L, B YbUNG MlSSGJDDY MERTRAND j BOOK S MO PACIFIC LONG BEACH, CAL THE ALBATROSS NOVELS By ALBERT ROSS 23 Volumes May be had wherever books are sold at the price yon paid for this volume Black Adonis, A Garston Bigamy, The Her Husband's Friend His Foster Sister His Private Character In Stella's Shadow Love at Seventy Love Gone Astray Moulding a Maiden Naked Truth, The New Sensation, A Original Sinner, An Out of Wedlock Speaking of Ellen Stranger Than Fiction Sugar Princess, A That Gay Deceiver Their Marriage Bond Thou Shalt Not Thy Neighbor's Wife Why I'm Single Young Fawcett's Mabel Young Miss Giddy G. W. DILLINGHAM CO. Publisher. :: :: New York YOUNG Miss GIDDY, BY ALBERT Ross. AUTHOR OF WHY I'M SINGLE," "His PRIVATE CHARACTER,' " THOU SHALT NOT," " IN STELLA'S SHADOW," "AN ORIGINAL SINNER," ETC. " Things have got to be pretty bad, haven't they? Were they always so, or has this age gone to the devil> all by itself?" Page 35. NEW YORK: G. W. Billing ham ~ Co* Publishers. CONTENTS. Chapter Page . The Poor Girl and the Rich One .... 9 II. Senator from Van Buren 19 III. " Luvv, what's Luvv ?" 32 IV. Esther's Strike for Freedom 44 V. " Marriage is a nuisance." 55 VI. She Would be a Lady 67 VII. Fifteen Million Dollars 79 VIII. " Dave, I am a devil !" 90 IX. A Dinner at Flora's 105 X. " If a girl could find a man" 116 XI. Florida in Winter 1*5 XII. Going to Mardi Gras 133 XIII. " You'll see nothing but ' cham.' ". . . . 141 XIV. A Glimpse of Hamburg 151 XV. "Not on the morning after." 162 XVI. Drunk as a Fool 169 XVII. A Devil of a Mess 178 XVIII. "Marriage is sometimes a cure." 186 XIX. " Esther Strange ! Good God !" 196 XX. Miss Scarlett Proposes Marriage 207 XXI. "Do you think, my dear?" 218 XXII. Seeing an Old Friend 229 XXIII. " If you leave it to me." 240 XXIV. In the Mexican Monterey 251 w 2061864 Yl OOKTXNT8. Chapter Page XXV. " Shall I put out the light f 258 XXVI. A Night at Garcia 371 XXVII. In the Virgin's Cave 179 XXVIII. " I must confess some things." 187 XXIX "Ah! It is terrible! terrible!" 197 XXX. A Surprised Husband 304 XXXI. A Freezing-Out Process 313 XXXII. " Arrest this man !" 321 XXXIII. What Bayley Told Parton 332 A Parting Word 341 TO MY READERS. Last Mistier, in a symposium printed in \\\t Boston Globe, a number of prominent people discussed the question of chaperonage as applied to American girls. One of them, the wife of a well-known gen- tleman, used in effect the expression that I have put into the mouth of Senator Scarlett. If a girl had a tendency to behave improperly, said this lady, all the oversight in the world would not be likely to pre- vent it. Instead of writing a letter to that journal, giving my opinion on this proposition, as I at first intended to do, I have made it the theme of a novel, and here you have it. Incidentally I have also kept a promise made to numerous friends in the Southern States and in Mexico, to introduce local scenes in a future 1 story. A year ago I " followed the strawberry " a thousand miles below the Tropic of Cancer and could easily have written a book much larger than this one upon the incidents of that trip. The reader will see how impossible it is for me to do more in this volume than allude to the principal points of that delightful \ourney. It becomes necessary to remind some of my kind correspondents that the enclosure of a stamp is con- sidered good form when a reply is desired. So far NQ TJN 10 XT HEADERS. I hare tried to answer all letters, briefly, though they sometimes amount to a dozen a week, and the postage for the thoughtless ones is quite an item. And let me say another thing in this connection. If an autograph is the thing desired it is just as easy to say so as to ask where my novels can be purchased. This amusing inquiry comes to me almost every day, and I am a little tired of replying with the single word " Everywhere," which is the modest fact. Besides, it does not make a pretty response for exhibition purposes. A Happy New V ea r to all is the heartfelt wish ot the author. ALBERT Ross. Cambridge Jfax. YOUNG MISS GIDDY. CHAPTER I. THE POOR GIRL AND THE RICH ONE. The daughter of the millionaire, Augustus Scar* lett, was entering her carriage at the family mansion on Fifty-second street. This young lady, though only fifteen years of age, was attended in her daily life with a retinue of servants that would have been quite sufficient for a princess. The carriage she was now about to use was kept for her exclusively. The horses, the coachman, the footman, the chaperone, the maid, the very lap-dog that was going with her, were never claimed by any other member of the household. Her father had his own equipages, which she often shared with him, but she had hers, always ready at her command, in case she chose to ride when he was otherwise occupied. Her only brother, Charles, never rode but in public convey- ances, except on those rare occasions when he ac- companied his sister or father. Charles preferred walking when the distance was not too great, and detested everything that savored of fashion or style. ,* 10 TOUHO MMB GIDDY. He was a very peculiar fellow, was Charles, and people had begun to speak of him as "a Socialist." Miss Flora May seated herself upon her comfort- able cushions and was about to give the order to her driver to set off when a couple of children that happened to come along the sidewalk attracted and riveted her attention. Both were very plainly dressed. One was a year or two older than herself, a straight, brown-faced lad with a set look that might almost be called surly ; the other was a girl of about thirteen, undoubtedly his sister, and yet with an air as different from his as daylight and darkness. Upon seeing the handsome equipage and its occu- pants the boy acted as if determined not to appear interested. After one glance his gaze sought the pavement and he seemed to be counting the bricks at his feet. The girl, on the contrary, opened her eyes wider at the sight before her, drinking in the scene with greediness. She realized lhat here was the antithesis of her own life, this aristocratic child with her horses and servants, and she was entranced to the full in her contemplation. The girl looked at Miss Flora and Miss Flora looked at the girl. The coachman, too well bred to turn his head, knew what was going on behind him. Madame Saccard, the chaperone, thought what an effective painting the contrasting scene would make, but she did not change a muscle of her French face, nor utter a word. Though twice the age of her pupil she was as careful in expressing her opinions as if the opposite had been the case. Only the lap-dog, impatient to be off, showed his sentiments, by bark- ing in a dissatisfied key. THI POOR 6IBL AJTD THE RICH OWS. 11 It all lasted but a moment. The children who were walking passed by, and the child in the car- riage spoke to her driver, telling him to proceed toward the Park, which was the destination she had chosen. " Wasn't that beautiful !'* exclaimed the girl on the sidewalk to her brother, when they were out of hearing. The boy did not reply. He walked on, with his eyes still on the pavement, his face as stolid as before. " She must be rich /" continued the sister. " That was her carriage. It takes lots of money to own such things. And of course she lives in that handsome house. Don't you think so?" she added, after a moment, as there were no signs that any answer was intended. " It's nothing to do with us, that's all /think about it," said the brother, surlily, thus driven into reply- ing. " Why, Austin Strange !" cried the girl. "How cross you always are when you see any one who has better things than we ! I don't blame people for liv- ing just as nice as they can afford. I would have a carriage like that if I could, and a driver and ser- vants and a lap-dog, too. And I often think," she added, reflectively, " that the day is going to come when I shall." The boy looked up from the siaewaTK, one quick glance. There was a full measure of contemptuous disbelief in that look. He did not, however, deem the prediction worthy of words, and he walked on as silent as before. The probable pecuniary status of these children IS YOUKG MISS GIDDY. was shown not only in their garments, but in that indefinable air which accompanies poverty when it comes in contact with wealth. " You might talk to me a little, Austin,** said the girl, when they had turned the corner of Fourth avenue and were nearing the neighborhood in which they resided. " How is it some folks get so much money, while others get almost nothing ? Look at father : he is a carpenter ; he always was a car- penter ; he never will be anything else. Three dol- lars a day is the highest he ever got. Many days together he is out of work because business is dull or the weather is bad. I have heard him say he doesn't average over six hundred dollars a year. It is the same with most of the people that live in the block with us. Now, when you cross the avenue, every- thing seems different. Over there they have elegant homes, servants, all the money they want. There must be a reason for it, and I think some one ought to be able to find it out." Austin found his voice then, to utter one brief sentence. 