dr. Braddock s agitated face at the door, 
 however, roused her as the first view of the audience does 
 an exhausted actor. 
 
 "Yes, it is I," she sobbed excitedly, leaning forwards. 
 "I must not keep you a moment. I know it is your 
 wedding-day. But we are in such imminent peril " 
 
 Tie predominant feeling with Braddock was that the 
 great temptation of his life was before him; he sum 
 moned all -his Scotch-Irish grit to resist it; a quality 
 which certainly does not dispose its possessor to suavity 
 of manner. 
 
 "It is my wedding-day ; but if I can serve you, Miss 
 Maddox, I am ready to do so," bowing stiffly. 
 
 "A word from you will serve serve to save me from a 
 fate worse than death !" her imagination kindling with 
 the words. " But it is such a long, miserable story/ 
 glancing distractedly around the awakening street, with 
 the curious glances of the passing milkmen and bakers 
 on each side. 
 
206 JOHN AXDROSS. 
 
 Braddock hesitated a moment, then he opened the 
 hack-door. " Drive slowly around the square," he said 
 to the coachman, and then sprang in. "Now tell me 
 this miserable story, you poor child ! " he said, and, in 
 spite of himself, his voice softened. -But he did not take 
 the place beside her, and sat upright on the opposite seat, 
 his gloved hands resting on his knees. 
 
 Anna s story, in brief, was simply the fact that her 
 father s whole fortune was involved in Laird s scheme, 
 and dependent on the passage of the bill that night at 
 Harrisburgh. "If it is lost we are penniless," she 
 added. "Will you use your influence with Andross to 
 vote for it?" 
 
 ( ( It is a question of money then ? How can I ask Mr. 
 Andross to vote against his conviction ? Men have con 
 victions and a conscience in these matters, Miss Mad- 
 dox;" and after a pause, "I did not suppose it was for 
 a mere matter of money you brought me here." 
 
 For money just now seemed to economical Braddock 
 the vile dross that church phraseology held it to be. He 
 had always been in the habit of believing that long ago 
 he had withstood the powers of darkness in a mysterious, 
 secret conflict, and made his calling and election sure 
 forever. But during the last five minutes, sitting op- 
 ^ x posite to this woman, who tempted his flesh so sorely, 
 striving to keep his thoughts on the woman whom he had 
 loved in his best days, it seemed to him as if he were go 
 ing through the old fight again, in another more actual 
 fashion. Jack Andross, in his profane way, had talked 
 of real living devils who fought you in commonplace 
 matters hand to hand 
 
 But Braddock s soul told him that he was impregnable. 
 Very different from poor Jack ! The more his narrow 
 imagination kindled into a strange delight and heat with 
 Anna s every look, the more stiff and harsh became his 
 manner. This was the buckling on of armour which 
 
JOHK ANDKOSS. 207 
 
 should save him. But he felt as if the living man was 
 being crushed under it. 
 
 "I am sorry if your father will lose any of his income. 
 But the loss of money is a small matter, and easily borne 
 easily borne. There are other temptations that weigh 
 heavily beside it." 
 
 "It weighs very little with me," rejoined Anna, with 
 a certain tone of desperate calmness, which unconsciously 
 impressed him more than her wonted tears could have 
 done. " My father you know him, Doctor Braddock 
 would be a most miserable poor man. But I " 
 
 " How can it affect you ?" leaning forward and as sud 
 denly drawing himself back. "You have too many 
 friends, child. Poverty will never come near you. You 
 do not need me." 
 
 " It affects me in this way," with the same air of cold 
 restraint. " My father is largely in debt to but one man. 
 If he is not pressed by him for payment, he can have 
 time to recover, even if this bill fails to pass." 
 
 " The man is a friend of Judge Maddox, probably. If 
 the matter was stated to him fairly " 
 
 "He is more," hastily, her face dyed with blushes. 
 
 " He is a friend of mine my father intends that he 
 shall marry me." 
 
 Braddock started, and then smiled. "Such things 
 never happen in real life. Cruel parents do not sell their 
 daughters to save themselves from ruin, except in maga 
 zine and Ledger novels, and Judge Maddox is the 
 last man to play such a role. You have let your fears 
 deceive you." 
 
 "I think not," quietly. "I have given you all the 
 facts. Mr. Bislow is the creditor. My father has never 
 influenced me to accept him. But I know that if I re 
 fuse to marry him, he will push his claim at once ; as my 
 husband he would never push it. If this bill passes to 
 night, papa could set him at defiance. But if it is lost 
 
208 JOHN ANDROSS. 
 
 1 promised to give Mr. Bislow my answer to-mor 
 row." She stopped. 
 
 "And you will marry him to save your father?" in a 
 tone of wondering homage. Common-sense and judg 
 ment fled. That pale, lovely face in its dark hood oppo 
 site him, was capable of any heroic sacrifice. So Jeph- 
 thah s daughter looked, he thought, dying for her sire. 
 Nor was his enthusiasm the less because he was too 
 shrewd a man not to see the folly of such sacrifice. 
 Bislow, no doubt, had been secured by mortgage or good 
 names, on the paper, before he had disbursed a penny to 
 Maddox. But what did this foolish, romantic child 
 know of securities or mortgages ? Her head, he knew, 
 had been so stuffed with fiction and poetry that this im 
 molation of herself appeared the only natural, feasible 
 means of saving her father, and fond as he was of her, 
 the judge would be but too willing to marry her, under 
 that deception, to a man of Bislow s solid character and 
 income. 
 
 He took up one of the little bare hands, which were 
 clasped outside of her cloak, and warmed it between his 
 own. "And for your father s sake, you will give your 
 self yourself for the whole of your life, remember to a 
 man whom you do not love ?" 
 
 "What can I do ? What does it matter what becomes 
 of me? "the blue eyes looking wildly up into his. "I 
 never can marry the man I do love." 
 
 "You you mean John Andross?" Braddock s voice 
 was hoarse ; he turned his head away from her as he 
 spoke. Her little heart beat and thumped against her 
 delicate tight corset. Here was passion tragedy in her 
 life at last ! There was silence for a moment, then she 
 said: 
 
 "No; Mr. Andross "is a dear friend to me. There 
 have been times," her upturned face growing grave, 
 " when I fancied he was more. But 1 know myself 
 
JOHK ANDROSS. 209 
 
 now," with a shy, swift burning glance into his eyes. In 
 fact, the child did fancy that she knew herself now for 
 the first time. Here was her real soul s mate. All men 
 besides this pale, cowed, yet stern man opposite were but 
 as actors in a pantomime. Besides, what fun it was to 
 think of Isabel Latimer, with the pride of a hundred 
 women, waiting for the husband who did not come ! He 
 should not come to her never ! The hand he held 
 trembled and struggled to be free, as a heroine s always 
 does at the supreme moment. And much to her surprise 
 Doctor Braddock promptly dropped it, and began fumb 
 ling with his dog-skin gloves instead. Assuredly, there 
 was nothing melo-dramatic in the school to which he 
 belonged. Yet the one thought surging through his 
 brain, with a wild exhilarating throb, was ( It is I 
 whom she loves! I!" Being, however, preeminently a 
 logical, practical man, he mastered the situation, even in 
 this ecstacy. In her love and despair, this impulsive 
 child would throw herself away to rescue her father. 
 He, Braddock, must be cool, save her, himself Isabel. 
 Isabel , he stopped there with a twinge. 
 
 The hack stopped, the driver s head appeared : " Am I 
 to droive around the squoire wance more ?" 
 
 "No," said Braddock promptly. "To Judge Mad- 
 dox s. I will set this matter right with your father," he 
 said to Anna. " Ten minutes rational explanation will 
 be enough. Miss Latimer will spare me so long." 
 
 "You know best," in a submissive whisper. She knew 
 that her father had gone to Harrisburgh an hour ago. 
 
 There was no matter in these words which required 
 that they should carefully avoid meeting each other s 
 eyes, nor that their voices should be scrupulously formal ; 
 yet they were so. 
 
 "I have always found," he resumed, "that in the 
 difficult places of life, Miss Maddox, we must take com 
 mon-sense and duty as our only guides." t 
 
210 JOHN ANDKOSS. 
 
 Anna s reply was a little sob. 
 
 Dr. Braddock straightened the fingers of his glove, and 
 looked steadfastly out of the window. Andross, poor 
 fellow, had suffered his love for this girl to lead him out 
 of the paths of rectitude. How different it was with 
 himself ! It was well for Maddox, for himself, for poor 
 Anna in this strait, that he, at least, had a clear head 
 and a trustworthy conscience. By the aid of common- 
 sense and duty he would make her life s path straight 
 before this loving child, and then return to Isabel and 
 strive to forget all that which might have been. His 
 soul was in this heroic mood, and a scrap of poetry run 
 ning in his head about a " future of work, calm, approv 
 ing conscience, and a smiling heaven," when an odd 
 thing happened. 
 
 They drove past an old shop full of queer, second-hand 
 furniture. A year ago he and Isabel, wandering about 
 town in her idle, vagabondizing way, had passed the 
 place, and he, stopping her at the open door, had chosen 
 prettily carved bits of furniture for their house that was 
 to be, a book-case for the parlour, a lounge for the cozery. 
 How proud and glad, into his very heart, he had been to 
 see the warm, bright blushes creeping into her cheek ! 
 He had gone back, time after time, just as he could save 
 the money, to buy one piece after another, and had stored 
 them away to surprise Bell some day after they were mar 
 ried. Could he be the same man as the happy, embar 
 rassed fellow who drove those bargains with the Eidge- 
 road dealer ? That was the true Braddock, a real man, 
 loving and hating heartily, who had stood chaffering 
 there; this was a weak, morbid fool in the hack, not 
 fighting a real temptation, but paltering with a sham 
 passion, as one who stands doubting on the brink of a 
 sickly tepid bath. For one brief moment Braddock saw 
 himself with clear eyes. Andross loved this woman ; but 
 did he ? He knew he did not. In the next moment he 
 
JOHN ANDROSS. 211 
 
 might waken from this unhealthy dream. But the next 
 moment they stopped in front of Judge Maddox s door, 
 and Anna chose to alight alone and walk in unassisted, 
 but trembling visibly. The little creature was frail, in 
 deed! sent into the world to be supported, protected; 
 yet, with what a noble moral strength she had put him 
 aside ! though she felt he should have been that pro 
 tector ! He hurried: after her ; all his self-confidence re 
 turned. Truly, he thought/ caressing his thin whiskers, 
 this was a difficult part given to him to play ! 
 
 Miss Maddox having penetrated into the house, came 
 back to meet him. 
 
 "We are too late! My father has gone to Harris- 
 burgh ! Mr. Andross will vote against the bill. It is all 
 over all over !" she ejaculated in broken sentences, lean 
 ing against the wall. " Go, Doctor Braddock. Leave 
 me to my fate. You have been very kind," she added 
 faintly, the lids closed on the white cheeks. 
 
 "I begged of you, Miss Maddox, to leave this matter 
 to me," he said, pacing up and down the hall. "I will 
 bring order out of confusion. You shall not marry Bislow. " 
 
 She shuddered, her eyes still closed. 
 
 Braddock stopped, looked at her, and choked back an 
 oath. 
 
 "Everything is bartered for money in this accursed 
 town ! But, God willing, you shall not be !" 
 
 "If this bill could pass, all would go well," she mur 
 mured, half unclosing her eyes. 
 
 "Bill? What is the bill? A subsidy, or grant, or 
 some kind of privilege to the Transit Company, is it not ? 
 Why does not Andross vote for it ? I don t see what 
 moral question can be involved in it ! . If he knew what 
 results hung upon his vote, surely " 
 
 " But how can he know ? Who is there to state the 
 whole case plainly to him ?" 
 
 " I will write. I can put the matter so forcibly that, 
 
212 JOHN ANDBOSS. 
 
 if his conscience is not opposed to it . If I may 
 
 ring for pen and ink " 
 
 Anna did not move. 
 
 " It is very uncertain whether a letter could reach him 
 in time. The bill may be put upon its passage this after 
 noon. Besides," with a shiver, "it is hard to think of 
 my story being put into a cojd, written statement. Do 
 forgive me. I m a foolish, spoiled child, I know." 
 
 "No, it is not foolish. I understand you. But what 
 am I to do ?" He paused irresolute, then drew out his 
 watch hurriedly, and rang the bell. " Bring me a paper 
 with the time-table to Harrisburgh," to the servant. 
 Anna had sunk upon a chair ; a faint rose flush was steal 
 ing into her cheek as she watched him glance over the 
 paper. " I find that a train leaves in half an hour. I 
 can run up and be back by five o clock." 
 
 "And leave Isabel all day? Never! For me, too? 
 Oh, no. Leave me. I shall be always alone. What 
 does it matter for me ?" 
 
 "It matters this much: that I will at least ensure 
 your safety from this wretched marriage ! " vehemently. 
 "I can leave Miss Latimer alone for a few hours, surely, 
 for that. So much of my life, at least, I may devote to 
 you. Birt I will telegraph to her why I am absent. " 
 
 He** sat down and hurriedly wrote a message. When it 
 was finished, and he was about to summon the servant 
 again, she held out her hand. 
 
 " Give it to me. I will have it sent up at once to the 
 house. Dear Bell ! she will be so glad to help me !" and 
 hurried out to read the paper, crumple it in her little 
 hand, and deposit it, with a shrug, in her pocket. 
 
 When she came back a moment afterwards, she had 
 changed her cloak and hood for a most becoming travel 
 ling suit and hat. 
 
 "You are not ?" hesitated Braddock. . 
 
 " Going with you ? Oh, yes, indeed. I, too, may 
 
JOHN ANDROSS. 213 
 
 have some influence with Mr. Andross," with a sad, be 
 witching smile. 
 
 Braddock would have argued, but he remembered the 
 ride up the mountain by night. Argument, he had rea 
 son to know, never deterred this yielding creature one 
 inch in the road which she had made up her mind to 
 take. He followed her in silence, with a countenance by 
 no means heroic, but ill-tempered and harassed in the 
 extreme. What would people say, who saw who was his 
 companion on this, that was to have been his wedding 
 journey ? When they were seated, Anna s pleading little 
 face was turned to him wistfully, all its sweet, passionate 
 meanings ready for him to trace. A sudden glow of heat 
 passed through him at t\e glance, but he put his head 
 out of the hack window, instead of returning it. 
 
 "To the Pennsylvania Central depot," he said, and 
 then leaned back, grimly silent. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 train to Harrisburgh had scarcely passed out 
 of the city limits on to the flat, cheerful farm-lands 
 of Chester county, when Braddock was sensible of a sud 
 den uneasiness on the part of his companion. She had 
 made one or two efforts to draw him into a whispered 
 colloquy, but in vain ; the jolting of the cars, the dust 
 from the engine, the momentary attacks of news and 
 gum-drop boys were all antagonistic to any expression of 
 that relation of suppressed affinity, which it is to be sup 
 posed they held to each other. Braddock felt that the 
 clatter about them would render it necessary to shout out 
 in her ear his tender sympathy, if he spoke it at all ; such 
 shouting would rob the emotion, for him, of its bloom 
 
214 JOHN ANDROSS. 
 
 and charm. Anna, most probably, would rather haye 
 heard it through an ear-trumpet, than not at all. Souls 
 such as hers exist but on supplies of sympathy from hour 
 to hour ; and they are the ones most likely to receive it. 
 
 Finding it impossible, therefore, to broach any but 
 commonplace subjects, Anna had sunk into silence at 
 his side, and beguiled the time with studying the face 
 of the conductor a most picturesque face, in her 
 opinion, and one which indicated a peculiar heart-his 
 tory. But presently Braddock observed that she sat 
 erect, her breath came hurriedly, and she turned her face 
 steadily to the window. 
 
 "What is wrong ?" he asked. 
 
 In fact, he was beginning to tire of this perpetual 
 emotion of one sort or another ; he felt like a theatrical 
 walking gentleman going incessantly out of one second- 
 rate tragedy into another. There was a certain comfort, 
 after all, in Bell s large, easy, sunny-tempered ways. 
 
 "Nothing is wrong," said Anna sharply. "Are you 
 afraid of being followed and watched ? Why should any 
 body watch us ? " 
 
 She had not turned her head, or she would have seen 
 Mr. Ware, who had lounged up the car as though he had 
 just bought it, and now stood beside them, portly, smil 
 ing,, assertant, from his flowing red mane to his glossy 
 patent-leather shoes. 
 
 "Ah! Going to Harrisburgh, Doctor?" throwing 
 himself easily into the seat in front of them. "Good 
 morning, Miss Maddox. I did not recognize you at first." 
 
 "I have some business with the legislature," said 
 Braddock, in haste to render account of his proceedings 
 to anybody, "and am taking Miss Maddox to her father." 
 
 Ware nodded indifferently, gathering up his flowing 
 neckerchief in his hand, and looking at it. 
 
 "If you stay over to-night, Doctor, come down to the 
 town-hall. I hold forth there." 
 
JOHN ANDROSS. 215 
 
 " I am going back on the next train. You speak on 
 the crisis?" forcing himself to be polite. "I did not 
 know you meant to take the stump this campaign." 
 
 "No," said Ware gravely; "I have given up politics 
 entirely. When one considers with any attention the 
 Infinite Forces of Good and Evil contending for human 
 ity " 
 
 "You mean God and the devil?" said Braddock, who 
 had a habit of interrupting. 
 
 "You may put it in that way, if you choose, /call it 
 old-fashioned and narrow. But when one considers these 
 Forces, all questions of municipal reform, the tariff, etc., 
 appear very petty; very petty, sir." 
 
 "Y es." Braddock was confused at being hoisted so 
 suddenly into such lofty regions of thought. " But I 
 supposed the tariff and such matters were the especial 
 business of you newspaper men ?" 
 
 "I ve done with newspapers." Ware s voice filled the 
 car ; and as soon as people began to lay down their papers 
 and listen, it rose and rolled with fine emphasis. "I 
 thought you knew I had given up the disjointed thinking 
 of journalism, as Dr. Eush called it, and had ranged my 
 self among the moral teachers of mankind." 
 
 " Gone into the ministry ?" 
 
 Braddock perceived at the moment the close attention 
 which Anna gave to every word of Ware s, although she 
 kept her head turned from him. 
 
 I certainly have not entered the ministry. Priests, 
 Protestant, and Catholic, sir, are the incubi upon human 
 ity. I look on them as barnacles that clog the progress 
 of the the vessel. Disposing of the water of life for 
 filthy lucre. I belong to no sect, Doctor Braddock. I 
 have gathered about me a band of like-minded men with 
 myself free, progressive thinkers and we meet in an 
 upper hall, like the disciples of old. I pray and preach 
 for them. They think I have a little gift that way." 
 
216 JOHN ANDROSS. 
 
 Braddock was galled with impatience, but it was neces 
 sary to keep Ware s curiosity and attention away from 
 himself and his errand. 
 
 "You are the founder of the sect, then?" he said. 
 " I I -hope they pay you a good salary ?" 
 
 f( None at all !" triumphantly. "I have had calls to 
 three Broad churches very broad where the salary was 
 large and assured. But I told them, No, gentlemen; 
 the truth is not to be sold. I receive no wages not a 
 penny ! I would not go !" 
 
 "Very praiseworthy, indeed. You propose to work at 
 some trade or business, and give your services to the 
 Lord. Just as St. Paul made sails " 
 
 "I think it very questionable whether St. Paul did 
 anything of the sort," testily. "No, sir. I shall not 
 henceforth labour at all. I have higher work. I have 
 been called to pray and preach, and for the means of 
 livelihood I throw myself upon the unfailing Love in the 
 bosoms of mankind. I throw all care to the winds and 
 live sure of support from day to day, like the lilies of the 
 field the birds of the air " 
 
 " But I really don t understand " 
 
 "I simply live a life of faith, like Jung Stilling. I 
 receive such gifts as the faithful send." 
 
 " Taking care that it is known you are ready to receive 
 them," said Braddock^ laughing. 
 
 "It is known. So far, I have wanted for nothing. 
 One sends me a board bill paid in advance, and at a good 
 hotel very good ; another a dozen of fine handkerchiefs 
 each according to his ability. Now, this suit notice 
 the quality that came only last week from a Chestnut 
 street house receipted bill. Oh, I have no fear ; a life 
 of faith is the surest life." 
 
 "Now, that might answer for a single man," said a 
 shrewd-eyed Jersey farmer who had been listening. 
 "But how about your wife? How does she meet the 
 
JOHN AisDEOSS. 217 
 
 butcher s and grocer s, bills at the end of the week ? How 
 do they appreciate this talk of lilies and birds ?" 
 
 "If I had a wife," said Ware loftily, "she should at 
 the outset devote herself to some ennobling pursuit and. 
 effort for humanity, like myself the teaching of the 
 Freedmen, say, or civilizing friendless children. That 
 one great thought would blot out lesser matters, such as 
 occupy other women. Butchers and grocers bills!" 
 with a contemptuous wave of his hand. "You agree 
 with me, I am sure, Miss Maddox?" turning suddenly __ 
 on her. 
 
 "Oh, entirely!" 
 
 Ware nodded triumphantly, and rising, sauntered down 
 the car. 
 
 "You do not actually endorse that fellow s crazy pro 
 jects ?" Braddock said, turning to her. , 
 
 " Crazy ! They seem to me the fruit of a very noble 
 enthusiasm," she replied. 
 
 The doctor looked at her keenly. There was a strange 
 tartness in her dove-like cooings at times. But what 
 could it matter to him what her feelings were to Ware or 
 to any man ? She could be nothing to him. He sank 
 back, looking moodily out of the window, and the silence 
 remained unbroken until they reached Harrisburgh. 
 
 OHAPTEE XXIV. 
 
 ~T WILL leave you in a room at the hotel, and send 
 your father to you, Miss Maddox, while I find 
 Andross," said Braddock as they left the cars. 
 
 "And if you can not find papa?" looking about the 
 unfamiliar streets with the timid eyes of a hunted doe. 
 
 " He is up at the capitol, no doubt," soothingly. He 
 bestowed her safely in the hotel, holding her trembling 
 
JOHN ANDIIOSS. 
 
 hand tenderly one moment at parting. What manner of 
 man would have the care of this poor, clinging woman 
 for life ? Only to hold her in his arms one moment ! to 
 protect- _ Then he clapped on his hat, and left her 
 without a word. The truth was, the charm in Anna was 
 in .this matter of protection. Isabel was so healthily 
 tough and sensible, was either stupidly blind to trouble 
 or else joked it so resolutely aside, that Braddock never 
 had found anything about her over which to play cham 
 pion. He looked at his watch ; he had but an hour. 
 He almost ran through the streets up to the capitol; 
 nodding hastily to such acquaintances as he met. They 
 did not know what an heroic fellow he was ; which of 
 them would do the like ? Which of them would give up 
 this queen of women, if she loved him, to keep his word 
 of honour? 
 
 Into the lobby rooms, the restaurant, the senate cham- 
 ber, with its dirty floor and gaudy frescoing ; but no 
 sign of Andross, nor even of Judge Maddox. As he was 
 leaning over the gallery partition, anxiously scanning 
 again the senators seats, Wilson, a lumber dealer from 
 Lock Haven, tapped him on the shoulder. "Looking 
 for Andross, Clay ? That young man has had a lucky 
 boost out of your furnace into this room. Why had you 
 no friends at court ?" 
 
 " I make my own way. I do want John, immediately. 
 Do you know where he is ?" 
 
 < Gone out, Maddox told me, to dine with some friend 
 in the country ; the judge did not say where. He had 
 urgent business with Jack, too, and had hired a sleigh to 
 follow him. Jack s not in any difficulty, eh ?" curiously. 
 " No. You do not know when they will be back ? : 
 "I haven t the slightest idea; but if I can be of any 
 assistance " 
 "No, no." 
 "Your errand is of too delicate a nature to bear any 
 
j AXDROSS. 
 
 interference," broke in a rich, rolling voice behind, and 
 the doctor turning, met Ware, coolly looking over his 
 shoulder at the men below. " At least I infer it must be 
 so, when it brings you here in company with a pretty 
 girl, whom you are not going to marry, on your wedding- 
 day." 
 
 " On your wedding-day, Clay?" asked Wilson eagerly. 
 " Miss Latimer ? - " 
 
 Braddock bowed. 
 
 The old man lifted his hat from his gray hair. 
 
 "I hope you deserve her, my lad. If she had been a 
 man she would have .been like her father. I can t say 
 more for her than that. But what are you scouting 
 about the country at this time of day for ? and with a 
 woman, did you say ? " 
 
 "It is a matter of delicacy, as Mr. Ware said, and one 
 which will not bear even his interference," said Braddock 
 irritably. 
 
 Ware laughed aloud, and shrugged his broad shoulders 
 as Braddock hurried off, a scowl on his face. It occurred 
 to him for the first time that he might seem to others to 
 be playing a mean and ignoble part, to-day. And old 
 Wilson lifted his hat at the mere mention of Isabel ? He 
 laughed with a sudden glow of pleasure. Well, Bell was 
 precisely the kind of woman to command that involun 
 tary sort of homage. The hour was nearly over ; he was 
 walking rapidly toward the hotel when he met Anna. 
 
 "I fear I must leave you, Miss Maddox. I have not 
 been able to find Andross. I shall leave a letter for him 
 and a message for your father to come to you ; -- unless 
 you will go back to Philadelphia on the same train that 
 I do?" 
 
 "No. / will not leave my father, Doctor Braddock, 
 in this crisis of his fortunes. What I can do for him I 
 will do." 
 
 " You do not mean that you will marry Bislow ? you 
 
220 JOHH ANDROSS. 
 
 can not mean that 9 " What with his brisk run through 
 the cold air, and Wilson s mention of Isabel, matters had 
 put on a hearty, healthy aspect. This possibility had 
 escaped him ; it yawned before him with a sudden horror 
 like death. 
 
 "What else can be done ?" said Anna. "Every help 
 
 is gone even you have deserted us But go to Isabel, 
 
 she expects you." 
 
 " Yes, I telegraphed her I would be back in the five 
 o clock train." He took out his watch, looked at Anna,- 
 at the engine in the depot, already puffing blue wisps of 
 smoke into the frosty air, up and down the vacant street. 
 When Andross had talked once of being netted in in 
 visible cords, and dragged down into commonplace, 
 every-day evil, how easy it had seemed to escape ; there 
 were none of Macintosh s demons to fight. But now 
 
 " Thank God ! There is Andross at last ! " as a sleigh 
 filled with men dashed past them, going towards the 
 capitol. " I will follow them. I will be in time yet to 
 go back on the five o clock train. Good bye." 
 
 "You are going back to Isabel ?" her eyes on his. 
 
 " I must go. Oh, dear child ! Surely you know " 
 
 he broke forth, but what more he would have said she 
 never knew, for at that moment Mr. Julius Ware lounged 
 in his lofty manner into sight around a corner. 
 
 "Good bye," she said with sudden admirable self-pos 
 session. "Go, and do what you can for us with An 
 dross." 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 B HADDOCK, directed by a member in the rotunda, 
 hurried *to the private committee room, where the 
 friends of the bill had been waiting for Andross. When 
 he reached the door he stopped, looking among the men 
 
JOHN" ANDROSS. 221 
 
 for him. The short winter s afternoon was nearly over ; 
 the dull remaining light fell, in a melancholy fashion, 
 through the bare windows, on the gray plastered walls of 
 the square room, the hacked table in the centre, the 
 gaudy carpet, with an earth en- ware spittoon set here and 
 there. There was a heavy smell of dead tobacco smoke 
 over the whole. It was all dingy and dispiriting ; even 
 the groups of men talking earnestly were grave and 
 anxious. But in front of the blazing fire stood Jack, his 
 furred overcoat thrown back, his hat in his hand ; gay, 
 flushed, handsome, absorbing all the warmth and light 
 of the room. His eye was more brilliant than usual, his 
 tongue more ready. Braddock guessed, though unjustly, 
 that he had been strengthening himself for the coming 
 struggle with such courage as could be found-in cham 
 pagne. 
 
