THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 THE METROPOLITANS
 
 THE 
 
 METROPOLITANS 
 
 BY 
 
 JEANIE DRAKE 
 
 NEW YORK 
 THE CENTURY CO. 
 
 1896
 
 Copyright, 1896, by 
 THE CENTURY Co. 
 
 THE DtViNNE PREM.
 
 ps 
 
 THE METROPOLITANS 
 
 1522705
 
 THE METROPOLITANS 
 
 |HE full moon, sailing across the sky 
 above Staten Island, in serene indiffer 
 ence to mundane revel, might have per 
 ceived that the fifth annual ball of the 
 Hunt Club was nearly at an end. Her 
 light on the hoar-frost made grass and late foliage 
 everywhere sparkle with myriad crystals, hid itself in 
 hollowed wave and umbrageous forest near, and only 
 gave way before long pencils of warmer, rosier rays, 
 which shot forth now and then from the open doorway 
 of a great illuminated building. The brittle earth 
 crackled beneath the hoofs of champing horses wait 
 ing outside. Impatient coachmen came and went, flap 
 ping their arms together to keep warm, like grotesque 
 birds in livery; finding small comfort in the fitful 
 bursts of music which came from within, but more 
 in visits to the rear premises of the G-oldenrod Inn, 
 whence they issued wiping their mouths with the backs 
 of their hands. 
 
 "There 's to be another supper after the women 
 goes. I 'm here till mornin', I 'd wager me soul ! " 
 i i
 
 2 THE METROPOLITANS 
 
 grumbled Mr. Pundit's coachman, with a prodigious 
 yawn. 
 
 "Vy don't you bet somethin' large?" responded 
 Lady Mellon's man, disdainfully. " That there yawn, 
 f r i'stauce. I thought you 'd a-swallerred me ! " 
 
 " No ; I ain't takin' bitters in mine," chuckled Denis, 
 restored to good humor by the subtlety of his own 
 retort courteous. 
 
 In the new wing of the Goldenrod, the great ball 
 room resounded to the strains of the Hungarian band 
 hidden in an alcove, from which protruded two arti 
 ficial heads of horses apparently feeding. 
 
 " Is that what you end-of-the-century moderns call 
 realism in decoration, Mr. Penrose?" asked, with a 
 smile, a pleasant-faced old man, directing his neigh 
 bor's attention to these bronzed effigies. 
 
 " I rather fancy, Mr. de Mansur," said the younger, 
 adjusting his eye-glasses, " that Archie Pundit prides 
 himself especially on that touch. He generally orders 
 matters and takes the fatal slide from the artistic 
 to the ridiculous. Otherwise, those corn-stalks and 
 sheaves of straw and pumpkins and vines, and the 
 rest of the weeds, are not half bad as a background 
 for the men's pink coats and the women's gowns." 
 
 "Why are you not in pink yourself!" asked the 
 elder man, kindly, looking up at his tall, thin compan 
 ion, whose quite smooth face, with its marked features 
 and very fair coloring, made him noticeable. " I hear 
 that you ride very straight to hounds." 
 
 " I am not a club member only an invited guest." 
 
 " Well, cucullus non facit monachum. I think I 've 
 heard something of an impromptu leap, was it not ?
 
 THE METROPOLITANS 3 
 
 But now I must find my daughter and go. You young 
 fellows may sit up the rest of the night at your late 
 supper, but I want a few hours' sleep before going back 
 to the city." 
 
 He went off with a roll in his walk suggestive of in 
 creased avoirdupois. Stephen Penrose, who remained 
 behind, looked as expressionless as usual ; but he had 
 noted, with those near-sighted eyes which missed very 
 little, the withdrawal of Miss de Mansur and her last 
 partner into a nook among the vines, where they would 
 not be easily found. 
 
 This partner, whose straight, well-knit figure and 
 clear, dark tints went well with his scarlet coat, was 
 leaning over Katherine at the moment, and mur 
 muring : 
 
 "The quotation is trite, but cannot be improved, 
 when I say that when you dance with me I wish that 
 you might ever do nothing but that." 
 
 "Oh," smiled the slim girl in pale blue and silver, 
 still a little breathless from the last measures of " San 
 tiago/' " what a useful career you would sketch out for 
 me in this age of enlightenment, progress, and women's 
 clubs ! Even papa, who would not have me a judge, 
 say, or a railroad official, approves of fresh-air societies, 
 hospital missions, and needlework guilds, not to speak 
 of art clubs and Browning societies. Life was a much 
 simpler matter in Perdita's time, you know. Her prin 
 cipal occupation seemed to be picking flowers and pay 
 ing compliments ; but now, in this year of grace, I shall 
 feel that to-night's pleasure calls for some bit of un 
 comfortable, disagreeable work, by way of equalizing 
 things with my conscience."
 
 4 THE METROPOLITANS 
 
 " Then the sooner you acquire a conscience like hers 
 the better, I should think," ventured this bold youth. 
 " A woman and a flower, now, what can they do more 
 useful than just to bloom ? And all pretty blossoms 
 should live in sunshine." 
 
 " Oh, what an enervating doctrine ! And what 
 would become of those without sunlight unless helped 
 to some by the more fortunate ? In the mean time " 
 (with a touch of self-accusing humility according 
 well with her gracious maidenhood), "I am afraid 
 these untimely misgivings are only the dash of bitter 
 I wilfully add to make my cup more piquant. I would 
 not appear better than I am." The upward glance of 
 the great clear eyes, which accompanied a little confi 
 dential sigh, gave his heart a quick throb. 
 
 " Than you are ? O Katherine ! " 
 
 The musicians had left the room ; there was a soft 
 flutter and hum of many people passing into the hall ; 
 the spicy smell of the evergreens was around them. 
 Her sudden color at his calling her by her first name 
 might have been of good or ill omen ; but just here a 
 stately woman in black and gold parted the vines of 
 their alcove, and stood before them. 
 
 " Pardon the interruption, my dear Miss de Mansur, 
 but Lord Mellon has just let me know the hour, and 
 I think the women are going. Allan, I want a word 
 with you before leaving, if you can see me to the 
 carriage." 
 
 Katherine was already herself. " Indeed, I should 
 find papa, then," she said ; " and, Lady Mellon, if you 
 sail to-morrow, I will bid you good-by now, and wish 
 you a safe and pleasant voyage." She had it in her
 
 THE METROPOLITANS 6 
 
 mind confusedly to add something of regret that 
 American society should lose Lady Mellon to the gain 
 of Europe, but ceased with relief on her father's ap 
 proach ; for, indeed, Lady Mellon was haughtily cold, 
 and the girl hated small social hypocrisies. In the 
 hallway, Mr. Archibald Pundit, monocle and all, stood, 
 as chairman of the committee, speeding the fair de 
 parting guests and receiving their compliments. 
 
 " Ah, yes, thank you ! I think myself, don't you 
 know, that the decorations were fair. Intended to 
 represent a barn, don't you see. Cornelius, if you 
 will absent yourself from the little stag supper with 
 which we propose to finish the night, I suppose we 
 must forgive you, for the sake of your fair daughter, 
 one of our stars. Ahem ! ah, thank you ! I hope it 
 was a success, and that you were not bored, don't you 
 know. No, Van Krippen ; I am not alluding to you, 
 though I am aware you tried to dance with Miss de 
 Mansur six times. Ah! good night, Lady Mellon; I 
 shall have the honor of wishing you bon voyage on the 
 deck of the Astoria. Have an indulgent thought for 
 our little reunions on this side when you are treading 
 the historic halls of the old country. "We cannot help, 
 don't you see, getting things a little mixed over here. 
 Though" (lowering his voice a fraction), "if I had my 
 way, my dear madam, you would n't have to meet 
 printers and such fellows, don't you know, at a hunt 
 ball." 
 
 "If you mean Stephen Penrose," here interposed 
 Allan Rexf ord, on whose arm his mother leaned, " you 
 are mistaken, Mr. Pundit. He is a very clever journal 
 istassistant editor on the daily ' Argus.' "
 
 6 THE METROPOLITANS 
 
 " You may be right ; it 's quite the same thing, don't 
 you know. When I was young, you did n't meet trades 
 people or any of these fellows anywhere. Why, Lady 
 Mellon " (in a tragic whisper), " I believe that man had 
 on a ready-made tie at the meet yesterday a thing, 
 don't you know, that stamps a fellow at once, you 
 understand." 
 
 Lady Mellon had just time to say to her son, before 
 reaching the carriage, " Come to me at the Battenberg, 
 Allan, a little while before we leave. I w r ant to speak 
 to you." 
 
 " I would be there in any case, my dear mother," he 
 answered heartily. " I must have a farewell romp with 
 the boy." Her carnage made way for the De Mansurs', 
 and he had the miraculous good fortune of handing 
 Katherine into hers ; and the further luck of reverently 
 detaching a young goddess's lace furbelow from an im 
 pertinent hinge. If the sibyl ever raised her white lids 
 to give a votary a swift glance and say, " We shall soon 
 see you in town, of course," no doubt her client inter 
 preted the remark as absolutely favorable to his wishes. 
 Be that as it may, this young man sped gaily through 
 the vestibule again, and up the broad staircase three 
 steps at a time. So radiant was his aspect, indeed, that 
 Penrose hailed him from the group of men gathered 
 outside the supper-room. 
 
 " Where has our young Apollo been, that his eyes 
 are as stars and he treads on air ? Pursuing a nymph 
 through Staten Island woods ? or merely sampling the 
 Goldenrod brand of nectar, otherwise Pommery Sec. ? " 
 
 " He has n't had a chance at anything half so good," 
 grumbled little Morty van Krippen, puffing at a cigar
 
 THE METROPOLITANS 7 
 
 much too big for him. " That was beastly stuff at the 
 ladies' supper." 
 
 "Then Mr. Pundit showed some sense in that, at 
 least," observed Penrose. "It would be throwing 
 pearls before angels, who never wear them, to give 
 good wine to women. The dear things, when they 're 
 talking, don't know what they 're drinking or saying, 
 either, sometimes." 
 
 " Oh, come, Penrose," objected Rexf ord, to whom in 
 his present mood this was profane, "were you born 
 cynical, or have you simply acliieved it ? " 
 
 "I have had it thrust upon me, my dear fellow. 
 Before I lived this time, I was Timon of Athens ; and 
 before that Samson, I think. There go the last of the 
 women " (leaning over the balustrade). " Watch old 
 Archie bowing them out ! " 
 
 " For Sir Jacob thought he bowed like a Guelf, 
 And therefore he bowed to imp and elf, 
 And would have made a bow to himself 
 Had such a bow been feasible," 
 
 murmured Rexford; but he had the grace to blush 
 when Mr. Pundit, coming up unperceived, laid a sudden 
 hand on his shoulder. 
 
 "My dear boy, when your honored mother leaves, 
 you must let me take an interest in you; as your 
 lamented father's friend, don't you know. Your ma 
 jority comes to-morrow, I think I have heard. You 
 must let me drink your health presently, don't you see." 
 
 " I must drink that too," said Penrose, as they fol 
 lowed the old gentleman in. "You 're coming into 
 your kingdom ! " This man, reputed very cold, gave
 
 8 THE METROPOLITANS 
 
 a look of great kindliness to fortune's favorite, young, 
 handsome, and soon to be very wealthy, whom he 
 generously admired as frank, honest, and still un 
 spoiled. 
 
 The supper-room resounded already with the buzz 
 of talk among the men, divided into little knots. Foot 
 men, in the club livery, moved swiftly hither and 
 thither. With a surcease of the women's voices and 
 tinkling ripple of laughter, had come a louder, noisier 
 note in the merriment, and a franker abandonment to 
 the pleasures of the table. The talk drifted mainly 
 now on two subjects : the incidents of yesterday's 
 hunt, and some very choice vintages, brought forth by 
 Mr. Pundit's orders. 
 
 " This Madeira," he was saying, " is from the South. 
 Picked up there by one of the Barings, you understand. 
 It had been around the Cape two or three times ; but 
 something went wrong in the way he treated it, and it 
 turned out badly, you see. I heard of it, and made a 
 special trip to England, and he was very glad, you com 
 prehend, to have me take it off his hands. Nursed it 
 back to health myself, and I think you will say, my 
 dear sir, you have n't tasted anything much finer. I 
 must justify the implicit confidence the club places in 
 my judgment, don't you know " (his monocle gleamed 
 sagaciously) ; " and you '11 find the Brut Imperial, '63, 
 they serve with the next course, fit for the gods. Yes, 
 Lord Mellon " (to the bald, languid, elderly little man 
 at his right) ; " yesterday's course was a hard one, but 
 so much the better. Our cross-country riders will im 
 prove with such runs. I wish they might have, as I 
 did, a season or two over in your country with the
 
 THE METROPOLITANS 9 
 
 Royal Hunt. But even then it 's my unalterable con 
 viction, don't you know, that their style will never 
 equal yours." 
 
 "An unalterable conviction," commented Penrose, 
 in an undertone, "proclaims, according to Sydney 
 Smith, an unalterable ass." 
 
 " Then don't contradict him," said Rexford, in the 
 same key ; " for you know the proverb, ' It is a waste 
 of lather to shave an ass.' " 
 
 " I wonder," sputtered little Van Krippen, with his 
 mouth full, "if it was his practice with the buck 
 hounds made him come a cropper over that post and 
 rail yesterday. And oh, by Jove ! Mr. Penrose, I don't 
 know when I 've laughed as I did when he slipped off 
 at the water jump, and you vaulted on his mare and 
 cleared the brook in such style, and rode her to the 
 finish." 
 
 " He is an elderly man, and I did n't come down to 
 ride, and should n't have done it ; but I was standing 
 close by when he declined the jump, and I rushed at the 
 gallant little mare's bridle before I thought. I have 
 apologized since, of course," said Penrose, quietly. 
 
 " I don't believe he '11 forgive you," laughed Rexford ; 
 " but it was good riding, old fellow, and a good joke ! " 
 
 An echo of his joyous laugh reached the chairman, 
 who raised his glass to him and Van Krippen, pointedly 
 ignoring Penrose. International riding was still the 
 theme at the head of the table, and from out the con 
 fusion of tongues Lord Mellon's indifferent drawl could 
 be distinguished : 
 
 " I Ve heard my father say he saw the jump himself, 
 in the White Hart at Aylesbury, at a steward's dinner.
 
 10 THE METROPOLITANS 
 
 Over table and all and back again. A nasty risk to take 
 even if a horse will come up-stairs." 
 
 " I believe I could bring my roan up now, and make 
 him jump this one," declared Allan Rexford, impetu 
 ously. It may have been the Brut Imperial or mere 
 joy in living that made the youth so ready this even 
 ing to drink up Esil, eat a crocodile, or perform any 
 such trifling task. 
 
 " Don't be rash, lad," said Peurose. 
 
 " Why not try it, then ? " murmured Lord Mellon, 
 with half-shut eyes. " I would back you to any amount." 
 
 Some further animated discussion, and then several of 
 the men accompanied Rexford down to the stable. In 
 a short while their voices and a heavy lumbering noise 
 on the stairs preceded Rexford's return, bringing by 
 the halter his spirited little roan. He led it around the 
 wide room, resting before the great log fire blazing in 
 the huge fireplace. " The jump ! the jump ! " called 
 many voices. The scarlet-coated lookers-on hastily 
 grouped themselves against the walls here and there, 
 odds being given and taken. The chairs were removed 
 from the table, otherwise left untouched, with fruit and 
 flowers, glasses, decanters, and candelabra, and many 
 wax-lights burning. " My father said it was so on the 
 occasion he spoke of," suggested Lord Mellon, listlessly. 
 Then Rexford, his eyes sparkling and cheeks flushing 
 with the novelty of the enterprise, sprang on the bare 
 backed roan, struck him with his heel, and sent him 
 over table and appointments, just clearing them ; but 
 the animal's hoof catching in the edge of the cloth, 
 pulled it off and broke a few glasses. Upon which, 
 without hesitating, he turned, and, with a cry and blow
 
 THE METROPOLITANS 11 
 
 on the neck from his right palm, sent him over again 
 in perfect style. There was a storm of applause and 
 congratulations as he dismounted. Archie Pundit 
 ceased strolling excitedly about, to shake his hand 
 and exclaim jerkily, " My dear young friend, my heart 
 was in my mouth, to use a vulgar phrase, until you 
 were over, don't you know. I was telling Lord Mellon 
 that I disapproved highly disapproved, I may say of 
 your valuable neck being so endangered : a man who 
 comes to-morrow, don't you know, into such a fortune 
 as yours. Some of these penniless nobodies, now." 
 His glance rested, accidentally perhaps, on Penrose. 
 
 " How are you going to get him down again ? " the 
 latter asked Rexford. " That '11 be the real difficulty, 
 as I suppose you don't mean to emulate General 
 Putnam." 
 
 The roan did, in fact, object to the descent. He 
 went quietly enough along the narrow strip of carpet 
 laid on the polished oak hall floor, but not one step 
 downward could he be induced to take. After repeated 
 efforts had failed, Penrose suggested their leading him 
 to the extreme end of the hall, blindfolding him, then 
 bringing him steadily along without stopping even an 
 instant at the head of the staircase. By this means he 
 took the first steps of the descent without knowing, and, 
 though he stumbled and fell on his knees, scrambled 
 on somehow. Penrose and Rexford, holding him 
 tightly by the head, encouraged and got him down, 
 with no damage except to the balusters. 
 
 " Who's that thin-legged, cold-blooded, sleepy-look 
 ing chap ? " asked one man of another, as they went out 
 into the nipping air of morning. " Sat next Pundit
 
 12 THE METROPOLITANS 
 
 at the head of the table, and put Rexford up to the 
 jump." 
 
 " That 's his loving stepfather, Lord Mellon," said 
 the other. 
 
 The gentleman in question, just then burying his 
 nose in the fur collar of his overcoat, confided to its 
 depths the murmured remark, "Seems a pity, 'pon 
 honor, that young idiot did n't break his neck. It 
 would have saved his mother a deuced unpleasant 
 half-hour or so before we sail."
 
 II 
 
 the quiet region bordering on Second 
 Avenue in New York, overlooking Stuy- 
 vesant Square, and under the shadow of 
 St. George's steeple, there are some fine 
 and stately old houses family mansions, 
 whose occupants, having dwelt there for several gen 
 erations, obstinately resist the tide of change and fash 
 ion sweeping their neighbors up-town. 
 
 " If you really wished it, Katherine dear, we might 
 buy another without its quite ruining us," Cornelius 
 de Mansur would say of one of these houses. " But 
 you see, my father and grandfather were born and died 
 here ; and I should like to die here myself, if you don't 
 mind, my dear." 
 
 " But I do mind, you dreadful papa ! " the girl would 
 cry, rumpling his gray hair with her pretty hands. 
 " You have my gracious permission to stay here only 
 on condition that you never die, but just soar upward 
 after a hundred years or so ! " 
 
 " I will need strong pinions to accomplish that if I 
 keep on getting stouter," he chuckled contentedly, set 
 tling down again to his books and papers. 
 
 In truth, she was as fond as he of this old library, with 
 its deep bow- windows, from which one saw the trees and 
 
 13
 
 14 THE METROPOLITANS 
 
 walks of the square, alive with twittering, hopping spar 
 rows. His great writing-table of black oak stood here, 
 with silver inkstand and fittings ; and around two sides 
 of the room ran bookcases, filled to overflowing with 
 works of all dates and editions, Mr. de Mansur's great 
 treasure. Most of the heavy old furniture was of the 
 black oak; a few pieces being covered with faded 
 tapestry, worked by his mother and her mother. The 
 walls in crimson tones were hung with a portrait or 
 two, and a fine collection of old colored prints in nar 
 row, unobtrusive frames, among them a few good 
 examples of the lost art of colored stippling in its 
 perfection. And in front of the open fireplace stood a 
 quaint couch with square adjustable ends, Katherine's 
 favorite resting-place. Here she could dream, with her 
 head among the countless pillows, and her feet resting 
 on a tiger's head, whose skin had come all the way from 
 Africa as a present from Mr. de Mansur's nephew, an 
 amateur explorer. 
 
 " Reginald never said he shot that tiger," Cornelius 
 would remark, "but he 's just the fellow to shoot a 
 tiger if he could n't get out of its way, and the tiger 
 did n't have first innings. Now that sounds like a pun, 
 which is unworthy of an honest man, eh, Katherine ? 
 Well, never mind ; it was accidental. Did I tell you 
 that Reginald was very proud of a new idea of his for 
 impressing the ignorant savage with the white man's 
 superiority ? He has taken with him an immense num 
 ber of kid gloves, of which he always wears a pair in 
 any interview with native chiefs. Then, somewhere 
 in the talk, he draws them slowly off, to the awed 
 amazement of the crude African, who naturally con-
 
 THE METROPOLITANS 15 
 
 eludes that it is the skin of his hands which he can 
 peel off at any time with impunity ! He would like to 
 have a patent on the idea, I fancy ; but I wrote him I 
 did n't think it so good as my poor friend, Sir Charles 
 Dormer's. He had a glass eye in latter years (I was 
 traveling with him on the Continent when he lost his 
 own), and while he was parleying with Arab chiefs in 
 Egypt, he used coolly to pluck out his eye, twirl it in 
 the air, and put it back ; which had, they told me, a very 
 inspiring effect. I might compliment Reginald more ; 
 but he 7 s a youth, as your Mortimer van Krippen would 
 say, who is the better for being sat upon a little. Not 
 your Van Krippen ? No, my love ; I was jesting, of 
 course. I know my Katherine better. We are not 
 such worshipers of the golden calf, either of us, as to 
 offer him such a sacrifice as that ! You need not go ; 
 you are not in my way at all if you '11 just keep quiet 
 and not talk so much ! " 
 
 Katherine smiled ; she had spoken just once. She 
 stayed, knowing that the waves of her bright hair 
 showing over the sofa were a delight to her father in 
 the intervals of his scholarly researches ; but not know 
 ing that sometimes, as now, the sight was a useful de 
 terrent from some extravagance. He tore up slowly 
 and dropped in the waste-basket a letter just finished, 
 ordering a very costly work newly brought out by his 
 club of clubs, the Grolier. " My Katherine will have 
 such a modest fortune when I go," he thought, " that 
 I am a selfish wretch to spend so much on these 
 things." He frowned at an imaginary greedy, un 
 scrupulous, bibliophile self, in whom others would not 
 have recognized the one parent, guardian, teacher, in-
 
 16 THE METROPOLITANS 
 
 timate companion Katherine had known since her 
 mother's early death. The scratching of his pen now, 
 the crackling of the burning logs, the rustling leaves 
 of Katherine's book, alone disturbed the silence for a 
 while. Then, " What has my lassie there ? " he asked. 
 
 " You will smile when I say ' Henry Esmond ' again. 
 It ought to be, perhaps, some modern story, dealing 
 with a question of the day, or something realistic, or 
 something with a stern and resolute purpose. But 
 when the great masters hold the mirror up to nature, 
 the picture is so much more vivid and picturesque." 
 
 "Athanasius against the world! A maiden free 
 lance against the professional critics ! " said her father, 
 with a twinkle in his eye. " You should read for im 
 provement. And would you really place ' Vanity Fair ' 
 or ' Pride and Prejudice ' before works of the apostles 
 of realism ? " 
 
 " I would n't place them at all, but just enjoy them, 
 and let the others alone. You don't know that charm 
 ing essayist, papa, but you must know her, who ob 
 jects to having an instructive work thrust on her as 
 though it were 'paregoric or a porous plaster,' and 
 thanks Heaven that, 'whatever the eccentricities of 
 fiction writers to come, they cannot take from us the 
 past.'" 
 
 " Fiction as a vehicle for preaching is bad art, I am 
 sure," said he ; "but" (persisting) "realism, now; I 
 thought Ibsen and some of that school were rather a 
 fad among the younger people." 
 
 " Perhaps ; among those that would sup on cucum 
 bers and beer to get a nightmare, or visit dissecting- 
 rooms for pleasure ! Useful and necessary statistics,
 
 THE METROPOLITANS 17 
 
 now essays on social and" But any deeper plunge 
 into the ethics of the question was prevented by a 
 footman's entrance, announcing, " Miss Lavender and 
 Miss van Krippen." 
 
 " We ventured to follow the man, Katherine," said 
 a thin, sweetly childish voice from under the portiere, 
 11 though we know this is your papa's sanctum. But 
 it is so delightfully quaint ! " 
 
 The speaker was a girl, small and plump ; pink and 
 white as to skin, very blond and fluffy as to hair; 
 daintily picturesque as a Greuze shepherdess. She 
 was still under twenty, but, armed with rare native 
 self-possession, and a lorgnette which she did not 
 need, would have confronted all the monarchs of Eu 
 rope, including the Emperor William, with the same 
 smiling confidence with which she bearded Cornelius 
 de Mansur in his lair. She preceded a woman many 
 years older and much thinner, with very black eyes 
 and hair, in dress a modified and fairly acceptable 
 fashion-plate. 
 
 " I beg you to believe, Mr. de Mansur," said the lat 
 ter, with some asperity, " that when Miss van Krippen 
 says ' we/ she means herself only. I hope before she 
 leaves me she will allow no impulse to hurry her into 
 unconventionalities." 
 
 "You are ahem! very welcome, Miss Lavender," 
 said Cornelius. " Take this arm-chair. I can recom 
 mend it for comfort. Our ahem! intimates fre 
 quently drop in here, though it is called my study." 
 
 Miss Lavender sat quite erect' on the edge of her 
 chair, her bony, neatly gloved hands folded over a 
 card-case.
 
 18 THE METROPOLITANS 
 
 " Our dear Miss Lavender," said Angelica van Krip- 
 pen, smiling sweetly, "has been a little ruffled this 
 morning, which, under the circumstances, was quite 
 natural. Katherine and Mr. de Mansur would sym 
 pathize, I am sure, Miss Lavender." 
 
 "Miss van Krippen alludes to a meeting of the 
 Provincial Matrons which I have been attending, and 
 in which, I am ashamed to say, there was much un 
 seemly excitement displayed. With your lineage, Miss 
 de Mansur" (parenthetically), "I am surprised that you 
 are not a member." Katherine checked a smile at her 
 father's expression of countenance. "You have but 
 little leisure? Ah, well, perhaps it might be better 
 for you to wait now and see the outcome of this this 
 little difference." 
 
 "A very pretty quarrel as it stands," murmured 
 Angelica, who was peering at the engravings through 
 her lorgnette. 
 
 "I thought from the beginning," pursued Miss 
 Lavender, " that there was a lack of shall I say par 
 liamentary courtesy? in their methods of electing 
 officers. Those in office would just retire for a while, 
 and then come out and report that they had reflected 
 themselves. But the real trouble began after the elec 
 tion of a new member at the last meeting. They find 
 now that she is not directly descended from the patroon 
 whom she claims as ancestor. We wanted her to go 
 out again peaceably and quietly, and she would n't, 
 which was not ladylike, to say the least, Mr. de Man 
 sur, and actually had her lawyers take it up and say 
 that as the society was an incorporated one, being once 
 in she had the right to stay in. I did n't care so much
 
 THE METROPOLITANS 19 
 
 about that " (with an impartial air), " though it caused 
 scandal, as the vice-president was responsible, and has 
 acted in what I must consider bad taste all along 
 keeping her own two sisters out on some pretext, and 
 telling Mrs. Crowne Derby that the Derby ancestor, 
 coining from Virginia, which was a penal colony, 
 could not be considered ! Then the Royall Worces- 
 ters; she detained them here a whole winter from 
 their Egyptian trip, hunting up positive evidence of 
 their descent from Dietrich Knickerbocker, which every 
 one admitted. But " (and here the card-case began to 
 tremble) " it was my own personal difficulty with her 
 which has agitated me somewhat. As you know, Mr. 
 de Mansur, I am a Philadelphian, and, during my hon 
 ored and wealthy papa's lifetime, little expected ever 
 to be in charge of a young ladies' finishing academy. 
 However, it is a noble mission. But when that Doul- 
 ton-Minton person presumes to tell me that my revered 
 ancestor, Benjamin Franklin, was too light and gay to 
 be considered as a proper and respectable founder of 
 a family, I confess that only an unswerving habit of 
 decorum restrained me ! " She paused to smooth out 
 an unbecoming frown. 
 
 " Heavens and earth ! " cried Cornelius, with simu 
 lated heat, to cover an inappropriate twinkle behind his 
 glasses. " My dear Miss Lavender, Benjamin Franklin 
 too gay or frisky ! I should have thought him in all 
 respects a first-class ancestor. It must be a case of 
 pure envy in Mrs. Doulton-Minton." 
 
 "Katherine," Miss van Krippen softly interjected 
 here, " you promised to show me that new water-color 
 in the music-room. Excuse us for a few moments."
 
 20 THE METROPOLITANS 
 
 She drew Katherine away at once. " And now," slie ex 
 claimed triumphantly outside, her arm in her friend's, 
 ' the next time she objects to my going anywhere with 
 out a chaperon at fifty cents an hour, I will say, * Why, 
 you did not mind my leaving you alone with Mr. de 
 Mansur.' That will break her all up. Imagine ! she 
 wanted me to apply for admission inio those Provin 
 cial Matrons ! " 
 
 " And why did you not ? " 
 
 " Katheriue ! you know very well. I might not be 
 such a fool in any case j but in this case, my name 's 
 McGregor, my foot is on my native heath, and I pro 
 pose to keep it there." 
 
 "You did not tell her that?" 
 
 " Not exactly. I told her simply that the Van Krip- 
 pens were so very exclusive that they hesitated to join 
 any association for any purpose whatever; and that 
 I had not noticed in the Matrons that repose which 
 stamps the caste of Vere de Vere. My dear, their 
 personalities to each other this afternoon would have 
 made a wooden Indian blush ! And if that was their 
 opinion of Benjamin Franklin, I wonder what they 
 would think of John Cripps, who kept a little store in 
 a mining-camp out in Colorado some years ago, and 
 made a fortune which they do sincerely admire." 
 
 "If they thought as I do" 
 
 "Oh, you, Katherine ! " (with an impulsive embrace). 
 " "When they left me here to be finished at Miss Lav 
 ender's, and then launched in society, I do believe I 
 should have died of nothing but hardness and world- 
 liness all around me if it had n't been for that lucky 
 visit to the blind woman's place, where I met my
 
 THE METROPOLITANS 21 
 
 Katherine ; so the little bit of charity she lets me do 
 with a chaperon had more than its reward. But 
 cheerily, ho, my lads ! Let 's not be sentimental. I 
 had a letter from mamma yesterday. She writes, in 
 French, that Anastelle is getting on nicely at school 
 there, and will soon forget all her English, she hopes. 
 Papa, too, is getting over what she calls idioms, and 
 she makes him read French novels day and night. He 
 writes that he hates everything and everybody there, 
 and wishes he was back in Colorado. He loves work? 
 and never read a bit of fiction before in his life, ex 
 cept ' The Children of the Abbey ' when he was a boy. 
 That 's how my brother came to be called Mortimer, 
 and I Amanda. Mamma added Angelica, and I insisted 
 on being called that w r hen I was older. Mamma com 
 posed the name of Anastelle herself Anastelle 
 Mauveleen is the whole name. And it was her idea 
 to change Cripps into Van Krippen when we moved 
 East. She thought it was more harmonious with 
 the New York atmosphere ! " 
 
 She broke off her clear-toned, monotonous ripple 
 of talk at this, to join heartily in Katherine's merry 
 laughter. "Miss de Mansur," she resumed, "I feel 
 guilty at being tempted into such reckless revelations. 
 It is only with you, and in confidence, believe me. 
 Will you kindly show me the new aquarelle ? " Her 
 manner now was in patent imitation of the respected 
 Miss Lavender's. She added, in an absurdly stilted 
 tone, " Ah ! that is a truly delicious bit of color, prov 
 ing an artistic feeling which is as rare as it is admi 
 rable in so young an artist. It adds to the charm of 
 an already charming room."
 
 22 THE METROPOLITANS 
 
 In point of fact, the room teas charming. Its cream 
 and gold tints were relieved by water-colors, most of 
 them Katherine's own work; and an old Sheraton 
 cabinet, with a few fine bits of ceramics and Venetian 
 glass, filled a corner opposite to that where the piano 
 stood. The man came in now with a basket of or 
 chids, a card attached with Mr. van Krippen's name. 
 
 " How kind your brother is ! " said Katherine. 
 
 Her friend looked at her earnestly more earnestly 
 than was her wont and answered quietly, "Yes; 
 Morty is not always brilliant, bnt he is always kind, 
 and the best-hearted fellow." 
 
 The man interrupted again, bearing just a knot of 
 fragrant violets and a card, on which was penciled, 
 without a name: 
 
 Violets dim, 
 
 Bat sweeter than the lids of Juno's eyes, 
 Or.Cytherea's breath. 
 
 The sender was some one who knew the girl's taste 
 in flowers and verse. 
 
 " Mortimer was telling me," Angelica went on, " of 
 some feat of your friend, Mr. Rexf ord's, at the late 
 supper of the Hunt Club. You heard, perhaps? 
 Some sort of Pegasus performance flying his horse 
 over the table. Mortimer was so eloquent about the 
 daring of it, and about the club wine, that somehow 
 I " (with malice) " have mixed the two matters up." 
 
 ' It was daring in the horse, at least, who had had 
 no wine," said Katherine, carelessly. 
 
 " By the way, Morty tells me that Mr. Rexford is 
 very musical composes." 
 
 " ( Fanatico per la musica,' as Italians call it Here
 
 THE METEOPOLITANS 23 
 
 is a song of which, he has just set the words to music. 
 You might like it." 
 
 " Your words ? or his own, perhaps ? " 
 
 " Neither ; only some I chanced to fancy in a maga 
 zine. It is called ' Retribution/ by Stanton, I think." 
 Her voice was a mezzo-soprano of limited compass, but 
 sweetness which gave effect to the minor strain. 
 
 " Once, when I was poor, 
 Love knocked at my door. 
 'Some sad wretch/ I said, 'who begs, 
 And my cup drained to the dregs.' 
 So I cursed him from the light, 
 Out into the homeless night." 
 
 Some one here entered, preventing James from an 
 nouncing him, and stood beside Angelica, who nodded 
 silently. Katheriue sang again : 
 
 " Once, with golden store, 
 I knocked at Love's sweet door. 
 'Some sad wretch,' he cried, 'whose gold 
 Would my loving breast enfold ! ' 
 So he cursed me from the light, 
 Out into the homeless night." 
 
 " Out into the homeless night the homeless night 
 the homeless night ! " chimed in vibrant male tones 
 with the plaintive refrain. 
 
 " Ah ! " cried Angelica, " that is lovely. I am ready 
 to weep ! Not at the sentiment, Mr. Rexford ; I am 
 impervious to that ; it is the music thrills me." 
 
 " Thank you, Miss van Krippen ; but an emotional 
 crisis brought on by art should not be expressed in 
 tears. It should take the form of cold chills running 
 up and down the spine. Remember that, please,
 
 24 THE METROPOLITANS 
 
 when you listen to the great Wagner of whom a 
 humorist remarks that his music is not so bad as it 
 sounds." 
 
 Katherine, who had started a little at the unexpected 
 voice, had gone on playing the melody in soft chords. 
 
 " I must thank you" she began now. 
 
 "You must rather forgive me for venturing in 
 when I have to leave so hurriedly. My mother sails 
 this afternoon, and I am due at her rooms now, but 
 could not resist coming in for a moment to ask your 
 good wishes. It is my birthday ; and I have a sort of 
 superstition about having my friends' good wishes." 
 
 Angelica van Krippen had a shrewd suspicion that 
 the friends whose good wishes were a superstition 
 with this young man were limited to one; but the 
 Dresden-china maiden thought of Morty, and did not 
 move away. " If, as I have heard, your majority was 
 fixed for this, your twenty-fifth birthday," she said, 
 " there is little left for your friends to wish you, Mr. 
 Rexford. With youth, health, and a competence, be 
 sides a very pretty talent for music, Prince Fortunatus 
 might be satisfied." 
 
 "And yet I am not," he said ardently, with spar 
 kling eyes, "but seem to crave what is it I do want? 
 Oh, yes, just a flower or two." He fixed an appealing 
 glance on Katherine, who faintly colored, selecting a 
 few violets. He must have taken them awkwardly, 
 for they fell on the polished floor, and down he went 
 on his knees, which necessitated turning his back to 
 Miss van Krippen, and permitted him, seen only of 
 Katherine, to press the flowers to his lips before fast 
 ening them in his buttonhole. And he was gone, and
 
 THE METROPOLITANS 25 
 
 a minute later bowling away from the front door in 
 his trimly appointed dog-cart. 
 
 "I hear my revered preceptress's voice in the hall 
 now," declared Angelica. " She will have talked your 
 father limp by this time. Let us go to his rescue ! " 
 
 Miss Lavender was, indeed, awaiting her pupil with 
 a look of lofty displeasure, and she would not hear of 
 waiting until tea was brought in. " The drive to the 
 Park is a long one, as Miss van Krippen is aware," 
 said she, stiffly, "and we shall hardly have time to 
 dress for dinner." 
 
 As she followed in her wake to the waiting coupe, 
 Angelica, in allusion to the lady principal's glacial 
 kiss, said demurely, " I hope, Katherine dear, you will 
 not have bronchitis. You had better see now to your 
 poor dear papa." 
 
 11 ' Poor dear papa/ in truth," Katherine said, half 
 laughing; "you do look as though you needed a re 
 storative. Sit down in your own chair again, and I 
 will bring you your tea ; and you shall drink it while 
 I sit here at your knee." 
 
 " It was an ordeal, Katherine," he presently admitted 
 in an exhausted tone, between sips. " I did not know 
 there was a woman alive who could, in my own library, 
 make me listen to anecdotes of Franklin in his boy 
 hood ! But how you look, my beauty ! Such shining 
 eyes, and so bright and sweet, and smelling of violets. 
 Does the saucy Angelica's talk give all that radiance f " 
 
 " Oh ! we had other callers and music, you know," 
 said Katherine, hiding pink cheeks against his knee. 
 " But what an imaginative old gentleman ! And what 
 a fairy princess you would make of me ! "
 
 Ill 
 
 [HEN the dog-cart pulled up before the 
 Battenberg, where Lord and Lady Mel 
 lon had temporary lodging, his mother 
 had been expecting Rexford for some 
 time. For so self-controlled a woman, 
 there was much restlessness in the way she moved 
 about the garishly appointed hotel room, strewn with 
 evidences of approaching departure ; and there was a 
 slight flush on the smooth cheek she offered for his 
 kiss. " You may go now, Stephanie. And, Warren, 
 that will do for the present. Send Roberts here with 
 Lord Cantaloupe." 
 
 The door opened in a few moments, and admitted 
 a little fellow of about three, who, toddling in with 
 an exultant crow, made straight for his tall brother, 
 about whom he clung until hoisted, with romping and 
 laughter, to his shoulder. 
 
 " You must not make a noise, if I let you stay," said 
 his mother. And the docile child buried his fat little 
 hands in Rexford's hair, and subdued his mirth to 
 small chuckles and infantine whisperings. 
 
 " He is growing finely, Allan, rosy and strong." 
 " I believe you. His heels' tattoo on my chest in 
 dicates great vigor; he is like his mother," Allan 
 
 26
 
 THE METROPOLITANS 27 
 
 laughed, patting the little knee, "and my little Lord 
 Cantaloupe will grow up to be an ornament to the 
 British peerage." 
 
 She winced slightly, thinking, perhaps, of Lord 
 Mellon. 
 
 " You have failed to visit me, Allan, in these few 
 years I have spent in England ; so you cannot tell 
 from observation what a grand old place is Oudenard 
 Hall, this boy's heritage, if I have brought a picture 
 with me, a large photograph, for you to see." 
 
 He glanced carelessly at a picture of a fine and 
 stately castle on a hill, which commanded, on one side, 
 undulating green slopes leading down to a shimmer 
 ing lake; on the other, forest depths, from which 
 looked forth a deer or two quietly grazing. The 
 spire of the village church just showed above the 
 tree-tops. " It is a beautiful place," he commented 
 quietly, "and with historic associations. That is, I 
 suppose, the morning-room on the east, where Charles 
 the Second supped. I forget how it came to the first 
 lord ; but that does not matter. Our boy is only con 
 cerned with the present." 
 
 " Yes ; that concerns him vitally " (putting away the 
 picture). " That is partly why I am here in America 
 on your twenty-fifth anniversary, Allan. Of course 
 you know the affection I bear my first-born, and that 
 my congratulations are yours to-day. My birthday 
 gift I directed Mr. Redtape to present for me." 
 
 He was stooping to roll a ball to the child, and an 
 swered lightly, " I am quite ashamed ; but my engage 
 ments at the club and elsewhere with fellows who 
 would congratulate Prince Fortunatus, as they have
 
 28 THE METEOPOLITANS 
 
 chosen to nickname me, made me entirely forget the 
 appointment with Redtape." 
 
 " I am sorry that you forgot, as to-day, you know, 
 was fixed by your father for your majority, and Mr. 
 Redtape was to explain to you more precisely the 
 terms of his will. In a codicil, to be produced to-day, 
 you would have found his strong expression of entire 
 trust in my care of you." 
 
 He stopped playing, and listened quietly. 
 
 " I think your father, Allan, would have found no 
 fault with the way in which I dispensed his means for 
 your benefit during your minority. And only when 
 you were grown did I marry again. I have given you 
 a brother, who is Lord Cantaloupe at present." Her 
 look at him, which had imperceptibly faltered, was 
 again calm and cold and unflinching as ambition's 
 self. " The Queen may be induced to restore a title 
 in abeyance, the Marquisate of Gourdes. In any 
 case, he succeeds to Lord Mellon's titles. But of what 
 use is empty rank? With heavy mortgages encum 
 bering the broad acres and parks of Oudenard, his 
 titles would be a mere burden. As I am left absolute 
 mistress of the American fortune (you were a mere 
 child at your father's death), I have decided to free my 
 younger son's inheritance, and leave the future Lord 
 Mellon wherewithal to support his high rank." She 
 paused a moment, then went on rapidly : " If you are 
 not still Prince Fortunatus by this arrangement, you 
 will yet have control of a handsome income from my 
 own property in the city, which I have made over to 
 you by deed of gift this morning, Allan, and directed 
 Mr. Redtape to tell you."
 
 THE METROPOLITANS 29 
 
 If Rexford had seemed bewildered for a moment 
 by this most unexpected shock, his bearing was now 
 as gallant as ever, and he confronted her with a steady 
 look, as calm, if not as cold, as her own. 
 
 " My dear mother," he began, in an almost uncon 
 cerned tone, " if my father trusted you so absolutely, 
 it is my pleasure to do the same. What he left is 
 yours, doubtless, to dispose of as you will. And for 
 the dear little boy" he stopped suddenly, and laid a 
 hand on the child's curly head. 
 
 Some people came in now to make their farewells ; 
 Lord Mellon entered, listless as ever ; tea was served ; 
 and what with these interruptions, the gathering up 
 of impedimenta, and starting for the steamer, there 
 was no chance for another word in private between 
 mother and son. 
 
 The lawyer, waiting on the deck for a few more 
 words of instruction, took the opportunity to hand a 
 package to Rexford ; in his professional indifference 
 there may have been a grain of pity. The young man 
 received the thing mechanically, moved into the cabin, 
 opened and glanced through it, and penciled a note, 
 which he inclosed again with the document. After a 
 while the noise and shouting of getting ready, the 
 embarking of passengers, the farewells and tears and 
 last words, all came to an end; and Rexford kissed 
 the little man in his nurse's arms, and ran down the 
 gang-plank. And, amid cheering and waving of 
 handkerchiefs, the great ocean greyhound slipped her 
 leash, and went speeding out over the waste of waters. 
 
 " What a deuced bore, all this fuss ! " said Lord Mel 
 lon, starting for the smoking-room. But Lady Mel-
 
 30 THE METROPOLITANS 
 
 Ion, going into her state-room, found there a package 
 with broken red seals. It was the deed of gift to her 
 son, returned with a note. 
 
 " MY DEAR MOTHER," she read : " I am glad the dear 
 little fellow is to profit by my own father's prosperity ; 
 but that is no reason I should despoil you ; so I return 
 your kind gift, which I must decline. I own, you know, 
 a little house cottage what is it? in Orange, which 
 was my grandmother's, and still have in pocket most 
 of last month's receipts, so shall do very well. Once 
 more, a pleasant voyage. 
 
 "A. R." 
 
 Lady Mellon's face paled a little ; she felt that he 
 would have no favors when rights were disregarded. 
 She shivered, drawing her wrap more closely about 
 her as she went on deck to look at the Statue of Lib 
 erty and the wooded islands and the Jersey shores; 
 but Allan's face came between her and the scenery, 
 and his dark, expressive eyes, so like those of the 
 husband of her youth, looked at her, she fancied, re 
 proachfully. Yet she never once thought of altering 
 her ambitious and unjust intentions. 
 
 Her son, meanwhile, made his way through the 
 throng to where his dog-cart waited. He took the 
 reins from the groom, who sprang up behind. " I 
 shall sell the trap, of course," he thought, even as they 
 went with smooth swiftness toward the Orchid, a club 
 famous for its chef. What a ready handmaid, what a 
 serviceable slave, is Habit in the great crises of life ! 
 Even with the golden castle in which prospective
 
 THE METROPOLITANS 31 
 
 millionaires abide tumbling about his ears, the noise 
 and dust of its crashing walls confusing his ideas, 
 our youth sat down as coolly as ever at his own par 
 ticular table ; ordered a choice little dinner, of which 
 he hardly tasted; drank Chablis, and exchanged a 
 word or two with Morty van Krippen, who came in 
 with a chrysanthemum almost as large as himself in 
 his buttonhole. And all the while he felt the hurt of 
 a sudden wound dealt by the hand which had directed 
 his childish steps the hand of a woman who, of all 
 the world, should have refrained. " It seems," he re 
 flected, " that a husband's boundless confidence in his 
 widow's motherly love may be abused." He had not 
 yet learned what an exacting idol Ambition is ; how 
 she hardens her votaries into laying all sacred emo 
 tions on her altar. But, indeed, the young fellow 
 was dazed; and, with this bitter undercurrent of 
 thought flowing, he heard, unheeding, honest Morti 
 mer's chatter. 
 
 ''Had the impudence, you know," the latter was 
 saying, " to call me a weak-kneed dude at the Athlet 
 ic, it was ; and I heard him, and was going for him ; 
 and just then your newspaper friend, Penrose, spoke 
 up and said Ms definition of a dude was a man who 
 was better dressed than you. The fellows laughed, 
 and that made me forget to hit him. For he swears 
 those awful plaids of his come from London, you 
 know. I mean to ask him if he got that cudgel of 
 his at Donnybrook Fair ; and then perhaps I '11 get a 
 chance." 
 
 Mortimer was a famous sparrer for his weight, and 
 frequently astonished grave and dignified strangers
 
 32 THE METROPOLITANS 
 
 on a first introduction by requesting them to "feel 
 his muscle " inherited, doubtless, from the erstwhile 
 storekeeper in a Western mining-camp. 
 
 " Say, where 're you off to this evening, Rexford ? 
 Goin' to the opera? 'Lohengrin,' you know Eames 
 as Elsa. Beastly bore, music; I never listen to a 
 note ; but there 's the ballet, and people to talk to." 
 
 Elderly, prosperous-looking club members, coming 
 and going, bowed with the same flattering geniality 
 to the two young men both supposed to be heirs to 
 fortunes large enough to make the fathers of daugh 
 ters easily accessible. "Their prophetic souls have 
 not yet discerned the fading of my golden halo," 
 thought Rexford, with his first misgiving. " Morty's 
 still shimmers about his sandy curls and tip-tilted 
 nose. Well, he 's a good-hearted little beggar, and 
 Katherine says oh ! " 
 
 Katherine ! how had he not thought of her before 
 since his mother's announcement ? How did he stand 
 with her father ? What diif ereuce would this make ? 
 Even if Cornelius de Mansur would match her peer 
 less self and substantial, if not extravagant, income to 
 his what? Five feet eleven, and empty hands- 
 would self-respect allow? He felt for the moment 
 savagely jealous of unconscious Mortimer, who was 
 still in a position, materially, to woo any one. But 
 he shook this off as unworthy, and said aloud : 
 
 "Fate cannot harm me any more to-day; I have 
 dined. Come on, Morty. I 'm for the opera with 
 you, and vogue la galbre? 
 
 " I 'm willing," said Morty, " whatei-er that means," 
 trotting along beside him, with his cane at an angle
 
 THE METROPOLITANS 33 
 
 warranted to put out somebody's eye sooner or later. 
 But once at the opera-house, though he liked to be 
 seen with Rexford, whom he greatly admired, he 
 wearied presently of his companion's persistent silence 
 during the music, and began a round of visiting 
 through the boxes, where he was received with warmth 
 by the fair occupants, as a small but golden lion, with 
 a very superior roar. 
 
 " But why did you not bring Prince Fortunatus ? " 
 asked one not insensible to personal charm. 
 
 " Because he would n't come," said Morty, with the 
 uncompromising candor of the modern gilded youth, 
 which would have made Sir Philip Sidney shudder. 
 