44 Esther, you talk like a fool !" The girl tossed her head. " It is better to talk like a fool than not to talk at all," she retorted. " If I was a boy I would be ashamed not to know any more than you do. You are going to be just like father a mechanic, with only enough to keep you from starving and freezing. But I will never consent to live like that. No, I am going to be a lady." The brother looked up again, with the same con- temptuous sneer on his lips. " You, a lady !" he repeated, taking in the whole THE POOR GIBL AND THE BIOH ONE. 13 f her profile, from the cheap hat on her head to the stout shoes on her feet. " How f" Esther bridled at his manner. " I don't know exactly," she said, " but I shall do it. I have as good a right to wear fine clothes and ride in a carriage as those girls on the other side of Fourth avenue, and I will find a way. You will never help me, that is certain. And neither will father. And his new wife who wants me to call her mother, but I never shall she would rather see me wearing rags. I know that many of the people who are now rich were once as poor as we are. They found out the way to fortune, and so shall I." Austin Strange was not a lad who talked a great deal. At home he never spoke unless some one addressed him first, and then he replied in the briefest terms he could find. He and Esther were not any too fond of each other, and they were seldom found walking the streets together. The statement that he had just heard seemed to irritate him exceedingly, but he did not show his resent- ment in harsh expressions. He only turned abruptly from her, as they reached a corner, and walked off rapidly in a direction opposite to that in which lay their home. " Isn't he hateful !" said the girl, aloud, angry at finding herself deserted. And a pleasant voice at her elbow murmured : " Well, he isn't very agreeable, that's a fact." Esther turned and saw a well-dressed young gen- tleman contemplating her with an amused smile. He was, to judge from appearances, of nineteen 14 TOTING MISS GIDDY. years or thereabout, and of a very different order of society from the one in which her family moved. " He's your brother, I presume," added the young gentleman, in return for her stare. " Though one wouldn't think it to listen to his excessive taci- turnity." Esther had no idea what interested this stranger in her, but there was something about him that charmed her at first sight. Ordinarily she would have given him a sharp retort, and told him to go about his business. " I don't exactly know whaf you mean by ' taci- turnity, 1 " she ventured. " Your brother does," said the young gentleman. " He understands it very well. And now will you tell me why you wish to be a lady, and why you think you are destined to rise above the station in life into which you were born ?" There was such a laughing quality in the voice of the young gentleman that Esther could not tell whether he had any serious purpose in his inquiry. But the subject had taken a deep hold of her, and she was only too glad of a chance to converse with any one upon it. " I cannot give a reason," she said, her brow clouding. She had begun to walk along, accom- panied by her new companion. "I cannot tell why I expect to be a lady, except that I want to b one very much. As to being born the child of a carpenter, many people have told me it must be a mistake. I am not like the rest of my people. My father is satisfied to saw boards and plane tim- ber all day long. My brother Austin is going to follow the same trade, The only times they complain TW POOR rtTRI, ANT) THE RICH OWB. 15 is when building is dull and they cannot get enough to do. My stepmother often tells me that in a year or two more I must go to work. All the girls I was brought up with go into shops, or factories, or stores as soon as they are old enough. But I have told her I never will do it. She may talk as much as she pleases, but I never will. There are ways to get rich and I will find out how. I have heard that many of the richest people were once as poor as any one." Young Douglass Maybury admitted the truth of this statement. He was pleased with the brightness of the queer child, whose head was full of such odd ideas, and he walked along with her willingly, listening to her aims and plans. " Yes, some of them were as poor as well, let us say, Job's turkey," he said. "The pretty young girl you saw starting on her ride belongs tc that kind of a family. Her father was born in a hovel, I have heard say ; and to-day there are not ten men in New York as rich as he." Esther looked at him with increased excitement. " Oh, did you see me as far back as that ?" she asked. " What a pretty girl she was and what an elegant team she had ! You do not no, you do not know her, do you ?" " I know her a little," he answered. " I have been to her house a number of times. If she had not been going out at the moment, I might have called this morning." The girl asked the next question with great eagerness. " Then you have heard, perhaps, how her father got so much money ? That is the thing to find out, 16 TOUNG MISS GIDDY. where it comes from, this wealth they all seem to have on the other side of Fourth avenue, and nobody has on this side. If I could find that out, I should know how to make a start." She was too much in earnest for him to laugh at her now. Her dark eyes with their quivering lashes were turned full upon his gray ones. " I do not know, upon my word, how the Senator made his dollars," he said, " but I can find out for you. I think it was in mines and railroads, and ways like those. And I am afraid that, in any event, it was in things which a little girl like you could not carry on." For a moment the dark eyes fell at the prospect. " I want to know, for all that," said the girl, when she lifted them again. " I want to know all I can about rich people who were once poor. Couldn't you inquire and tell me ?" The young gentleman said he would do so with the greatest of pleasure, but he added that he did not yet know where to address his young friend. " I live at No. Avenue A," responded the girl, promptly, " and my name is Esther Strange ; but you must not write to me there, for my stepmother would open the letter before she gave it to me and scold me for letting you send it. I shall have to meet you somewhere. When do you think you will have learned ? I am impatient to know. Could you make it to-morrow evening ?" Though Douglass Maybury was but nineteen years of age, this was not the first time he had made an appointment with a girl; but Esther was so young and so innocent, as he could see by the things she said and the artless way she said them, that he hesi- THK POOE GIRL AKD THE BICH O1H6. IT tated even to do the apparently harmless thing she asked. A child of that age, it occurred to him, would better obey even the orders of a needlessly severe stepmother than meet a stranger secretly fof any purpose whatever. Beginning in this way, who could tell to what the act might lead as she grew older ? It is said that the lion will not attack prey except when he is in want of food, and certainly Douglass had no improper thought in connection with this lit- tle, confiding creature. However, it was easier to tell her he would come than to refuse her, and run the risk of seeing her pretty face cloud again, and per- haps her bright eyes overflow with tears. " There is a man who knows all about the Scar- letts," he said, " and he belongs to a club with me. If I can find him, and draw him out, I will bring you the information you wish. Where shall I see you and at what hour ?" Delighted at his compliance, the girl mentioned a small bit of public ground, called by the residents in its vicinity a "park," at which she would await him, when the clock was striking eight. " That's a bad hour, my little girl," said Maybury. " I dine at half-past seven usually, and " " Not till half-past seven !" exclaimed the listener. " Why, we have dinner at noon !" The young gentleman's face was wreathed in smiles. Her naivett6 was certainly most charming. " You are very lucky to be served so early," said he. " At my club they are too busy to get around at that hour Is there any reason why you cannot see me at nine ?" Yes, there was a reason. At nine o'clock Mrs. 18 YOUNG MISS GIDDY. Strange the second insisted on her stepdaughter being in bed. Still Esther would rather have braved the indignation of her stepmother than have missed the coveted appointment altogether. " If you could say a quarter-past eight, or even half-past," she began. " Why not earlier, then ?" asked Douglass. Why not half-past six ?" The girl shook her head. " That is the time we eat our supper." Maybury began to remember hearing that these strange hours were kept by members of the lower classes, and he tried to fix on a time when the girl's family would be neither eating nor sleeping. It seemed, according to this child, that they were occupied in one or the other of these things most of the evening. " I can come at seven," he said, w and dine a little later than usual." Esther accepted this amendment. " Now, will you tell mzyour name and where you live ?" she asked. " Because, you see, if anything should happen that you were kept from coming, or if I could not get out to meet you, I should want to know where to find you the next time." She had a long head on her, this child of thirteen ! Maybury took out a case, and handed her a card bearing his name and the address of his chambers. " Thank you," she said, simply. " And be sure you don't forget to inquire all about the father of that handsome girl I saw on Fifty-second street how he got so much money and everything. One cannot be a lady ^r a gentleman without plenty of money, can they ? If you find it all out, and cone IHATOX FROM VAN BUBKH. 