 " There, there ; now, boys," waving them off, laugh 
 ing. " One at a time. But you might as well have left 
 me to eat Shreve s dinner in comfort. It was hardly 
 worth while to bring me here to tell you how I shall vote, 
 when you know it already. Besides, the bill is lost with 
 out me by a majority of two." 
 
 "No, McElroy and Spinner have come over," cried a 
 dozen voices. But Waite, who votes with us," added 
 one, "is going to fly the track. So it rests with you, 
 Andross, after all." 
 
 Braddock, meanwhile, unnoticed in the confusion, was 
 vainly trying to push through the eager crowd to him. 
 
 Jack felt his overcoat getting heavy and threw it off. 
 "So they ve deserted me?" with a laughing shrug. 
 "How did you manage it, Willitts ?" 
 
 (S Ton my word I had nothing to do with it," protested 
 Willitts with an innocent smile, which produced a shout 
 of laughter. 
 
 "They do say," interposed a lean, carefully dressed 
 man at the table, who was jotting down something in his 
 
222 JOHN ANDROSS. 
 
 note-book, " that Mrs. Spinner has become violently in 
 terested in the rise of Lehigh "V alley stock since last 
 night, and that Willitts here presented McElroy with a 
 basket of champagne of a rare quality this morning." 
 
 "No harm in that, I hope ?" drawled Ned. "No," 
 said the other, "nor in making it true Green Seal with 
 a five hundred dollar bill in the wire of each bottle." 
 ^ Willitts laughed. " Never listen to gossip. Major 
 McElroy has a costly taste in wines, that s a fact." 
 
 "At least, Mr. Willitts," said Andross sternly, "I 
 hope you did not intend to offer me champagne of that 
 brand. I am obliged to end the matter abruptly, gentle 
 men," raising his voice, "but it has been thoroughly 
 discussed before between us. I am sorry to vote in direct 
 opposition to my party. But I believe this bill to be a 
 fraud upon the people of the state for the benefit of a few 
 rich men. Even with its face meaning it is a dishonest 
 trick, an attempt to bolster the National Transit Com 
 pany, bankrupt now for four months; and the snake 
 hidden under it is, as every one of you well know, the 
 rider intended to give extraordinary powers to the Whis 
 key Ring of Philadelphia. If I am annoyed further in 
 the matter, I shall not only defeat the bill by my vote 
 to-night, but I will expose fully the real intent of the 
 Eing, and the Transit Company." He pulled his gloves 
 off nervously, his eyes half shut, and mouth set. It was 
 so like Jack, thought Braddock, to pass from his careless 
 gayety to angry defiance ! So like him, too, to exaggerate 
 the evil purpose of the bill ! At this moment Andross 
 caught sight of him, and hurried eagerly forward. 
 " Excuse me," nodding to the others. " But I see a 
 friend who has some personal business with me, no doubt. 
 Why, Braddock, old fellow," excitedly, "what drove you 
 among us money changers and thieves ? If old Diogenes 
 should only chance to come along with his lantern to 
 day, he d find at last one honest man in Harrisburgh." 
 
JOHK ANDEOSS. 223 
 
 "Tut, tut, Jack!" under his breath, "that s but a 
 poor joke, and a rough one," glancing at the men, who 
 were going slowly out into the hall, but not yet out of 
 hearing. 
 
 "Bah, they re used to it. It s a rough place, Clay. 
 We talk of bribes as we would of bread and butter. That 
 Willitts could tell you the price of every man who is in 
 the market, to a dollar. He ll find there s one man he 
 can t buy," tossing his head contemptuously. "But 
 what are you doing here ? Anything gone wrong ? " 
 
 "Yes. Wrong enough to bring me away from Isabel, 
 although this is our wedding-day. It s this bill, Jack. 
 This Transit Company bill." Its connection with any 
 whiskey ring he secretly supposed to be one of Andross s 
 imaginative additions. 
 
 " The Transit bill ! " with astonishment. " What can 
 you have to do with that, Braddock ? " 
 
 " Nothing, personally. I should have nothing to do 
 with it on the part of any one else if I could believe it 
 to be as iniquitous a matter as you assert. But your 
 fancy is easily heated, Jack," with an indulgent smile. 
 "I have read over the draft of it, with -all its clauses, 
 carefully, and can detect nothing objectionable in it." 
 
 " I differ with you. Even in its expressed significance, 
 it is a piece of wholesale swindling. But like one third 
 of the bills passed this session, it is designed to cover 
 another and totally different measure. The important 
 victories of the Ring have been gained in riders, and " 
 
 "I don t understand such matters," impatiently. 
 "But this bill appears to me to be all right. And I 
 came to ask you, Andross, to vote for it. " 
 
 "You came to ask me to vote for it !" 
 
 "Not if you have any real conscientious objection," 
 quickly. " Surely you know I would not urge you to a 
 wrong act, Jack ! But you do exaggerate ordinary things 
 to yourself so frightfully ! I really can see no connection 
 
224 JOH^ ANDKOSS. 
 
 with whiskey in this Transit matter, and if you could 
 vote for the bill it would bring order into a terribly con 
 fused business." 
 
 He insensibly had fallen into the dogmatic, didactic 
 tone which he ordinarily had used to Jack. With all his 
 success and manly strength and beauty, he was in Brad- 
 dock s eyes but an overgrown school-boy, full of whims, 
 before his tutor. The bill was honest enough. Surely 
 he was the best judge of that ; he could not forget that 
 he was a member of a church, and that poor Jack was 
 
 no matter. But it was certainly presumptuous in 
 
 Andross to oppose him on moral grounds, especially when 
 he was making such heroic sacrifices to-day. 
 
 Meanwhile Andross stood silent. The unnatural heat 
 had gone from his face ; he was quite sobered. " I wish 
 you had not asked me to do this thing, Braddock. I ve 
 had a hard fight for it ; but I did not think I should 
 have to refuse you. May I ask for whom you are act 
 ing?" 
 
 "For Maddox. I did not intend to tell you, or to 
 compromise the poor child. I thought my request would 
 be enough." 
 
 (i What child ? What do you mean ?" coming closer. 
 
 "I mean Miss Maddox," without looking at him. 
 " The judge is involved in this Transit Company, besides 
 owing Abel Bislow a large sum. Anna has conceived the 
 idea that the only way to save her father is by marrying 
 the man. Some mortgage or note of hand is due, which 
 Bislow would not press as the judge s son-in-law. Or if 
 this bill passes, the judge is safe. Her account of busi 
 ness matters is very unintelligible, as you may suppose ; 
 but I understood enough to show me that between actual 
 pressure and (her romantic notions of self -sacrifice," she 
 would, in all probability, marry Bislow if her father loses 
 his fortune with the defeat of this bill. So I left every 
 thing to come to you. I thought," meaningly, "you 
 
JOHN" ASTDFtOSS. 225 
 
 would be as anxious as I to save the young girl from so 
 horrible a fate. But I have laid the matter before you ; 
 that s enough. I must go now/ drawing out his watch. 
 
 " Stop, Braddock," holding him by the shoulder. 
 " You are bewildered, man. Somebody must have been 
 playing a stupendous practical joke on you. I don t 
 know what you mean by this talk of her loving or marry 
 ing Bislow." 
 
 "I never said she loved him," colouring violently and 
 trying to disengage himself. 
 
 "But you think" it was Jack who was on fire now 
 and breathless " you think that her father will drive her 
 into this marriage, and she she, poor child, has ap 
 pealed to the man she loves for help ?" 
 
 Braddock saw the mistake that Andross had made. 
 But the poor fellow, he thought, would soon find out 
 that Anna did not care for him ; and in the meantime 
 it was not for him to betray the hapless secret of her love 
 for himself. 
 
 " I have no time to discuss the matter with you, An 
 dross. I only say to you, vote for the bill if you can. 
 Nothing you can do hereafter will serve her as that one 
 act to-day will do." 
 
 He shook himself loose, and without a word further 
 hurried out of the capitol, and down to the depot, just in 
 time to see the express train to Philadelphia steam down 
 through the cut between the hills. 
 
 "When will the next train go up ?" he inquired of the 
 station master. 
 
 "Not until eleven to-night." 
 
 Braddock turned and walked down the street, not 
 knowing where he went. The raw air was cutting ; his 
 coat was thin ; he was hungry, too, although he did not 
 know it. He had failed to meet Isabel, failed in his 
 effort with Andross. He felt himself a most uncomfort 
 able, miserable man ; his only consolation being the cer- 
 
226 JOHN ANDBOSS. 
 
 tainty that he had done his duty religiously and showed 
 the gratitude of devotion to the service of a woman who 
 had thrown away her whole life s love upon him. The 
 sense of his own heroism grew so strong upon him that 
 : he presently rallied from his depression. He would go 
 .back in the late train. Isabel might be disappointed, 
 but she would forgive him. The wedding could be cele 
 brated to-morrow just as well as to-day. It was curious 
 that with all this tenderly-nursed passion for Anna, he 
 never anticipated any other end to his romance than a 
 marriage with Bell. That was a solid entity in his life, 
 like bread and meat or decent clothes or church-going, 
 the absence of which he had never conceived. With the 
 assurance of his own merit thus strong within him, he 
 went and ordered a comfortable dinner. 
 
 OHAPTEE XXVI. 
 
 BEADDOOK had scarcely left the committee room, 
 when Willitts entered it, " Alone here, Andross ? 
 It s so dark I can hardly see you," he called out famil 
 iarly. 
 
 "Yes," rising from where he sat looking in the fire. 
 "I m going up to dinner now. Those fellows brought 
 me home from Shreve s just as the soup was taken off, 
 and on a wild goose errand. They had nothing but the 
 old story to tell, after all." 
 
 "I have something else to say, now that we are alone. 
 No, no, Mr. Andross," lifting his hand deprecatingly. 
 " I am not going to insult you by putting you on a level 
 with such men as McElroy. But I only want to ask you 
 to give a hearing to a friend of yours and mine about this 
 matter. No man can be so cool and dispassionate as you 
 in deciding on action, or so little influenced by feeling." 
 
JOHN ANDROSS. 227 
 
 "Yes, I think you re right, "Willitts; my judgment 
 and action are usually pretty cool. "Well, who s your 
 friend? Though I warn you it s of no use. Doctor 
 Braddock, an old friend of mine, has just been here urg 
 ing me to change my resolution too. If his reasons were 
 
 sound I would have yielded. But he s mistaken " an 
 
 anxious cloud coming into his face. "It is the most 
 ahsurd story, he tells, that I ever heard ! He s certainly 
 mistaken." 
 
 "I don t know Dr. Braddock. It is Judge Maddox 
 who wants to ^ee you now. He followed you to Shreve s, 
 and missed you. Maddox," keenly noting Andross s 
 startled look, " is deeply involved in this Transit busi 
 ness. It is either the passage of the bill or ruin with 
 him." 
 
 " So Braddock told me, but I did not credit it. Stay ! 
 one moment before you bring him in. Do you know 
 whether it is true that Bislow holds any of the judge s 
 paper?" 
 
 "Yes, and a good deal of it, too." Willitts hesitated 
 a moment, and then played a card which he felt to be 
 doubtful. "I suppose you know that Bislow the old 
 porpoise would be glad to marry Miss Maddox, and in 
 that case there would be no trouble. But of course she 
 would not consent." 
 
 " No," said Andross. But there was a marked change 
 in his manner after that. He had a stunned, bewildered 
 air, moved uneasily and aimlessly about the room, a dif 
 ferent man from the ready, gallant fellow who faced the 
 crowd but half an hour ago. 
 
 Willitts, drying his dainty boots turn by turn at the 
 fire, watched him with an amused twinkle in his eye. 
 Of all that little witch s victims, John Andross was in 
 dubitably the worst hurt, and fancied himself the fa 
 voured man, no doubt, he thought complacently, for he 
 was quite certain that if Miss Maddox really had a ten- 
 
228 JOHN ANDEOSS. 
 
 dresseior any man, that man was Ned Willitfcs. "I ll 
 tell the judge you re ready to see him; shall I ?" he said 
 at last, going to the door. 
 
 "Yes, I ll see Mm." 
 
 A moment after Judge Maddox, more portly and red 
 der about the jaws for the town s high-seasoned living, 
 rolled and puffed into the room, not an object, surely, for 
 veneration ; but in Jack s eyes it was Anna s father who 
 came, and even Anna s dog was a thing to be regarded 
 with care and solicitude by him. He hastened anxiously 
 to place a chair. * I am sorry you have had to search 
 for me, Judge," he said respectfully. 
 
 "Yes. I ve had a chase !" blowing and panting more 
 than was necessary, while he tried to determine the 
 proper relation in which Andross and himself could meet. 
 This fellow before him had been his clerk and handy 
 man, a few months ago ; now he was a leading politician, 
 a senator, with every chance of putting his hand into the 
 money bags of the Ring when he chose. The average 
 American, however, readily accommodates himself to 
 such metamorphoses as these, and yields homage where 
 homage is due. Besides, the judge never forgot who 
 could- or could not be of use to him. There was no trace 
 of familiarity in his manner as he resumed, coughing 
 deferentially. "It s worth a little trouble, however, to 
 find a friend, Mr. Andross. That is, a friend a man can 
 depend on. Like yourself. Huh ! I m out of breath 
 with these plaguy stairs ! Well, sir, I came to talk to 
 you about this Transit bill. It s to go on its passage 
 to-night." 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "They tell me," again coughing and hesitating, "that 
 you are opposed to it? I was surprised to hear that. 
 Very much surprised ! Mr. Laird is your your friend. 
 What has he got to say about it ? He hardly expected you 
 to fly the track in that way." 
 
Jq" AKDEOSS. 229 
 
 "You have heard quite right. I have intended to vote 
 against the bill/ said Jack gravely. 
 
 " Friend or no friend, eh? Well, sir, thanks to this 
 man Laird, whom you can afford to put out of the ques 
 tion, the bulk of my property is in that Transit stock. 
 If the bill fails, my financial credit is not worth that !" 
 filliping his thumb. 
 
 " I did not know until to-night that you were involved 
 with the company." 
 
 " And if you had known, you would have thought dif 
 ferently about your vote, eh?" eagerly. "That s what 
 you were going to say ? I knew you would not fail me ! 
 I said to Ealston this morning (Ralston is in it up to the 
 ears), Don t be alarmed. I ve got a friend at court ! " 
 
 The ordinary spasmodic vehemence of Andross s man 
 ner was gone; he stood relaxed, his back against the 
 table, and spoke in a dull, quiet voice. 
 
 " I had some principle involved in the question. There 
 seemed to me objections to the bill, founded on simple 
 honesty. I have fought against it for weeks for that, 
 reason. Though that may seem an unlikely thing for me \ 
 to do," bitterly. 
 
 "Oh, not at all unlikely! It s a very Quixotic thing 
 to do, and very characteristic of John Andross ! " be 
 trayed into a momentary tartness. "You always were 
 too chivalric for old-fashioned fogies like myself, you 
 know," with a hasty, cringing smile. " But the chivalry 
 in this case would be to come to the relief of your friends, 
 it appears to me." 
 
 If it were only Colonel Latimer, Jack thought as he 
 looked at him, how easy it would be to explain ! But 
 although this was Anna s father, he felt it was useless to 
 utter a word in self-defence. The old man sat trotting 
 
 } 
 
 his foot impatiently, nursing the other leg on his knee, 
 the black beady eyes, which gave cunning to the round, 
 red face, fixed with a slow deliberation on Andross. 
 
230 JOHN AXDROSS. 
 
 "Well," smoothing the oily black mop of hair down 
 over his forehead with an air of sudden determination, 
 fc I suppose my errrand s done ! I may go hunt Ralston, 
 an(t tell him the game s up. If John Andross is the 
 man to turn his back on an old friend when it s life or 
 death with him, I was mistaken in him. That s all there 
 is to say," rising. 
 
 " Stay," lifting his hand to detain him, but not looking 
 up. " I have not said that I would turn my back on you." 
 
 The judge sat down again. The defeat of the bill, as 
 Ije well knew, would not ruin him, but it would cramp 
 him enough to make the matter serious. He had brought 
 all the powers of his brain (a Machiavellian brain, in his 
 own judgment) to bear on this manipulation of Andross. 
 fie meaftt to accommodate himself to the flighty, high- 
 toned notions and language of the fellow, as far as prac 
 ticable. 
 
 "I don t wish to hint," breaking the silence presently, 
 " that I ve any claim whatever on you. That s not 
 way. When I remind a man of an obligation, I cancel it. 
 When I took you into the Works, Mr. Andross, without 
 >any reference or introduction but young Braddock s 
 word, I certainly never expected the day would come 
 when I should beg a favour in return of you. I had no 
 ulterior motive in it. I don t bring that into considera 
 tion at all." 
 
 "I know," interrupted Andross harshly, "what mj* 
 debt of gratitude is to you. I am not apt to forget a 
 kindness." 
 
 Both men were silent again. Once or twice Jack raised 
 his head as if to speak, but when he met the gross, 
 shrewd countenance before him, heshut his mouth more 
 firmly. He burst at last into an angry, feeble laugh. 
 
 " Braddock, now, could settle this matter with a word. 
 When he knows what s right, he puts his foot down, and 
 there is the end of it. I don t know why I should be 
 
AXDKOSS. 231 
 
 more unlucky than other men. I never made up my 
 mind in my life, but a dozen considerations interfered to 
 pull me this way and that " 
 
 "That s because you ve a heart. Braddock s a dry, 
 sapless sort of a fellow. I d never expect him to be 
 moved by gratitude or friendship." 
 
 Andross walked nervously to the door back again, 
 stopped by the table. 
 
 "They tell me, Judge, that Bislow holds your paper. 
 Is he disposed at all to press you ?" 
 
 "I don t know who has been so busy in gossiping 
 about my affairs," irritably. "No, Bislow is not going 
 to disturb me. He s too anxious to stand well with me 
 just now," with a significant chuckle. " The trutH is," 
 his eyes gathering a sudden intelligence, " Bislow wants 
 something from me worth more than money." 
 
 "And you intend to give her to him ?" 
 
 "No, sir; no. I can t entertain such an Idea as that. 
 Of course, looked at in a mercenary point *>f view, it 
 
 would be a good match ; but . Well, the truth is, 
 
 Jack," with a sudden outburst of frankness, "I know 
 how the child s fancy turns, and I always meant to in 
 dulge it. You and I have talked of this matter before, 
 and when I came up to see you on this Transit matter 
 to-day, I really felt as if I were approaching a a mem 
 ber of my own family. Well, I may as well be frank, 
 and say a son." 
 
 " I thank you, Judge Maddox." Andross s eyes flashed, 
 his breath came quickly, the hand he held out burned. 
 He did not remember that when they talked of the mat 
 ter but a week or two ago, the judge had undoubtedly 
 been exceedingly cool about receiving him as a son. It 
 was not Jack s habit to remember, or to reason. 
 
 She was his at last ! He was conscious now of how 
 long foe had waited for her how hard the struggle had 
 been. He held the old man s hand tight clenched a 
 
232 JOH^T AXDROSS. 
 
 minute. It did not occur to him that he ought to say a 
 word more. The flood of joy swept all thought away. 
 
 Judge Mnddox was fond of Anna, and had really a 
 warm feeling for Jack. "Why, why, boy!" looking at 
 his face not ill-pleased, " I did not think you cared for 
 my little Nan in this way ! God bless you both, I say. 
 Why, certainly! The wedding can be arranged as soon 
 as you *two choose, and we shall all be comfortable to 
 gether." Jack would vote for the bill; his own money 
 would be saved, and Laird, being satisfied, would no 
 doubt find a permanent place for Andross, which would 
 make Anna a rich woman for life. "Yes; we ll all be 
 comfortable," he repeated. "Well, shall we go down 
 and have some dinner at the Lochiel House ? You young 
 fellows can live on raptures, but I must look out for my 
 stomach. I ve been fasting since seven o clock." 
 
 Jack laughed as though the judge s wit were of the 
 finest order ; helped him put on his coat, and held his 
 cane while he buttoned it. The square room, the dull 
 fire, the tobacco-stained carpet, the vacant desk waiting 
 for him in the senate chamber yonder all had vanished 
 out of the world ; instead, the dreams for years which his 
 delicate fancy or warm passion had by turn conjured to 
 make his dull life brighter, were suddenly reality to him : 
 glowing, nearing, ready to be grasped. He followed the 
 judge mechanically ; the old man taking his arm when 
 they reached the lighted rotunda. Maddox liked to be 
 seen leaning on the arm of the young, popular senator ; 
 he scanned the fine mobile face and gallant bearing, and 
 even tl;& well-fitting furred overcoat approvingly. He 
 would have every reason to be proud of his son-in-law 
 when Laird should have given him a permanent place. 
 
 "You ll come down to town with me to-night?" he 
 whispered confidentially as they passed through the 
 groups in the hall. "I ll wait until the one A. M. train. 
 They will have voted on thetbill before that." 
 
AKDEOSS. 233 
 
 " The bill ?" Andross stopped short. He looked at the 
 judge as if awakened from a sleep. " I had forgotten 
 the bill." He stood without speaking so long that Mad- 
 dox dropped his arm. 
 
 "You certainly do not mean to refuse me now?" 
 
 Andross looked him straight in the face, without an 
 swering. 
 
 "Ah, you ve finished your quarrel?" said Willitts, 
 leaving a^group of men, and tripping gaily up to them, 
 " or was it a friendly bargain ? How is it with the Tran 
 sit Company, Andross ? To be, or not to be ? " 
 
 "I ll vote for their bill, of course," said Andross, with 
 a sudden burst of loud heartiness. "I can t turn my 
 back on my friends ; can I ?" 
 
 "Well done! well done, Judge !" whispered Willitts, 
 as he passed them with ill-concealed excitement. 
 
 He had no mind that Jack should know how imminent 
 were the issues that hung on his decision. Without a 
 word farther, he hurried off to telegraph to Laird and to 
 the Philadelphia stockholders. As he passed the atten 
 tive, waiting crowd that he had just left, he nodded sig 
 nificantly to them. The next moment they had sur 
 rounded Andross, joking and congratulating him. 
 
 "All the better for us," said one squeaking voice, 
 rising above the din, "that you turned your coat. But 
 the speed with which you turned it that was re mark- 
 able!" 
 
 "At least, Mr. McElroy, there was no padding in the 
 lining!" retorted Jack. "That will do, gentlemen," 
 motioning them aside haughtily. " There s no room for 
 congratulations ; every other corporation has its hand in 
 the public pocket ; why not yours ? As for me," turning 
 to the judge, "Jack Andross has his price now, like tho 
 rest of them," with a laugh which Maddox felt to be un 
 intentionally discordant and insulting. 
 
234 JOII^" ANDROSS. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 T3 HADDOCK, when he entered the lighted depot to 
 *-* wait for the express train for the West, ran against ( 
 "Ware, who was walking up and down, wrapped in an 
 ample cloak, and in a certain loftiness of purpose so ap 
 parent as to attract the admiration of the row of working 
 women inside, ranged against the wall, their satchels at 
 their feet. Every one of them, principally on the basis 
 of his light gloves, set him down as an aristocrat, and 
 eyed him with the good-humoured envy or wrath which 
 the individual penniless American cherishes to that class. 
 Braddock, lean, anxious, shabbily clothed, whose arm 
 Ware took and leaned on in an airy magnificent way, 
 they recognized at once as a poor dependent. 
 
 "So you go back successful in your errand, Doctor 
 Braddock?" 
 
 " No. Andross gave me no definite promise." 
 
 "You know he has promised somebody to vote for the 
 bill?" 
 
 "I heard so at the Lochiel House just now. But it 
 was in answer to no solicitations of mine," coldly. 
 
 " Of your companion s then. It is all the same." 
 
 The doctor noticed now that Ware s thin skin was red 
 dened, and his manner irritated, either with liquor or 
 some suppressed emotion. fi I saw Mr. Andross," he 
 continued, "a few moments ago, going into a private 
 parlour of the hotel, where Judge Maddox and his daugh 
 ter were waiting for him. There was a fine supper ready 
 for them ; the young man was to be summoned to the 
 capitol when, the bill was called. Probably that young 
 lady s affections were thrown into the scale with whatever 
 bribe was offered him. There s a good deal of specula 
 tion to-night as to how he was bought." 
 
 "No bribe was offered to him." Braddock stopped 
 and drew off from Ware. "And no manly man," lower- 
 
JOHtf ANDROSS. 235 
 
 ing his voice, " would bring Miss Maddox s name into 
 this discussion. If you knew her you would feel the 
 grossness of your suspicion." 
 
 ""Well, no need to be ill-humoured about it. How 
 should I know the young woman ?" with a coarse laugh. 
 "Ah! here comes Laird s whipper-in, Willitts. A nice 
 fellow. You ought to make his acquaintance. Some 
 thing s wrong. He s going to telegraph Laird, I ll wager 
 you a dollar." 
 
 ,He waited until Willitts came out of the telegraph 
 office, and then clapped him on the shoulder with a loud, 
 "How goes it, Ned?" 
 
 Willitts shrugged his narrow shoulders. "You ve a 
 playful touch, like the blow of a sledge-hammer. It s 
 going well enough, or will to-morrow." 
 
 "What ? How s that ?" eagerly. " Postponed ?" 
 
 "Ford and his party, who oppose the bill, as soon as 
 they heard Andross had come over, determined to shove 
 it off until next session. They may talk it down to 
 night, perhaps. But it shall go through to-inorrow." 
 He hurried past them. 
 
 " He talks as if he had the whip in his hand, and the 
 dogs yelping about his heels," said Ware. " Did you see 
 my bills?" pointing to a flaming poster. "A Life of 
 Faith. Jung Stilling. Lecture ly Julius Ware. With 
 Songs! The songs were an idea of my own. They draw, 
 I find. No charge at the door. People like anything 
 which costs them nothing. Eev. Catharine Small intro 
 duced me, and after the lecture last night she got up and 
 stated that / was the modern Jung Stilling. I never was 
 so astonished in my- life. I felt as if I could sink into 
 the ground with confusion," pinching and fumbling his 
 white bull s neck, smilingly. " But these women ! One 
 never knows where to expect them ! After that, of 
 course, came a collection, and a very nice sum it was ! " 
 
 Braddock bade him a curt good-night, and hurried 
 
236 JOHN AKDROSS. 
 
 down to meet the train, whose bright, red eye of light 
 he saw approaching through the darkness. He felt an 
 indescribable nausea for the whole affair Ware, Mad- 
 dox, bills and bribes ; the very air about him was unclean, 
 sickening, heavy with the smell of stale tobacco smoke 
 and decayed fruit. He was out of humour with everybody 
 but himself. He, at least, had done his duty nobly ; and 
 he began to be glad that he was going back to clean ways 
 of dealing, and to Isabel. After he was aboard of the 
 train, he tried to bring Anna back as she had seemed to 
 him lately. Marry whom he might, that gentle womanly 
 presence must abide with him spiritually, a priceless pos 
 session. But he could not ; she somehow made a part of 
 the sickly, unpleasant whole, i He could not separate her 
 from her atmosphere". 
 
 Isabel was a reality ; she would recognize the courage 
 and prudence of his conduct. Isabel had always been 
 foolishly inclined to make a demi-god out of him ; he had 
 a suppressed conviction that now she would have reason 
 to do it. 
 
 While the train bearing Dr. Braddock to his postponed 
 nuptials was steaming into the suburbs of Philadelphia, 
 Colonel Latimer and Miss Morgan were seated at break 
 fast. The door opened, and Isabel came quietly in and 
 took a seat. Miss Morgan, who had not gained admis 
 sion to Bell s room all night-, was discomfited ; it showed 
 in her wandering eye, in the very knot of her purple 
 necktie. In all her experience she had never before 
 passed through the crisis of a wedding deferred by an 
 unwilling bridegroom. No such supreme disaster had 
 ever occurred to a Morgan. 
 