 Rexford, indeed, was in no humor for the unprofit 
 able nothings loudly chattered in the boxes. He was 
 almost tempted to join in the occasional hisses at 
 their noise indulged in by real music-lovers, mostly 
 foreign, in the body of the house. In his feverishly 
 excited mood, with the tide of music surging over 
 him, it seemed as though the great issues of love and 
 life and death forced themselves even into this gor 
 geously artificial throng. The pale spiritual lights on 
 the stage, the mystic meanings, Elstfs sweet, clear 
 notes, excited in him an irritating sense of the incon- 
 gruousness of the nearest dowager's fat shoulders, 
 generously displayed, or the priceless diamonds, whose 
 sparkling only drew attention to another's spinal 
 vertebra?. 
 
 " I did n't see you in the house, Penrose," he said, 
 brushing against an acquaintance when it was over. 
 
 " Did n't get here in time for the opera ; just for 
 the vaudeville. You are coming? Then let us go 
 
 3
 
 34 THE METROPOLITANS 
 
 through this door. It leads to the other part of the 
 house." 
 
 They left overcoats and sticks in the cloak-room ; 
 but kept their hats, to be presently deposited under 
 their chairs. The miniature theater of the Vaudeville 
 Club had a stage about the size of a billiard-table, on 
 which the champion strong man, in scant attire, was 
 now performing marvelous feats. Society women 
 came trooping in ; some in full dress, as they had left 
 the opera; some, in demi-toilets, from the theater or 
 "small and early" affairs; some in walking-dress, 
 with hats on ; all talking gaily, and grouping them 
 selves about small tables, where the men with them 
 fell to smoking, and ordering light drinks from the 
 waiters gliding about. Our two had a little table to 
 themselves. 
 
 "When Sandow has finished," said Penrose, con 
 sulting a small program, "there is let me see a 
 song and dance. Then the Hindu jugglers, the 
 Leffner family acrobats, a male quartet. I am earlier 
 than I intended. Our theatrical critic is laid up with 
 influenza, and I would n't trust the others to write 
 up what I wanted a new star. Ah, yes ; here she is 
 on the bill: 'First appearance in America Romany 
 dancer, Jasmina.' What will you have B. and S. ? 
 I saw this dancer abroad once or twice, and think you 
 will like her. Try one of these Perfectos. I brought 
 them from Cuba myself." 
 
 The Hindu jugglers, the Leffner acrobats, the 
 male singers, might have been performing solely for 
 their own enjoyment, so uninterruptedly went on the 
 drinking, smoking, chatting, visiting from box to box
 
 35 
 
 and table to table. But now there was some sort of 
 thrill of expectation communicated from one to an 
 other in the mysterious way such things are. The 
 women leaned back more comfortably, picking up 
 their lorgnettes ; the men, on the contrary, bent for 
 ward, eyes fixed with eager expectancy on the dark- 
 red drop-curtain. There was comparative stillness. 
 
 The orchestra began the preluding bars of " Anitra's 
 Tanz," a clash of cymbals marking the time, and as 
 the curtain rose a woman, quite young, glowing of 
 color, sinuous of limb, barbarously gorgeous as to 
 hue of dress and glitter of ornaments, stood against 
 the crimson background and began swaying to and 
 fro. Increasing the rapidity of movement, she pres 
 ently floated hither and thither, bending, gliding, 
 sometimes with dusky hair flowing loosely, sometimes 
 with background of silken skirts blossoming out 
 widely, then folding petal-wise about her. After 
 Elsrfs exalted spirituality, this was to Rexford from 
 moonlight to glowing firelight. With nerves high- 
 pitched and impressionable, he missed not a note of 
 the music, not a movement of the dance. Was it only 
 his fancy that the dancer's thrilling gaze turned more 
 than once in their direction ? 
 
 "What are you trying to write there!" he asked 
 the journalist, in an undertone. " To describe those 
 rhythmic Gipsy movements would be to put in words 
 a wild Moskowski rhapsody, or give in prose the 
 swaying of a field of scarlet poppies blown by the 
 wind. You cannot do it." 
 
 Penrose, as impenetrable as usual in demeanor, was 
 taking a note or two. " You like her ? " he asked.
 
 36 THE METROPOLITANS 
 
 " She is a beauty," declared Rexford. " Her eyes 
 are stars, her lips crimson flowers ! But she is a 
 mere incident of the evening, which is over ! Whither 
 away now ? It 's only one o'clock. You would n't 
 desert me so soon?" 
 
 He spoke at random ; and Penrose looked at him 
 attentively, as he had once or twice before during the 
 evening. " I can give you a while longer," said he, 
 " when I send these notes." 
 
 He found a messenger, and then they called a hack, 
 and turned in again at a club where high play was 
 the rule. An hour or so later they stood outside. 
 
 "What have you been doing?" Penrose asked 
 gravely. 
 
 " Just burning my bridges behind me. I had but a 
 few thousand, and they are gone. Sir ! " lowering his 
 tone to a mock-dramatic one, "you see before you a 
 disinherited Infortunatus. The little Lord Cantaloupe 
 now wears my robe, and in a short while there will be 
 none so poor to do me reverence. I were no Ancient 
 Mariner to force into reluctant ear the story of my ill 
 fortune, were it not that by the morrow, as sure as 
 you stand there, 't will be a topic of the town. Give 
 me a light, will you ? " He pulled himself together. 
 " Don't think me quite a fool, chattering of my own 
 affairs at such short notice. But though I have n't 
 been with you much, old man, when a fellow 's on a 
 strain, you have a sort of way about you 
 
 " It 's only that I like you," said the other, with an 
 entire absence of demonstration. " And if things are 
 as you say, I wish you 'd see me at my office to-mor 
 row. You might find it amusing to force the world,
 
 THE METROPOLITANS 37 
 
 with some sort of talent held at its head, to stand and 
 deliver. As for me, I have been a wanderer, and 
 even at times a refugee, in Alsatia, and am no better 
 than I should be. But I find the gospel of work 
 better than none at all, to keep one from going to 
 pieces. Until to-morrow, then." He went down-town 
 toward the huge edifice whose crest, rearing among 
 the stars, looks out over the bay and down upon the 
 Goddess of Liberty, keeping watch in the harbor a 
 building alive with activity, twinkling with electric 
 lights, where great, untiring engines revolve, sending 
 out the results of thought and enterprise to the ends 
 of the earth. 
 
 It was a curious thing that this man of the world, 
 ordinarily quite impassive in bearing, and supposed 
 in the office and the club to be abnormally unemo 
 tional, should have been the one to divine, with a 
 great pity, the pangs of wounded trust and reverence 
 and affection which tore his young companion. The 
 revelation kept him sleepless until sunshine lighted 
 the streets again, and awakened life roared and surged 
 once more among the city's marts.
 
 IV 
 
 AR up-town, in Central Park West, the,re 
 is a row of five or six handsome stone 
 villas, which were named collectively by 
 the original owner, an Anglophile, Buck 
 ingham Terrace. Among these, the 
 soberest in architecture, quietest in appearance, and 
 most widely bordered with shaven lawn, belonged to 
 Miss Valentia Lavender ; which proved that that es 
 timable lady had laid up quite a pretty sum during 
 the years following her lamented father's sudden 
 death in the most respectable street in Philadelphia. 
 He had left her his blessing only, and a choice collec 
 tion of debts, which influenced her to go to New York 
 and open there a "Fashionable School for Young 
 Ladies." It might be supposed from this that she 
 enjoyed, in addition, that most valuable heritage, a 
 complete and liberal education. But when, thanks to 
 a wide acquaintance in the metropolis, and friendly 
 assistance from Mr. Pundit and others, her school 
 flourished apace, it was as a business woman and 
 financier that Miss Lavender had been a brilliant suc 
 cess. She had a staff of professors, native and foreign, 
 to do the necessary drudgery ; and it was a fact that 
 when a new pupil, in some ill-advised moment, pre- 
 38
 
 THE METROPOLITANS 39 
 
 sumed rashly to refer a scientific or literary question 
 to the principal, she was conscious mainly of two 
 things : first, an immediate chill, and soon afterward 
 a calm, but paralyzing, criticism, administered in pub 
 lic, of some special act, or breeding in general. And 
 if she was a girl of ordinary feminine perceptions, she 
 soon learned the connection between these two events, 
 and refrained from further experiments. 
 
 But this was a long time ago, and Miss Lavender 
 was now the head of a " finishing academy." That is, 
 she received into her own elegant home a limited 
 number of young girls between sixteen and twenty- 
 one, at some fabulous sum yearly. 
 
 "But what is mere dross, Miss Lavender," asked 
 Archibald Pundit, gently waving his monocle, " to the 
 priceless advantages to the absolutely unique privi 
 lege, don't you know which this raw material enjoys 
 with you, don't you perceive" ? " 
 
 They were pacing sedately the upper terrace, while 
 from the lawn below came subdued calling and laugh 
 ter of girls playing tennis; and an autumn sunset 
 shed golden colors on the park before them. Through 
 a side entrance masters in elocution, calisthenics, lan 
 guages, music, the Delsarte method, conversation, the 
 art of using a fan, a lorgnette, what not ? came and 
 went. Pupils were summoned now and then from 
 the tennis-court ; and from behind the window-panes 
 an occasional running of vocal scales made itself 
 heard, or a smothered burst of instrumental pyro 
 technics. 
 
 "You are always kind, Mr. Pundit," the principal 
 remarked; "but, without wishing to flatter myself,
 
 40 THE METROPOLITANS 
 
 there is positively no other finishing academy in this 
 city. Of course I don't mean with regard to art or 
 the languages, or any of that useless stuff learning 
 which is entirely optional with my girls. Those 
 things are very well for people who have to earn a 
 living. But for daughters of the wealthy, who will 
 be matrimonial prizes, complexion, figure, dress, style, 
 ease of manner, intimate acquaintance with the cus 
 toms of the best society these are of the utmost 
 importance, and these things I guarantee them; as 
 also to launch them afterward, if desired with your 
 valuable assistance, Mr. Pundit. Sometimes, in that 
 event, I am obliged to insist on the parents keeping 
 out of the way, if they are quite impossible. For in 
 stance, that old Prime Western, who has such a for 
 tune in gas- wells, and sent in his printed card tome with 
 ' P. D. Q. Western ' on it. Ah, I see you smile, Mr. Pun 
 dit! Well, I may have confused the initials with 
 some foolish play. I saw at once that he would spoil 
 everything unless kept in the background; but I 
 make the daughter call herself Miss Prime- Western, 
 with the hyphen. She is quite stupid and very 
 pretty ; so I saw it was perfect nonsense to make her 
 spoil her looks studying all the things he wanted, 
 because he had n't had no early advantages himself.' 
 ' Leave it all to me,' I said ; and he is very grateful, 
 and pays for all the extras she does n't learn. But 
 you know, Mr. Pundit, I do not keep a kindergarten. 
 Ah, there is the riding-master." 
 
 Six or eight horses had by this time been brought 
 round to the side gate, and several girls were being 
 carefully mounted. Angelica van Krippen, in irre-
 
 THE METROPOLITANS 41 
 
 proachable London habit and high hat, now came up, 
 and, after saluting Mr. Pundit, asked, " Shall I refer 
 Herr Strebel to you, Miss Lavender! He seems an 
 noyed because I wish to ride during the hour for 
 German. But I told him that uncouth language was 
 ruining the shape of my mouth; and the verb 
 schrecJcen einjagen, on which he is now exercising us, 
 is especially distorting." 
 
 " I think you might drop German, Miss van Krip- 
 pen," said the principal, gravely. "Riding is better 
 for your complexion. But I wish you would practise 
 your French which I, ahem ! believe is fair with our 
 guests from Paris this evening. And ask Mr. Pran- 
 cer to bring the class back in an hour's time, as the 
 hair-dresser and manicure will be here before the 
 dressing-bell rings." The cavalcade clattered off into 
 the Park, and she continued to Mr. Pundit, " I insist 
 on full dress every evening. It is a habit which must 
 be firmly implanted, as indispensable under all cir 
 cumstances. I remember that young Dashington, 
 who was such a lion in society and in Wall street, and 
 is in the penitentiary now, you know well, he said 
 that after losing his fortune and other people's, and 
 honesty and reputation, he never really lost his self- 
 respect until he ceased to dress for dinner. You will 
 dine with us to-night, Mr. Pundit? A previous en 
 gagement? I am sorry. We are to have young De 
 Vaurien and his friend, the charge d'affaires, Mauvais 
 Sujet. I have a charming letter from his aunt in the 
 Faubourg, begging me to let her nephew admire some 
 of the 'buds in my conservatory before they are ex 
 posed to the full glare of society's sun.' "
 
 42 THE METROPOLITANS 
 
 " Veiy pretty, very pretty indeed, Miss Lavender 
 and shrewd too." 
 
 " Yes " (bridling) ; " I thought so. And was an 
 noyed to receive by the same mail a letter from 
 a former pupil, who says rather roughly that she 
 thought it right to warn me that these two young 
 men are said to have come over in search of an 
 American heiress. Their debts are enormous, she 
 says it is reported. But there is always more or less 
 malicious gossip and poor Milly seems to be embit 
 tered. You remember Millicent Ophir, Mr. Pundit ? 
 It was you, by the way, who first presented her hus 
 band, the Baron Rouge-et-Noir, to her." 
 
 "Yes," said Archibald; "a very brilliant match, 
 don't you know, between money and rank. They 
 say, I believe, that Rouge-et-Noir spends all her 
 money gambling, and even, ahem ! even beats her. 
 But I don't believe these exaggerated reports, you see, 
 any more than those about the Marquis de Monte 
 Carlo, who married our little protegee, Miss Mc- 
 Flamm." 
 
 "Miss van Krippen will be one of next season's 
 debutantes, I think we agreed ; but I am willing to 
 have her meet a few partis beforehand. They are 
 simply rolling in wealth, as you know, of course; and 
 the girl is not bad looking. Her mother, a very vulgar 
 woman, by the way, who has actually been seen to 
 put on her gloves in the street, would be pleased if 
 she secured rank." 
 
 " It seems rather a pity, don't you know, for all our 
 fortunes to go abroad. And you and I, dear madam, 
 have made such brilliant successes in that line that
 
 THE METROPOLITANS 43 
 
 we can afford, I think, to marry a few of your charm 
 ing pupils here." 
 
 "She will have opportunities for that too," said 
 Miss Lavender, thoughtfully. "Her brother dines 
 with us occasionally, and also attends our very ex 
 clusive dancing-class at Cudworth's with some of his 
 friends." 
 
 " Ye-es ; but the best thing for such a very rich girl, 
 whose name, you understand, was originally Cripps, 
 would be to find a parti, don't you perceive, willing 
 to exchange family for money. There is young Rex- 
 ford, say." 
 
 "Who has nothing at all now, and refuses his 
 mother's munificent gift, my dear Mr. Pundit ! Too 
 erratic, I think." 
 
 " I was his father's friend, Miss Lavender, and owe 
 it to his memory, don't you understand, to give the 
 young fellow a lift if it comes in my way. And it 
 would rescue him from that lot of musicians and 
 artists and writers, and such fellows, don't you know, 
 out of whose depths, once well in, there is no redemp 
 tion." 
 
 It occurred to him that the last phrase had a scrip 
 tural flavor, and he bowed his head slightly, as he did 
 in church at the responses, and wore a piously disin 
 terested air. He did not mention that this had been 
 a point designedly reached, and that there was in his 
 pocket a letter from Lady Mellon, in which she sug 
 gested to the high priest of "form" that his aid in 
 this matter would be valued, and even delicately com 
 pensated, by an old acquaintance. 
 
 As for the unconscious subject of his charitable
 
 44 THE METROPOLITANS 
 
 plans, he had let several weeks elapse after Penrose's 
 invitation before accepting it, and without seeing him ; 
 for their orbits seldom crossed. 
 
 " I have not been idle, however," he averred, when 
 he followed his card, at last, up the little black stair 
 case leading to the assistant editor's office. " On the 
 contrary, I was never so busy before. There were 
 horses and traps to sell ; apartment at the Albatross 
 unlucky name, by the way to get rid of. Unne 
 cessary? Oh, no; a gilded cobweb holds you by so 
 many fine little meshes that there is no having free 
 dom of limb until one breaks away from it all. And 
 Prince Fortunatus" (laughing) "would like to leave 
 the stage before his audience leaves him. How can I 
 tell that some houses, now hospitable, may not soon 
 be serving me to a dish of cold shoulder ! No, no ; 
 let me depart with the honors of war, at least." 
 
 "Other philosophers have remarked before me," 
 said Penrose, making dots on a bit of paper, " that as 
 long as a man turns a pleasant face to the world, it is 
 glad to see him. It is mostly in one's over-sensitive 
 consciousness that Mr. Worldly Wiseman's slights 
 exist ; and you have many things to make you accept 
 able if you chose to stay where you are. As youth, 
 talent, a face " (smiling kindly at his companion) " and 
 figure not repulsive to most people no? Then that 
 chapter ends. And for departed glories" (he began 
 walking about the office), " those things pass away like 
 a shadow, and like a post that runneth on. . . . And 
 as a ship that passeth through the waves, whereof, 
 when it is gone by, the trace cannot be found, nor the 
 path of its keel in the waters. ... Or as when a bird
 
 THE METROPOLITANS 45 
 
 flieth through the air, of the passage of which no mark 
 can be found, but only the sound of the wings beating 
 the light air and parting it by the force of her flight. 
 ... Or as when an arrow is shot at a mark, the di 
 vided air presently cometh together again, so that the 
 passage thereof is not known." 
 
 " That is fine ! that is sonorous ! " exclaimed Rexf ord, 
 his eyes sparkling. 
 
 " Yes you know who quotes Scripture for his own 
 purpose ; and mine is to draw you into my world. You 
 will heed the voice of the charmer if he charm melo 
 diously, for I know your special weakness." He as 
 sumed a business tone. "You sometimes write the 
 words for your own songs ? I had heard so. We oc 
 casionally pay for original verse if it will compare 
 with what we get from other papers without pay. But 
 in the mean time, for steady work, you might take our 
 musical and dramatic critic's place he is still ill. Your 
 knowledge of music would come in there. And there 
 are odd jobs, such as the foot-ball game to-morrow 
 afternoon that would be easy for a university man. 
 And and bring in any matter that presents itself; a 
 fresh touch is often acceptable." 
 
 " Well," said Rexford, smiling, but a little flurried, 
 " you give me variety, at least, from poetry to foot-ball. 
 Enter a raw recruit, and here his weapons." He seized 
 a bundle of pens. 
 
 " Did you call me ? " inquired a flaxen-haired youth, 
 putting his head in at the door. 
 
 " I did not," said Penrose, " but as you are in, let 
 me introduce you to Mr. Rexford Mr. Jenkins, one of 
 ours. Mr. Rexford is joining our ranks."
 
 46 THE METROPOLITANS 
 
 " Glad to meet you, sir," said Jenkins, who had often 
 admired Rexford at a distance, and marveled at the 
 brilliancy and subsequent eclipse of his fortune. 
 "Finest career in the world," declared Mr. Jenkins, 
 " always" (with a heavy sigh) "excepting art." 
 
 " You must know," said Penrose, " that Mr. Jenkins, 
 whose specialty is frequenting the giddy haunts of 
 fashion and describing the ladies' pretty gowns, is 
 discontented because fate will not allow him to attain 
 eminence in music or the drama. He longs for the 
 technic and hair of Paderewski." 
 
 " I hope Mr. Rexford knows chaff from wheat," ob 
 served the careless Jenkins. But, as he appeared to 
 have some sort of business with his chief, Rexford took 
 his leave a few moments afterward, ran down the 
 narrow stairs whistling, " A Wandering Minstrel I," 
 and laughed when he found himself with one of the 
 pens still in his hand. He thrust it in his pocket, and 
 crossed over to the elevated road, still whistling softly. 
 It was a proof of the soundness of the young fellow's 
 nature that he did not shrink from beginning life again 
 on this other plane, but really felt a certain exhilaration 
 at thought of the conflict to come. His curiosity, too, 
 was newly alert to observe the humors of the traveling 
 crowd about him in the car, from contact with which 
 he had been generally kept hitherto by the possession 
 of a dog-cart and groom. 
 
 " Everything is possible ' matter ' now," he thought, 
 with the instinct of the budding journalist ; and, find 
 ing nothing of much interest about him, he took to 
 observing and making mental notes for future use of 
 the flying panorama outside. A man at a fifth-story
 
 THE METEOPOLITANS 47 
 
 window shaving himself, and humming a broken bar 
 or two of a popular song between strokes ; a baker's 
 sign, "Muffins and Crumpets"; "Aqui se habla Es- 
 panol " ; " Spanknebel, Phrenologist " ; a woman hang 
 ing out many-colored, fluttering garments to dry on a 
 roof clothes-line ; tenements with dilapidated bedding 
 on fire-escapes, and a pitiful bit of black crape hanging 
 at one window ; huge wall-posters of the Thingvalla 
 Steamship Line ; a soup-kitchen for the very poor, and 
 " The Only Bible Truth Supply" for the same clients ; 
 an Italian boarding-house wafting in a smell of garlic 
 when the conductor opened a door ; the Lutherisches 
 Pilger-Haus; "Studio for Welsh Rabbits"; "Spook 
 Pictures Developed Cheap"; "Thornbush's Chop- 
 house"; "Deutsche Apotheke" these and all the 
 other kaleidoscopic signs and sights of the unfashion 
 able quarters of a cosmopolis he passed ; and, instead 
 of the indifference with which he would have regarded 
 them not long before, he felt in his heart the stirring 
 of a latent kinship with all humanity. And just after 
 he ran down the steps at his station and started toward 
 Broadway, an accident occurred to arouse him into 
 warmer sympathy. There was a collision between 
 vehicles; some one was knocked down; a throng 
 formed as quickly as such throngs do ; and a police 
 man essayed, with voice and club, to procure a little 
 clear space and air around a motionless figure on the 
 pavement. 
 
 "What keeps the ambulance?" asked Rexford, 
 shouldering his way through. 
 
 " I dunno " (shortly) ; " it 's been rung for twice ; 
 seems like it ain't a-comin'."
 
 48 THE METROPOLITANS 
 
 "Why," the young man exclaimed, "the hospital 's 
 only two blocks off ! She should have help at once. 
 See here, give her to me ; I can carry her easily." The 
 straight-shouldered figure, toughened by polo and 
 other athletics, stooped and picked up the unconscious 
 woman, her cheap, blood-stained gown hanging against 
 his sleeve. " Come on," he said to the policeman, who, 
 taken by surprise, tramped at his side, followed by 
 such of the crowd as had no business or desire of their 
 own to point them ; and, turning a corner to the hos 
 pital, they ran against Mortimer van Krippen. " Why, 
 hello ! " cried he. " What sort of procession is this ? 
 It is n't the 17th of March ! " 
 
 But when the good-hearted little dandy understood, 
 he too trotted along to the hospital door, where Rex- 
 ford delivered up his wounded charge. " My name ? 
 No, certainly not," to a man with a note-book. " Like 
 the spring flowers, it ' has nothing to do with the case.' " 
 He took Morty by the arm and strode off for fear some 
 one might recognize him. 
 
 " Now," grumbled Morty, " what do you mean by it 
 all this hiding out and not letting anybody know 
 where you are ? Never at a club, and a strange fellow 
 in your place at the Albatross ! Where are you, any 
 how, when a chap wants you ? " 
 
 " Right here, then for the present only, however, 
 I must tell you," replied Rexford, stopping at a hotel. 
 " But, Van Krippen, you are aware that I Ve retired 
 from the giddy vortex, and can't even ask you up just 
 now, as I 've some work on hand." 
 
 "Work ! " echoed Morty ; "well, it's a beastly shame !" 
 
 11 Pooh ! " (loftily) " there are hundreds would be glad
 
 THE METROPOLITANS 49 
 
 to get it. You must study up social economics." He 
 was eager to get rid of his good-natured companion, 
 and try his not altogether prentice hand at something 
 for the "Argus." 
 
 " But see here," persisted Mortimer, " I 'm not going 
 to let you slip entirely. Can't you come to the Or 
 pheus to-morrow ? I Ve a box, you know. Got Miss 
 Lavender to let my sister out for the night. She '11 be 
 there with Miss de Mansur and her father. There '11 
 be some other fellows. Benefit performance, you know 
 sort of olla podridano, that 's a beastly stuff with 
 oil and garlic, and nearly killed me at a Spanish res 
 taurant once ! But you know what I mean, old chappy 
 new dancer, Paderewski, and that." 
 
 As Eexford was music mad, the last name was one 
 to conjure with especially when Katherine's was 
 added. " I 'm a weak fool," he hastily thought, " but 
 I have n't been near her since ; and why not? " He 
 said aloud carelessly, " Well, I '11 drop in for a while, 
 thank you, Van Krippen. I may have to write the 
 critique on that performance."
 
 IHOUGH Cornelius de Mansur lifted his 
 voice in protest against many features 
 of modern journalism, the paper which 
 annoyed him least in these matters was 
 usually an accompaniment to his break 
 fast roll. Carefully avoiding the murders and elabo 
 rately worked-up sensations and other feasts of horror 
 prepared for the morbid, as well as the unconsidered 
 trifles snapped up by those who greedily relish per 
 sonal gossip, it was his amiable habit to glance over 
 the pages, and if anything of interest appeared to pass 
 it over presently to Katherine. And on this morning, 
 after looking at notices of new books, he handed her 
 the page on which were also dramatic reviews and 
 short verses, mostly copied, which treated of birds and 
 butterflies and blossoms and young affections, and such 
 pretty little tiny kickshaws. And among these was 
 one signed " A. R." which Katherine noted with quick 
 ening of the pulse and elaborate indifference of man 
 ner. It was called " Love's Signal Service," and ran : 
 
 When I would know 
 If balmy airs or stormy winds do blow, 
 
 My lady's face I view. 
 The fine and level-fronting eyebrows dark, 
 The soft cheek's flaming crimson flag I mark, 
 
 Tempestuous days to rue. 
 50
 
 THE METROPOLITANS 51 
 
 Or would I ask 
 If I in frost must freeze, or warmth may bask, 
 
 I seek my lady's eyes. 
 
 Should she their light, all careless, turn away, 
 Or veil them, coldest waves relentless play 
 
 On heart that prostrate lies. 
 
 But when I find 
 My heavens clear, my sunshine to my mind, 
 
 Harsh frost and storm o'erpast, 
 What sweetest rose can match her cheek or mouth? 
 Her glance, that 's softer far than breeze of South, 
 
 Makes weather bright at last. 
 
 If but my dear 
 With such fair signs the days would always cheer, 
 
 Sigh or smile so, 
 
 Blue skies and zephyrs mild throughout the year, 
 Sweet spring in winter, taste of heaven here, 
 
 Then I should know. 
 
 In another column was a fairly interesting criticism 
 on last night's opera, signed " A. R." also. 
 
 " Nothing but trash there, I suppose ? " asked papa, 
 unconscious, lifting his cup. " Remind me, Katherine, 
 of that meeting of the Grolier on the fourth. The 
 coffee is exceptionally good this morning." 
 
 He tasted it leisurely and placidly, no more suspect 
 ing the quickened emotions behind the clear eyes of 
 the "cherished, stately daughter across the table than 
 any of us suspect what is going on in the hearts and 
 minds of our nearest and dearest who walk always at 
 our side and drink of the same cup. And she an 
 swered, laughing, " You will not need to be reminded 
 of that meeting, you blessed hypocrite ! You will think 
 of nothing else until then." 
 
 And with that very crimson flag the writer spoke of
 
 52 THE METROPOLITANS 
 
 flaming on her cheek, and hotter anger within, she 
 thought, "Has the gentleman, perchance, been flirtiug 
 with some shrew? Beshrew me if I care!" then 
 scorned herself for using his sometimes playfully 
 stilted phrases ; for it was in her pride that she was, 
 after all, most wounded. This young nymph, with a 
 heart accessible to all other kindly and tender emotions, 
 had walked with her head high, defying the eternal 
 Eros. And though no one but herself knew that her 
 step had faltered for a moment, that her glance had 
 drooped, that an appealing meekness had threatened 
 to subdue her, none the less was her resentment. 
 " How dared he look and speak so with no sequel ! 
 After after everything he has said and done not to 
 approach us for weeks ! Perhaps Ms mamma the Lady 
 Mellon disapproves, and he dutifully acquiesces ! " 
 So by evening the varying and not readily controlled 
 emotions of the morning had settled into a cool con 
 tempt, to which it might have been well if the heart 
 of the " Love's Signal " observer had not been exposed. 
 It never once occurred to the unworldly spirit of the 
 girl that his altered fortunes would seem to a high- 
 spirited man reason enough for not unduly pressing 
 before the more fortunate ones attracted by her beauty 
 and charm. 
 
 A few of these minions of fortune, as young Koyall 
 Worcester, Dick Crowne Derby, one of the Ashley 
 Vanderlyns, and others, were in evidence in the box at 
 the Orpheus, grouped about the two girls, when Rex- 
 ford entered that evening. He was rather buoyant in 
 manner, for, even if it were but a verse or so and an 
 opinion or two, they had been printed and everything
 
 THE METROPOLITANS 53 
 
 must have a beginning. He greeted Mr. de Mansur, 
 who responded cordially, " How d' ye do, my dear boy, 
 and where have you been all this while ? " Angelica 
 van Krippen looked at him distantly through her 
 lorgnette ; then murmured, " Have you a strawberry- 
 mark! No? Then you are you are my long-lost 
 friend ! " and gave him her hand. 
 
 " I must not," he thought, " meet Tier eye indecently 
 soon or show my wild gladness;" deferring his bliss 
 for the space of a word with this one or a jest with 
 that one ; and lo ! when he did meet her glance it was 
 as bright and distant as stars on a frosty night. She 
 said "Good evening," as to a casual acquaintance, and, 
 with Royall Worcester at one shoulder and Morty van 
 Krippen talking over the other, there was small chance 
 of approaching. " But what does it mean ? " He forgot 
 that the changes and preoccupations of the past weeks 
 and his absorption in his own affairs were unexplained, 
 expecting, quite humanly, that she would have been 
 awaiting his return with suspended breath and eyes 
 softly luminous. " Of course all the world knows of 
 my altered fortune, and lots of people will be different. 
 But she Katherine de Mansur a being noble and 
 spiritual, compact of snow and fire oh ! by heaven ! " 
 He winced, and then laughed at something Ashley 
 Vanderlyn said without knowing what it was. He 
 held in his hand some pale roses, with ferns, and when 
 she suggested, with repellent carelessness, "For Pade- 
 rewski, of course ? " he answered, with equally polite 
 indifference, " Should one give flowers to a man ? " 
 
 " We only needed this worldly old noodle to make 
 the party complete ! " he thought, when Archie Pundit
 
 54 THE METROPOLITANS 
 
 came in ; which was unjust to his father's old friend, 
 who was well enough pleased to note his proximity 
 to Angelica van Krippen. He began now to devote 
 himself with feverish assiduity to his fair neighbor, 
 who gave flattering attention to his least remark and 
 paid no heed to the comedy with which the program 
 opened. But Miss van Krippen was a clear-headed 
 damsel, under whose flaxen brows and piquant little 
 nose events might pass exciting special wonder with 
 out a sign from her. 
 
 Now the great pianist appeared, long and slender, 
 with shock of light-colored hair and features regular 
 and too cold in expression, it would seem, to denote 
 the emotional artistic temperament. He played Schu 
 mann's " Papillons " superbly ; and when the enthusi 
 asm which followed could be quieted, he gave his own 
 tender and melodious " Chant du Voyageur." A little 
 later it was Liszt's arrangement of " Hark, Hark, the 
 Lark ! " 
 
 "Ars longa, vita brevis," said Cornelius de Mansur, 
 "which is trite, but true. It makes humanity's futile 
 struggling for this or that seem ignoble, sordid, when 
 these immortal melodies and harmonies soar like that 
 lark to 'heaven's gate' and join the music of the 
 spheres. Yes, and will still resound when our hot 
 hearts_and restless minds are dust!" 
 
 " True, true, quite true," said Archibald Pundit, who 
 knew no more of music than of Sanskrit, and detested 
 any reference to man's inevitable end as "very bad 
 form, don't you know." 
 
 " Thank you, Mr. de Mansur," said Rexford, simply. 
 He had felt both the exaltation and the soothing
 
 THE METEOPOLITANS 55 
 
 consequent on music. Cornelius gave him a friendly 
 glance. Ashley Vanderlyn belonged to a Southern 
 family whose traditions inculcated deference to age ; 
 so he had listened to the old gentleman with respect. 
 The others, except Rexford, had not listened at all. 
 Morty was trying to distract Katherine's attention, and 
 Angelica was keeping most of the young men amused 
 by running comments on Mr. Pundit, whom she ex 
 amined as though he were some rare specimen of beetle. 
 " I love to see him beat time," she murmured ; " he al 
 ways does it in public, and never does it right. He 
 says the opera is primarily a social function, and the 
 artists and listeners are merely incidental. Says how 
 would they be supported if society did n't do it ! No 
 money, no opera. Says he shows himself there as a 
 duty to the public, and considers his subscription gives 
 him full right to talk all the time if he wishes. Says 
 it 's very good in society women to give ordinary music- 
 lovers a chance to see their diamonds and gowns, 
 which 'otherwise they would never have, don't you 
 know.' " 
 
 " I had n't thought of that," said Royall Worcester. 
 
 " He comes to Miss Lavender's evenings sometimes," 
 she continued, " and told me the other night that what 
 I sang was a ' little noisy, but not otherwise disagree 
 able.' I was delighted, for I suspected then that he 
 might have heard me speak of him as a ' pompous old 
 idiot.' Yes, I know it was horrid, but I meant it to 
 shock Miss Lavender. He is said to be paying his 
 addresses to our Valentia. He is a widower, you know, 
 of attenuated income and expensive habits; and she 
 has money and is a descendant of Poor Richard, if she
 
 56 THE METROPOLITANS 
 
 is the head of a finishing academy ! His coat of arms 
 would look well on her dark-green coupe. But he will 
 never see it there oh dear, no ! She is an excel 
 lent business woman, with remarkably level head, and 
 knows when she is well off, I think. Ah, here conies 
 Ignace once more ! " 
 
 The pianist played again, and then a final encore, 
 and the delight of the audience knew no bounds. 
 Women stood up in the rear to catch a glimpse of him, 
 shouting and waving their handkerchiefs; those in 
 front pressed and crowded to the footlights, taking 
 off their boutonnieres to pass them over into his re 
 luctant hands. 
 
 " He looks veiy bored," said Katherine, " as though 
 he might soon insist upon having a body-guard. It 
 must be a penalty of greatness that admirers should 
 overstep the homage due to art, and infringe on the 
 rights of the man. Too bad to have all this noise spoil 
 those last heavenly chords ! " 
 
 It was the first time she had seemed to address him 
 directly, and Rexf ord, still under the spell of the music, 
 answered softly, " Yes, it is too bad. I must have him 
 to play for you and your father only in my rooms, if 
 you will." 
 
 If he had forgotten for a moment, her look of slight 
 surprise instantly recalled while it chilled him. " Ah, 
 I have reminded her that I am no longer Prince For- 
 tunatus, but a man of no consequence." 
 
 He bent to tell Miss van Krippen the name of the 
 new Spanish air the orchestra now played. " Yes, her 
 own name is Jasmina, I believe. There she is." 
 
 The dancer wore now a Calabrian peasant dress and
 
 THE METROPOLITANS 57 
 
 carried castanets, which clicked in time with the odd, 
 rhythmic tread of the bolero. The " bravas " and ex 
 cited cheers were as on her first appearance, and, as 
 then, the great starry eyes blazed and softened alter 
 nately, when, gliding to the front, her mnte daring 
 demand for admiration changed into appeal. And 
 suddenly, with hands held straight down at her sides 
 and fingers locked upon the castanets, she came swiftly 
 just below the Van Krippen box, quite near, and stood 
 perfectly still, looking up. The orchestra, astonished, 
 still continued the strain. The party looked down at 
 her. 
 
 "She awaits her due," said Rexford, and, gazing 
 down into the dusky eyes upraised, tossed his flowers 
 to her. She caught them before they fell, pressed them 
 with a passionate gesture to her heart, and went on 
 with the dance. When the curtain came down after 
 her last recall, he perceived Penrose standing near the 
 doorway, who beckoned to him. " Not going to stay 
 for the last act of Brummel?" asked Van Krippen. 
 " That ends the bill, you know ; and I thought you ; d 
 come to supper afterward." 
 
 " Can't this evening, thank you," he answered. He 
 had not seen Katherine shrink and bite her lip when 
 her flowers were thrown to the dancer. "I am late 
 now ; I must see one of ours on business." He made 
 a comprehensive farewell bow, and Katherine's in re 
 turn had perhaps an extra film of ice. 
 
 " Very bad form," said Mr. Pundit, disgusted, " for 
 a man to allude to business in society. Mark my words, 
 that young man is deteriorating, don't you under 
 stand."
 
 68 THE METROPOLITANS 
 
 " I would have come for you," said Penrose, " but 
 saw old Archie there, and would n't afflict him unne 
 cessarily. You '11 lose the treat of seeing him enjoy 
 the ' Beau ' j kindred spirits, he thinks ; and they tell 
 me he insisted on shaking hands with Mansfield the 
 first time he saw liirn act the part. Jenkins is here, and 
 will give you notes of the rest to write up, and add to 
 your own of Paddy ne vous en deplaise, maestro and 
 of Jasmina. By the way, youngster, you distinguished 
 yourself with your flowers, and set a bad example, for 
 I saw Van Krippen throw his sister's down afterward, 
 for which that little lady appeared to rate him soundly. 
 Would you like " (he drew out his watch and glanced 
 at it carelessly) "you might like to meet Jasmina, 
 whose other name is Madame Vaskaros. I knew her in 
 Paris, and have the entree to her dressing-room. She 
 said something about wishing to have you presented." 
 
 Allan Rexford wondered a little that Penrose had 
 not mentioned this previous acquaintance when they 
 first saw her at the vaudeville. But what did it matter 
 to him ? "A lovely creature," he commented, " and as 
 graceful and light as thistle-down. Of course let us 
 go." 
 
 They went around to the stage entrance, where 
 Penrose's careless hand- wave reassured the porter ; at 
 the end of a dingy little passage they stumbled over 
 some steps leading to the star's room. "Entrez!" 
 called the shrill voice of a maid. They went in where 
 Jasmina sat before a dressing-table strewn with the 
 necessaries of a stage toilet curling-tongs, rouge, 
 India ink, rice powder, perfume, all in confusion. She 
 still wore her Calabrian dress ; but the maid had folded
 
 THE METROPOLITANS 59 
 
 a crimson velvet and fur carriage- wrap about her and 
 was removing an inconveniently high comb from her 
 hair. She gave an impatient movement as they en 
 tered, and the dusky crown fell in undulating masses 
 over her shoulders. " It is nothing/' she said in French ; 
 11 leave it so." The lace scarf the maid threw over it 
 was hardly blacker. She did not wait, but rose and 
 advanced to them with a swift glide. " Ah, Stephen, 
 is it you ? " Only the accent was foreign. " And your 
 friend, Mr. Raix oh, the hard name ! I have heard 
 Mr. Penrose speak so much of you. The lovely flowers, 
 too." She raised them to her face. Her tables were 
 loaded with others, but these were all she held. " I 
 would ask you both to supper, but I am so tired to 
 night." 
 
 There was something appealing in her wearied tone, 
 and quite softly youthful in her manner. "Ah, you 
 liked it ! You are both so kind ; some night soon, then. 
 And, Stephen, about to-morrow, when I am to make 
 trial with the manager of the Rosemont by your in 
 terest. Tell me, will you come or will you send some 
 one at twelve o'clock ? " 
 
 " I cannot come then, Jasmina, at that hour. It is 
 quite a sure thing, your engagement. The press no 
 tices have made him eager to see you himself. But 
 Mr. Rexford may be able to go." By this time they 
 were at her carriage door, the maid following. Then 
 she said, seating herself, " It will be for Mr. Raixf ore 
 I will dance, then, not for the stupid manager." She 
 raised her flowers once more to her face, leaned out 
 once more until they could see her shining eyes. 
 " Good night ! good night ! " and she was gone.
 
 60 THE METROPOLITANS 
 
 " Coquettish, I suppose, as they usually are ? " Rex- 
 ford said tentatively. 
 
 His quiet companion paused a few moments, look 
 ing straight ahead, and then said deliberately, " No, I 
 should say not coquettish as they usually are. Jas- 
 mina is rather unusual, I think."
 
 VI 
 
 [HEN Rexford jarred the finest chords of 
 Mr. Pundit's nature by turning his back 
 011 that gentleman's select circle and cast 
 ing in his lot with the " Argus," Penrose 
 had suggested, "That 's an inconveni 
 ently distant place you stay at now. Why not come 
 down a little nearer the office f There 's a vacant room 
 or two near mine at our place, I think." So he had 
 moved down to Penrose's lodgment, a sort of pigeon- 
 house up among the clouds, and commanding a view 
 of the East River and the Brooklyn Bridge, and hav 
 ing its little nooks filled with all sorts and conditions 
 of fledgelings, who were trying their wings and sharp 
 ening their beaks in their more or less venturesome 
 flights. 
 
 Our young men's floor was the highest of all " for 
 the air and the scenery," said Penrose. " Jenkins calls 
 this floor ' Simla ' ; for he says that in July it 's quite 
 like getting up among the hills from the East Indian 
 heat of the pavements." That ingenuous youth occu 
 pied an apartment separated from their rooms by only 
 a narrow passage, and when Rexford awoke on the 
 morning after the Orpheus benefit performance he 
 could hear him declaiming as he performed his toilet. 
 He was, indeed, announcing loudly : 
 
 61
 
 62 THE METEOPOLITANS 
 
 " I was a viking old ! 
 My deeds, though manifold, 
 No scald in song has told, 
 No saga taught thee." 
 
 " Open the doors," called Rexford, in a sleepy voice, 
 " so that I can hear you." And when the other, de 
 ceived, threw open the two doors between, it was nar 
 rowly to escape a well-aimed boot-jack. It was hurled 
 back and followed by the stout figure of the elocution 
 ist, whose wiry hair, with the aid of two brushes, was 
 being forced into chevaux-de-frise on each side of his 
 ears. 
 
 " What do you mean ? " he asked indignantly. " Have 
 you not taste enough to appreciate Longfellow ! " 
 
 " You look like a comic valentine," responded Rex- 
 ford, cruelly. " Will you dare to tell me that, fatter 
 and scanter of breath than any Prince of Denmark 
 ever was, you mean to recite ' The Skeleton in Armor > 
 in public ! " 
 
 " Sir, you may go to go three ! go four, if you will ! 
 I would have you to know that I am the bright par 
 ticular star of our Amateur Dramatic Club, and it is 
 your loss that you have not heard me. I must give 
 you a ticket for the next performance; it 's for a 
 charity, and to be followed by a masquerade." He 
 finished his hair at the glass, then exclaimed, "See 
 here, don't you mean to get up to-day? 'Falsely 
 luxurious/ " he pompously spouted, " ' when will man 
 arise, and, springing from his bed of sloth, enjoy the 
 cool, the fragrant, and the solemn hour, to meditation 
 due and sacred song ! ' also sometimes to one's laun 
 dress, when she calls with her little bill ; I hear her now
 
 THE METEOPOLITANS 63 
 
 at my door. I will return anon whenever that is ! " 
 He went off humming in falsetto Neidlinger's " Sere 
 nade." He was perfectly at home now in his fellow- 
 scribbler's room, having lost his former awe of him 
 as a "tremendous swell," and having become accus 
 tomed to his presence in this hive of working bees. 
 But Rexford had that touch of human sympathy, that 
 accessibility to his kind, which made his handsome 
 face and form welcome everywhere, as such happily 
 endowed natures are. With Penrose, uneffusive of 
 demeanor ordinarily, coldly exacting in most things, 
 perfectly reticent as to his past and inscrutable as to 
 present aims or hopes, he grew daily more intimate. 
 Even now there was a fragrant steam arising from the 
 coffee bubbling over the lamp left in readiness for him 
 by the elder on going out one of many little unpre 
 cedented acts of thoughtfulness, which made Jenkins 
 open wider his already rather staring light eyes. 
 
 After dressing and taking the cup of coffee the only 
 breakfast these night-birds needed Rexford remem 
 bered the appointment at the Rosemont. He remem 
 bered Katherine, too, as he went quickly through the 
 streets to the theater, but it was with a quickening of 
 resentment which last night's chill of disappointment 
 had brought. " There are Royall Worcester, Crowne 
 Derby, and the rest always at her elbow. They still 
 have fortunes to spend ! Or perhaps De Mansur is more 
 mercenary than I thought. Morty is an amiable little 
 fellow, if he is not bright, and has more money than 
 all of them together. His sister is with her constantly. 
 O Katherine, could it be possible ! " He ran into some 
 one and apologized hastily. " Katherine, Katherine,"
 
 64 THE METROPOLITANS 
 
 his thoughts went on. " Well, ' if she be not fair to 
 me ' if of herself she will not love, nothing can make 
 her." He was distracted enough when he stopped at 
 the back door of the stage entrance of the Rosemont, 
 which the ancient Cerberus unbolted and flung open 
 with, " Will ye please to step inside ? The manager 's 
 there waitin'." 
 
 He went in. The manager greeted him hastily: 
 "Make yourself comfortable anywhere you can, Mr. 
 Rexford. Advertised yesterday for girls for the Dance 
 of Bedouins, you know, and the cry is, ' Still they come ! ' 
 Can you get through ? Don't mind the crowd." He 
 bustled about, himself trying to bring some sort of 
 order out of confusion. Girls had answered the 
 advertisement; not only the hundred required, but 
 twice or thrice that number ; and they surged through 
 the narrow hallway and out on the stage girls and 
 girls galore ! Tall and short, stout and thin, fair and 
 dark. They melted away in the shadow of the great 
 stage and emerged again into the open space in front 
 of the footlights. Two arc-lamps, dangling from 
 mysterious heights above, shed a dim light over the 
 scene. Rexford, as soon as might be, made his way 
 through the armies and took refuge in a box. 
 
 "Please to form a row," said the manager, mar 
 shaling them for their ordeal. A pretty, well-shaped 
 girl stepped timidly to the front and hung her head. 
 After being carefully inspected, he made her a sign of 
 approval, and she retreated smiling. Then another 
 came forward. 
 
 " Stand to one side. You will not do." 
 
 "What's the matter?"
 
 THE METEOPOLITANS 65 
 
 " Why, you are scarcely five feet high. Arab women 
 are tall and willowy. Stand aside." 
 
 The next accepted with a sigh a sign of dismissal, 
 but Rexford had an uneasy misgiving that she burst 
 into tears after retiring. Suppose she needed the 
 money for an ill or aged father or mother, or some 
 little sisters ? He was obliged to harden his heart with 
 the reflection that, even so, the manager could not 
 engage them all. The number required was at last 
 secured, and accepted and rejected were alike shown 
 out again by the gruff doorkeeper, who was really a 
 kind old fellow, with a rough word or two of sym 
 pathy and encouragement for the dejected. 
 
 " Now that 's over," said the manager. " The men 
 will not come until to-morrow. As for trying Jasmina, 
 that 's a mere form. Between you and me, we are 
 bound to have her at any price. Here she is now." 
 
 He left Rexford in the semi-darkness of the pro 
 scenium-box to meet the dancer, who advanced to the 
 front, leaving her maid with wraps in the rear of the 
 stage. She nodded quietly to the manager, not ap 
 pearing to see any one else. Her silken costume, all 
 black, seemed a sheath from which the graceful 
 shoulder and head, clear olive tints and scarlet of 
 cheek and lip, glowed in relief. Her foot, its arched 
 instep defined in the black satin shoe which clung to 
 its perfect mold, tapped the floor for a moment or two 
 in time with the orchestra magically appearing from 
 beneath the stage. "Ver-ry, ver-ry slow," she told 
 them, and began. The manager clapped his hands at 
 the end. " I think, madame, we will contrive to suit 
 each other. If you are willing, the contract may be
 
 66 THE METROPOLITANS 
 
 signed to-day. We hope for a long run for ' The Pearl 
 of the Bedouins.' Excuse me for a moment ; some one 
 is calling." The orchestra suddenly disappeared into 
 the floor again. " Wait for me outside," she told her 
 maid ; and then, opening the box door, came down a 
 step and seated herself beside Rexford. 
 
 " It was so good of you to come. Not that I care 
 for the press notices. Stephen scolds me a little be 
 cause I do not care says I am too wild and thought 
 less about those things ; but what does it really matter ? 
 The sun will shine just the same ; a tambourine makes 
 a good enough orchestra ; and bread with liberty, and 
 a little stew now and then, is always possible." She 
 rolled her r's a little, not unpleasantly. There was 
 about her a faint atmosphere of some sort of perfume 
 sandalwood perhaps Oriental in its suggestiveness. 
 " A firefly, I tell Stephen, lives but for a day and night 
 or so, and needs not much. But I will like to thank 
 you for coming. I was glad to dance for for some 
 one else than the old manager. And I will not sign 
 a long contract no ; it would suffocate me ! I dance 
 at the vaudeville to-night. Will you come, after, to 
 supper with Stephen? Mr. ah, Mr. your name is 
 so hard ! " 
 
 " I have another " (beginning to laugh) ; " you might 
 call me Allan." 
 