19 and tell me all about it, I will thank you as long as I live !" Esther Strange was a pretty girl, in spite of the extreme plainness of her attire. Douglass May- bury wondered, as he walked back toward his rooms, how she would look in good clothes in those garments of a lady which she had begun to crave. She had a well-developed figure for her age, and her rosy cheeks and bright eyes gave promise of a healthful and vigorous womanhood. " Fortune is idiotic in the distribution of her favors !" he muttered. " Or doesn't she distribute them at all ? Does she only keep them for the most selfish the ones who are willing to grab, and push, and tread their fellows under their feet ?" CHAPTER II. SENATOR FROM VAN BUREN. What Mr. Maybury learned at his club that even- ing, combined with what he already knew, and also with several things that the author has ascertained on his own account, may as well be given to the reader in a single chapter, and at this time. Augustus Scarlett, millionaire many times over, Senator of the United States from Van Buren, rail- road president, mine owner, etc.. etc., was born to a poverty so abject that it would be difficult to over- state its depth. At an early age Augustus left the paternal roof, because it leaked so badly that it no 30 YOUNG MI88 QIDDT. longer afforded him shelter. He deserted the family board, because it seldom had anything upon it worth eating. With no blessing but a " Scotch " one, he went forth to look for his own food and raiment. His father and mother had freely expressed the opinion that he never would " amount to anything." They were sure he would reflect no credit on the name of Scarlett, this branch of which had little to boast of except that none of its members had ever served terms in the penitentiary. It was seriously feared that Augustus would break even this record, because he detested work on a farm and exhibited a discred- itable fondness for soap and water. The Scarletts owned barring a mortgage and accrued interest a few acres of land from which much of their support was supposed to come. In his earliest youth, Augustus unwillingly assisted at the burial of sundry sliced potatoes, and the obse- quies of various garden seeds, in the hope that they would achieve a glorious resurrection as the season advanced. But when it became necessary to ply the hoe again, the boy was found wanting in a very literal sense. He had a way of stealing out of the front door and making for the cool retreats of the adjacent wood, where he remained, even at the cost ef losing his dinner, until the night came on. Weeding onions and picking worms from vines had more terrors for him than hunger. And he had a consolation in his wooded retreat that made him forget the recurrence of mealtime. A young friend in the village who possessed a library gave him free access to it. Beneath his poor jacket a book was usually concealed. Absorbed in romance, poetry of SENATOR FROM YAH BURBN. 11 history, the young lad knew nothing of physical appetite. The falling of the curtains of night was the one thing that compelled him to cease his beloved reading. In a household where a stray almanac, obtained free from the druggist on account of its medical advertisements, was the only piece of literature obtainable, it is hardly to be wondered at that this kind of Ugly Duckling was looked upon as a verit- able visitation of the wrath of God. He was not at all like the other Scarletts, that was certain. They gave him a soubriquet that they thought very cut- ting and severe that of "the gentleman." " Here comes the gentleman !" his father would say, when Augustus crept back to his cabin at night- fall. "Give him some soap ! and some blacking for his shoes ! and a bottle of perfumery ! He wants to wear paper collars and a pair of cuffs ! He will be brushing his hair next, and cleaning his nails ! Where have you been all day, you young loafer ?" Although the elder Scarlett was in the habit of using a good deal of objectionable language, he was not addicted to other means of enforcing his opin- ions. Not one of his seven children could remember that he had erer lifted his hand to strike them. Had he done so to his most unpopular son the severance of the tie between the boy and his family might have come earlier than it did. Discouraged as both father and mother were with such a lad, the remains of the simple meal they had last indulged in were always set out for him, so that he did not go to bed supperless. " I don't see where you get your tastes," the elder Scarlett would often assert complainingly, as the mea- 22 TOtfSG MIW gre supper proceeded. " All you think of is reading and fixing yourself up. You don't see your mother or me doing it. We never waste our time ; I don't know what our children would do if we did. Where did you learn such things ? Did you ever see me combing my hair ? Do / ever wash my hands or black my boots?" "No, father, no," Augustus would answer, ab- stractedly. His thoughts were elsewhere. He knew that interrogations were being addressed to him, but he did not listen to their purport. " I wonder how you expect to git your living. There won't nobody support you, that I knows on. It's time you was out to work, like Jim and Nan. Jim is getting eight dollars a month and board, and Nan makes four dollars and a half a week in the factory. But you've got to change some of your ways before anybody '11 hire you. I asked Darling last week if he hadn't a place for you in the saw- mill and he said he didn't want no high-toned city chap there. ' He'd have to stop every ten minutes and wash up !' he said. I tell you, Gus, you'll have to turn over a new leaf pretty soon." " Yes, father," the son would reply, in as great abstraction as before ; and, after picking gingerly at the viands set before him, he would go up stairs to bed with his younger brother, " Dolly," the only one of the family who seemed to care for him or for whom he entertained the least spark of affection. " Dolly " had been named Gustavus Adolphus, after the Swedish king, while Augustus had been christened in honor of the Roman emperor. A sister of Mrs. Scarlett, who had read a book on BXATOH rBOK YAM BUBBN. 23 history at some period of her life, forwarded names to fit as fast as the children were born, taken in every instance from the ranks of royalty. Even "Jim," the elder boy, was so called after " the Most High and Mighty Prince James, King of Great Britain, France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith," etc., to whom most English-speaking Christians have seen an allusion on the front page of their family Bibles. Nan, the oldest girl, was named for that queen whose style of architecture has been of late so extensively copied in the United States ; and the other three Scarletts bore equally distinguished cognomens. The suitability of these selections had never troubled any of the interested parties, though it caused a smile sometimes among the better educated residents of the town where they lived. At last Augustus Scarlett went forth into the world without even one cent to his name, and with a very small bundle of extra clothing in his hand nobody caring except little Dolly, who wept dismally all the night before and wailed furiously when the actual exodus took place. And twenty-five years afterward this same Augustus, with the prefix of " Hon." was living in a mansion of his own on Fifty-second street and paying several of his ser- vants a larger salary than was ever earned by any Scarlett except himself that he had known. Whence the great change ? Ah, that would be a long story ! The lives of our rich men, given in the illustrated papers, the Congressional Directory, the Biographical Dictionaries, are always aggravatingly incomplete on the important point of how they obtained their fortunes. To be sure, there is a pretense of telling. " Mr. Smith was born in such II Y0CKG MISS OIDDT. a town of very poor parents and had to go out early to seek his own living." That is the ordinary begin- ning. And then the biographer jumps to some expression like this: "When he was only twenty- four years old he purchased the extensive woolen mills at X ." " How the deuce," exclaims the reader, " did he get the funds to purchase the mills ?" And the chronicler remains pertinaciously silent. The young man who wants to get rich himself and what young man does not ? would be much obliged if the writer of Mr. Smith's life would sub- mit that gentleman's cash account during the years that intervened between his excessive poverty and his purchase of "the extensive woolen mills at X ." But it is never given, and I do not see why the writer of a mere work of fiction should be more explicit than his contemporaries of the news columns. This much was, however, well known. Mr. Scar- lett had been the promoter of a railroad that rivalled one of the greatest trunk lines in the country. He had obtained a charter from a legislature which public opinion had driven in spite of itself into favoring his project, as a blow to a gigantic monop- oly that was through him to find a rival. Owners of land along his line had treated him generously, thankful that they were soon to have reasonable rates of fare for themselves and of freight for their produce. Courts had rendered opinions in his favor, in documents that tickled the popular ear and were supposed to cause a cold sensation to pass down the backs of the Astorbilts and Vanderfeldts who were SENATOR FROM VAN BUREN. 