 "When any calamity did happen to a member of my 
 family, that member of my family never was able to eat 
 anything whatever," she said emphatically, after declin 
 ing an egg and eyeing Isabel with mingled alarm and in- 
 
JOH>T AKDROSS. 237 
 
 dignation. "But the Morgans have very acute feelings 
 very acute. You may see that I am too sensitive for my 
 own good, even now. No, Colonel; no waffles for me. 
 Hand them to Isabel; I have no appetite. After my 
 sister Ann s husband Mr. Stemson died (he was a 
 judge of the supreme court of this state, you remember, 
 Colonel), she had the window-shutters hung with black 
 for two years, and Ann herself lived on oatmeal mush for 
 that entire summer. Wholly on oatmeal in different 
 forms ! I used to tempt her with sweetbreads and jelly 
 and things; but she would cry: Take it away! Leave 
 me to my sorrow. 9 But if Mr. Stemson had not married 
 her at all if he had disappeared on the wedding-day I 
 am sure not even oatmeal : 
 
 "For heaven s sake, Cousin Arabella, don t nag the 
 child any longer ! " cried the colonel under his breath, 
 desperate even to incivility. "The miserable morsel she 
 has eaten need not offend your sense of propriety. Can t 
 you see that she is keeping up for my sake ?" 
 
 " Then don t keep up, Bell, darling. I do see it ! 
 There s not the colour of blood in your face. Go to bed 
 at once," fussing and clucking affectionately about her. 
 " There s nothing so unwholesome as keeping up. Be 
 sides, it s absolutely indelicate under the circumstances. 
 Go to your room, and I ll bring up a foot-bath and a cup 
 of tea directly. 
 
 " I would rather take chocolate now, thank you," said 
 Isabel, pouring out a cup with a steady hand. "Why 
 should I go to bed?" smiling. "I am not ill, nor a 
 widow. " 
 
 "No, dear child! Would that you were!" shaking 
 her head mournfully. " Heaven knows I care little for 
 the opinion of the world, and yet one can not but reflect 
 
 . The very milkman and baker ask questions. And 
 
 that censorious Mrs. Lamping she will assuredly be 
 
 up before an hour." 
 
238 JOHN AXDROSS. 
 
 Miss Latimer listened, calmly sipping her chocolate, 
 and then touched the bell beside her. " Otho, is the 
 fire burning brightly in the library ? Doctor Braddock 
 will be here presently, and I shall see him there. Papa, 
 the flue in that chimney needs repairing. The room is 
 seldom warm enough." 
 
 Miss Morgan stared in astonishment. " It is not possi 
 ble, Colonel Latimer," she said, when the door closed 
 behind Oth o, " that you will allow her to meet this man 
 again? Hush, child, this is a matter for your elders. 
 You will treat him as an army officer and a man of hon 
 our should do, Thomas ?" 
 
 " Patience, Arabella, patience!" begged the poor 
 colonel. " I will treat him as a man should a man. My 
 daughter" he stopped, passing his bony hand hastily 
 over the high-featured, thin face, in which all sign of 
 agitation had been held down and mastered that day 
 " my little girl, if Doctor Braddock comes again to the 
 house, it does seem best to me that you should not re 
 ceive him." 
 
 Isabel turned, and for the first time that morning her 
 father looked fairly into her face. There were certain 
 lines in it which never had been there before. The old 
 man, leaning forward on the table, read them as open 
 letters in a book. 
 
 One day, at the taking of Vicksburg, it had fallen to 
 Thomas Latimer s lot to recognize, through his field- 
 glass, in the ensign of a rebel company, his nephew ; a 
 lad whom he had brought up with Bell as his own son, 
 but who had gone to join Beauregard at the beginning of 
 the war. 
 
 The young fellow, colours in hand, stood on a broken 
 wall surrounded on every side. There was no chance for 
 him. The colonel could neither help nor hinder ; he sat 
 on his horse immovable, while Dick, steady and cool as 
 ever, braced himself against the wall and waved the torn 
 
JOHST AXDROSS. 239 
 
 flag defiantly until he fell, when he shook it feebly up 
 with his last breath. The colonel gave a tremendous 
 shout of triumph, but his jaws lost colour under the gray 
 whiskers as he put up his field-glass. 
 
 "It was a young fellow that I saw shot yonder/ he 
 said by way of apology to the general. " He belongs to 
 a family that I know. They don t make mucH, show in 
 the world, but they ve got staying power in them." 
 
 As he looked at Bell now, he suddenly remembered 
 Dick, going down into death, waving his poor rag ; his 
 eyes kindled, then he touched her hand gently and pity 
 ingly, as her mother would have done. 
 
 " Do as you think right, child. You are a better judge 
 than I," he said. "Come away, Arabella. I wish to 
 speak with you." 
 
 Miss Morgan followed him with a jerky solemnity ; but 
 before they had opened the door, Isabel interposed with 
 the same steady, tranquil voice. 
 
 "Whatever opinion you may form in this matter, 
 cousin, I wish you to understand that Doctor Braddock 
 is not at all to blame. He doubtless went to Harrisburgh 
 to serve Miss Maddox. She is an old friend of of our 
 family, and Clay was only doing his duty to me in serving 
 my friend. Very probably when he comes he will think 
 it necessary for me to go down to Anna, to aid or comfort 
 her. If he does, I shall certainly go." 
 
 "And I will certainly not obtrude any of my old-fash 
 ioned notions of decorum upon you, Isabel," said Miss 
 Morgan gently. But when she was alone with the colonel, 
 her purple ribbons fluttered, her beaded tags jingled 
 with her excitement, and the tears were in her eyes. 
 " She makes an idol of the man still," she cried. " Oh ! 
 the weakness of the silly child ! " 
 
 "Does she ?" said the colonel doubtfully. 
 
 " She worships him ! It was always a blind infatuation, 
 and it is just like one of our sex to persist in it. Always 
 
240 JOHN AXDROSS. 
 
 loving, trusting ! ( To build up idols, and never to find 
 out they re clay/ or however the poem reads. Nothing 
 rail open Bell s eyes, nothing ever opens a true woman s 
 eyes to faults in those she loves, but death." 
 
 "I don t know about that," thoughtfully. "But 
 we ll not interfere, Arabella. Do you know I m really 
 sorry for Brad dock? He was a good fellow, and such 
 love as Isabel gave him would have made a man of him. 
 It s very unaccountable, this behaviour ; but still I think 
 he very likely could give an explanation that ought to 
 satisfy a rational woman." 
 
 " Bell does not want any explanation ! She will ask 
 for none ! " 
 
 " No, I don t think she will. Well," with a smothered 
 sigh, " I must say I liked the lad. What is it, Otho ?" 
 
 " Mr. Bowyer, sah. Pears in great haste." 
 
 "I m coming." But the colonel was a long time in 
 coming, going to his chamber and exchanging his slip 
 pers for boots ; % whistling snatches of what seemed to be 
 some miserable, tuneless dirge, and meditating on the 
 amount of "staying power" of the Latimers women as 
 well as men. As soon, however, as he was out of his 
 morning-gown, and installed in his stiff office-suit, these 
 lax domestic feelings were sent to the right-about. "Ask 
 Mr. Bowyer to come up, Otho," he called, going down 
 the stairs with his most rigid, military air; "I am ready 
 for business." 
 
 Oth hurried back, with a scared glance behind him. 
 lie had just convoyed Doctor Braddock to the library, 
 and had noted, from the immaculate neatness of his 
 scuffed clothes to the complacent smile, the indomitable 
 virtue which asserted itself in that hero, from head to 
 foot. 
 
 " Neber do to let Mass Thomas see him look like dat ! " 
 thought the peace-loving Oth. 
 
 Miss Latimer was seated by the fire, her work-basket 
 
JOHN AKDROSS. 241 
 
 beside her and sewing in hand. Miss Morgan had already 
 visited the room once or twice out of interest in the flue, 
 scrutinizing the quiet face sharply. Oth, opening the 
 door for Braddock, turned his woolly head carefully away 
 from it. 
 
 Doctor Braddock laid his hat and gloves down on a 
 tahle as he passed it, and came up to her. (( I am here 
 at last, Isabel." 
 
 "Good morning, Clay. There is a chair near the fire." 
 She put aside her work, as she would have done cour 
 teously for any stranger. Braddock, as he came up the 
 stairs, had for the first time been conscious .that Isabel, 
 who had loved him faithfully for years, might have cause 
 to feel herself insulted and aggrieved. There might be 
 tears and reproaches and trembling of the Anna kind, he 
 thought, with a qualm, for, in fact, he had enjoyed tears 
 and trembling to satiety during the last day or two. Or 
 Bell might receive him with indignant hauteur, or a cold 
 disdain, which would speedily melt away into her old 
 blushing, tender manner. The possibility never entered 
 the man s narrow brain that she could love him less. 
 Braddock imagined thus hastily his probable reception, 
 taking scenes out of the few novels he had read as the 
 basis of his guesses. But Bell had not learned the man 
 ners of novel heroines, and would not fit into any melo 
 dramatic scene of real life. Whatever processes of pain 
 or resolve had gone on within, she was the same out 
 wardly slow, downright, simple. She lifted some muslin 
 from the chair to make room for him, and stroked ,the 
 dog with a good-humoured laugh when he stumbled 
 over it. 
 
 Yet Braddock, after an awkward remark or two upon 
 the morning, sat silent, oppressed by an alarm and dread 
 such as he had never felt before. He quite forgot the 
 magnanimous part that he had played. 
 
 Neither anger nor tears, nor shy blushes from Isabel, 
 
42 JOHK ANDROSS. 
 
 for this common-sensed woman, habitually grave and 
 slow of speech, had been shy and blushing with her 
 lover, and garrulous sometimes as a child. He had un 
 consciously been flattered until his vanity burned high, 
 by the indescribable difference in her manner toward 
 (other men and himself. Laird (of whom he had always 
 i had an indefinable jealousy) had spoken of her once as a 
 white house rose, or some tame domestic bird, to be held 
 sacred beyond all others, because it made home more 
 homelike. Laird might make such fantastic compli 
 ments, but she was his ; it was only for him the flower 
 opened its inmost leaves, and the bird sang its song. 
 
 But to-day she met him precisely as if he had been 
 Mr. Laird. There was the matter-of-fact hospitality, the 
 ready courtesy, the kindly smile everything but love. 
 
 "Isabel," rising, so great was the effort he made to 
 speak in his usual didactic manner, "I see that you ap 
 pear both grieved and surprised that I did not return 
 yesterday. You have not heard any explanation. You 
 
 "Well, I consider that I did my duty to you, and 
 
 and other friends honourably and I really expected, 
 Bell," giving way to a little snappishness of tone, "that 
 you, at least, would approve of my conduct." 
 
 "Very probably it deserves approval; but," with a 
 feeble smile, "I may not be Spartan enough to judge 
 fairly. I shall not try." He noticed as her face came 
 between him and the light its utter lack of colour. She 
 suffered then ; she was not insensible. She would come 
 to him for strength and comfort, as Anna did. If he 
 could ever once, for one half minute, have been mor 
 ally certain that he was Isabel s superior, how fondly he 
 would have loved her ! The thought of her actual pain 
 now gave his heart a real pang and wrench, very different 
 from the mawkish sentimental sympathy he gave to Anna s 
 woes. But if Isabel needed comfort, it was not he who 
 could give it to her. She turned her eyes to the window, 
 
ANDROSS. 243 . 
 
 where the snow was falling softly, as if she had forgotten 
 that he was in the room. It was the first minute since 
 he knew her, that he was sure that this strong woman, 
 at heart, was weak and clinging, and with the knowledge 
 came the certainty that he never would be the man who 
 should give her what she needed. Who then ? Perhaps 
 Laird. Doctor Braddock grew hot with a jealousy which, 
 under the circumstances, was hardly just. 
 
 "You treat me unfairly, Isabel," he broke out angrily. 
 " I tell you that I have done my duty, and you refuse to 
 hear me. You never loved me, or you would not mis 
 judge me. I went, as I sent you word in my message, 
 with Miss Maddox, on business almost as urgent as 
 death." 
 
 ( I received no message, Clay. Probably," looking up 
 at him gravely, "you entrusted it to Anna." 
 
 "Yes, to ensure its coming with more certainty. 
 Listen to me, Isabel." He sat down beside her; he 
 shifted his feet, crumpled his gloves, talked with sudden 
 spurts of energy. He was alarmed, nervous from head 
 to foot. Gould Anna have delayed the message ? Tricked 
 him through all this affair ? 
 
 "Bell, do not speak to me until I tell you the whole 
 matter all of it." And he told her Anna s sad di 
 lemma, and his own heroic effort to rescue her, omitting, 
 as we may be very sure, all mention of the semi-passion 
 which had inspired his heroism, the rewarding moon- \ 
 beam smiles and glances of the rescued maiden, and all 
 the hot-house, unhealthy fervor which had made his ex 
 ploit appear like a romantic deed of derring-do to him, 
 instead of a trip on the Pennsylvania Central to Harris- 
 burgh. He was quite conscious as he talked, of the bald 
 ness of the narrative without this impalpable colouring, 
 and saw his adventure himself through the very common 
 place medium in which it came to Isabel. She was so 
 slow and short-sighted, he remembered, comforting him- 
 
244 JOHN ANDROSS. 
 
 self, that she would never suspect the hidden romance 
 which the bare facts did not translate. But there is no 
 microscope like jealousy ; his haste, a sudden catching of 
 the breath now and then there was the whole truth laid 
 bare. He waited, looking on the ground when he had 
 finished ; he had not courage to face her. 
 
 " It was hardly worth while to tell me this story," she 
 said quietly. " I knew much of it before. I could have 
 told you years ago that Anna Maddox had her poor little 
 brain filled with cheap romances, and even as a school 
 girl had a certain aptitude at assuming the role of heroine 
 in them." 
 
 "You are unjust beyond belief! But no matter!" 
 suddenly cooling into irony, and waving his fingers with 
 a gesture of indifference. " Go on. She is a woman. 
 "We all know the mercy women have for the one of their 
 sex whose beauty men value ! " 
 
 Isabel waited patiently until he had finished. When 
 she spoke, her voice never had seemed so simple or 
 earnest before to him : it cowed and shamed his weak 
 rage in spite of himself. "I knew what Jack Andross 
 was before now, too ; how the man has struggled to serve 
 God, and to play the part of a man, while Anna has 
 tempted him to serve the devil. I know how easy it has 
 been for him to fall, and how hard to stand alone. I 
 never told you or anybody, even papa, how, or where I 
 found him in the mountains that day, nor the words he 
 spoke to me in his misery. After that I understood him 
 well, and that poor creature that he loves. I am not 
 surprised that she has dragged him down. But " 
 
 "But what, Isabel ? " Braddock s lean body grew fixed 
 in his chair. What if she were right ? What, if she, 
 young and fair and innocent, were indeed a righteous 
 judge, and he, the poor weak -dupe of a weaker, wicked 
 woman ? 
 
 "I almost know what the end must be for him," she 
 
JOHN ANDROSS. 245 
 
 said. "He was ready to give up his manhood or his soul 
 any day to that lightheaded, vicious child. But I never 
 thought that you would be the tool which she would use 
 to drag him down at last. I never looked for that ! I I 
 trusted you so, Clay !" 
 
 "And you don t trust me now ?" with a spasmodic 
 effort to feel wronged and indignant. " I tell you, 
 Isabel, you know nothing about them, or human nature, 
 
 either. Andross ! Andross is a . But no matter for 
 
 that ! Only I will say that at the very time he was win 
 ning your pity and tears, hiding in the mountains, he 
 was a felon, and might have been marched off to a con 
 vict s cell if it had not been if it had not been for some 
 people who never will be thanked for what they did ! As 
 for Anna, the poor child is as pure and artless as one of 
 God s angels I ll stake my life on that ! And I consider, 
 Isabel," finding his courage and self -approval oozing back 
 by degrees, " that you are hardly as good a judge of the 
 moral issues involved in this bill, of which you do not 
 even know the name, as I, a man, supposed to know 
 something of politics, and who have read it carefully 
 clause by clause. It is a habit with most women, 7 in a 
 lofty tone of patronage towards " the sex," " to elect 
 themselves moral censors in matters whose bearings they 
 can not possibly understand. But I hoped you were 
 superior to such such inconsequent weakness. You are 
 not listening to me ?" sharply. "You look out of the 
 window all morning as if I were not here." 
 
 She turned quickly, the tears rising uncontrollably 
 into her eyes. 
 
 "You are not here ! You are not the Clay Braddock 
 that I knew. I lost him yesterday ; and he will never 
 come to me again never never ! " 
 
 "Isabel?" 
 
 He did not dare to touch her, or to put his arm about 
 her, although he thought she would fall. Could it be 
 
246 JOHN ANDROSS. 
 
 that he had ever come near enough to her to do that ? 
 She stood in the cold gray window, the snow falling he- 
 hind her. This was the fairest and noblest woman he 
 had ever looked upon ! He knew that now, when there 
 was danger of losing her. He would not lose her, of 
 course. Why, what would he do without Isabel without 
 Isabel ? The very idea staggered him with an unreal ab- , 
 surdity, as if somebody had said that he must henceforth 
 live out-of-doors, with no roof over his head, or that 
 there was to be no air to breathe. 
 
 " I can understand that you have cause to be hurt with 
 me " 
 
 She turned to him with a tired sigh. 
 
 "Don t let us say anything more. I am not hurt. I 
 was only mistaken." 
 
 "In me, Isabel?" 
 
 "Yes. I thought I knew you, and I loved you very 
 much, Clay. No, do not touch me," quietly. f That is 
 all over. You allowed a woman whom I I do not 
 respect, to cajole you into the belief that you loved her, 
 and for that love you left me on our wedding-day to 
 obey her whims, feeling that you played the part of a 
 hero when you came back to me to keep the letter of 
 your promise. You would have given me your name, 
 when you had given her all beside." 
 
 " As God hears me, Isabel, it is you that I love," pro 
 tested Braddock. "I confess that I admired poor Anna 
 her beauty and gentle ways I felt tenderly " 
 
 "The man /marry," said Isabel, fixing her slow-mov 
 ing eyes, which at the moment had certainly a very ox- 
 like persistence and obstinacy in them, "must give me 
 all the tenderness he has to spare. There is no use of 
 any farther discussion between us," changing her tone. 
 " I will never marry a man whom I know as little as I 
 do you." 
 
 " You mean to throw me off as you would a garment 
 
A^DROSS. 247 
 
 you were tired of ! " cried Braddock, in as bitter a rage of 
 disappointment, as though he had been a martyr of con 
 stancy. "You mean that there is to be an end to all 
 between us ? Do you remember your letters, Isabel ? Do 
 you remember the day I told you I loved you, and asked 
 you to marry me by the mill-race down there at Lost 
 Creek ? You ve forgotten that ? And now you throw 
 me off?" 
 
 She threw up both hands to her face, and cried pas 
 sionately for a minute, but spoke presently as steadily as 
 before. 
 
 "You do not understand. I was deceived in you. 
 Some women would marry you, feeling as I do to you, 
 and could live with you perhaps comfortably. But you 
 are not the man I loved. I shall not find him again." 
 
 " I have no wish to marry you without your love." He 
 stepped back from her. "You will live certainly rnorb 
 comfortably and luxuriously in your father s house than in 
 mine. I am a poor man, and likely to remain so ; I had 
 nothing but you, and that I have lost." 
 
 "It has been my fault, perhaps," after a pause. "I 
 should have known you better before I allowed myself to 
 love you. As for money," quietly, "I have not been 
 used to value it very much." 
 
 Something in these words stung him as nothing else 
 had done into certainty that she had put him from her 
 irrevocably. It was not her own abandonment or the 
 love she had given him, and which he had trifled with, 
 that she mourned for with that white face and monot 
 onous, weary voice. It was he, Clay Braddock, tho 
 meaner, weaker man than the one she had loved. Was 
 she right ? Had he been simply dishonourable and sen 
 sual when he thought himself a Christian hero ? Had 
 the tempter come to him as to poor Andross, and his.fall 
 been more sudden and deep, because he stood secure on 
 his own vain-glory and confidence ? Even in that su- 
 
248 JOHN AKDROSS. 
 
 preme moment of pain and loss, loss even of himself, 
 came a wonder why the deuce old Macintosh preached 
 against the dead Satans of doctrines, when here were liv 
 ing devils in the shape of friends and a woman to drag a 
 man down, and make him vile and wretched in this 
 world, at least. 
 
 ;But this was folly. Anna was no devil, and he, Brad- 
 dock, was a consistent, humble-minded church-member, 
 who neither swore nor drank, nor even smoked. No man 
 had ^ cleaner record. And if Isabel, out of sheer stub 
 bornness, refused to make any allowances for margins in 
 a man s nature, larger than her own, and to cast him off 
 at the very moment when he was most faithfully doing 
 his duty to her let it be so ! There were other women 
 who took him on trust women incapable of criticising 
 and carping over his character. At the remembrance of 
 Anna, the sudden sensuous emotion crept over his mind, 
 as an August wind or heavy perfume might over the 
 body. 
 
 He stood irresolute a moment, his elbow on the mantel 
 shelf. It brushed against an old silver candlestick with 
 crooked leaved branches, which Bell had always set in 
 the window at night to light him over the ford. It was 
 an idle trifle to remember ; how, as Tom s feet plashed in 
 the brawling water, he always looked for the three lights 
 in a certain sash, and the glitter of the -leafy silver below, 
 and knew that Bell with her work-table was waiting by 
 the fire, with the great bear-skin stretched in front of it. 
 He looked slowly now at the fire and the shaggy old skin 
 at his feet and the work-basket he had given her, and 
 then at Bell, waiting to drive him out ! 
 
 Then without a word he went to the table and took up 
 his hat and gloves, opening them methodically. 
 
 " I think you are right," he said. "I have no claim 
 to stay here longer." He did not go, but waited for her 
 to answer. 
 
JOHN AKDROSS. 249 
 
 "No ; you have no claim," said Miss Latimer. 
 
 "Then good-bye, Isabel." 
 
 Was she a log or stone? Was it possible that she 
 would let him go ? Without a word ? 
 
 If she had been a man, when she said all was over, she 
 would have held to that resolve ten minutes at least ; but 
 it never was a woman who cried, 
 
 " Hin ist bin, 
 Verloren ist verloren." 
 
 unless she thought the cry would bring her lover "(pack for 
 a few more last words. 
 
 Instead of a quiet good-bye, Isabel came up to him, her 
 honest face ablaze. 
 
 "I have but one request to make of you, Dr. Brad- 
 dock, at parting, that you go straight from me to the 
 woman who has taken you from me." 
 
 " Anna will give me a kind welcome, I am sure," com 
 posedly. 
 
 The angry red died out of her face suddenly. "Yes, 
 go to her. I wish you to see the full value of the goods, 
 for which you have sold your life and " 
 
 "And yours, Bell? Does it cost you something then 
 to give me up ?" trying to take her hand. " If I thought 
 
 you suffered at all But you are made of iron," angrily 
 
 pushing away the cold, nerveless hand. 
 
 " I have not spoken of myself," quietly. "It is all 
 said between us, I think," ringing the bell. " Otho, Dr. 
 Braddock waits for you." 
 
 Braddock stood feebly a minute looking at the old 
 black man s averted, pitying face, and the tall, stately 
 , figure by the window. He had a fierce mind to rush to 
 her, to drag back by some means the love lie had lost 
 
 to show her What ? How mad and weak he was ? 
 
 She knew that already. 
 
 " I am ready," he said, nodding to Oth, and followed 
 him down-stairs. 
 
250 JOHN ANDROSS. 
 
 He stopped on the door-step, the driving snow wetting 
 his pinched face and blue lips. The door closed behind 
 him. 
 
 " I ll go to Anna, as she bids me !" he said. " She, at 
 least, loves me, poor child." 
 
 CHAPTEE XXVIII. 
 
 A S the hall door shut behind Braddock, Mr. Bowyer, 
 ** in the study, rose from his chair after a long col 
 loquy with his chief. The colonel, pencil in hand, was 
 in deep reflection over some papers, and Bowyer had 
 leisure to look around him, and wonder whether it was 
 the pipes and tobacco pouches hung on one side of the 
 wall, or the guns and swords and big ears of corn from 
 Nittany on the other, or the boxes of tools and models 
 heaped pell-mell in the middle, that entitled the room to 
 the name of study. 
 
 "About as fit for a study as Old Tom is for a col 
 lector," thought the detective, standing on one leg, 
 which was cramped. His deputies already had dubbed 
 the colonel "Old Tom," just as his regiment had done. 
 He was going over some accounts slowly, running his 
 finger up the page, his forehead knit sternly. 
 
 " I never could make a column tot up the same amount 
 twice over," looking up anxiously. "Neither can Miss 
 Latimer, or she would help me. It s very annoying. I m 
 afraid that Joseph sometimes is not accurate." 
 
 " But about these distillers, Colonel ? I had, as I told 
 you yesterday, certain information that Laird directed 
 the full tax to be paid on each barrel. But it has not 
 been done for a single day. The working distillers are 
 small owners of stock, it appears, and have taken the 
 matter out of the hands of the capitalists." 
 
JOHK ANDROSS. 251 
 
 " I told you Houston Laird was an honourable man," 
 glancing down again at the unruly figures. 
 
 " So are they all all honourable men! " muttered 
 Bowyer, who had been drilling his boy as Marc Antony 
 lately for a school exhibition, and who had his head 
 fuller of strategems and assassinations and fiery eloquence 
 than was Sam s. "Well, sir, what am I to do? Put 
 the screws on at once, as you directed ? " 
 
 "Now, Bowyer eighty-nine, just remember eighty- 
 nine, if you please," holding his forefinger on the spot. 
 " Now, I would not be too hasty. You re sure they have 
 not paid the tax since they received orders from Laird ? " 
 
 "Not a dollar, sir. Wilkins, in fact, has said openly 
 that if Laird interferes further he will throw up the 
 management. They could not spare Wilkins, so Laird 
 will not interfere. " 
 
 " I think you re mistaken there. You ll find Laird is 
 a man who will rule his own household, even if it is made 
 up of distillers. Wait until to-morrow before you use 
 stringent measures. I ll find Laird to-day, if he is in 
 town, and if not, telegraph him. He ll set it all right. 
 Eighty-nine and eight " 
 
 Bowyer regarded the colonel attentively a minute. 
 
 "Wilkins," he said, "has boasted openly, too, that he 
 can carry on the business just as he has done it in de 
 fiance of you or any force which you can bring with you." 
 
 "He what?" cried the colonel. "Why, do you 
 know, sir, that I could arrest that miserable scoundrel 
 and put him to trial, sir ? Try him like any common 
 thief ! The proofs so plain that there s not a judge nor 
 jury in the land that would dare not to convict him, if 
 I once order his arrest." 
 
 " I don t know that. Wilkins is an influential man in 
 his ward, and judges and jurors would want to know 
 what the Ring had to say before they move in the matter. 
 They always do." 
 
252 JOHH ANDROSS. 
 
 " Confound the King ! What else does the fellow say ? 
 It s really amusing to me ! JS T ow, I want you to keep 
 cool, Bowyer. You re too hasty. I ll manage this affair 
 myself. He ll sell his infernal whiskey under my nose, 
 in spite of me ! Why, it s it s insubordination, sir ! " 
 
 "They ve had a gang of roughs from the fourth ward 
 on the premises every night for a week in case of a 
 seizure." 
 
 "They have, have they?" shutting the ledger, and 
 pushing it hack until he upset the ink-bottle. 
 
 "Armed, I suppose?" 
 
 "Oh ! armed, of course !" 
 
 "Ton my soul, this looks like business," laughing, 
 with a red spot burning on each cheek bone. " Go down 
 at once, Bowyer, and levy the tax due on every gallon in 
 the warehouses. Give them until five o clock this after 
 noon to pay it. If it is not counted down then, to the 
 last dollar, I ll collect it in person." 
 
 " You ll consult Mr. Laird in the meantime ?" 
 
 " I ll do no such thing. Do you suppose I m going to 
 manoeuvre and honeyfugle a lot of thieves to get the just 
 dues for the government ? " 
 
 "Very well, sir," gathering up his papers. "If the 
 money is not paid by five o clock, I ll have the gaugers 
 in force at the Sixth street Station ? " 
 
 The colonel s countenance fell. 
 