 " Allan ! Allan ! not quite so bad. Say mine. It is 
 more musical Jasmina." 
 
 He could not refuse, still laughing, to say her name 
 over once or twice, to her almost childish pleasure. 
 
 " Then you will come ? " She touched his hand with 
 her smooth brown fingers, and was gone before the
 
 THE METEOPOLITANS 67 
 
 manager came bustling back with profuse apologies. 
 He was nearly as attentive to the " Argus " represen 
 tative as hitherto to the fashionable patron. 
 
 When the two men were going along the street that 
 night together, Penrose, after being answered at ran 
 dom two or three times, inquired, " Ou est la femme f 
 I seem to hear the rustle of her garments." 
 
 " I beg your pardon oh ! I was not necessarily in 
 that 'delightful atmosphere. I may have been with 
 Reginald Crofton in Africa, pulling off kid gloves to 
 startle the natives, or up in my room, attempting to 
 make Pegasus trot in time with some of my verselets." 
 
 " I beg your pardon I was intrusive." 
 
 " My dear fellow, no. Who has a better right ? I 
 suppose I have been doing my work to-day on a per 
 functory basis, which your keen sight has noted. I 
 am suffering, in fact, from a disillusionment, which 
 has lately caused me to wear my rue with a difference." 
 
 " That," said Penrose, " is, I surmise, a pang you 
 share with many after first youth slips away, which, 
 like charity, believeth and hopeth all things. Maturity 
 mostly spends itself clutching desperately at what 
 fragments are left of that early beautiful faith in hu 
 manity. For myself, I never had it. It may, perhaps, 
 have been born with me, but if so I learned my pes 
 simism very soon. I have never been much with people 
 belonging to me, and the world looks very large and 
 unfeeling to the eyes of a small Welsh boy left in a 
 Hungarian forest, with no English-speaking creature 
 near. Well, as I was saying, life comes high, though 
 it seems we must have it. But, my dear lad " (he put 
 a hand on his friend's shoulder, with a smile softening
 
 68 THE METEOPOLITANS 
 
 wonderfully his cold face), " you were never meant for 
 a pessimist, and your own nature will make up all to 
 you even disillusionment with your ideals. But" 
 (more lightly) " you will like Jasmina, I hope, who is 
 not ideal at all. But she has a heart yes, Jasmina 
 has a heart, which is not an every-day possession with 
 wandering Romany dancers." 
 
 She had a pretty manner too, as she presently proved, 
 greeting them with an unconventional frankness fasci 
 nating in its warmth. She took Peurose's two hands 
 in hers as though she would lift them to her lips ; and 
 closed the left softly over the one which clasped Rex- 
 ford's. Advancing to meet them, she had thrown down 
 a guitar among the pile of cushions into which she 
 sank again, taking up the instrument and now and 
 then sweeping a tinkling chord or two. " You know 
 every one, I think ? " There were one or two actresses 
 of note, a famous tenor from the opera, an artist who 
 made surreptitious sketches of her when she kept still 
 long enough, and two or three men of fashion and 
 also of some wit; for Jasmina's requirements began 
 and ended with that. "Life is too short," she said. 
 " I cannot be bored." And there was a story extant 
 that she had told Mortimer van Krippen, " You must 
 uot come any more. I am sorry, but you do not amuse 
 me at all. You have no ideas and no ear for music." 
 
 Penrose's glance sought an alcove where stood an 
 elongated table with green cloth cover, and in the 
 center a revolving disk with cells alternating red and 
 black and numbered, but motionless just now. " No," 
 she said, "you bad Stephen, no play to-night. I am 
 too tired for late hours this evening, and shall send
 
 THE METROPOLITANS 69 
 
 you all off after supper." This was brought in while 
 she talked to Rexf ord. " You will sit beside me," she 
 said. They talked of everything and nothing, and 
 drank Tokay out of tall thin glasses, and broke out 
 into a snatch of chorus around the table every now 
 and then. Suddenly she picked up her guitar, and 
 Rexford was surprised to hear her sing, to a very odd 
 melody : 
 
 " When I would know 
 If balmy airs or stormy winds do blow, 
 My lady's face I view." 
 
 Penrose might have pointed out the words as his 
 friend's ; they were in the paper for all to read ; but 
 who had set them to this strange melody ! She laughed 
 gaily at his look of wonder. " It is a Romany ah-. I 
 fitted the words to it. They go well, do they not ? " 
 
 " But I did not know you sang and such a voice ! " 
 
 " Oh, yes, my voice was trained when my feet were ; 
 but I used them both before that." She dismissed them 
 soon after, but with a pretty, soft apology in her 
 sweetly bewildering good-night glance. 
 
 "We have time still," suggested Penrose, "to stop 
 at the Chimes for a ' beer.' " 
 
 This was a sort of club to which he had introduced 
 the younger. It was mainly for journalists and others 
 whose late occupations brought with them a nipping 
 and an eager appetite toward the dawn, and it was 
 open only after twelve at night. " Named, I believe," 
 said Penrose, " in honor of the immortal Justice Shal 
 low. A good place, youngster, for you to meet others 
 of the profession, and get as much and give as little 
 news as possible. And you 're certain not to meet
 
 70 THE METROPOLITANS 
 
 college students there a blessing to be devoutly 
 thankful for ! " This, as they were almost run into 
 by a band of the last-named youths, proving with 
 linked arms the breadth of the pavement, and shout 
 ing, that all the town might hear, that they were " sons 
 of a sons of a sons of a sous of a sons of a gam- 
 boleer ! " Also that, being rambling rakes of poverty, 
 they took their whisky clear. Perhaps it was for this 
 last purpose that their voices died away in the distance. 
 " Now how pleasant that for sleepers along this route 
 invalids especially ! Somebody ought to be in charge 
 of those boys and keep them from being too offensive." 
 
 " Now what do you want, Penrose," grumbled Rex- 
 ford, good-naturedly, "with beer after Tokay, and a 
 pipe after Russian cigarettes, and all that smoke and 
 noisy talk after Jasmina ? " 
 
 " I 'm in the habit of going suddenly from country 
 to country. I like violent contrasts, and New York 's 
 the place for that, for we have all countries right here. 
 One may dine in all languages, or breakfast in Ger 
 many, lunch in Italy, and dine in France. You have 
 not tried the Malay restaurant in Madison street and 
 scorched your palate with curry and pilau? or been 
 among the Scandinavians down near Castle Garden, 
 drinking Swedish punch and caraway beer ? Ah, you 
 thought an occasional Greek or Chinese meal a novelty, 
 but you have n't half explored. Here we are j and just 
 listen to those fellows roar." 
 
 They stopped at the doorway of an old house in the 
 neighborhood of Trinity graveyard, and pushed open 
 a second swing-door, from behind which came a mighty 
 tumult of voices. Through the mist of tobacco smoke
 
 THE METROPOLITANS 71 
 
 a large square room showed, with a stained and faded 
 picture of Cornwallis's surrender over the mantelpiece 
 of carved wood. Walls and ceiling were a sort of 
 chrome yellow, the woodwork dirty red, tables un- 
 painted and unvarnished, and the floor sanded. Orders 
 for chops punctuated the conversation, as also, more 
 frequently, impatient calls for beer, porter, or ale from 
 the wood, quaffed thirstily out of pewter mugs. 
 
 " Ha, is 7 t thou, my gentle youth ! " ranted some one 
 in the cloud of smoke. " Come hither ; and, boy, bring 
 us zwei bier." 
 
 "Nay, nay," called another; "I want the gallant 
 Rexford myself." 
 
 Jenkins stood nearest to them. He seemed incensed, 
 and held the ruins of a hat on which some considerable 
 amount of avoirdupois had evidently been deposited. 
 " 1 7 d like to know," he soliloquized loudly, " what fool 
 has been sitting on my hat." 
 
 "I cannot tell you," replied Rexford, laughing; 
 " but if the gentleman is in the room, he has had the 
 benefit of a candid opinion at least." 
 
 One of the "Argus" book reviewers, a languid 
 young man with a long nose, came in and called out, 
 " Did you know, Rexford, that your Jenkins, my Jen 
 kins, our Jenkins, Jenkins of the 'Argus,' is on the 
 eve of deadly combat ? And that with a man who was 
 hobnobbing with him only yesterday at the horse show, 
 under the eyes of a boxful of pretty girls ! And com 
 pliments flew back and forth between them on the 
 things they write heaven save the mark ! I Ve al 
 ways suspected Jenkins, myself, of being a wild-eyed 
 socialist and a bold, bad man who would shake hands
 
 72 THE METBOPOLITANS 
 
 with a pirate ! And now this other fellow has found 
 him out and wants to fight him ! " 
 
 Jenkins's round red face expanded in a grin. "I 
 know I 'm sanguinary," said he, " and gunpowder 's 
 the only perfume. But I don't send type- written cartels 
 calling names and wanting people to fight duels ! I 
 think it 's too late in the century for that. It 's a most 
 entertaining letter. It calls me a cad and other pretty 
 things because I wrote a humorous little skit on an 
 article of his. And when he was so solemnly affable 
 to me at the show, it was because he did n't know I 
 was the one who wrote it. And now he seems so con 
 foundedly mad because I did n't sign my name. He 
 is n't half as sorry as I am that I 'm not allowed to 
 write over my own name. I thought nearly everybody 
 had discovered by this time that newspaper reporters 
 write anonymously. It 's a fact, you know." 
 
 "Is it?" came a laughing chorus. 
 
 " Of course you will now scrap on the field of honor," 
 said the book reviewer with the long nose. "You 
 must have Rexford as second. He is authority on 
 form; he knows Mr. Pundit." 
 
 " I say, Rexford," said Jenkins, his own genial self 
 again, " be sure and come to our dramatic performance 
 next week. It '11 be fine ; and for the benefit of the 
 Indigent Dyspeptics a very worthy charity. I have 
 not asked Penrose. He makes fun of everything in 
 that freezing way of his, and the others don't like 
 him. Dash of cold water, you know." 
 
 It would seem that Rexford was as much a favorite 
 in this free-and-easy resort as elsewhere. "All the 
 same," observed a quiet old stock-reporter in the corner,
 
 THE METROPOLITANS 73 
 
 " he '11 never make a journalist. His heart is not in it. 
 It 7 s just an odd column or two of matter in his life." 
 Penrose overheard him and winced. " You are a fool," 
 he told himself, roughly. " Did you expect to turn the 
 lad into a scribbler just that you might keep him be 
 side you ? "
 
 VII 
 
 [ORNELIUS DE MANSUR loved his one 
 fair daughter passing well and with a 
 watchful tenderness ; still, it was a num 
 ber of years since he had been young 
 himself and had lost his young wife, and 
 during that interval he had concerned himself more 
 with rare editions and curious bindings than with 
 matters of sentiment. So when it occurred to him one 
 morning that her step was a thought languid, perhaps, 
 and her manner listless, he ascribed it at once to the 
 only ailment he knew much about, a "touch of dys 
 pepsia," for which he always prescribed air and exer 
 cise. He proceeded now to catechize her with the 
 magisterial solemnity at which it was her custom to 
 laugh. 
 
 " Come here, Katherine." 
 She sat upon the arm of his chair. 
 " I can't see you there." 
 " You can feel me " (with a little squeeze). 
 " I suppose you have been poking about with your 
 charity work in all sorts of stuffy, unwholesome holes 
 and corners ? " 
 
 " No more than usual." 
 
 " You know I am satisfied to have you give what we 
 
 74
 
 THE METROPOLITANS 75 
 
 can, but not to have you go about taking risks in in 
 fected places, perhaps. You can send what 's needed." 
 " You know " (gently) " that 7 s not the same thing." 
 " Well " (giving up this point for the hundredth time, 
 and tacking), " you have been keeping too late hours. 
 Confound this modern mania for turning night into 
 day ! For fear one should go to bed before sensible 
 people are taking breakfast, society must now have a 
 Vaudeville Club ! " 
 
 " Papa, you know I have only been to it twice." 
 She leaned her heavy head on the arm resting on 
 the chair-back. Was it not there, that second time, 
 last night, that Allan Rexford had passed her with a 
 bow, not speaking? 
 
 "Then," said her father, briskly, as one who has 
 gained an argument, " what you need is fresh air and 
 exercise ; and I want you to promise me that every fine 
 morning, after this, you will drive to the Park and stay 
 there an hour. More outdoor life that is what women 
 need." And with an illustrative wave of his arm to 
 ward St. George's steeple, he trotted off to the Grolier 
 there to shut himself in for the rest of the day and 
 forget his lunch. 
 
 Katherine had obeyed him faithfully for a week, 
 when there came a day which no stretch of imagina 
 tion could possibly describe as fine. A gray sky, with 
 the waves in the harbor whipped into little whitecaps 
 by small sharp gusts ; swirls of wind gathering eddies 
 of straw and dust and bits of paper at street cor 
 ners, and impishly scattering them in the eyes of 
 passers-by ; and a raw chill in the air which had some 
 mysterious way of penetrating the warmest wraps and
 
 76 THE METROPOLITANS 
 
 going straight to the bone. Nature in the Park wore 
 a frowning and discouraging aspect, which would 
 hardly have attracted Katherine if she had not been 
 possessed by a sharp restlessness that would let her 
 settle to no home occupation. So she drove, as usual, 
 up the avenue, passing Mortimer van Krippen and 
 Royall "Worcester and half a score of other dandies 
 coming down in the latest style of amble, and trying 
 to look unconscious of the wind's assaults on their tall 
 hats. A cold mist was thickening the atmosphere 
 when she reached the Park; she bade the coachman 
 drive to the Metropolitan Museum, and was soon shut 
 in behind its portals. There were few if any visitors 
 this inclement day, and she seemed to have the col 
 lected treasures of art to herself which might have 
 satisfied a reasonable art lover who had remembered 
 to bring her catalogue. But she was conscious of a 
 feeling of loneliness and depression, and wandered 
 about aimlessly for a while ; and instead of admiring 
 in the west gallery the joyous painted nymphs under 
 which she stood, she began idly scribbling on the edge 
 of the leaf which described them ; and then, raising 
 her head, perceived near her a gentleman, his back 
 turned, who was also writing in a small note-book. 
 Her heart gave a throb, and at the same instant oh, 
 wonderful wealth of feminine resource ! her eyes were 
 at once calmly serene, her slim figure erect in graceful 
 indifference, and an artistic, unaffected pleasure in the 
 nymphs overhead seemed to be her dominant feeling. 
 " Oh good morning," said the young man, turning. 
 " It is quite a surprise to meet any one here on such 
 a day. I happen to be tracing a certain artist's works
 
 THE METEOPOLITANS 77 
 
 through the galleries for an article. And you, too, are 
 taking notes? Do you not notice" (coming nearer) 
 " how depressingly trivial any remark sounds in this 
 appalling vastuess ? Is it the absence of people, or the 
 silent presence of all these painted notabilities, or just 
 that the emptiness makes unusual echoes ? My voice 
 actually reverberates ; excuse me if I whisper." It was 
 his old friendly, half -jesting, half -tender accent; for 
 he was a man and taken unawares by the beloved's 
 unexpected presence! She softened too; she could 
 not help it. 
 
 " Good morning, Mr. Rexf ord. I fancied until I saw 
 you that I was monarch of all I surveyed and that 
 I owned all the pictures." 
 
 "And you were criticizing your possessions? Let 
 me see " (taking the catalogue gently from her hand) 
 " what you write of the nymphs. Ah, you quote : 
 
 Alas ! they heed not what we say ; 
 They smile with ardor undiminished ; 
 But we we are not always gay. 
 
 "Allow me, Miss de Mansur" (playfully), "to crit 
 icize your criticism. An art notice should always be 
 objective never subjective. But you " (changing his 
 tone) "you are always gay?" 
 
 A swift coldness punished his presumption. 
 
 " Why should I be always gay ? Is this a world in 
 which one who thinks or feels can be always gay ? " 
 
 " But women most women have so little to trou 
 ble them." 
 
 "Women most women have so little to distract 
 them from such trouble as they may have."
 
 78 THE METROPOLITANS 
 
 A hasty retrospect of those changeful last weeks, 
 crowded as they had been with novelty and variety 
 enough almost to deaden the shock of an unexpected 
 blow, seemed to confirm the difference she indicated. 
 
 "I think," said she, drawing her furs about her 
 shoulders, " that it grows chillier up here. I must go 
 down. I always " (with a smile) " visit the mummies 
 before leaving. They are so fascinating." 
 
 " Permit me." He took her hand in his, preceding 
 her down the stairway. With the touch of her slen 
 der gloved fingers, the doubts, suspicion, resentment, 
 everything which had kept him from her, resolved 
 itself into a sudden determination. " If she is calcu 
 lating, mercenaiy enough to have changed, I will know 
 it from herself ! " The hopeful ardor of his young 
 manhood asserted itself. His eye dwelt on a silken 
 lock which curled behind her ear; the faint perfume 
 of some flowers she wore reached him. He looked 
 down at her tenderly as she kept pace with him. Thej r 
 walked up and down beside the mummy-cases, abso 
 lutely alone now, save for a sleepy official, who gave 
 them an indifferent look and went off to a distant 
 window, drawn there by a sudden downpour of rain. 
 Katherine paused beside this case and that, reading 
 the inscriptions. "'Casket of the Lady Taon-Hor, 
 from Thebes. A Lady of the House Arshep. Twen 
 tieth Dynasty before Christ, 1275-1100.' < The Lady 
 of the House Tsa-isi-emmiu. 7 " 
 
 " To think that the silent shell, lying here for curi 
 ous sight-seers to peer at, should have been, two or 
 three thousand years ago, a being like ourselves, with 
 pride and passion and hope and ambition ! Noble she
 
 THE METROPOLITANS 79 
 
 was ; young, perhaps, and beautiful ; surrounded with 
 splendor and adulation. And she might have sent us 
 to death then for idle speculations about her, which 
 now she has no power to prevent." 
 
 " She she was laid away" (he repeated), 
 " From the loving light of day 
 
 In the early far-off ages, while yet the Sphinx was young ; 
 And the quiet earth hath kept her 
 Since they who wailed and wept her 
 
 Cried their cry of lamentation in the old Egyptian tongue. 
 She she has rested well, 
 For yet a glance can tell 
 The latest hands that touched her were loving, longing hands. 
 
 " Ah," discontinuing, " what were the flatteries and 
 splendor of the court of Pharaoh, after all, to her, a 
 human creature ? Mere incidents, as would have been 
 the coarse garments and reed hut of a Nile fisher's 
 wife. Nothing counted but the love she felt and re 
 ceived ! " 
 
 " I must go now," she said. The rain dashed against 
 the window-panes. The sleepy official had probably 
 gone to sleep in some corner. 
 
 "Wait," he urged, "until this shower is over." 
 
 They passed through a doorway into the rotunda 
 near the pictured Emperor Justinian and his council 
 ors ; and she slipped and struck her wrist sharply on 
 the iron back of a bench, provoking a little cry. It 
 was surely not hurt enough to force the tears into her 
 eyes, one of which fell on her cheek ; and he must have 
 divined this, for in an instant he held her in his arms 
 and passionately kissed that tear away. 
 
 " Oh, oh ! " she whispered breathlessly, pushing.him
 
 80 THE METROPOLITANS 
 
 from her, a wave of crimson dyeing cheek and throat 
 and little ear. 
 
 "I know," he cried, forestalling all reproach, "it 
 was presumptuous, audacious, and everything wrong ! 
 But, Katherine, there was no need to tell you that I 
 love you more than life ! Sweetest, loveliest, dearest, 
 best ! forgive me if I have dared to think you like me 
 just a little ! " 
 
 " You have not hurried to ask," she answered, still 
 in a whisper, and with an upward misty glance which 
 made him long to repeat his offense. 
 
 " And did you not know why ? " he said impetuously. 
 "Could I ask your father's daughter to share I 
 scarcely know what ? For I will not take the mess of 
 pottage offered in place of my birthright. I have my 
 own way still to carve, and that is hardly a recom 
 mendation to a modern father. Katherine, it was 
 torment enough to keep away and leave the field to 
 Van Krippens and Worcesters and others not so 
 handicapped as I." 
 
 " Let me see," she said softly, herself again, a little 
 smile playing about her lips ; " was it of a lady of the 
 house Arshep or De Mansur that some one said that 
 nothing in her life counted but the love she received 
 -and felt?" 
 
 The purely Arcadian hours of life come seldom 
 enough ; but when they do they are happily indepen 
 dent of circumstance. No previous misgivings, nor 
 chill of surrounding atmosphere, nor the rain that 
 raineth every day, is allowed to interfere. The living 
 picture of Love and Youth seen here far excelled any 
 painted canvas in the hundreds about them. And if
 
 THE METROPOLITANS 81 
 
 the Emperor Justinian and his councilors had been 
 sentient beings, they might, seeing it, have stepped 
 down from their frame this stormy afternoon, wreathed 
 their heads with roses, and sung " Carpe diem." As it 
 was, they were discreetly unobservant. But these 
 golden moments were winged. The sleepy official 
 wakened after a while to a sense of duty, shown mainly 
 by bustling in and out. And it was at last necessary 
 for Rexf ord to show Katherine into her carriage and 
 resume his art notes in what was then a mere wilder 
 nesswith what success Penrose's comment indicated : 
 "I don't know much about paintings, but it strikes 
 me, Rexford, these remarks are a little mixed." 
 
 Katherine looked radiant enough at dinner to justify 
 the credit Mr. de Mansur took to himself for his pre 
 scription. "Nothing like it nothing, I assure you," 
 he repeated. " It is what nine out of ten ailing people 
 need air and exercise air and exercise ! In good 
 weather, of course not on a day like this, when it 
 would argue perfect lunacy to take any unnecessary 
 outing." Katherine laughed; she remembered a 
 French jingle: 
 
 Si t'aimer est folie, 
 
 Je serais folle toute la vie. 
 
 But she was not yet prepared to confess her lunacy, 
 and only showed her inner gladness by filial attentions 
 and caresses, which Cornelius accepted complacently. 
 And already, in her room that night, the eternal un 
 dertone of warning came to give pause to her unreck- 
 oning happiness. A little superstitious chill came over 
 her once or twice when she thought of her joy com 
 ing to her so near the coffined lady of the Nile. She
 
 82 THE METROPOLITANS 
 
 dreamed of her that night tall, dark, and sad-eyed, in 
 her Egyptian robes, with a lotus in her hand. And she 
 said, like Thekla, "I too have lived andloved, and now" 
 
 But the sun burst forth next morning, and shone, 
 as he does shine in New York, with surpassing bril 
 liancy. He sparkled on the waters of the bay, and 
 gilded the tall roofs and steeples, and flooded with 
 light the rooms and the heart of a young woman for 
 whom that day neither guilt nor poverty nor great 
 troubles nor petty vexations existed upon the face of 
 the earth. She walked the avenue with a big dog fol 
 lowing her, and a rose in her trim coat; and Jack 
 Doultou-Minton twisted his head to look after her, and 
 said to a chum : 
 
 " By Jove ! old chappy, that woman gets lovelier 
 every day. She and the new dancer what 's her 
 name? Jasmina are the greatest beauties in town. 
 They 're the aborigines no, I don't mean that! the 
 antipodes of each other." 
 
 And Archibald Pundit exclaimed, "Like Aurora, 
 'pon my honor, Miss Katherine, like Aurora, don't you 
 know ! " He walked some distance with her, confiding 
 to her graciously his idea for rescuing Allan Rexford 
 from the depths to which he must fall. "For, don't 
 you understand, he 's rather dropped out of our set, 
 and is bound to lose prestige ; and and from, don't 
 you know, from lack of association with, ahem ! with 
 some of us. If he won't take provision amply made 
 for him, why, don't you perceive, the only thing left 
 to rescue him from that low lot of musicians and all 
 he 's fallen in with is a marriage to such an heiress, 
 say, as your friend, Miss van Krippen. You are so
 
 THE METROPOLITANS 83 
 
 sensible, Miss Katherine, I know you catch my idea. 
 We will talk of it another time." 
 
 The next acquaintance to meet her was the very 
 heiress alluded to ; her little head well up in the air, 
 a tiny King Charles at her heels, as also the German 
 teacher (otherwise chaperon), at fifty cents an hour, 
 who was hardly able to keep up with her. 
 
 " Excuse me, fraulein," said Angelica, sweetly, " for 
 speaking French, as you do not understand it, but Miss 
 Lavender desires me to practise it whenever I can." 
 So addressing her friend in a rapid flow of that lan 
 guage, she told her that she had been yesterday to a 
 matinee with Miss Lavender. Did n't remember the 
 play ; it was stupid ; had eaten chocolate caramels until 
 torpid. "But oh, my dear, the loveliest adventure 
 afterward ! We went to Del's for an ice ; and such an 
 interesting young foreigner there assistant cashier, 
 somebody said. And he came into our room and 
 picked up my lorgnette, which I let fall, and restored 
 it with such a bow under her very nose ! And, see 
 ing her look at programs lying around of an entertain 
 ment for the Indigent Dyspeptics, he said in the 
 friendliest way, 'Madame will, perhaps, attend that? 
 I feel an interest myself, as maybe it is here they will 
 have acquired the dyspepsia or the indigence.' I ex 
 pected to see him instantly stiffen into a lifeless heap 
 under her glacial gaze ; but, instead, he gave me an 
 other friendly smile and went off." 
 
 " Angelica, a strange employee ! " 
 
 " My child, foreigners of high rank often fill those 
 humble positions until their remittances arrive." She 
 spoke assuredly, as though acquainted herself with
 
 84 THE METROPOLITANS 
 
 several continental princes who had, during tempo 
 rary embarrassment, served in Sherry's or Delmonico's. 
 " I asked a waiter who the gentleman was, for he cer 
 tainly looks like a gentleman, and he said his name 
 was Federling. Now, Katherine, you need not look 
 shocked. It was amusing to let him do it with Miss 
 Lavender herself on guard. I like everybody myself 
 who seems jolly and friendly, and so does papa. I 
 wonder how he will like to pay fifty cents an hour to 
 have his daughter tagged after and watched, a thing he 
 never would do himself ? Miss Lavender will not go to 
 the Indigent Dyspeptics," she continued ; " but, though 
 I am not ' out,' she will let me go with Mrs. Crowne 
 Derby on condition that Morty goes too. That 's be 
 cause I told her those two Frenchmen whose people she 
 knows would be there. I am to stay at Mrs. Derby's 
 all night. Mrs. Crowne Derby is very attentive to me " 
 (demurely) ; " I don't know why. Dick will be with us, 
 of course. You come too, Katherine, there 's a love." 
 
 Nor would she cease urging, the patient fraulein 
 waiting, until Katherine consented. 
 
 When the Crowne Derby carriage stopped at their 
 door that night, she ran lightly down their front steps, 
 to find her way barred for a moment by an organ- 
 grinder who handed her a paper which said : 
 
 This is Gibson. He is deaf and dumb. He has music for a 
 small compensation. Please help him. He plays these tunes : 
 
 " Down on the Suwanee River." 
 
 " Old Dan Tucker." 
 
 "Run, Nigger, Run." 
 
 "Daddy was a butcher, lives up-town." 
 
 Please help him.
 
 THE METROPOLITANS 85 
 
 She smiled and found a small coin. " Thank you, 
 Miss de Mansur," said Mortimer van Krippen's voice ; 
 "this will be a precious souvenir." He whistled for 
 the organ's owner, who came round the corner and 
 took his fee for its use. Then Morty was ready to pull 
 down the collar of his greatcoat and present the 
 grinder, with slouch hat worn for the occasion, and 
 remind Dick Crowne Derby that he had won the bet, 
 which was odds that Miss de Mansur would n't know 
 him. His sister and Mrs. Derby laughed, but Kathe- 
 rine's lip curled as she took her place in the carriage. 
 " If this is all," she thought, " that young men of means 
 can find to occupy their time, the sooner they are poor 
 and go to work the better." Perhaps she was think 
 ing, too, as they rolled along, that to write articles on 
 music and literature and art generally was even finer, 
 if possible, by contrast. 
 
 And yet there was Jenkins, of whom she had never 
 heard, who worked at such matters, and, moreover, 
 gave leisure time unselfishly to making himself absurd 
 for the benefit of the Indigent Dyspeptics. He was on 
 the stage when they entered, taking the chief part in a 
 melodrama which he had also written. Border Eagle 
 was his name, and he was to be seen in a rocky pass, 
 breathing hard and overhearing a plot against the 
 whites between three presumably deaf Shoshone In 
 dians in the foreground. These three, with a comic 
 negro and an Irishman, were mixed in inextricable 
 confusion, the only thing clear to the audience being 
 that virtue, in the form of Jenkins aided by a six- 
 shooter and a bowie-knife, was finally successful in 
 rescuing the heroine from a great variety of assorted 
 
 6*
 
 86 THE METROPOLITANS 
 
 dangers amid applause and some concealed laughter. 
 Katherine leaned back with an abstracted smile not, 
 assuredly, inspired by Jenkins. 
 
 The young men jested ; the matron politely veiled 
 her yawns; Angelica looked about through her lor 
 gnette for Federling. They lingered when it was over 
 for the crowd to decrease ; and going out, she actually 
 saw him. Under this great roof of the Square Garden 
 there are many festal halls, and into one of these 
 others, maskers were passing. A Mephistopheles 
 raised his mask and bowed to Angelica ; and Kath 
 erine marked the contrast between a diabolic, close- 
 fitting suit of red and the frank, smiling blue eyes 
 and blond hair. Angelica, in the amused interest of 
 this meeting, did not notice that Katherine, as they 
 next passed a small supper-room leading to the ball 
 room, gave a quick start. She saw at supper, with 
 distant strains of music and much jesting, a little 
 party of merry-makers who had laid aside their masks. 
 Chief among them was Rexford, beside a woman all 
 wrapped in black lace, with a face like a flower for 
 which she vainly searched her memory. She saw Pen- 
 rose also, whom she knew slightly, before they passed 
 on ; and answered lightly some remark of Morty van 
 Krippen's about the group. But she thought : " Was 
 this the engagement which prevented his coming to 
 me this evening ? I fancied it was work." 
 
 She no longer smiled happily in her dark corner of 
 the carriage going back.
 
 VIII 
 
 did not consist with Katherine's ideal of 
 living to keep secret anything of impor 
 tance from the father who had been all 
 the world to her in childhood and young 
 maidenhood. But it was Rexford who 
 had said, "A few days or weeks, perhaps, will not 
 matter, for it to be between just you and me. ' Au 
 jour le jour,' I am afraid, has been my selfish motto 
 until now. But I mean to become a combination of 
 busy bee and miser for the sake of the sweetest eyes 
 ever were seen. When I have something definite in 
 view I will speak to your father at once." 
 
 This was the next Sunday when he came from 
 church with her and lunched at their house ; and he 
 had mentioned the masquerade supper to her in a 
 large way men have as being " partly business." Mr. 
 de Mansur accepted his occasional appearance as 
 placidly as he did most things. He was accustomed 
 to have young men about his house, whose presence 
 he affected to consider as due to his own charms. 
 "Nice, pleasant manners, Rexford," he would say, "like 
 his father. The other Allan Rexford was a favorite, 
 too, everywhere ; knew an Elzevir when he saw it, and 
 played a fair hand at whist. I ; m afraid the mother 
 has n't treated this lad well." 
 
 87
 
 88 THE METEOPOLITANS 
 
 Katherine atoned for her delayed confidence by extra 
 thoughtfulness for his comfort and an abundance of 
 caresses, which caused the old gentleman to declare to 
 two or three present, " I call you to witness, Mr. van 
 Krippen, Mr. Worcester, gentlemen all, that I will 
 not do it, whatever it is ; I will not do it ! If you 
 should ever be heads of families yourselves you would 
 understand that these alarming accessions of demon 
 stration on the part of a daughter cover some deep- 
 laid design on her father's purse or time or both." 
 He was given these days to many small jests, being 
 unusually happy in the return of his nephew, Reginald 
 Crofton, the African explorer. This broad-shouldered 
 Apollo had brought back with him quite a museum 
 of skins and assagais and shields, and all sorts of in 
 teresting barbaric trophies, in which his uncle took 
 great delight. He was, indeed, so genially interested 
 and gay that Katherine had a proportionate shock 
 when he said to her seriously one day, " My dear, I 
 hate to have to say it of an old friend's son, but I 
 hear that Allan Rexford is very different from what 
 he used to be ; has grown wild and reckless, and keeps 
 company that that would have pained his father very 
 much. They are saying at the club and everywhere 
 well, it is not worth while to repeat scandal ; but it 
 might be better not to have him here often, and not to 
 hurt his feelings, but to be just a little distant until I 
 can ascertain more." 
 
 Before Katherine collected her ideas to answer he 
 had gone. She reared her head quite haughtily, being 
 alone ; a red spot burned on each cheek. " Her Allan ! 
 Scandal-hunters must always have noble game to pur-
 
 THE METEOPOLITANS 89 
 
 sue. Papa was not used to listen to them. What an 
 outrage ! " She went to her own room and looked at 
 a picture of St. George and the dragon which she had 
 bought because the warrior saint's face and figure bore 
 a resemblance to Rexford's. "If the dragon stands 
 for scandal/' the girl thought proudly, "my knight's 
 strength and gallantry will keep his shield spotless. 
 If he still had a fortune, he might be as wicked as 
 as he is not, and they would think it only amusing ! " 
 
 In which she may have been right ; for society dis 
 plays a truly Christian forbearance toward a sinner 
 whose millions may endow a church or hospital or 
 even, with better management, its own daughters. 
 
 "Peurose," observed Rexford, the same day, "I 
 want you to answer me a question quite truthfully." 
 
 " As it was in haste that King David proclaimed all 
 men liars, perhaps I may. But I decline from the first 
 any of those standard crucial tests of friendship, as to 
 tell what I think of your looks or your verselets, or 
 what are your chief faults of character, or what people 
 say in my hearing about you." 
 
 "Try not to be an idiot," said Rexford, gravely. 
 " What I want seriously to know is this : how do you 
 think I progress in journalism?" 
 
 If Penrose was ever so little discomposed by this 
 question, he did not show it. "You draw a fair 
 monthly salary now, do you not? Besides that, a 
 variable sum for articles for other papers and maga 
 zines. It is n't often beginners can show as good ac 
 count as that." 
 
 " Yes, I know. That is n't what I 'm asking. With 
 your experience in newspaper men and things, should
 
 90 THE METROPOLITANS 
 
 you think that in the course of a few years I might 
 hold a fairly high place in the profession be a dis 
 tinct success, in short ? " 
 
 Penrose got up and walked about the little office. 
 " I don't know why you ask," he said, giving him a 
 keen look. " At present you are enjoying the inde 
 pendence dear to every manly being; with the pre 
 cious certainty of being able, without help from any 
 one, to keep yourself in bread and butter, not to say 
 sandwiches and beer." 
 
 " I ask because I want to know." 
 
 " Well then " (slowly), " since I am bound to contro 
 vert King David's hasty proposition, I will tell you 
 that I think you are wasting your time. Your criti 
 cisms lately always excepting those on music have 
 had a perfunctory, dilettante ring, as of one not tak 
 ing himself or his subject or his readers seriously." 
 
 Rexford winced visibly. He had asked for truth, 
 but, being human, it hurt him. 
 
 "Mind you," Penrose added, "this is an individual 
 opinion. No one else has said so. Others may think 
 you improving." Though Rexford's senior by compar 
 atively few years, his self-possessed bearing hid now 
 a pang which a father might feel at wounding a son. 
 "Is truth-telling to cost me as much as it did Gil 
 Bias?" 
 
 "Indeed, no." Rexford looked up with his own 
 bright, friendly glance. " Thank you," he added sim 
 ply. " I feel that you are right ; but what is to be 
 done ? " 
 
 " Do ! why, what you do best, man. A hundred 
 other fellows could at a pinch turn out just such arti-
 
 THE METROPOLITANS 91 
 
 cles as yours, lacking a touch or so. But they could 
 not write that dainty serenade I heard you humming 
 when you were dressing; nor that adagio you were 
 playing last night. They could not set a Hungarian 
 folk-song to music Jasmina is quite wild about. Mel 
 ody is your Muse, my lad ! Leave fooling with the 
 others, and give yourself to her. Come, try your hand 
 at a light tuneful opera ; and let me write the libretto. 
 If it 's any good, we have between us influence 
 enough with the manager." 
 
 " Oh ! do you think I really could ? I will begin 
 right away ! " Hope rekindled in his eyes. His 
 great opera was already written and a success. He 
 saw himself in a moment rich again, and famous, and 
 living with Katherine in a beautiful castle in Spain. 
 He felt annoyed at sudden roars of laughter from a 
 neighboring apartment where Jenkins was amusing 
 his fellow-reporters with a choice story having a cigar- 
 store Indian for its hero. Then he smiled indulgently. 
 " Life with that fellow," he observed, " is a mere mat 
 ter of cakes and ale and a good story. But I must 
 get to work. I know a motif " 
 
 " Yes," said Penrose, dryly. " We, unlike Jenkins, 
 are philosophers. But I would not begin on a motif, 
 if I were you, until I had finished that notice of last 
 night's concert." 
 
 Rexford stopped his humming and laughed. He 
 was proof now against a dash of cold water. He set 
 tled down to his desk ; but loose sheets of paper were 
 decorated with a bit of this or that score, as musical 
 ideas obtruded themselves. He was impatient for 
 morning to pass, that he might lock himself into his
 
 92 THE METROPOLITANS 
 
 room with the piano ; and he sent a second note to 
 Katherine, saying that something important to 
 be explained later would prevent his calling that 
 evening. 
 
 This would have been unpardonable but for the 
 fact that the corner-stone he was so eager to lay was 
 in an edifice to be dedicated to her. Still, it was no 
 wonder a little creeping doubt presented itself: "An 
 other masquerade, perhaps." She rejected it with 
 generous indignation as well as Mr. Pundit's sugges 
 tive remarks to her father over the card-table: "I 
 won't say, my dear sir, don't you know, with all re 
 spect for my noble friend, Lady Mellon, you under 
 stand, that he was well treated ; but he need not have 
 taken to such wild courses, don't you comprehend. 
 Walking in broad daylight with actors and reporters 
 and such people, whom his friends must pretend not 
 to see, don't you know. And then" his voice lowered 
 until several words were indistinguishable. Then, 
 louder : " Roulette, I am told, every night. Manipu 
 lates the wheel herself ! Yes, it 's a pity, don't you 
 know, quite a pity. They say, by the way, that Lady 
 Mellon is having some trouble with his lordship. I 
 never believe all that gossip about a nobleman. It 's 
 just sheer envy, don't you understand." 
 
 She should not have heard this, which was not for 
 her, but ought to have been listening instead to her 
 cousin, who had allowed nothing to interfere with his 
 call, and was giving herself and a few others an im 
 promptu lecture on Zululand, stimulated into elo 
 quence by feeling her eyes upon him. 
 
 " If I were you," said Angelica van Krippen later,
 
 THE METROPOLITANS 93 
 
 up in her room (she had come to spend the night), " I 
 should immediately lose my heart to Mr. Crofton. 
 Though I should be sorry for Morty ! Morty will not 
 commit suicide, however, no matter how badly you 
 treat him. He is more likely to die at the hands of 
 papa when that dear man finds out about Otto." She 
 cast down her eyes and gave a well-executed sigh. 
 
 "Otto?" 
 
 " Mr. Federling, you know." 
 
 11 That man again ? O Angelica ! " 
 
 "My dear, no one alive shall marry me for my 
 money if I can prevent it. And whether I am brought 
 out here, with Miss Lavender, Mr. Pundit, and all the 
 Patriarchs superintending, or mamma arranges a 
 European match for me over yonder, it is all one ; my 
 value in cash will be trumpeted. You may not have 
 suspected me of romance, but I am papa's daughter- 
 poor dear papa ! with his ' Children of the Abbey.' I 
 mean to marry for love or not at all ! " This warlike 
 declaration was in her usual thin, sweet tones, and 
 her eyes looked childlike clear at Katherine without 
 the lorgnette. 
 
 "But, Angelica, a stranger, a foreigner, utterly 
 unknown, in such a position. It is, of course, some 
 adventurer taking advantage of your imprudence." 
 
 " Not at all " (triumphantly). " I know plenty about 
 him already. He has told me himself, and I believed 
 him. Perhaps you think, Katherine" (flushing pink 
 under her transparent skin), " that, from my antece 
 dents, I cannot always tell a gentleman, but I can. 
 However, I prudently asked Morty to investigate, as 
 though it were for a possible German teacher for Miss
 
 94 THE METROPOLITANS 
 
 Lavender, and it was all right. My dear, he is really 
 Von Federling, and a baron, but poor as any barn 
 yard fowl Job ever had before the neighbors stole 
 them. And he was a student at Heidelberg, and then 
 in the army for the usual time ; and has a little crooked 
 scar he got in a duel just under his front hair, and he 
 is so proud of it ; I don't know why, for it would have 
 shown more sense to have kept out of fights. But the 
 family estate was small, and the daughters have to be 
 provided for ; he is the youngest of eleven ; the others 
 are all girls ; so you can't blame a poor man with ten 
 sisters for coming over to America to try his luck. 
 He hoped for a professorship or something like that, 
 for he is scientific and speaks several languages ; but, 
 knowing no one, he did anything he could find to do, 
 and was glad enough to get that place at Del's. Find 
 ing out about the title was just accidental, for he has 
 too much sense to use it now. But he is delightfully 
 sentimental, and quotes yards of poetry, which makes 
 me laugh." 
 
 " Was it through Mortimer you found out that this 
 was all true ? " 
 
 " That is the cream of the affair. Morty had no 
 trouble in getting at a lot about him, and was on the 
 point of imparting it to Miss Lavender, as per request, 
 when I diverted her attention. But I was walking in 
 the Park with Fraulein Volmer, the day after the In 
 digent Dyspeptics' benefit (I always like her for chape 
 ron ; she is even more stupid than she looks), when 
 who should appear but Mephisto of the night before. 
 Did n't he look delightfully absurd in that satanic 
 dress, with his curly blond mustache and round rosy
 
 THE METROPOLITANS 95 
 
 cheeks ! He raised his hat to me, then looked at her 
 and stopped. ' Ach, Gott ! ' she cried, or something to 
 that effect. ' Is it thou, dear Baron Otto ? ' And it 
 turned out that the fraulein had been governess to 
 half a dozen of his sisters in their beloved native vil 
 lage with the unpronounceable name on the Rhine. 
 So he stayed and talked with us for a while. She has 
 prosed to me before by the hour at fifty cents of 
 her past life, and I never listened, for, though I be 
 lieved her to be truthful, I knew her to be debilitat 
 ing. But now I make her tell me all about Otto and 
 Castle Schlippenschloppenschlanberg it 's something 
 like that ! If Miss Lavender's policy with her teachers 
 were not so sternly repressive, if she were not a glacier 
 to attempted confidences, the simple soul would tell 
 her too, and all would be lost ! As it is, the fraulein 
 treats herself to this little revival of home associations 
 without imagining my special interest. And oh, 
 Katherine, what fun to lunch at Del's with Miss Lav 
 ender, and smile at Otto under her nose while she 
 studies the menu with severe propriety ! " 
 
 Miss van Krippen paused for breath, and Katherine 
 had a chance to ask, " But if your brother discovered 
 nothing to this this gentleman's discredit, and he is 
 of good birth and education, why not tell Mortimer ? 
 Why not write of him to your parents, and have him 
 visit you ? " 
 
 " Katherine de Mansur ! Have you ever met mam 
 ma? No, I thought not! When she takes me out 
 of Miss Lavender's and puts poor little Anastelle in 
 my place, her plans for me will be fixed, and not in 
 connection with a disinterested affection."
 
 96 THE METROPOLITANS 
 
 Katherine could not forbear an expressive look. 
 
 "You wonder," cried her friend, " how with a poor 
 man I can be sure he is disinterested ! Why, he does 
 not know my name, even. The fraulein calls me An 
 gelica, and I told him it was Cripps. O Katherine, 
 you must know Otto sometime. He is quite learned 
 too, but very fond of sweets, and always keeps bon 
 bons about him and treats the fraulein and me. And 
 she eats them and weeps when he quotes German 
 poetry. You should hear him tell of a friend of his 
 at home who was dying of love for a girl, and there 
 was a favored rival whom he hated. And he came to 
 Otto and said he could bear to give her up to a friend, 
 but not to an enemy, and begged Otto to be presented 
 to her, make love, win her perhaps. At his friend's 
 sighs and groans of despair Otto consented and met 
 the lady. She made no impression on a heart reserved 
 for me, and he was obliged to tell his almost frenzied 
 friend, who thought of suicide, but went away instead 
 to practise microscopy at Stockholm. Otto asked me 
 if it was not a touching poem ; and when I inquired if 
 during that time his friend refrained from potato 
 salad, or was noticeably moderate in the matter of 
 beer, he looked at me so reproachfully that that 
 her voice died away into what the poet Keats is 
 pleased to call " a slumbrous tenderness." 
 
 But Katherine lay awake a long time afterward, 
 speedily forgetting about Otto to wonder what Mr. 
 Pundit's unheard remarks had been, and why he 
 should wish to malign her Allan; and, subcon 
 sciously, to let her mind misgive her as to what un- 
 imagined recklessness might keep the latter from her.
 
 THE METEOPOLITANS 97 
 
 He was blamelessly occupied, at the time, looking at 
 the same stars through his window in a mood of ela 
 tion, for the plot of the opera was well under way be 
 tween the chief conspirators, and he was planning, 
 incidentally, a sonnet to her as his inspiration.
 
 IX 
 
 I HE approved of his absence; she ap 
 proved of this new work which had de 
 tained him; in fine, she approved of 
 him, smiling with sweet, clear, inter 
 ested eyes, bright with sympathy, 
 across her little tea-table the next afternoon, when 
 fate favored them with a half -hour together. 
 
 "Penrose," he told her, "my collaborator, just 
 sketched off the plot of the book in no time. I told 
 him it was impossibly sensational. He said nothing 
 was impossible in life ; everything could happen and 
 did, sometimes ; that these incidents had actually oc 
 curred. So this is the way it is to be. Zora is the 
 Hungarian girl; has two lovers, and is in love with 
 the poor one. Her father, favoring the rich suitor, 
 suggests that the field will be clear for him if he con 
 trives to get the other out of the way. The rich 
 farmer manages this, and the girl, thinking herself 
 deserted by the other, accepts his attentions. At the 
 wedding the groom, drinking healths until he loses all 
 prudence, boasts in her hearing that he has killed his 
 rival. She seizes a knife from the table and springs 
 toward him ; her father checks her, rushing between, 
 whereupon she kills herself. At this sight the father, 
 
 98
 
 THE METEOPOLITANS 99 
 
 frenzied, shoots the farmer, who falls dead just as the 
 other suitor appears to hear her dying words, and ex 
 plain, as well as horror will permit, that no violence 
 had been used to send him to a distance, as the farmer 
 had falsely and foolishly declared, but just a lengthy 
 business errand invented for that purpose." 
 
 " And what becomes of him ? " 
 
 " That we have not settled. As a matter of fact, 
 Penrose says, he became a member of the village 
 band, and did very well until an attack of measles 
 carried him off. But that would hardly do." 
 
 " Certainly not ! Why not have him die of grief ? " 
 
 " He would have to expire to the very slowest music 
 composer ever wrote. There is a further complication 
 in the opera, in the shape of the great lady of the vil 
 lage, who takes a fancy to his fine eyes. We might 
 manage his end well, that will arrange itself. It is 
 not so hard as you might think. There are some de 
 lightful chances for melody at the plaza, with the rivals 
 and the love-scenes and the wedding, with Hungarian 
 bride-song and choruses." He passed into the music- 
 room through the archway. "Listen, now; this is 
 the air Manuel sings under her window." A few bars 
 were played and sung. " Now this " (with a crash of 
 chords and a descent into the bass, changing the key) 
 " is where the father and farmer are plotting to be rid 
 of Manuel. Now then, this little minor is always to 
 be played when Zora is coming. Do you like it ? 
 Katherine" (he came back, his eyes aflame), " I mean 
 to work day and night until it is finished. If it is a 
 success Penrose encourages me I need not wait any 
 longer to ask your father ! " She made a little barri-
 
 100 THE METROPOLITANS 
 
 cade of the tea equipage between them, which he en 
 compassed in a moment. "Do not insult me with 
 offers of more tea ! " he cried, " and as for sweets" 
 Then, whatever delight he had promised himself when 
 he went on one knee beside her low chair was post 
 poned, as callers entered, and he was on his feet 
 again, saying, with rare presence of mind, " There is 
 your pretty cup quite safe ; I think I rescued it very 
 cleverly ! " 
 
 Miss Lavender's unpremeditated interruption hardly 
 justified the instant wild hatred he felt, though her ex 
 cessively cold greeting might have excited his wonder 
 if he had noticed it, and if Angelica van Krippen had 
 not taken it on herself to supply all missing cordiality. 
 Miss Lavender, deceived by Katherine's look of inter 
 est, began to murmur into her ear further confidences 
 connected with the scandalous treatment accorded by 
 the very unparliamentary Provincial Matrons to a de 
 scendant, collaterally, of Poor Richard. " They will 
 regret it, I fancy, when they find themselves in court. 
 If Franklin Hall needed an advertisement," added the 
 business woman, " it would have it just through Mrs. 
 Doulton-Minton's machinations against its principal ! " 
 She shrugged her thin shoulders. " As it is, my dear, 
 applications come in shoals; especially since De 
 Vaurien and Mauvais Sujet are so constantly at my 
 Wednesdays. And my friend and ex-pupil, the mar 
 quis's aunt by marriage, writes me the sweetest letters 
 in praise of these young noblemen. With domestic 
 anxieties of her own, as I hear, it is charming in her 
 to take such unselfish interest in others." 
 