25 robbing the people by their hitherto unchecked ra- pacity. The road had been built, being received every- where with acclamations. Those who rode over it were compelled to admit that it was not such a smooth running track as the old one that it had too many sharp curves and lacked stability in construc- tion. Bankers knew it had issued an unwarrantable amount of bonds and stock, at which shrewd invest- ors looked askance. But the public did not care. It had cut rates, that was the main thing for which it was designed ; and it gave out passes with a gener- ous hand. Editors rode free, of course, (as all editors should) after being compelled to descend to the level of common people and pay their fares over the lines of the monopolistic road. Ministers, with a just regard to proportions, were taken at half price. Shippers were given special rates when they wanted to take an outing. Oh, it was a great success, that new road ! And then President Scarlett was elected, almost without his consent, to the State Senate. It made no differ- ence what party he belonged to, and in those days he hardly knew himself. Everybody, except a few mean-spirited holders of the rival road's stock, voted for him. He swept the poll, leaving his opponent nothing but a handful of scattering votes. " The Democratic committee of this district wish your permission to nominate you for the Senate," said the gentlemen who called at Mr. Scarlett's office. *' There is no question of your election if you allow your name used. Our only doubt is in refer- ence to your politics. As you have taken no part in 36 TOOTPG K1BS GIDDY. such matters, nobody seems able to state to which side you belong. Of course you are a Democrat f however. A man of your public spirit could hardly be otherwise." The spokesman paused, smiling sweetly, and for a minute Mr. Scarlett hardly knew how to answer his pointed question. He had never affiliated, especially, with any party. Like Jay Gould, he had been a Democrat in some counties and a Republican in others, as his personal interest seemed to dictate. He did not know whether it was wise to accept honors at the hand of either of the great political organizations, lest it should antagonize men whose influence he needed on the other side. He wanted to consult with his lawyers, and, above all, with his lobbyists. " I am a very busy man, gentlemen," he said, after a long pause. " I cannot say whether it will be pos- sible for me to accept any office at present. The interests of the road I am managing can hardly be of less moment to the community than matters at the State Capitol. However, I will consider and let you know within a short time." He then rose with that air which expresses regret at being unable to prolong the conversation. Shaking hands personally with every member of the delegation, he bade them a good-afternoon. Before the day was ended a committee of Repub- licans came on precisely the same errand. They were also a little in doubt as to his politics, but had no question that the sympathies of such an eminent man must be on their side of the fence. The answer he gave them was identical with that he had given the other committee. He would think it over ; he BK1TJLTOR FROM VAN BUWW. 2T was very busy ; he thanked them for coming* Each man had his hand shaken warmly as he with- drew. That night the editors of the party papers in town wrote editorials expressing the hope that Mr. Scar- lett would accept the nomination that would cer tainly be tendered to him. The next day the place was in a furore. The audacity of the "other side " was alluded to by both parties in the most scathing terms. They need not hope to get into power in any such contemptible way. Mr. Scarlett's popularity would be very handy indeed, to settle such a close district. Reporters, not only of the local press, but from the great metropolitan dailies, sought interviews with the popular gentleman in vain. It was an occasion for the use of his private secretary, who met all comers in the outside office with the statement that Mr. Scarlett could not be seen by any person what- ever, and that he would make public his position, over his own signature, when he could find the time to do so. The lobbyists and the lawyers decided the matter for their employer, after a conference. The answer to the tenders that had been made him was con- tained in a statement sent simultaneously to both committees and to the press in general. Mr. Scarlett was already giving every moment of his valuable time to the service of the people ; so the document said. It was not clear to him that he could do more if he was sent to the Capitol. He feared, indeed, that he would be unable to perform all his duties there, in his over-worked condition. Still, it was undeniably true that there were matters 28 YOUNG MISS GIDDY. connected with the new road on which he might have a more direct and favorable influence if he occupied a seat in the legislative body. It was, however, a higher matter than that of mere party, and he was obliged to treat it as such. There were friends of Anti-monopoly on both sides. He would work with them wherever they were found. In short, while Mr. Scarlett did not ask nor desire, nor had any personal ambition to go to the State Senate, he would consent to be a candidate of the People, regardless of party, and would accept no other nomination. If elected, he would be bound to no interest but that of the Public. He would be trammelled by no caucus and influenced by no clique. If defeated, it would give him not the least concern. That was the whole thing, in a nut-shell. There was consternation in the party committees, for each had felt that, with him as their exclusive candidate, victory was assured in advance. Both saw, however, that there was only one thing to do. Their regular nominations must be allowed to pass for that year. They must do their best to convince the People that they were the real Scarlett party. On election day everybody voted for the man who did not care to run, who had as lief be defeated as not ; everybody but the holders of the rival bonds, who were the objects of general hate. These got together and nominated another candi- date one of themselves who received 187 votes, showing conclusively their entire strength. Mr. Scarlett's vote was 8912. The new railroad manager, then only twenty- nioe years of age, was returned to the Senate on his g EN A/TOR FROM VAIT BCRHN. 29 second year without a pretense of opposition. The third year he refused peremptorily to run agai^ though his constituents appealed to him with tears in their eyes. His road was now completed that is, it was built from end to end so that cars could run over it, taking special care at the bridges. Stations, not beautiful structures like those of the other road, but places at which one could certainly alight from or enter the trains, were scattered here and there. President Scarlett needed and deserved a rest. The prayers of the people followed him, with his young wife and babies, when it was reported in the papers that he had sailed for a year's voyage abroad. Perhaps the prayers would have been given with less fervor had they been delayed for another month. For at that time it came out that the new railroad had passed into the hands of the Astorbilt and Vanderfeldt monopolists, who had made a deal by which they had absorbed a majority of the stock at a very high figure. The public could hardly believe its eyes and ears. To get the requisite amount of stock to control the directorate the monop- olists had had to pay $214 per share for a large quantity. And who had sold them his stock at this rate ? Why, the Hon. Augustus Scarlett ! Mr. Scarlett was placed at once among the shrewdest railroad manipulators of his day. In the opinion of Wall street and its newspaper organs he was a very great man. His name would henceforth count as a power on 'Change, there was no doubt of that. One authority placed his present wealth at $2,000,000, another declared, " on reliable informa- tion," that it exceeded $5,000,000. At any rate, he $0 YOima MI88 had a good fortune for a young man of thirty, who had started with nothing. The people along the line of his late road were too stunned to say much. Those who could not get half price for their stock now that the V.'s and A.'s had got all they wanted, and no dividend was likely to be paid for a long time cursed quietly to them- selves. Most of the others said a man could not be blamed for making his fortune when he got the chance, and that he was no worse than other people. He was a pleasant fellow, anyway, and had been generous to the poor. The editors found he had not forgotten them alto- gether. He had made it a condition of his sale that all editorial passes should be renewed annually for at least ten years. The first minister who asked for a half rate got it as before. Really, Scarlett was not as bad as some people would make him out. Probably he could have come back a month after he went away and secured a re-election to the State Senate, a sure test of popular approval. But in that respect he differed with the cat of legendary notoriety. He did not come back. He remained for a year in Europe, as he had intended, and when he returned to the United States he estab- lished two residences. One was in the city of New York, for the purposes of trade in securities, for which he believed he had an aptitude. The other was in the State of Van Buren, west of the Mississippi River, where he purchased a stupendously large acre- age of land. Five years later he was a cattle king, silver king and a railroad promoter in many direc- tions. He was a member, also, of the lower house of the National Congress. He was a successful man in 8ENATOE FROM VAA* BUBBBt. 