 " Gaugers ? I Do you mean to say we must call 
 
 in those fellows?" 
 
 "Why, we could hardly attack the distilleries single- 
 handed, Colonel," keeping his face grave with an effort. 
 " And you can t call out the military on such an occa 
 sion. " 
 
 "More s the pity. Even, the volunteers Why, 
 
 when Baltimore was under martial law, Bowyer, with 
 the guns of Fort McHenry turned on her, there never 
 was such order known there. It was peace, sir, peace ; 
 
JOHN ANDROSS. 253 
 
 a perfect dream of Arcadia. But for an old West Pointer 
 to go into a fight with a troop of revenue men at his 
 back making it a legal affair it s like taking a mean 
 advantage of Wilkins. I don t relish it at all ! " in a 
 tone of chagrin and vexation. 
 
 "Well, sir, it is a legal matter, and yon are an officer 
 of the law. So it seems appropriate, somehow, to say the 
 least." 
 
 "Oh, of course. The law. Now do you know, 
 Bowyer," lowering his voice, " I have very serious doubts 
 whether the law ought to be the highest authority, eh ? 
 There s a deal of red-tape injustice in the law, I can tell 
 you, sir ; and the judges, as you acknowledge, are some 
 times tools of the King; and what are the juries? A 
 dozen dunderheads picked by chance because they know 
 nothing of the matter in hand. Down in the army, in 
 the days when the duel was permissible, the code of man 
 ners and morals was fixed by gentlemen educated men 
 of honour. Look even at your Lynch law ; it s a rough 
 justice, but it s not for sale. I don t mean to say that I 
 
 want Lynch law in its extent What the deuce is the 
 
 matter with your leg, sir ? " 
 
 Bowyer emerged from behind the table with a red face 
 and twinkling eyes. " Nothing but cramp asleep. I ll 
 run over that account, if you choose, Colonel, and see if 
 Joseph is correct. I used to teach school, and got the 
 knack of figures." 
 
 "All right. I never did. I wish you would." The 
 colonel had suddenly grown grave and anxious. He had 
 just recognized Braddock as he passed the window. " I 
 must go now, Bowyer. Let me hear from you at five, 
 sharp." 
 
 The detective seated himself at the blotted ledger, and 
 Colonel Latimer hurried across the hall to the library, 
 and pushed open the door. He fancied Bell was lying 
 back motionless in her chair at first, but when he came 
 
254 JOHN ANDROSS. 
 
 up to her she was sewing industriously, her cheeks red, 
 and eyes bright and cheerful. 
 
 " He has been here., Isabel ?" 
 
 "Oh! yes, papa," rising hastily. "It s all right. 
 I ve postponed the wedding no, that is a He. I have 
 given him up altogether. But it s all right. I m quite 
 happy. Don t fret about me, papa. We won t worry 
 about it. Nor talk of it any more, will we ?" breathlessly. 
 
 " Not if you do not wish it, my darling. Did But 
 
 I will not ask any questions," checking himself. He 
 stooped and kissed her softly again and again on her 
 forehead, her hair, her closed eyes. She let her head rest 
 on his breast awhile and then looked up, smiling again 
 persistently. 
 
 "Why, what has happened ? I have not seen you look 
 in that way since you used to try a new casting at the 
 Works, or when you were going into battle." 
 
 "Nothing, my dear, nothing you could understand. 
 Business, business. Shall I drive you out, Bell? Is 
 there anywhere you would like to go ?" 
 
 "To go?" with a dreary glance out of the window. 
 "Nowhere, papa." 
 
 "Anybody you want to see then, darling?" anxiously. 
 "I ll take you to any of your friends in town." 
 
 " No ; there is nobody," the lids falling dully over her 
 heavy eyes. " I don t want any friends but you," hold 
 ing up her mouth to be kissed. "Now go, and let me 
 finish my sewing, dear ; I m very busy. When you come 
 back to dinner we ll be as happy as if there were no no 
 business in the world." 
 
 " I hope so, Isabel," said the colonel gravely. " I trust 
 in God so, my poor baby!" He kissed her once more, 
 and putting on his hat hurried out of the house. If the 
 child s mother had only lived ! He was hard and coarse 
 he could not come near enough to her, even to show 
 how he loved her. 
 
JOHN ANDROSS. 255 
 
 As soon as Bowyer saw the colonel go stalking past the 
 window, he jumped up, seized his hat and crossed to the 
 library, tapping at the door, and then pushing it hastily 
 open. 
 
 " It is only I, Miss Latimer," not noticing in his haste 
 a certain confused and dazed look of the young girl as 
 she rose. 
 
 "Good morning, Mr. Bowyer. Colonel Latimer has 
 just gone out, this moment." 
 
 "It wasn t the colonel I came to see, ma am. It was 
 you. Yes, I ll take a chair, thank you, though I ll 
 hardly warm it. I m a good deal pushed for time to-day, 
 and I ve idled away a half -hour in the chance of seeing 
 you. You re attending, Miss Latimer?" 
 
 "Certainly." 
 
 At this moment, there rushed upon Bowyer s remem 
 brance the fact that this young lady was to have been 
 married yesterday, and that evidently no such marriage 
 had taken place. He was silent a full minute, and then 
 proceeded quickly. There had been a hitch somewhere, 
 he thought, it was none of his business where. The 
 wholesomest thing for the young woman was to give her 
 something else to think of. 
 
 "Now, I m not like the colonel," he said aloud. "He 
 says keep women and business apart. But I say find the 
 right cog for the wheel, and put it in male or female. 
 Now that case of Julius Caesar s if he d taken heed to 
 Calphurny, it would have ended differently all round, 
 especially for him." 
 
 "Caesar? Calphurnia? I m afraid I don t follow 
 you," said Isabel anxiously. 
 
 " Oh ! never mind. It was just an illustration of 
 mine on account of teaching it to our Sam, and it really 
 is a case in point, if you know all the items. Now, here s 
 the items, Miss Latimer," his voice changing from its 
 embarrassed vacuous hesitation to sharp decision. " I m 
 
256 JOHN ANDROSS. 
 
 going to trust you, because you don t talk. I saw that, 
 and you struck me as a solid, sensible woman the first 
 day I came here, and because your father s not to be 
 trusted in this matter at all." 
 
 "What do you mean?" 
 
 " He s too headlong. To warn him of danger would be 
 like holding a peck of oats before a mule s nose. He d 
 walk into it, like Caesar into the senate-house. I ll trust 
 this Calphurny to manage better," nodding affably. 
 
 " Is my father in danger ?" Being a soldier s daughter, 
 used to danger and to seeing it warded off, she asked the 
 question with a composure at which Bowyer was ready to 
 applaud. 
 
 " I knew I was not mistaken in you, ma am. Yes, he 
 is. There s been some difficulty with whiskey distillers : 
 collecting the taxes you wouldn t understand." 
 
 " No. Don t stop to explain." 
 
 " The gist of the thing is, your father s too honest a 
 man for the place, and interferes with their profits, and 
 they want him out of it. The party that put him in are 
 afraid to remove him it looks too badly see ? So there 
 he is, a fixture. He (and me) we ve been running a gang 
 of distillers pretty hard, this last week or two, and they ve 
 taken means of getting us laid on the shelf. I can take 
 care of myself. But the colonel he won t, and that s the 
 truth of it. I haven t thought best to mention it to him. " 
 
 "You don t mean that they would assassinate my 
 father?" 
 
 " I mean just that ; perhaps not kill outright : shoot 
 or stab. Pistols are handier than daggers nowadays, and 
 a job of the sort don t need as many slashes as Brutus s 
 gang had to make. Especially air-pistols." 
 
 "Mr. Bowyer," said Bell smiling, "you ve been read 
 ing of Brutus and the rest until you are unnecessarily 
 alarmed on the subject of assassination. Such things are 
 not done nowadays. This is not Rome." 
 
JOHK ANDROSS. 257 
 
 "Who shot John Ford, Miss Latimer?" 
 
 "I I m sure I do not know. I did hear something 
 about a man of that name." 
 
 "I ll tell you. He was a special, like me. He was 
 shot down in daylight, two months ago, and the Ring 
 had so bought and paid for judge, jury, and press, that 
 though everybody knew the men who had hired the assas 
 sins, they could not be touched ; only their tools were 
 punished." 
 
 "And you mean that my father has provoked these 
 men?" 
 
 "Yes. I know they ve threatened us both, and that 
 I ve been dogged night and day for a week. But I go 
 pretty well protected by daylight," touching his breast 
 pocket, "and they know it. And at night I ve just had 
 to keep in-doors. It s cowardly. But it ll only last a few 
 days. Before another Wednesday there ll be an end of 
 Wilkins s trade or mine." 
 
 " There was a man named Voss?" remembering their 
 encounter two days before. 
 
 " One of their men, " said Bowyer, "out of the Peni 
 tentiary a year ago. You ve got your finger on the right 
 spot." But he asked no explanation, and she volunteered 
 none. 
 
 "You could never persuade my father to remain in 
 doors." Isabel sat erect, intent now on every word of 
 Bowyer s. He saw that she had forgotten all else. 
 
 " Of course not. I know the colonel. If I d hint this 
 to him he d march the streets, like a war-horse smelling 
 the battle. That s why I come to you ; far you to take 
 care of him." 
 
 " I understand." 
 
 Bowyer scanned the young girl s grave, steady face for 
 a minute, as a mechanic would a tool he was about to 
 use, and then continued : "I can depend on you, Miss 
 Latimer, not to mention to the colonel one word I have 
 
258 JOHtf ANDROSS. 
 
 said to you. I wish you to detain him with you in-doors, 
 as far as that is practicable, unless when he is out with 
 me on business. This difficulty will only last for a day 
 or two, while Wilkins and I and the law are settling 
 which is to rule." 
 
 " If my father and you gain your point," Bell said in 
 her slow, meditative way, " there will be more danger for 
 him. They will want to be revenged on him. I think 
 he and I had better go back to Mttany. " 
 
 No. These men of the Ring and their tools don t 
 care to put a man out of the way unless it pays. A mur 
 der for revenge, now, there d be something respectable in 
 that. These fellows only work for hire. You needn t 
 trouble yourself about the colonel, ma am, after I tell you 
 he s safe." 
 
 " I think we had better go back to JSTittany." 
 
 There s a good proportion of the mule in the Latimer 
 family," thought Bowyer, but he rose and bowed respect 
 fully. "I ve got to go now, ma am," setting his chair 
 back carefully against the wall. " Don t be over-uneasy, 
 so s to get your nerves unhinged." 
 
 "I have no nerves, Mr. Bowyer," smiling. 
 
 " Glad to hear it, ma am. And on the other hand, 
 when you think the matter over, don t pooh-pooh the 
 whole thing, as your father would do. I m not an alarm 
 ist." 
 
 "I do not underrate the danger." She had risen, and 
 was leaning on the back of the chair. My father is out 
 
 now. If I go after him But there he is," as the 
 
 colonel s shadow passed the window. 
 
 "Yes, and I must be off the other way. Take notice 
 of all messages he gets, ma am. We don t live in Eome, 
 as you said. But a man dies as quick from a bullet fired 
 by Eafferty, or any of the other bullies of the Fourth 
 ward, as if it was a rent the envious Casca made ! " 
 Bowyer bowed again, and went out, feeling that he had 
 
JOHN AKDROSS. 259 
 
 turned the last sentence neatly, with that scrap. A little 
 book-learning was a very convenient thing ; he was glad 
 Sam was to have the advantages he had missed. That 
 girl of the colonel s was good grit, yet she had broken 
 terribly in the last day or two ; the detective s eye seeing 
 what her father s had failed to mark. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 rpHE opponents of the Transit bill managed, as Wil- 
 -*- litts had foreseen, to talk it down that night, and 
 showed such skill in maneuvering, and such strength of 
 resources in exposing the open bidding for votes, that the 
 embryo statesman was alarmed, and by daybreak the next 
 morning hurried down to the depot to telegraph to Mr. 
 Laird to come on without delay. 
 
 "I feel there s a collision of the worst sort inevitable," 
 he said to McElroy, " and let him be here to engineer it 
 himself. I ve been acting partly on my own responsibilty, 
 and if matters go wrong he ll call it meddling." 
 
 "Hardly so bad as that, !S~ed." McElroy was very cool 
 about it, having his greenbacks safe in his pocket ; he 
 had leisure, therefore, to wonder why Laird trusted so 
 much to such a leaky fellow as Willitts, any how ? Hav 
 ing nothing better to do, he lounged beside Ned on to the 
 depot, and paced up and down that ill-smelling place of 
 resort, kicking the pea-nut shells and orange-peels from 
 the platform while Willitts ran up to the office. A crowd 
 of men with pick-axes and tin-cans were waiting on one 
 side ; a crowd of women with the inevitable dirty-faced, 
 plumed babies, and little boys in tawdry knickerbockers 
 on the other ; a mulatto girl with gilt ear-rings and pink 
 bonnet flaunted up and down, all of whom McElroy eyed as 
 though he saw them not ; but he suddenly stopped, look- 
 
260 JOHN ANDROSS. 
 
 ing closely at a stout, short, red-bearded man in a shaggy 
 overcoat and travelling cap, who stood amongst the work 
 men, and about whom they had gathered with eager de 
 ference. 
 
 McElroy ran up the office-steps breathlessly, and hailed 
 Willitts. "Here s your chief, Ned, Laird. He must 
 have come up on the eastern Express. What can he want 
 with those men ? You don t think he ll go back on your 
 arrangements, do you ? " 
 
 "Your champagne is safe, Mac. I see him. Yes, 
 that s Laird," coolly, nodding his companion out of his 
 way. 
 
 "You ll introduce me ?" anxiously. 
 
 "Another time, Mac, if you please. Business now." 
 
 Willitts was as much astonished at Laird s appearance 
 as McElroy, and as curious about his business with the 
 labourers ; but he picked his steps over the platform and 
 stood swinging his cane, waiting for him nonchalantly, 
 as though it were a ball-room and they were both invited 
 guests. Mr. Laird touched his hat to him, but finished 
 his colloquy. 
 
 "You ll go back to your boarding-house then, Mr. 
 McGuire," he said to the foremost of them, "and desire 
 Mr. Smalley to come to the Lochiel House immediately, 
 
 and ask to be shown to . What is the number of your 
 
 room, Mr. Willitts?" 
 
 "Eighteen first floor. Better write it down." 
 
 " You hear ? No," putting back Willitts s card, on 
 which he had scribbled the number. " You will remem 
 ber it, sir ? You will miss the train lose the day s work, 
 I suppose. When you bring Smalley, I will pay you double 
 for the loss of your wages. Go at once, if you please." 
 
 " You manage that sort of people better than I. I am 
 too familiar with them," remarked Willitts, as they 
 turned up the street. But Laird only nodded. There 
 was something gloomy and oppressive in the silence, 
 
JOHN AJsDIlOSS. 261 
 
 which annoyed Willitts. " May I ask," he said after a 
 pause, "who is Smalley ?" 
 
 "Voss." 
 
 Ned gave a silent whistle of dismay and glance of alarm 
 at his companion. ( l You find it necessary to call him in ? " 
 
 " Yes. He fights shy of Wilkins, it appears. I ascer 
 tained that he came here, found out his last alias yester 
 day, and by luck stumbled on these men, who knew him, 
 just as I left the train." 
 
 " I thought " Willitts hesitated. He approached 
 
 the chief with cautious touches, just as the jackal would 
 the lion, finding him in ill-humour. " I thought Wilkins 
 would be able to attend to this matter ? " 
 
 "Wilkins?" Mr. Laird never swore, but he had a 
 habit, when under great excitement, of closing his lips, 
 more emphatic than any oath. " Wilkins has broken the 
 traces completely." 
 
 "Yes. He refused to pay the tax as you directed." 
 
 "You should have notified me of that," quietly. 
 
 "I came on to attend to what I considered more im 
 portant business here," said Willitts. " I did not really 
 suppose," deprecatingly, ".that the losses in the distil 
 leries could seriously affect your business." 
 
 "It is not the loss in, but the loss of the distilleries. 
 That fellow Bowyer has determined to expose the whole 
 scheme, and ruin it. You know how extended it is, and 
 that it has no foundation but secrecy. It is toppling to 
 destruction to-day. Payment or non-payment of taxes 
 is a trifle it is the exposure that is fatal." 
 
 "Andross," cautiously, "before he gave in, spoke to 
 me of the National Transit Company as bankrupt for 
 months." 
 
 "He was quite right, as you know," meaningly. "If 
 this bill is choked off, and the distillery revenue stopped 
 the bubble is burst." 
 
 Ned gnawed the end of his rattan, and wet his dry lips. 
 
262 JOHN ANDROSS. 
 
 It was very well for Laird, who had made enormous fail 
 ures once or twice before (paying twenty cents on the 
 dollar), to the great improvement of his fortune, to be 
 calm about the matter. But this gigantic sham had 
 given to him and dozens of other young fellows, its archi 
 tects, not only food and clothes, but all the luxury of the 
 town. He glanced down at the Paris made trousers on 
 his little legs, the blazing solitaire on his white hand. 
 He had no trade nor profession. And there was his 
 mother and sisters to think of Gertrude unmarried yet. 
 
 "What is to become of me when it bursts? I know 
 nothing outside of it," with a laugh, dreary and pathetic 
 enough, had there been any one to take in its full signifi 
 cance. 
 
 " Go "West, young man ! as Greeley would tell you/ 
 with a sardonic laugh. "Dig, plow, eat bacon. How 
 long is it since Andross promised us his vote ? " abruptly 
 changing his tone. 
 
 "Last night." 
 
 " He has changed his mind by this time, then once 
 or twice. I ll nail him this time. There s no room for 
 risk now." 
 
 They walked on in silence until they had reached the 
 pavement in front of the hotel. 
 
 (l You will see Voss in my room when he comes, sir. 
 Do you wish him brought up with any regard to secrecy?" 
 asked Willitts. 
 
 " None whatever. Wliy ? The fellow knows his busi 
 ness. He ll not be caught ; and if he is . It is Mr. 
 
 Voss who will suffer, most probably. Nobody else." 
 
 Ned laughed. He was more reckless about offending 
 Laird than he had ever shown himself before. 
 
 " Even in Italy, which is the land of banditti, there is 
 some show of secrecy about hiring assassins," he said. 
 " But you are right. Even the press will help hush the 
 matter up, when Bowyer disappears." 
 
JOHK ANDROSS. 263 
 
 " Bowyer is not going to disappear. Voss may prob 
 ably give him a drubbing or broken head, to teach him 
 to attend to his own affairs. Brute force is the only 
 means to use with such fellows." 
 
 Mr. Laird spoke civilly, but Ned saw that he was in a 
 dangerous mood. The truth was, that this brute-force 
 part of the transaction disgusted and chagrined Laird s 
 finer nature inexpressibly. He had the same loathing 
 absolute nausea at the idea of meeting Voss as he felt 
 once when he had inadvertently been present at the dis 
 section of a dead body. He added presently : 
 
 My only business with Voss is to secure him. Wil- 
 kins w^ill give him his directions in detail. I must trust 
 him so far." 
 
 " Wilkins ?" Willitts looked thoughtfully at the knob 
 of his cane. " The point of attack is Bowyer, you said, , 
 sir?" 
 
 " Certainly. Who else would it be ?" 
 
 " Oh, I m sure I don t know, Mr. Laird," hastily. It 
 was no business of his if Wilkins meant to go back of 
 Bowyer to his principal. Latimer was nothing to him, 
 not even an acquaintance ; and if the thing had to be 
 done at all, the more securely it was done the better. 
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 "A/TE. LAIRD, on entering the hotel, retired to make 
 4**r a careful toilet, and without taking time to order 
 breakfast, sent up his card to Miss Maddox. 
 
 " You are sure the girl is still here?" he asked Ned, 
 with the disrespectful tone in which he always spoke of 
 that charming woman. 
 
 "Oh, quite sure. The Governor gives a state dinner 
 this evening, and Anna has telegraphed for a trunkful 
 of finery." 
 
2G4 JOH}* AKDEOSS. 
 
 ts She ll wait an hour to dress now, I suppose." 
 
 But Anna, who usually lay in bed until noon, had been 
 up and armed for action in flowing ribbons and crimps 
 since early morning. In the very heat of the fray of her 
 love-affairs, the last act of the drama it was no time for 
 lying in bed. Mr. Laird was therefore promptly ush 
 ered up to her parlour, the door of which was ajar. He 
 ran against a man in the dark passage. 
 
 He was gallant and tender, as was his wont, with Miss 
 Maddox, while she, in the innocent frisky gayety with 
 which she received this middle-aged admirer, was quite 
 lamblike. She chattered unceasingly as he placed her 
 chair nearer the fire, wondering if she could have pro 
 duced any real impression on him ? He was a little too 
 stout for a lo~cr but no, not considering his enormous 
 wealth. With his portly build and millions to back it, 
 he was really quite quite ducal, according to her ideas 
 of a duke. She did not see her father come into the 
 room behind her, and looked around when she heard him 
 speak, her fair lashes snapping irritably, and then ran up 
 to kiss him. 
 
 "I don t know whether we shall admit you, papa, or 
 not. Mr. Laird and I were just going to be cosy and 
 confidential, and have a cup of coffee together. I m sure 
 you have not breakfasted, Mr. Laird ? We really did not 
 invite you, cher papa ! " 
 
 "There, there, Anna, don t be a baby. I m glad to 
 see you, Mr. Laird," pushing her aside and dropping 
 heavily into a chair. This business has told on me, 
 sir. I m too old a man to venture into such doings. I 
 thought it was all up yesterday." 
 
 "There s a strong opposition to the measure, I know," 
 calmly. 
 
 " I should say there was ! The whole state is roused. 
 They ve enlisted what they call the honest element of 
 both houses against us. Chadwick yesterday denounced 
 
jon:sr A^DKOSS. 265 
 
 it as a swindling trick to support a gigantic swindle. 
 And the worst of it is he told the truth ! " glaring 
 angrily at Laird. " If I had my money once out of it ! " 
 
 " Of course, my opinion is not that of Major Chad- 
 wick, or I should not be in favour of the bill," calmly. 
 What, bonbons ! No, thanks, Miss Maddox ! You will 
 not keep these lilies and roses long if you eat candy so 
 early in the morning. I ran up," turning composedly to 
 her father, "to look after matters. But I find it all ar 
 ranged. You have secured Andross s vote ? " 
 
 "Yes, I secured it. At a pretty price, too," mut 
 tered the judge, glowering in the fire with a certain 
 shame creeping into his angry face. "I don t mean a 
 price, exactly, of course. But the fellow, as you know, 
 has wanted my little girl here for years ; and to keep him 
 in a good humour I was forced to consent, that is, con 
 ditionally. Conditionally, of course. There are several 
 other better matches which Anna could have made ; very 
 brilliant matches, so far as money and position go. But 
 if the girl s heart is set on Jack and to make sure of 
 his vote -We could not have done without his vote." 
 
 Mr. Laird, still standing, leaning on the mantel, had 
 been watching Anna during this slowly spoken speech, 
 for the first time puzzled by her. Was there really any 
 thing in the girl beneath her shallow trickery ? That 
 was assuredly a real pallor on her pinched features, and an 
 actual fright in her eyes, which were fixed on her father. 
 
 :< Tne judge does not misstate the case for you, Miss 
 Maddox ? " said Laird gayly. "Your heart is not cold to 
 poor Jack ? You will reward him for all that he does 
 for us ? " 
 
 Anna s little mouth opened and shut weakly, once or 
 twice; she did not turn her eyes from their terrified 
 scrutiny of her father. "I I am very much attached 
 to Mr. Andross," she simpered at last ; "I ll do what I 
 can to help you, I m sure. Is it so t>ad, papa?" her 
 
266 JOHN ASTDROSS. 
 
 Yoice growing shrill. "Are we going to lose everything ? 
 the house and horses and my things and all ?" 
 
 "It is very bad," interposed Laird gravely. I wish 
 you to realize all that depends on you in the next twenty- 
 four hours. That was what brought me here. Other 
 men we can buy ; but you must hold Andross. Keep 
 him with you ; humour him to the top of his bent until 
 it is time for him to vote. Don t give him time to think. 
 Whenever Jack thinks, he is sure to change his opinion/* 
 smiling. " You understand what you are to do ?" 
 
 " Oh, quite," her eyes sparkling. " I have been told I 
 had a very good head for politics, and I m so flattered 
 that you think so, Mr. Laird. The French ladies used 
 to do that sort of thing in their salons, you know; 
 they quite ruled the nation. Now, papa, dear, go find 
 Mr. Andross, and tell him I want to go out sleighing in 
 this lovely snow." 
 
 The judge rose. "If the bill passes we re safe, Mr. 
 Laird ?" holding him by the sleeve. 
 
 "Yes if we are successful in one or two other little ar 
 rangements," drawing back, so that the judge s hand 
 slipped down. 
 
 "And if the bill passes, you see, Anna - 
 meditatively hitched up his trousers and pulled down his 
 waistcoat " if it passes, and Jack is reflected, his for 
 tune and ours are made. I don t see that you could do 
 better than to marry him. His income will be nearly equal 
 to Bislow s, and considering that you re fond of Jack- 
 Again the insignificant little face was strangely dis, 
 torted by some powerful emotion. -Too powerful 
 belong there," thought Laird. 
 
 "It will all be right, papa," she cried, pushing him 
 toward the door with an effort at archness. Send Jack 
 to me We shall sleigh this morning, and go to the din* 
 ner, and I will be in the Senate gallery as soon as it opens, 
 and keep my eye on him," turning to Laird. 
 
JOHN ANDROSS. 2G7 
 
 "We all know the magic of that look. By the way, 
 Miss Maddox, who was the man I met as I came in? 
 Julius Ware, was it not ?" 
 
 "Yes," turning away from him to warm her hands at 
 the fire. "It was Mr. Ware. He came up yesterday, to 
 lecture here." 
 
 "He has turned street preacher, or something of that 
 kind, I hear." 
 
 "He has adopted the faith of Jung Stilling," quickly 
 as a parrot reciting its lesson. 
 
 " Oh ? Well, Miss Maddox, take my advice, and leave 
 Mr. Ware to his life of faith for to-day. Do not bring 
 him in contact with Andross. Just for to-day, until the 
 vote is taken. You understand ?" 
 
 "I understand," quietly, the curly lashes dropped 
 timidly on her cheek. She scarcely lifted them as she 
 returned Mr. Laird s bow and farewell. 
 
 On leaving her, Laird went to his own room, and sat 
 patiently by the window until he saw a gayly caparisoned 
 sleigh draw up at the side entrance. Andross, after 
 tenderly lifting Anna into it, and tucking the skins about 
 her, sprang to his own seat, and shaking the reins loose, 
 drove rapidly away into the soft mist of falling snow. 
 
 " There he goes !" he said to Willitts, who was waiting 
 beside him. "The snow and the bells and the pretty 
 face are enough to keep all thoughts of honesty or re 
 morse out of Jack s head. He s safe for an hour. Now 
 bring in your man Voss." 
 
 CHAPTER XXXI. 
 
 "M"ED WILLITTS, escorting the champion of the P. 
 R. along the corridors, eyed him askance, and en 
 treated him respectfully as to precedency, with very much 
 the same kind of cautious gentleness with which he would 
 
268 JOHN A^DKOSS. 
 
 have handled a bull-terrier that he was about to muzzle, 
 but which might turn on himself some day. He told 
 Gerty, his sister, about him, afterwards, as he would of a 
 strange beast in a menagerie. " I met the creature once 
 by chance," he said. " He has blue eyes and fair hair, 
 and a very pleasant, agreeable laugh ; and a hand as 
 small and nicely kept as a woman s. You d have taken 
 him for a genteel mechanic, if it wasn t for a big emerald 
 pin in his shirt, vulgarly set, of course. But a very nice 
 stone very nice. " 
 
 When he had shut him in with Laird, he came away 
 with a sigh of relief. The colloquy was a long one. 
 Andross had returned with Anna before it was over, and 
 Willitts, passing the door of her parlour now and then, 
 could bear her merry voice and Jack s ringing laugh ; the 
 tones growing softer and almost inaudible at times. 
 