 "Devilish unselfish," said Mortimer, in an aside,
 
 THE METROPOLITANS 101 
 
 closing the eye near Rexford ; " like the interest the 
 fox, once caught in a trap, took in his fellows' brushes. 
 Oh, say, you 're not going yet ! A chap never gets a 
 chance to talk to you now, you 're running so much 
 with Penrose and that lot. Saw him at a supper the 
 other night Harvard foot-ball team. Good spread, 
 too and he called me Dugald Dalgetty. Who 's 
 Dalgetty, anyhow ? I don't believe I 've ever met him. 
 Say " (in a whisper), " I hear you 've had better luck 
 with the Jasmina than I did. Did n't seem to like me ; 
 shows her bad taste ! " The good-natured little fellow 
 grinned. " Well, if you mil go ! " 
 
 Though Rexford was in too exalted a state of mind 
 to perceive that Morty's friendliness was not shared 
 by Katherine's cousin, now mounting guard at the 
 tea-table, still he did not fancy seeing him and half a 
 dozen of the unemployed rich keeping him from her ; 
 so presently he took his leave. 
 
 " Of course," said Miss Lavender to Archibald Pun 
 dit, " that young man is out of the question, matrimo 
 nially. I have given that hint to my girls, in case 
 they meet him anywhere. The fact that he has noth 
 ing forces me, in spite of my respect for Lord and 
 Lady Mellon, to frown on on such goings on as have 
 been hinted to me. If he had De Vaurien's rank or 
 Royall Worcester's money it would be different. A 
 few eccentricities might easily be overlooked. But 
 as it is" 
 
 " My dear lady," Mr. Pundit answered, with a pon 
 derous sigh, "I am afraid you are right. I have 
 written his mother to the effect that I have been able 
 to do nothing as regards Miss van Krippen, don't you
 
 102 THE METROPOLITANS 
 
 know. In fact, I hardly ever see him now, and I fear 
 that if his dissipation and low associations continue, 
 society will have to cut him entirely, you understand." 
 He drew his portly figure up and straightened his 
 shoulders to show how society looked at times. 
 
 " Miss van Krippen," said Miss Lavender, " is quite 
 young yet, and until her parents approve, no match 
 will be arranged positively for her. My girls are 
 brought up, you know, quite on the European plan. 
 No reckless, ill-regulated American independence. 
 They are, I flatter myself, better guarded and chap 
 eroned than any in New York. They have hardly a 
 thought without my supervision." 
 
 Archibald Pundit's eyes gleamed as he reflected how 
 handsomely this watchfulness at Franklin Hall was 
 paid for. Their tea-cups drew closer together as their 
 voices sank to a confidential undertone. 
 
 The weeks following this were a rush of work and 
 excitement to Rexford. He furnished only musical 
 reviews to the "Argus" now, the rest of his time 
 being given to composing, polishing, altering, trans 
 posing melodies and harmonies, as the words and situ 
 ations in "Zora" necessitated. Jenkins, though a 
 melomaniac himself, threatened to leave " Simla " per 
 manently. "After all, however," he relented, "it is, 
 to quote the famous Frenchman, a not disagreeable 
 noise ; and you would fail if I left you, for I know I 
 am your inspiration." He was more or less useful as 
 a lay-figure, to be hustled and poked into corners as 
 points in the play needed illustration, or to hum an 
 occasional falsetto in the part of the cold and haughty 
 soprano. The kindly fellow was as eager for Eex-
 
 THE METROPOLITANS 103 
 
 ford's success as could be, and when the work was 
 finally in a friendly manager's hands, he was secretly 
 as anxious for good news as the collaborators them 
 selves. 
 
 And if in all this hurry and pressure and absorption 
 the hours with Katherine were few, they were all the 
 sweeter, and their infrequency was generously over 
 looked by her for the cause. It was to her that the 
 tidings of an acceptance first came, the note buried 
 in flowers; and her congratulations were the first he 
 received. "Now, dear, my life, my love," he wrote, 
 "if it only proves a success, I can tell your father 
 boldly that I am able to take care of the dearest and 
 sweetest" and all the rest of the lover's little phrases. 
 Her heart sang within her, and when they dined out 
 that night, she smiled with equal indulgence on Morty's 
 little stories and her cousin's devotion, and even Mr. 
 Pundit's struggles when he stuck on " conversation's 
 burs." It was over the coffee that some one mentioned 
 the forthcoming opera by Rexford and Peurose. 
 
 " Penrose ! " repeated Mr. Pundit, contemptuously, 
 " that 's natural enough. But for Allan Rexford son 
 of one of ourselves, don't you know to run to music, 
 in company with that sort of person ! It quite stupe 
 fies me, don't you understand." 
 
 " Oh, is it that, Mr. Pundit ? " Katherine asked, with 
 dangerous sweetness. "I did not know the cause. 
 And why should he not?" 
 
 " To please his friends, a little song now and then, 
 very well, don't you perceive. But not for money" 
 
 " There are so many easier and meaner things he 
 may do for money," Katherine began, with a fire which
 
 104 THE METROPOLITANS 
 
 made her father look at her in mild surprise. Some 
 of the younger men fell to discussing the probable 
 dramatis personee to be selected by Menu, the mana 
 ger, and the authors. 
 
 " Only one I 've heard of," drawled Crowne Derby, 
 " is Jasmin a." 
 
 " It is n't a ballet, my dear fellow." 
 
 "N-no. Dancing enough in it, though, I hear. 
 Principal part 's a contralto or mezzo-soprano. Didn't 
 even know she sang, 'pon my honor." 
 
 "Rexford did, evidently," said Royall Worcester. 
 The u miching mallecho " of this remark was not lost 
 on Katherine, who listened, however, with a lady's 
 trained calmness. 
 
 "What you don't know, my dear fellow," chirped 
 Morty, with cheerful impertinence, "would fill vol 
 umes." He was aware that Crowne Derby as well as 
 himself had failed to find favor in Jasmina's lovely 
 eyes. 
 
 If, after the women had withdrawn, the men's talk 
 over their wine was quite damnatory in its entire 
 tolerance of Rexford's late reckless and daring follies, 
 most of them apocryphal, Morty's friendly and uneasy 
 protests and Crofton's fastidious withdrawal with his 
 uncle from the conversation made very little differ 
 ence. 
 
 It made very little difference, Rexford himself would 
 have thought, as he went hither and thither and inter 
 viewed manager and underlings, and arranged and 
 rearranged scores, and approved or objected to those 
 assigned to certain roles, and attended rehearsals, and 
 had his soul vexed within him by stupidities and ob-
 
 THE METROPOLITANS 105 
 
 stinacies and delays and disappointments innumerable. 
 The only one who gave him no trouble, whose part 
 fitted her as though it were herself, who sang perfectly 
 without any apparent practice, who danced as no one 
 else could, who seemed almost to carry the opera 
 through triumphantly by herself, was Jasmina. And 
 he would never have thought of her if Penrose had not 
 said negligently : 
 
 " You will find Zom's part difficult to fill. She must 
 dance as well as she sings. If Jasmina were willing, 
 now ; you have heard her hum a little, but perhaps you 
 do not know she is a graduate of the Paris Conserva 
 tory, and did not go on the operatic stage simply be 
 cause she has a wild fancy for only singing when she 
 chooses like a bird, she says." 
 
 It came into Rexford's mind to wonder, as several 
 times before, when Penrose, in his vagrant career, had 
 come across Jasmina ; but that was not his present 
 concern, which was to find a Zora satisfactory to M. 
 Menu and himself. 
 
 " But, certainly," she said, " I will be Zora if I can. 
 I must have a part in your success." 
 
 " But your contract with the manager of the Rose- 
 montf" 
 
 " That is nothing " (gaily) ; " I will break it. I have 
 done that before. It is only a money forfeit." 
 
 He had no further scruples after seeing her in the 
 part. She was the pivot on which all turned. And 
 besides, meeting her at the daily rehearsals, what more 
 natural than that he should drop in at her pretty 
 apartment afternoon or evening, to consult, to advise, 
 to talk over this or that connected with the affair of
 
 106 THE METROPOLITANS 
 
 paramount interest? She had a gift for soothing, 
 encouraging, cheering, beyond, he thought, and re 
 proached himself for thinking, any woman he knew. 
 
 " Jasmiua," said Penrose, casually, " is, I need hardly 
 say, no ordinary variety actress ; with youth, beauty, 
 fascination, and her profession hardly ever goes such 
 savage rectitude as hers. When merely a child she 
 was married to a sort of brute ; but in a short while 
 the man one of her own people died. I do not 
 know " (slowly) " that the code of her race, morally, is 
 high; but she is untamable as a wild lark, and has 
 never cared for any one before." 
 
 Rexford did not remark this "before"; he was 
 humming under his breath a passage which did not 
 quite go to please him. In the mean time his name, 
 neglected in brilliant circles for a while, was once 
 more a topic of interest in clubs. Various pranks of 
 the utmost recklessness were attributed to him. While 
 Mr. Pundit frowned and Cornelius de Mansur looked 
 grave, and club-men jested and dandies admired, 
 Katherine was forced in many a great lady's room to 
 listen to a thousand stories which derived their pic- 
 turesqueness mainly from the fact of truth's abashed 
 withdrawal to her well. When she hinted to her lover 
 that he was ill spoken of, he only laughed. " Dearest 
 love," he protested lightly, "what do these people 
 matter to us ? I am no such roaring, ranting blade. 
 All my world is full of melody just now." He wished 
 to speak to her father after the hoped-for success. 
 And the latter, after securing, as a sort of duty to an 
 old friend's son, a box for the first night of "Zora," 
 commented thus :
 
 THE METROPOLITANS 107 
 
 "I hope the young man's artistic career may be 
 prosperous, I am sure ; but I am glad you have taken 
 my suggestion, and that he comes but seldom now. 
 The sooner we sever the acquaintance the better." 
 
 "Papa, you you did not use to listen to scandal. 
 I I like Mr. Rexford." 
 
 " My information about him seemed reliable," said 
 the old man ; but he spoke wearily and with a certain 
 lack of interest which made a new anxiety check the 
 rush of words to his daughter's lips. Cornelius's 
 strength had seemed suddenly to lessen lately, per 
 haps from persistent burrowing in dark, ill- ventilated 
 library rooms. Katherine teased him lovingly about 
 not using the remedies of air and exercise which he 
 urged on others, and the doctor ordered gentle horse 
 back riding. But, with some jesting excuse as to his 
 claim to the title of " Old-Man- Afraid-of-his-Horse," 
 he drifted on from day to day in his long-settled habits.
 
 VEN the society maids and matrons who 
 had cherished a double grudge against 
 Rexford first, that he should, though 
 innocently, have so suddenly lost prestige 
 as a matrimonial prize; next, that he 
 should have carelessly dropped them before they had 
 a chance to drop him felt a keenly curious interest 
 in " Allan Rexf ord's opera." Of his songs old rhymes 
 set to melodious strains several were already much 
 liked among music-lovers ; and his " Go, Lovely Rose," 
 especially was widely popular. Hosts of his parents' 
 friends came, even from semi-retirement, to judge of 
 his work ; old acquaintances of his own dropped in by 
 scores ; club-men galore, whose recent much-relished 
 stories of his wild excesses and extravagances were a 
 distinct advertisement, in their way. When to these 
 were added the usual first-nighters, the critics, the 
 general public, wrought up to intense anticipatory in 
 terest by judicious manipulation of the " Argus " and 
 other allied powers, a house greeted the raising of the 
 curtain on the first act of " Zora " which, in point of 
 numbers, was encouraging to behold. The composer 
 sat well out of sight, in a proscenium-box, with curtains 
 half drawn, and with him Penrose, whose perfect cool- 
 
 108
 
 THE METROPOLITANS 109 
 
 ness contrasted with his own repressed excitement. 
 The first scene showed the pains, never spared in 
 modern days, to secure an exact reproduction of the 
 picturesque mountain village. The overture and open 
 ing chorus of villagers had been received with an ac 
 claim which sounded perfunctory; the duo between 
 the rich farmer and Zom's father with something like 
 apathy or so it seemed to the author, to whom Pen- 
 rose's confidence should have been reassuring, as well 
 as the buoyant hopefulness of Jenkins, who sat with 
 them by special request of Rexf ord, and was immensely 
 pleased at the compliment. 
 
 " I wish they 'd quit that harmonious wrangling," 
 the latter said, " and let Zora come on." 
 
 Peurose said nothing, being busy surveying the 
 house unconcernedly through his glass. He noted the 
 crowds of gilded youth, some of whom requested ad 
 mission to their box, which the ushers were strictly 
 directed to refuse. He had seen Miss de Mansur be 
 fore Rexf ord perceived her, surrounded by father and 
 friends ; he had even remarked a blond foreigner near 
 the De Mansur box, who looked often at Miss van 
 Krippen and whose face somehow seemed familiar, 
 though he did not_connect him with the famous res 
 taurant. Mortimer had obtained from Miss Lavender 
 permission for Angelica's presence, "though a little 
 irregular before her coming out," on the principal's 
 being told that De Vaurien and Mauvais Sujet would 
 also be there. Among the literary and artistic sets 
 Penrose's glance found numbers known to him pro 
 fessionally; for of social life outside the Chimes 
 this busy, absorbed man permitted himself little. It
 
 110 THE METEOPOLITANS 
 
 rested longest, however, returning again and again, 
 upon Katherine, whose shining brown eyes and deli 
 cate tints showed nothing of the eager interest she felt. 
 
 " These daughters of the gods," he thought, " they 
 are so fair. But have they hearts? Now, nry poor 
 Jasmina ! " There was a sudden clash of cymbals. 
 
 " There goes that minor. She 7 s coming ! " muttered 
 Jenkins. And slowly, out from the dusk shades of 
 the forest where she had been straying with the min 
 strel lover, came Zora, a glowing vision. 
 
 Even to Rexf ord, who knew her beauty, this seemed 
 something new. Guessing the cause of her father's 
 difference with the rich villager, she advances, glides 
 from recitation into song, argues, persuades, entreats, 
 cajoles. The first outbreak of spontaneous applause 
 shook the house, and was stilled again as she and 
 the farmer sang together, with occasional foreboding 
 strains from Manuel, already jealous. Then, with a 
 passionate glance for him, and waving her graceful 
 arms to all, "Come," she sings, "we celebrate the treaty. 
 Are we not all Hungarians? A czardas come !" 
 Night has crept on, the camp-fires are lit, old crones 
 hang the pots over the blaze ; but a space is cleared, 
 the depths of the forest are lit up with torches kindled 
 at the glowing embers, and the swarthy musicians of 
 the tribe group themselves at one side, with cymbals 
 and tambourines. " Come ! " cries Zora, marking time 
 with her castanets. They dance the czardas to a 
 measure of broken, barbaric rhythm and wild melody, 
 slow to dreaminess at first. 
 
 " That is fine, very fine," said Penrose ; " that air 'a 
 an inspiration."
 
 THE METROPOLITANS 111 
 
 Rexford himself leaned forward with quickened 
 pulse as Zora bent and swayed to the music, which 
 went fast and faster and still faster, to giddiness. 
 
 " If they don't rise to that ! " said Jenkins. But 
 they did, almost literally. The silence which held 
 them during the first fascinating bars gave way to 
 tumultuous admiration of the odd, bewildering Gipsy 
 melody. Before the last note sounded roars of applause 
 went up, echoed and reechoed. It must be played, it 
 must be danced, every b^r, again. Rexford leaned 
 back, contented. Penrose said quietly, "We 're all 
 right now." Jenkins beat time softly on the cushioned 
 ledge, a broad grin expanding his features. From 
 that time there was hardly a moment's surcease of 
 enthusiasm. Through the scene of the great lady's 
 advances to Manuel, his serenade under the castle 
 wall, the tuneful duets of love and jealousy, Gipsy 
 dances, and Zortfs fortune-telling, the father and rich 
 rival's plotting, the joyful trumpet tones of the wed 
 ding music, and the plaintive strains of the tragic 
 end, went outbursts of appreciation. Zora and the 
 tenor were recalled again and again after each scene, 
 and showered with tribute blossoms. When the cur 
 tain went down finally, there were loud cries of " Au 
 thor ! author ! " The manager came bustling in to 
 know why no one responded, but found only Penrose, 
 who positively refused to do more than bow from the 
 front of the box. " Rexford ! Rexford ! " the cry in 
 creased in volume. He had stepped round to the 
 wings for a moment to thank Jasmina for her share 
 in his success. Her eyes glowed under their dark 
 fringes ; she held, of all her flowers, only the bunch
 
 112 THE METROPOLITANS 
 
 of red roses he had sent her. " Come on ! come on ! " 
 cried M. Menu ; " don't you hear them ? " She took 
 his hand in her little brown one, and drew Mm on 
 before the lights until they stood there together. 
 
 " A deuced handsome pair," said Royall Worcester, 
 in the De Mansur box. 
 
 "A perfectly lovely opera," chattered Angelica, 
 mechanically, intent on seeing what had become of 
 Federling. Their party moved slowly outward, and 
 Katherine heard some one in the throng remark, " The 
 little dancer 's bound in decency to help him with his 
 opera, if it 's only to pay back what she wins from 
 him every night at roulette." 
 
 And Jasmina, in her dressing-room, was talking to 
 Penrose and Rexf ord. " It is a success ! " she kept 
 repeating exultantly. She laid both hands on the 
 younger man's shoulders. " Thank you so much for 
 letting me sing dance the beautiful part! I am 
 wild, intoxicated ! I shall not sleep for a week ! You 
 will both come to supper? for us to congratulate 
 each other." 
 
 " Certainly," Rexford replied, radiant. " I will follow 
 you." He ran round to the front entrance ; he hoped 
 for a word with Katherine, but she was gone, and his 
 triumph lacked the one little touch which most earthly 
 triumphs do to make them happiness. 
 
 When Cornelius de Mansur and his daughter reached 
 home that night he drew her into the library, where 
 only a shaded lamp still burned and the open fire sent 
 a rosy glow about. 
 
 " I was glad of to-night's success," he said thought 
 fully ; " work may still be that young fellow's salvation
 
 THE METROPOLITANS 113 
 
 and I was fond of his father. I am not very harsh, 
 I hope " (gently stroking her head at his knee), " but 
 there is too much leniency shown to what they euphe 
 mistically call the sowing of wild oats. There is high 
 authority for saying, ' Be not deceived ; what things a 
 man shall sow, those also shall he reap ' ! " 
 
 " But we need not believe all we hear," said Kathe- 
 rine, " and every one is entitled to his defense." She 
 had risen, and stood with an arm around his neck; 
 then added bravely, despite a sudden vision presenting 
 itself of her lover standing at the footlights beside that 
 beautiful creature, " You will give Mr. Rexf ord a hear 
 ing when he comes to you, papa ? " 
 
 He looked up at her, mystified, and she saw that his 
 face was drawn and weary. " I wish you would get 
 me a glass of wine," he said, in a tired way. She went 
 quickly and brought him this refreshment. He sipped 
 it absently. " What was it I was saying ? Oh, yes ; 
 I like the rest of that : ' And in doing good let us not 
 fail : for in due time we shall reap, not failing.' Go 
 to bed now, my darling ; it is late, and I still have a 
 note to write." 
 
 After a tender good night she turned at the door 
 to look again at his beloved gray head bending over 
 the writing-table. Here was affection, sure, unselfish, 
 lavish, hers beyond a doubt hers since she could re 
 member, with no shadow of uncertainty or misgiving. 
 She could not resist turning back to give him another 
 embrace. He smiled up at her. His color was 
 brighter, the wine having dispelled the look of ex 
 haustion which had before distressed her; and she 
 went away, hoping all things of the morrow.
 
 114 THE METROPOLITANS 
 
 And, while the first sparrows were twittering on the 
 bare boughs of the trees in the square and slanting 
 sun-rays gilded the steeple of St. George's, a maid with 
 frightened face came knocking at her door ; the butler 
 must see her immediately. In wrapper and slippers 
 she confronted him, with the group of domestics hud 
 dled about him in the upper hall. The old man ex 
 plained, as well as his stammering tongue would let 
 him, that his master was ill very ill. When he had 
 gone, as usual, to open the library, he had stumbled 
 over Mr. de Mansur's prostrate form between the fire 
 place and writing-desk, where he must have lain all 
 night. They had carried him to his room, and the 
 doctor was sent for ; " and, dear Miss Katherine " (as 
 she would have hurried past him), " he will not know 
 you." 
 
 He did not know her or any one, but lay breathing 
 heavily. The doctor's face held no encouragement 
 after his careful examination. " He may recover con 
 sciousness," he said, " after a while." In view of which 
 event a priest of the church of which Cornelius de 
 Mansur was a devoted adherent was at his side when 
 his eyelids were first raised to show awakening intel 
 ligence. A little while with him, the last rites admin 
 istered, and the gentle old man whispered brokenly to 
 his darling, "My Katherine be good, as you have 
 been, and I leave you in His care ;" then lapsed into 
 a silence henceforth unbroken. The letter which he 
 had sat up to write was to Reginald Crofton's mother, 
 his only sister, written, in view of his late uncertain 
 health, to commend his child to her tenderness. She 
 was at a distance, but came hurrying by train when
 
 THE METROPOLITANS 115 
 
 he was gone. Her son was here, but could not see 
 Katherine yet awhile ; no one could see her not even 
 Allan Rexford, shocked unspeakably by the news 
 awaiting him at her threshold when he presented him 
 self there. It was much later than he had meant to 
 come, but one does not bring out a first opera every 
 night ; not every night, either, was Jasmina just so 
 proudly joyful. Then, though she had always the 
 voice of scandal notwithstanding withheld him, with 
 a thousand pretty arts, from roulette, this night she 
 laughingly challenged him to try his luck, saying that 
 fortune smiled upon him. It seemed so, for, with her 
 at his elbow, he won and won again ; and it was quite 
 morning before he turned in to his room ; the newsboys 
 were already shouting, his name was prominently dis 
 played in the papers, and his opera was soon a topic 
 at hundreds of breakfast-tables. And it was at about 
 this hour that Cornelius de Mansur's man, horror- 
 struck, was gently raising the unconscious gray head 
 of his master. 
 
 Rexford called, morning and afternoon, for three or 
 four days after this, at the closed De Mansur house ; 
 to have his flowers taken by servants ; to suffer a pang 
 of envy in seeing Reginald Crofton performing all 
 needful offices as the dead man's son ; to leave a note 
 of passionate sympathy for Katherine, passed into the 
 darkened room where she and Sorrow sat, answered 
 by a faint, penciled line: "I cannot answer. You 
 must wait." Learning that the interment was delayed 
 some days for the expected arrival of Mrs. Crofton, he 
 arranged with Penrose to run over to a neighboring 
 city to arrange for the production of "Zora" there;
 
 116 THE METROPOLITANS 
 
 aud, the manager detaining him for one reason or an 
 other, ill fate decreed that the funeral took place before 
 his return. On a very cold, clear, bright day the shell 
 of Cornelius de Mansur, from which the animula, va- 
 gula, llandula had flown, was laid away with the ele 
 ments to which it belonged. And the honor, love, and 
 troops of friends which should accompany old age went 
 with him so far, but could not go one step farther. 
 And religion, in the person of her white-robed priest, 
 stood near him, believing and hoping all things, but 
 humbly confessing that from this side of the grave 
 she saw but through a glass, darkly. And the poor 
 and the aged and the friendless to whom he had been 
 a friend stood about and prayed with tears that in 
 that hereafter in which would be no sun nor moon nor 
 stars there would also be no pang of severed hearts, 
 nor the bitterness of disillusions or disappointed hopes 
 from which the dead, being human, must have suffered. 
 And Penrose's set f eatures confessed nothing of fulfilled 
 desires, nor yet of failures, as he noted the absence of 
 the slim figure of the dead man's daughter ; and, again, 
 the striking contrast with the character of the scene 
 which his nephew's stalwart form made, the very in 
 carnation of strength and life and vigorous young 
 manhood, standing by the grave with uncovered head, 
 while the cold wind blew the thick- waved locks about 
 his bronzed forehead. 
 
 And Katherine, at home, endured her first stroke 
 from him who has been called the best of man's 
 friends. But he wears a grisly front and tears asun 
 der with relentless hand those who would fain cling 
 together a little longer, and it is easy to mistake him
 
 THE METROPOLITANS 117 
 
 for a cruel enemy. Of the one who should have stayed 
 her sinking spirit there was no present sign or token. 
 For her aunt, in affectionate attempt to screen the 
 suffering girl, mentioned no visitors' names to her, 
 receiving all herself j and likewise answered all notes 
 and letters now. Among these was one from Archi 
 bald Pundit, absent when his friend was taken : 
 
 " The vacation which I needed sorely from the strain 
 of constant social leadership has been restful and most 
 interesting. But the intelligence of the death of Cor 
 nelius de Mansur, devoted father, polished gentleman, 
 and trusted friend, comes to me with a thrilling ten 
 derness, and has saddened my heart. Beloved by 
 every one for his manly virtues, as well as for the 
 noblest graces of head and heart, his loss to society is 
 irreparable. In his death has society sustained its 
 first decisive blow this winter. Always on the right 
 side, he aided, by his conservatism, to still the angry 
 waters of debate, thus imparting strength and dignity 
 to argument. It will be long before we look upon his 
 like again. I am pained beyond expression at my en 
 forced absence from New York at such a time. What 
 a denial not to have had the mournful privilege of 
 joining hands with you at his open grave, and min 
 gling my tears, hot tears, with yours at that sacred spot ! 
 A mysterious Providence has willed otherwise, yet He 
 doeth all things well. I trust, however, to be with 
 you ere long, and then in fitting terms to speak to 
 you of the merit of my treasured friend in a way that 
 my overburdened heart will not permit now. In all 
 sincerity and esteem, I beg leave to remain, yours de 
 votedly."
 
 118 THE METROPOLITANS 
 
 "He means well," said Mrs. Crofton to her son, 
 " but until our Katherine is stronger I am glad to save 
 her from these letters." 
 
 "It is very kind in him to patronize Providence," 
 said Reginald, dryly, who did not admire Mr. Pundit, 
 " but he is a platitudinous ass, all the same." Which 
 opinion, as we know, was shared by Miss van Krip- 
 pen and others. The young man was not as much 
 softened as his mother by their common grief. When 
 she commented on the sincere feeling shown by young 
 Rexford at his call, when only she had seen him, he 
 remarked that Mr. Rexford had absented himself from 
 the funeral of his father's friend, and that, since his 
 disappointment about his father's fortune, he had 
 rather taken to wildness and kept all sorts of company 
 and hours, and was an undesirable visitor. He was 
 exceptional himself in withstanding the temptation 
 which wealth and leisure bring with them, devoting 
 much time and money to scientific research and ex 
 ploration; but this superiority had the unfortunate 
 effect of making him harsh in judgment. He would 
 gladly, in going from Jerusalem to Jericho, have paid 
 the wounded man's bill at the inn ; but he would not 
 himself have tended him, for fear the wounds had 
 been received in some discreditable affray. 
 
 When, after a month's seclusion, Katherine came 
 out into the family circle so different, alas ! and yet 
 with echoes everywhere of the dear lost voice telling 
 her to lift up her eyes and live her life, as she must, 
 courageously he strove, with his mother, to interest 
 her. But he talked mainly, and well, of travel by 
 land and sea, and not of the matter nearer home of
 
 THE METEOPOLITANS 119 
 
 which she longed to hear. He did once mention, 
 with a slight lifting of the brow, the marvelous popu 
 larity of " Zora," and that Rexford had been, on such 
 a date, to arrange for its production elsewhere. And 
 it came to Katherine, with a shock, that that was the 
 time of her father's funeral.
 
 XI 
 
 iHEN Penrose first came to New York he 
 had chanced into a stationer and en 
 graver's in Sixth Avenue to have some 
 repairing done. It was not a large 
 shop, but handsome and tasteful in all 
 its appointments, and the proprietor, an elderly man 
 with fine and delicate features, old-fashioned courtesy 
 of manner, and a pleasant old-world bur in his speech 
 that appealed favorably to the Welshman, served him 
 in person. The order filled, Penrose would have 
 thought of it no more, but, happening to be in that 
 quarter a year or two later and needing more of the 
 same work, he looked for the sign and missed it. 
 Trusting to an excellent memory for locality, he went 
 in where he thought the engraver had been ; and, be 
 hold, he was still there, but with his sign in a quiet 
 corner, and a bookseller's name and wares occupying 
 the space which had formerly been his. He came 
 forward with just the same manner and gentle sim 
 plicity as of old ; but his delicate features and frame 
 were thinner, and his clothing, though scrupulously 
 neat, bore marks of long and conscientious brushing. 
 There was a certain patient dignity in his quietude 
 which would have curbed a stranger's curiosity; but 
 
 120
 
 THE METEOPOLITANS 121 
 
 when out again on the sidewalk Penrose, an experi 
 enced observer, thought, " Ah, I know that look; it is 
 written all over him. The hurts which weaklings get 
 under the juggernaut wheels of a great city are not so 
 deep as a well, nor so wide as a church door, but they 
 serve ; they are slight, but daily. The old fellow has 
 commenced th&tfaciUs descensus which leads to the 
 poorhouse or hospital unless the cemetery claims 
 him first." 
 
 He might have applauded his own perception if he 
 had cared to, some three years later, when he went 
 into the same place and asked for Becker. " Becker ? " 
 repeated the fat little man, bustling about. "Don't 
 know such a person. Oh, yes ; let 7 s see ; the old en 
 graver used to stay here long ago. Ask three doors 
 above." And three doors above they sent him down 
 the steps in front into a basement, where the old man 
 now occupied a tiny corner. He was much bent, and 
 shuffled in his walk, but that might have been from 
 advancing years. His slippers were frayed and broken, 
 his clothes quite green now with age, and there were 
 many patches, a very large one of different stuff show 
 ing on the left elbow of his coat. He was as quietly 
 polite as ever, a curious pathetic tone sounding in his 
 gentle voice ; but he made no ostensible appeal against 
 the hard conditions of a life which shoves the feeble 
 to the wall. He thanked Penrose for an order, and 
 was just a trifle confused when the latter noticed let 
 ter-boxes fixed to the wall above and alphabetically 
 labeled. " A little sort of private post-office," he ex 
 plained ; " people bring their letters and leave them 
 until called for. It brings a trifle of rent ; and times
 
 122 THE METROPOLITANS 
 
 are so hard, and business dull. I ask no questions, 
 but I hope " (with a faint flush) " I am not helping on 
 burglaries or things of the sort." He had misunder 
 stood Penrose's smile, who had been merely thinking 
 that this would be convenient for Jasmina. Only 
 yesterday she had told him, with charming pettish- 
 ness, " I am sure Marie opens my notes and letters ; 
 they come before I am awake always." 
 
 So now he told her of Becker, where she might leave 
 or call for notes herself when out driving, or taking 
 the long daily ramble alone which was the delight of 
 this child of the plains and the forest. And this gave 
 Penrose an excuse for occasional descents on the old 
 engraver, whom he had vowed to rescue before the 
 last stage. "Not," he declared to himself, cynically, 
 "that I care a straw, but just for the pleasure of 
 cheating the old hag who plays Atropos for him." 
 He found a note awaiting him one morning in his 
 pigeonhole at Becker's, which said: "Come to me, 
 Stephen. I am so very unhappy. Your JASMINA." 
 He did what he would have done for no one else 
 put aside all other engagements and went to her pretty 
 rooms, where he found her trailing her long, silken, 
 clinging skirts up and down the floor, the loose knot 
 of her dusk hair falling low on her neck. " Stephen, 
 Stephen," she said, in an agitated whisper, both 
 hands on his shoulders, "is it true? Tell me, is it 
 true?" 
 
 " What is it you wish to hear, Jasmina ? " 
 " You know you know, I shall die if he does not 
 love me ! And a man last night, when he was not 
 here, said something of an affair, an attachment once
 
 THE METROPOLITANS 123 
 
 talked of. I wanted to strike him ! But I was your 
 good Jasmina. I clenched my fingers into my palms 
 and just listened. How dared they say it ! It is not 
 true. You will tell me, Stephen. You will know; 
 you will help me." 
 
 He looked at her glowing, tremulous face very ten 
 derly, led her to a low chair, stroked her hair sooth 
 ingly. " Be quiet, Jasmina. I cannot tell you surely ; 
 there are things a man does not always confide to his 
 nearest friend. But we are together much of our time ; 
 I would probably have known something of it. There 
 was a girl of his own class whom he did admire. He 
 has not spoken of her lately ; did not even make an 
 effort to attend her father's funeral. It was when he 
 was called Prince Fortunatus; things have changed 
 since then." A fleeting remembrance of Katherine's 
 fine, spiritual face rebuked him. " At any rate, if for 
 tune smiles on him now it is with Zora's features." 
 
 But the excited creature beside him had caught at 
 one phrase. "Of his own class! Stephen Stephen 
 would that hinder ? He is one of us now, and there 
 is nothing in my past to bar ! For Anton's death- 
 was I to blame! You know none so well oh ! for 
 give me " 
 
 His face had not changed in the least. " You need 
 not say a word, Jasmina. Whatever I have done for 
 you I would do again to-morrow. What you desire 
 now you shall have if I can help you. But, remem 
 ber, we are in another country, among other people." 
 
 " Tell me, who was that woman of his own class ? " 
 
 " What does it matter, if it is all off now ? Her 
 name is Miss de Mansur. She is tall and fair."
 
 124 THE METROPOLITANS 
 
 "Ouf ! like a white camellia, cold and colorless. 
 No fragrance no spirit no heart no life ! " 
 
 He did not answer. "Miss de Mansur," she re 
 peated. 
 
 "Do not trouble your little head any more." He 
 touched the dark waves caressingly. " Zora had bet 
 ter have a refreshing sleep, to be ready for all that 
 will happen to her in the play." He half smiled, going 
 out from her luxurious surroundings, with their Ori 
 ental air and perfume of sandalwood, into the New 
 York streets. " The child is a care to me," he thought, 
 u but even her passionate, untamed nature might find 
 something conventionally sobering in these formal, 
 ugly streets. In her own forests, now" A vision 
 flashed on him of swarthy, low-browed men, angry 
 and muttering together, their knives drawn. His 
 forehead contracted. " I fancy she is all right here." 
 As soon as he left she had sent her maid for a direc 
 tory, had copied an address on a card, slipped it into 
 her case, and, assuming her quietest street-dress, had 
 then gone out alone. 
 
 When Katherine, remembering wistfully her father's 
 simple rules of right living, began gathering up the 
 loosened threads of her life, she thought, with an in 
 expressible pang, "I am free now to do as I like. 
 There is no one whose approval I must seek." And 
 then she knew that it was not only her father's mis 
 givings which had weighed on her in this matter of 
 Eexford ; they had but distracted her from her own 
 doubts. The evening of the masquerade came back 
 to her ; Mr. Pundit's whispers j the disturbing vision 
 of that lovely woman beside him again ; the voice in
 
 THE METROPOLITANS 125 
 
 the crowd ; his seeming want of sympathy in her grief, 
 aiid his absence at first for she had not been told 
 how often he called, and could not ask of him with 
 out exciting wonder. But hers was too proud a na 
 ture to give room long to suspicion. "We must at 
 least give him a hearing," she said, as though still 
 speaking to her father. And Rexford had the few 
 lines without which Penrose's companionship and 
 the theater's plaudits and Jenkins's chaff and Jasmi- 
 na's smiles had alike been as sounding brass. "I 
 will see you," she wrote, " this afternoon." But before 
 the time appointed another visitor was announced. 
 " A lady, who did not give her name," the man said. 
 
 " TeU my aunt." 
 
 " Mrs. Crofton is out, Miss de Mansur." 
 
 She sighed, but it was perhaps one of the committee 
 on this or that charity, and she had begun to interest 
 herself again in this duty. She would not stay long. 
 "To see you particularly," the man added; "some 
 thing important." 
 
 She went languidly down to where her caller waited, 
 her slim figure looking taller for the somber draperies 
 trailing after her. Her visitor was also young and 
 graceful, and clad in black likewise; but a black 
 which, in cut and style, spoke not of bereavement, 
 but of the pride and joy of life. She rose, bowed 
 slightly in a manner altogether foreign, and reseated 
 herself. Katherine's various interests brought her in 
 contact with many strangers, and now she was too 
 forlornly incurious to wonder who her visitor might 
 be. For a few moments the caller was quite silent; 
 then Katherine broke the stillness : " I beg your par-
 
 126 THE METROPOLITANS 
 
 don. I was told you wished to see me, but I did not 
 hear your name." 
 
 Jasmina's flashing glance had been noting the pure, 
 proud outlines of the head and face in their dark set 
 ting, the paling of tints, and the desolate expression, 
 and she was thinking exultantly, " Just as I said ! 
 No warmth no life ! An iceberg cold hard ! " 
 Just at that moment Katherine's eye, growing ac 
 customed to the half -darkness of the room, recognized 
 the dancer with a sudden shock of surprise. 
 
 " My name," said Jasmina, " is Madame Vaskar6s." 
 There was again a pregnant silence of a few mo 
 ments. " I do not call on many ladies here," she went 
 on ; "I have no time from my art ; I have no wish." 
 She spoke slowly, her accent marking how carefully 
 she chose her words. "If I take your time now, 
 mademoiselle, it is only for a short while a moment 
 if, of your kindness, you answer a question. My 
 friends come to me sometimes. One of them is Mr. 
 Raixfore. It is of him I will ask you." 
 
 Katherine said not a word, nor moved ; only one 
 hand tightened over the other until the rings pressed 
 deep into the white flesh. 
 
 " I am perhaps you know the Zora of his opera. 
 He is an artist, but I have heard that he has ties in 
 the great world, not the world of art ; ties that would 
 kill his art. I do not believe what they say, now 
 less than ever" (her scarlet lip curled, showing a 
 gleam of teeth)," but thought I would ask you." 
 
 " Ask me! " Katherine's voice sounded unnatural 
 in her own ears. 
 
 " It was your name they mentioned."
 
 THE METROPOLITANS 127 
 
 " Oh ! " said Katherine, rising to her feet. The 
 dancer rose too and took a few steps nearer the win 
 dow, from which a glancing light disclosed the eager, 
 dusky eyes and warmly tinted, mobile features. The 
 pride that spoke in the other girl's silent look stung 
 Jasmina for the first time out of the studied quiet she 
 had so far maintained. 
 
 "Mademoiselle would know, doubtless," she said 
 mockingly, " how I have right to ask questions ! He 
 is my very dear, good friend. He has other good 
 friends who love and admire him. We would be 
 sorry to hand him over to those who pick him up and 
 put him down as fortune favors and unfavors ! " In 
 the continued shock of an event which her senses 
 hardly persuaded her to believe, Katherine wore on 
 her fair features the look of a young St. Michael con 
 fronting the power of evil. "Mademoiselle," con 
 tinued the Hungarian, " will then say nothing ! " 
 
 " Nothing," she answered clearly ; " it is humiliation 
 enough that my name should have been mentioned in 
 your rooms." A rush of crimson surged over Jasmina's 
 cheeks and little ears; her eyes flashed, but she re 
 strained herself. She picked up the little wrap, thrown 
 on a chair-back, and put it about her graceful shoulders, 
 while Katherine, with cold fingers, touched the bell 
 mechanically. "I have found here, then, no news, 
 mademoiselle. The woman he loves will have pride 
 and joy to proclaim it. Au plalsir! " She waved her 
 hand and followed the footman out. 
 
 When Katherine, with slow steps, mounted the stairs 
 to her own room, it was mechanically to do what she 
 had fallen into the habit of doing lately that the piteous
 
 128 THE METROPOLITANS 
 
 signs of grief might not distress others. But the eyes 
 were quite dry which she bathed now with perfumed 
 water, and she even smiled at herself when pressing 
 the towel to them afterward. Indeed, her spirit was 
 stung to the point of bewilderment by what she con 
 sidered the ineffaceable insult of this unexpected hap 
 pening. Joined with what had gone before, the 
 whispered rumors that had come to her, her family's 
 censure of him, the two occasions when she had seen 
 him with Jasmina, his seeming forgetfulness of herself 
 in trouble, this last shock made a damning whole. 
 "What can he be when a dancer of unknown past 
 dares to call him friend to come to Cornelius de 
 Mansur's house to question Katherine de Mansur! " 
 Her proud head, lowered in the softening of grief, 
 reared itself once more. Scorn for a time trampled 
 her love underfoot. Her large, shining eyes, fixed on 
 her father's portrait, seemed to say, "Perhaps you 
 were right." When, in all this exaltation of wounded 
 pride, she had finished a note to him, she went, in her 
 black robes, to a church, and sat there, her heart like 
 a stone, unable even to pray. 
 
 It was well, perhaps, she could not see him mount 
 to her door with buoyant step and ardent eyes, his 
 mien changing to utter bewilderment at the stolid 
 "Not at home, sir." He took the note left for him 
 mechanically, and when he had a chance to open it, 
 it said : 
 
 " I feel that I have done you an injustice in not 
 telling you before that what we spoke of formerly is 
 impossible. I had not secured my dear father's ap-
 
 THE METROPOLITANS 129 
 
 proval, and now I have not even my own. It was all 
 a mistake. I feel that we were never suited to each 
 other. And, though I wish you all success, I think 
 you will agree with me that it is better we should not 
 meet again. <4 K. DE M." 
 
 He read it over three or four times in utter amaze 
 ment. "What can she mean? It is impossible no 
 reason given it sounds like delirium ! " When he 
 could collect his senses he replied : 
 
 " I do not understand. I am not used to making 
 out enigmas. To throw me over with no cause as 
 signedyou, Katherine ! It would be too unworthy. 
 If we are not suited to each other now, we once 
 thought we were, will you not at least tell me why? 
 
 "A. R." 
 
 She answered : " I had not meant to write again, but 
 you force me to say what I did not wish. All that I 
 hear of your life and friends proves to me how un- 
 suited we are. This must be final." 
 
 " Final ! No, by Heaven ! " declared Rexford to 
 himself. " I will see her. She must explain ! " He 
 rushed off to her house next afternoon, leaving a musi 
 cal critique half done, to be finished in a hurry and 
 badly by Jenkins, and was met by James's calm an 
 nouncement that Miss de Mansur had gone into the 
 country. " Did not know for how long. It was his 
 [James's] opinion that Miss Katherine had failed sadly 
 since the master's death. The change would do her 
 good. Mr. Reginald thought so too."
 
 130 THE METROPOLITANS 
 
 "Damn Mr. Reginald," Rexford had nearly said, 
 though it was not his habit to swear. He felt for the 
 moment a savage hatred against those relatives who, 
 being near her, seemed a barrier between him and her. 
 Even the unconscious James came in, at the moment, 
 for a share of his resentment; which that domestic, 
 with a secret weakness for Rexford's virile beauty and 
 broad shoulders, generously repaid by volunteering 
 that " all letters and notes was to be forwarded from 
 house, as instructions was sent. No, sir; could n't 
 give address, as they '11 be movin' about." 
 
 "Ah, very well," said Rexford, marching off. He 
 did, in fact, send to the house in a few days these 
 lines : " A lady's word must, I suppose, be accepted as 
 final. Yet, as I have failed to see you or obtain an 
 explanation, I will say that a faith at the mercy of 
 rumor's breath is not invaluable." (He knew nothing 
 of Jasmina's visit.) "It is better it should fail me 
 now than later, when I might have learned to depend 
 utterly upon it. Good-by, then, since you will it so." 
 
 But after this his indignation soon burned itself out 
 and left dull embers of pain. 
 
 He worked harder than ever both at the office and 
 at home, where he was engaged upon a new opera. 
 "Zora," the season's success, was being brought out 
 now in distant cities. Jasmina saw him seldomer now, 
 though the pretty creature's soft chatter and music 
 were as restful to him as stroking a kitten ; but he 
 stayed later when he went, and did not always refrain 
 from roulette, even at her request. Penrose gave no 
 sign that he had quickly remarked his friend's pale and 
 haggard looks. He knew that no remonstrance, how-
 
 THE METROPOLITANS 131 
 
 ever well intended, would prevent a man's overworking 
 himself if he so elected. But he studied him quietly, 
 and remarked casually, "'Zora' will run for a long 
 time yet. There is no hurry for the new thing, even 
 if Jenkins does yearn to see his name on a libretto." 
 This was one afternoon when Van Krippen had lent 
 them his yacht, and, the first prophetic mildness of the 
 spring being in the air, they talked, stretched out on 
 her deck, while she dived and skimmed and dipped in 
 and out of coves and windings of the river like some 
 great, white- winged bird uncertain of her mind. Rex- 
 ford might have borrowed half a dozen yachts at a 
 time if he would, for since " Zora "and Jasmina had 
 loomed on the horizon he was more than ever an ob 
 ject of envious admiration among young plutocrats. 
 But Morty, to do him justice, was a loyal little fellow, 
 who stuck to those he liked, successful or not a trait 
 inherited from the former miner, John Cripps. 
 
 Rexford pushed back the cap he wore, that the crisp 
 breeze might blow refreshingly on his head a little 
 hot and feverish. He did not answer, but presently, 
 taking the short pipe from his mouth, he said, with a 
 laugh, " Did I show you the letter I had from Archi 
 bald Pundit ? He could not delay another moment 
 the old worldling ! his hearty felicitations, and the 
 rest of it, to my father's son, and the pride of my 
 mother's heart (I did have a cablegram, you know, 
 from Lady Mellon). Pundit regrets, so he writes, not 
 to meet me oftener in those hospitable halls which I 
 formerly adorned. Somebody told me he said I was 
 unfit for them, and a disgrace generally, don't you 
 understand, to my family. He says now that Reginald
 
 132 THE METROPOLITANS 
 
 Crofton and I are two young men of whom New York 
 is justly proud. Bah ! what does it matter ? " (with 
 another laugh, still drearier. His success, even his 
 art, had been to him lately as ashes in the mouth.) " I 
 had half a mind to answer the old gentleman, l Shall 
 windy words have no end ? Or is it any trouble to 
 thee to speak ? ' " 
 
 Penrose appeared not to notice the tone of bitter 
 ness. He looked out over the farther banks and over 
 hanging clouds, and blew rings of smoke. "I can 
 quote from that same old moralist myself : ' One man 
 dieth strong and hale, rich and happy ; but another in 
 bitterness of soul, without any riches ; and yet they 
 shall sleep together in the dust.' Which, after all, is 
 poor consolation, while still alive, for meager dinners." 
 He noticed the dark shadows under his companion's 
 eyes, and remembered, irrelevantly, that some one had 
 said that Miss de Mansur had gone away. Then his 
 thoughts became subjective again, and took a wide 
 leap across the ocean ; and he seemed to see a little 
 lad, playing by the side of a Welsh stream, start and 
 tremble when a harsh voice called, " Stephen ! " He 
 blew another ring of smoke, and went on : "I also 
 have had ' empty months,' and have numbered to myself 
 ' wearisome nights ' ! Let us quit Job now, and his 
 eloquently impatient patience, and talk of Jasmina." 
 
 His voice softened, dwelling on her name. 
 
 "How well she sang the first solo in your new 
 'Lotus-eaters' at last night's rehearsal! I never 
 dreamed that woodland bird could be even so much 
 tamed. I can remember her, almost a baby, with little 
 face that seemed all eyes, sitting on the ground in a
 
 THE METROPOLITANS 133 
 
 far Hungarian forest, trilling measures improvised or 
 caught up somewhere. She could hardly walk when 
 her small feet were flying over the grass in unison 
 with castanet or tambourine. Poor child ! a Gipsy 
 camp is a rough school, as I know, and she lost her 
 mother so soon a kind woman, and intelligent in her 
 way. Would you believe it, Rexf ord ? that uneducated 
 woman cared for me when we were both deserted, and 
 my pinched, childish features must have reminded 
 her of one who had cruelly ill treated her. Many 
 Christians would have thought it a small matter to 
 leave his son, as he had done himself. Well " (sending 
 up a great puff of smoke), " when he had gone to his 
 account, and I had found my way back to Wales, and 
 received no thanks to him my small patrimony, I 
 would have helped her; but she had died, and there 
 was only Jasmina. She learned to read and write from 
 jne, and solely to please me. The foolish child had 
 been persuaded into a marriage with one of the tribe 
 a brute before I could save her. But he was re 
 moved so quickly that he must be but a bad dream 
 to her. Then she could be sent to Vienna and Paris 
 for music and dancing. She came out on the stage 
 there, and now here with success, as you know ; with 
 high character and untouched heart, as I know. In 
 deed, her charm is so great and her nature so faithful 
 that " (very slowly, and with gaze intent on some far- 
 off point) " I have sometimes thought the man would 
 be fortunate whom she could fancy. With her soft 
 adaptability, the part of great lady would fit her well 
 if it should come." 
 He shook the ashes out of his pipe, and put it in his
 
 134 THE METEOPOLITANS 
 
 pocket. Rexford had never, even indirectly, sought 
 to question the reticent man of his past, but broke 
 out now, with a return of impulsiveness, " I had ima 
 gined you passing your boyhood in Wales." 
 