31 erery material direction. He had a handsome wife, a boy of seven, and a daughter of four years. He no longer worked hard at his multifarious duties. It was easier and better in every way to hire able men to do that for him. He grew to be a veritable Nabob. At the time of his introduction to the reader he was so very wealthy that the figures are quite superfluous. No one would have suspected, had he kepi the matter to himself, that he had not been reared in that delightful local- ity known as the " lap of luxury." But with all his money he had found it necessary to throw this fact into the scale on running for the United States Senate. There was a prejudice in the minds of some of the legislators against extreme wealth, and to carry the majority he had to have printed a picture of the cabin where he was born, which he sent a photographer to find. A brilliant journalist worked up a touching story of a poor lad who had been forced to leave his child- hood's home at a tender age, and had risen by the sheer force of industry to his present proud position. Mr. Scarlett was successful by a majority of three in a hot contest, that first time. The second time he had no such trouble. His lieutenants saw to it that members likely to oppose him were left at home by their constituencies. The Hon. Augustus did not care anything for the life of the Senate, in itself. He went there because it was, and still is, the proper thing for a man worth over ten millions to do. He spent very little time in the State which he had the honor to represent, but neither did most of his fellow-senators from that region. One of the great interests of the State it 32 TOUNG MIB8 GIDDY. siJver, and a silver-mine owner could be depended upon not to vote in opposition to that industry. Nobody cared how else he voted, or whether he voted at all, and he might have remained undisturbed for- ever in his place were it not for the fact that several men who had also become worth more than ten mil- lions wanted the position, and stood ready to make him fight for it at each recurring election. Once he was spoken of for Vice-President of the country, but this was only what is known as a " bluff," and was designed to make him appear a National figure for local effect. CHAPTER III. " LUVV ? WHAT'S LUV* ?** Douglass Maybury had inherited a famous name, and a fortune not at all commensurate with it, in his opinion. His father had been a Judge and his grandfather a Governor, but the wealth of the fam- ily decreased with the former, whose tastes were extravagant and whose business qualities were not of the highest order. At the age of nineteen, how- ever, Douglass had given little thought to the future. His expenses had been met with liberality by Mr. Blackstone Coke, the well-known lawyer, in whose charge his affairs were placed by his father's wilL He had been allowed to do about as he pleased since his twelfth year, when he was left an orphan and had divided his time between study and plea** "LDTT? WHAT'S LUW?" 83 ure, with hardly nny attempt being made to guide him. He knew in a general way that he would not be a rich man, but he could not have told within fifty per cent, the amount of money at any time remain- ing in the hands of his father's executor and trustee. Mr. Coke was a gentleman who disliked going into particulars, and Douglass was a client after his own heart. All he had ever said to young Maybury was that he should, by-and-by, make a wealthy marriage, and that his small fortune would probably suffice till this was accomplished. Maybury repeated this to a member of his club with whom he was on terms of intimacy, Mr. David Bayley, an architect who had already attracted attention among the upper circles for the quality of the work he was doing. There was eight or nine years difference in their ages, but Mr. Bayley was a man who could adapt himself to all kinds of people, and he found the " boy," as he then mentally styled him, rather interesting. " What an old ass Coke is to say a thing like that to me !" was the way Douglass supplemented his information. " Marry ? / marry ! I would as soon cut my throat." " He didn't mean that you were to hurry about it, I don't imagine," rejoined the Architect. " It's a thing most men do, you know, at some time in their lives. And it's very good form now-a-days to think of money and matrimony in the same connection. The old-fashioned ideas of love, and love alone, do not obtain any more in American society. Tenny- son puts it very well in his Northern Farmer : 34 Yotnre MMS CUDDT- 4 Luw ? What's IUVY > thou can luw thy lass an* hr munny too, Maakin' 'em goa togither as they've good right to do.' " Young Maybury showed plainly on his face the disgust that he felt. " It's too commercial," he said, " to think of it in that way. It's like putting one's self up to the high- est bidder, like a prize donkey." "But you must get money somewhere," urged the Architect. " You wouldn't like to go into trade, would you, and you've never begun to fit yourself for a profession. How have you planned to fill that purse of yours when you find it becoming empty ?" The young man lifted his eyebrows as ff this was a new thought to him. " I might buy a kit of burglar's tools," he replied, ' and go to cracking safes. It seems to me, on the /vhole, more respectable than to sell my body and oul to some rich man's daughter. Speaking of rich men, you know Senator Scarlett pretty well. Could you give me a resume of his history ?" Without dreaming that there would come a time in the future when he might regret the freedom, Mr. Bayley obligingly detailed to his friend all he knew of Scarlett. He had heard of the low origin of the millionaire, his enrichment out of the railroad he built, his practical purchase of his seat in the Senate, and most of the rest of the story in the preceding chapter. And he told it all without reserve, with the air of a man who likes to show that he knows what is going on in the world. " But his first actual start on the highway to finan- cial success came in just the way we were recently "LTTWf WHAT'S LUVV ?" 35 talking about," said Bay ley. " He got into a railroad office, and gained some promotion by his industry and brightness; but that wouldn't have amounted to much if he hadn't married a daughter of one of the high officials of the road. There is a rumor that the marriage was clandestine a case of runaway, denun- ciation and subsequent forgiveness but I'm not able to swear to that. He certainly married a small fortune, a hundred thousand or so, and used it as a lever to raise himself to his present position." Mr. Maybury looked thoughtful. " And the wife ?" he asked. "She died, poor girl, when the daughter was very young. Oh, yes, I suppose he regretted her, and it is unlikely he will ever marry again. But Scarlett" here the Architect lowered his voice " is not a saint in the matter of women. He has a mistress, they say, at each of his principal stopping-places, one here, one in Van Buren and one in Washington. That doesn't prove that he didn't love his wife, though. The most devoted husband I ever knew, a man who fairly worshipped his spouse, lost his life in a house of ill-fame at Boston. The lace curtains caught from the gas-jet and set a bed on fire, endangering the girl, and the brave fellow died from injuries received in putting out the flames." The listener shrugged his shoulders. " Things have got to be pretty bad, haven't they ?" he replied. " Were they always so, or has this age gone to the devil, all by itself ?" The Architect cited several cases in history to how that lapses in marital fidelity were not wholly original to this century. Then he looked at his watch and remarked that he had an engagement. 3b TOUNO MIBi OIDDT. The next day Douglass May bury came near for- getting the appointment that he had with the pretty child he had first seen in front of the Scarlett resi- dence on Fifty-second street. Hastening out of doors at seven o'clock, he sprang into a cab and gave the driver a direction that nearly made the man fall off his box. " Avenue A !" exclaimed the cabby. " Did you say Avenue A f" Maybury coolly repeated the direction, specifying anew the little park that was just beyond the avenue, near the corner of th street. And the driver took up his whip and gave his astonished horse a clip as if the animal was to blame for the sarcastic manner of his passenger. The carpenter's little daughter was somewhat abashed when she saw the carriage stop and the young gentleman alight. He looked to her a much more important and formidable individual than he did when she found him, a mere foot passenger like herself, on the pavement. Instead of rushing up to him tumultuously, as she had intended, and plying him with questions, she waited demurely for him to speak. Maybury walked over to Esther and held out his hand frankly. "Well, I am here, you see," he exclaimed. " And I have learned all I could about our friend, the millionaire, with the daughter who drives her own ponies." With that he motioned the child to a seat on a bench near by, and placed himself by her side. For fifteen minutes she listened to him with all th interest in the world, and when he ended his recitaJ WHAT'S LUW?" 37 she wore the expression of one who is much dis- appointed. " Then Mr. Scarlett did not make all his money, himself," she said, summing up what he had told her. " He began by marrying a lady who had property." " Exactly," replied Douglass. " And that is not so bad a point for you to know," he added, half in earnest, half in joke. " If you are ever to be rich you will more than likely become so by marriage." Whatever of humor there might be in this subject for him, there was none whatever for his little com- panion. "Rich young men do not marry the daughters of carpenters," she said, dolefully. " They never come down to Avenue A for their wives." " But they may some day," he said. " Who knows ?" She shook her head very decidedly, as if she did not believe it. " You are a rich young man yourself, are you not? You rode here to-night in a carriage, and you look like those I have seen walking on Fifth avenue Sunday after church. Now, if you wanted to marry, do you think you would come over to this neighbor- hood ?" He didn't think so in the least, but politeness sometimes demands that answers be given an eva- sive quality. "I might," he replied, smilingly. " But, really, I am not rich, nor anything like it. What money I have is going rapidly and will soon be gone." "Do you work at anything?" she asked. " Well, not just yet. I