 "He has forgotten there is such a thing as a bill or 
 legislature on earth," he said to Laird, meeting him as 
 he came out of his room. 
 
 "All the better. But I must remind him of them 
 now." 
 
 "What is wrong?" For Laird, for the first time in 
 Willitts s knowledge of him, wore a haggard, uncertain 
 look. 
 
 "Nothing that can not be easily set aside. This fel 
 low," pointing his thumb backward over his shoulder, 
 "is disposed to be contumacious, that is all." 
 
 "Asks too much ?" 
 
 " It is not probable I would stop to higgle on a matter 
 of a few dollars to-day. No. He wants his safety en 
 sured after the thing is done." 
 
 " Hasn t he your word ?" 
 
 "My word;" laughing, "is not enough for him. He 
 says, I d take your name for any amount of money. 
 But this is honour, Mr. Laird. And I m not so sure 
 about it there/" and Laird laughed again with a full ap- 
 
A^DEOSS. 269 
 
 preciation of the joke. "He prefers Jack s. Andross 
 got the fellow s pardon some years ago, you remember, 
 and he looks upon him apparently, as a power in the 
 land, and the real type of an aristocrat. He will not be 
 satisfied unless Jack assures him it shall all come right 
 at the end." 
 
 "Which is impossible," after a pause. "You can not 
 expose this thing to Andross." 
 
 "I must do it." 
 
 "He ll kick the traces then altogether. He is an 
 honest, humane fellow, at bottom, sir." 
 
 "What am I ?" Mr. Laird s manner was almost bland 
 in its civility, but a heat fairly purple spread up from his 
 throat. "If he kicks the traces, as you express it, I 
 shall be forced to let him feel the yoke on his neck. 
 Where is he ?" 
 
 "In Miss Maddox s parlour." 
 
 Laird bent his steps thither, taking no heed to the 
 obsequious clerks and porters who crossed his way for the 
 purpose of bowing to him ; while Ned patrolled the hall, 
 his thin lips angrily shut. " Laird," he thought, " ought 
 to let that poor devil alone-." If it had been himself, 
 
 now he Ned, would as lief have set Voss on Bow- 
 
 yer as not ; one rattes on another ; hit or miss upper 
 most dog, win ! But Jack was different. Jack was 
 cursedly gentlemanly in his feelings ! It was an infernal 
 shame ! He went down for some brandy to soothe him ; 
 but he avoided passing through the corridor in which 
 Anna s rooms opened, where Laird had already met An 
 dross. He had a dull feeling that a man was being done 
 to death there. 
 
 Mr. Laird, finding a room unoccupied opposite to Miss 
 Maddox s, entered it, gave directions , ihat he should not 
 be disturbed, and sent to Andross asking for an interview 
 of a few minutes. 
 
 " Mr. Laird ?" Jack looked at the servant bewildered 
 
270 JOHN ANDROSS. 
 
 when the message was given. "Is Houston Laird in the 
 house ?" 
 
 "Yes, sir." For Houston Laird s face and name were 
 known to every man in his fief of Pennsylvania. 
 
 "I will come, certainly." But he waited irresolute 
 after the man had left the room. He had been standing 
 with Anna by the open window; while she thrust out her 
 little rose-leaf of a hand to catch the snowflakes, holding 
 them to him, to see if he could trace the tiny stars and 
 angles before they melted on the warm pink ; to be kissed 
 away always to be kissed away. The fire burned low 
 and clear, the room was quiet. The steady white fall of 
 snow shut out the view without. It did not seem to 
 Jack that they were in a hotel parlour, playing like two 
 children, but in some far, lonely corner of the world; 
 just they two together. Here the fire was warm : there 
 the snow fell, and she was beside him, the one woman 
 on all God s earth. Her soft luminous eyes looked into 
 his ; her breath touched his cheek, her warm moist palm 
 with the drop of snow-water on it, was pressed to his 
 mouth. He had waited so long for her years and years. 
 Now she was his. Bills and legislatures were, in fact, as 
 things in a dream. If he thought of his fall at all, it 
 was to vaguely remember that Anna had showed him an 
 hour ago, how when this one sacrifice was made her 
 father saved, and the marriage once over, they could live 
 and act just as Jack pleased. Be as honest and honour 
 able as missionaries or martyrs, as he chose, and live on a 
 crust. "What shall we want with money? I have 
 plenty of things to wear, and do I care so much for eat 
 ing ? now, do I ? " she had lisped, clasping his arm and 
 looking up in his face with an arch solemnity that drove 
 him wild with delight. His face burned and his eyes 
 shone, as though with wine. 
 
 Just at that moment the man had announced Houston 
 Laird, and Jack being, as we know, a full-blooded sen- 
 
AKDKOSS. 271 
 
 sitive fellow, felt a sudden chill at the name, as though 
 in the heat of a summer day death had touched him on 
 the shoulder. 
 
 " I ll go, certainly, Anna," he said again. " I shall be 
 back in a few moments. Mr. Laird can have no busi 
 ness with me that need detain me from you. Good-bye, 
 darling!" 
 
 It was with the soft pressure of her arms about his 
 neck, and the touch of her lips yet on his, that he crossed 
 the hall and entered the room where, for the last time in 
 his life, Laird waited for him. 
 
 A shallower man, or one with less kindliness than 
 Laird, would have greeted Andross with a show of excess 
 of friendliness. But the struggle was to be one as for 
 life and death, as Jack would know ; fair words or sham 
 courtesy would count for nothing. Besides, Laird was 
 sorry for the lad ; he was fond of him in his way ; would 
 have spared him if he could. 
 
 There was a grave sincerity in his manner, therefore, 
 which warmed Andross s heart to him at once. But the 
 whole world was so warm to Jack that day ! It was so 
 full of delight and friendliness, that if the similitude of 
 death could have met him, the happy fellow would not 
 have known him, but with his glamoured eyes had 
 clothed the skeleton in comfortable flesh a.id blood. 
 
 " Come in. How are you, Andross ? " 
 
 "I? Oh, very well. Never was better in my life," 
 hesitating a brief moment, and then holding out his hand. 
 It was years, as Laird remembered, since Jack had shown 
 him this proof of confidence. It embarrassed him for 
 the moment. 
 
 "Sit down, John, sit down," with an uneasy hos 
 pitality. 
 
 "No, thank you. I am engaged, particularly, this 
 afternoon, and must go back as soon as we have finished 
 our business. What can I do for you ? " 
 
272 JOHN" ANDROSS. 
 
 Laird, who was much the shorter man of the two, 
 looked up at him, while he hesitated for a word. The 
 youth, the finely cut face, the personal presence of the 
 man, strangely affected and agitated him. He could 
 understand, while looking at him, without a reason, why 
 this brute Voss was ready to put his faith in him, even to 
 risking his neck on the gallows. He reminded himself 
 that he had a sure yoke about the fellow s neck ; yet he 
 himself could not credit it. 
 
 "What can you do for me ?" he said meaningly. "I ll 
 tell you, Andross. But sit down. It will take some 
 time." 
 
 "No. I prefer to stand." A look of doubt began to 
 creep into Jack s eye; he followed every movement of 
 Laird s closely, as he walked up and down the room, 
 forcing himself to appear at ease. Laird never had been 
 at ease with Andross, as with other men, even when Jack 
 was but a boy ; he always remembered not only that the 
 lad had come of a different race from his own ; had been 
 born to culture and gentle manners as his birthright; 
 but that the money, which other men worshipped him 
 for, counted for absolutely nothing with this serf of his, 
 whose aims, ambitions, tastes, were all pitched at a higher 
 level than his own. It was not a pleasant thing to be 
 forced to remember that these aims and tastes might have 
 been his also ; that he had made a meaner, more vulgar 
 man of himself for the sake of this money ; a man whom 
 Andross, penniless and with the lash on his back, despised. 
 
 Judge Maddox, in his place, with all his good-humour, 
 would have used the lash now unsparingly, to save his 
 money ; but Laird was galled by all this old self-reproach. 
 When they stood face to face, he remembered that he, 
 with all the weight of middle age and power on his side, 
 was going to drag this young fellow from the clean, 
 honest path he had chosen, down to a way from whose 
 foulness he never could escape. 
 
JOHN AXDROSS, 273 
 
 Maddox would have put "the job" in the plainest 
 speech, but something in Laird responded so faithfully 
 to the honesty of Jack s purpose, that he couLd not find 
 words to cloak his own. Although Voss was waiting, he 
 thought moodily through two or three turns, how, if it 
 were not for this money and the constant fight to keep 
 it, he might have been a man whom Jack or his own son 
 could respect 
 
 "But, to business!" He stopped, reminding himself 
 of his position in Wall street, and that Jack was penni 
 less. But that did not put him at ease. 
 
 You ask what you shall do for me ? " plunging sud 
 denly into the middle of the subject. "I must remind 
 you, Mr. Andross, that you have, as yet, done but little 
 for me. I procured you Sheffield s seat, in order that 
 you might repay me by at least a just consideration for 
 my interests. You have not done so by word or vote this 
 winter." 
 
 Jack was fully on guard now. 
 
 " Pardon me, while I amend your statement," couiv 
 teously. " You gave me the seat, because you were afraid 
 that, once out of your trammels, I would betray your 
 secrets. You brought me here just as the unruly slave of 
 the gang is placed near the overseer." 
 
 " Tut, tut ! Don t use such strong language. You 
 always do use too strong language, Andross." 
 
 "I owed you no debt of gratitude. I do owe" he 
 stopped abruptly, his countenance fell, "that is, until 
 last night, I thought I owed some duty to the people and 
 some respect to myself ; and since I came into the Senate 
 I tried to pay both. As far as I was capable of judging, 
 I have voted and acted honestly for the service of the 
 people I represented." 
 
 "Forgetting, apparently, that your very salary was a 
 perquisite from me." 
 
 "My salary," continued Jack, "1 have saved, with 
 
JOHN ANDROSS. 
 
 other earnings, to pay a debt which I owed at Nittany. 
 I was forced into that that debt by your agents. They 
 
 drove me to the wall " again he broke off, confused 
 
 and excited. 
 
 But Laird, apparently, saw nothing of his agitation, 
 " I have no wish to quarrel with you," he said, coldly. 
 "I had a service to ask, and I preferred not to ask it as 
 a favour nor a right, but to put it on the ground of a 
 simple business transaction. Work, for which you had 
 already received the value." 
 
 "What is the service? I have already promised my 
 vote to the Transit bill. The very newsboys and pages 
 are speculating by this time how much it cost to buy 
 me." 
 
 " Pah, nonsense ! You are morbid. This is nothing 
 as serious as a vote," adopting suddenly a confidential, 
 friendly tone. " It is only a word or two I want from 
 you, Jack your influence with a man with whom you 
 have influence, and I have none. I want to hire his time, 
 and he refuses to give it, unless you will endorse me." 
 
 " Endorse you ? As to your ability to pay ? How ab 
 surd !" laughing. " Certainly, you shall have my recom 
 mendation. Why did you introduce such a trifling mat 
 ter so formally ? Where is the man ?" 
 
 "Here. Just round the corridor. In my room," 
 hastily. " I ll send Willitts to bring him. It is not pre 
 cisely endorsement," with anxious hesitation. "I want 
 to employ the fellow on a rather troublesome business, 
 and he requires to be assured that he shall suffer no loss 
 by it bodily or otherwise." 
 
 Jack looked up at him, a doubtful suspicion gathering 
 in his frank face. " I don t understand. What have I 
 to do with his bodily loss ? What bodily loss can ensue ?" 
 
 "Ton my word I don t know what absurd whim the 
 fellow has ! All I do know, is that he has taken a fancy 
 to you, and refuses to clench the bargain without your 
 
JOHN ANDROSS. 275 
 
 counsel to do so. You need not be annoyed by seeing 
 him a most importunate fellow. If you will write a 
 line or two assuring him that in our business transactions 
 I will care for his interests as my own ?" 
 
 Jack, after a moment s pause, drew a chair forward 
 and sat down. " I will look into the matter a little first. 
 What is the man s name ?" 
 
 " He calls himself Voss. I think. Yes, Voss. You 
 procured his discharge from the Eastern Penitentiary a 
 few years ago, and the fellow has made a sort of demi 
 god of you since." 
 
 "Voss? Yes, I remember." He sat silent for a min 
 ute, and then looked up at Laird quietly. "I under 
 stand. You intend to use this poor ruffian in some way 
 which will bring upon him the punishment of the law, 
 and want me to assure him that you will protect him 
 from it." 
 
 "You state the matter baldly. But that is about the 
 gist of it. There s no use of any circumlocution farther," 
 coming up and looking fully at Andross, with very much 
 the look of a bull-dog driven to a corner. 
 
 "No. Not with me. I know that you will not pro 
 tect him," calmly. " The Eing have usually found Moya- 
 mensing or Sing Sing the safest places to keep their toojs 
 after a job until they needed them again." 
 
 " There is no need of any crimination or recrimination 
 passing between us. I told you I did not mean to quar 
 rel with you. You refuse to serve me in this thing ?" 
 
 " I certainly refuse. If the poor wretch has a good 
 opinion of me, I assuredly shall not use it to drive him 
 faster to the devil. If that is all of your business with 
 me, Mr. Laird, you might have known that it was hardly 
 worth while to disturb me," rising. 
 
 " One moment, Andross. It would be better for us 
 first to look at this matter in a business point of view, 
 without any loss of temper " 
 
276 JOHN ANDROSS. 
 
 "I am not losing my temper," flushing hotly. "I 
 will not look at the matter from any point of view what 
 ever. I am under the yoke of your accursed Ring my 
 self, but as God sees me, I ll not drag any other man 
 under it to perdition ! " 
 
 Laird laughed coolly. " It would be hard to increase 
 Voss s chances for a good long stay in purgatory, I fancy. 
 Now, Mr. Andross, this is a sheer Quixotism on your 
 part. The man is a ruffian, in the grain. I want, I 
 frankly confess, to use his ruffianism against a fellow of 
 his own sort; to punish him temporarily that is all. 
 Yoss has no religious scruples his only fear is of the 
 Black Maria and Moya. I give you my word, he shall es 
 cape both. Will you give yours to him ?" 
 
 Jack had been watching Laird with an astonished pity 
 as he spoke-. " I knew this kind of business was done by 
 the hirelings of the Ring," he said gravely. "But I 
 would not have believed, unless I heard it from his own 
 mouth, that Houston Laird would take part in it." 
 
 Laird made a hasty step towards him, then paused. 
 " One is driven by necessity to many disagreeable things," 
 he said calmly. "I think you will find, before we have 
 ended, that it will be to your interest as to mine, to take 
 part in this." 
 
 His calmness was more dangerous than any rage. 
 Andross felt that the decisive moment had come. He 
 laid down his hat, bracing himself unconsciously. "I 
 am ready to hear all you have to say. " 
 
 He had never struggled with Laird before, except 
 when the right was on his side ; and he had always been 
 worsted. Always. But he would not be worsted now ! 
 Was he to help drag this man down to hell ? Did they 
 dare to come to Jack Andross with such a job ? Though 
 he had sold himself last night 
 
 "Goon, Mr. Laird." 
 
 " I need not remind you, Andross, of your position 
 
JOHN ANDBOSS. $77 
 
 here. You are a prominent leader, beginning to be known 
 as a brilliant orator, handsome " 
 
 "What has that to do with Voss? Keep to the sub 
 ject This poor bully whom you wish to hire " 
 
 The rage and scorn which he repressed flashed in his 
 eyes, and made him stammer. 
 
 " You will see the connection presently. There is a 
 straight road of success open for you. I need not mark 
 it in detail. In a month you will marry the woman you 
 love if you serve me in this matter." 
 
 " You can not hurt me there. She is mine. Nothing 
 can take her from me. " 
 
 "It is necessary," continued Laird quietly, "for the 
 very existence of the Ring, that this Voss should serve 
 me ; will you compel him to do so ?" 
 
 "I have told you, I will not !" with a loud emphasis. 
 
 "Then it will be needful for me to go into a commit 
 tee room yonder," nodding toward the State-house, "and 
 show an affidavit which I have in my pocket-book, signed 
 by Shortlief Kenny, which proves that on last July, John 
 Andross " 
 
 "Kenny For God s sake ! " An dross staggered 
 
 back to a chair, his fingers tugging at his cravat, the 
 blood leaving his ruddy face livid. 
 
 Laird paused for a minute. " The Legislature is lax 
 enough as to morals. But we can not reelect a known 
 thief to his seat ; or, would Maddox, do you think, give 
 his daughter to the man that had stolen from him ?" 
 
 Andross got up at last. His chin trembled like a 
 woman s. "Let it come. I deserved it. But I had 
 
 just got the money ready to pay into the Works Oh, 
 
 God ! These are hard lines ! " 
 
 " You will not give Yoss the order then ? Think better 
 of it, Andross," laying his hand on him soothingly. 
 
 "JSTo!" pushing him violently back. "I ll never do 
 it!" 
 
278 JOHN ANDROSS. 
 
 Laird hesitated, eyeing him thoughtfully, and then 
 left the room for a moment, unnoticed by Jack. There 
 was a little tap at the door, after he reentered, and An 
 na s face, showered over with golden curls, was thrust in. 
 
 "Recall yourself, sir," whispered Laird. "She knows 
 nothing ! " The judge came puffing in after her. 
 
 "Why, dear me, have you two been quarrelling? Why 
 don t you look at me, Jack?" touching his sleeve. 
 "You ve been here an hour. I thought you were never 
 coming back to me." 
 
 He looked at her with a smile ; the poor wretch could 
 not keep the bitter tears out of his eyes, ashamed of them 
 as he was. " I never will go back, Anna." 
 
 "Never!" with a terrified little scream, holding by 
 his arm and looking round to Laird for her cue. 
 
 "There is a difficulty, Miss Maddox," Laird said, 
 "which I can explain to you. I require of Mr. Andross 
 a service that costs him nothing, but on which my finan 
 cial credit and that of your father depend. In my anger 
 at his refusal I was so rash as to threaten that Judge 
 Maddox would not give his daughter s hand to a man 
 who disobliged him in so important a matter, and who," 
 glancing significantly at the judge, "could no longer be 
 considered the favoured organ of our Company." 
 
 "And you were quite right, sir," cried the judge. 
 "Nothing for nothing s my motto. Are you going back 
 in your vote on the Transit bill ? " turning fiercely on 
 Jack. 
 
 But Andross did not hear him. His eyes were fixed on 
 Anna. All the love, all the long struggle of the man s 
 life were in them, if there had been anybody who chose 
 to read them. 
 
 "Anna, you shall decide for me." He took her hands, 
 and drew her in front of him. The judge would have in 
 terfered, but Andross motioned him away. " Stand 
 back, sir. You have no right to come between us." 
 
JOHX ANDBOSS. 279 
 
 Anna sobbed, and looked over at Laird. "Why cer 
 tainly, dear Jack, I ll decide," she cried. Secretly, she 
 wished he had a glass of wine to bring some colour into 
 his face. It was quite ugly. So sallow and contracted ! 
 
 " This work which this man Laird gives me is vile. I 
 can not even name it to you. But if I refuse to do it, I 
 lose you. If I consent they can not take you from me. 
 What shall I do ? I I can not give you up ! " His hold 
 of her was so heavy that she could hardly bear the pain. 
 But for once the woman showed a certain strength. The 
 same incomprehensible expression of perplexity and terror 
 which Laird had noticed before, came into her face ; 
 from some secret under-current of thought, as he plainly 
 saw. 
 
 "It would be wrong for you to do it, Jack ?" she said 
 gently. " It would be a sin, and you would do it to keep 
 me? Then I think" withdrawing herself slowly from his 
 hold : but she stopped, with a little quiver. " But then, 
 if you don t, poor papa will be quite ruined ! The house 
 and everything go and " 
 
 There was an absolute silence through the room. 
 "Dear Jack," she said at last, her puny features con 
 tracted like an old woman s; "I think you had better 
 be obliging, and be governed by Mr. Laird, and then " 
 she lifted his hand so as to press it against her lips. 
 
 " Then you will not desert me ? When I pay this 
 price for you, you are mine for life ?" 
 
 It was noticeable that it was not Laird s faith for which 
 he required a pledge, but Anna s. 
 
 She gave an hysteric, exhausted scream. "How can I 
 
 satisfy you all? Poor papa s fortune, and Oh, I 
 
 dare not, I dare not !" 
 
 " But you love me, Anna ? If I have not that " 
 
 She caught Laird s eye, and was suddenly calm. "Of 
 course I love you," looking beyond him at her prompter 
 like a whipped child. " It s not fair to lay such burdens 
 
280 JOHN ANDROSS. 
 
 on poor little me ! I think I think I am going to 
 die ! " sinking down. 
 
 Andross carried her as he would a baby to the sofa, 
 and laid her down, stopping to lift a lock of hair gently 
 back that had fallen over her face ; then he turned his 
 back on her. " It was not fair to ask her to decide. I 
 will do as you wish. Is the man Voss here ?" 
 
 "In one moment, Mr. Andross." Laird hurried to 
 the door. "Willitts!" 
 
 " I don t know what this Voss matter is, Fm sure," 
 said the judge ponderously. " I hope you re not offend 
 ed with me, John. I really thought you were going 
 back on us about that bill business." 
 
 But Jack did not hear him. Anna, her faintness 
 past, looked at him out of the corner of her eye unseen. 
 
 In a minute, Willitts ushered in Voss and speedily dis 
 appeared. Andross hardly waited, for the door to close. 
 
 " Mr. Voss, I understand that you require my advice be 
 fore you close with whatever offer Mr. Laird or his agents 
 may make you. I do advise you, to accept their terms." 
 
 "Well, you see, Mr. Andross, it is a ticklish and un 
 pleasant kind of thing; to begin with " 
 
 "We will not discuss business before the lady," hastily 
 interposed Laird. 
 
 "You had better come to your own room, Anna," said 
 her father. 
 
 "No. I ll stay. I want to see this gentleman." 
 
 "I ll be careful." Voss removed his hat and ran his 
 hand through his oily hair. "I have a great regard for 
 the fair sex myself, ma am." 
 
 Anna, on the sofa, nodded and smiled sweetly on him. 
 Voss, who had as shrewd a sight as one of his own ter 
 riers, perceived that the men before him were strongly 
 moved by some discussion which he had not heard, and 
 the consciousness of this embarrassed and checked his 
 garrulity. . i 
 
JOHN" ASTDKOSS. 281 
 
 " I m quite satisfied with Mr. Laird s terms/ lie said 
 gruffly, turning to Andross, "as to money. But it s what 
 we call a fancy job, and I d rather have nothing to do 
 with it, unless I spoke to you first, Boss, and you d give 
 me your word it ud be all right, and no backing down 
 on me in the end. As one gentleman to another. " 
 
 Mr. Andross did not answer readily. " I advise you to 
 take the job ; as one gentleman would another," breaking 
 into a loud laugh. "We are all gentlemen here to 
 gether," still laughing, with what Voss thought unsea 
 sonable gayety. 
 
 "Well, sir; that s all right, then," he said, confused. 
 " I needn t have made such a p int of it, I suppose. But 
 I knowed you, and I wasn t acquainted with your friend 
 Mr. Laird. When I heerd in New York, this fall, you d 
 been run into Billy Sheifield s place, I just remarked to 
 the boys, ( There s one man in the legislator is a friend of 
 mine. He s a man you can tie to." Ho had come up 
 close, with an assumption of intimacy. With all his fas 
 tidious tastes, it never annoyed Andross to "fellowship" 
 with the dirtiest or most vicious ruffian ; he answered 
 Voss as though they had been equals, with a wild, uncer 
 tain wandering of the eye. 
 
 "You re quite right, Voss. If I have a virtue, it s 
 firmness. All my friends, and God, too, I suppose, know 
 how far I m to be trusted," laughing again, until ho 
 caught Voss s bewildered look, when it occurred to him 
 that there was but little manliness in jibing or whining 
 over his fall to this bully. "You can go now," he said 
 abruptly, nodding to the door. 
 
 Voss was used to the changing moods of people who 
 trafficked with him ; he made a cringing bow. Andross 
 was none the less to him the finest gentleman he had 
 ever seen, because he ordered him out like a dog. 
 
 " Well, sir ? " he whispered, passing Laird. 
 
 "Go. at once to Wilkins, I have no more to do with it," 
 
282 JOHN" AXDROSS. 
 
 turning away and coming up to Jack, while Voss went 
 out, feeling as if lie had hardly clinched the bargain 
 securely after all. 
 
 "Mr. Andross," said Laird aloud and formally, "you 
 have obliged me greatly ; so greatly that I wish you to 
 understand that this is the last favour I shall ever ask 
 at your hands. The burden of obligation is hereafter on 
 my side. I will make a pact of friendship with you, if 
 you wish," smiling pleasantly. The smile faded when 
 he met Jack s eye. The poor fellow, he felt, had been 
 driven now a step too far ; he was dangerous. 
 
 ( I do not wish it," said Andross in a low tone. " I 
 only want to know that we are done with each other. 
 I ve paid the price of your secrecy. You will not play 
 this game again on me ? " 
 
 "No, 110," earnestly. "Take your own road now. 
 I ll do all I can to make it successful. I wish you could 
 understand, Andross. It was very unpleasant for me to 
 push you so far. But there s an enormous amount in 
 volved. You ve no idea " 
 
 "Successful!" said the judge, who had caught a 
 word and was anxious to make the best now of Anna s 
 bargain. "Oh, there s no doubt of Jack s success now. 
 The party will refuse you nothing after you ve settled 
 this Transit matter." 
 
 Anna gathered herself up weakly from the sofa. 
 "Jack, will you look for my slipper? I ve lost it," 
 thrusting out the point of one tiny foot in rose-coloured 
 stocking. " Let us go back," she whispered, as he knelt 
 to put it on. "You ve made an end of this business 
 here, haven t you ? " 
 
 "Yes, it s ended," rising. 
 
 " Well, then ! " sharply. " Don t look so haggard and 
 ghastly about it ! That Mr. Voss is the only cheerful 
 man in the party. What a lovely emerald pin he had ! I 
 do love emeralds !" 
 
JOHtf AOTROSS. 283 
 
 "Do you? Jack will hang jewels all over you, Puss, 
 no doubt/ said her father. "He ll be a luxurious, in 
 dulgent fellow for a husband ! " 
 
 Jack smiled, as the judge meant he should. "You 
 should only wear pearls," he said, looking down fondly 
 into her eyes. The poor little woman, how could she 
 know the price he had paid for her ? Why should she 
 not chatter about emeralds? He heard her chattering 
 still as they crossed the hall, but did not understand her. 
 That Jack Andross that he was yesterday how far off he 
 was dead and gone ! All that scraping and saving of 
 dollars to pay Maddox : what folly that had been ! And 
 that incessant old-fashioned talk of honesty and serving 
 Christ, which his mother had harped on perpetually 
 that was folly too ! There was nothing in it when you 
 looked at it. If he was elected again, and could buy a 
 house for Anna, and fill it with rare furniture and old 
 
 china : could dress her as she should be dressed that 
 
 was all there was real for him in life, after all ; just as 
 with Laird and the others it was a struggle with all 
 of them for emeralds, or houses, or stocks. 
 
 In the hall they passed a gray, venerable, old man, a 
 judge of the criminal court, with two or three young 
 lawyers, all from Philadelphia. They bowed deferentially 
 to Andross, the judge shaking hands cordially with him. 
 "I hear, Mr. Andross, you are going to support my 
 friend, Mr. Laird, when his bill comes up this afternoon. 
 The party will not forget it," meaningly, bowing again 
 low to Anna. 
 
 "That is a member of the Christian church, and he 
 knows that I was bought like any other chattel," said 
 Andross quietly when they had reached the room, whereat 
 Anna began to cry. 
 