 " The earliest part, yes ; but my mother died in my 
 babyhood, and my father took me about with him on 
 the Continent into all manner of out-of-the-way parts. 
 I was a forlorn little chap of only ten when he left 
 me, without a word, in Hungary. I never saw him 
 again, as he was dead when I made my way back to 
 the little Welsh place among the hills. I did not miss 
 him ; all I remember of him is, by my troth, some very 
 bitter words and a hard blow now and then. The 
 sole kindness I ever had was from that poor Gipsy 
 woman ; and the Lord do so unto me, and more also 
 well, a Gipsy tribe is a mighty interesting one to 
 travel with." 
 
 " I believe you. It must have given you valuable 
 dots in writing the book of ' Zora.' " 
 
 "Yes," Penrose assented, as though weary of the 
 subject. They were nearing shore now, and he was 
 listening cynically to the varied blasphemy being ex 
 changed between the crew of two coal-barges which 
 had nearly run into each other. It did not occur to 
 Rexford, who wore a more interested expression now, 
 that his friend had broken through a fixed habit of 
 reserve for this very purpose and reward.
 
 XII 
 
 ES!MB:22Si g|P Sit Miss Lavender's, as elsewhere, the 
 early spring was making a fitful and 
 
 uncertain appearance, young and most 
 untender; for it came over Central 
 Park with a nipping east wind, and took 
 a spiteful pleasure in coaxing out a stray narcissus or 
 snowdrop in sheltered nooks here and there, only to 
 blight it again with a sudden sprinkle of snow or 
 frosty blast. The east wind seemed also to have 
 touched with acidity the lady principal's temper this 
 March day, as well as given a tinge of red to her classic 
 nose; for she spoke with extreme asperity to her 
 coachman on stepping into her coupe, and while she 
 was rolled along past some very pleasant glimpses of 
 lawn and foliage saw nothing, evidently, but gave 
 herself to thought, accompanied by a clouded brow 
 and sharp, impatient tapping of thin, gloved finger 
 against the glass. 
 
 First of all, Miss Lavender had expected to escape 
 this weather in the balmy air of Florida, where friends, 
 lounging on the verandas of the great hotels, even now 
 expected her. And there that foolish third Miss Goslin 
 must make a point of taking the mumps at the fash- 
 
 135
 
 136 THE METROPOLITANS 
 
 ionable dancing academy her girls attended. Mumps ! 
 the very name was plebeian, and seemed intended for 
 factory-workers and tenement-houses. What could 
 Cudworth have been thinking of to let such a thing 
 into his exclusive classes ! If Miss Goslin must be ill, 
 and communicate illness to others of the pupils, it 
 was just like her, why could she not have pneumonia 
 or nervous prostration, or something that would be a 
 little less repugnant to speak or write about? How 
 make it possible for the chief to take her trip, with the 
 chance of the household and staff being attacked ? If 
 that elegant Frenchwoman, Madame Bonair, were to 
 be depended upon but all she could do in this crisis 
 was to shrug her shoulders with a little shriek of hor 
 ror, and cry, "Juste ciel! qu'on est affreux, comme 
 cela ! Ne m'en parlez plus ! " Fraulein Volmer would 
 have taken a sentimental interest in each sufferer if 
 admitted to her, and gladly read the "Sorrows of 
 Werther " aloud, or otherwise ministered ; but she was 
 not very practical. No ; clearly, Miss Lavender must 
 remain ; and the Lenten consolations of the Ponce de 
 Leon brightened as they took their flight. 
 
 Still, it might have been worse. Her prote'ge's, De 
 Vaurien and Mauvais Sujet, had had many opportu 
 nities of inspecting this garden of girls before the ser 
 pentthe vulgar serpent of mumps had made his 
 appearance. She had had the pleasure of transmitting 
 to the parents of Miss van Krippen and another Miss 
 Kilmansegg formal proposals for the hands of those 
 young ladies, and had no doubt of favorable responses. 
 She had already written hopefully to the aunt in the 
 Faubourg; and various tailors and other tradesmen
 
 THE METROPOLITANS 137 
 
 of Paris were feeding fat their hopes of getting back 
 a little of their money when their illustrious and im 
 pecunious patrons should wed American heiresses. 
 
 But Miss Lavender frowned once more, turning over 
 the package of letters which had been handed to her 
 on leaving. The European plan, on which her girls 
 were brought up, included by rights an inspection 
 of correspondence, but "one must allow a little for 
 American prejudices; after all, it is not a kinder 
 garten." So, though surprisingly well acquainted 
 with the subject-matter of their letters, she had never 
 been actually known to open them. One among 
 these, however, she held some time in her hand, turn 
 ing it over and over as if undecided. It was in Arch 
 ibald Pundit's well-known handwriting, and addressed 
 to Miss van Krippen. What could he possibly have 
 to write about that he might not first discuss with 
 herself! She remembered that, on one or two occa 
 sions recently, his attentions had not been exclusively 
 her own, as formerly, nor even general ; but that he 
 had contrived to sit and talk with Angelica. " A self- 
 willed, pert, and troublesome young woman," decided 
 Miss Lavender, tartly. " I shall be glad when I get 
 her off my hands with eclat." It was on a shopping 
 tour that the principal was bound this afternoon ; and 
 it was soon concluded ; for her orders, though large, 
 were well considered, gave little trouble, and were 
 promptly paid. Then the coupe turned through 
 Twentieth street and upward along Sixth Avenue, 
 and here, to her surprise, coming out from what 
 seemed a tiny book-stall in a basement shop, were Miss 
 van Krippen and Fraulein Volmer, supposed to be
 
 138 THE METROPOLITANS 
 
 walking in the Park. It was, in fact, Becker's little 
 post-office, where Angelica had just pocketed, after 
 reading, a poetic epistle from Otto ; the soft-hearted 
 but injudicious fraulein being bribed to countenance 
 this by occasional verses addressed to herself, descrip 
 tive of the fatherland, the Rhine, edelweiss, first love, 
 or such impersonal topics, together with a caress and 
 a soft, " Ah, dearest fraulein ! when you were a girl 
 did you have a Miss Lavender to freeze you up and 
 read your letters ? " The sentimental spinster thought 
 of a bursch she had once known, with a long pipe and a 
 toy cap perched amid his frowzy hair, who had given 
 her a spray of forget-me-nots. She had them, dry and 
 pressed, still, and with a sigh she gave in at once ; and 
 it must be admitted that she did not, as chaperon, earn 
 that fifty cents an hour which went into Miss Laven 
 der's exchequer. 
 
 That lady took no notice of her now, but, instantly 
 stopping the coupe, drew up beside Angelica, calling 
 to her. 
 
 "If you are quite through your shopping, kindly 
 get in with me. I will drive you home." 
 
 " There is a cab waiting," said the unabashed An 
 gelica. 
 
 " Dismiss it, please." 
 
 " No, thank you " (with a touch of indignation) ; 
 " the fraulein is not to go home in a car." She actu 
 ally kept Miss Lavender waiting until she .saw Frau 
 lein Volmer safely into the cab, with a fee to the driver 
 for extra care of the bewildered passenger. 
 
 " May I ask, Miss van Krippen," said Miss Lavender, 
 then, " what you are doing so far down-town ? "
 
 THE METROPOLITANS 139 
 
 "I changed my mind" (sweetly) "about the Park, 
 and came for some shopping instead." 
 
 " I would rather you would tell me your exact plans 
 when you go out," said the baffled Miss Lavender. 
 They were now in Fifth Avenue, which caused her to 
 add, " It was my intention to stop at the Provincial 
 Matrons' club-room, but I can postpone it, taking this 
 opportunity for a little private talk. I think I am 
 sure you will be flattered when I tell you that the 
 Vicomte de Vaurien made, last week, proposals for 
 your hand, which I have already referred to your pa 
 rents, knowing that you have received with me the 
 polish fitting you for his exalted station. I make no 
 doubt they will be delighted with such brilliant pros 
 pects." 
 
 " To my parents ! It is mamma, then, whom he 
 wishes to commit bigamy ? " 
 
 Miss Lavender was a picture of dignified reproof. 
 "You may not have had opportunities for knowing, 
 Miss van Krippen, that it is the European custom to 
 first approach a young lady's parents on the subject 
 of an alliance." 
 
 " But we are American," said Angelica, innocently, 
 " and, my dear Miss Lavender, how awkward for him 
 to obtain the family blessing, and then have me say 
 no!" 
 
 " Do I understand that you could think of declining 
 so eligible a match ? " 
 
 "I could think of it easily," replied Angelica, 
 dreamily. She was watching through the glass the 
 continuous stream of gay and varied pedestrians, with 
 whose draperies and hats the wind was playing antics.
 
 140 THE METEOPOLITANS 
 
 " Is it his uncle, or which of the family, who ill treats 
 his wife so shamefully ? But that is not to the point. 
 What I was really thinking was, how interesting 
 mamma's mail will be this week ! " 
 
 Miss Lavender looked helplessly at her, opened her 
 lips and shut them. She knew enough of this pupil 
 not to force her hand. She might better consult Mr. 
 Pundit as to how to obtain the desired end. Which 
 thought reminded her : " Here is a letter for you by 
 this afternoon's post." Angelica, permission obtained, 
 opened and read the missive; smiled, pretended to 
 hesitate, and then tendered it, remarking suavely, " If 
 it is good form to refer these matters to authority, 
 Miss Lavender, then it must be right to show you 
 this." The lady read, with a keen pang of slighted 
 vanity, what the erstwhile devoted Archibald had 
 written to her pupil. 
 
 " MY DEAR Miss VAN KRIPPEN : So carefully guarded, 
 so discreetly chaperoned are the fair wards of the es 
 timable and worthy Miss Lavender that I have long 
 sought in vain an opportunity of avowing to you 
 verbally my great admiration. Thus I am forced to 
 indite my sentiments instead. Will you permit me to 
 lay at your feet the homage of a heart elderly, it is 
 true ; long widowed, alas ! but yearning to give and 
 receive warm, earnest, disinterested affection. [Miss 
 Lavender's lip curled.] How can I tell you the im 
 pression your charms have made on one who, though 
 your senior in years, is susceptible of a youthful ardor 
 and freshness of feeling unknown to a cold and cal 
 culating generation ! and who can offer you I say it
 
 THE METROPOLITANS 141 
 
 with modest pride his position as an arbiter of fash 
 ion, an oracle of good form, in this our city. One 
 word from you one glance of encouragement from 
 those celestial orbs and I hasten to kneel before you. 
 " Your admiring and devoted servant, 
 "ARCHIBALD PUNDIT." 
 
 " Can this be the reason, Miss van Krippen this 
 this preposterous proposal that you think of declin 
 ing the brilliant De Vaurien connection ? " 
 
 "Mr. Pundit," murmured Angelica, casting down 
 her eyes, "is an elderly man, certainly; but he is no 
 titled foreign adventurer. He is an American born 
 and bred, and, as such, comprehensible at least. Know 
 ing my early lack of advantages, dear Miss Lavender, 
 you can imagine that the restfulness of having such 
 an undoubted model of form for a lifelong guide, 
 philosopher, and friend might be attractive to an un 
 taught creature like myself. But I do not wish to be 
 hasty. I have not decided to accept either, but will 
 hear arguments on both sides." 
 
 Her preceptress, who knew something of girls, 
 looked at her, completely puzzled. But Angelica had 
 the amusement of seeing her, after this, mount guard 
 herself during Mr. Pundit's visits, when that gentleman 
 would fain have discussed in person Miss van Krippen's 
 non-committal reply to his note. And her venerable 
 suitor gave the girl further sport by his evident dread 
 lest Miss Lavender should make premature discovery 
 of his defection. She found no sport, however, in the 
 redoubling of Miss Lavender's smooth and incessant 
 eloquence in behalf of the Vicomte de Vaurieii; nor
 
 142 THE METROPOLITANS 
 
 in her connivance at what speedily became a persecu 
 tion on the part of the young French roue, whose debts 
 were pressing. Fraulein Volmer was surprised one 
 day by Angelica's bursting out vehemently, " I am just 
 tired of it ! I wish Katherine would come back ! Of 
 course I have you, you kind, soft thing" (embracing 
 her), "but I need my Katherine." It was that very 
 day she slipped out, took a cab to Becker's, where a 
 note awaited her, was absent yet awhile longer, and 
 came back without her absence being remarked which 
 Miss Lavender stoutly maintained was a thing impos 
 sible in her well-regulated establishment. 
 
 And, if Angelica had known it, Katherine was even 
 then near her ; for she had not found in a change of 
 scene the hoped-for oblivion. By shadowy river-bank 
 or sunny hillside there went with her Black Care, who 
 sits on the rider's crupper or dogs the pedestrian's 
 footsteps with equal tenacity. " I might be better at 
 home, with some work to do," she told her aunt, with 
 a wistful look which went to that kind lady's heart. 
 So they turned their heads homeward ; and she found 
 some relief from anxiety at her niece's altered looks in 
 commenting on the pitiful inefficiency of men young 
 men who could devise no means of bringing back 
 the hue of happiness to that cheek and light to those 
 eyes. "And such eyes, and such a voice, and such 
 grace and sweetness ! " Indeed, the elder woman 
 never tired of sounding the praises of this young rela 
 tive, whom she had not seen since childhood. Reginald 
 laughed when his mother waxed eloquent. "What 
 does this portend, little mother? Have you dreaded 
 so much that in my African wanderings I should fall
 
 THE METROPOLITANS 143 
 
 in love with a complexion the shadowed livery of the 
 burnished sun ; that I should take some savage woman 
 who should rear my dusky brood ? " 
 
 " Stuff ! " said his mother, irrelevantly ; " Katherine 
 would not look at you." Which she felt to be almost 
 blasphemy, so goodly a sight she herself thought him. 
 He would have been very willing to have Katherine 
 look at him with other than the frank, serenely kind, 
 cousinly glances she now gave him. 
 
 " What a comrade she would make ! " he thought. 
 11 How strong and gentle and bright and sympathetic ! 
 Always helping a man, never hindering. What a rare, 
 fair creature she looks among all these little, chatter 
 ing, giggling society girls, with their petty views of 
 life ! " He began to picture her in a palanquin, borne 
 through the tropical virgin forest, he tramping beside 
 her, their hopes and interests the same. 
 
 The " little, chattering, giggling society girls " they 
 ran across repaid his nattering estimate by taking an 
 intense interest in what struck them as the great suit 
 ability of the cousins to each other. " They looked so 
 tall and handsome, my dear, standing together on the 
 deck of the river steamer, and were always talking 
 about books and travel and lion-hunting and that sort 
 of thing. He 's very rich, you know, and he could n't 
 take his eyes off her, and I believe they 're engaged." 
 Not being interested in books and travel and lion- 
 hunting and that sort of thing themselves, they were 
 excellent disseminators of gossip, and Katherine was 
 little aware how widely the report of her approaching 
 marriage to Mr. Crofton was circulated and believed. 
 It came out in the " Magpie," an impertinent little sheet
 
 144 THE METROPOLITANS 
 
 which prints all manner of gossip and scandal and in 
 solent untruths. Jenkins happened to purchase the 
 copy containing an authoritative statement concerning 
 Miss de Mansur and Mr. Crofton, and had it in his 
 hand when he came into Rexford's room one evening 
 before dinner. He waved it about as he rambled on 
 in his usual style : 
 
 " Well, I went to the opening of that new Women 
 Bachelors' Club last night. Promised to recite some 
 thing in first part of program. All very kind about 
 it, complimented me, and that. One of the Bachelors 
 walked herself in at the very last, just before supper 
 pert-looking little girl, with a lot of rumpled hair, but 
 pretty enough. She answered the toast to 'Men.' 
 Here are her remarks (I took notes) : ' Men lovely 
 men God bless them ! They double our cares, they 
 divide our joys. How generously and unstintingly 
 they give us advice ! How boldly they stand in solid 
 phalanx to shield us from the crowds around the ballot- 
 box ! How gladly they protect us from the contami 
 nating influences of the court-room ! How tenderly 
 they have drawn us from the coils of equal education, 
 and how carefully pointed out to us the pitfalls in the 
 paths which lead to fortune ! At what cost, at what 
 sacrifice, they erect before our admiring eyes their 
 beautiful club-houses ! How they must sit, day after 
 day, deprived of the presence of her who alone brings 
 light into their lives ! No ministering angel to hand 
 the cup of solace. No fair divinity to warm the slip 
 pers for their weary feet. All done for us for ex 
 ample's sake. How unflinchingly they pose for our 
 benefit! We may imagine with what longing they
 
 THE METROPOLITANS 145 
 
 look forward to the time when we, in twin club-houses, 
 like Egypt's men and women, shall stand by their side. 
 As fathers they are indispensable; as brothers they 
 are open to criticism ; as lovers they are irreproach 
 able ; as husbands we have nothing better ; as men 
 we can only say, with all their faults, we love them 
 still!'" 
 
 Rexford smiled appreciatively. 
 
 " Oh, yes ; it was good enough," said Jenkins, " and 
 there was plenty of applause. But, to show you her 
 impudence: I had myself presented after supper, 
 meaning to say something nice about her speech ; and 
 she could n't have caught my name, for she said pres 
 ently, looking over the program, ' I came late on pur 
 pose. There was some recitation in the first part. I 
 hate to hear grown men speak pieces. Tell me' 
 (pointing to my poem on the bill), ' has that creature 
 done his elocution act yet ? ' ' He finished some time 
 ago,' said I. 'How bad was it?' she asked. 'Oh, 
 about the average.' ' Thank Heaven, I escaped it ! ' she 
 breathed piously. 'You don't think he is likely to 
 break out again ? ' ' No/ 1 told her ; ' I can assure you 
 he shall not repeat the offense for I am the man.' 
 Some little balm in Gilead there was in the expression 
 of her face " (he grinned despite himself) ; " but I don't 
 go to the Women Bachelors' any more. Here, I '11 
 leave this ' Magpie ' here ; when you 're through dress 
 ing you can revel in it. I know you 're devoted to 
 scandal. You know Crofton, by the way, the African 
 explorer. There 's something about him." 
 
 Reginald Crofton was not the rose, but at least he 
 had lived near her. Rexford picked up the paper after 
 
 10
 
 146 THE METROPOLITANS 
 
 a while, and glanced over it. A messenger ran into 
 Jenkins that night, when he was in Penrose's office, 
 with a note. 
 
 " ' The devil damn thee black, thou cream-faced 
 loon ! ' " declaimed Jenkins, glancing at the paper. 
 The astonished boy retreated rapidly. 
 
 " What 's the matter ? " asked Penrose from his desk. 
 
 " It 's Rexford confound him ! He 's asked me to 
 do a lot of his work for him to-morrow ; and I 've 
 plenty of my own. He '11 be out of town for a week. 
 Why does n't he stick to it or give it up ? I '11 have 
 to be more positive with him about these odd jobs." 
 
 An east wind was still blowing, but with something 
 of soft relenting in its breath, when Angelica came in 
 to Miss de Mansur's pretty room, an irrepressible joy- 
 ousness in her eye and lightness in her step. " Oh, I 
 am so glad to have you back, my Katherine ; but why, 
 why did you stay so long? I might have been so 
 much better a girl if you had been here." 
 
 " What is it ? What have you been doing ? " queried 
 Katherine, expecting to hear of saucy tricks with Miss 
 Lavender. 
 
 " I have been changing my name," she replied, with 
 affected demureness, casting down her eyes. While 
 Katherine stared at her, incredulous, she fell down on 
 her knees, taking care not to disarrange her stylish 
 draperies, and clasped her small hands dramatically. 
 "I will not arise until I have your forgiveness and 
 your blessing for my Otto and myself ! " 
 
 " Angelica ! Angelica ! get up. What do you mean 
 by this nonsense ! You have not been doing anything 
 foolish ? "
 
 THE METROPOLITANS 147 
 
 "Certainly not, my dear" (rising and smoothing 
 down her skirts) ; " only, to adapt a French rhyme, 
 Si t'aimer est folie, 
 Je serais folle toute la vie. 
 
 Katherine, do not look as if you saw me led to execution ! 
 Even if I have, in your absence, arranged my own life 
 and become Mrs. Federling, I shall probably escape 
 with twenty years in the penitentiary. Katherine 
 dear " (a serious and wistful note came into her voice), 
 " you don't know how one who has heard nothing but 
 money from her birth craves to be loved for herself ; 
 and truly, truly, when you know my Otto, you will find 
 that he is the kindest, dearest, and most genuine of 
 men, who cares only about me myself. I took pains 
 to have him misinformed about my means. He is the 
 most absurd creature about poetry and sentiment and 
 that you should hear the fraulein and him " (break 
 ing into laughter through her tears). " Well, I do not 
 understand their Goethe and Heine, but I am not such 
 a bad judge of men." 
 
 " Oh ! " exclaimed Katherine, still aghast, " Miss 
 Lavender your parents ! What will they say ! " 
 
 " Miss Lavender, my dear ! she is blue with indigna 
 tion, and has dismissed Fraulein Volmer as an acces 
 sory before the fact which the fraulein was not. 
 Still, it is a paler blue than it would have been if Mr. 
 Pundit, her undervalued property, had not, in perfect 
 form, attempted to transfer the title-deeds to me. You 
 can understand that, between that bore, her resent 
 ment, and her determination to assist the repulsive De 
 Vaurien in his offensive addresses, life at Franklin 
 Hall was just unbearable. So I wrote to a girl I used
 
 148 THE METROPOLITANS 
 
 to know out West, now in Germany, to get her brother 
 to find out if the fraulein's account of the Federliiigs 
 and Otto was correct ; and it turned out all right." 
 
 " If you had written to your mother to inquire" 
 
 " You don't know mamma. She was in Paris, ex 
 changing compliments with the De Vaurien family. 
 If she had found me disengaged, she would have man 
 aged that alliance one way or another. So I wrote 
 that, as I knew she had adopted European modes, I 
 hereby served her with the customary trois 'sommations 
 respectueuses. 1 * " 
 
 "In one letter?" 
 
 " Oh, yes " (placidly) ; " time pressed. I put the last 
 two in postscripts, and told her that, as she was already 
 on the Continent, she might cross the Rhine and make 
 friends with the Federlings, as I would be one of them 
 before she could answer. Why did she leave me in 
 that mill of feminine eligibles ? I informed papa, and 
 have his forgiveness already by cable ; by cable, as I 
 begged him. Is not that original ? " 
 
 Katherine looked at her helplessly. "And is Mr. 
 Mr. Federling still at Delmonico's ? " 
 
 " Certainly not. He will now have time to find the 
 professorship that will suit him, or what he chooses. 
 He hates idleness, and is very learned and studious. 
 We have a charming apartment, where you will come 
 and see us." 
 
 "My dear, it is all very wrong, you know; but I 
 hope your judgment of men is correct, and that you 
 are going to be very happy." 
 
 " Of course it was wrong, and Mr. Pundit will say 
 much worse. 'Bad form, don't you know. In the
 
 THE METROPOLITANS 149 
 
 worst possible taste, you understand.' But just wait, 
 wait until you know my Otto. He is down-stairs 
 now." 
 
 " Then let me wish him joy/' said Katherine. She 
 found the suddenly made bridegroom a fresh-faced 
 young Teuton, whose frank, yet modest, manner made 
 a favorable impression. He beamed on his wife's 
 friend with a look of bliss, somewhat modified by a 
 sense of guilt in the circumstances of their hasty 
 union. He quoted verse freely, in praise of his " blond 
 angel " (whom his eyes sought incessantly), as the best 
 excuse for what looked like rashness. He admitted the 
 dereliction as regarded the "venerated and respect- 
 worthy " parents on both sides, and had no excuse to 
 offer beyond the tyranny of the eternal Eros. But 
 Katherine divined that, had chivalrous loyalty per 
 mitted, he might have pleaded his "blond angel's" 
 habit of arranging matters herself. 
 
 But there was an unwonted appeal for sympathy in 
 Angelica's usually careless demeanor which touched 
 her ; and she watched the young couple saunter across 
 the square, all absorbed in each other, with a half- 
 pleased interest which lightened for the moment her 
 heavy heart. And if there is an undue proportion of 
 wooing and matrimony in this chapter, the fact that 
 it was in the springtime, when young blossoms were 
 showing their pretty heads through the grass, and 
 little birds inspected the first green sprouts on the 
 trees, and formulated, amid much hopping and twit 
 tering, an "Artis Amatoriae" of their own, must 
 excuse it. 
 
 10-
 
 XIII 
 
 ' EXFORD'S week of absence had stretched 
 into three, and Jenkins was still acting as 
 musical critic in his place, when, coming 
 into his room at dusk one evening, his 
 friendly substitute encountered hi step 
 ping from the elevator. 
 
 " Upon my word ! " exclaimed Jenkins, " it is really 
 good of you to come back at all. And where have you 
 been lying low all this time and chuckling over the 
 blunders in my reviews? I have n't been to all the 
 musical events, I tell you frankly, but just took the 
 amateur ones on faith ; which proved a little awkward 
 once or twice, when they altered the program without 
 my knowledge. However, that 's all one now ; for not 
 a day longer am I going to do double chores, and wear 
 away with overwork pounds of my valuable avoirdu 
 pois. I suppose the brilliant composer of ' Zora ' has 
 begun to think himself above the duties of a humble 
 reviewer." 
 
 The light from an open doorway fell on his com 
 panion's face. 
 
 " Well," he continued, " I should not say your vaca 
 tion had done you much good ; you look used up." 
 "No wonder," replied Rexford. "Now that you 
 150
 
 THE METROPOLITANS 151 
 
 stop for breath, I may tell you that it is ' The Miller 
 of Dee ' which has worn me out the utterly impossi 
 ble words of that libretto, which I would know for 
 yours in farthest Ind. I finished the scores, however." 
 
 " Finished them ? That was quick work, most noble 
 collaborator. Hurrah, hurrah, hurrah ! " he solemnly 
 chanted. 
 
 Penrose came to his door. "What is the howling 
 about ? Ha, youngster, back again ? I am glad." A 
 whole volume of welcome was compressed into two 
 or three simple words. He was in his shirt-sleeves, 
 struggling with a troublesome collar-button, but 
 moved aside in mute invitation for his friend to enter, 
 while Jenkins passed in at his own door. 
 
 His opinion of Rexford's looks was, in effect, the 
 same as Jenkins's. He scanned him as, appearing 
 wholly occupied at the mirror with his button, he re 
 marked, "Turkish bath and dinner will brace you 
 up all right. Fancy you ; ve been traveling in an 
 overheated Pullman." 
 
 Rexford took no notice. He sat on the edge of a 
 lounge absently punching one of the pillows. 
 
 " Would you have minded much," he asked abruptly, 
 " if I had n't done ' The Lotus-eaters ' ? It was a fear 
 ful pull to finish it, and I had more than half a mind 
 to leave it. I was busy in the daytime ; had to grind 
 at it at night." 
 
 " Do you mean to say that you finished l The Lotus- 
 eaters ' while you were away besides, as I judge from 
 Jenkins's whoops, polishing off 'The Miller'? You 
 must have gone into retirement in the country." 
 
 "I was in Washington, rushing around, but took
 
 152 THE METROPOLITANS 
 
 my evenings. You can have Menu try the scores to 
 night, or when you will ; he can overlook the choruses 
 too." 
 
 " Why not yourself ? " 
 
 " I shall have all I can attend to now, getting my 
 outfit ready for the expedition." 
 
 Penrose had by this time inducted himself into his 
 dinner coat. He drew a long breath, looking hard at 
 Eexford, but said, even more quietly, " This dialogue 
 begins to remind me of the faithful steward in ' The 
 Way to Tell Bad News.' Let us leave our pribbles 
 and our prabbles, and get to the heart of the matter. 
 Are you intending just after 'Zora's' success, and 
 before bringing out yourself 'The Lotus-eaters' and 
 1 The Miller of Dee 'to leave New York definitely for 
 some time ? " 
 
 " For just as long a time as possible." 
 
 "Would it be exceeding friendship's privilege to 
 ask your reasons, most excellent 
 
 " ' Fool,' you would finish. Do not hesitate. We 
 are all fools together, we mortals, and there is not 
 always a reason to be found among us. My dear fel 
 low, a man must have some sort of interest in living, 
 so he keeps on making experiments with himself. The 
 three great human passions are, you have heard, love, 
 war, and money-making. In these end-of-the-century 
 days, with arbitration imminent, I may not have the 
 excitement of carving my natural enemies not even 
 Lord Mellon, or or " He broke off with a dismal 
 sort of laugh; and Penrose noted anew the weary 
 recklessness of his attitude, and the tired look about 
 eyes and brow, where limp little locks of damp hair
 
 THE METROPOLITANS 163 
 
 clung. " Money-making," he resumed, " is a necessary 
 evil for some of us, when a little Lord Cantaloupe 
 appears upon the stage ; but when we have enough to 
 feel secure of bread and butter, and even occasional 
 canvasback and Burgundy rose, the occupation begins 
 to pall." 
 
 " Perhaps because you use work as a means, not an 
 end. Work keeps a man erect; it is fatally easy to 
 sink down into mere animalism. But you were say 
 ing 
 
 " Oh" (with some vehemence), " that I begin to hate 
 it all ! The crowds and the applause, and the young 
 noodles that come up to compliment and don't know 
 one note from another, and I beg your pardon the 
 papers, with their effusive paragraphs, and and 
 everything." 
 
 " If this were mere pampered vanity," said Peurose, 
 keenly, " as it might be, I should simply say, my good 
 fellow, you are badly spoiled by your reverses. But 
 I think I discern something else. If I am intrusive, 
 let me know. But the first great human interest you 
 have not touched upon. If you have been giving 
 divided worship to your art, she will undoubtedly fail 
 you." 
 
 " Oh, my art, my art ! " cried Rexf ord. "I would not 
 blaspheme that divine consoler ! But yes, then " (like 
 one tired of bearing pain alone), "there is another 
 idol, but one who will have none of my worship who 
 cares less for votaries of melody than for men of thews 
 and sinews, mighty hunters who lay the trophies of 
 their chase at her feet ! " Suddenly the paragraph 
 about Miss de Mansur and Reginald Crofton, which he
 
 154 THE METROPOLITANS 
 
 also had seen, came into Penrose's mind. He looked 
 gravely at the haggard young face and remembered 
 Jasmina. 
 
 " Hearsay is a poor guide of conduct," he said at last. 
 
 " Oh " (laughing harshly), " I did not depend wholly 
 upon that. I have had notes returned unopened since 
 then." 
 
 Jenkins, who had been whistling shrilly in his room, 
 broke now into a snatch of song, "There are other 
 eyes in Spain," and Penrose closed the door softly. 
 
 " It is not easy for most men to leave an idol's shrine." 
 
 " It is impossible for me to stay near this one." 
 
 " And where, then, will you go ? " 
 
 "You have heard of the Ritler arctic trip, to be 
 made this summer? The 'Argus' has had sporadic 
 paragraphs about it. It is sent by a wealthy scientist, 
 too old to go himself, but with this hobby. It is not 
 to find an impracticable northwest passage, nor yet to 
 go farther north than any previous party. It is just 
 to settle certain geographical and scientific questions ; 
 and I judge it will be safe enough, and comparatively 
 unexciting, for the professor in charge, Dr. Ritler, is 
 going to take his wife. I saw him in Washington, and 
 found him willing enough to have me as volunteer, for 
 I know something of his specialties and am a fair shot. 
 Their party goes on this week to St. John's, and I join 
 them there next week." 
 
 Penrose thought vaguely that he would have time 
 enough after next week to suffer for the cheery com 
 panionship and joyous looks which had so brightened 
 his last year or two. He only asked : 
 
 " And ' Zora,' and the new ones ? "
 
 THE METROPOLITANS 155 
 
 " Oh " (indifferently), " the managers have accepted 
 them. I leave the rest in your hands." 
 
 "And and Jasmina?" 
 
 " For that matter "he was passing into his own 
 room now) " for that matter, it is you who have always 
 had most interest in our Gipsy star." 
 
 For days following he was as one driven in his haste 
 to complete preparations for getting away. A list 
 had been furnished him by Dr. Ritler and others of the 
 party, glad to have as a recruit this frank and fearless 
 spirit, with well-trained muscles and superb health to 
 make him valuable. The pemmican, dog food, lime- 
 juice, and such things as he had vaguely connected, 
 from reading, with circumpolar wanderings, came not 
 within his province, he was laughingly told, but merely 
 the personal belongings indicated. Penrose, heavy- 
 hearted, but externally unmoved, watched him prepar 
 ing to quit the orbit in which, on one plane or other, 
 he had taken pleasure in his brilliant revolutions. 
 
 " I have seen Menu and the others," Rexford told him. 
 " l Zora ' will soon be sent into the provinces, and make 
 way for l The Lotus-eaters.' That is to be on a grand 
 scale, Menu tells me ; but I leave my prestige in your 
 hands, old chap. Jenkins, the great, the only Jenkins, 
 will look after i The Miller ' at the Gaiety, as the book 
 is his. And, Jenkins, if I don't come back, you may 
 claim the music too." 
 
 " What larks, Pip ! " cried Jenkins, not as cheerily 
 as usual. " If you insist on being frozen stiff, why not 
 go up and sit awhile with Miss Lavender ? I was with 
 her for a half -hour yesterday to get notes for an arti 
 cle on < Finishing Academies,' and my teeth chattered
 
 156 THE METROPOLITANS 
 
 in my head when I left." In truth, the good fellow 
 was very loath to have this favorite of his leave so 
 early in their new partnership ; nor could he under 
 stand, ease-loving himself, how a sane man could give 
 up the comforts of civilization for any cause whatever. 
 " If he dislikes the eastern exposure in ' Simla/ 1 would 
 have given him my room," he thought ruefully. 
 
 The Van Krippens, the Doulton-Mintons,the Crowne 
 Derbys, the Royall Worcesters, and all the rest of the 
 dandies were likewise filled with surprise. That a 
 handsome man, connected with the English nobility, 
 a composer at present the rage (could they not, each 
 one, hum an air or two from " Zora " ?), sure of adula 
 tion from society, which had evidently made a mistake 
 during the short while she hid her face from him 
 that he should leave all these splendors for certain 
 hardship ! " Was n't there an old great-aunt or some 
 body in the family that was eccentric ? Yes, that 's 
 it; he 's off, by Jove!" 
 
 " Hum ha my dear boy," said Archibald Pundit, 
 meeting him, " what 's this I hear ? Our brilliant 
 young artist leaving us? We can't spare you, don't 
 you know. And Lady Mellon will hardly approve, 
 don't you perceive." 
 
 "I think I perceive," said Rexford, "that Lord 
 Mellon's pranks are absorbing most of Lady Mellon's 
 time and attention just now. I hardly approve of 
 them myself, don't you know." 
 
 " I was sorry in an instant," he told Penrose after 
 ward, "for the disrespect. He had nothing to say, 
 for I know he has heard all those hideous stories about 
 Lord Mellon, that descendant of the great Henry,
 
 THE METROPOLITANS 157 
 
 Marquis of Gourdes. Still, I had no right to abash 
 the old fellow, worldling as he is. He did not use to 
 irritate me so ; but oh, Penrose, I am sick of everything ! 
 ' Grattez le moderne, vous trouvez le sauvage.' I long to be 
 far away, where the aurora takes the place of the elec 
 tric light and the sledge is the only transit, rapid or 
 slow. Do you remember our reading last year of the 
 arctic squadron lauding in Iceland, and how full of 
 wonder seemed their adventures to us? And I had 
 never a presentiment that, this very next year, I should 
 be going myself on a similar expedition." And in all 
 this sceva indignatio and feverish hurry to be gone was 
 a throbbing consciousness that he would give up this 
 scheme too, as one of utter futility, if Katherine said 
 but the word. He just missed meeting her face to 
 face one afternoon, when the church door had but 
 closed on her as he passed by, where she had come, 
 with stricken heart, to offer a petition for him, in 
 deed. It was after her cousin's mentioning at home 
 this addition to the arctic party. 
 
 " I begin to feel a little more respect for him," he 
 said. " It looks as though he might find some better 
 use for his brain than composing jingles for street 
 boys to whistle." 
 
 "Oh, you, Reginald!" laughed his mother; "your 
 one idea of the whole duty of man is to go about 
 poking and prying into the dark corners of the earth. 
 But I am glad Mr. Rexford withdraws himself from 
 the temptations of theatrical success. I hope " (kindly) 
 " he will come to no harm." 
 
 " Oh," said her son, carelessly, " this is an easy and 
 safe trip, I hear, as far as prudent and reasonable fore-
 
 158 THE METROPOLITANS 
 
 sight can make it. A very practical scheme, and 
 throws no sort of glamour of mysterious danger over 
 the party. Dr. Hitler's wife will go. He thinks arctic 
 perils have been much overrated." 
 
 " There have been a good many lives lost," said his 
 mother, dubiously. " People will hardly go the length 
 of dying just to win a little romantic interest dying 
 slowly and painfully." 
 
 Katherine said nothing, but presently slipped away 
 to where she was in the habit of carrying her troubles. 
 
 During this time Jasmina, as Zora, danced and sang 
 as usual, and had begun to look over her new part in 
 the rehearsals of "The Lotus-Eaters." As for the 
 " Mayde who followed the Man who followed the Miller 
 of Dee," that light role was acceptably filled by a noted 
 soubrette. Penrose had reason to know that Jasmina 
 had fretted restively during the young composer's ab 
 sence, and delayed telling her of his proposed departure 
 now. So it chanced that she first learned of it through 
 a paper, where some head-line attracted her careless 
 eye. " ' List of Members of Expedition/ " she repeated. 
 " What Raixf ore is this he means ? It says ' Allan ! ' ' 
 (with incredulous disdain). " Some foolish blunder 
 a canard. He leave the city leave Zora" (softly) 
 " for these snowbanks ? Absurd ! See, Stephen " (on 
 his coming in), " what these ridiculous papers write 
 one day, only to contradict the next. How did they 
 get his name ? " 
 
 " My dear child," he answered seriously, " it may be 
 true. I have heard something of it." 
 
 " Stephen ! Stephen ! " (voice and hands appealing) 
 " it is not true ; say it is not true."
 
 THE METROPOLITANS 159 
 
 " I am afraid it is true." 
 
 Her white teeth closed on the lower scarlet lip ; her 
 breath came in quick gasps ; her slender fingers clasped 
 his arm. 
 
 "Oh," she cried, in piteous, childlike appeal, "I 
 would die then. You will not let me die ; you have 
 done everything in my life for me, Stephen. Do this 
 now : keep him here." 
 
 " Jasmina," he said, almost in a whisper, " you know 
 it kills me to refuse you anything, but this I cannot 
 do. He will not stay for any reason that I have to 
 offer." 
 
 She gave him a look from her great eyes like a 
 deer's that is hurt. "If it is true, then when does 
 he go ? " 
 
 " In about ten days." 
 
 "Will he be here to-night?" 
 
 " I heard him say he had another engagement." 
 
 She walked up and down the room with her free, 
 graceful step, then looked again at the paper ; some 
 thing in the paragraph held her attention. Suddenly 
 she said, " I shall not sing this evening ; my throat is 
 sore." 
 
 " Your manager will rage." 
 
 " I can get him a doctor's certificate. I should give 
 my understudy a chance ; she has wished for it long." 
 
 Penrose sighed when outside again perhaps with 
 relief that the scene had been less painful than he 
 dreaded. " Poor child ! poor little impulsive girl ! To 
 have given me single-minded affection all this time, 
 only to save a wealth of savage loyalty for Rexf ord, 
 who goes away unknowing and unheeding ! "
 
 160 THE METROPOLITANS 
 
 The ill wind which took away from the audience 
 that night the popular idol in "Zora" blew a long- 
 looked-for chance to an ambitious understudy; but 
 alas ! there was no dreamed-of round of applause. Her 
 hearers were but politely tolerant, and showed their 
 sense of injury in losing Jasmina, who was denied to 
 every caller that evening on the same plea of illness ; 
 to the regret of Rexf ord, who missed, with all his pre 
 occupation, the warm, scented room where, with joyous 
 chatter and soothing music, he had found in recent 
 bitterness the sympathy so essential to his nature. 
 That she was denied to him caused Penrose wonder 
 ment, who knew her ailment to be feigned, and found, 
 besides, at Becker's two or three little notes which 
 begged her dear Stephen not to be at all anxious at 
 her seclusion, which was merely on account of her 
 being particularly engaged just now. " I shall feel 
 better satisfied," he reflected, " when she is in harness 
 again with ' The Lotus-eaters.' " 
 
 But it was another sort of harness Jasmina was 
 seeking when, leaving her maid on guard at her apart 
 ment, she had gone quietly over to Washington. There 
 she found the address she wanted, and went near there 
 in a cab, which was left in waiting while she walked a 
 block farther and up the steps of a house. There she 
 inquired for Mrs. Ritler. "I saw," said she to the 
 strong, capable-looking wife of the scientist, who came 
 to her, " that madame was to accompany her husband 
 on his voyage ; also that the maid had fallen ill who 
 was to go with her. If madame still desires an atten 
 dant, it is I who would like to go with her." 
 
 Mrs. Ritler scrutinized the new applicant. In spite
 
 THE METROPOLITANS 161 
 
 of plain, dark attire, there was something too brilliant 
 about her ; and yet the time was so short, no one else 
 seemed eager to volunteer, this one was younger than 
 the maid who had failed her, therefore more service 
 able; Dr. Ritler made such a point of her having 
 another woman with her, as he might be absent fre 
 quently. " Some reference would be necessary," at last 
 she said hesitatingly ; " I do not know you at all." 
 
 "The best of references," said Jasmina, promptly. 
 "Dr. Ritler shall have them. See, madame," with a 
 pleading gesture of the little brown hands, " not many 
 will desire to go with you to such a place ; but me I 
 have great wish to see the wonderland ! " This with 
 odd emphasis and ineffable expression. The charm of 
 her voice and manner began to tell on Mrs. Ritler. 
 " See, now; I do not know much, but I am so willing. 
 Let me go with you to St. John's to-morrow ; I will 
 give references in New York. Write to this address 
 at once. The answer will come to St. John's, and if 
 it is not right you can still leave me there." 
 
 " Wait until Dr. Ritler comes in," said his wife, 
 then. 
 
 Penrose had next morning a note from her, asking 
 information as to her new companion. By the same 
 mail Jasmina had written : 
 
 " Say what you can or invent to satisfy the scruples 
 of madame. For, Stephen, mark you, I am determined 
 to go. And if she leaves me, I swear to you I will kill 
 myself. If he goes to cold or starvation, I go too ; and, 
 Stephen, I trust you to keep from him and every one 
 the slightest hint of my presence here. He shall not
 
 162 THE METEOPOLITANS 
 
 know until we have started. The public and mana 
 gers may think what they please of the sudden disap 
 pearance of Zora. But will you look after the few 
 things in my rooms, and pay the maid and dismiss ? 
 If I did not give you trouble, you would not know 
 it was 
 
 "Your 
 
 "JASMINA." 
 
 Penrose was stunned, but, knowing well her pas 
 sionate and wilful nature, did not for a moment hesi 
 tate. In consideration of the extortionate fee the maid 
 asked in place of warning, he borrowed, without 
 scruple, her name for the credentials inclosed, with 
 some words of his own, to Dr. Ritler, to whom the 
 " Argus's " assistant editor was known by reputation. 
 And not a line in his pale face betrayed emotion when 
 Rexf ord, himself much moved, bade him farewell. 
 
 " I am more than sorry that Jasmina continues ill. 
 It seems almost ungrateful not to thank my star my 
 only inspiration lately for all her goodness. I grieve 
 not to see her before leaving. Besides you and her, 
 who is there" (bitterly) "cares for my going? Oh, 
 yes j there is Jenkins ! There is always Jenkins ! " 
 That good fellow did, indeed, drink a bumper to the 
 prosperous voyage and return of his friend and col 
 laborator. It was only in a half-hearted way that he 
 went about his part in the bringing out of "The 
 Miller of Dee " in the approaching season. He would 
 have gone with a host of friends and admirers to see 
 Rexf ord off, but the latter objected to any " confounded 
 fuss." Only Penrose knew exactly when he did get
 
 THE METROPOLITANS 163 
 
 off. Like any other hurt animal, he shrank from ob 
 servation, and in his morbidness was unlike the gallant 
 young fellow whom Katherine de Mansur had favored 
 and whom nothing but her supposed will could have 
 induced to leave her to another. Yet when the girl 
 read or heard any notice of his going, all her wounded 
 pride could not keep her from breathing a fervent 
 " God be with him, if we never meet again." If he 
 were all her soul had feared, he was at least turning 
 his back now on the mad whirl and riotous living of 
 the great city ; that, too, at a moment of brilliant suc 
 cess. He was adventuring something which required 
 strength and courage and manly self-denial. He 
 seemed to her fancy to be sailing away from confusion 
 and sound and fury up into higher, purer altitudes. 
 But alas! it was away from her, too, and her sore 
 heart felt that, in spite of rumor and eyesight believed, 
 and even that fatal visit, one last appeal might have 
 melted her ; but it did not come. 
 
 The Meteor, the expedition steamer, was already at 
 St. John's, but was detained there some days after 
 arriving by a delay of part of the equipment. Rex- 
 ford, after reporting to Dr. Ritler, wandered about the 
 town, then back to his room at the hotel. He had been 
 reflecting on his long separation from his mother, and 
 softened toward her now. Cold and unjust as she 
 seemed, she could hardly find the glittering social 
 triumphs of London, nor even her lofty ambitions for 
 a baby boy, compensation for slights and all domestic 
 infelicity. " It is a long trip," he wrote her, " that I 
 meditate ; and, as it is our last chance for the present 
 to send a mail, I want to leave with you across the
 
 164 THE METROPOLITANS 
 
 ocean my best wishes for your health and content. 
 For myself, I have lost a hope which I think you 
 guessed at before leaving America; so mere life is 
 worth nothing to me, and I seek now distraction of 
 thought," with a few more lines, which he sealed and 
 addressed. Then for a long time he gazed from the 
 hotel window. He could see, over the waters of the 
 bay, the little steamer Newfoundland, which had brought 
 him, and the Meteor swinging at anchor off Queen's 
 Wharf. It would be there some days yet, owing to 
 this delay. With sudden decision, he sat down again 
 and wrote a note to Katherine, which he inclosed in 
 one to Penrose addressed in care of Becker. When 
 the latter, in New York, opened it, he read : " There 
 is still time to retreat honorably, and I am in no sense 
 indispensable. Dr. Ritler sails to-morrow for Upper- 
 nivik, but I am to wait here with the photographer 
 for some instruments not yet arrived. Penrose, if 
 she would call me back ! I have been thinking I have 
 been too easily content without more definite expla 
 nation ; but one cannot persecute a woman ! Still, I 
 inclose a note which I trust you to place in her hand ; 
 not sending by regular mail, as she may not understand 
 there is no time for delay." 
 
 Jasmina wrote at the same time : " Stephen, I have 
 been careful that he should not see me until we start 
 from Upperuivik, where we go ahead of him and those 
 waiting here, who are to follow us in the steam-launch. 
 Be careful at your end, for it is with my life I trust 
 you. I will not survive parting with him." 
 
 Penrose felt as though invisible hands drew him in 
 opposite directions. He shrugged his shoulders. " I
 
 THE METROPOLITANS 165 
 
 will do just nothing," he muttered ; " things must go 
 as they will." He locked into some private receptacle 
 the note inclosed from Rexford; answered him, "I 
 wish you forgetfulness and a safe home-coming from 
 the far North," and resolutely put from him, with that 
 fatalism which was a part of him, the thought of an 
 unfulfilled commission hurtful to Jasmina ; while Rex- 
 ford tore to pieces and threw overboard the line con 
 taining, he supposed, the implied destruction of all 
 hope. 
 
 One hour afterward the little steamer was passing 
 the majestic cliffs through the narrows of St. John's, 
 and upward into the ice-pack bordering the Greenland 
 coast, and there plunging into a fog which retarded 
 progress and hid from them the glacial mountains 
 towering high along the desolate coast. It was only 
 when this curtain rolled back before the wind, after 
 they had been lying for many hours before Uppernivik, 
 that the native pilot could take them safely in. Here, 
 in this little cove, lay the Meteor awaiting them. 
 
 " I have used my week well," said Dr. Ritler, greet 
 ing Rexford. "The boots and skin suits are all in, 
 the dogs and drivers secured. There is small tempta 
 tion to linger in this bleak spot, though they tell me 
 that in fourteen years it has never been so green. But 
 what a scanty patch of vegetation, and what a barren, 
 desolate spot ! The fog kept you, I suppose ? Well, 
 you must see from high ground that wonderful Aug- 
 padlarsok ice-fiord, with its immense glacier front, 
 sending out its thousands of icebergs. But we start 
 as soon as possible. I am impatient to be off ; madame 
 
 almost as much so. She is quite well, yes. Her com- 
 
 11*
 
 166 THE METROPOLITANS 
 
 panion has kept a little close ; not accustomed to the 
 water, perhaps ; she soon will be." 
 