have been going to school 38 YOUNG nits and traveling. But I shall have to do something by-and-by." She looked him over, from head to foot. "What could you do ?" There was a certain contemptuousness in the ques- tion and in the manner of asking it that did not escape him ; but he was rather amused than other- wise. "You must not be too hard on me, Esther," he protested. " I shall come out all right ; only give me time." She colored because he read her thoughts so accurately. But she was not the girl to pretend any- thing she did not feel. " tf you are not rich there is on/y one way you ever will be," she persisted. "You will have to marry money, as Mr. Scarlett did." His face grew darker at that. Must even this child of the East-side diagnose his fate like all the others? Mr. David Bayley had told him the same thing, and Mr. Blackstone Coke, and dozens of people during the last year had intimated it. And he was not yet twenty ! " Well, Esther," he said, " I have kept my promise. I have told you all I know about money-getting. And now let me advise you to be a wise and sensible little girl, and put such matters out of your mind for the next five years. All you ought to do now is to go to school, study hard, and read all the good books you can find. What is your age ?" "Thirteen," she told him, with a gesture of de- fiance. * When you are seventeen it will be time enough *LUTT? WHAffl LTrrrr* 89 to begin to plan your future. You can do nothing before then, and you are only wasting your time." He was talking as she feared he would when she saw that he came in a cab. If she had known he was this kind of a man she would never have opened her heart to him in the first place. Her disappoint- ment was keen, for she had hoped for much from this interview. She looked at the small tufts of grass that had escaped the feet of the visitors to the park, and did not speak. "Come, Esther, what do you say?" " I say I will do nothing of the kind I" she snapped. "In two years my stepmother will want to put me into a shop to work, and I never will go, never ! do you hear ? And then there will be trouble. My father does whatever she tells him ; he has no mind of his own. And what could he do if he had ever so good a will ? He is a carpenter that is all ! He can talk about pine and spruce and walnut, he can saw and drive nails and hammer a chisel ! Yes, and he can go to meetings of the Socialists, too, and come home saying that the rich men are oppressing those who toil, and that it is time the workmen made different laws and arranged things to suit themselves ! He can do all that, but he has no more idea how to get above his station than a spike ! And I live with him, and with her, and with that brother of mine that you saw, and listen to them, all day and all the evening, until I am ready to burst with vexation ! I do not belong in that family, everyone says so ; there was certainly a mistake in my ever being born there. I ought to have come to the other side of Fourth avenue ; I know it as well as I know I breathe ! And I am 40 TOUHO MI8B GIDDY. going to get there somehow ! ' Wait till I am seventeen/ indeed ! By that time I should be a factory girl, tied down for life to a dollar a day, looking like those things that come home at six o'clock with their faces drawn and wrinkled and their backs stooping over ! No, I won't do it. I couldn't !" And the astonished young gentleman saw the child, who had thrown these expressions at him as rapidly as her little tongue could utter them, set off at a rapid pace in the direction of her home, paying no attention whatever to his calls for her to return and talk it over with him. Douglass could not believe Esther meant to leave him altogether. When he saw she did not turn her head he followed her into the street, and went quite a distance after her, with rapid steps. But though she did not look around, she knew that he was coming and presently broke into a run and dis- tanced him. He did not propose to enter into a race with her, and in a short time he retraced his way and left the neighborhood. When one has no definite plans or purposes in life it takes very little to influence his acts. Several days later Maybury learned that a friend of his, a young physician named Parton, was about to start on a trip abroad. Douglass had spent a portion of his boyhood in Europe, and had thought for some time of taking another journey to that part of the world. Parton was a fellow he had learned to like, and it struck him as a good idea when the doctor suggested that they go together. " It would be extremely agreeable," said Parton, with a languid air that was common to him. ** I W LUW? WHAT'S LUW?" 41 would even wait a week or two for you to get ready, if necessary." Maybury laughed at this, saying he had nothing to do but pack a trunk, and that twenty-four hours would be more than ample for all his preparations. It was therefore agreed that they should go on the next steamer, and state-rooms were engaged accord- ingly. Mr. Blackstone Coke, on being informed of these things, merely said he hoped Mr. Maybury would enjoy himself. The requisite letter of credit would be sent to his hotel that afternoon. He was turning to his books again when Douglass asked a question : "That cash of mine it won't run out when I am on the other side, I hope, and leave me the disagree- able necessity of walking back ?" " No. If you are at all reasonable it will last you some time yet." "But it is gradually growing ' smaller by degrees and beautifully less,' I understand," said Maybury, " to use the expression of the poet ?" Mr. Coke nodded. " And when it gets near its end, you perhaps expect me to take your advice, and marry some girl with money ?" Mr. Coke nodded again, much as if he had been asked if it was past eleven. "Well, I shall never do it !" cried the young man, imitating Esther Strange unconsciously. Then, as it occurred to him whose words he was mimicking, he laughed. "Tell me to a minute how long it will last, that I may be prepared." The lawyer did not take the trouble even to look in the ledger in his safe containing an accurate 48 TOUWG MI88 OIDDT. account of the Maybury property, as well as of a hundred others of which he was the custodian. He merely consulted his memory, fully as apt to be cor- rect in such matters. "You have been drawing at the rate of $5,000 a year," he said. " You will probably wish to in- crease that by fifty per cent, while you are abroad. If you do not exceed that amount that is to say $7,500 you may rely on my supplying your wants for something like five years more. If you spend less or indulge in greater drafts on your money, you can easily figure out the difference in dates." "The devil !" exclaimed Maybury, disgusted. " Is it as bad as that ? What a thoughtless set of people my ancestors must have been ! I ought to have had a fortune something like Augustus Scar- lett's." Mr. Blackstone Coke lifted his gaze directly at the speaker. " That is easy enough for you to accomplish," he said, quietly. " Easy enough ?" repeated the younger man. " Undoubtedly. You are nineteen. The Senator has a daughter who is fifteen, or thereabouts. You know the family. They like you. Keep on good terms with them, wait a proper time not too long ; say till you are twenty-three and she is nineteen. Then " He did not finish the sentence with words, as they seemed superfluous ; and Mr. Coke was not given to superfluous language. Douglass looked at the lawyer with rising indig- nation. Must this man not only join the ranks of those who assumed to advise him to marry for " LUVV ? WHAT'S LCTV ?* 43 money, but go farther yet and name the identical party of the second part ! A member of the bar for fifty years, who had handled the funds of three gen- erations of Mayburys in a large measure ; a man with white hair and a benignant beard, and gold- bowed spectacles. What an old wretch he was ! It would be useless to enter into an argument with him, however, and with a word of farewell the client left the office. There were only a few calls to make before his steamer left her dock, and something drew the young fellow in spite of himself to Fifty-second street. He wanted to take another look at that handsome little daughter of Senator Scarlett's, th girl that silly old lawyer had advised him to marry ! He knew the Senator well his father had taken him there in the first place, and he had seen Miss Flora frequently from the days when she wore pina- fores. He had never thought of her as a woman, or as one who would ever be anything but a sweet, winsome child, her father's pet and the idol of the servants. Flora came into the parlor to say good-bye to him, when the Senator sent out for her. And Doug- lass saw she was certainly going to be a woman and a very beautiful one before long. "You may see May and me in Europe if you stay six months," said Mr. Scarlett. "We have been there a good deal already, you know. May has spent at least half her life abroad, and there are things she will have to go back to complete. A letter sent in care of the Barings will reach you, I presume ?" The Senator always called his daughter May. 44 YOUNG MISS 6IDDT. Almost every one else spoke of her by her other name. On the next Saturday young Maybury sailed, and for two years he did not set foot on American shores. During the latter part of his stay he met the Scar- letts and saw a great deal of them. And all this time Esther Strange never relinquished her determination to be " a lady," cost what it might. She went frequently to the little park where she had met the stranger, hoping that he would seek her there, notwithstanding the rude way in which she had left him. Then, emboldened, she sought the address on the card he had given her, and experienced a severe setback when a servant told her that he had left the country and would not return for many months. But she was not discouraged. " I -will be a rich lady some day," she kept insisting to herself. "There are ways by which one can get money, and I will find out what they are." CHAPTER IV. ESTHER'S STRIKE FOR FREEDOM. Those who knew Charles Scarlett, the Senator's son, never expected that his father would make a very great confidant of him. He seemed to have inherited little of the nature of this parent, the keen, shrewd man of business, who, while "grasp- ing the skirts of happy chance," and " breasting the ESTHER'S STRIKE FOB FREEDOM. 