 "It is impious in you to talk that way of Christians 
 and religion, and I don t choose you to do it," she 
 sobbed. 
 
284 JOHX ANDROSS. 
 
 The Christian religion, just then, seemed worth as 
 much to Jack; as the traditions of the Parsees. 
 
 "I want to be alone, anyhow," she said when he did 
 not reply. "I shall go to my own room for an hour or 
 two." She lingered, the knob of the door in her hand, 
 waiting to be coaxed, but he made no effort to detain her. 
 
 " I will wait here for you," he said dully. 
 
 "But if the bill comes up ?" anxiously. Your 
 vote, you know ? " 
 
 " They will take care to find me," with a shrug. 
 
 Anna hurried into her chamber, and when she had 
 shut the door, burst into an uncontrollable hysterical 
 spasm of weeping, throwing herself upon the bed. Her 
 suffering was unmistakably intense, and real. 
 
 " If s too late!" she cried. "No emeralds, no pearls 
 for me ! Oh ! Never, never ! " 
 
 CHAPTEE XXXII. 
 
 ME. VOSS did not go farther from the hotel than to 
 the telegraph office, where he sent a laconic mes 
 sage to Jabez Wilkins, at his residence in Green^ street, 
 Philadelphia, signing it by another name than his own, 
 and then returning to his boarding-house, to tranquilly 
 await the result. 
 
 The message, received by Mr. Wilkins about noon, was 
 at once carried by him to one or two other distillers who 
 had formed "a ring under the Eing," which, as they 
 said, "meant not talk but biz." 
 
 "Voss tells us to send the party to him. He won t 
 show in Philadelphia, and he s about right on that," 
 Wilkins explained to his colleagues, who were more thick 
 headed than himself. "The party must be^old Latimer 
 first then : Bowyer 11 not budge from this town any 
 more than a hound when the slot s gone into a hole." 
 
 After further discussion, though the words were few 
 and to the point for Wilkins was clear-sighted and a 
 man of action a plan was determined upon, which was 
 to pay the tax imposed by Bowyer within an hour, when 
 the colonel would be relieved from any duty of watchful- 
 
A^DROSS. 286 
 
 ness ; and then, as Wilkins explained, "to summon him 
 to Mttany immediately by a bogus message. The old 
 patriarch can be fooled by a child. Barry, as he don t 
 know you, you can run up with him on the train to Har- 
 risburgh and give Voss his instructions, to go on with 
 him to Lock Haven. Let Voss manage the rest himself." 
 
 "You ve not There s no intention of inflicting 
 
 any permanent injury on the old man, Wilkins ?" asked 
 Job Follet, the youngest of the party. 
 
 "Why, certainly not. Do you think we are brutes ? 
 Only a sufficiently severe lesson to teach him to" attend 
 to his own business, and keep from meddling; that s all." 
 
 " Permanent injury ? Of course not," repeated Barry, 
 shaking his head emphatically. "But the bogus mes 
 sage, Wilkins ? " 
 
 " I can manage that. I ve got the run of the colonel s 
 antecedents pretty thoroughly. He s a Virginian, with 
 cousins by the score. Pll draw on his family affection. 
 Let me alone. I ll manage it. Do you be ready at the 
 depot, Barry, to go aboard whatever train he takes, and 
 keep him in sight until Voss has him in charge. Follet, 
 take this check up to that thief Bowyer. It s the last." 
 
 " Voss is not as large a man as the colonel," said Barry, 
 in an undertone, when the door closed behind Follet. 
 
 "I ve seen Latimer. He s a rheumatic old rackle of 
 bones," grunted Wilkins, "and Voss has the muscles of 
 an ox. Besides, he ll be well armed. Sam Voss is not 
 going to risk anything to a hand to hand fight, when a 
 pistol will do the job better. He knows his business." 
 
 "Yes, I suppose so," said Barry, uneasily. 
 
 By one o clock, Follet tapped at the door of Colonel 
 Latimer s private office, and came up to the square open 
 ing in the railing, behind which the old gentleman sat at 
 his desk poring over his inscrutable accounts, while Bow 
 yer, newspaper in hand, kept watch and ward over him. 
 
 Follet, a smug, light-haired little Irishman, laid down 
 the check on the desk. " For the distilleries named in 
 this list. Monthly accounts of taxes, paid up to date," he 
 said, scrutinizing the old colonel eagerly. 
 
 Colonel Latimer threw down his pen, and rubbed his 
 spectacles clear, before examining the check, with an as- 
 
286 JOHN ANDROSS. 
 
 sumption of great keenness. "Ah h: quite right, 
 Mr. ?" 
 
 "Follet, sir." 
 
 "Mr. Follet. Here, Bowyer," with a triumphant nod, 
 and muttering, "I told you Laird would make his men 
 deal fairly. Your receipts, Mr. Follet. " 
 
 V That makes us square, I believe ? " said Follet, hesi 
 tatingly, as he took them. He had a morbid curiosity 
 about the man on whom Wilkins and the rest were going 
 to let slip their dogs before night. A soldierly looking 
 old chap, he thought, eyeing the colonel s ungainly lean 
 length of build : if he were to be at the fight, he d take 
 the old man s part, he believed, though he was running 
 the distilleries down to blue ruin. 
 
 "Yes, that is all right!" said Latimer, cheerfully. 
 " I m very glad " stopping to dip his pen in his ink once 
 or twice, not being sure how far he ought to be civil to sr.ch 
 scoundrels, and changing his cordial tone to one of grave 
 dignity. "I am pleased that you have perceived hew 
 much more advisable it is to conduct this business in a 
 legitimate and open way. Because, sir, the law will have 
 its course. The authorities are aroused, and are deter 
 mined to enforce honesty and justice in small matters as 
 in great. They will speedily put an end to all under 
 handed dealings, Mr. Follet." 
 
 ^ I am rejoiced to hear it, Colonel," said Follet, coolly, 
 putting his receipts smoothly in his pocket-book. "And 
 so should you be, I am sure. Good morning," stopping 
 at the door for another quick, grave inspection of the 
 colonel. 
 
 "A very agreeable, shrewd young fellow, apparently, 
 Bowyer. Who is he?" 
 
 "One of the gang." 
 
 " I was a little uncivil, Fm afraid, eh ? The man came 
 to deal honestly, and it was no time to read him a moral 
 lecture. Well, there s no need for a raid on them to 
 night, you see ?" 
 
 "No, I suppose not," gruffly. 
 
 "The men always meant to pay. No doubt of it; 
 might have been a little hard pressed for a few days. But 
 Houston Laird s an honourable man. I told you it would 
 come out all right. You don t know him, Bowyer ; and 
 
JOHIs" AJSTDROSS. 587 
 
 you re apt, do you know, to be a little censorious ? You 
 ought to guard against that. I ought to guard against it 
 myself ; in fact, I m apt to judge human nature pretty 
 sharply, I tell you. But then I m an older man than 
 you, and have had more experience of the world." 
 
 "Yes. I think I have retained the ingenuousness of 
 my youth, Colonel," said Bowyer, gravely. 
 
 "Then you re convinced these men are going to deal 
 fairly, now?" anxiously. 
 
 " I don t know how they are going to deal," angrily. 
 "They re a trick ahead of me this time." 
 
 The postman came in at the moment. Now, just around 
 the corner, the postman had met a boy running breath 
 less to intercept him with a letter, which he had left by 
 mistake the day before at the wrong house. Such ac 
 cidents had happened to him before. He glanced at the 
 letter, in a yellow envelope, directed to Colonel Thomas 
 M. Latimer, Collector, etc., and with the written post 
 mark of some obscure country village Nittany Hall, 
 Centre county. He thrust it into the bundle of the 
 colonel s letters, and laid them a moment after on his 
 desk, not thinking it necessary to make any explanation 
 of so trifling a mistake. 
 
 In a few moments Bowyer was startled by the colonel s 
 loud "Tut, tut !" followed by the slamming of his ledg 
 ers and locking of his drawers. 
 
 "What is wrong, sir?" 
 
 " Oh, the deuce to pay up in Nittany ! Hale Latimer, 
 a cousin of mine, is up there, ill worse than he says, I 
 suspect. He thought I was there still, and went up from 
 New York to finish out the winter, and stayed at old 
 Van Meter s, hunting on the range. Now he has pneu 
 monia. Just like him, to go there without knowing 
 where I was. The most unpractical, head-over-heels fel 
 low ! The other branch of the Latimers are all just that 
 sort of people. Here, Dick !" 
 
 "May I ask what you propose to do, Colonel?" said 
 Bowyer. 
 
 " Do ? Why, go to Hale at once," scribbling a hasty 
 note as he spoke. "Take this note up to Miss Latimer, 
 Dick, with this letter. Tell her I ll be back to-morrow 
 evening with my cousin, if he is able to travel. I forgot 
 
288 JOHK ANDROS3. 
 
 to mention that." He was buckling on his overshoes 
 and his old military cloak, twisting them all awry in 
 his haste. "I ll just be in time to catch the up train. 
 Lucky those fellows paid their taxes, or I should have 
 had to stay to fight it out with the gangers at my 
 back ! Confound it, Bowyer, I didn t like that ! Where 
 the deuce is this cape ? Well, I m off now." 
 
 "Had you not better take Miss Latimer with you, 
 Colonel?" 
 
 "Such weather as this? I have to ride from Lock 
 Haven across the hills on horseback. Besides, Miss Mor- 
 
 fan would load me with baggage, if I went near the 
 ouse : dry socks and mustard plasters and a portable bed 
 for Hale, very likely no, no. Always keep clear of 
 women if you want to attend to business properly, Bow- 
 yer." 
 
 Bowyer walked with the colonel to the depot. He 
 thought it best to see him safely out of town, not know 
 ing what the game of Wilkins and his men might be. 
 Laird might have interfered, as Latimer said. But 
 nothing could be luckier than this sudden summons of 
 the colonel out of town. 
 
 "How do you propose to carry a man ill with pneu 
 monia across the hills on horseback, Colonel ? " asked 
 Bowyer as they waited for the train to start. 
 
 The colonel glared at him for a moment. "That s 
 just like a woman, to raise feeble difficulties. I ll find 
 the way, sir. You d have me leave Hale there to die, 
 would you ? Of all men he s the least fit to take care of 
 himself : the most headlong " 
 
 At that moment the bell rang, and the colonel jumped 
 aboard. Bowyer, seeing his gray head disappear in the 
 car as- it moved off, sauntered across the bridge again 
 with a long-drawn breath of relief. Mr. Barry, unseen 
 by him, had entered the other end of the train, and be 
 fore Bowyer had reached the office, was seated by the 
 colonel exchanging vehement opinions with him on the 
 corruption in their own party, and the urgent need of 
 the Citizens Eeform. A more intelligent man, or one 
 more awake to the needs of the hour, the colonel thought, 
 he had never met. 
 
JOHJsT AKDROS3. 289 
 
 Dick made unusual haste with his message, as it was 
 to Miss Latimer, who had been kind to the boy. He 
 lingered after it was sent in,, in the hope of being sent 
 for, and when Oth summoned him, hurried in. 
 
 Miss Latimer was standing in the middle of the floor, 
 the open letter in her hand. She had a stupid, terrified 
 look in her gray eyes, which enlisted even the boy Dick 
 as an instant champion. 
 
 " Colonel Latimer says he is going to my cousin Hale. 
 This letter is not from my cousin Hale." 
 
 "I don t know about that, ma am. The colonel is 
 certainly gone to the mountains. By the 1 : 20 train. 
 He s off now," glancing medifatively at the clock, "some 
 fif teen minutes." 
 
 "Did Mr. Bowyer know he was going ?" 
 
 f He companied him to the depot. So it must be all 
 right. Mr. Bowyer s sharp, I tell you now," in a consola 
 tory tone. 
 
 Isabel turned the letter over again held it to the light. 
 She had not seen Hale Latimer s writing for years, but as 
 with most slow people her memory never failed her. This 
 was a forgery. Her father had been decoyed out of town 
 by a trick, and Bowyer had beefi tricked with him. 
 
 When she turned toward Dick, the lad jumped from 
 his seat. " What has happened, Miss Latimer ? I ll run 
 for Mr. Bowyer." 
 
 " Stop ; there will be no time. When does the next 
 train go to Harrisburgh ? " 
 
 " In half an hour. The Pittsburgh express 
 
 " Bring a carriage and I can reach it." 
 
 Dick ran like the wind, and seated by the driver, 
 speedily brought the hack rattling up "the street. Isabel 
 was standing in the door, Miss Morgan wrapping her 
 fur mantle about her. "If I knew where you were go 
 ing ! If you would only let me go with you, Isabel," she 
 cried again and again. 
 
 But Isabel heard and saw nothing. An animal on the 
 track of the hunter who had carried off her young could 
 not be more deaf and blind to all on either side of her. 
 
 People hurrying past her to go into the train as she 
 crossed the depot, paused to look back at the girlish face, 
 with its unnatural pallor, and the stern-set gray eyes. 
 
290 JOHN ANDKOSS. 
 
 Not a handsome face, but very like to old Tom Latimer s 
 when he was going into battle. 
 
 For the first time in her life the full power of the 
 woman was awake and in action. She meant to save her 
 father. God only knew how. But he was all she had. 
 
 " Shall I tell Mr. Bowyer to follow you?" said Dick 
 breathlessly, waiting by her seat, although the train was 
 in motion. 
 
 "He will know what to do. Tell him that the letter 
 was a forgery, and that I have gone to my father. I 
 have a friend in Harrisburgh, who will help me, John 
 Andross. " 
 
 But Bowyer had left the office when Dick returned, 
 and it was not Until ten o clock that night that the boy 
 succeeded in finding him, and delivering the message. 
 Bowyer received it in absolute silence and without the 
 change of a feature. Then he drew out his watch, and 
 looked at it. 
 
 "A telegram tathe police at Lock Haven an hour ago," 
 he thought, " would have been enough. But it s too late 
 now. They ve dealt with the old man by this time." 
 
 He went down the street, looking about him as though 
 stunned. 
 
 "Tricked Nick Bowyer, eh?" he said. "Tricked 
 Nick Bowyer?" 
 
 His vengeance, he knew, would be sudden and swift. 
 But of what avail was vengeance ? 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIII. 
 
 TF Andross was troubled by remorse or despair when 
 -*- Anna left him to take measure of himself, such un 
 wholesome megrims were suffered to haunt him but for 
 an hour or two. Whatever might have been her private 
 grief, that heroine (after a nap and lunch), returned to 
 her task with the zeal of a soubrette actress, about to 
 play for the first time a leading part. She had no lack of 
 assistance. The issues dependent on the final action that 
 day of this impulsive young man, were too great for him 
 to be trusted to the manipulation of any woman. Every 
 
JOHN AKDROSS. 291 
 
 advocate of the bill was ready to join with her in fooling 
 him to the top of his bent. It was not known precisely 
 how his vote had been bought, but the coarsest lobbyist 
 understood that it had not been a matter of dollars and 
 cents, as with McElroy. It was expedient, too, that An- 
 dross should be kept out of reach of the opposition, which 
 was led by Hetherington, and included every man of hon 
 esty and integrity in both houses. Jack, who, as Laird s 
 tool, had on his election been received with suspicion by 
 these men, had slowly won for himself a place among 
 them. The report of his defection yesterday had been 
 received by them at first with an indignant denial, and 
 then with an amazement and anger with which their lik 
 ing for Jack had almost as much to do as their interest 
 in the bill. 
 
 "Andross," said the leader (a gray-headed old cham 
 pion of unpopular honesty for years in Harrisburgh), 
 " Andross was tricked into this, not bought. There are 
 some men who have not a price, and that lad is one of 
 them. If I could talk with him for five minutes, Fd set 
 the matter straight." 
 
 But Laird s plans were too well laid ; neither Hether 
 ington nor any of his followers could gain the five 
 minutes. The state dinner was given up, and Anna, 
 with Andross, spent the short winter afternoon at the 
 house of a woman whose whole fortune was risked in 
 Transit stock. There was no more talk of stock or bills 
 in the house than if they had been encamped in Arcadia. 
 There were rare engravings, natural flowers, a few men 
 and women, well-bred, gentle, and witty, whose lives 
 seemed to have been spent in the pleasant places of the 
 world, and who had come to idle away an afternoon here / 
 together as the pleasantest of all ; there was a dainty 
 lunch, with an incessant flowing of champagne. Jack, 
 who came among them, haggard and silent, could not 
 but be touched and pleased, at first, by the delicate hom 
 age which Anna received. That too often garrulous 
 child had learned, since she came to town, when wisely 
 
 \ to be silent, and took the role now of a lovely listener. 
 
 ! Jack knew these cultured men and women could properly 
 recognize her rare beauty and innocence, which he could 
 not bear the common herd should look upon, and was 
 
292 JOHX ANDROSS. 
 
 satisfied that they should appreciate her, and glowed with 
 delight at being able to claim her as his own. He was 
 referred to, constantly, also as an authority in some dis 
 puted points in the matter of engraving, and grew inter 
 ested in explaining them, and then he sat down with one 
 or two of the pictures before him, whose feeling had 
 touched him nearly. Whatever sharp pain he had felt 
 had dulled down into a vague melancholy. 
 
 " Stay, Anna," holding her rose-coloured drapery when 
 she would have left him. She would so much rather 
 have gone to the fire where those gentlemen were ; but 
 the bill the bill ! She would not, however, have long 
 to sit stupidly watching his pale, grave face bent over a 
 lot of yellow prints. The clock was on the stroke of 
 four : she had just heard a whispered message sent from 
 Laird that the bill had passed to its third reading, and the 
 Ayes and Noes were about to be called. Andross might 
 be summoned any moment. 
 
 Meanwhile, the snow outside fell tranquilly ; some one 
 in the next room, with a voice full of power, was softly 
 singing a ballad of Schubert s. The music lifted his 
 mood unconsciously. He had no especial thought of 
 Yosses or Lairds or vile sales of a man s honour ; it was 
 the world life itself which was full of an infinite sad 
 ness and longing ! 
 
 There were some prints of the antique statues beiore 
 him. "There is the same meaning in this Psyche s face," 
 he said to Anna, as though thinking aloud, "-as in the 
 song It tries to tell us that it has found nothing better 
 nothing higher in the world than material beauty, 
 was quite right in the old Greaks to give to the faces ot 
 their gods of Beauty and Strength, a certain sense of 
 l oss _of a something beyond themselves, never to be at 
 tained. I suppose men in the days of Phidias, just as 
 now, grasped and groped for a virtue, or religion, or a 
 God which they never reached, and had to be contented 
 with poorer things which they could see and handle." 
 
 "I don t know anything about Phidias, I m sure, 
 i pushing the print away. "I think those nude figures 
 1 are very immodest." 
 
 " I did not notice that it was"hude. 
 
 The simple, noble faces might have a sense of 
 
JOHN AtfDROSS. 293 
 
 them, but they were expressions of the highest thought 
 of a nation whose thought and action moved on high 
 levels : they could not fail to quicken for the moment the 
 man s sensitive nature, to ennoble in his fancy the mean 
 est things he looked on. The electric fire of that ancient 
 time and people kindled answering, latent heats in him 
 self. 
 
 If it was pain or a sense of loss, it was a keener enjoy 
 ment than any other man s pleasure. Yet Andross could 
 not have told in words what it was he enjoyed. He 
 leaned against the window-frame, looking now at the red 
 in the sunset sky, burning behind the snow, now into 
 the heart of a crimson rose which was growing beside 
 him ; the music, lofty now and soaring, seemed to engross 
 all life and feeling. Yonder across the sea those wonder 
 ful statues carried their white beauty from age to age : 
 from day to day the red burned in the sky ; the roses 
 bloomed each year the same ; the wind that blew on his 
 face had swept since the days of creation oq. its given 
 path ; music incessantly over the world told its mysterious^ 
 messages. It was one of those moments in Andross s life f 
 when a sudden perception of the inexhaustible beauty | 
 and strength of the material world about him seized and |l 
 rapt him and held him dumb. * 
 
 What did he or any man count for in this vast whelm 
 ing force and life ? If he voted Aye or No for the Tran 
 sit bill, or if Voss pummelled his fellow bullies, would 
 the sun burn less red, or the winds alter their awful 
 courses ? 
 
 Anna observed that his cheeks were heated and his 
 eyes dim with tears. " I never knew a man so easily af 
 fected by music," she said, thinking it was no wonder 
 Jack was turned to this side and to that by any men who 
 chose to play battle-door with him. "/think that voice 
 is too flat. Mr. Ware has taught me a great deal about 
 music this winter." 
 
 Their hostess, Mrs. Norris, who had shrewder eyes 
 than Anna, came to lead her away to the lunch-table. 
 "You have not tasted any champagne, Mr. Andross?" 
 chirped Anna, who had a fervid conviction there was no 
 sure hold on any man but liquor. 
 
 " That is not one of his tastes, I am sure," said Mrs. 
 
294 JOHIT A^STDROSS. 
 
 Norris, hurrying her away. She looked at him atten 
 tively over Anna s shoulder, as she stood heaping the young 
 lady s plate with cake and sweetmeats. "No, wine 
 would not touch him," she repeated. "You are his 
 coarsest temptation, I suspect," with a bow and smile 
 which converted the words into a compliment. But she 
 felt a disgust at herself, remembering that the wine had 
 been provided especially, for Andross. This man was not 
 the sensuous fellow whom Laird had described to her ; 
 her heart warmed to him: she wondered if he had a 
 mother living. Long afterwards, when- Andross s career 
 was spoken of before her, she felt the same twinge of self- 
 contempt, remembering how she, on this last day, had 
 helped him to his undoing. 
 
 The gentlemen were beginning to cluster gaily about 
 Anna at the lunch-table, when a slight stir was heard 
 without, and the jangling of sleigh-bells halted suddenly. 
 
 "Is it so late?" said Mrs. Norris nervously. 
 
 " They will reach his name in twenty minutes," whis 
 pered one of the men. 
 
 "It is a message for me, I suppose," said Andross, 
 corning forward with a curious change of countenance. 
 "I must vote on a certain measure, Mrs. Norris; you 
 will pardon me for deserting you and Miss Maddox." 
 
 " Oh ! But we are all going with you !" cried Anna. 
 "Everybody is anxious about the bill; most of these 
 gentlemen must vote on it too ! " 
 
 These people, with whom Jack had established a cer 
 tain Freemasonry, ventured to show now their grati 
 tude to him. These men regarded the bill as the salva 
 tion of the state. This widow would be penniless with 
 her orphan children if it was defeated. Jack, with a 
 secret consciousness that he was being duped, could not 
 resist the pressure. He answered the men cordially, 
 listened sympathetically to the black-robed stockholder, 
 and then sprang into the sleigh, where Anna blushed 
 and beamed on him out of white furs and snowy plumes. 
 It was not in his nature to forget, as he dashed through 
 the street, this creature beside him, rosy and warm as 
 the summer dawn. He knew the crisis of his life was 
 upon him, and there was a certain exhilaration in the 
 very knowledge. 
 
JOHtf ANDEOSS. 295 
 
 " As for the bill what of it ? " he said in a loud voice 
 to Anna. "As many good people defend as oppose it, it 
 seems to me." Whistling the whole matter down the 
 wind as a trifle, he lifted her from the sleigh at the daor 
 of the Capitol. 
 
 The red heat had left the West. The evening was 
 ominously gray and dreary. But the old many-win 
 dowed building blazed with light ; the lobbies, every en 
 trance were alive with excited, eager crowds. He passed 
 through the Eotunda, with Anna clinging to his arm ; 
 groups of men, who had been watching for him, hurried 
 before them into the Senate chamber ; he remembered, 
 with a boyish thrill of excitement, that his coming would 
 bring chagrin or pleasure to every man in the house. 
 But he had no mind to subject Anna to the view of the 
 crowd. 
 
 "I shall take you to a committee room, my darling," 
 he whispered, "and send your father to you. The other 
 house has crowded into the Senate chamber to hear the 
 vote on this bill ; there is a great deal of excited feeling ; 
 it is no place for you." 
 
 "Don t ask me to leave you, Jack," pressing closer to 
 his side, and he, smiling tenderly at her childish devo 
 tion, led her to a seat in the gallery by Mrs. Norris, and 
 lingered before taking his place on the floor. Anna, in 
 deed, detained him beside her ; each moment was pre 
 cious to her in which she could be seen by the multitude 
 beside the hero of the hour ; she appeared to be looking 
 up in his face with eager, innocent questions, but she saw 
 with delight the eyes of the whole house upon him, noted 
 the anger and scorn of the opposition, the triumph of his 
 own party. 
 
 The clerk was slowly calling the Yeas and Nays, each 
 member, as he gave his vote, choosing to state his in 
 dividual reasons for it, more for the benefit of his far-off 
 constituents in Philadelphia or Westmoreland than for 
 the anxious, silent crowds about him. 
 
 Mr. Laird, in the impatience of his now certain tri 
 umph, pushed his way through the throng, and came up 
 to Andross in the gallery, where he still leaned over 
 Anna, returning the salutations of those who looked at 
 him with a flushed, defiant face. He stood erect when 
 
29(3 JOHN ANDROSS. 
 
 Laird touched him, bowed coldly, and walked down the 
 aisle to his place. 
 
 "I ought not to have come near him just now/ said 
 Laird with evident chagrin. " It was ill-advised. I never 
 shall be able to conquer that man s antipathy to me." 
 
 "What does that matter?" said Anna, who could not 
 understand why so rich a man as Laird should care for 
 the good opinion of any penniless fellow. "Why does 
 the opposition make no effort, Mr. Laird? They do not 
 even seem to listen to the voting." 
 
 " All they have to do is to bear defeat stoically. It is 
 too late for any effort. Every man s vote has been can 
 vassed and known for days. Our success was a foregone 
 conclusion when An dross came over, yesterday." 
 
 " They do not try to influence him. See, those are all 
 members of your party, who are crowding about him." 
 
 " No ; he is safe at last, thanks to you, Miss Maddox," 
 lowering his voice. " Nothing would have brought An- 
 dross over but the certainty of winning you. Your 
 promise " 
 
 " Ah h !" She drew her breath sharply through her 
 teeth, half rising and looking about her with an unmis 
 takable terror. 
 
 "What is it? Are you ill?" 
 
 "No, no," with an hysteric giggle. "It s all right. 
 Jack s vote will save you, and papa s property: and all. 
 It s all right." 
 
 Laird .looked down at her through his cynical, half-shut 
 ^yes, but made no answer. The girl was always a bore 
 to him. Now, too, he was anxiously watching Andross s 
 tall, stately figure, about which Ned Willitts was buzzing 
 like an uneasy fly. He saw Jack laugh with him once 
 or twice, and his countenance cleared. Ned had tact, 
 and Andross liked him. 
 
 Willitts, in fact, never had felt sheer, downright envy 
 until now, and expressed it frankly. 
 
 " No man in the country has such a chance, before him 
 as you, Mr. Andross," he said, " to be one of the leaders 
 of the most powerful moneyed ring in the East at your 
 
 age It s not easy for a hard-working drudge like me 
 
 to laugh at the sight. Some men are born for luck." 
 
 "I wish to Heaven you were in my place, Willitts !" 
 
^ AXDEOSS. 297 
 
 But he was not quite sure that he wished it. Every 
 face in the massed crowds told him of his power ; in the 
 future he saw only a life of luxury and command; of burn 
 ing passion ; of tender love gratified. It was early in life 
 thus to reach the top and crown of things. He turned 
 his agitated, glowing face to Anna across the great 
 
 lighted hall It needed but to stretch out his hand 
 
 to grasp the marshal s baton SUCCESS. 
 
 At that moment a page touched his arm, and laid a slip 
 of paper on the desk before him. 
 
 He rose hastily. 
 
 / Where are you going?" cried Willitts, detaining 
 him. " Your name will be called in a few minutes." 
 
 "It is a woman, a friend of mine, who is in great 
 trouble. "Where is she ? " to the boy. 
 
 "In the first committee room." 
 
 "But your vote for Heaven s sake, consider, An- 
 
 dross!" 
 