 At midnight, for it was now the season of perpetual 
 daylight in this region, they were speeding onward 
 through the sea, the bergs becoming more numerous 
 in their path. Rexford, at the bow, the frosty air 
 tingling in his cheeks, looked at the novel scene. The 
 sun, in all its brilliancy, sparkled on a few delicate 
 cirrus clouds alone appearing overhead. The neighbor 
 ing coasts were sharp, clear, and distinct through the 
 pure thin atmosphere, and their outlines were reflected 
 in the glassy water. The light pouring from above glo 
 rified all, shining especially on highlands to the east, 
 where in a ravine a torrent came plunging downward 
 over fourteen hundred feet through a cleft in the solid 
 rock. He drew a long breath. " We are sailing away," 
 he said, in continuance of remarks to Mrs. Ritler, 
 " into a new world of enchantment." But the sighting 
 of a polar bear on a berg had drawn that lady to the 
 side, where a boat was being lowered for pursuit. It 
 was not her rather nasal tones, but instead a familiar, 
 softly musical voice which answered : 
 
 " Yes ; and it is not very cold, do you think ? " 
 He turned, and, to his stupefaction, there stood 
 Jasmina, her glowing tints made more vivid by this 
 crisp air, and the great friendly dark eyes, into which 
 looked his own bewildered, were widened by an ex 
 pression of resolution and soft deprecation commingled.
 
 XIV 
 
 FTER all, Katherine, you need not look 
 so serious whenever I allude to my hav 
 ing married myself off. Of course it 
 was outrageous and shocking for me to 
 have even seen that so humble an in 
 dividual as Otto was alive, when I might have been 
 Madame la Vicomtesse de Vaurien, or else been trotted 
 out, on approval, by the Lavender-Pundit Trust Com 
 pany, or, perhaps, been hawked about the Continent 
 by mamma. Ah ! the idea was detestable. No, dearest ; 
 of course you could not mean that. It was not duti 
 ful, but if you had been tried like me ! And I did 
 know something of Otto, remember. Did I tell you 
 that mamma has actually gone to inspect the Feder- 
 lings, and dined with the ten sisters and the herr 
 papa at Castle Schlippenschloppenschlanberg you 
 need not laugh ; it is that. She finds the place very 
 ancient and picturesque, but damp and abounding in 
 rats, and would not advise me to live there. But on 
 finding that I may have 'baroness' on my card if I 
 choose, she has relented and forgives and blesses Otto. 
 She cannot come over, however, on account of Anas- 
 telle, for whom she trusts there is something lofty in 
 prospect. I hope it is no wretched De Vaurien the 
 poor child would marry the Shah of Persia if mamma 
 
 167
 
 168 m HE METROPOLITANS 
 
 ordered her (she is the most obedient of daughters, 
 the postscript says, which is the only reflection the 
 letter contains on my misconduct). Papa will be over 
 on the next steamer to see me and interview Otto. 
 He is not at all afraid ; he thinks it will be interesting 
 to talk with a mining expert like papa. We may go 
 back with him, but we mean to be Americans; for 
 Otto promises to make his career where he has found 
 his wife, and he will be distinguished here, I know." 
 
 Indeed, her faith in her husband was very pretty, 
 and natural enough, Katherine considered. For the 
 pleasant-faced young German was studious and thor 
 ough, and really learned in his specialties, with great 
 simplicity of manner and frank demonstration tinged 
 with sentiment, which insured a half-amused liking ; 
 and her interest in this young pair was a welcome dis 
 traction from the heavy thoughts which followed every 
 stray word coming to her concerning polar voyages, 
 and one voyage in particular. " A line of farewell, for 
 old acquaintance' sake, would have been natural," was 
 a secret, inconsistent thought. 
 
 Said Mortimer to his sister (he had accepted her 
 astounding escapade with his usual philosophy), " Why 
 don't you get Miss Katherine to go abroad with you 
 when you go, and then I might join you." 
 
 Angelica shook her flaxen head thoughtfully. With 
 all her joyous chatter and bird-like flutterings in and 
 out, she had discovered that things were not well with 
 her friend. 
 
 " But Katherine will grieve always for her father ; 
 she is of that faithful nature. I wonder if that dis 
 tinguished-looking cousin"
 
 THE METROPOLITANS 169 
 
 The distinguished-looking cousin wondered a little 
 himself. Katherine had a way of parrying love pas 
 sages and discoursing on things impersonal which was 
 baffling to a degree ; and she wore at times an air of 
 weary coldness, as if she had already lived a century, 
 and cared for nothing more. 
 
 " It is her mourning," he decided sagely. " They 
 adored each other, my uncle and she." And forthwith 
 he began planning another trip for his mother and 
 the girl, with himself as escort. 
 
 The town began to wear now, in certain regions, a 
 deserted and desolate look, with windows shuttered, 
 front doors barricaded, no one in the houses but care 
 takers. Even the churches in this quarter, with few 
 exceptions, were closed for the season, these being folds 
 into which only sheep with golden fleece were gathered ; 
 and when these scattered for a summer's pleasant graz 
 ing, why should not the shepherds do likewise, leaving 
 others to concern themselves for the poor who are 
 always with us ? In short, as Mr. Pundit said, " The 
 city is quite empty now, don't you know. Society is 
 either at Newport or in the hills or gone abroad. Very 
 large New York contingent went over for the season, 
 so I 'm told, you understand. By the way, Miss Lav 
 ender, I see Mr. van Krippen's and Mr. and Mrs. Fed- 
 erling's names among passengers on the last steamer 
 going out." 
 
 " Her father called on me before leaving, and was 
 ahem! most gentlemanly about the extra expense 
 and annoyance and possible detriment to the material 
 interests of Franklin Hall caused by that ungrateful 
 girl's imprudent step. Otherwise, Mr. Pundit " (with
 
 170 THE METEOPOLITANS 
 
 a gleam of vindictiveness in her eyes), " I should have 
 refused even to notice her again. I promise you, no 
 sentimental Friiulein Volmer chaperons my young 
 ladies after this." 
 
 " I hear," said the gentleman, thoughtfully, rubbing 
 a bald spot near the temples, " that her father dowers 
 Mrs. Federling magnificently quite magnificently." 
 He aUowed a sigh to escape, which Miss Lavender 
 heard with cold disdain. " Well " (more briskly), " I 
 shall be running down to Newport myself next week. 
 Shall I meet you there, my dear lady, this season ? " 
 
 " I think so " (demurely). " I need a change after 
 the shock of the Van Krippen affair ; and I shall leave 
 Madame Bonair in charge at the Hall. Miss Kilmans- 
 egg's people she is, you know, to marry the Marquis 
 de Mauvais Sujet, who will be there have taken a 
 cottage for us. I will chaperon her and arrange for 
 the wedding. Her father is quite unpresentable, and 
 had better stay in Oshkosh. He pays all expenses, of 
 course very liberally." 
 
 " I will be down about Thursday," said Mr. Pundit. 
 " There will absolutely be no one in town after this 
 week." 
 
 Which might have surprised the thousands swarm 
 ing in and out and through and about the vast city if 
 they knew, or cared to know, what Mr. Pundit said. 
 The sun's beams grew hotter, and the long days longer, 
 and the baking streets dustier and more stifling ; and 
 the occupants of the human hive hummed and buzzed 
 and knocked against one another in the struggle for 
 mere life, which in the aged and weak and little ones 
 died out with appalling frequency in the narrow ovens
 
 THE METROPOLITANS 171 
 
 which they call homes. And none of them missed a 
 dainty toilet here and there, or a well-appointed trap 
 which had disappeared for a while from up-town 
 streets. Only out on the waters of the bay or river, 
 or up in the verdant, lovely Park, could it be guessed 
 how nature had once smiled here for man, until her 
 face had been covered and hidden by humanity's toil 
 and misery and incessant, carking care. 
 
 Penrose and Jenkins were among the summer 
 workers who snatched but an occasional hour or two 
 for refreshing sail or saunter. " But we have always 
 'Simla,'" the latter boasted, leaning in shirt-sleeves 
 from the lofty window of his apartment. " If not in the 
 hills, I may dream of them." Penrose, walking now 
 much alone these hot afternoons in the Park alleys or 
 the shaded galleries of the museum, found his thoughts 
 wander sometimes to a note locked away in his desk. 
 " I wonder where they are now, and what will happen 
 when if they come back. Ah ! things arrange them 
 selves in life." The few people near saw a tall, thin, 
 worn-looking man, with keen eyes, veiled by glasses, 
 strolling among the mummy-cases, and even reading 
 idly the inscriptions to the ladies of the houses Taon- 
 Hor and Arshep, while his mind, instead of conjuring 
 up the Sphinx and burning sands of Egypt, could only 
 see polar solitudes. He little thought what had once 
 happened to his friend in this very place. The De 
 Mansur house was closed when he afterward passed it. 
 " Family gone to the Yellowstone," somebody had said. 
 
 " The Lotus-eaters " and " The Miller of Dee " were 
 to appear simultaneously at two city theaters in the 
 first of the coming season, which meant that he and
 
 172 THE METROPOLITANS 
 
 Jenkins had more than enough, with regular duties, 
 to attend to. "I believe the music and book will carry 
 us through, Mr. Penrose," said Menu ; " but it was the 
 devil's own luck to have Jasmina swallowed up just 
 now. Such a card as that girl was ! I wonder what 
 struck her? I suppose she '11 turn up again some 
 time." He had raged as much over her sudden dis 
 appearance as the public had speculated. But time 
 pressed ; the inefficient understudy was relegated to a 
 minor part, and a French singer, just arrived, was 
 tried and secured for " The Lotus-eaters." There is 
 no leisure in this hurrying, bustling world to bewail 
 a loss ; it must be supplied, more or less fully. 
 
 So the long, torrid days and unrestful nights 
 dragged themselves along, and an occasional puff of 
 wind from the bay would bring a longed-for promise 
 of coolness. Then a stray leaf here and there began 
 to drop, and then faster and faster; and by and by 
 battalions of sweepers were kept busy gathering them 
 up ; and stragglers, returning from their summer out 
 ing, reappeared on the streets ; and though many of 
 Mr. Pundit's friends still shrank from the sight of the 
 beautiful slender white spires of the cathedral, and 
 lingered elsewhere until Christmas, on the whole, so 
 ciety was slowly returning. 
 
 To crowds at the theaters the two new Rexford 
 operas were brought out successfully. The cheery, the 
 stout, the florid Jenkins awoke to find himself, as a 
 librettist, effulgent with the reflected glory of the ab 
 sent composer. He ordered beers all round to cele 
 brate the event at the Chimes, and pretended to be 
 overcome with emotion at the tumultuous ovation
 
 THE METKOPOLITANS 173 
 
 greeting him there. " Tears, idle tears," he quavered, 
 with a large handkerchief pressed to his twinkling 
 eyes; "nay, worse than idle, since these briny drops 
 would flatten beer already thin enough. Boy, another 
 flagon. Gentlemen, I thank you for this loud applause. 
 I know I have done well, but it is uncommon clever in 
 the fool public to have found it out. You understand, 
 my good friends all, that this remark is strictly con 
 fidential ; nor, should I ever see it with mine eyes in 
 print, shall I scruple to deny the allegation, and to 
 kick the allegator. Only a small share of the glory, 
 did you say ? Nay, my good lord, a word in your ear : 
 les absents ont toujours tort. I wrote the music too ! " 
 
 " How much beer did you have before you came ? " 
 asked Penrose. 
 
 "Beer, forsooth! Is that the nectar you had in 
 Lotus-eaters' Land ? The Miller and all his procession 
 fared better than that. Bring still more drink, my 
 lad ; and base the slave who pays for that or anything 
 while I am here ! " 
 
 With all this flood of nonsense, Penrose knew the 
 good fellow heartily regretted that Rexford was not 
 present to claim a lion's share of the triumph. For 
 himself, success was better than failure certainly, but, 
 having done the best he could with the book, he took 
 events as they came, without much excitement. 
 
 " It might have been damned as easily," he told his 
 neighbor; "it depends very much on the mood of 
 what Jenkins calls the ' fool public.' That very clever 
 English impersonator that was here, you know, and 
 those delightful French pantomimists they had no 
 success. Anything subtle is wasted on an audience
 
 174 THE METROPOLITANS 
 
 over here." His neighbor remembered that Penrose 
 was not an American, and resented the criticism ac 
 cordingly. 
 
 Among the club dandies the appearance of the 
 French singer revived talk about Jasmina's sudden 
 vanishing. 
 
 " Good enough voice/' said Morty van Krippen, " but 
 not in it with Jasmina not a patch on her. Want 
 to do the little thing justice, though she was n't par 
 ticularly stuck on me. Poor taste, eh ? " 
 
 " Ya-as," came a languid chorus. " You 're not half 
 bad, Morty." 
 
 " But what became of her, old chappies ? That 's 
 the question. Nobody seems to know a deuced thing, 
 by Jove ! " 
 
 " Well," said Doulton-Minton, slowly pulling at his 
 mustache and affecting to look modest, "a fellow 
 does n't tell everything he knows ; but but town 's 
 deadly flat without her, and I mean to cut it myself 
 pretty soon, and run over to Paris." This hint was 
 received with mingled envy and admiration by the 
 group. 
 
 " Devil of a fellow Jack Doulton-Minton," muttered 
 Morty. 
 
 " Something of a liar too," said Ashley Vanderlyn, 
 in an undertone; "everybody knew the Hungarian 
 was wild about Rexford." 
 
 " Think she 's killed herself in some quiet corner 
 'cause he 's gone away ? " drawled his hearer. " See 
 here, what does that newspaper fellow mean that 
 Penrose by listenin' and glarin' at a man when he 
 passes ? Somebody ought to hit him."
 
 THE METROPOLITANS 175 
 
 " Might not be a soft snap," suggested Morty. " No 
 body knows much about that man ; shady past, they 
 say; knocked about all over the globe. Killed his 
 man in Kamchatka, or somewhere." 
 
 " Did he ? " said Royall Worcester, with a fleeting 
 interest. " I don't blame him ; I wish somebody 'd 
 kill mine ; he 's so deuced stupid." 
 
 " Oh, come now," said Ashley Vanderlyn, " that 's 
 cribbed from one of the comic weeklies ; you know it 
 is." 
 
 In fine, none of the gilded youth who had wildly 
 applauded the beautiful dancer's every movement, and 
 lurked at the stage door to watch for her, and sent her 
 masses of flowers, and hinted to their fellows that they 
 were favored in her smiles, not even the few admitted 
 to the charming apartments and gay little suppers, 
 cared in the least what had become of her. If she was 
 weak enough to have more heart and feeling than their 
 precious selves, so much the worse for her ; and whether 
 she lay ill in a Paris attic, or even cold in death, there 
 was always the new Mademoiselle Pas- Volants, more 
 accessible to fatuous admiration, and " no little, half- 
 savage, stand-off Gipsy, by Jove ! " 
 
 In the mean time the music of " The Lotus-eaters," 
 and even the more lightsome strains of " The Miller," 
 became almost as popular as " Zora." The box receipts 
 showed this in substantial form; and Jenkins, with 
 humor as mild as that of Mr. Peter Magnus, added 
 B. C. after his name, which meant Bloated Capitalist, 
 though cruelly misinterpreted as alluding to the date 
 of his birth. Katherine, coming back from the Pacific 
 coast, and the Federlings, gaily returning from their
 
 176 THE METROPOLITANS 
 
 tour abroad, heard the melodies chanted and strummed 
 and tinkled and whistled in opera-house, concert hall, 
 Vaudeville Club, drawing-room, on the street every 
 where. It was at a private exhibition of paintings by 
 a foreign artist with a wonderful name that Penrose 
 first saw Miss de Mansur on her return. He had 
 paused to look at a gory and painfully realistic head 
 of Holofernes when he observed Katherine near by, 
 her cousin in attendance. She seemed to him taller 
 and paler, and took but a perfunctory interest in the 
 works of art. 
 
 " This is the most bloody object yet/' said Mr. Oof- 
 ton, with strong disapproval, " where all is carnage. 
 Why, it is worse than a Matabele skirmish ! " 
 
 " You should feel at home, then ; but cheer up ; there 
 are only fifteen more by the catalogue." 
 
 " Fifteen more nightmares ! Let us go ; these hor 
 rors cannot be good for you." 
 
 Penrose divined that the young man would have 
 liked to keep from her all manner of unpleasantness. 
 He was familiar with the report which asserted posi 
 tively that he had been given the right. The journal 
 ist's lip smiled cynically. " My nut-brown maid's warm 
 heart and loyalty are worth a thousand of these great 
 ladies whose love is fatal." The cousins turned to go, 
 and Miss de Mansur saw Penrose, whom she knew 
 very slightly. She stopped now. 
 
 "How do you do, Mr. Penrose? I find, after my 
 absence, your name on all lips. Let me congratulate 
 you on the success of ' The Lotus-eaters.' " 
 
 "Thank you" (briefly). "The librettist, however, 
 can hardly claim a large share of credit in an opera.
 
 THE METROPOLITANS 177 
 
 You may remark that the orchestra here, now playing a 
 part of it, gets on very successfully without the words." 
 
 " That that is a very striking melody ; I do not 
 know the words." - 
 
 11 It is ' The House of Clay.' The words are not mine ; 
 they are some I fancied, and interpolated as in harmony 
 with the spirit of the score. It is good of you to take 
 so much interest." 
 
 " Not at all " (with an access of coldness). " I delight 
 in all talent, and I used to know your collaborator, 
 Mr. Rexford. He is quite well? You hear often? 
 Oh, of course not ; how could you from that distance ? " 
 A few more polite trivialities in a sweet, even, uncon 
 cerned tone, and she went away slowly, moving her 
 graceful head from side to side, down the lane of pic 
 tures. 
 
 " I thank Heaven," he muttered, " for my small ac 
 quaintance with these daughters of the gods. They 
 chill a man, even when he regards them least. The 
 frank 'give-and-take that loves for a day, a week, a 
 year, I have known ; but the best of sweethearts is 
 one's pipe. Yale Mixture is good enough for me ! " 
 He stared at Holof ernes's ghastly head, and saw in its 
 place a sudden wearisome panorama of a boyhood 
 in Wales, embittered with harsh words and blows; 
 dragged later hither and thither in travels where he was 
 neglected and misused ; and then cruelly abandoned, 
 and kept in life only through a Gipsy's pity. " I might 
 have been different if fate Yes, they chill one." 
 
 "Hello, Penrose ! " called an acquaintance, "you look 
 as if you had seen a ghost. No wonder, if you persist 
 
 in admiring that hideous Judith." 
 12
 
 178 THE METROPOLITANS 
 
 And this girl of manner so chilling was in a tumult 
 of feeling going homeward, while she mechanically 
 answered her cousin's remarks. "No," she told her 
 self ; " no, no, no ! I will not buy his opera. If I hear 
 those melodies it shall be by chance. I will punish 
 myself that way, at least, that I was so eager to hear 
 his name that I would stop to speak to a slight ac 
 quaintance on the mere chance of hearing some news 
 of him of him, who has perhaps forgotten me. And 
 this good man devoted at my side, why must I deny 
 him for a mere memory?" 
 
 The Federlings came in that evening, with some 
 thing of the freshness on them of their flight over 
 seas. Angelica, after first greetings, began at once, 
 with gay complacency : 
 
 " My dear, you will be delighted to hear that papa 
 and Otto are the greatest of chums. They talk chem 
 istry and mining and such stuff until I am bored to 
 death. But mamma well, Miss Lavender is summer 
 heat to the way she tried to freeze him, and only 
 thawed when she found he did n't mind at all. That 's 
 the most delightful moldy old ruin of a place on the 
 Rhine, with ivy and beetles all over it ; and inside the 
 ten little frauleins, so kind and so friendly, and such 
 good musicians and cooks ! I think they were rather 
 shocked at my Worth gowns and command of pocket- 
 money. I mean to have some of the dear creatures 
 over here sometime ; but they will not like it. And 
 Anastelle ! I gave that poor child some hints which 
 may save her from any prowling De Vauriens. The 
 Venetian glass ? Oh, yes, I am glad you liked it." 
 
 Otto, who had been placidly awaiting his opportu-
 
 THE METROPOLITANS 179 
 
 nity, approached Katherine with a flat package. " It is 
 nothing foreign," he said ; " only the music of the new 
 opera, bound, which is now out in Paris and London. 
 There was nothing new more melodious, and my An 
 gelica said you both knew the composer." She had 
 not bought nor sought this music, though the melan 
 choly minor strain of " The House of Clay " had been 
 pursuing her since yesterday. He placed the book in 
 the music-rack, and opened at that very place. " You 
 will try this for me, will you not ? " It would be un 
 gracious to refuse. She struck the opening chords 
 mechanically. "It is against my will," she thought, 
 and sang : 
 
 " There was a House a House of Clay, 
 Wherein the inmate sang all day, 
 
 Merry and poor. 
 
 For Hope sat, likewise, heart to heart, 
 Vowing he never would depart ; 
 Till, all at once, he changed his mind : 
 'Sweetheart, good-by.' He slipped away 
 
 And shut the door. 
 
 " But Love came past, and, looking in 
 With smiles that pierced like sunshine thin 
 
 Through wall, roof, floor, 
 Stood, in the midst of that poor room, 
 
 Grand and fair, grand and fair, 
 Making a glory out of gloom ; 
 
 Till at the window mocked old Care. 
 Love sighed : ' All lose, and nothing win ? ' 
 He shut the door." 
 
 She had sung steadily through this with clear voice, 
 but it sank away on these last words. " You are too 
 tired ! " cried Angelica. " Otto " (reproachfully), " when
 
 180 THE METROPOLITANS 
 
 you reach that point of ecstasy over music that you 
 stand with your mouth open, you would let a singer 
 wear herself to death without noticing." 
 
 " I am not so weak as that," said Katheriue, forcing 
 a smile, and continuing : 
 
 " Then o'er the barred House of Clay 
 Kind jessamine and roses gay 
 
 Grew evermore. 
 And bees hummed merrily outside 
 
 Loud and strong, loud and strong, 
 The inner silentness to hide, 
 
 The steadfast silence all day long ; 
 Till evening touched, with finger gray, 
 The close-shut door." 
 
 But Angelica was now looking over her shoulder. 
 " You must not sing the last verse," she said with de 
 cision. " It is quite too sad, though the air is lovely. 
 Otto, find something more cheerful. Katherine," 
 she confided to Mr. Crofton, "is not looking as well 
 as she ought, after all that travel. She is still griev 
 ing, I am afraid." 
 
 " She will soon feel the good effect of your cheerful 
 society," said Mr. Crofton, politely, with whom Angel 
 ica was not a favorite. 
 
 " I don't know," she said abstractedly ; but Katherine 
 had summoned a smile, and was playing something 
 spirited; but her fingers were cold, and she hardly 
 knew when the Federlings took their leave. For all 
 these words, words, words suddenly seemed so idle 
 when, even now, the long arctic darkness was closing 
 around some one some one ; and a breath from that 
 frozen region seemed to blow upon her as she sat there.
 
 THE METROPOLITANS 181 
 
 It was not well for Reginald Crof ton that lie should 
 have chosen just this time for the pressing of his suit. 
 " Forgive me ! forgive me that I cannot ! " she pleaded 
 quite piteously for the usually self-possessed maiden 
 that he knew. "It was wicked even to think for a 
 moment, as I confess I have done, of marrying you 
 without a heart to give." 
 
 " If I am satisfied" 
 
 " No, no ! take my word that it can never be." 
 
 " Never is a long day. But, Katherine, it is my last 
 time of asking, for I am weary now of hanging about 
 this dull town. If my patient months of waiting and 
 serving are to count for nothing There was some 
 thing grimly resentful in the regular lines of his hand 
 some mouth, for he had grown restive in the suspense 
 of the last year. 
 
 " Oh, dear Reginald, forgive me/' was all she could 
 find to say. And less than a month after he was on 
 his way to Matabeleland, and his mother was listen 
 ing to Archibald Pundit, who murmured sympatheti 
 cally : 
 
 "Ah, yes, my dear madam, these young men little 
 know, don't you understand, what their restless love 
 of wandering inflicts on those to whom they are dear. 
 I feel, don't you know, with all my heart for your 
 loneliness. Ah ! sometimes," he said, with a glance at 
 unconscious Katherine, "cruel beauty is to blame in 
 these matters." (Her aunt gave the girl the first cold 
 look she had ever encountered from those mild eyes.) 
 " There is Allan Rexford too, don't you remember of 
 course you do 'Lotus-eaters' and that, don't you 
 know. The rage, I believe, though I don't understand 
 12*
 
 182 THE METROPOLITANS 
 
 music and all that ; but a fine fellow, that I always 
 liked and praised everywhere ; but would n't listen to 
 a word against going off on some wild-goose chase, 
 don't you know, among the icebergs. And nobody 
 knows where he is, just when his mother most needs 
 him ; for it was only yesterday, my dear madam, I had 
 the duty of writing a letter of condolence to her on 
 the unexpected demise of the nobleman, her husband." 
 (He cast down his eyes decorously. It was not neces 
 sary, and besides would be disrespectful to the British 
 peerage, to relate to a lady the circumstances attending 
 that nobleman's sudden taking off.) " I hope my letter 
 may prove some small comfort to her. I have had 
 lately a little experience in literary work." 
 
 It was a fact that he condescended to furnish to the 
 " Argus " some weekly obiter dicta on matters of form, 
 which Penrose, on another page of the same great 
 journal, ridiculed so subtly that most people took it 
 for praise. 
 
 " Do you mean to say that we are going to print 
 these solemn platitudes regularly ? " asked Jenkins of 
 his chief. 
 
 "Where is wisdom and the place of understanding? 
 Not in the depth, nor in the sea, nor yet in the great 
 mass of newspaper readers. Mr. Pundit has many ad 
 mirers, and he owes me the small revenge of watching 
 him write himself down an ass," said he, and continued 
 to print Mr. Pundit's mental wanderings with heb 
 domadal regularity. 
 
 In the meanwhile that gentleman's letter, which 
 spoke of Lord Mellon's demise as a loss to the English
 
 THE METROPOLITANS 183 
 
 nobility, and consequently to the civilized world, and 
 suggested him as a model for the youth of his country, 
 found and left the widow quite dry-eyed down in the 
 seclusion of Oudenarde. She had, indeed, been alone 
 there for many months before the lamentable event 
 which caused the coming down from London of a 
 special funeral train ; when, with solemn pageant of 
 woe, the body of Frederick, Lord Mellon, was laid 
 away with his forefathers, who could not rise up to 
 protest, nor yet to accept him as a weak copy, with 
 modern limitations, of the brilliant, dashing, venal, 
 and unscrupulous founder of the family. His long 
 absence had been a sensible relief to Lady Mellon, 
 absorbed in her little son, on whom her ambitions 
 were staked ; and she was scornfully aware that the 
 stroke which ended him came while he drove in Hyde 
 Park under the lace parasol of a chorus-girl. " How 
 horrid ! " the latter said, when told that her escort was 
 quite dead. " He might 'a' taken me 'ome first ! " But 
 she made a duty of composing herself before the even 
 ing operetta. 
 
 And Lady Mellon, calm, stately, and unmoved, gave 
 her approval to a Latin inscription to be placed in the 
 village church, which celebrated the virtues and noble 
 deeds of the " warrior, statesman, husband, father, and 
 friend." The list of his recent debts was handed her 
 later, and, though she had had much experience in this 
 line, it amazed even her. The long some said pur 
 poselydelayed letters from the Queen, confirming 
 renewal of the title of Marquis of Gourdes to the little 
 heir, coming now, made her heart swell with pride.
 
 184 THE METROPOLITANS 
 
 But the child had grown very delicate in the last year 
 or two, and was but a fragile little reed on which to 
 lean such weighty hopes. If she thought at all of the 
 strong arm and warm heart of the other son, wander 
 ing on distant ice-fields, she gave no sign.
 
 XV 
 
 P in the great frozen, silent North this son 
 walked now in perpetual snows. The 
 haunting care which had dogged his steps 
 in city streets was doubtless at his elbow 
 here, or lay in wait across each crackling 
 ice- waste or behind each shimmering berg to mock at 
 his heartache ; but the outside world was so dazzling 
 in its strangeness, so novel in its magnificence, that 
 it must, perforce, distract the outer sense, and almost 
 convince one that the planet was left behind where 
 weakness and passion cloud the air, and one attained 
 where all was fine and pure and clear. 
 
 That is, Rexford amended the thought, if one might 
 be alone with nature. But after a long sledging tour 
 over the lakes, or a tramp on snow-shoes through the 
 drifts, the wings of exaltation would be suddenly 
 clipped, and he knew he was on earth by finding the 
 Eskimo driver quarreling over his share of seal meat ; 
 or Dr. Ritler, good fellow as he was, disposed to find 
 fault with things unavoidable. The little party was 
 now ensconced in winter quarters ; a carefully con 
 structed house of fair dimensions, near the frozen 
 fiord, and sheltered as far as might be by immense 
 cliffs to the north. Through a break in these had 
 
 185
 
 186 THE METROPOLITANS 
 
 Rexford returned only yesterday from a long sledge 
 journey. This was to be the last long trip until the 
 sun should return to them, for on this October day he 
 would leave them for all the dark winter. Rexford, 
 restless on this last day of light, had left the station 
 and climbed the hills at some distance for a better 
 view. It was cloudy, but through a rift here and there 
 broke gleams which gilded the high snow-peaks, while 
 the low-lying valleys lay in deep shadow. Then a 
 wind sprang up which tossed and tumbled the clouds 
 hither and thither, and gave a dissolving view of a 
 crag or hilltop here, and again of the harbor and the 
 outer bay there ; and the sun painted them in strange 
 and varying and fitful colors, as the wind and the 
 clouds would let him. The snow crackled under a 
 light footfall behind Rexford, and he let his eyes 
 wander for a moment from these marvels to Jasmina 
 stopping beside him. She was not in the least breath 
 less from the climb, but the exertion had brought a 
 deeper tint into her olive cheek, that was a little less 
 round, perhaps, than it had been, and her bright dark 
 eyes had a wistfulness now and then which it might 
 have hurt the absent Penrose to notice. She wore her 
 short crimson blanket skirt, tanned top-boots, sealskin 
 jacket, hood, and mittens with the same distinction 
 with which she had formerly borne her silk attire. 
 Indeed, her hand rested on the cartridge-belt and re 
 volver at her waist with an ease bespeaking delight at 
 escaping from civilization's restraints. But alas for 
 the Romany girl that it was to these ice-fields rather 
 than her native greenwood that her heart had led her ! 
 Some shadowy thought of the kind must have crossed
 
 THE METROPOLITANS 187 
 
 Rexford's mind in looking at her now, for he said ab 
 ruptly, " It is as much a surprise to me each time as 
 it was the first to see you here, Jasmina as though 
 I should meet a humming-bird perched on a floe, or 
 find a field of passion-flowers in the north valley." 
 
 "Yes," she answered simply, "it is strange to be 
 here in all this whiteness and barrenness and coldness ; 
 but I am glad I came." 
 
 " You are not homesick ? " 
 
 "Oh, homesick! I never had any special home. 
 The home is where the heart well, you know. Dr. 
 and Mrs. Ritler are so kind. I should tell them who 
 I am, but what does it matter, if I too love adventure 
 like them ? I do my share of work." 
 
 "Indeed you do" (warmly). "You certainly earn 
 your share in such glory as any of us is likely to get 
 up here, and in the little cubbyhole each one calls his 
 own indoors. I don't see how Mrs. Ritler could have 
 done without you at all ; but she must think us very 
 good friends on very short notice." 
 
 She gave him a long look which he did not see, as 
 he was once more observing the magnificent panorama 
 before him. A patch of yellow sunlight on a cliff 
 across the bay drew his attention to a moving object 
 there. " Is it a fox," he asked, " or a white hare ? " 
 
 " More likely a little brent-goose or an ivory gull ; 
 they have not all gone south yet. That light mist 
 floating about magnifies things so. The pack of wolves 
 that came visiting us while you were gone, why, they 
 seemed musk-oxen at least for size." 
 
 " Ah, yes ; I am told you distinguished yourself then, 
 Jasmina, being the only light-foot that succeeded in
 
 188 THE METROPOLITANS 
 
 getting near enough for a shot ; but they should not 
 have let you try. I hear there were twenty gaunt, 
 hungry-looking brutes at that." 
 
 " Oh " (lightly), " there was no risk ; they ran away, 
 so that we only got the body of the one I wounded 
 after chasing him for ever so far. If they had been 
 walruses, now" (roguishly). 
 
 He smiled too, but more gravely, not liking to re 
 member the peril the two women had been in. It was 
 he and the Eskimo who had taken her and Mrs. Ritler 
 out in a kayak before the harbor ice was firm, and had 
 harpooned a walrus which had dragged the boat 
 through the new ice into a whole school of the mon 
 sters. It was something to put away for use as a 
 nightmare, that memory of the swarming huge heads 
 and grinding tusks and glaring, fierce eyes of the hun 
 dred and more furious brutes ; and the smoke of the 
 incessant crack of the guns which the women steadily 
 loaded and passed to them ; and the tilting boat which 
 the whirling, plunging mass of driving beasts threat 
 ened every moment to sink. 
 
 The pearl-gray cloud-masses sundered, showing col 
 ors of vivid orange and gorgeous red ; then slowly 
 rolled back, curtain-wise, and over the grand arctic 
 scene burst the crimson sunshine, rosing mountains, 
 cliffs, and bay for the last time this year. They were 
 silent and breathless until the red faded into yellow, 
 and that into light gray once more. 
 
 "See," then cried Rexford, "my fox or hare has 
 turned into a bird, as you said. It is coming this 
 way." He unslung his rifle as the bird flew through 
 the sharp air toward them.
 
 THE METROPOLITANS 189 
 
 " No, no," she said, her hand on his arm ; " let it go." 
 
 " As you say " (somewhat surprised), " but I thought 
 you would like a shot yourself. It may be the last for 
 some time. In the twilight that has come their white 
 winter uniform makes bird and beast invisible." 
 
 " To think," she said, with soft impressiveness, " that 
 a month ago we shot those ptarmigans in brown and 
 black feathers, and now they have put on a spotless 
 white plumage." 
 
 " We are in a wonderful white country up here," he 
 answered lightly. " Perhaps all the dusky plumes of 
 our past will slip away from us too, and our souls take 
 on snowy pinions like the birds, to match the universal 
 whiteness." At the same moment he remembered 
 calling Katherine once "the wings of his soul," and 
 knew that in coming hither to escape poignant regrets 
 he had done a vain thing. 
 
 And Jasmina thought suddenly of a camp-fire and 
 clashing cymbals, and angry words and oaths and 
 shouts, and the flash of knives and a downward blow 
 and stillness ! And then of orchestral strains that 
 stirred the blood, and glancing feet, and wild applause, 
 and wealth of blossoms and warm-scented bowers. 
 But she had no regrets, and said quite simply, " I am 
 not sure I have a soul. But it is no matter ; I have a 
 heart to feel with." 
 
 "But not much light to see with," he said, with 
 forced jesting. For now the pale yellow had given 
 place everywhere to a light gray, and that to one 
 deeper and darker of hue. "The arctic night has 
 come. Let us go down. Give me your hand, Jasmina. 
 In the half-light it is easy to fall on these slopes."
 
 190 THE METROPOLITANS 
 
 Across the hills came Dr. Ritler and his wife, who, 
 from a farther height, had also watched the going of 
 the sun. "Your companion, my dear," he said, at 
 sight of Jasmina, "grows prettier and more girlish 
 every day. One a trifle older and plainer would have 
 suited our purpose as well. Do you, perhaps, spoil 
 her a little?" 
 
 " It will not hurt," said his strong, capable, sensible 
 wife. " She is a great help, with all her prettiness. 
 There was no rush of older, plainer applicants." She 
 went into the house with Jasmina. 
 
 " You should have been with us, Mr. Rexf ord," called 
 the professor. "Our point overlooked the bay, and 
 before the light went we saw gamboling and snorting 
 about the ice-cakes forty or more white whales the 
 last of the season, I fancy." 
 
 " I had my gun ; I wish I 'd been with you," said 
 Rexford, with unmistakable regret, which seemed to 
 remove a misgiving of the professor's. "And look 
 there ! I appear to have missed everything ! " 
 
 The eager young college graduate who had come 
 with them as astronomer and photographer had been 
 out in a kayak with Jens to paddle. They were com 
 ing now from the other side, excited over something, 
 which was presently seen to be a reindeer, and the 
 soun d of shots came through the clear air. The animal 
 was wounded, killed perhaps, for, after struggling 
 along the ice-foot, it fell, half in, half out, of the water. 
 They approached it, taking extraordinary pains not 
 to lose game so late in the season. Down below Jas 
 mina came out of the house, and, taking a horn hang 
 ing there, blew a blast to recall wanderers ; and the
 
 THE METROPOLITANS 191 
 
 sound, thrown from cliff to cliff, echoed and reechoed 
 until it sank into silence. Then, awaiting them, she 
 took a broom and swept off the few steps leading from 
 indoors. Her movements were as graceful in this as 
 they had ever been before the footlights ; and the shed 
 and supports of the lean-to made a frame for the slight, 
 crimson-clad figure. The surgeon, also a botanist, 
 came from the rear of the house, the tin case over his 
 shoulder filled with the specimens he had been collect 
 ing in the valley. Her clear laugh at some jest of his 
 reached faintly and pleasantly to where they stood. 
 
 " Our maid," said Dr. Eitler, " is unusual in every 
 way. Mrs. Eitler reports her very helpful, but quite 
 indifferent as to compensation present or future. If 
 we had had more time I might have doubted the wis 
 dom of bringing her. Is n't it rather extraordinary 
 that a young and beautiful girl should be attracted by 
 the hardships of polar adventure ? " 
 
 " Women prefer to do unusual things at this end of 
 the century," said Rexford, shortly. " I am not young 
 enough to pretend to understand them." The hard 
 ness in his tone was evoked by quite another than 
 Jasmina. As for her, after his first shock of unpleased 
 surprise at this unexpected link with the life he had 
 desired to leave quite behind him, he had taken her 
 presence very much as a matter of course. "Well," 
 he resumed more pleasantly, " if she does not freeze 
 up here, fragile as she looks, she will always be com 
 pany for Mrs. Ritler when we are away ; and when we 
 get down to scant rations she will keep up the spirits 
 of the youngsters." 
 
 "No fear of that," cried the professor, cheerily.
 
 192 THE METEOPOLITANS 
 
 " There is ample provision for our comfort until the 
 ship comes for us in the spring. Our high thinking 
 is to be done on high living." 
 
 As they approached the house the kayak had been 
 beached, and the Eskimo and the boys were bringing 
 the carcass of the deer up the path. Again Jasmina, 
 laughing, sounded the horn. " These delays must be 
 frowned on," said Mrs. Ritler, as they all came troop 
 ing in. " I have been indulgent in the beginning, but 
 mean to enforce strict attention to meal-time for the 
 sake of Mina's culinary triumphs and my own." She 
 surveyed the little table in the common dining- and 
 living-room with pardonable pride ; for it was quite 
 homelike with unbleached table-cloth and napkins, 
 and gay with the arctic poppies the surgeon had 
 brought Jasmina. 
 
 "You will have us with you more than you wish, 
 perhaps," said her husband, "now that the sun has 
 gone." 
 
 "I believe you," laughed Mrs. Ritler, "for needs 
 must."
 
 XVI 
 
 the living-room, within doors, a great 
 Rochester lamp shed its needed rays over 
 the little group busily occupied in their 
 daytime labors. 
 
 "I think," said Dr. Ritler, standing 
 back to admire the effect of the last piece of red blan 
 keting tacked up to form ceiling and wall covering, " that 
 our tapestry is something as unique as pleasantly warm 
 in tone. I envy no monarch his palace or its hangings, 
 now that this last heavy snowfall has given us such a 
 comfortable thatch. We need not desire a cozier home." 
 The photographer, arranging some negatives at a table, 
 looked up and smiled approvingly. " Now," continued 
 he, " here are some weeks of the longest, darkest days 
 away, and they have seemed as bright as bright as 
 our Mina, for instance." He beamed paternally on that 
 graceful creature's opportune appearance, broom in 
 hand, to clear up the litter he had made. She helped 
 him skilfully to hang up the flags, with which, on this 
 white arctic Christmas eve, the walls were to be further 
 decorated. 
 
 "Is it a wild songster of the woods or a foreign 
 bird of Paradise that we have tamed into a household 
 joy ? " he had asked his wife once or twice lately. " Both, 
 w 193
 
 194 THE METEOPOLITANS 
 
 perhaps," she had answered lightly, without imagining 
 that she spoke the truth. She had been won from the 
 first by the girl's charm, and to this little band, so far 
 from conventionalities, Jasmina's lightness of hand and 
 foot, and deftness in household tasks, and pleasant voice 
 and smile were treasures in sunless days and long arctic 
 evenings. 
 
 " Come out," called the professor, now, tapping on 
 the partition from behind which came appetizing odors. 
 " Leave Mina there and come with me to the dogs' igloo. 
 It is time to feed them, and Jens is at the fox-traps. 
 Rexf ord and the boys should be in now with the sledge 
 with the ice, for the water is nearly out." He and his 
 wife passed out toward the dogs' snow house, where the 
 animals might soon have been heard growling and fight 
 ing over their food, and indoors the photographer and 
 Jasmina pursued their avocation ; but presently Jens 
 thrust in his shaggy head and called to the former. He 
 went out at once, closing this and the outer door, but 
 through them came to Jasmina a great hubbub of voices. 
 Her unreasoning heart leaped to the conclusion that 
 some one Rexford, perhaps had returned hurt from 
 cutting ice. There was no time for the usual outdoor 
 toilet ; she caught up a great fur robe and, wrapping 
 it round her, ran out in the snow. Instinct took her 
 along the beaten path for a while, but, though it should 
 have been a moon-lit day, the sky was heavily over 
 clouded and she could not see a step in advance. In 
 the direction of the dogs' house there was the sound 
 of barking, and far down the path, past the Eskimo 
 igloo in which lived Jens, two or three lanterns glim 
 mered and moved to and fro with the group there,
 
 THE METROPOLITANS 195 
 
 whose voices came to her. She directed her course, 
 as she thought, toward them, but in her haste swerved 
 to the left, and then, with a misstep, stumbled and 
 rolled down the snow-bank, coming with force upon 
 the ice-foot. Stunned at first, she found herself un 
 able to cry out and became very weak. Then the group 
 passed along on the pathway above, their lanterns 
 swinging, and she could hear them laughing and 
 speaking of a white fox caught in Jens's trap, which 
 had been the cause of his excitement. She distin 
 guished Rexford's vibrant tones saying, "Best time 
 yet to bring in a load of ice from the two-mile berg. 
 Doctor, you and I are the record-breakers ; it is just 
 noon." 
 
 "How can you tell," some one asked, "until we get 
 in to the lamp ? You cannot see the face of your watch 
 at noon now, and your lantern 's out. Jens, get on ; 
 that 's a fierce gust blowing up." After that she re 
 membered nothing. 
 
 The men were all busied for a while removing out 
 door wraps, and it was not until Mrs. Ritler had heated 
 the stew again and was about to place it on the lunch- 
 table that she suddenly exclaimed, -" And where is Mina 
 all this time?" 
 
 " I left her here," said the photographer. 
 
 The professor promptly went out, and after calling 
 once or twice tramped to Jens's igloo, from which he 
 came to say she had not been there. The wind was 
 now howling and hurtling against the outer wall which 
 formed a protected passage around the house. 
 
 " We must look for her," exclaimed Rexford. He 
 and the surgeon were already pulling on the snow- wet
 
 196 THE METROPOLITANS 
 
 outer furs just discarded. The latter was the first out, 
 lantern in hand, and Rexf ord close behind him. They 
 went hither and thither, knee-deep in snow, about the 
 house, which, with its superincumbent load, looked like 
 a great snow-hill, with the lower white mounds of the 
 igloos close beside. When they met each other on the 
 foot-path the surgeon's face looked wild and anxious 
 under his hood. " Mina ! Mina ! " he tried to shout, 
 but in this boisterous wind his voice reached but a few 
 paces. 
 
 " She may have gone down the foot-path and fallen," 
 shouted Rexf ord. He went ahead, flashing his lantern 
 over every foot of snow, and at last observed where it 
 was beaten down on one side, where she had stumbled 
 and slipped. Scrambling down the embankment, he 
 saw her form outstretched. He waved his lantern to 
 the surgeon, then spoke to her, and, receiving no an 
 swer, stooped and picked her up. The surgeon reached 
 them breathless, having fallen once or twice in his haste. 
 " Give her to me," he said abruptly. 
 
 " Let 's get her in first," replied Rexf ord, as shortly. 
 " Take my light too. There 's the bank to climb." 
 
 Up this they went, breasting the wind and snow. 
 On the pathway she opened her eyes, saw Rexford's 
 face close to hers, and murmured, "You were not hurt, 
 then ? I was frightened. I ran out to see." The sur 
 geon did not hear her words, but he saw her smile at 
 her bearer before she closed her eyes again, and he 
 ground his teeth. So strangely rough was his manner 
 to Rexford, in some few necessary directions about the 
 patient on entering, that even the professor was struck 
 by it.
 
 THE METROPOLITANS 197 
 
 " Shall we have a little drama of love and jealousy 
 up here in the frozen zone ? " he asked his wife, jocosely. 
 
 " I hope/' she answered severely, " that we have left 
 all that nonsense behind us." She had suffered as keen 
 anxiety as he for the safety of their pretty Hungarian, 
 but her nerves began to feel the reaction and the 
 ptarmigan stew had again grown cold. She was 
 heartily glad the girl was not seriously hurt, but she 
 steeled herself against the grateful look in Jasmina's 
 great soft eyes when she closed them like a tired, 
 bruised child after her ministrations. " I shall keep 
 her busier than ever," she resolved sternly, " and the 
 spring will soon be back." But when the long after 
 noon and night's rest restored Jasmina, and with the 
 coming of Christmas morning she was herself again, 
 moving at her side all sympathy and warm helpf ulness. 
 she thought no more of these perplexities, but was glad 
 of such deft aid in perfecting their little festive arrange 
 ments. Late in rising, the two women were yet first 
 in moving about softly in the morning of the holiday, 
 decking as prettily as possible the table for the noon 
 day breakfast, at which the little party exchanged their 
 merry greetings. Dr. Andersen had brought all the 
 way from Uppernivik a little box of holly, carefully 
 waxed and kept, and Jasmina, accepting it, placed a 
 spray in her bodice and her dark hair and watched for 
 its effect on Rexford, whose eyes, indeed, were with 
 his thoughts this festive day, and that was far away. 
 To haul ice, help train the dogs, hunt, do anything 
 conducive to dreamless sleep, was well enough, but 
 these holidays were trying. He gave a sort of groan 
 When breakfast was at length over, hastening then to 
 
 13*
 
 198 THE METROPOLITANS 
 
 thank Mrs. Ritler for a pretty card, the only possible 
 exchange of gifts up here. Jasmina's to him was 
 wrapped in tissue-paper ; it contained her own picture, 
 smiling and glowing in Zora's Gipsy dress. His heart 
 smote him, remembering her aid in his success. " Good 
 Lord ! " he thought bitterly, " by what spite of human 
 nature is it that a man should let the unattainable 
 always spoil the present? Why cannot I make bet 
 ter return for these women's friendliness than by a 
 gloomy face ? " He kissed her hand under Mrs. Hitler's 
 eyes. 
 
 " That was a famous triumph for us both, and I still 
 owe you much for my share." 
 
 She laughed happily, and turned with her old soft 
 daring to Mrs. Ritler. "He flatters," she said. "I 
 was the prima donna, but another could have done as 
 much with that music, he knows very well." 
 
 Mrs. Ritler looked from one to the other bewildered ; 
 but she had almost expected something like this. 
 
 " She sings, and has never sung for us at all ! " 
 
 Jasmina flushed. She had waited for Rexford to ask 
 her, fancying, without knowing why, that he and music 
 were at odds. " I will tell you all about it soon," she 
 said to Mrs. Ritler. 
 
 " The table looks very nice. All may go now for a 
 tramp. It will give you appetites." 
 
 Outside the walking party started for their tramp on 
 snow-shoes. A clear moon lighted the midday sky. 
 The two lads, going ahead, called back that they would 
 best keep to the beaten track, the snow-drifts being so 
 deep. Dr. Ritler kept his big pipe glowing and smok 
 ing between his teeth as he strode on. " How heavenly
 
 THE METROPOLITANS 199 
 
 fair the cliffs and bergs and all this whiteness show in 
 the silvery light ! " muttered the big man, to whom poetry 
 and tobacco were the breath of Me. The wonderful 
 landscape was nothing to Dr. Andersen. He knelt in 
 the snow, pretending to find something wrong with his 
 ski, so that he might linger until Rexford and Jas- 
 mina came up. But the path was narrow for three, 
 and she was too joyously decided as to who her com 
 panion should be to make the manoeuver worth while. 
 He went on in sullenness, and answered at random the 
 professor's stray remarks, while the crisp air brought 
 back to him, as if in mockery, the youngsters' roars of 
 laughter and scraps of college songs. A line or two 
 of " The Son of a Gambolier " recalled to Rexford a 
 night in New York, with a noisy troop of students 
 shouting along the pavement, and Penrose standing 
 beside him. 
 