45 blows of circumstance," had still found time for the pleasant leisure of life and all the reasonable enjoy- ments that money can bring. Those who had known his mother said he reminded them of her, as did also his sister Flora. Both gave many evi- dences of their descent from that sweet-tempered, exceedingly gentle, but ill-fated lady. Charles had never been delicate, as the phrase is used. Though not addicted to athletic sports he had had no serious illness. He was thoughtful and studious, and his chief trait was generosity. In those earlier years when it first dawned on his mind that there were many in the world with less than he, he would have been willing, like the young Louis Napoleon, to give away the shoes on his feet. Before he was ten years old his favorite way of enjoying himself was to take a carriage and one of the servants and seek the poorer quarters with a load of necessaries to be distributed. And he seldom returned without traces of the tears he had shed because there were so many that he could not supply. Mr. Scarlett, Sr., believed in letting children fol- low their own inclinations as far as possible. He was generous in his own way, putting down his name for large sums on subscription papers, but he would have submitted to almost any fine rather than go " slumming," as his son did. Charles showed no inclination to adopt any of the profes- sions, and an infant knew nearly as much about what is termed business. It was evident that he was meant for a scholar and a philanthropist. Had Charles been able to reconcile the dogmas of the various sects, he might have turned out a 445 TOTTNG MISS GIDDY. missionary, for he had the spirit of which such me* are made. Bat he could not get interested in theology, though he studied it for some time. He had a mind broader than any of the creeds. He carved out for himself a natural religion that suited him better than any of the ready-made articles so freely offered for sale. The heathen he most wanted to reach were close to his own door. They needed bread and clothes and soap more than they did doctrine. His field was wider than he could ever hope to cover. It seemed to him that he could do more good right there in New York than on the banks of the Zambesi or the Hoang-Ho. With these views it was natural that he mixed little in what is called society. His associates were mostly of the poorer classes and of men and woman of his own belief. Oppressed with the immensity of the work that opened before him, he found no time for the merely ornamental things of life. He loved his father with an almost idolatrous devotion and felt for his sister the tenderest sentiments. But these were not the ones who needed his care. Among the more intelligent of the laboring class that Charles Scarlett was thrown in contact with, was a carpenter named Lyman Strange. He had spent many evenings in the company of this man, impressed with the fairness with which he was willing to discuss questions that so often arouse bitterness of feeling. One evening, shortly before Maybury returned from Europe, Charles accom- panied Mr. Strange to a meeting of dissatisfied mechanics, where some rather severe things were said against the wealthier employing classes, things ESTHEB'S STRIKE FOB FKKKDOM. 47 that struck home to Mr. Scarlett, Jr., in a way that nothing up to that time had done. The principal speaker of the evening was a man named Michael Lacy, who was not in the habit of measuring his words nor of confining his expressions to the choicest language. He declared, in as plain English as he knew how to use, that all large employers of labor were robbers ; that the mine owners and railroad stockholders were bands of cutthroats, whose earnings ought to be taken from them and distributed among the poor, from whom they had been stolen. Young Mr. Scarlett felt his cheeks burn. That man was talking about his father ! He was alleging dishonesty on the part of that revered gentleman, whom everybody he supposed up to that time respected, and whom a great State had chosen to represent it in the highest council in the nation ! He wanted to rise in his place and demand that the speaker retract his charges, but he felt too agitated to make the attempt. When the meeting adjourned he left the hall with Mr. Strange, the applause that had greeted the incendiary utterances still ringing in his ears. " I shall quit going to these meetings if men are permitted to utter such libels !" he exclaimed, as soon as he was out of reach of the crowd. " I won- der some one did not reply to those thrusts at the solid men of the country. There must be level- headed fellows who don't agree with that nonsen- sical stuff. Employers 'cutthroats and robbers,' indeed ! I'd like to know what the poor would do if there were no capitalists to give them work. They couldn't build a railroad or open a rmne with 48 YOTTNO HIM GIDDT. their hands alone. In these times, when there are so many people idle for want of something to do, it is very ungracious to attack enterprising men who are making places for them to earn wages in." Mr. Strange had no intention of becoming involved in a personal controversy with this young man. He sympathized with the filial feeling that had been aroused as much as he indorsed most of the remarks which provoked it. "Have you ever read a book called 'Looking Backward ?' " he asked, quietly. It seemed a queer way to meet the point, and Charles Scarlett looked the surprise he felt. " I have not even heard of it," he answered. " It hasn't been out long," said Mr. Strange. " I think you'd like it. It has a good many new ideas, or at least ideas put into new form. I've got a copy I'll lend you, if you like, as it isn't sold yet at many of the stores." Charles listened with contracted brows. "If the ideas are like Lacy's, I don't want to read it," he said, with an asperity that was foreign to his nature. " Well, they're not ex-act-ly like them," replied the carpenter ; " they present a view of the capi- tal and labor question different from anything I've seen before. You see, Mr. Scarlett, there's been a feeling of antagonism between the classes for a good many years. The capitalists think the laborer wants too much, and the workmen think the rich men pile up their wealth too fast. Now, this book I'm speak- ing of has a remedy for all this. It proposes to abolish both the employer and the employe." The millionaire's son looked incredulous. ESTHER'S STRIKE FOR FREEDOM. 49 * The author intends to depopulate the earth ?" " Not at all. He only proposes to destroy private capital, putting all the gains of labor at the disposal of those who earn them." Charles threw up his head with ill-concealed con- tempt. " Pshaw ! That's the communistic idea over again ! I hope you haven't given your adhesion to such trash as that." The carpenter saw that his friend was unusually irritable, but he maintained the unruffled attitude that was habitual with him. "Just read the book and then we can discuss it afterwards," he said, mildly. " I'm sure you'll like it." "If it's a defender of communism I won't touch it !" was the retort. " I've read all of that I'm going to. There is just one object in all of them, that of dragging humanity down to a common level." " But this book shows how to lift all humanity up to a common level," replied Mr. Strange, impres- sively. The effect was instantaneous. The entire nature of Charles Scarlett palpitated with joy at the prospect held forth in the words of the artisan. " If that could be done " He paused, overcome with the thought. " If that could be done, Mr. Strange, the great problem would indeed be solved. I will go with you to your house and take the book home with me. I am only too anxious to read it. What is the name of its author?" But the carpenter was obliged to admit that he had forgotten. It was some one of whom he had never heard before. The book had not made any 50 YODNG MISS GIDDY. great sensation yet, but it was sure to do so in time. It was the simplest, most convincing work he had ever read. When his friend had finished it he would like to talk it over with him. " You must know, Mr. Scarlett," he added, " that ill feeling is growing between the rich and the poor at a frightful rate. I don't say which is the most at fault; probably the blame is nearly equally divided; but there'll be trouble of no small magnitude if something isn't done. Hardly a day passes without the papers giving accounts of strikes and lockouts, accompanied by assaults, calling out of militia, swearing in of extra constables and things of that kind. We've got a country where freedom is sup- posed to exist and where we ought to expect tran- quility, but a guerrilla warfare is being constantly waged. No adequate remedy had been proposed until the appearance of this book; at least, nothing that was presented in an apparently feasible light. We have to take folks as we find them. If all the workingmen were sensible, and if all the rich employ- ers were as honorable and fair as you would be " The speaker was stopped by a motion on the part of the other. " You know I dislike compliments," he said. " But, speaking of labor, is it not a fact that most of the discontent is fomented by foreigners who have a natural taste for breeding discord ?" Mr. Strange shook his head slowly. " They may be the spokesmen," he replied, " but their sentiments are voiced by the others. Nearly all laborers feel that there isn't a fair division." The representative of wealth lifted his quiet eyes to those of the worker in wood. EBTHER'S STRIKE FOR FREEDOM. 