 " I shall be back in a minute. The vote is safe. Don t 
 detain me. It is Miss Latimer." 
 
 The next moment he pushed open the door of the 
 room where Isabel stood waiting for him. With a 
 woman, or any one who suffered, Jack instantly took the 
 place of adviser and helper with indescribable tenderness 
 and quickness of insight. He gave but one look at her 
 face. 
 
 "Whatever the trouble is, you are unnecessarily 
 alarmed," he said, taking her hand gravely, without 
 pausing for greeting. "You say your father is in danger. 
 Take time to think, and then give -me the plain facts 
 without your fears." 
 
 He was not alarmed. The colonel had no doubt gone 
 headlong into some difficulty, and Isabel, practical as she 
 I was, exaggerated it, according to the manner of women. 
 
 Isabel looked at the clock ; there was only an hour in 
 which to do her work ; she paused, choosing her words. 
 t e My father left Philadelphia for Nittany, tricked by a 
 forged letter. He is now one hour on his way to Lock 
 Haven. On the train there is a man who has been paid 
 to murder him." 
 
 " Murder ^ my dear Miss Latimer ! You are terribly 
 nervous and tired. Tell me what the colonel s difficulty 
 
298 JOHN ANDROSS. 
 
 really is. But murder ? We don t live in the dark ages, 
 or days of assassins," trying not to smile. 
 
 "My father has made enemies. They are the same 
 men who paid for the killing of John Ford." 
 
 The smile left Andross s face. It was quite true 
 there had been such a wretched business last winter. 
 Ford had been shot by the order of the Whiskey Ring, 
 and when the actual murderers threatened to betray their 
 employers, the poor wretches had both been killed, and 
 all inquiry hushed speedily. But Colonel Latimer 
 
 "What object could they have in attacking your 
 father?" 
 
 "A plain business object ; he was ruining the profits of 
 all the distilleries, and can not be removed. The man 
 who threatened him was a distiller, Wilkins ; employed by 
 Houston Laird." 
 
 6 Wilkins ? Yes, go on. " Andross came a step nearer, 
 his countenance altering strangely. 
 
 "When I found the letter was a forgery, I followed my 
 father here. I was but an hour behind him. He was 
 alone when he left home. The station master here, who 
 knows him, tells me that he left the train in company 
 with a distiller named Barry ; that Barry was in close 
 converse with a man who was waiting for him at the 
 depot, and whom he introduced to the colonel as a friend 
 who was going up deer shooting in the mountains ; and 
 that both men went on the train with him to Lock 
 Haven." 
 
 Andross was silent. Some question hung on his lips 
 which he dared not ask. 
 
 "There is no danger for my father on the train," 
 speaking in the same monotonous, unnatural voice. 
 "But he will be cordial and friendly with this man. 
 He will offer to ride with him across the mountains it 
 will be night. It is nearly night now," looking wildly 
 out of the window. 
 
 "What manner of man was this friend of Barry s ?" 
 
 "Short, broadly-built, light haired." 
 
 " Did did the station master hear his name ?" 
 
 In all her own agitation, Isabel was startled by the 
 sudden ghastliness of the man before her as he asked the 
 question. 
 
JOH1T AKDBOSS. 299 
 
 " He knows him. His name is Voss. " 
 
 Andross threw up his hand, and turned away from her. 
 In all the grief or pleasure of his life he had been used 
 to give vehement expression to his always stormy emo 
 tions. Now, he uttered neither word nor cry ; yet some 
 thing in the very air held Isabel dumb and motionless, 
 awed by the presence of a more terrible pain than her 
 own. 
 
 "If your father is murdered," he said, with unnatural 
 quietness, "it is not Voss who has done it it is I." 
 
 " I do not know what you can mean. But you will go 
 yrith me ? I was sure you would go with me to follow 
 them/ 
 
 " Follow them ? Is there time ? to save him ?" 
 
 " The train will not leave for nearly an hour," speaking 
 distinctly and slowly, as she observed his vacant, be 
 wildered look. "We may not be in time, but we can 
 follow them. Can anything be done here ?" 
 
 The words woke him as from a stupor. " Something 
 can be done yes. I can repair my mistake here. My 
 whole life has been a mistake. Oh, my God ! I see that 
 now!" 
 
 The agony of this strong, cheerful fellow was more 
 than Isabel could look upon ; she felt dully that he 
 should always be just the old merry Jack, fun-loving, af 
 fectionate ; she offered no sympathy nor comfort. In 
 his pain he was far apart from her. No one but God 
 could help him. 
 
 She turned away and stood quietly by the fire. It was 
 noticeable that in this hour of delay, she gave no sign of 
 impatience, or made no moan to intrude her suffering on 
 others. 
 
 "You will wait for me here, Miss Latimer?" he said 
 at last. " I shall not detain you long ;" and closing the 
 door he crossed the rotunda again. Willitts met him. 
 
 " Thank Heaven ! you re here !" too eager and excited 
 to observe his silence. " Hill, when he voted no just 
 now, hinted that you had dodged at the last minute ! It 
 fairly took the breath from our people. Hark I" 
 
 "John Andross !" 
 
 The harsh, nasal voice of the clerk could be heard out 
 side of the Senate chamber. 
 
300 JOII^ ASTDROSS. 
 
 Andross shook off Willitts s hold, and went slowly down 
 the middle aisle to his seat. 
 
 " The honourable member from Philadelphia/ "drily 
 interposed a member (who had just voted with the oppo 
 sition), " probably requires to be informed that the bill 
 now before the house is for the relief of the National 
 Transit Company, in which he is said to be, of late, 
 largely interested. The question is, in fact, left for hinl 
 to decide shall it pass ?" 
 
 "John Andross !" called the clerk again. 
 
 "No." 
 
 There was a moment s pause of amazement, and then a 
 burst of cheers from the younger members of the opposi 
 tion, mingled with a few hisses from the other side. 
 
 But astonishment soon hushed the house. Andross 
 remained standing, waiting for silence. As soon as he 
 could be heard he said, in a low voice, I shall not offer 
 any reason for the vote which I have just given. But I 
 wish it recorded as my last public act while a member of 
 this body. I tender my resignation to you, Mr. Speaker, 
 from the Senate of Pennsylvania, to take effect from this 
 day. I resign, because " he stopped, his eyes wand 
 ering uncertainly from face to face ; to Jack they all 
 seemed friendly faces-r-they had met him from day to 
 day with kindliness, and jokes, and laughter "because 
 I I know myself unfit to hold a seat longer among you." 
 
 From any other man the words might have been fol 
 lowed by jeers or indifference. Legislative bodies are 
 suspicious of anything that savours of the melodrama. 
 But Jack Andross was known to every man there ; the 
 terrible sincerity of the few words moved them. 
 
 "It was like the death cry of a woman," old Hether- 
 ington said afterwards. 
 
 It was in the midst of absolute silence that Andross 
 walked, alone and degraded, out of the chamber which 
 he was never to enter again. 
 
 Not altogether alone; for as he passed through the 
 middle aisle, a thin, black-a-vised man, shabby yet prim 
 as to clothes, came eagerly down to meet him and, taking 
 his arm, went out with him. 
 
 "Was this necessary, Jack?" he said when they had 
 reached the Rotunda. 
 
JOHK AKDROSS. 301 
 
 "Is it you, Braddock ? I have but an hour " look 
 ing about him as if the light blinded him. Braddock, 
 seeing how he was shaken, asked no questions after that, 
 but followed him with affectionate zeal, glowering fiercely 
 at every passer-by who looked askance at Andross. 
 
 It was so like Jack, he thought angrily, in this out 
 break of remorse, to humiliate himself before the world ! 
 "Why could he not quietly have slipped out of the Senate ? 
 
 "Unfit to remain with them?" A gang of bribe 
 
 givers and bribe takers ! He followed Andross until he 
 pushed open the door of the committee room. The gas 
 burned brightly within. The room seemed crowded to 
 Andross, as he stood on the threshold. Isabel stood 
 waiting. Houston Laird was there and the members 
 who had sat in caucus night after night, to push his bill; 
 Judge Maddox and, nearest of all, her blue reproachful 
 
 eyes fixed on his Anna. The blue eyes, perceiving 
 
 Braddock behind him, it is true, wandered occasionally ; 
 but Braddock, although he had come to Harrisburgh in 
 .the desperate hope of finding comfort with Anna, avoided 
 her now and drew back into a dark corner, out of sight. 
 
 Judge Maddox, in the excess of his wrath, could 
 scarcely wait for Andross to enter the room. 
 
 "It is hardly worth while to tell you that you have 
 ruined me," he stammered. 
 
 " Mr. Andross has a right to vote as he chooses," said 
 one of the members ; "but if he will explain why he de 
 ceived us during these two days " 
 
 "Why should he explain ?" hastily interposed Laird. 
 
 " Why need there be any farther recrimination ? I came 
 
 here to beg there should be none. The vote is given. 
 
 Mr. Andross has resigned his seat. There shall be an 
 
 end of it." 
 
 "No. I have a word to say," said Andross. He had 
 come up to the square table and stood leaning on his 
 knuckles, facing them, the light full on his pale, bearded 
 face. There was silence for a moment. The crowd 
 about him were so many shadows ; he saw only the 
 woman that he loved, and whom he was going to pub 
 away from him forever. 
 
 I am sorry if I have caused you any loss," turning 
 dully to Maddox. "I ruined myself first of all. I ve 
 
302 JOHN Als DROSS. 
 
 been playing a sham part long enough. Fm going to 
 end it now." 
 
 " You are going to act like a rash, headlong Hotspur, 
 as usual, Andross," said Laird, laying his hand sooth 
 ingly on his shoulder ; but whether prompted by kindness 
 or policy he could not himself at the moment have told. 
 
 " When I was a boy," continued Jack, without notic 
 ing him, "I learned the meanest tricks of trade and 
 practised them, through fear of of a man who held a 
 rod over me. When I was in your office, Judge Maddox, 
 I robbed you of six thousand dollars to rid myself of 
 him: to-day I was accessory to a murder to buy his 
 silence about that theft. I do not blame him. It is I 
 who have been the thief and the coward." 
 
 " Six thousand ? I never missed that money !" stam 
 mered the judge. " It s very remarkable !" 
 
 "Now, gentlemen," said Jack, turning to the men, 
 "you know the worst of me. "I need buy no man s 
 silence henceforth. I always thought myself a strong 
 man," his chin quivering, "but I ve been weak weak 
 as water." 
 
 There was an embarrassed pause. One or two of the 
 legislators went quietly out of the door, nodding to the 
 others, who, after a moment s hesitation, followed them 
 without a word. 
 
 Judge Maddox broke the silence. It was the time, he 
 felt, to adjust all matters definitely that concerned this 
 young man in the future. 
 
 "This is an astounding disclosure to me! Truly 
 astounding!" after a preparatory cough. "You can 
 hardly expect, Mr. Andross, that after you confess your 
 self guilty of theft (though I can t, for my soul, see when 
 
 that six thousand. ) guilty of theft, as I say, that you 
 
 should retain any pretension to my daughter s hand." 
 
 Andross looked at her in silence ; but the soft blue 
 eyes went wandering to the ceiling, the floor, everywhere 
 but his face. 
 
 " I do not expect it," he said in a low tone. 
 
 " Come, my daughter, we will go then," rising and 
 drawing her hand into his arm. 
 
 Andross made a quick step between the pink-robed 
 figure and the door. He held out his hands ; "Anna!" 
 
JOHN ANDROSS. 303 
 
 "What is it, Jack?" calmly. 
 
 " If I have sinned, it was for you. It was because I 
 loved you that I turned my back on my God. It was to put 
 away all obstacles between us that I took the money; 
 that I came here as the tool of the King. They bought 
 me for the worst purposes to-day, with the promise that 
 you should be my wife, and you knew it. " 
 
 " Oh, yes, I knew that," with an arch little nod. 
 
 ( I never deserved you as I do to-night, when I am 
 ruined and disgraced. I have left myself nothing but 
 you. Can you give me up ? " 
 
 "You have no right to distress my daughter in this 
 way," blustered the judge. 
 
 But Andross only held out his hands to" her with the 
 look of a drowning man asking for help. "Come to me. 
 I have only you. And I I loved you so ! " 
 
 " Don t hold my arm, papa," composedly. "He does 
 not distress me in the least. I can not marry you, Mr. 
 Andross, even if I wished to marry any gentleman whose 
 
 social position would be so uncertain, because " she 
 
 grew a little paler, and her pipe of a voice quailed slightly, 
 
 "because It s quite time that I told you about it, 
 
 papa - 1 am a wife already. I have been married for 
 two months to Mr. Ware. Oh, dear!" beginning to 
 cry. "Where is Julius? He never is near when he is 
 wanted." 
 
 She began to cry more vehemently in a minute or two. 
 There was something awful even to her shallow soul in 
 the face of the man whose life in this world and the 
 next she had trampled down : there was such a blank 
 silence about her too : it was not at all the delightful dis 
 may and melodrama to which she had always looked for 
 ward in this denouement. "Take me home, papa. 
 Why don t you take me home ?" she cried irritably. 
 
 The judge, who had dropped into a seat with his pur 
 ple face buried in his hands, groaned aloud : " Married ! 
 To a starving preacher ! How in Heaven s name am I to 
 meet Bislow s mortgage, now ?" 
 
 Anna turned from him to be confronted by Braddock, 
 lean and stern and black-coated ; fit, she thought, for a 
 judge in any lugubrious Presbyterian Israel. 
 
 "Do you" mean to tell me," catching her by the pink 
 
304 JOHN ANDROSS.* 
 
 bejewelled wrists, "that you were another man s wife a 
 week ago ? " He dropped his hold of her with a gesture 
 which, in a less religious man might, she felt, with a de 
 licious excitement have been a curse. He turned his pale 
 face to Isabel. He sa.v now what he had lost for this 
 poor creature saw how weak and guilty he had been ; 
 how that he in his immaculate strength had fallen as far 
 as Andross. " To think that a woman a member of the 
 Christian church, should drag men so. near to hell!" 
 he cried. 
 
 "And for Ware!" muttered the judge. "A fellow 
 without a penny !" 
 
 "You shall not speak harshly to her, Braddock," said 
 Jack. "Poor child! poor little child!" looking down 
 at her as she crept up to him, with infinite tenderness and 
 pity in his sad eyes. He even saw the red marks on her 
 wrists, which she rubbed and held to her cheek ; remem 
 bering, as he did it, that it was the last- time he should 
 ever be so near her or touch her. 
 
 "Nobody was ever so good to me as you, Jack !" she 
 sobbed. 
 
 He put her gently away from him. " I loved you for 
 a long time, Anna. I wish you could have found it in 
 your heart to care for me. But you were right to marry 
 the man you loved. / don t blame you." He hesitated 
 a moment, and then raised the reddened little wrist to 
 his lips. " Good bye," he said simply, and went to the 
 door, whence Isabel followed him. 
 
 When they were gone, and Anna was left alone in the 
 
 faudily dismal room with her fat, groaning father, and 
 Ir. Laird, who began to button up his overcoat, as if the 
 play were over, she felt as if the anti-climax was indeed 
 flat- the conclusion of her long-projected romance both 
 lame and impotent. Both Andross and Braddock were 
 gone now out of her life forever. Nobody was left but 
 Ware, and fond as she was of Julius, she had long ago dis- 
 i covered that he would never play up to her in any of 
 K her little dramas of passion. 
 
 "Shall we go home now, papa?" she asked again, 
 shivering drearily, and looking at the flaring lights, the 
 hearth covered with ashes and tobacco-juice, and her pink 
 eilk skirt drabbled and wet. 
 
JOHtf ANDROSS. 305 
 
 "You will go with your husband as soon as he comes 
 to claim you/ said the judge. 
 
 " Julius lives a life of faith. He has no settled home/ 
 she said, shuddering, as she remembered the cheap board 
 ing-house in Philadelphia in which he made his abiding 
 place. 
 
 6 i Then you can live a life of faith together," coolly. 
 " There he comes across the Rotunda," as a large figure 
 striding grandiloquently, came in sight. 
 
 "At least," she cried shrilly, looking up at Laird, 
 " nobody can deny that I made a love-match." 
 
 "No," bowing gallantly. "Who could accuse you of 
 mercenary motives ?" 
 
 " They might have done so," shaking her head sol 
 emnly, "if I had married that poor Andross. Only see 
 how he has turned out ! It would have really been a 
 judgment on me. He reminded me just now when he 
 went out into the night, of Cain driven forth a vagabond 
 and a wanderer." 
 
 "Yes," looking gravely out into the gathering dark 
 ness, "poor Jack s punishment is heavy enough. Bad 
 has begun, yet " with a shrewd glance over the drabbled 
 pretty figure, "in my judgment, ( worse remained be 
 hind. " 
 
 "I don t understand you," lisped Anna, innocently. 
 "Ah, here is dear Julius, papa !" 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIV. 
 
 journey to Lock Haven was made in the midst of 
 a driving storm. The hail beat on the car- windows 
 and ran down in glittering drops outside. Isabel sat 
 quite erect, holding her hands together, looking steadily 
 out as though she could penetrate the darkness. 
 
 They would be riding side by side through the moun 
 tain gorges now. It was dark dark There were gaps 
 
 and crevices at the side of every mountain road where the 
 snow lay deep all winter. A man could drag a dead body 
 there and it would not be found for years 
 
306 JOHK A^DKOSS. 
 
 Once or twice Andross, who paced up and down the 
 car as though he would have urged it on by his motion, 
 stopped and said to her: "Do you think we will be in 
 time ?" It seemed to her as if it were a boy or a child 
 who had asked the question : he was so unable, depend 
 ent, restless. Yet there were times when she read in his 
 ghastly face some pain worse than her own, and wondered 
 vaguely at it. It was not his old father who was to be 
 done to death to-night. 
 
 When they had almost reached Lock Haven, they were 
 alone in the car, and Jack sat down beside her. He was 
 a man who could not keep even the extremest pain hid 
 den in his soul without groping for some man or woman s 
 hand to help him. He began talking to her in a slow, 
 incoherent way that she could not understand, of the boy 
 Jack Andross long ago, whose mother used to sit teaching 
 him at night; and of some psalms ("The Lord is my 
 Shepherd," was one of them), that she had taught him : 
 and then he repeated that verse, "Though I walk 
 through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no 
 ,evil ; for Thou art with me." 
 
 Isabel dully was conscious that Jack had had a good 
 deal of trouble to bear to-night, and was sorry for him ; 
 but she could not understand any one who made this in- 
 cessant moan when in pain. The whole matter dropped 
 speedily out of her mind, together with the crimes im 
 puted to Andross to-night. Isabel having once accepted 
 man or woman, had an incurious habit of shutting her 
 eyes and ears to all reports, or even facts, concerning 
 them thereafter. She might hear it proved, on the clear 
 est testimony, that her companion was a thief or a mur 
 derer, but in five minutes she would swing stupidly back 
 to her old conviction, that it was only Jack Andross, who 
 was her father s friend up in Nittany, a good shot, full of 
 fun, and altogether a loveable sort of a fellow. 
 
 If she had not been so slow, she would have seen where 
 lie stood to-night, and not have left him so utterly alone. 
 Andross was not a man who could stand alone. 
 
 She turned her face mechanically to the window : the 
 range of rolling hills which her father must cross was 
 now in sight, mere gloomy shadows against the unlighted 
 horizon. Lonely even at noonday ; but at night who 
 
JOHN ANDKOSS. 307 
 
 j 
 
 would hear a solitary pistol-shot ? The man had chosen 
 his ground well; there was no chance of interruption 
 when he chose to kill his victim. 
 
 Jack, when she turned away from him, had gone out 
 and stood on the platform as the train slackened its 
 speed, rushing toward the sleeping town. He had been 
 certain (according to his habit of boyish, irrational hopes), 
 that Colonel Latimer would have stopped in Lock Haven, 
 and would come up to meet him with his usual Hillo on 
 the platform. It was not in nature God couldn t mean 
 it, that the old man should die ! That he Jack Andross 
 should have his blood on his hands ! 
 
 "Why, I m his friend !" he cried. "I wanted to be a 
 friend to everybody and an honest man ! " 
 
 He felt in his heart, too, even now, that he had not been 
 a bad sort of fellow : that he had had a friendly, cordial 
 feeling toward God : there was not a day when he had not 
 thanked Him for this beautiful world, and wished he 
 
 could live closer to Him, and yet Because he had 
 
 been weak now and then this had come upon him ! He 
 looked wildly up and down the familiar, silent streets as 
 the car rolled on. It seemed incredible to him that all 
 these sleeping people, whom he knew, should be innocent 
 and he out in the night, a thief and a murderer. 
 
 He opened the car door and came up to Isabel as the 
 brakes grated, and the train rumbled heavily up to the 
 station. When she looked up at him, she took his hand 
 hastily in hers. She had been selfish to forget the poor 
 creature in his misery, she thought. 
 
 "If your father is not here if he has gone on 
 
 and is dead, it is I who have done it ! " he cried. He 
 could not have helped crying out thus to her. He was 
 so utterly deserted by God and man that, with- his tem 
 perament, he would have gone mad, if some human be 
 ing had not broken the silence into which his life seemed 
 to have fallen. 
 
 Isabel, at last, understood how the case stood with him. 
 She waited a moment to think what she should say. She 
 had never come near a soul in such straits before. "I 
 shall never reproach you with what you have done. I 
 
 know how you have tried to do right, and God 
 
 knows. Come, let us go," rising. 
 
308 JOHN ANDROSS. 
 
 He followed her slowly out of the car, afraid to look at 
 the group of figures on the platform., dimly seen through 
 the falling snow lest Latimer s should not be among 
 them. 
 
 Now there was in fact a reasonable chance for this 
 most unreasonable expectation; for Andross had forgotten 
 that, as they waited in the depot in Harrisburgh, Brad- 
 dock, who had followed them from the Capitol, had 
 drawn him aside, and obtained a full account of the pur 
 pose and meaning of their journey. Braddock had gone 
 promptly into the adjacent office, and telegraphed to 
 Lock Haven that the colonel should be detained there 
 until his arrival, and then had taken a seat in the rear 
 car. He had he knew in bitterness of soul no right 
 to offer help to Isabel. Andross, of course, had never 
 thought of such matter-of-fact aids as Braddock or the 
 telegraph. The only chance to prevent the murder was for 
 him to follow Voss, and, in a hand to hand struggle kill 
 him or be killed. But the telegraph office in Lock Haven 
 had been closed f or an hour, which fact Braddock, with 
 all his business-like readiness, forgot was the custom in 
 the little town until he was on his way. 
 
 It seemed, indeed, as if Jack s w r ere to be the only way 
 of rescue. He followed Isabel to the half-dozen dark 
 figures on the platform. She looked at them, and turned 
 away. Her father was not among them. But Andross 
 took her place, speaking rapidly and with decision. Since 
 Isabel had shown some sign of interest in him, his veins 
 seemed to be filled with new blood. 
 
 e Has Colonel Latimer gone on to Nittany ? " 
 
 s< Yes, sir ; him and another gentleman By George ! 
 
 Mr. Andross ! I didn t know you ! " The station master 
 knuckled his hat which, like his caped cloak, was heavy 
 with snow. 
 
 " Were they on horseback ?" 
 
 " Yes, sir. You re not going on, surely. It s a mon 
 strous rough night to be out on the mountains, as I told 
 the colonel. But he said there was a sick lad waiting for 
 him in Nittany, and his friend determined to pull through 
 with him. That s never Miss Latimer!" going up to 
 her, for Andross had left him after the first word and 
 had already bargained with Joe, from the Fallen House, 
 
AKDEOSS. 309 
 
 for the sleigh and horses, which he had brought down to 
 meet the train. 
 
 "How far are they in advance of us?" was Isabel s 
 only reply to the station master s bows and questions. 
 
 "They ve been gone an hour. Quite an hour I should 
 say, Joseph ? " 
 
 "About that. No, Mr. Andross, you d get no better 
 team than that if you tried every stable in the town." 
 
 Some mystery was abroad which Joe would fain have 
 discovered. He hung about Andross until he disappeared 
 into the station, where bj- the lamp he hastily examined 
 the priming of his pistols, buttoning them in his breast 
 pocket more carefully, to keep them dry. When he came 
 out, a tall man was feeling in the- darkness the girths of 
 the horses, loosening a strap here, tightening a knot 
 there. 
 
 " There will be no time for stopping to do this on the 
 way," he said when Andross muttered, impatiently, at 
 the delay. 
 
 " You, Braddock ? Now, Miss Latimer, you will go to 
 
 the hotel. I shall come back as soon as as I can 
 
 bring you word, what the end was." 
 
 " I ? I am going to my father, Mr. Andross." 
 
 " That is impossible ; Braddock ? " 
 
 " Let her go," whispered Clay. " Lift her in and wrap 
 the buffalo-robes about her." He stood apart, while An 
 dross obeyed him, and watched them disappear in the 
 blinding snow. Isabel had heard him, and leaned from , 
 the sleigh, trying to see his face, but she could not. Her 
 strength left her then for the first time. There seemed I 
 to be nothing before her in that whirling gray night but 
 death. If Clay could but have come with her if she, 
 could only have heard a word of advice from him, it must ! 
 have ended differently ! 
 
 That strength-giving hero meanwhile, according to his 
 systematic habit, had gone to- a livery stable and hired 
 a stronger horse than either of Joe s, and was rapidly 
 following them up the road that led to the hills, gaining 
 on them with every mile : the echoes of his horse s feet 
 lost in the soft, deep snow. 
 
310 JOHN ANDROSS. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXV. 
 
 A NDROSS stopped at a toll-house ; afterward, three 
 **?*- or four miles further on, at a cabin in which 
 a light was burning. At both, the same report was 
 given. The two men had passed on horseback an hour 
 before, riding side by side, the gate-keeper said. The 
 man in the cabin, Leftwik, an old Swede, who lived by 
 trapping, had been summoned .to the door by the colonel 
 to bring a light. 
 
 Something had gone wrong with the saddle : a girth 
 cut, which the old colonel had -tied up. It was Colonel 
 Latimer, of course ; Leftwik had known him this many a 
 year. He had his joke and laugh as usual, in spite of the 
 sleet which beat in his face. The other gentleman had 
 fallen a few paces behind the colonel, and seemed grum 
 and quiet. Thought he was disheartened with the 
 weather. It was the worst storm of the winter. They 
 would not put up till morning ? with a curious glance 
 at the cloaked woman s figure. 
 
 A few paces behind ? Andross did not turn after this 
 to look at his companion. He felt that the end was at 
 hand. They were nearing the higher peaks of the range 
 now, where the road ran through long gorges to gain the 
 valleys beyond. These mountains were lonely, untraversed 
 even in summer by the most adventurous hunters ; the 
 defiles deep and drifted now high with snow. Their 
 progress was slow. Andross could do no more than sit 
 wet and half frozen, patiently urging forward the unable 
 horses, that had showed signs of exhaustion an hour after 
 starting. The heavy sleigh more than once had balked 
 in the wet, clogging snow. If he could have run or have 
 fought his way through the night and snow, this dead 
 weight would not have settled on his body and brain. 
 But to plod, plod, step by step, when the gain of a minute 
 might save the old man s life and leave "his soul clear of 
 murder ! More than once he fancied he heard, echoed 
 in the depths of the interminable leafless forest, a pistol 
 shot, or cries ; and then the horses would drag more 
 slowly than before. 
 
 " I ve been in a hurry all my life," thought Jack, with 
 
JOHN AKDEOSS. 311 
 
 a forlorn laugh. " I suppose the end is to be measured 
 off for me." 
 
 For unconsciously, and without regret, he knew this 
 was the end. To-day his past life had closed, and 
 barred all its highways to him : left him without work, 
 wages, a friend, or purpose in the world. 
 