 " I beg your pardon ; I was not listening." 
 
 "I was only saying," Jasmina laughed, "that you 
 might smoke if you liked." She looked like a small 
 bundle of furs, so enveloped was she in her long Jcoo- 
 letah; but her bright face peeped out from the fur hood, 
 little chin and rosy lips pursed up, and great eyes 
 dancing. 
 
 " Take care ! " He held out a f ur-mittened hand as 
 she slipped. She laid hers on it a moment, then with 
 drew it. " No, I am not going to take help. Dr. Ritler 
 tells me I am improving wonderfully in snow-shoe 
 walking." 
 
 " Is there anything those light, clever little feet can 
 not do ? " 
 
 She laughed again, a tinkling, silvery laugh on the
 
 200 THE METROPOLITANS 
 
 frosty air, with a wistful note which came from the 
 heart's great yearning for a word of tenderness rather 
 than compliment. They went on for a few moments 
 in silence. 
 
 " It seems a long time," she said then, hesitatingly, 
 " since I have danced, and none of us sing any more." 
 
 He did not tell her that he had shrunk from all re 
 minders of that art, his mistress, only less fair and 
 adored than one other with whom he connected her. 
 But something in her tone touched him and recalled 
 Penrose once more. 
 
 "Why should you not sing and dance sometimes? 
 You will electrify the doctor and Mrs. Ritler ; the boys 
 will be quite wild with delighted wonder ; as for the 
 Norwegian surgeon, his case will be past praying 
 for." 
 
 " Oh ! Dr. Andersen " (shrugging her shoulders as 
 well as she could under the furs). "Would you like 
 it?" 
 
 "Jasmina," he answered gently, "when one has a 
 little comrade like you, who has helped him gallantly 
 pn occasion, he likes whatever she chooses to do." 
 
 They met the others now at the foot of the hill, and 
 the racing, shouting, laughing, and talking were gen 
 eral on the way back. "Upon my word," cried Mrs. 
 Ritler, as they came in on her, full of Christmas merri 
 ment and rosy from the cold air, " I might have believed, 
 from the uproar, that it was a band of wild revelers 
 rather than one little white company ! " She was in 
 her best black silk to receive them, and wore a smile 
 of housewifely complacency, justified by the profuse 
 compliments paid her.
 
 THE METROPOLITANS 201 
 
 " You look lovely, my dear," said her husband, with 
 enthusiasm, " and so does the table." 
 
 " Hear, hear ! " cried the young men, who presently 
 did full justice to this Christmas feast, for which she 
 had exhausted the resources of her arctic larder. 
 
 Rexford, to whom the Christmas mood had not 
 come, found himself wondering at the light-hearted- 
 ness of the two youngest men, now playing tricks of 
 legerdemain with the wine-glasses. He noticed indif 
 ferently that Jasmina had not, like Mrs. Ritler, paid 
 them the compliment of a special toilet, though she 
 still wore in bodice and hair the holly the surgeon had 
 given her ; and he thought of the radiant creature, as 
 he had so often seen her, in full dress at evening func 
 tions such as this, but in civilized confines. Yet her 
 early life, from stray bits of information accorded by 
 herself or Penrose, had been more unconventional than 
 this until she had burst into full splendor. And now, 
 after such varied and final brilliancy of career, to be 
 trying once more her Gipsy skill in cooking for the 
 little group up here under the polar moon it was like 
 the fabric of a vision. 
 
 "Will you kindly pass the nut-crackers, Rexford," 
 said Dr. Ritler, "unless you want all the nuts your 
 self?" 
 
 "Certainly; they were of no use to me with the 
 special nut on which I was engaged." 
 
 " Drop it, then," counseled Mrs. Ritler, with a half- 
 meaning. She was of opinion, this practical, clear 
 headed woman, that singleness of purpose, and no 
 sentimental complications, best suited the purpose of 
 the Ritler expedition. And Rexford, filling his pipe
 
 202 THE METROPOLITANS 
 
 and puffing great volumes of smoke, did not know that 
 while Mrs. Ritler was clearing the table and laying out 
 the wine and tobacco Jasmina had disappeared. Dr. 
 Ritler came in, stamping the snow off in the outer 
 passage. "Ha! this is cozy," he declared. "Jens is 
 fed, and so are the dogs. Nothing to do for the even 
 ing but smoke and talk. To think that it marks fifty 
 below zero outside ! Rexf ord, have you been tamper 
 ing with my pet pipe ? I thought you would hardly 
 be so mean in this latitude. Why Mina ! " 
 
 The others stared without a word, except the astron 
 omer's muttered " By Jove ! " Jasmina advanced into 
 a clear space where the big lamp's luminous rays fell 
 full upon her black hair, hanging down in two long 
 braids, crowned with a carelessly knotted scarlet hand 
 kerchief. Her dress was Zero's Hungarian costume. 
 Her eyes glowed like coals ; she smiled, swaying slightly 
 from side to side, her upraised fingers clicking castanets. 
 She hummed the opening bars of Zorcts first song. Rex- 
 ford winced ; not even when off hunting, with no one 
 but Jens or quite alone, covering with the swift snow- 
 shoe trackless wastes, with moon-lit noon sky overhead, 
 had he ventured to recall these melodies, interwoven as 
 they were with hopes laid low. Now, meeting an anx 
 ious look from Jasmina's eyes, he thought, "This is 
 a mere weakness," and picked up the ineffective guitar 
 which the young astronomer had been ill treating and 
 had dropped on the girl's appearance. He gave the 
 strings a bold sweep, while its owner called, " Lightly, 
 old boy," and Zora stood, poised, expectant. 
 
 Then, with no orchestra but this and the beating of 
 the wind and snow outside, and no background of
 
 THE METROPOLITANS 203 
 
 scenery but the red color of the blanket hangings 
 brought out by the lamp-glow, the slow, undulating 
 measure of the czardas was paced. The tune grew 
 faster and faster, and the fantastic and barbarically at 
 tractive strains kept growing more rapid with her fly 
 ing feet. So perfect was her art and the charm of the 
 melody that a vision of the woods and tents, camp-fires 
 with old crones in attendance, nimble-footed girls danc 
 ing to clashing cymbals, swarthy men playing cards 
 and quarreling, and love-making seemed to come over 
 them. Suddenly the dancer stopped and stood quite 
 still, her arms straight down at her sides, her bosom 
 heaving, her lips still smiling. It had been so great a 
 surprise to every one but Rexford that only he spoke 
 now, saying simply, " That was very lovely, and we 
 thank you." 
 
 " Lovely ! " cried Dr. Ritler, finding his voice ; " it is 
 fine, superb, wonderful ! " 
 
 " Lovely," said his wife. She was still bewildered. 
 Dr. Andersen, enraptured, called " Brava! bravissima ! " 
 leading a volley of applause. But Jasmina had re 
 marked the shade of reserve in Mrs. Ritler^s tone, and 
 ran to her now, taking her hand. 
 
 " See, now ; if you do not like it I will not do it. 
 I only care for you for a few people to love me. I 
 thought only it was a holiday ; it might amuse you all." 
 
 " My dear," said the elder woman, touched, " it was 
 beautiful. I was only wondering where you could have 
 learned to dance so perfectly as that." 
 
 She laughed. " Where do the birds learn to sing ? 
 But I will not deny some help from the conservatory 
 too. Mr. Raixfore will tell you."
 
 204 THE METROPOLITANS 
 
 He was softly tuning and tinkling on the guitar 
 strings, but rose at once and, bowing, said, " Permit me 
 to introduce Madame Jasmina Vaskaros of the world, 
 I imagine. Certainly the star of an opera which I had 
 the honor of presenting to the public, and whose suc 
 cess was largely due to her ! " There was a great clap 
 ping of hands, in which the Norwegian did not join, 
 but looked with frowning brow at Rexford. " Now the 
 wedding-dance," called the latter. His blood stirred to 
 the music ; a certain excitement replaced the gloom of 
 the earlier day. He leaned on the partition, well in the 
 shadow, playing the opening bars. Again she glided 
 and swayed and glanced here and there the appeal 
 ing, delighted look of a child in the eyes which had 
 gazed indifferently on brilliant audiences. 
 
 "I am so glad you all like it," she said, with her 
 pretty accent. She need be no longer on the defensive 
 against heartless adulation or insolent homage. This 
 was a friendly little group. The spiritual nature, of 
 which she was unconscious, poor child ! seemed to soften 
 and grow. If only Stephen were here too ! 
 
 Rexford twanged the guitar, humming a refrain from 
 " The Lotus-eaters." With breath recovered, she took 
 it up and joined in the duet. 
 
 " That you should not both have sung before ! " cried 
 Dr. Ritler. " Now our winter will be short indeed." 
 
 Jasmina had sat down ; her hands folded in her lap, 
 her long braids hanging to the floor, the glow still on 
 her cheeks. But the languor of reaction was in her 
 manner. She hummed suggestively, 
 
 "There was a House a House of Clay,"
 
 THE METROPOLITANS 205 
 
 looking at Rexford, and he played the opening chords, 
 and the minor strains rose sweet and full. 
 
 The quiet that had fallen on them with her spell of 
 woven paces and of waving hands was even deeper 
 now. The wind had fallen, and the dogs slept in their 
 snow igloo, with an occasional sharp bark in their 
 dreams. Illimitable wastes of snow and ice surrounded 
 them outside, while within was the circle of rosy light 
 in which the singer's figure showed in relief against 
 dark shadows as she sang, 
 
 "For Hope sat, likewise, heart to heart," 
 and then, 
 
 "'Sweetheart, good-by.' He slipped away 
 And shut the door. 
 
 Not the last verse on Christmas night," she said, 
 stopping there. 
 
 " It is sad," said Rexford, and laid down the guitar. 
 
 The Norwegian had hardly spoken all evening, but, 
 frowning, tugged at his fair mustache. "It is your 
 opera," he asked, "which madame used to sing?" 
 
 "Madame did me that honor" (coolly). 
 
 " Oh, no madame here," cried the girl. " Every one, 
 every one," stretching out her arms and laughing, 
 "may call me Jasmina." 
 
 " And as we have come back to earth," said the pro 
 fessor, "we will drink your health by that name in 
 egg-nog." 
 
 " It is my part, then, to beat the eggs," she cried, 
 hastening to assist Mrs. Ritler, and the evening closed 
 in a joyous clatter and confusion. 
 
 "Christmas is over," said Mrs. Ritler, as the tiny
 
 206 THE METROPOLITANS 
 
 clock on the improvised book-shelf struck midnight ; 
 " and soon winter will be over ; and the Meteor will be 
 here again for us, and we shall sail home again." 
 
 "As for me," declared Jasmina, the soft flush still 
 burning in her cheek, " I like it up here ; I should love 
 to stay always."
 
 XVII 
 
 ANOTHER Lenten season had come and 
 gone in New York, and Mr. Jenkins 
 gravely assured his friends that a slight 
 decrease perceptible in his flesh was due 
 to a too rigorous observance of its rules. 
 " Perhaps it was over-zealous in me," he admitted, " to 
 take tonics to increase my appetite and then mortify 
 it by starving. But we society men are like that" 
 (with affected languor) "always in extremes." 
 
 " If beer and ale are tonics," growled the stock-re 
 porter, " I saw you take them to an unlimited extent ; 
 but I didn't notice the fasting afterward." 
 " My good man, do I live at the Chimes ? " 
 " Between there and your tenement, wherever it is. 
 Oh, I forgot. ' The Miller ' must have brought you in 
 a trifle. Perhaps you have a castle up the Hudson." 
 "Do you bite your thumb at me, sir?" (haughtily). 
 " Talking of society men," interrupted Penrose, " I 
 wish, Jenkins, you would go up and interview Mr. 
 Pundit before he starts." 
 
 Jenkins followed him into his office with a stare and 
 frown which might have been more effective but for 
 pale-blue eyes and flaxen brows. 
 
 "Why should I go ? Let one of the youngsters see 
 
 207
 
 208 THE METROPOLITANS 
 
 him. They 're good enough for old Archie. Suppose 
 he asks who wrote that article in which he was alluded 
 to as a living contradiction to the law anent nature's 
 abhorring a vacuum ? It was on the opposite page from 
 his weekly maunderings, and must have stared him in 
 the face when he read them over, as of course he does." 
 
 " Oh, tell him that in a paper as large as ours yon can't 
 keep up with every one's news ; that you '11 inquire and 
 have the author called down ; tell him anything." 
 
 "Very well," said Jenkins, lapsing into indifferent 
 whistling as he clapped his hat on the back of his head 
 before descending. 
 
 " An invaluable man in his way," reflected Penrose, 
 sorting his papers methodically ; " but very weak to 
 let these stupid paragraphers make his work as uneven 
 as it has been lately." 
 
 His eye fell on the file of exchanges, in which he 
 remembered such lines as these : " It is quite time the 
 Meteor was heard from. If unable from any cause 
 to send reassuring messages, she should return in time 
 for another relief vessel to start." " There is no cause 
 for anxiety, as some suppose, about the Ritler expedi 
 tion. It was clearly understood before the departure 
 of Dr. Ritler that he was provisioned for one winter 
 only; but there are said to be large caches in his 
 neighborhood, though he is unlikely to need them 
 with the relief vessel already on its way." 
 
 "Jenkins lets these croakings of uninformed scrib 
 blers disquiet him unduly." The keen-eyed editor went 
 on with his work. 
 
 And Jenkins whistled in the elevator on his way to 
 Mr. Pundit's apartment, which was a rash thing to do
 
 THE METROPOLITANS 209 
 
 in this elegant and rigidly correct atmosphere, and 
 called Mr. Pundit to his door with a look of strong 
 protest on his countenance. He softened somewhat 
 when Jenkins, note -book in hand, and an air of rapt 
 attention, was seated opposite him. 
 
 "Yes, yes; I go abroad this week by the Elmira, 
 you may say. I have not visited Europe in two years 
 now, and there are certain distinguished attentions 
 paid me from the other side social debts, you under 
 standwhich should be acknowledged in person, don't 
 you perceive. Yes, yes ; as you say, it will be a little 
 hard for our set to spare me. But I have been down 
 to Newport for the last ten days, you see, making up 
 the season's program. By this arrangement, don't 
 you know, they may be able to do without me for a 
 short while. A touch of hereditary gout forces me to 
 try Carlsbad for a time. I hope, my dear young man " 
 (with condescension), " that you may never have that 
 reason for travel." 
 
 " I have that down," said Mr. Jenkins, innocently. 
 
 "No, no," coloring slightly; "that was merely a 
 reflection by the way, don't you perceive." 
 
 "Until August?" 
 
 " Not " (composing himself afresh in a stately atti 
 tude and twirling his monocle) " at Carlsbad all that 
 time, though the waters are most highly commended. 
 I am told that the Duke of Wellington once tried 
 them ; and they are honored at present by many of 
 the princes and princesses of Europe drinking them. 
 The Prince of Wales himself, don't you know, has ex 
 pressed his august approval of their value. Lady 
 Mellon writes me that she intends trying the waters 
 
 14
 
 210 THE METEOPOLITANS 
 
 for the little Marquis of Gourdes. So, you see, I am 
 safe as to society, you perceive. There was a little 
 matter I intended mentioning to the editor himself, 
 had he called." Mr. Pundit's tone implied that a slight 
 had been put upon him by Jenkins's presence instead, 
 but the latter still smiled blandly. " Instead of my 
 usual weekly article, I thought of letting the ' Argus ' 
 have, from on board (I am fortunate in immunity from 
 seasickness)" 
 
 " I should think so," murmured Jenkins, admiringly. 
 
 "Letting the 'Argus' have a trifle a poem, let us 
 say inspired by the ocean voyage, and written in 
 pterodactyls." 
 
 " In pterodactyls ? " repeated Jenkins, doubtfully. 
 
 " Certainly, sir " (sharply) ; " that is what I said in 
 pterodactyls. It is a measure I prefer, you under 
 stand." 
 
 The reporter asked Mr. Pundit how to spell the 
 word, and wrote it down carefully, muttering, " Can 
 such things be, and overcome us like a summer cloud ? " 
 The spirit of malice now gamboling unchecked within 
 him further incited him, on taking leave, to lay upon 
 the table a card which had been thrust into his own 
 hand on the street below, with the remark, "As you 
 are parting from your friends for a time, Mr. Pundit, 
 this may be of interest to you." It was a photogra 
 pher's card, with a hideous tintype attached, bearing 
 the legend : " This is what we aim at. "We pose you 
 in picture, or write you in song, for five cents, in five 
 minutes." 
 
 "Adams," said Mr. Pundit, with deep disgust, after 
 ringing for his man, "take that thing away. And,
 
 THE METROPOLITANS 211 
 
 Adams, you might open a window for a while. I 
 wonder why the ' Argus ' sends such persons here. I 
 shall mention it to the editor." 
 
 A highly embellished account of the interview ap 
 peared under the heading, " Pundit in Pterodactyls." 
 "But you will find it a boomerang, just the same," 
 prophesied Penrose. And, indeed, it did dampen Mr. 
 Jenkins's delight a little to find the other papers de 
 claring that it was the " Argus," and not Mr. Pundit, 
 who did not know any better. 
 
 About the time society was suffering an eclipse of 
 that distinguished writer's countenance Katherine de 
 Mansur was talking quietly to her aunt by the fireside 
 in her little morning-room. " It is not your fault, dear 
 aunt," she told her, gently, " that your heart draws you 
 away. It is but natural that you should long for 
 a sight of your only daughter j and if Clara cannot 
 come to you, why, you must just cross the continent 
 to her. I feel very selfish that I should have kept you 
 from her all this time." 
 
 " My dear," said the elder woman, " my duty was 
 with you in your trouble. How could I leave you if 
 only" She stopped. It was an unacknowledged 
 barrier between them, the girl's rejection of the son 
 of whom his mother was so proud. " That her blind 
 ness or coldness should drive my boy away from me 
 again among those savages ! " " And it is not fair to 
 blame me," Katherine thought. So that a constraint, 
 fast becoming painful, had sprung up. Their silence 
 now was broken by James's announcement of " Mrs. 
 Federling." If Angelica's complexion and high spirits 
 in girlhood were attributable, as she maintained, to
 
 212 THE METROPOLITANS 
 
 her always having her own way, this recipe was evi 
 dently still in successful operation. She brought a 
 feeling of sunshine into the darkened room with her 
 buoyant step and clear, high tones, and seemed to re 
 gard it as highly amusing that she should trip over a 
 footstool which her lorgnette overlooked. 
 
 " It is a trifle dark in here, but what a pretty fire ! 
 I have sent Otto off to drive by himself for half an 
 hour or so in the Park. I insist on his doing it once 
 a week, so that he may have quiet and solitude to re 
 flect on how grateful he should be for me. And, do 
 you know, the dear, delightful goose brought me back 
 a poem he wrote, the last time, addressed to me. 
 Luckily it was in German, and I did not feel equal to 
 reading it." 
 
 "The compliment was the same," suggested Mrs. 
 Crofton, who did not consider this flippant young per 
 son entirely good form. 
 
 "Her marriage, you know, Katherine, was in the 
 worst imaginable taste," she had once observed. " It 
 must take large fortunes to make these crude West 
 erners possible." "Mr. Pundit is said to have ap 
 proved her," Katheriue had replied demurely. Her 
 aunt's social canons were much narrower than her 
 father's had been. 
 
 "Yes," assented Angelica now, indifferently. 
 " Katherine, do you know that mamma has begun to 
 write the most affectionate letters to Otto, addressing 
 him as 'von.' She goes down to Cowes next week, 
 where the Squadron will be. All sorts of flattering 
 possibilities for little Anastelle. In the mean time 
 they have become English for the present, visiting at
 
 THE METROPOLITANS 213 
 
 country houses in Kent. She makes papa go to 
 church twice on Sundays, and he writes me confiden 
 tially that he expects the fate dreaded by some Eng 
 lish divine, l to be preached to death by wild curates.' 
 Also that he shocked the portly Bishop of Titheton 
 almost into loss of appetite at dinner by telling him 
 he agreed with some one who said that 'Job knew a 
 thing or two if he did have boils.' Mamma did not 
 get over it for a week. Poor papa ! if he had no sense 
 of humor he 'd get on better over there. Who, do 
 you think, came to see me yesterday ? Miss Lavender. 
 She was quite friendly, and alluded delicately to ' our 
 little misunderstanding/ asking me why I had not 
 confided in her. As if she would n't have had me 
 under lock and key that day, and mamma cabled for ! 
 She talked the fraulein over into promising to give 
 German lessons. She can get her cheaper than any 
 one else. I had to be firm, or she would have per 
 suaded her back entirely though not as chaperon." 
 
 " I should have liked Fraulein Volmer's company 
 myself," said Katherine. " Auntie is pining for her 
 daughter out in San Francisco, and I mean to let her 
 go after her heart." 
 
 " I thought you looked like a pair of conspirators 
 when I came in," cried Angelica. "But, Katherine, 
 the very thing! If you will have me Otto is no 
 trouble, and devoted to you why should we not keep 
 house together until, some day, you go to another's? 
 You would not like a stranger with you." 
 
 " Would you like it f " asked Katherine, taking her 
 friend's hand. Her eyelids and lips drooped a little, 
 for, with all her courageous composure, an almost in- 
 
 14*
 
 214 THE METROPOLITANS 
 
 tolerable sense of loneliness had been intensified by 
 knowledge of her aunt's slight estrangement. 
 
 " Like it ! It would be just heavenly. Then it is 
 settled?" 
 
 " Should you not first consult your husband ? " asked 
 Mrs. Crofton, to whom the scheme did not appear so 
 roseate. 
 
 " Oh, I arrange all those matters," said the young 
 American matron ; "but Otto adores Katherine next 
 to me, of course." He was, in fact, a trifle bewildered 
 at this new plan when she presently mentioned it to 
 him in the coupe, but entirely willing if it pleased his 
 blond angel. " To the ' Gilder Rooms,' " she told the 
 coachman. 
 
 " I do not think the brother is always delighted with 
 these impromptu visits, my treasure." 
 
 " Oh well, that is because the last once or twice I 
 found him playing cards in bed. Morty is always glad 
 to see me ; his heart 's all right. Now you stay in the 
 carriage. I '11 be back in a minute. Mr. van Krippen 
 taking breakfast? Then I '11 see him," she told the 
 man. " Yes, it 's I, Mortimer. Nice time for you to 
 be at breakfast ! Why don't you wait until dark ? I 
 want to speak to you a moment. No, nothing wrong 
 and I had my breakfast ages ago." The man dis 
 missed, she took her brother by the lapels of his coat 
 and looked solemnly in his wondering face. " Listen 
 to me. Otto and I are going to live with Katherine. 
 Her aunt 's going away, and I won't have her with 
 nobody but a strange companion. But if you think, 
 Mortimer van Krippen, that coming there oftener to 
 see me will give you more chances for love-making,
 
 THE METROPOLITANS 215 
 
 you are mistaken. I want you to give me your prom 
 ise that you will be only a friend ; for I will not have 
 our being there the occasion for the slightest embar 
 rassment or restraint to Katherine ! " 
 
 " If that 's all," he cried ruefully, turning away from 
 the gleam of his sister's lorgnette, "you might have 
 spared yourself the trouble. Fellows at the club are 
 chaffin' me now. Say nobody '11 listen to me since 
 Jasmina hoodooed me. Wonder what became of that 
 woman ? All sorts of wild stories about her. As for 
 Katherine, 't ain't likely I '11 take advantage of your 
 being there to worry her. I 'm a gentleman, I hope, 
 and her friend anyhow. And you know, Angelica" 
 (hedging a little), " if there 's a chance any time you 
 can tell me." 
 
 "Mortimer, you're all right," said his sister, warmly, 
 bestowing, much to his discomfiture, an unwonted kiss 
 before releasing his coat. 
 
 " If you won't have somethin' to eat," he grumbled, 
 " I '11 take mine, for it 's gettin' cold." 
 
 So, Mrs. Crofton having departed with tears, for, 
 after all, was it not her dead brother's only child she 
 was leaving! Katherine found herself with friends 
 who, in no way abridging her perfect independence, 
 supplied a delicate and warm sympathy. "What is 
 it, then, my Angelica?" asked Federling, after they 
 had been together some time. "Is it that the so 
 beautiful friend is always a mourner? Others have 
 mourned a father, but they find new affection after a 
 while. She will smile at music and many things, but 
 the eyes are sad. They look like Marguerite's when 
 she will say :
 
 216 THE METROPOLITANS 
 
 Meine Euh 1st bin, 
 Mein Herz 1st schwer. 
 
 And what is it, then ? " 
 
 "Am I a witch that I can tell?" replied his wife. 
 " Her days are very full and busy, but she is alone in 
 the world. It was a good thought of yours, Otto, to 
 have the Thursdays again, with talk and music. That 
 will brighten her, perhaps. Some of the young fellows 
 who come are well enough to look at, and rich enough, 
 but no one fit for my Katherine. She is just a queen," 
 averred this fiery partizan, " and shall take her own 
 time to choose among her subjects. But you must not 
 imagine things about her, Otto." 
 
 The warm weather came on apace, and Katherine 
 said, " We have surely had enough wandering about 
 for a while, you and I, Angelica. Would it be selfish 
 if I begged you not to travel this summer? Would 
 you find it dull if we took a little place on the water 
 somewhere in the country, but not too far from town ?" 
 
 " That is just what we should like," Angelica promptly 
 replied for both, "and Otto will see about it at once." 
 So they found a pretty cottage up the river, where 
 Otto, when not picking cherries or reading Schiller or 
 Heine, could run into the city to discuss the latest 
 discovery or invention at his club of scientists ; and 
 Katherine could overlook'her poor people from there ; 
 and friends, detained in town for one cause or another, 
 could come out in the warm afternoons to eat straw 
 berries under the trees. Morty van Krippen and 
 Royall Worcester were even suspected of foregoing 
 the delights of Newport or an ocean trip that they 
 might take Katherine out on the river.
 
 THE METROPOLITANS 217 
 
 "I suppose you don't go down," Angelica said to 
 them, flippantly, " because Mr. Pundit is not there." 
 
 " That is why," said Royall Worcester. " I am not 
 quite in despair, however : I hear of Archie sometimes. 
 He is still at Carlsbad, paying devoted attention to 
 the widowed Lady Mellon, who hardly notices him or 
 any one ; for that idolized child of hers, his little lord 
 ship, is failing fast likely to die soon, they say, 
 though she will not believe it." 
 
 This was one of the times when Katherine slipped 
 away alone to the boat-house, and rowed herself out 
 on the stream, where her lithe figure, in black serge, 
 with wide collar and cuffs, was soon a familiar sight to 
 the residents along the banks. " I call that mean in 
 you, Miss Katherine," grumbled Morty, when she came 
 back, a little paler, with the shining locks around her 
 fair temples blown about by the wind under her boat 
 ing-cap. " What 's the use of the Athletic Club here 
 assembled, but to row you across the herring-pond 
 if you say so." 
 
 " And if she does n't say so to keep still," said his 
 sister, snubbing him remorselessly. 
 
 " Presumptuous little devil, Morty," was the other 
 men's mental comment. 
 
 " You hardly had time to miss me," said Katherine, 
 gently ; " and we may all go rowing later if you wish." 
 But, even with Otto to lead in German student and 
 boating songs, for which the others supplied an echo 
 ing chorus, this was not the refuge she so often sought. 
 What she liked best was to have the green meadows 
 and sloping, verdant terraces glide past, the water 
 parting under her swift oar strokes; alone, her eye
 
 218 THE METROPOLITANS 
 
 seeing little of the surrounding beauty of the sky and 
 land, which nevertheless helped to soothe the imagina 
 tion tormenting her with dismal possibilities of days to 
 come whose dire hopelessness might count these happy. 
 " If I could only hear of him but a word ! " And 
 another inner voice, in shrill reproof, would answer, 
 " Of one who is nothing to you now who left you 
 without a word ! " When it seemed quite intolerable 
 she could tire herself rowing faster and faster. Was 
 there not always Morty, to whom no wrong would be 
 done, as to Reginald and others? For he did not 
 dream of ideals, and would be content with very little. 
 But she only mocked at her own pain with this thought, 
 regarding Mortimer gratefully as her loyal friend. 
 
 She had occasion to go down to the city a few days 
 later, and after attending to her special errand went 
 into a publisher's of music to order a new supply. A 
 tall, thin man whose back was turned to her was talk 
 ing with the proprietor, and an occasional word reached 
 her of " scores," the " book," and the like. It was not 
 until she had completed her purchase and was leaving 
 that she recognized him as Penrose, who raised his hat 
 on seeing her. She hesitated, stopped, and held out 
 her hand with the dignified simplicity peculiarly hers. 
 
 " Mr. Penrose ! it is a long time since I have seen 
 you." 
 
 " We toilers seldom have the privilege of wandering 
 in the rose-fields which are your country." 
 
 " That would seem to call us others butterflies." She 
 smiled slightly, meeting the gaze through his glasses 
 which she had before remarked as singularly intent, 
 though not unpleasant.
 
 THE METROPOLITANS 219 
 
 " I am afraid," he answered, " that I shall appear to 
 assent to that view if I express my surprise at having 
 this pleasure in July." 
 
 "I was tired of summer travel. We are now Mrs. 
 Federling and I up at a cottage in Witehwood." She 
 spoke on a sudden impulse. "If you have time for 
 trifling, we receive our friends there on Thursday after 
 noons, or, indeed, if you row, they come to us in that 
 pleasant way any afternoon, informally." 
 
 " If I may if you will do me the honor of receiving 
 me I will certainly make time for that." His pale 
 cheek had a slight color. 
 
 " We shall be glad to see you," she repeated. 
 
 After she had moved away he drew a long breath. 
 " She may be heartless," he reflected, " but while New 
 York held that woman, for a man to risk his life in the 
 arctic zone ! Lord, ' what fools we mortals be ! ' " 
 
 Katherine's thoughts were also busy in the train and 
 the pony carriage afterward. "Aunt Crofton would 
 never approve of stepping outside one's circle in this 
 way. But what harm can it do! His face is very 
 plain, but clever, I think. He must be interesting." 
 But the relentless, assured voice, which was that of her 
 pride, said scornfully, "He can only interest you in 
 one subject. It is in that hope you ask him." " Well, 
 yes, then " (in passionate assent), " I must I must hear 
 something." 
 
 So it was that Stephen Penrose, after his first cere 
 monious call, got into the way of rowing up the river 
 in the afternoons and stopping an hour or so at the 
 pretty landing at Witehwood. To the other men lying 
 round on the grass or flourishing tennis-rackets, who
 
 220 THE METROPOLITANS 
 
 wondered to meet an outsider in Katherine's exclusive 
 circle, he paid small heed. He had no care to form 
 intimacies with the club dandies ; and at his evident 
 indifference they began to say, " Clever beggar, I 'm 
 told. No money or family, but a power in journalism. 
 Good deal talked about in clubs." 
 
 " I should say so," another would answer ; " all sorts 
 of tales about him. Say he used to be a bandit in 
 Transylvania wherever that is. Kind that cut off 
 people's ears and noses, you know, and send them home 
 to their folks to hurry up the ransom. Queer idea, 
 is n't it, a light-haired bandit, with eye-glasses ? " 
 
 " Good Lord," cried Ashley Vanderlyn, " what rot ! 
 The man 's a Welshman, and looks like a university 
 fellow. We meet him at the clubs ; I put Morty van 
 Krippen on his trail myself, on account of Miss de 
 Mansur's receiving him, and there 's no such shady 
 past. Wild lot, some of the journalists ; but this fel 
 low 's a worker. His manner 's quiet enough better 
 than yours, Dicky." 
 
 Penrose was rather silent in their company, and 
 gravely polite when he spoke. He liked to draw them 
 out about their prowess in polo or coaching. " Tut, 
 tut, my friend," said Otto Federling, observing this 
 habit, "you expect too much. It is only in German 
 colleges men go to study. Here it is all foot-ball, you 
 see ; and one must not be too hard." It was all one to 
 the amiable Federling what they talked about, as long 
 as Angelica and Katherine were entertained. He liked 
 to see their figures scattered about the lawn, while he 
 lay in the hammock with his favorite poems. He would 
 read these aloud, sometimes. Then, the others being
 
 THE METKOPOLITANS 221 
 
 absent, Penrose had joined them ; and Federling was 
 overjoyed to find that this last auditor understood 
 perfectly his native tongue. 
 
 " Und hurre, hurre, hopp, hopp, hopp, 
 Ging 's fort in sausendem Galopp. 
 
 Is not that wonderfully fine ! " he would exclaim. 
 "Can you not hear the horse his hoofs clattering 
 over the bridge ? " 
 
 11 Very fine," would Angelica reply, drowsily. " A 
 little more and I shall be asleep." 
 
 But whether he read Burger, or gave them selections 
 from Shakspere, pronounced in a manner which must 
 at least have moved that poet's bones and so incurred 
 the threatened malediction, Penrose was equally at 
 liberty, from his low station on the grass with cap tilted 
 over his eyes, to watch, fascinated, the two fair women 
 moving gracefully about the lawn tea-table, or play 
 ing with soft-colored embroidery silks as an excuse, 
 maybe, for vagrant fancies which the bard of Avon, 
 weirdly disguised, could not hold. With daughters of 
 the gods, he had once said, his earlier lines had never 
 fallen. This might excuse the rapt gaze which included 
 in one harmonious, satisfying whole the beauty of the 
 soft, sailing clouds overhead, the swift-flowing river, 
 the fluttering little flags of the boat-house, and the 
 foliage which cast flickering shadows over a slender, 
 maidenly figure and head bent down over some bit of 
 work. 
 
 Otto was making wilder work than usual of one of 
 the minor dramas, which owed its interest less to 
 grandeur of form than to its dealing with the eternal
 
 222 THE METROPOLITANS 
 
 theme of which the varying chords and cadences ring 
 down through the centuries with never-failing music. 
 Katherine raised her head, and the light fell through 
 the branches on the waving chestnut tresses, and 
 touched the white brow and delicate mouth. " I think," 
 she interrupted softly, " that must be the finest thing 
 on earth that close friendship between two men, pass 
 ing the love of women. The only thing, perhaps " (with 
 a note of wistful inquiry in her tone as she looked at 
 the two men), " which is quite unselfish and strong and 
 enduring." 
 
 Otto burst into a poetic vindication of Eros's superior 
 power, which made his wife laugh tolerantly. Penrose, 
 plucking and throwing away blades of grass, was silent 
 awhile. Her words had conjured up an instant re 
 membrance of a tall, broad-shouldered figure, with 
 dark, clustering hair and frank, fearless gaze, who 
 seemed to lay a hand on his shoulder. 
 
 " In this very play, Miss de Mansur," he said then, 
 slowly, " there is treacherous breach of faith between 
 sworn friends." 
 
 " I was not thinking of this so much, which is pure 
 fiction, but of cases given us from history and tradition." 
 He looked up at her now, and she met his gaze quite 
 directly, not knowing that he guessed at her wish 
 to have him speak of one who had been near to 
 both. 
 
 " I cannot answer for history, which is as much fic 
 tion as anything else," he said, deliberately drawing his 
 long, thin form into position to rise ; " but we have the 
 omniscient poet's word for this : 
 
 O gentle Proteus ! Love 's a mighty lord.
 
 THE METROPOLITANS 223 
 
 Well, I must be off now, or the office will be neglected. 
 Work 7 s a mighty lord likewise. What does some other 
 rhymester say about that ? 
 
 Work's worth is bread in hand aye, and sweet rest ! 
 
 Sweet rest, you see, independent of love or friendship, 
 or any of those uncertain quantities. Good wages, 
 Miss de Mansur ! " 
 
 " I believe," she said, looking across the river, " that 
 I was not thinking of any wages or profit whatever, 
 but just which was highest and finest and most un 
 selfish and most enduring."
 
 XVIII 
 
 HE boat went cityward slowly under Pen- 
 rose's handling, for he was in no hurry 
 to dine this evening, with his thoughts 
 revolving around the girl's unconscious 
 suggestions. The twinkling lights, break 
 ing out here or there from this height or that as he 
 passed along, had always seemed very pretty to him, 
 and the way they thickened into sparkling electric 
 constellations the nearer and nearer he drew to the 
 great, shining, illusive city. But he saw nothing, un 
 less it was a pure and virginal and gently proud face ; 
 and now another, darker and deeper of hue, with eyes 
 looking unsuspiciously into his, of one who had been 
 dear to him nay, who was, after all, dearer to him 
 than aught else in the world. His pulse throbbed. 
 
 O gentle Proteus ! Love 's a mighty lord. 
 
 Of green-room dallyings or vagrant wayside fancies, 
 so slight that they left not a rack behind, there had 
 been a plenty ; but now, at this first dawning of some 
 thing exquisite and divine in which he had not before 
 believed, it was hard luck that loyalty loj r alty ? He 
 set his teeth hard. " Come, my fine fellow ! You have 
 
 224
 
 THE METEOPOLITANS 225 
 
 never been a self-deceiver. Put things plainly. We 
 will admit that the emotion you feel for the bright 
 comrade of a year ago is still a near and vital thing 
 that you would make some slight sacrifice for him. 
 But do not plume yourself on this one, for the strong 
 est temptation is not yours. It is not your image 
 which dwells in this girl's heart yes, and speaks in 
 her eyes and voice. My only distinction from the crowd 
 of Morty van Krippens and the like is that I could 
 speak of him an I would. If he never comes back 
 then indeed ! Ah, poor little Jasmina ! Life owed you 
 something too." 
 
 He stayed out on the water long, forgetting his din 
 ner and the crowd awaiting him, as usual, at the office. 
 Jenkins was there, flushed and excited. 
 
 " You 're late," he blurted out at once. " Have you 
 heard latest from Newfoundland ? Officers and crew 
 of the Meteor made their way back there in small boats. 
 Ship caught in an ice-nip and crushed to pieces. Just 
 had time to save themselves. Say they left note and 
 provisions in cache. But great heavens ! they were 
 late enough in going, and now to come back without 
 making more of an effort to find the party ! You 
 know they were only provisioned for winter, and the 
 season 's well advanced." 
 
 " Another ship will probably sail," said Penrose, set 
 tling down at his desk. 
 
 Jenkins looked at his impassive chief and growled 
 out, " You make me think, Mr. Penrose, of a field I once 
 saw, with savage barbed- wire fence all around, and it 
 was carefully placarded besides, ' No thoroughfare.' " 
 
 " I will ask you for an explanation of your parable 
 
 15
 
 226 THE METROPOLITANS 
 
 sometime when I am not so busy," said Penrose, coolly. 
 A messenger came in just now with a cablegram from 
 Carlsbad, and it read, " The young Marquis of Gourdes, 
 heir to the vast Mellon estates, died here this day at 
 noon." 
 
 " So that the lady's air-castles are quite, quite low/' 
 observed Penrose, pushing it toward Jenkins. 
 
 " Idolized the boy, I 've heard," said the kindly Jen 
 kins. " Our friend will surely be her heir now if 
 when he comes back." 
 
 " ' If when he comes back ' I must tell him how 
 cheering you always were. Will you work up a little 
 this paragraph about destruction of relief vessel ? " 
 
 " I '11 pass it on to one of the others," said Jenkins, 
 gloomily. " Give me that about the boy. Besides the 
 news there '11 be a lot of stuff concerning the previous 
 lords and their titles and honors and dishonors, and 
 some sic transit gloria mundi reflections. Pundit would 
 be good for that. You '11 hear from him now." 
 
 Indeed, the office had an epistle by the very next 
 steamer from that gentleman ; and, besides his weekly 
 stint of prosing, there was, to Penrose's surprise, a 
 personal letter to himself, whom he knew to be un 
 favored of Mr. Pundit. " Aware of your intimacy with 
 Mr. Allan Rexford," he wrote, " I apply to you rather 
 than the editor officially for any news of him. His 
 bereaved mother, of whose loss in the death of the 
 young Marquis of Gourdes your paper has been cabled, 
 is utterly prostrated. Informed by her physician that 
 there was grave cause for anxiety, I recommended to 
 him a mention of her remaining son's name, which was 
 followed, happily, by a relieving burst of tears. I hope
 
 THE METROPOLITANS 227 
 
 now, through your services, to be able to afford her 
 information of his whereabouts, etc., knowing that it 
 will be to you, as to myself, a profound gratification 
 to be of service to the distinguished widow of the late 
 Lord Mellon and mother of the late Marquis of 
 Gourdes," etc. 
 
 " The plot thickens," said Penrose, with grim irony. 
 " If a man disappears, hurt by the slings and arrows 
 of those who owed him better things, then every one 
 wants him. The mother who was so cruelly unjust ; 
 the sweetheart well, that is a mystery." He prepared 
 himself the account of the loss of the Meteor dispas 
 sionately enough, though with a comment on the large 
 proportion of their stores it had been deemed neces 
 sary to bring back for so short and comparatively safe 
 a voyage. "They might be surprised to learn," he 
 thought, on finishing, " that I too have a stake in this 
 my only interest in life a few short years ago." They 
 were hurrying him for copy on the matter of the mill 
 strikes; for on this subject the subeditor's large and 
 just views were daily looked for. As for the freezing 
 or starving of a few people up at the pole, that was 
 naturally less interesting to the public. They were 
 not obliged to go, and, in Rexford's case especially, it 
 was a foolhardy thing. One paper remarked jestingly 
 the next day that, in view of the recent hot wave, it 
 would be more seasonable in the arctic explorers to 
 send relief to those south of them instead of requir 
 ing it. 
 
 It was this one Katherine held in her hand when she 
 came across the lawn, tall and white-robed, to meet 
 Penrose on his next visit. It was the first time he had
 
 228 THE METROPOLITANS 
 
 chanced to be alone with her, and she began at once, 
 forcing a smile : " It is encouraging to Mr. Rexford's 
 friends to you, I am sure, Mr. Penrose to find that 
 matters are bright enough with the Ritler expedition 
 to make jests about. Is it true that another boat will 
 go to their relief that it is almost certain to bring 
 them back soon?" 
 
 " Arrangements are being made, I understand," he 
 answered evasively. " You are looking a little tired, 
 if you will permit me to say so the heat, perhaps. 
 Will you let me take you out on the water ? You can 
 steer, and we will drift about in the shade." 
 
 " Yes, I should like that. Mr. Penrose," she went 
 on, when out on the stream, her white draperies settled 
 about her and the tiller-rope in her hand, " would you 
 mind you are so kind letting me know, now and 
 then, about this expedition ? Your information would 
 be late and reliable." She was not conscious, in the 
 effort of speaking composedly, of the pathetic contrac 
 tion of her brow. 
 
 " It is a small matter that you ask ; certainly I will 
 tell you as soon as I know, but that will not be long 
 before the published account." 
 
 " I shall like to know what you really think yourself, 
 who care more than the public." 
 
 " Then you shall, of course, though I shall only pos 
 sess the facts known to all." 
 
 She wondered afterward when she heard Mr. Pen- 
 rose spoken of as a cold, repellent man, remembering 
 how restful had been his companionship on this after 
 noon when she felt so listless and weary. It seemed 
 that he sympathized with her disinclination for words,
 
 THE METROPOLITANS 229 
 
 with no obtrusive sense that the long silences were 
 unusual. When he helped her to land, behind the in 
 different quiet of his face, with her hand in his, was a 
 thought : " I am so sorry for her. I was never so sorry 
 for a woman before but once and then I was sav 
 agely angry." 
 
 The first russet leaves had begun to mar this velvety 
 lawn, and with the waning summer the little party had 
 gone back to town when he next saw her alone. He 
 called in Stuyvesant Square one afternoon, and she 
 came down at once. 
 
 "You remember my promise to give you all news 
 of the Ritler expedition. The government will not fit 
 out another vessel. They say it is too late in the season. 
 But we need not be too anxious about our friends." 
 
 " You remember," she said clearly, " they were only 
 provisioned for one winter, and another is coming." 
 
 " There will be the caches and game, doubtless." 
 
 " I read your article which said from the large share 
 brought back from the Meteor there could be but 
 little." 
 
 He bit his lip. "An editor is not infallible, you 
 know." There was a few moments' silence. " I must 
 write to Mr. Pundit of this, but hope he will not alarm 
 Lady Mellon unnecessarily." 
 
 " That would be a pity," Katherine managed to say 
 with trembling lips. He was shocked at her pale cheeks 
 when he saw her again in a day or two. " I 'm not 
 happy myself," he reflected, " but her type will torture 
 itself with distressing imaginings." 
 
 " Katherine suffers from headache," said Angelica. 
 " Otto persists that music is good for it, and would, I 
 
 16*
 
 230 THE METROPOLITANS 
 
 believe, sing the whole of ' The Lotus-eaters' every day 
 for her if I would let him." Her concern for her friend, 
 with whom she was most gentle, took the form of a 
 sharpness bewildering to her husband and her brother. 
 " Mortimer, if one is not quite as rosy as usual your 
 one idea is going for the doctor. A change from 
 country to city air is apt to affect the complexion. You 
 might get her some orchids." 
 
 " Did n't know, you know, that orchids were good 
 for the complexion. But of course, Angelica, if you 
 say so. Glad to be of use." Which, indeed, he was 
 heartily. Otto too was distressed that his well-meant 
 attempt to soothe the girl's pain had been pronounced 
 futile. Penrose could not forget how cold had been 
 the slim hand, lying for a moment in his, on his last 
 call. He went about his duties more quietly than ever, 
 and irritated Jenkins unspeakably by refusing to be 
 come excited over important matters, such as the lame 
 and impotent conclusion of the great strike, and other 
 absorbing copy that came in. He worked one night 
 until morning without rest; then went up to Lenox 
 and had a long interview with the generous and learned 
 man who had fitted out the Meteor. " I am quite will 
 ing to help to the extent of my modest resources," 
 Penrose told him. 
 
 " Not at all necessary," said the former ; " you may 
 be giving up your place in going." 
 
 " They may keep it open for me. In any case, I do 
 not care. We should hardly like to feel responsible 
 for their deaths." 
 
 " I might feel so," answered the millionaire scientist. 
 " I cannot see how you would be accountable. Well,
 
 THE METROPOLITANS 231 
 
 the sooner a vessel is obtained and provisioned the 
 better ; for if they are in distress each day will count." 
 
 "Thank you," said Penrose, abstractedly. Going 
 back to the city, he made a Turkish bath take the place 
 of a deferred rest ; then went straight to Stuyvesant 
 Square. It was the eve of a church holiday, and Kath- 
 erine, in spite of Angelica's protest that she looked ill, 
 had gone to her church, where she knelt in front of the 
 high altar and raised her eyes to the cross ; but she 
 seemed too dumbly wretched to find words for her 
 prayer. The choir was rehearsing for the next day. 
 "Kyrie ele'ison ! Kyrie eleison !" they chanted again and 
 again. " Have mercy ! have mercy ! " something an 
 guished, repeated within her, though the outline of her 
 pure, proud features was not moved by a whisper. It 
 was late when she came out ; still later when she as 
 cended her steps again. "A letter for you, Miss 
 Katherine," said James, presenting it ; " and Mr. Pen- 
 rose has been waiting a long time." She took the letter 
 without looking at it, and passed at once to the draw 
 ing-room. Life was too nearly at a crisis with him to 
 be given to mere formalities. " I came to tell you," he 
 said without prelude, " that another ship is sailing. I 
 shall go with it. It is late, but we will find them and 
 bring them back." 
 
 " Oh ! " she said, drawing a deep breath. 
 
 "I shall not see you again before I go," he went 
 on hurriedly. "You have no message, if we meet 
 them!" 
 
 She cast down her eyes, and they fell for the first 
 time on the address of the letter in her hand. She 
 gave a great start and, exclaiming again, broke it open.
 
 232 THE METROPOLITANS 
 
 " Shall I leave you to read your letter * " 
 
 " No, uo " (breathlessly), " if you will allow me." She 
 drew closer to the window, catching the faint afternoon 
 light on the paper, and not seeing the long, devouring 
 gaze with which he watched for the last time the fair 
 face beneath the wide black hat. 
 
 " Oh," she panted at last, " it is it is from him 
 written months ago. Delayed I can't tell how. But 
 if I had had it in time, he should never have gone." 
 
 " Is that the message, then ? " 
 
 " Yes " (raising her limpid gaze directly to his) ; " and 
 that I am waiting for him." 
 
 " That will bring him," cried Penrose ; " never fear. 
 From the gates of Paradise he would venture for such 
 merchandise. Good-by, then, for I must be gone." 
 
 " Good-by, Mr. Penrose ; and I will pray for your 
 success and for you too." 
 
 " Have I ever had a woman pray for me before ? " he 
 asked himself, outside the house. " I trow not. The 
 women I have known best did not pray much. I feel 
 a little light-headed, I think." He took off his hat in 
 the street and waved it toward the house. " Good-by, 
 Katherine," he said half aloud. " I would not choose 
 those clear eyes to look into mine after you knew who 
 had delayed your note, abusing a friend's trust." His 
 substitute had already assumed his duties at the office ; 
 but he had a busy day otherwise, and it was not until 
 evening had brought them together in " Simla " that 
 Jenkins had a chance to speak to him. 
 