51 " Division !" he echoed. " Why should there be a division ? That is the basis of the whole trouble, a mistaken idea from first to last. No one will accuse me of lack of sympathy with those who labor, but they have burdened their minds with a false con- ception. Capital and labor are each entitled to what belongs to them. If I raise a crop on my land, and another man neglects his, what business has he to ask that I divide ? Unless he has been ill or met with an accident, he has no claim to what I have accumulated. Put the thing in a simpler form, if you like. Say that you earned twenty-five dollars last week " " Sixteen," corrected the matter-of-fact listener. "Sixteen, then," said Mr. Scarlett, with a slight flush. " Whatever you earned, it is the same. You take your wages and start toward home, when an- other man, who has not earned anything, stops you and demands that you divide with him. How would you take the proposition, put in that concrete form ?" The carpenter shook his head with a smile. "It used to be hard to meet such arguments," said he, " but it will be easier when everybody has read 'Looking Backward.' The author has such a wise plan that the old controversies seem a waste of time. Read it, Mr. Scarlett, and then we can discuss these things on an entirely new basis." His curiosity now being piqued to the utmost, Charles was glad when they reached the carpenter's abode. Though in what was undoubtedly a poor neighborhood for where else can the mechanic afford to live in New York ? not a quarter of a mile separated it from the gorgeous palaces of million- 52 YOUNG MISS GIDDY. aires. The rich man's son climbed the three flights of stairs that led to the box-like apartment occupied by the family, consisting of Mr. Strange, his second wife, his daughter Esther and his son Austin, now in his nineteenth year. " Here's the book," said the carpenter, taking it from a case where were fifteen or twenty other vol- umes. Mr. Scarlett took it in his hand with something like reverence. What if it really should contain a genuine revelation of the way rich and poor might become reconciled to each other ! " I'll read it with care," said he, " and when I have finished it I'll come and see you." His anxiety to get home, where he could begin the reading that very night, induced Mr. Scarlett to take an early farewell. As he passed down the stairway he found Esther Strange in the lower hall, waiting for him. " Mr. Scarlett," she said, in a quick breathing way, " can I talk with you a few minutes ?" He answered in the affirmative, at the same time asking why she had not made known her desire before her family. " I don't want them to know it," she stammered. " I want to talk with you all alone. There is a lit- tle bit of a park not far up the street you know the one. I want you to go there and let me follow." He looked at her narrowly. She was well devel- oped for her age, rather pretty, very neat and whole- some. He wondered what she could want, but he said without delay that he would go to the place indicated. As he passed along the street he heard her following. Arriving at the bare spot of ground which she had designated as a "park," he took a seat on a bench and waited for her. " No, I don't care to sit down," she said, as he made a place for her by his side. * lean talk better standing. It is this, Mr. Charles : I want you to find me a way to do something, to be something, to get a chance in the world. My father is a carpenter. He always was a carpenter ; he always will be one. My brother Austin works with the same kind of tools. My stepmother used to be in a shop, before she was married, and she thinks that is the place for me. But I hate shops. I see girls no more intelligent than I am, getting a a place. You can help me out of this this low life I was born in. You can do it, and I don't know any one else that can." She had spoken with the utmost rapidity, but he had comprehended it all, as far as the words went. " I don't understand exactly what you expect me to do," he answered, gravely. "Don't you?" She seemed considerably disap pointed. " I don't see how I can make it plainer. You know how poor we are. Father is a mechanic. Mechanics never amount to anything. We live in four rooms, crowded in with twenty other families. It is expected that the children of such people will do something to earn money as soon as they get big enough. What can / do ? Go into a shop or a store, or sew or scrub or learn to cook ? I hate all of those things ! I wont do any of them, no matter if I starve to death. There are people who don't feel as I do about such matters. As for me, I simply won't. Now, there are girls who are highly educated, who have pleasant employments, who wear good clothes. 54 YOUNG MT88 GIDDY. who go to the theatres and ride in carriages. Why cannot I be one of those girls ?" The pleading voice affected him, for he was not inclined to smile at her excessive innocence. " Have you ever spoken of this to your parents ?" he inquired. "Of course not !" The girl's dark eyes snapped. " Father talks a great deal about the ' dignity of labor,' and Austin drinks in everything he says as if it was inspired. I am the only one of them who wants a change. What kind of a life have I got to live, unless I get out of their circle ? Girls in my class are Nobodies. When they are older they marry Nobodies. They become the mothers of Nobodies ; and so it goes on. Mr. Charles," she continued, impressively," I won't endure this ! I shall be Some- body, or I shall throw myself into the East River." The affair was growing serious enough, in all con- science. What a very wicked girl she was ! He must think this over by himself before he could decide what to say to her, "You surprise me so that I cannot answer you to- night," was his reply, after a moment of hesitation. " You have a father and mother who love you very dearly, and I am sure you will hesitate before doing anything to cause them pain. I will try to think of someway to aid you, if you will give me a few days ; and, in the meantime " He had put his hand in his pocket and half-drawn out his purse, when she stopped him. "You know I did not mean that! I don't want charity. I want a chance , the same as others have. You can get it for me if you will !" The girl turned abruptly away and walked off !n "MARRIAGE is A the direction of her habitation, leaving Mr. Scarlett still more shocked and astonished. She was a most remarkable child ! He would think her case over to-morrow. To-night he was too anxious to read the book her father had put into his hand. Though ordinarily one of the most regular of sleepers the young scion of wealth did not close his eyes that night. He read every line of the wonder- ful story that since that day has revolutionized the thoughts and quickened the consciences of millions. The carpenter was right when he said it would alter all bases for argument afterward. Charles Scarlett was not certain how much of the author's position he accepted, as he sought his couch when the sun was rising. But he knew that some- thing had touched his mind and heart in a way they never had been touched before. CHAPTER V. " MARRIAGE IS A NUISANCE." Though Douglass Maybury saw a great deal of the Scarletts, father and daughter, during the latter part of his stay in Europe, they did not interest him half as much as some other things with which he came in contact there. He was now twenty-one, in the full flush of youthful health, with enough money to spend, rather good-looking, and with no one to put the least curb on his actions. It is no wonder that he found acquaintances more agreeable 56 YOUNG MISS GIDDY. than the bonanza Senator, whose talk was largely of politics and stocks ; or the young miss of seventeen, still under the tutelage of her music and language masters, and with as little knowledge of Life as one of the finches that adorned her chamber. Mr. Scarlett happened to spend considerable time at Paris, when Douglass was there, and also at various points in the south of France and in Italy } during the winter, when the young man was doing the usual places. He invited him to his table at the various hotels, and the invitations were accepted not infrequently. At dinner Miss Flora had her seat by her father, and listened to the conversations that took place, with the well-bred silence of her age. She was undoubtedly a sweet girl, trained by her careful chaperone, Madame Saccard, educated in the best manner, and growing fairer, if possible, every day. But Maybury, in his own words, " had no use for her." She was still a child, and he was fonder of the company he could find after eleven at night, fre- quenting the cafes and ready to indulge in wine sup- pers or games of cards. He made the acquaintance of the fastest set of women wherever he went as naturally as a duck goes into the water, and long before he returned to the United States he was blase as a man of fifty, his appetite cloyed by the sweet things that had been presented to his pampered taste. He had, indeed, come to regard existence as a bore, and had at times serious thoughts of dispos- ing of it as a disagreeable and monotonous legacy. From that long past day when a housemaid at his father's had surrendered to his boyish arts, as he then believed, (or deliberately " lai