 They had reached that toll-house which stands on a 
 high level at the entrance of the chain of barren peaks, 
 or rather massed rocks, heaped, height on height, as for 
 a rampart in some old war of the giants. Even in sum 
 mer they are utterly destitute of vegetation : lichens and 
 the tender moss, which hide all unsightly things, never 
 had essayed to shelter their savage rudeness; but now 
 the snow had frozen in the gorges between, and coldly 
 whitened the darkest crevices, throwing into bold relief 
 the full meaning of the mountains. It seemed to An- 
 dross, standing on the height, that they turned to him 
 the unfeeling solitude of a dead face, with the white cere 
 cloth loosely fallen from about it. The snow had ceased 
 to fall, the moon had risen, and threw a ghastly light 
 upon the farther peaks on the horizon. 
 
 Jack shouted and pounded on the door. It was a relief 
 to hear his own voice and that of the old one-armed gate 
 keeper. " Colonel Latimer had passed through the gate. 
 The man with him was a stranger. They might have 
 gone two miles by this time." 
 
 "I thought it "would be done here," Jack muttered, 
 looking down the long defile before him. He trudged 
 along by the horses heads ; any motion was better than 
 to sit idly holding the reins. 
 
 As the mountains rose higher on either side of the 
 road, the shadows fell more heavily. The deep snow 
 penetrated his clothes, icy-cold. He could fancy the old 
 man, lying helpless, buried in it, the life-blood oozing 
 away in it. If voss attacked him before he reached Nit- 
 tany, it was here that it was done. And he, Jack An- 
 dross, had counselled and sent him to do it. 
 
 As Jack ploughed his way through the narrow chasm, 
 one hand on the horse s bit and the other on his pistol, 
 he no longer glanced warily from side to side. Latimer 
 and Anna and Laird slipped away from him, and he 
 seemed to be alone, face to face with the God whom his 
 
312 JOHK ANDROSS. 
 
 mother kne,w. Not Braddock s implacable Judge. The 
 God of the old hymns - "He maketh us to lie down 
 
 in green pastures " "His loving kindness loving 
 
 kindness -" " Even as a father pitieth his children." 
 
 The boy (for he was nothing but a boy) said these 
 scraps over and over, staring straight on. He understood 
 now ! Oh, he understood ! How he had turned his back 
 on Him. Had the punishment come ? Or was there yet 
 a chance ? The loving kindness 
 
 The hour which enters once into every man s life had 
 come at last to the merry, social, weak fellow : friends 
 and lovers were gone, and his soul was alone with God in 
 judgment. 
 
 The snow had drifted here but lightly. He could not 
 be mistaken: there were marks of heavy trampling. 
 There had been a struggle. 
 
 Stooping to follow the tracks of horses feet, he hurried 
 on into the now unbroken silence. After a mile was 
 passed, a low, shapeless figure came up the gorge, meet-- 
 ing them. It was Heltzer from Millheim, on his donkey. 
 Jack remembered both well. But it was no time for 
 greetings. 
 
 "Have you met any travellers before us in the gorge ?" 
 
 "Yes," grunted Heltzer from out his mufflers. 
 
 Jack left the sleigh and came up close to the donkey, 
 out of Isabel s hearing. It was a minute before his dry 
 lips could ask the question. . >. - 
 
 " How many men did you meet ?" 
 
 "Only one, riding alone." 
 
 Andross walked on, holding the horse, holding his 
 pistol also more tightly. In a moment or two the soft 
 thud of a horse s feet was heard, and Braddock rode up 
 behind him. Jack did not look up. Clay stooped beside 
 him. 
 
 "I met Heltzer," he said. "It is all over." , 
 
 "Yes, it is all over." 
 
 "Where are you going?" 
 
 "Voss is alive and I " 
 
 "There shall be no bloodshed, Andross. I will go 
 with you ; we will arrest the man." 
 
 The silence was unbroken until Heltzer remembering 
 
AX-DROSS. 313 
 
 at last that he had not finished all he wished to say, 
 jogged back after them. 
 
 " That man I met went to the cabin in the Black Wolf 
 Hollow if you want him." 
 
 "I want him," said Andross, and dropping the rein, 
 ran on quickly out of Braddock s sight or reach of call. 
 
 The gleam of light from the cabin lay like a red bar 
 across the darkness for a mile ahead. But as he neared 
 it, Voss, on a powerful gray pony, rode boldly up out of 
 a dark gap, and stopped with his horse s nostrils breath 
 ing hotly in Jack s face. Jack leaped at him with the 
 strength of a wild beast. 
 
 " Where is Colonel Latimer?" 
 
 "Take care, Mr. Andross," coolly, "I m armed." 
 
 "You have murdered him !" 
 
 " That was what you bargained with me to do, I believe. 
 Look there!" 
 
 Jack turned to the cabin. In the open door, the fire 
 light showing his big bony body from head to foot, stood 
 Colonel Latimer. 
 
 When Andross turned again, he found that Voss was 
 talking. 
 
 " Of course I m sorry to miss any job. And Wilkins 
 was liberal to me very liberal. Wilkins knows a good 
 man s worth a good price. If it had been himself or your 
 friend Laird, or any of that kind of currency I had to 
 give a lesson to, I d not have backed out. But I rode 
 from Harrisburgh to here with this old man. You didn t 
 tell me what sort of stuff he was, Mr. Andross. I was 
 taken at a disadvantage, as I might say." 
 
 "And and what did you find him, Voss?" Jack 
 laughed aloud with a fierce, convulsive clutching in the 
 throat. It seemed to him for a minute as if the heat of 
 summer weather was about him, and Voss was the best 
 of good fellows. 
 
 "I don t know what you d call him. But he treated 
 me as if I was a man. After I d knowed him for an hour, 
 talkin free-like, I couldn t have put a bullet through his 
 head no more that if it had been my mother s. *" D ye 
 think Wilkins 11 allow nothing on the pay ? I don t 
 often go back on my word, and I can t well afford to lose 
 the money, neither. It s been an infernally cold jaunt " 
 
314 JOHN A5TDROS3. 
 
 But Andross, seeing the sleigh close at hand, had run 
 to it, lifted Isabel out as if she were a baby, and carrier] 
 her to her father putting her right into his arms. 
 
 "There, there !" he shouted, and then groped blindly 
 about for a seat. Somebody placed him in one, and pres 
 ently, when he could see, he found that Braddock had 
 loosened his cravat, and was quietly holding snow to his 
 face; but Isabel was still sobbing over the astonished 
 colonel, stroking his bony hands and gray hair as if riot 
 yet sure that she had him safe again. 
 
 CHAPTEK XXXVI. 
 
 VAN METER, the owner of the cabin, bustled to 
 and fro heaping up the fires, shutting the colonel 
 and his daughter into an inner room, bringing out 
 whiskey and urging it on everybody. What explanation 
 Isabel made to her father no one knew ; nor how much 
 he received as fact. He came out presently, with a more 
 bewildered look than before ; but his old habit of military 
 command always stood him in good stead in an emer 
 gency. 
 
 " Isabel has been telling me some wild story of forged 
 letters and assassinations ; women always do make a mess 
 of business. One would suppose she had been reading 
 Mrs. Radcliffe s romances." 
 
 Andross came up to him. He had not yet confessed 
 his guilt to the old man, he remembered. " She has told 
 you the truth," he began, " and I " 
 
 "No, no, Mr. Andross ! have done with it !" laughing 
 nervously. "I want no more tales of horrors. I shall 
 believe just as much as I please of the whole story. That 
 man Voss appears to me to be a very decent, well-meaning 
 sort of fellow, and I m not often mistaken in human 
 nature. One thing is certain, however, that my nephew, 
 Hale Latimer, is not with our friend Van Meter here, as 
 I expected to find him. We are only three miles from 
 Nittany. We will go on at once to the old house. I 
 left a man in it, so that it might be ready for us when 
 ever we chose to go back home for a day or two. Home 
 will be welcome to us all, just now." 
 
JOHN AisDEOSS. 315 
 
 He looked direct at Andross as he spoke, but Jack 
 drew back. "lean not go. You would not bring me 
 under your roof, Colonel Latimer, if you knew " 
 
 "But I would, sir !" laying his both hands on the young 
 man s shoulders, his face kindling. "I know all about 
 
 you, boy. Better than you do yourself: much better! 
 There s no man living who is a more honoured and wel 
 come guest at my hearth than you. Now," changing his 
 tone hurriedly to prevent any answer, " look to the horses, 
 will you, Jack ? Van Meter will give them a meal, and 
 in an hour we ll all be under the old roof again, thank 
 God!" 
 
 ^ He turned to Braddock, drawing himself up formally ; 
 his hospitable soul could not withhold an invitation, 
 though in truth it cut sorely against the grain to give it. 
 But the doctor, sterner and stiffer than usual in his wet 
 clothes and frozen black whiskers about his lean face, 
 stood by the great chimney-place looking down with a 
 dull despair into Isabel s face, as she sat drying her feet by 
 the fire. His coat and trousers and whiskers were thaw 
 ing and steaming together, but he did not know it. He 
 knew nothing but that he had wakened from a befogged, 
 impure dream to the old daylight-world again, and that 
 he stood alone in it. 
 
 Neither Clay nor Isabel were people used to dramatize 
 their feelings. She looked steadily into Van Meter s 
 roaring fire, because she was afraid to meet his eye. She 
 knew he had come back to her; should she trust to him 
 again ? If she gave a look or sign of forgiveness, it must 
 hold good forever. Isabel gave no half pledges. 
 
 The colonel, after a momentary scrutiny of the pair, 
 wheeled around in his opinion, and silently took Brad- 
 dock s part violently. "It s all been a cursed mistake, 
 somehow. There s no lie in that boy s face," he thought. 
 << Isabel ought to see that. But women are as unforgiv 
 ing as the devil, and as unreasonable." Afraid that he 
 might be led in his wrath to interfere, he went out to help 
 Andross and Van Meter with the horses. 
 
 They were alone. It might be the last minute they 
 would ever be alone. If he lost this chance 
 
 But Braddock, trembling with fear and real, honest 
 love, was yet eminently practical in his wooing. 
 
316 JOHN ANDROSS. 
 
 "Your gloves are wet," he said, stooping nearer her. 
 ."Your wrists look frozen with cold." 
 
 She drew them off, and tried to answer him ; but 
 could not broke down with the first word. She would 
 have him now think she was crying because her hands 
 were cold ! 
 
 She held them up to the fire, resolutely, and then 
 caught sight of his sad, thin face. 
 
 "You used to give me your hands to warm, to keep 
 them from aching," he said, with a miserable smile. 
 "You would not do that now, Isabel." 
 
 She had meant that he should humble himself so low, 
 before she forgave him and he had not humbled himself 
 at all ! He had asked nothing but to warm her hands. 
 They were cold ; God knows, she was all cold, body and 
 soul, since he left her. 
 
 She turned her honest eyes full on his, and after a mo 
 ment s searching, held out the blue, stiff hands. 
 
 The heat rushed to his face. She had not thought 
 such fire and passion was in the man. He held them 
 close to his breast. "Am I to keep them, Isabel?" he 
 asked, under his breath. 
 
 "Yes, Clay." She rose, and they stood face to face. 
 
 "But you told me that you no longer loved me, 
 Isabel?" 
 
 "That was a mistake of mine then," with a shy blush. 
 
 "You do love me as much as before ?" eagerly. 
 " There is no change in your love. for me ? " 
 
 "I did not say that." She looked gravely at him, de 
 liberating. "No," said the honest, dull creature, shak 
 ing her head slowly. "I can never say that I love 
 you as I did, Clay."" 
 
 The colonel sat radiant at the foot of the breakfast 
 table the next morning. The house was warmed and in 
 order; they all slept late, and just before the meal was 
 ready, who should appear in the kitchen door, like the 
 genial black genius of the place, but Oth ? The old man 
 had gathered from Miss Morgan s terrors and from the 
 boy Dick, the facts of his master s danger, and followed 
 Isabel on the next train. He had cried and prayed out his 
 thankfulness, in the colonel s room, and then rushed out 
 
JOHX AJSTBSOSSi 317 
 
 to find vent for his remaining emotion in raids upon the 
 neighborhood for venison and coffee for the breakfast table. 
 
 "This is home at last!" cried the colonel, turning 
 from old Mttany, towering without, his feet in snow 
 and head in the misty sky, to the faces of the guests be 
 side him. No winter morning in town was ever so ex 
 hilarating in its cold ; the creek babbled a subdued wcl- . 
 come under its icy cover, all about the house ; the honey- v 
 suckles on the window glittered with hoar frost ; the very 
 cocks and hens, perched on the barn fence, clucked and 
 crowed a good morning to him. A heap of fragrant pine 
 logs crackled and roared on the hearth ; the venisqn sent 
 up a savory smell. Oth could not hide his delighted 
 grin as he passed the cups. 
 
 "It is all just as it should be just as it should be !" 
 said the colonel rubbing his hands, looking at Bell, Brad- 
 dock, and Andross in turn, his face in a glow. " If the 
 bear skin was back, and my arm-chair, and pipes ! What 
 if we send for them, and settle down for a week s holi 
 day ? " He kept silence for a minute or two, and then 
 brought down his fist on his knee. 
 
 " By George ! What, if we bring up the bear skin and 
 pipes, and settle down here altogether ? The Works are 
 in the market again. I can buy them part cash down, 
 and you two boys shall run them. What do you say ? 
 What do you say?" 
 
 "There would be no better investment for your money, 
 Colonel. The works have yielded twenty per cent this 
 fall," said Braddock guardedly, although his lean face 
 had reddened with excitement. 
 
 " Confound the per cent ! We four are not a money- 
 making fraternity, Clay. We ve had enough of the eternal 
 digging for dollars in town ; noAv we ll try for something 
 better. Well, what do you say, Andross ? " leaning over 
 the taDle to take him by the hand. " You are to live in 
 the house with us, remember. We ll all make a fresh 
 start again in old Nittany, please God." 
 
 But Andross replied so gravely and rationally that the 
 colonel grew silent. " The boy s hearty spirit is killed 
 within him," he said to Bell, shaking his head sorrow 
 fully when the two young men had gone out. " There s 
 no use in trying to bring him to life again." 
 
318 JOHN AXDROSS. 
 
 "We ll try, papa," said Isabel quietly. 
 
 Braddock and Jack walked over to the Works, to look 
 about them. Braddock, who usually cared but little for 
 men s moods, was startled at the change in Andross. He 
 sat dully in his old office, scarcely noticing even the books 
 which he had left upon the shelves ; and when the men 
 crowded about the door, hearing he was within, and 
 cheering as he came out, his greeting was so lifeless and 
 unsmiling that the cheer died away half uttered. 
 
 Braddock, observing him closely with a physician s 
 eye, found more cause for alarm than did even the 
 colonel. Andross, he saw, had reached one of those 
 crises which occur in the lives of nervous men, when men 
 tal and physical vitality are exhausted by some worker 
 disappointment which has produced a mortal overdraw. 
 The chances are even in such a case, he told Isabel, 
 whether, through strong new interests the ducts of the 
 man s life fill again with healthy currents, or whether he 
 sink into disease, inability, or death. With Andross s 
 full, vehement temperament, the latter road would be 
 but a short one. 
 
 But once, Andross was roused to a likeness o his old 
 self. He was going over the books of the firm, with 
 Braddock, preparatory to the final purchase. " I have a 
 sum of about six thousand dollars saved," he said, 
 "which I could have put into this to help the colonel 
 with his first payment ; but I owe it to Judge Maddox." 
 
 Braddock found it hard to bring himself to speak ; but 
 he could not let his hard earnings go to the Maddoxes, 
 father or daughter. 
 
 "You owe it to me, Jack," he said gently, without 
 pausing as he jotted down a line of figures. When he 
 looked up, Andross was standing in front of him. 
 
 " I never knew you before, Clay," he whispered hoarse 
 ly. "Why did you keep this from me ?" 
 
 "I don t like a fuss," dipping his pen again in the ink. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVII. 
 
 OLD" Nittany never relapsed into its ancient depth 
 of melancholy again. Braddock and Isabel were 
 married in the homestead early in May. The Woiks were 
 
JOHN AX DROSS. 319 
 
 soon in full and successful operation. The colonel did 
 propose to try wood instead of charcoal,, but was con 
 tented at last to leave the business in the younger men s 
 hands, and to carry on his divers experiments in an ad 
 jacent shed. His next proposition was that Houston 
 Laird should be invited to take part of the stock, but this 
 idea was received so coldly by the rest of the family, that 
 he wisely dropped it. He always retained his old faith in 
 Laird s honour, however, in spite of the prejudices of the 
 young people, and was delighted to find, when he ran 
 down to New York once a year, that the failure of the 
 Transit Company had not seriously injured that gentle 
 man s credit in Wall street. "He certainly passed 
 through bankruptcy," he told Isabel, after one visit four 
 years later. " But he seems to have renewed his strength 
 as speedily as that fabulous bird the phoenix, or Job. It 
 always struck me that Job must have had remarkable 
 financial ability with his other virtues. You remember 
 the story of the recovery of his fortune, Isabel ? I assure 
 you, my dear, I consider Houston Laird one of the most 
 remarkable men of this day. Just as unflagging as ever, 
 too, in his efforts to do good president of the Christian 
 Brotherhood, and so on. He gave me a dinner at his 
 club ; very nice very nice indeed. All the best men in 
 "New York were there." 
 
 "Do you ever hear anything of that unfortunate man, 
 "Ware, papa?" 
 
 "You pity him because he married little Anna ? Now, 
 she really makes a most admirable wife ; she has grown 
 stout, to be sure. But she is devoted to her husband, 
 Laird tells me. Oh there s no doubt that Ware is a most 
 devout person lives wholly by faith : it is wonderful to 
 read the anecdotes about him in the papers, how he 
 relies on Providence. Still, if it wasn t for Anna s music 
 teaching, and the help which Maddox gives them, she 
 and the children, Laird says, would absolutely starve. 
 I I was thinking we might make up a little box of 
 clothes, country produce, and so on eh my dear? 
 They re quite used to that sort of thing. Living by 
 faith, you see?" 
 
 " No, papa." Isabel shook her head quietly, but a por 
 tentous heat rose into her pale cheeks. "1 shall send 
 
320 JOHK ANDROSS. 
 
 them no box, I am sure," she added with acrimony, the 
 sight of that wreck yonder," nodding to Andross outside, 
 ""ought to convince you what manner of woman she is ! : 
 
 "Yes, that s true. Tut, tut! Andross will never be 
 his old self. The j oiliest, heartiest fellow ! But he s 
 very far from being a wreck, Bell. Braddock says his 
 attention to business is wonderful, and I m sure he is a 
 slave to little Tom. Look there !" watching Jack romp 
 ing with Isabel s child with sparkling eyes, and then tak 
 ing up his hat to join them. 
 
 ""/ call him a wreck," persisted Isabel. In fact, she 
 carried Andross in her heart and head very much as she 
 did her father or her baby regarding them all as un 
 able, irresponsible beings. " He ought to have a wife and 
 Toms of his own to slave for," she secretly thought. 
 
 As year after year passed, and Jack went and came on 
 the business of the firm, and friends, both men and 
 women, began to gather about him in the old eager, cor 
 dial fashion, the colonel declared the lad was his old self 
 again. He sings and whistles even over his accounts ; he 
 is like a gust of fresh wind coming into the house, with 
 his jokes and romps with Tom : he is flinging his money 
 away on old crockery again what more do you want?" 
 
 But Isabel saw with shrewder eyes. " God only could 
 see," she said, "how deep were the scars and hurts left 
 in his soul after that pink, drabbled little creature had 
 handled and flung it from her." 
 
 It was in accordance with a plan of Isabel s that the 
 whole family went one August to a quiet little watering 
 place on the coast, when she knew that Ware and his 
 wife were there. Anna was undeniably stout and slov 
 enly ; she made a demi-god of the handsome, well-dressed 
 Julius, and insisted that all other people should worship, 
 or at least pay tithes to him. But shrill and shrewish 
 and fat as she was, she served and drudged for her big, 
 lazy Baal sincerely and unselfishly, and never had deserved 
 as much respect and love from Andross as now, when he 
 seemed disposed to give her the least. 
 
 He watched her every day, toiling after Julius, carry- 
 in o- a subscription book in her pocket, which she pre 
 sented nnblushingly to every new acquaintance with the 
 old story of the life of faith, Jung Stilling, etc. * u are 
 
JOHN AKDROSS. 321 
 
 has brought her down to his own level/ 5 he said, indif 
 ferently, to Isabel. 
 
 "He is cured," she thought, triumphantly. 
 
 One evening, when she was alone with him on the 
 beach, as he lay in the sand at her feet, watching the 
 tide come in, she spoke to him, for the first time in her 
 life, of himself. She had meant to do it for years, but 
 never had been able to find the courage ; and now she did 
 it half by accident, unconsciously. An dross had care 
 lessly mentioned some one who passed as " a successful 
 man. " 
 
 " Wealth or high position hardly seems to me to deserve 
 the name of success in life," Isabel said slowly, and then 
 glancing down at him, her colour suddenly rose and she 
 went on hastily. " A man who, through years and years, 
 fights against his besetting folly or his weakness, and con 
 quers it that is the successful man, Jack." 
 , He made no answer. She was not fluent at any time, 
 and was, after all, a good deal daunted now by the large 
 strong man s figure, even when his face was turned away 
 from her. 
 
 "It seems to me," she said, swallowing a choking in 
 her throat, "that the man who steadily does honest, 
 thorough work in the world, with no hope of pleasure, 
 nobody to applaud, is the one to whom / would say, 
 Well done ! 5?; 
 
 Ho knew what it cost the dumb, reserved woman, with 
 her dread of intermeddling in the lives of others, to put 
 out her hand thus to him, but he answered her only by 
 a quick grateful smile. In her zeal her whole counte 
 nance was trembling, and the water stood in her eyes. 
 Seeing this, he turned away from her. 
 
 "I I have wished to say this to you for a long time. 
 I want you to see yourself what these years were how 
 well done the work has been. You have no mother, no 
 body to tell you. I want you to take comfort again in 
 the world. It is a good, beautiful world, Jack." 
 
 He looked over the crimson sky, and the sea below, 
 and turned to her, their light reflected in his eyes. 
 
 rf You have hosts of friends, too : sincere, cultured 
 men and women ; you can find such friends everywhere : 
 the world is full of them." 
 
322 JOHN ANDKOSS. 
 
 He nodded again slowly, a tender, fine smile on his 
 face. She took fresh courage from it, and, after a mo 
 ment s pause, went on desperately. 
 
 "There are lovely women in it, too; sweet, genuine 
 girls, who would love you as few men can be loved. If 
 
 you had a home now, Jack, and and Indeed, you 
 
 must forgive me. It has seemed so long as if you were 
 my brother, and Clay and I being so happy and Tom 
 
 and all " and there she began to cry, and Andross 
 
 took her hand in his for a moment, and then walked 
 away from her across the sands, blushing like a young- 
 girl. 
 
 The fancy of a fresh, real love which might be waiting 
 for him somewhere, was rare and strangely sweet to himu 
 
 There was a sudden outburst of noise in the quiet 
 evening, half laughter and half shrieks of terror. A 
 little boat, in which were a woman and two or three men, 
 had been carried out a few feet too far beyond the surf. 
 
 Isabel came up to Andross, and they both looked on 
 amused, and glad of the trifle, too, on which to turn away 
 from the gravity of their last words. There is no dan 
 ger," said Jack. " Ten strokes of the oar should bring 
 them in. But they do not know how to give the strokes, 
 apparently. " 
 
 The woman s voice rose just then a shrill little pipe. 
 
 " It is Anna !" cried Andross. " Isabel, it is Anna !" 
 
 He ran toward the beach, throwing off his coat and 
 jacket as he went. 
 
 " She is perfectly safe," said Bell, coldly, trying to 
 hold him. 
 
 But he had plunged into the surf, and was swimming 
 toward her. 
 
 " The creature is the old, sweet, fair Anna to him, and 
 always will be," said Isabel, despairingly, watching his 
 headlong haste to reach the boat. She had no other cause 
 for anxiety. Andross was an expert swimmer the boat 
 within easy reach ; but owing to Anna s hysteric struggles 
 or Ware s awkwardness in steering, the little vessel turned 
 over, and in a minute they were all struggling in the water. 
 
 Ware and his companion reached the shore almost 
 without effort. Anna was sucked under a current, and 
 carried out beyond the surf. 
 
JOHX AKDEOSS. 
 
 " Jack ! " she cried as she rose. " Oh Jack, save me !" 
 
 His strength had begun to give way before lie reached 
 her if she had been tne old Anna, fairy-like in size and 
 proportion, he could have brought her 111 on the tide with 
 easp- but she was a heavy dead weight; recovering 
 strength from time to time, only to struggle and drag 
 him farther down. 
 
 Ware ran wildly up and down the shore > shouting out 
 directions and orders. 
 
 "I wish she had died in her cradle!" said Isabel, 
 with white lips watching Jack s strokes grow more feeble. 
 
 Ware, with his friend, waded cautiously out at last to 
 be ready to receive her. The heavy incoming wave lifted 
 Andross at the moment, and dashed him against the 
 upturned boat. His hold of the woman loosened, his 
 arms relaxed, and were washed to and fro by the water. 
 He was stunned and senseless ; but the wave drove her 
 within reach of her husband, who dragged her in ; and 
 after he had given a vigorous roll or two, she staggered 
 to her feet. Ware and the other mm would have re 
 mained to help Andross, if help were possible. But Anna 
 cried and wailed so wildly, sinking helpless on the sand, - 
 that they were obliged to support her between them, and 
 took her up the baach. 
 
 "Ugh h !" she shivered, "I am sure I shall die be 
 fore we reach the house ! Let us hurry and get some dry 
 clothes. I m afraid you ll have a wretched cold, Julius, 
 dear. I m afraid that poor Andross is drowned. He 
 always was the unluckiest creature !" 
 
 The breakers rolled in again and again before they 
 brought him within Isabel s reach. She drew him, with 
 the help of the wave, up on the beach, and then tried to 
 turn him on his side. But he was too heavy a weight for 
 her, even in the force of her terror, to move. She stopped 
 one breathless moment, and then, praying to God as she 
 ran, darted up the beach for help. 
 
 He opened his eyes presently, and looked up the stretch 
 of yellow sand. Anna was still in sight, wet and broad- 
 backed, clinging to her husband, and leaving him un 
 noticed, to die or live. 
 
 " Poor little thing ! She weighs two hundred pounds !" 
 thought Jack, with an inward laugh, and, oddly enough, 
 
324 JOH^ AXDROSS. 
 
 for the first time, he saw the woman as she^vas in soul 
 as well as body, and in that moment her hold on him was 
 gone forever. * 
 
 There was a sharp pain in his chest, his breath came 
 and went in spasms. 
 Was this death ? 
 
 The tide flowed in with a dull, constant murmur, but 
 there was no other answer. Jack, as always, needed a 
 human voice a human hand to touch. 
 
 The sea, the beautiful world he had loved differently 
 from other men, were strangely quiet in the hush of 
 evening the heaven close overhead more quiet still. 
 Must he go now ? There were other lives to live in the 
 
 Hereafter, out of sight of this reddened sunset sky 
 
 he did not forget that. 
 
 He had thought out many truths in these later, lonely 
 years, unknown even to Isabel, and made them real to 
 himself. He could go now willingly, like a child, hold 
 ing his Master s hand. It would only be Jack Andross 
 beginning his life again beyond, with the same God above 
 him. 
 
 But, oh God, if he only could live ! 
 He knew this world : he was used to it. He thought 
 in that minute of all the people he loved : of his old 
 books, of a queer bric-a-brac shop he meant to explore 
 next week ; of pleasant, shady places where he and Tom. 
 had gone fishing together. 
 
 He was so strong and alive ; to die now in the vigour 
 of his youth ? Somewhere, as Isabel had said, there 
 might be a home of his own, and a woman who would 
 
 love him, as no other had done 
 
 There were Isabel and Braddock, and the old colonel, 
 running toward him and little Tom far behind. He 
 raised his head and tried to shout " Tom ! : 
 
 He knew that if he could only bear it until the boy 
 should reach him, he would live. 
 Could he bear it ? 
 
 Meanwhile the tide flowed steadily inward, but gave 
 no answer. 
 
BERK " 1 " 11