 " What 's this I hear ! " said that easily moved young 
 man. " That you are going after Rexford ? At this 
 season, too ! Then you have n't given him up ? Then
 
 THE METROPOLITANS 233 
 
 you think we will see him again ? It 's like the libretto, 
 though, isn't it ? " He began to whistle the refrain : 
 
 " He followed the Man, who followed the Mayde, 
 Who followed the Miller of Dee," 
 
 but broke down. " I say, Penrose," he jerked out, " I 've 
 been misjudging you thought you were too cold 
 blooded to care whether that fine fellow we Ve worked 
 and played with came back or not ; and all the while 
 you were getting ready to go aftr him ! Now, too, 
 when it 's dangerous ! " 
 
 "I don't know what you are talking about," said 
 Penrose, coldly. " You 're too excitable, Jenkins. I 've 
 been pegging away at that office until I need a change 
 somewhere, and if I choose to take it that way it 's 
 nothing to any one. If we find him we '11 bring him 
 back ; if not we can't help it ! " He shrugged his 
 shoulders. Jenkins stared at him, discomfited ; then 
 turned on his heel, muttering, " He must be better than 
 he makes out, but talks like an unfeeling brute." 
 
 The papers recorded, in due course, the leaving of a 
 second relief party after the Ritler expedition. And 
 the " Argus " blazoned in head-lines that it was under 
 the leadership of a prominent member of their staff, 
 and spoke quite severely of such contemporaries as 
 made light of human life and thought that too much 
 time and attention were given to this handful of people, 
 who might very well get along until next spring. And 
 Katherine eagerly gathered every word she could learn 
 on the subject ; and, if it had not been for a certain 
 feverish restlessness, Angelica might have thought all 
 well with her again ; for there was a fitful light in her
 
 234 THE METROPOLITANS 
 
 eyes and a spring in her step since she knew Pennrose's 
 mission and held, besides, the precious certainty that 
 her lover had not left her uncaring. The pride that 
 had made her, with merely circumstantial nay, infer 
 entialevidence, cast him off seemed now a thing of 
 naught in the great fear that he might never come 
 back to her. " Why did I not see him at least speak 
 to him?" she thought humbly. "Ah, I cared more 
 then for Katherine de Mansur and her dignity than 
 anything else ! And he he loved me always; I feel 
 it now," laying her hand on the paper which she ever 
 carried with her, and whose unfortunate delay she 
 could not in any way explain. 
 
 One day, early in this present suspense, she had a 
 note from Lady Mellon, just arrived, asking her to 
 come to her. It was hard to recognize in this pale, 
 mourning figure the brilliant, haughty woman Kathe 
 rine remembered. She took the girl's hand in hers and 
 drew her to a low seat. 
 
 " I have not been able to see any one before," she 
 said ; " but I am a little stronger now, and I must talk 
 to you. You know, perhaps, that all my hopes and 
 joys are dead but one, but one ! And that one, too 
 who can tell ? " 
 
 It was not possible to meet these hollow eyes, from 
 which dropped slow tears, with the keen resentment 
 Katherine had always felt for her treatment of Allan. 
 She was silent. 
 
 "I know," said the elder, taking her hand again, 
 " that I have no right to send for you to ask you such 
 a question ; but I thought once that my son now ab 
 sentcared for you ? "
 
 THE METROPOLITANS 235 
 
 Katherine flushed crimson ; there was a pause then, 
 for to such regret as she divined here much might be 
 allowed. 
 
 "He did," she answered, her fair head held erect. 
 "He does, I hope and think. We were betrothed, 
 though now parted." 
 
 " I was ambitious alwaj r s," said his mother, hurriedly, 
 " too ambitious, for my my children. I see now that 
 love is best ; and any parent should be satisfied with 
 such a daughter as you. Oh, if in the humblest home 
 one could only keep the loved ones ! And now he too 
 may not come back ! " The girl found herself with 
 protecting arms about the once unbending form, and 
 with the sobbing head bowed on her younger, stronger 
 shoulder. 
 
 " Then, if you think and hope as you say," went on 
 Lady Mellon, with recovered composure, " that brings 
 me to what I want. Why should you and I stay here, 
 counting the slow hours ? News will come first to St. 
 John's. Why not go there at our leisure, you and I, 
 and wait? It is so much nearer. Mr. Pundit, who 
 has kindly advised me in business matters and escorted 
 me back, thinks the idea rash. But I do not mind. I 
 should not think of asking him, at his age, to go there 
 in cold weather." 
 
 " O Lady Mellon ! " cried Katherine, flushing and 
 paling, and flushing again ; " yes, then ; I will go if 
 you care to have me." 
 
 " Angelica," she said, on her return home, " will you 
 mind if I leave you and Mr. Federling to keep house 
 without me for a while ? I am going to St. John's 
 with Lady Mellon, until we hear from her son. I am
 
 236 THE METROPOLITANS 
 
 engaged to him, and if I have not told you before it 
 was because because 
 
 " I understand perfectly," said Angelica, never to be 
 taken by surprise. " You meant to tell me on his re 
 turn. My dearest girl, I hope it will be soon ! " " And, 
 Mortimer" (later), "I will not have you show the 
 slightest feeling which might pain Katherine." 
 
 " I suppose you think it 's the thing, when a fellow 's 
 lost a girl, to go the pace and give champagne suppers 
 in honor of the event ! " But this mood did not last 
 long with the good-hearted little fellow. " Miss Kathe- 
 rine," he said quite humbly, " I hear that you and Lady 
 Mellon are going to make a ahem ! a very cold trip. 
 Now maybe if I went along to look after the baggage 
 and that, you know, I might be of use." 
 
 " It is so good of you," said Katherine, gratefully ; 
 " but Lady Mellon has declined Mr. Pundit's help and 
 thinks we shall get on very well. But it is just as 
 kind of you." 
 
 With this he was fain to be content, and with Mr. 
 Pundit's confidential comments at the club that even 
 ing: 
 
 "Idiotic scheme, I call it, don't you know. Why 
 can't they stay at home and wait, you understand. 
 Suppose the party is all dead, no use to hurry to meet 
 bad news. Beastly place, St. John's ; get your nose 
 frost-bitten. If Rexford must go to a pole, why did n't 
 he go down to the antarctic, in the south, where it 
 would be warm, don't you know. Lady Mellon seems 
 a trifle obstinate. Between ourselves, my dear young 
 friend, very few women have any sense. I am still 
 looking for one of that kind, myself." His mind re-
 
 THE METROPOLITANS 237 
 
 verted to the recent very evident appreciation shown 
 him by Miss Lavender, which had been soothing after 
 Lady Mellon's patent indifference. He went to see her 
 the next afternoon, and came away looking as if he 
 might allow that there still existed one woman of sense. 
 As for Mortimer, after seeing Katherine's party off 
 with a pretense of light-heartedness, he went in for 
 champagne and baccarat to an extent which came to 
 his sister's ears and gave him a bad quarter of an hour 
 with her, finally.
 
 XIX 
 
 'R. RITLER and his wife walked briskly 
 up and down the beaten track in front 
 of their arctic home. 
 
 " It was a piece of work," said the pro 
 fessor, "to clear our path again. The 
 snow was lying on it thirty inches deep. The new 
 drifts are taller than I am." 
 
 " Ah, but what a pleasure to be in the air once more," 
 said his wife, "and to hope that the storm has ex 
 hausted itself in these eight wild days. How the wind 
 screamed and wailed last night, and dashed the snow 
 against the roof ! It seemed that it must burst in. It 
 did find its way through every crack and crevice in the 
 outer wall, and sprinkled our indoor promenade be 
 tween the walls." 
 
 "We have been so busy with our sledge and ski 
 carpentering, and you with your cooking and serving, 
 that the long confinement has not irked so much. I 
 had a chance to revise all our scientific observations, 
 but had to thaw the frozen ink pretty often.- Never 
 mind ; it is clear now, and the shortest day well in the 
 past. Why, to-day I could distinguish at noon the 
 hands of my watch held to the south. Pretty soon we 
 
 238
 
 THE METROPOLITANS 239 
 
 shall have twilight every day, and then his majesty, 
 the sun, once more ! " 
 
 Afar off the sky over the glacier had been one shift 
 ing, dazzling splendor. Arches of light, pale pink 
 deepening into crimson, changed and melted here and 
 there into curved ribbons of every shade from prim 
 rose yellow to deep orange ; and then again stretched 
 onward to the horizon in long, slender, pointed stream 
 ers which showed in lilac and softest green ; and all 
 these whirling and twisting and interchanging shape 
 and color in bewildering magnificence. 
 
 " It is," she admitted, " a gorgeous sight." 
 
 " Why, then, when the heavens are telling the glory 
 of the Lord, do you give so divided an attention to the 
 grandest spectacular display imaginable ! What are 
 you thinking of so seriously ? " 
 
 " Of my complexion, perhaps, which they tell me will 
 be, after this long night of months, as yellow as the 
 pumpkins of my dear native State." 
 
 Some others of the household had now come out to 
 view the aurora. It was Rexford's voice they heard, 
 and from the slighter, smaller hooded figure proceeded 
 Jasmina's clear, fresh tones. A second bulkier form, 
 which came out shortly afterward and stood near them, 
 did not speak ; so, by this light, Dr. Ritler could only 
 guess at its identity. 
 
 "See here, my dear," he resumed, more earnestly, 
 "I may be too optimistic, as you sometimes tell me; 
 but this seems a case where you are crossing the bridge 
 without having reached it. The night is nearly gone, 
 and I can still find work for my assistants near me or 
 out of doors, as you have been so clever in doing for
 
 240 THE METROPOLITANS 
 
 Jasmina. Then there are only the evenings ; but we 
 are all together then, and the little witch uses her 
 charms and graces for us all alike. How pretty she 
 looked last night in ' Anitra's Tanz ' ! She keeps up 
 the spirits of the whole party with her music and her 
 charming ways. The spring will soon be here now, 
 and then the men will be off on sledging parties." 
 
 She opened her lips to answer, " And with one of your 
 few helpers developing so much ill will, what sort of 
 harmony is to be expected in your explorations?" 
 but refrained. 
 
 "Come in now," she said; "my skirt is hard as a 
 board half-way up, and the kamiks are, I do believe, 
 frozen to the stockings." She would not have the 
 chief, whose responsibility was heavy, too much dis 
 turbed. Yet to her woman's fancy it appeared more 
 than a minor annoyance that the Norwegian, ever since 
 the night Jasmina first sang and danced, had missed 
 no chance to show her an attention, which the girl 
 carelessly ignored, and to the others and Rexford 
 especially a sullenness and temper unsuspected at 
 first. 
 
 " I think not much of that," said Jasmina, " that he 
 tries to devote himself. Men have that way. It is 
 nothing. I shall not care about it." 
 
 " But it may hinder Dr. Hitler's plans," said the wife, 
 " not to have good feelings in so small a party." 
 
 " That would be bad," commented the girl, thought 
 fully. " But what must I do ? I stay much with you 
 now." 
 
 "You do indeed, and are such a comfort. But" 
 (flushing a little) "if you did not show not seem so
 
 THE METROPOLITANS 241 
 
 friendly to Mr. Rexford. It makes Dr. Andersen dis 
 agreeable, I think." 
 
 Jasmina flushed not at all. "See, then," she an 
 swered quietly ; " I cannot do that. Mr. Raixfore is 
 my friend, and I do not like the surgeon at all, since 
 he is so cross. It is a pity that he came. But never 
 mind ; it will be all right." She stroked in her caress 
 ing way the sleeve of the matron, who was devoted to 
 her. " And now only a half-mile back !" The two were 
 taking a snow-shoe tramp. " How well we get on ! " 
 
 From that date the days lengthened apace. Now 
 Mrs. Ritler could not keep Jasmina so constantly at 
 her side, for all the great whiteness outside of ice-cliffs 
 and frozen wastes was silvered with returning daylight 
 in which no sun was yet visible. And one would cry, 
 "Let us go to the berg. We can do it now without 
 skis." Or Dr. Ritler would arrange that all should 
 climb to the ice-cap and see the sun appear, which now 
 cast a glow on the western sky. And Mrs. Ritler 
 would wander away with him to view the enchantingly 
 novel effect of sunlight on bay and hill, and would 
 return to find the Norwegian, with lowering brow, 
 listening in sullen silence to Jasmina's prattle to Rex- 
 ford. On this last occasion, as they were descending 
 from the summit in single file, Rexford, observing the 
 girl slip once or twice, endeavored to pass that he 
 might give her his hand ; but Dr. Andersen pushed 
 roughly before him and said huskily, " Turn about is 
 fair play. A chance, if you please." Rexford stared, 
 frowning, but Mrs. Ritler slipped her arm through his. 
 
 " What 's the matter with that fellow," he asked, half 
 amused again, " that he glares so ? That 's the way the 
 
 16
 
 242 THE METROPOLITANS 
 
 Norwegians looked, I suppose, when they drank from 
 their enemies' skulls. Very bad manners, has n't he ? 
 If he gets impossible I '11 have to dip him in the bay 
 when the ice breaks." 
 
 " Oh," she said nervously, " he means no offense to 
 you. It 's just that he admires Jasmina, and she 's able 
 to take care of herself." 
 
 " Yes " (with a sort of careless friendliness she won 
 dered at) ; " but she 's been so good to all of us that 
 we must n't let him persecute her; that is, if she 
 does n't like him." She looked at him thoughtfully 
 once or twice going down the hill. " What should we 
 have done without you both," he returned, "all the 
 dark winter? It was a good plan of Dr. Hitler's to 
 bring you with us." 
 
 " He did not specially design to bring Jasmina." 
 
 " No ; that, I suppose, was a freak of that wayward 
 child of the sun. It is certainly a far cry from Hun 
 gary to the north pole by way of New York. But 
 perhaps she counts it but an incident in an adventur 
 ous career by which," he added gravely, "I mean 
 nothing disloyal to our little queen, abdicating for a 
 while to serve and cheer a band of arctic travelers." 
 
 " It is like a brilliant comet," said the practical New 
 England woman, surprised into a thought of poetry, 
 " flashing in our midst and as suddenly disappearing." 
 
 " Ah, that must not happen with our helpful little 
 comrade. We could ill spare Jasmina ! " He spoke 
 warmly, but there was a lack of something which made 
 her sigh to herself. He did not notice, being intent 
 on the sky tints. The air was soft and balmy, though 
 the sun was gone almost as soon as it appeared this
 
 THE METROPOLITANS 243 
 
 first time. As they went down toward the valley's 
 twilight soon another aurora illumined the landscape. 
 They all stood near the entrance to the great snow 
 mound covering the house watching it awhile. It was 
 in slender lances of white light, tipped with yellow ; at 
 the side a pillar of rose red stood, changing after into 
 orange. " Those golden spears," commented Dr. Ritler, 
 " might be arms of the celestial hosts standing in battle 
 array." 
 
 " It is bright enough to cast a shadow," said his wife, 
 more practically. "They call that polychromatic 
 foundation of restless, quivering curves, from which 
 the auroral streamers all proceed, the merry dancers." 
 
 " Oh, do they I " cried Jasmina. " That is a challenge 
 I will not refuse." She detached herself a little from 
 the group, and, even in moccasins and outdoor furs, 
 commenced some fantastic evolutions, in which her 
 shadow went bending and gliding with her over the 
 trodden snow, to her own whistling of some wild Gipsy 
 strain. It was oddly attractive, and they all watched 
 her pleased and laughing. " The gambols of a little 
 brown bear," cried Dr. Ritler. 
 
 " Come in now, Ursa Minor," said his wife, " and 
 help me with the supper." 
 
 The girl was flushed and radiant as she emerged 
 from her sealskin Jcooletah. She chatted merry non 
 sense while moving about the table, and teased the 
 Norwegian, letting him, to his delight, wait on her, 
 which he did very awkwardly. Later, her mood chang 
 ing, she took up the guitar, and began to sing : 
 
 " Once, when I was poor, 
 Love knocked at my door."
 
 244 THE METEOPOLITANS 
 
 Rexford started and turned quite pale. "Do not 
 sing that, Jasmina ; I do not like it any more. I did 
 not know any one had the music." 
 
 " I play it from ear. I heard you sing it once. But 
 I will not if you do not like." 
 
 " By God," muttered the Norwegian, into his beard, 
 " that 's too much ! Is Mr. Rexford," he asked, " com 
 poser, manager, and censor in one? That was too 
 pretty to stop short." 
 
 " It is pretty," she said hastily and sweetly, " but I 
 do not know it very well ; I will sing something else." 
 She smiled on him in bewildering fashion. She had 
 never talked to him so much before as on this evening. 
 
 The sun now paid them longer visits daily, and the 
 men were much absent at the ice-hills and looking for 
 stray deer or ptarmigan, while Jens spent his time 
 watching patiently for hours beside the seal-holes. He 
 stayed with the women when, after long preparation, 
 the men, full of excitement and anticipation, set off on 
 their long sledge trip. 
 
 "We will keep busy until they return," said Mrs. 
 Ritler, " and the time will not be so long ; and then 
 the ship, and home home again ! " 
 
 " It will seem long, long until they come back," said 
 Jasmina; "but for home in the hard, noisy world- 
 well, there is one there I should like to see. You will 
 not mind, perhaps, the long shutting in. You will have 
 lived much in towns. You have never slept under a 
 tree with the stars over you. They would gather the 
 children, when I was little, where they were rolling in 
 the ashes of the camp-fire, and take them under shelter. 
 But I I would hide. I liked it better outside. We
 
 THE METROPOLITANS 245 
 
 did not have much to eat sometimes, but it was free, 
 and we went and we came. See now, dear madame," 
 she said another time, when they sat in the firelight : 
 " I must tell your fortune. You know it is a Romany 
 gift. You cross my palm with a bit of gold and here, 
 let me see. Dr. Ritler comes back safe, successful. You 
 will both go South again and prosper, and live long 
 and happy." 
 
 Mrs. Ritler had a feeling that she ought to protest 
 against this heathenish practice and preach a little, 
 instead of which she merely said, "And your own, 
 Mina?" 
 
 "Not by the hand I cannot; but by the cards." 
 She went for the boys' well-thumbed pack, and shuffled, 
 and knit her fine black brows, and pondered, and 
 shuffled again ; then, of a sudden, threw the pack on 
 the table. " There 's nothing to be seen but snow and 
 snow and snow," she cried petulantly, "and that has 
 no sense ! But what will happen will happen, and now 
 I will sing ! You like < The House of Clay ' ? " 
 
 So well she beguiled Mrs. Ritler's solitude that time 
 passed swiftly enough to have the sledge party's 
 return almost surprise her. The leader was enthu 
 siastic over their prosperous journey and splendid 
 success in scientific discovery and exploration. But 
 when they were alone together, she asked quietly, 
 " What was the trouble ? " 
 
 " Oh, that stupid Andersen was perverse and wear 
 ing. Only for Rexford's cool self-command I should 
 have had much annoyance. I thanked him and begged 
 him not to notice the fellow's ill nature, as it would 
 soon be over now. He may be a little ' off/ you know. 
 
 16*
 
 246 THE METROPOLITANS 
 
 The long polar winter is said to affect the brain in 
 certain cases. He is indispensable as surgeon, too, 
 confound it! Well, we have seen no deer to bring 
 back, and I am sorry you had to use seal meat, but you 
 have both kept up on the other things. What are you 
 looking at, Jasmina ? " 
 
 She was in the doorway, both hands shading her 
 eyes, looking upward. " What birds are those ? " she 
 said. 
 
 " Those black ones ? Oh, ravens." 
 
 " Ah, I do not like them. I am glad they are going." 
 
 " Come " (laughing good-naturedly), " you must not 
 be superstitious or morbid. You are thinner since 
 we have been away. We must take you boating and 
 amuse you now." 
 
 "I will like that," she said, with her pretty smile. 
 And very soon she was her bright self once more, and 
 the life of their little excursion, laughing and clapping 
 her hands with childish delight to see the banks yel 
 low with poppies and gay with anemones, the water 
 flowing free again, the ice-foot nearly gone, and the 
 beautiful green fields sprinkled with myriad blossoms. 
 On one of these occasions she had gone out with the 
 younger men in the boat and rocked idly in the cove 
 while waiting their return from where they had gone 
 inland with their guns in hope of game. Playing with 
 the tips of her fingers in the still freezing water, and 
 dreaming happily, she hardly noticed when a storm- 
 blast swept down the bay and a few large drops of 
 rain fell. Rexford came hurrying, followed by the 
 others. 
 
 " The sooner we get you back the better," he said,
 
 THE METEOPOLITANS 247 
 
 looking upward at the lowering clouds. They were 
 stowed in the boat again in inarvelously quick time 
 and heading for home. But once out from the shel 
 tering cove the gale came full upon them, with sheets 
 of rain and dashing and roaring of waves. The wind 
 was in their favor, and they sped on through the tur 
 moil, with great dislodged bergs rushing out of the 
 bay and tottering and striking against one another in 
 perilous proximity to them. Clouds overhead cast a 
 threatening gloom, in which the huge glaciers reared 
 themselves spectral and awesome, while the blast and 
 the overtopping waves came swooping down upon the 
 little party in the boat as though to snatch a prey. 
 There was hardly a word spoken, but, with faces grim 
 and teeth set, the men worked their sometimes slow and 
 toilsome and sometimes flying way ; but when at last 
 the keel grated on the longed-for beach Rexf ord picked 
 up the silent Jasmina in his arms and held her for a 
 moment before setting her down. 
 
 " I thank Heaven for your sake," said he. 
 
 "Thank you," she replied, with a breathless little 
 laugh, closing her arms about his neck, and the next 
 moment was fighting her way through the wind toward 
 the house. The Norwegian stepped out after her, and 
 no one could tell exactly how it happened, but sud 
 denly his gun went off and a bullet pierced Rexf ord's 
 fur hood close to his head. 
 
 "It caught in my sleeve," Andersen said hastily. 
 "I did not know it was cocked." 
 
 Rexford looked him straight in the face. " If you 
 handle a gun so carelessly you should not be trusted 
 with one," said he, turning on his heel.
 
 248 THE METROPOLITANS 
 
 Now, day after day, some one mounted the hill 
 overlooking the bay that they might have the first 
 sight of the relief vessel steaming in. But the mouth 
 wore away without its appearance, and Dr. Ritler would 
 always say, " To-morrow, very likely." At last he said 
 to his wife, " Rexford and I have talked it over, and 
 we agree that the boat may have been delayed, or per 
 haps cannot reach us through the thick ice which still 
 prevails, we have seen, below us in the sound. It is 
 a late spring, after all. If we go to meet them through 
 the open water up here, it saves time. And and you 
 know our provisions were for only one winter. We 
 can reach, in any case, one or two caches while wait 
 ing ; and there seems to be no game about here now." 
 
 " There is a good deal of seal meat still, and a few 
 auks and guillemots." 
 
 He shook his head. "Not enough for another 
 winter. Another winter, too, with the Norwegian 
 shut up in the same house with Rexford ! Do you 
 think that was an accident with his gun?" 
 
 " Jasmina and I need not keep you back," she said 
 then firmly. " We are accustomed now to life here and 
 can stand a tramp." 
 
 All began energetically to pack the small amount 
 allowed in the boats. They would not admit, even to 
 themselves, that it could be anything but a slight delay 
 of the steamer. It was but a short time before the 
 boats were well down the bay, coasting where they 
 could, and with propitious weather making good dis 
 tance at first. Then it snowed steadily, and the ice in 
 the passage thickened, and it was harder and harder 
 to get through, and in one place Dr. Ritler stopped in
 
 THE METROPOLITANS 249 
 
 dismay, for here towered in their way tremendous floe- 
 bergs, with no outlet around them. " This one is split ! " 
 called Rexford, excitedly, standing up in the boat. " I 
 believe we may go through ! " And they made the 
 wonderful passage through a split berg, the lane of 
 water being but twelve feet wide, though one hun 
 dred feet long, with perpendicular ice- wall fifty feet 
 high on each side. Beyond this again the ice-foot, 
 loosening, presented the constant danger of grinding 
 their boats. But just as they first began to look 
 doubtfully at one another matters mended. They 
 found the ice melted in a fairly safe though narrow strip 
 along the western shore, and Dr. Ritler decided to haul 
 the boats up on it, and with the rubber tent-cloths form 
 a temporary resting-place. 
 
 "They will easily find us here," he told Rexford, 
 hopefully, "and the women are much exhausted. I 
 must appeal to them for everything. That is a woman's 
 panacea to find others dependent on her for cheering." 
 
 Indeed, it was wonderful how Mrs. Ritler and the 
 fragile-looking Jasmina alike ministered to the others. 
 Jens went out in his kayak to look for walrus; for 
 their fare was scant, and the young photographer con 
 fided to him that it was " a queer feeling to be always 
 hungry." The younger hunters both came back badly 
 frost-bitten and were laid up. In two or three days 
 the professor said to Rexford, abruptly, " There ought 
 to be a cache in the direction I have marked on this 
 map, and it would be a most helpful addition to the 
 little we have left. Could you go with Andersen ? The 
 youngsters are helpless just now, and, though they need 
 the doctor, I do not like to leave him in charge of the
 
 250 THE METROPOLITANS 
 
 women ; he has been acting so strangely, Jasmiua tells 
 me, and frightened her once or twice. Two must go. 
 You would be armed, of course, and, I think, able to 
 take care of him." 
 
 " Certainly," said Rexford, indifferently ; " he would 
 be necessary with the sledge." 
 
 The surgeon said nothing on receiving his orders, 
 and looked no more morose than usual. They started 
 early in the morning, Jasmina coming from the tents 
 where the boys lay to watch them out of sight. "I 
 saw that distressful raven again this morning," she 
 told Dr. Bitter. Why does he follow us ? " 
 
 " We may have to eat him," said Mrs. Ritler, trying 
 to make a jest of their wretched plight. 
 
 " I wish he would go away," repeated Jasmina. 
 
 It was understood that the two absent would be 
 back next day, and she languidly and abstractedly 
 discharged her duties. The second day passed, how 
 ever, without their return, and she could fix her mind 
 on nothing else. 
 
 When Rexford started on his journey he was agree 
 ably surprised to find his companion, though silent, 
 not obstructive in any way ; on the contrary, he made 
 a suggestion now and then helpful enough and to the 
 point. After some searching they found the cache 
 about where Dr. Ritler had supposed it to be, but the 
 supplies were spoiled. His companion shrugged his 
 shoulders and said, his first evidenceof strangeness, 
 " It makes no difference." After the night in sleeping- 
 bags they started on the return journey ; and Rexford, 
 climbing a small ice-hill the better to survey the shore 
 on that side, slipped and fell, and rose again and
 
 THE METEOPOLITANS 251 
 
 walked on immediately, but presently felt his ankle 
 swollen and painful. After some further steps he was 
 unable to stand on it at all, and sank down on the 
 sledge he was helping to draw. 
 
 "This is a bad business, Dr. Andersen," he said. 
 " Perhaps you are strong enough to haul the load with 
 me added. If not, go on to the tents and bring help 
 back." 
 
 " No," said the Norwegian, very quietly ; but some 
 thing in his tone drew Rexford's attention, and he 
 looked up at him and saw the gleam in his eyes which 
 had frightened Jasmina. " It is not worth while," he 
 continued. " I did not intend you to go back. One 
 way will do just as well as another, and it will save 
 me trouble now to leave you here. There is a heavy 
 snow coming, and I will say you fell from the cliff ; 
 and when they come to look the snow will have hid 
 den you safely away." 
 
 Rexford's hand went to his belt, but the other was 
 too quick for him. He snatched the revolver from his 
 grasp and sent it whirling through the snow. 
 
 " It is not worth while," he said again, " or I would 
 shoot you. It is a pity I cannot stay for the end of 
 the fine gentleman that held his head so high and 
 laughed and mocked, and cared nothing at all for the 
 pretty creature's love that better men than he would 
 have died to gain ; but the snow is coming and I will 
 not waste time ; for I am going back to her, and very 
 soon she will forget you, and I shall have my chance." 
 
 Rexford watched him going off with uneven, wan 
 dering steps, still talking to himself and waving his 
 arms. This seemed to be the end, here in the ice des-
 
 252 THE METROPOLITANS 
 
 ert with snow now falling, and alone. He tried again 
 to stand, but found it impossible ; so, making himself 
 as comfortable as possible, just waited. He had heard 
 that one slept from cold and died so, but surely not 
 with an ankle aching this way. Meanwhile the snow 
 fell more and more thickly in a blinding white sheet. 
 At the end of two or three hours the fatigue and pri 
 vation of the journey began to tell on him in an in 
 creasing drowsiness. " This will not do," he thought, 
 and commenced to recite any song or poem he could 
 remember, clapping his mittened hands together ; then, 
 as the words mixed and tripped one another upon his 
 heavy tongue, he suddenly began to shout. Was it 
 only a continuation of confused fancies, or did a dis 
 tant voice faintly answer him ? He called again and 
 again. Had his enemy relented and come back ? No ; 
 for, now that the response was nearer, the Eskimo's 
 tones were unmistakable. 
 
 Presently through the encompassing snow came 
 Jens drawing a sledge, from which a little figure rose 
 and drew near, bending over him. Jasmina, who, 
 unknown to the others, had come in search of him, 
 asked no questions, seeing that from exhaustion he 
 was nearly unconscious; she quickly gave him some 
 brandy. " We must get him on the sledge, Jens." The 
 Eskimo grinned vacantly, his one mode of expressing 
 emotion. It was, perhaps, in some of the wild and 
 whirling fancies that had beset him that Bexford felt 
 her, in stooping to help, press a kiss on his forehead. 
 Her little mittened hands tucked the fur covering more 
 securely about him, and then he remembered no more.
 
 THE METROPOLITANS 253 
 
 " I am going to help you draw/' she told the Eskimo. 
 " It is not far, and every moment is precious until we 
 get him there." 
 
 By this time the snow was thick to density, but 
 they had a sort of glimmer of light from the midnight 
 sun beyond, and Jens could find a way over trackless 
 wastes. From utter fatigue she would stop drawing 
 sometimes and walk panting beside the sledge ; and 
 then, thinking time lost, take her place again with 
 Jens, desperately striving to hurry him. It was about 
 two in the morning when they reached the tents, where 
 Dr. Kitler was anxiously looking for them. 
 
 " He is not dead, and I have brought him back," she 
 said proudly, with white lips. 
 
 " Oh, my dear child, go to Mrs. Ritler at once." And 
 while his wife gave the girl some hot drink and made 
 her lie down, he, with Jens's help, tended Rexf ord. The 
 latter came to himself in a little while enough to give 
 information. 
 
 "Well," said the professor, "he had better not 
 come back ; and it is not likely that he will through 
 this storm and his wits in disorder. He will have 
 wandered off among the snow-drifts and never be 
 heard of again. Unfortunate wretch ! But keep still 
 now and do not talk." Outside he said to himself, " So 
 our physician is gone when most needed. Well, it 
 matters little ; for it is only a question of time with 
 us all, I think." His own knowledge of the simpler 
 remedies helped Rexford's vigorous constitution to 
 throw off in a few days the effects of the exposure ; 
 and the hurt to his ankle, proving to be but a severe 
 strain, was yielding to treatment. The youngsters
 
 254 THE METROPOLITANS 
 
 too, recovered from their injuries, were about again, 
 helping weakly. 
 
 " By heavens ! " said the photographer to Rexford, 
 " that was a fine thing for that girl to do." 
 
 When Mrs. Ritler next came from her tent on a visit 
 to the convalescent he asked, " How is it Jasmina has 
 never been in to see me ? " 
 
 " It was a trying experience for her," said Mrs. Ritler, 
 evasively, " and I am making her keep quite still." 
 
 Rexford made no reply, but a few days later said to 
 the professor, "I have been sitting up to-day, Dr. 
 Ritler, and can now walk a few steps with a stick. My 
 strength has pretty well returned. If Jasmina is ill, 
 why do you not tell me ? " 
 
 "Well then, ill she is very ill, we fear. I have 
 done what I knew, but but it may be pneumonia; 
 and here we are without a doctor, thanks to that ani 
 mal's madness ! " 
 
 Rexford was silent for a minute ; then said abruptly, 
 "Why should the rest of us touch the little tea and 
 pemmican left ? We are well enough to do with seal 
 meat. She will need the other things for nourishment." 
 
 "Yes," said the professor, huskily; "but the ship 
 must be here soon." 
 
 The younger men still went out every day with their 
 guns, though no game had been seen. Rexford the 
 morning after this limped out on his stick with them. 
 The photographer made a hasty gesture outside to 
 keep him back. "You 'd better not try the ankle." 
 But Rexford went past him, listening to a weak strain 
 of melody which smote on his heart and which all 
 heard from the women's tent. It was Jasmin a's voice,
 
 THE METROPOLITANS 255 
 
 though changed by illness. She sang that verse of 
 " The House of Clay " which before she would not-: 
 
 " Most like the next that passes by 
 Will be the angel whose calm eye 
 
 Marks rich, marks poor ; 
 Who, pausing not at any gate, 
 
 Stands and calls, stands and calls 
 
 Why does he call ? " she broke off petulantly. " I would 
 not wish to receive him. I do not know any angels." 
 She resumed presently : 
 
 " Whom, ere the crumbling clay house falls, 
 He takes in kind arms, silently, 
 And shuts the door. 
 
 Ah, I like that. That is pleasant and warm." Another 
 moment's pause, and she commenced talking rapidly 
 and excitedly in an unknown tongue. The 3 r oung 
 photographer's face was working. " Come on," he said 
 gruffly to the astronomer. " We shall not shoot much 
 standing here." Rexford remained where they left 
 him in the dazzling sunlight. The creaking and groan 
 ing of broken ice in the bay went on, and the yellow 
 glare of the endless snow seemed mocking him. Mrs. 
 Ritler came outside her tent for a moment. She had 
 been weeping. He beckoned to her and she came. 
 
 11 1 wish," he said, " that I might have thanked her 
 while she knew." 
 
 " She may be conscious soon," said Mrs. Ritler, with 
 a sob, " but my husband thinks the end is near. I will 
 call you if if she knows any one again." 
 
 She hurried back. Jens was out in his kayak ; the
 
 256 THE METROPOLITANS 
 
 hunters were still away. Rexf ord sat in and out of his 
 tent for several hours, scarcely thinking. Then Dr. 
 Ritler called him: 
 
 " She will know you now." 
 
 So sudden and acute had been this attack that she 
 was hardly wasted. When he approached her low 
 couch of skins there was a gleam of pleasure in her 
 eyes again. He clasped her hand in both of his, but 
 she whispered first, brokenly, " How glad I am and 
 proud that I went for you ! Now you know why I 
 came up here in the snow." 
 
 " Jasmina dear, I was not worth the price of your 
 warm, bright life ! " 
 
 "I think so; but I am so tired." She lay awhile 
 silent, her hand in his, Dr. and Mrs. Ritler coming and 
 going quietly. Then the long dark lashes lifted once 
 more from the olive cheek, and the great, soft, dark 
 eyes looked longingly into his. "You might," she 
 breathed, "kiss me good night." He bent over her, 
 and presently Jasmina went to sleep for the last time.
 
 XX 
 
 |HEY laid her reverently under the snow 
 at the foot of the nearest cliff; and it 
 seemed as though in the little white 
 mound were put away what light and 
 warmth had kept up their courage until 
 now. Their small stock of provisions grew more and 
 more scanty; their hollow cheeks showed the ever- 
 present craving which distressed them. The men res 
 olutely set aside certain articles from their miserable 
 supply for Mrs. Ritler, and even now she would resort 
 to touching stratagem to share these portions with her 
 husband and the others. They were too weak to think 
 of moving farther southward, even if the boats had 
 not been gradually broken up for firewood. And an 
 other misfortune came to them when poor, devoted 
 Jens, venturing too far among the broken ice after 
 walrus, was capsized and seen no more. The little 
 party of five kept up but a hollow pretense of bravery 
 now, as time went on without succor ; and the glass fall 
 ing and the snow drifting into the tents showed them 
 the flight of summer ; and the cold, which hunger made 
 them feel more keenly, increased. 
 
 One night they had all been unable to sleep for the 
 storm, which threatened to snatch their wretched 
 " 257
 
 258 THE METROPOLITANS 
 
 shelter from overhead, and the spray from the inlet 
 and even waves rolled in, wetting and freezing. With 
 the morning came calm and the possibility of a little 
 heat to warm their few mouthfuls. " I am quite sure," 
 said Dr. Ritler to Rexford, " we are abandoned for this 
 year which means forever." 
 
 " I still think," said Rexford, calmly, " that they will 
 come perhaps because I do not care much, except for 
 you and the others." He took his gun, from force of 
 habit, and dragged himself up the hill overlooking the 
 bay before turning in for needful rest. His eyes, like 
 those of his companions, had been somewhat affected 
 by the snow-glare, and he did not wholly trust them ; 
 but surely it was smoke that he saw rising faintly from 
 the open water far below the smoke of a vessel; and 
 surely that was her whistle now. He shouted with all 
 the strength left him ; he raised his gun above his head 
 and waved it. They saw him, dark against the ice- 
 cliffs, heard him, and shouted and whistled again in 
 return. He went back to the tents and met Dr. Ritler 
 coming out. 
 
 " They have come for us," he told him. " Your wife 
 is saved." She heard him from inside, and, overcome 
 after long suspense, became unconscious. 
 
 "It does not matter," said the professor, brokenly, 
 tending her. " Joy will not kill." 
 
 There was soon the rush of sympathizing, minister 
 ing officers from the boat. But Rexford had eyes for 
 only one ; a tall, thin figure, a light-haired man with 
 eye-glasses, who came swiftly over the crackling snow 
 and seized his hands and looked into his eyes and 
 threw his arms around him.
 
 THE METROPOLITANS 259 
 
 " Penrose ! " cried Rexford, stupefied. 
 
 " Lad, lad ! " said his comrade of the past, " I began 
 to fear we should not find you ! " Then he looked to 
 ward the only female figure, about whom the little 
 crowd clustered. "Jasmins?" 
 
 The little snow mound, with flag as headstone, was 
 in bright yellow light. Rexford drew him apart and 
 motioned to it. 
 
 " Ah ! " He shrank as from a blow ; then walked 
 slowly to the mound and looked down on it for a few 
 moments. 
 
 " Mrs. Ritler will tell you," muttered Rexford ; " I 
 cannot." 
 
 The tender, enlightened care they received, the quiet 
 and assured safety which was their portion as passen 
 gers on the sturdy vessel forcing its way toward home 
 through the stubborn ice, soon restored calmness and 
 strength to those who, happily, had not reached the 
 lowest ebb. As a time and place of preparation before 
 too sudden a transition to the different world this 
 voyage was invaluable. Beyond an unusual spareness 
 of form and a slight limp, Rexford had recovered some 
 of his old-time appearance before they steamed into St. 
 John's again. " The captain tells me," he said to Pen- 
 rose, " that he shall stay in harbor a few days ; but if 
 we prefer to hurry we may return by the steamer we 
 shall meet as we go in." 
 
 " And which will you choose ? " 
 
 " Whichever you do, of course. Penrose, the officers 
 have just told me what I might have known. Instead 
 of merely accompanying this relief party it is practi 
 cally yours, instituted and carried out through your
 
 260 THE METROPOLITANS 
 
 idea and energy, when otherwise there was not a chance 
 for us. And you think, after that, that we could go 
 back in any way but together ! " 
 
 It was the older man that might now have been mis 
 taken for the rescued instead of the rescuer, a certain 
 melancholy gravity having settled upon him, and an 
 inscrutable expression which would have puzzled Rex- 
 ford but that he was watching the outgoing steamer's 
 approach. He presently went forward, leaving Pen- 
 rose ; for, as the others of the exploring party left by 
 this boat, there was much to be said, after all they had 
 undergone together, to the Ritlers and the young men 
 promises of continued interest, pledges of future 
 meetings ; and all knew too well the uncertainty of Me 
 and human affairs to count very much on what they 
 said. 
 
 He was still calling and waving to them when a 
 bundle of mail was tossed from the deck of their vessel. 
 He did not observe, as he gazed after the receding f onns 
 of his friends, that the captain, passing him, handed a 
 letter to Penrose. It was to the latter an unknown 
 hand, and opening it he looked, as one does, at the 
 signature first, which was "Frances, Lady Mellon." 
 She wrote to him : " You will see, dear Mr. Penrose, 
 that this is dated from St. John's, where for many 
 weary weeks we have been waiting for some sign of 
 you. And that you should come in at last, having 
 fulfilled your noble promise and been his savior! I 
 must wait to see you before I can tell you what thanks 
 are in my heart. I have with me my son's betrothed, 
 Miss de Mansur, but, as we have no particulars of his 
 rescue beyond his being alive, we will not venture
 
 THE METROPOLITANS 261 
 
 among the welcoming crowd that will meet you at the 
 wharf, fearing that it might agitate him if much en 
 feebled. We have strained our eyes many hours 
 watching for the steamer, and now wait your coming 
 in our rooms at the Queen's Hotel. You will tell him, 
 please, and believe me, your most grateful," etc. 
 
 There was a postscript at the foot of this : " May God 
 reward you, Mr. Penrose," signed "K. DE M." He 
 smiled drearily, looking out over the water. " Perhaps 
 He has in taking from me the one creature on whom 
 I had a rightful claim." He detached the postscript 
 from the rest of the writing and placed it carefully in 
 his note-book, and tore up and threw away the rest. 
 
 The receding steamer was far out on the bay now, 
 and the town was assuming shape and outlines. They 
 had the after part of the deck to themselves, the others 
 crowding forward. There was to be some delay in 
 getting in ; they did not inquire into the cause. 
 
 " Do you know, Penrose, I am more than loath to 
 return to civilization ? What can it give me ? I was 
 so tired of it when I went north ! " 
 
 "Will you break loose again, then" (mockingly), 
 " and come with me ? " 
 
 "Where? when?" 
 
 " If any man turns ass, 
 Leaving his wealth and ease 
 A stubborn will to please, 
 
 There shall he see 
 
 Gross fools as he 
 
 I beg your pardon, my dear fellow" (relapsing into 
 his habitual gravity) ; " I was convinced that you left 
 
 17*
 
 262 THE METROPOLITANS 
 
 behind you the last time most that makes life worth 
 living." 
 
 Rexford looked at him, questioning. 
 
 " It is in the snow," said Penrose, calmly, " that / 
 have left my nearest." His companion continued to 
 look at him. Penrose laid his hand on the rail, gazing 
 at the softly lapping waves. " Jasmina was my sister, 
 you know ; or perhaps I never told you." 
 
 "No." 
 
 " Well, yes. The same father. And when he went 
 off and left her Gipsy mother and me too quite 
 friendless, that kind creature saved me from much ill 
 treatment when she might have hated me, too; for 
 I was said to look like him. Well, the least I could 
 do was to befriend the little daughter when the mother 
 died ; and afterward, when I came back and found her 
 still a child married to a brute of her tribe, I would n't 
 leave her, but stood between her and his violence as 
 much as I could. The end came abruptly one day. 
 She was really too soft and slight a thing for him to 
 be so cruel ; I killed him when he drew a knife." There 
 was a pause for a moment or two. " After that it was 
 better to go and take her away from all of them. I 
 had her taught, and with her beauty and gifts success 
 was an easy matter. I was very fond of her." 
 
 " If my lif e could have saved hers ! " said Rexford, 
 very low. 
 
 " She was the only being I cared for until I met 
 you, lad. To lose both but I will not have you ; you 
 shall not come with me. There is your mother, you 
 know." 
 
 " Yes " (dryly) ; " she is a long way off."
 
 THE METEOPOLITANS 263 
 
 " Not so far as you think. She crossed to New York 
 to seek for news of you." 
 
 " Ah " (softening a little), " you did not tell me." 
 
 "No. I am giving you home news as they gave you 
 food at first little by little, not to shock the system. 
 What should you say if she were waiting for you in 
 the town here eagerly waiting ? " 
 
 Rexford flushed. There would, after all, be some 
 one of his own to welcome him back to life ! His mood 
 became daring. " Tell me," he cried, going close to 
 Penrose, "of other friends too." 
 
 " Of Miss de Mansur, do you mean ? I saw her be 
 fore leaving. She bade me tell you she was waiting 
 for you." 
 
 Rexford turned his back to walk the length of the 
 deck. He returned with crest upreared almost as of 
 old. 
 
 "Are you quite, quite sure?" 
 
 "As sure as that your world begins afresh. I am 
 fairly sure of one thing more that she waits for you 
 in the town here with your mother." 
 
 Again Rexford turned his back. The ship was near- 
 ing shore rapidly now. It seemed to the captain and 
 others that Mr. Rexford might restrain his impatience a 
 little better. His mother was in St. John's ? oh ! that 
 was different. How wonderfully well that young fellow 
 looked after all he 'd been through ! Arctic privation 
 must have made him handsomer. Surprising that 
 people should leave comforts and luxuries to get into 
 danger and hardship. Now when one did it for a liv 
 ing, as he himself did, but this young man was very 
 rich, he heard, and a famous composer. The bluff,
 
 264 THE METROPOLITANS 
 
 voluble man did not notice that Mr. Penrose's face was 
 quite gray and that he appeared not to hear what was 
 said to him. 
 
 At last the steamer was in, and the crowd's attention, 
 rightfully belonging to the whole arctic party, was 
 concentrated on its sole representative. "You will 
 not," he cried to Penrose, "let me run this gantlet 
 alone on the wharf ; you '11 come with me. No ? Then 
 to dinner, of course ; my mother will certainly expect 
 you." 
 
 " Not to-night," said Penrose. Something in his tone 
 struck Rexf ord, who turned and looked at him. Pen- 
 rose put his arm once more around his friend's shoul 
 der. " Good-by, my dear lad. I have cared for you 
 too; good-by." 
 
 "Until to-morrow, then," called Rexf ord, running 
 down the gang-plank. He bowed and smiled plea 
 santly right and left to the cheering crowd, but was 
 glad to take refuge from the shouts in a cab, which 
 presently brought him to his hotel. And his heart beat 
 high as he sprang up the staircase to meet again the 
 mother against whom he felt he had cherished some 
 bitterness. Her sitting-room door was already opened 
 expectantly. She drew him within, closing it, and fell 
 upon his shoulder. " My dear, dear mother ! " he cried, 
 his heart melting at once at her aspect and mourning 
 robes. 
 
 " My only son ! " she said, with sobs. " If a mother 
 might acknowledge injustice might ask pardon" 
 
 " No, no," he interrupted. 
 
 "Then if suspense can atone I have suffered so 
 much. But I have a gift of great value of priceless
 
 THE METROPOLITANS 265 
 
 worth to make restitution with. It will repay for all." 
 Even now he winced at this. Could she speak of 
 atoning materially for the hurt inflicted ? " Let me 
 kiss you and bless you, my own son, before making 
 this gift." Indeed, she was all mother now, and it was 
 with a pang of renunciation indescribable that, after 
 embracing him, she withdrew herself. She opened a 
 door and went in. " Katheriue ! " she called. In a 
 moment she came back, leading the girl with her. 
 " See, now," she said, " this is full reparation," and left 
 him. Katherine advanced toward him, while he stood 
 motionless, transfixed. Tall of figure, robed in some 
 thing soft and white, her eyes shining, she stood a few 
 paces away. Even so had he often dreamed in arctic 
 snows. But this was no vision. 
 
 " Welcome back, my own," said her soft voice, " to 
 life and me ! " Then he held her clasped in his arms, 
 and their lips met. " Oh ! " she cried 5 " no more j you 
 almost frighten me." 
 
 "You must not rebuke me," he answered masterfully. 
 " I have waited long, fasting." And he lifted her quite 
 up in his arms and kissed her hair and cheek again. 
 " My dear, brave, beautiful darling ! My dainty 
 sweet ! To have come away up here to meet me ! It 
 repays for all even for your letting me go." There 
 was some confused remembrance on this of rumors, 
 of a strange visit, of a letter delayed ; but there was a 
 golden future stretching ahead in which would be 
 ample time for explanations. All that was needed now 
 was to know that her dear and only love stood again 
 at her side. 
 
 " Indeed, I knew you had forgotten me," smiled his
 
 266 THE METROPOLITANS 
 
 mother when he brought Katherine to her. She had 
 carefully removed all traces of the bitter tears which 
 came at the thought, "I have lost this one too," and 
 she could smile as she said, " She has been my daugh 
 ter already all these weeks. She is a birthday present 
 to you, my Allan ; it is your anniversary." 
 
 " Much has happened," said he, when she left them 
 again, " since my majority at twenty -five, two years 
 ago. But now I enter into my kingdom ! " He turned 
 and clasped once more his fondly yielding, gracious 
 sweetheart. 
 
 It was to him that a note came next day. 
 
 " You will receive this," it said, " when I am far away 
 from you; for I have hired a boat to overtake the 
 steamer already started. No one wishes you both 
 more happiness than I, but you will not see me again. 
 The few years spent in New York have satisfied me. 
 The price was too heavy. I cannot tell where I may 
 pitch my tent next, being naturally a rover. You may 
 know by this time that you need not have been parted 
 so long but for me. Ah well ! as I brought you back, 
 perhaps your beautiful friend may forget that. It 
 was poor little Jasmina whose stakes were too high ; 
 but life hardly treated her quite fairly, poor child 
 Tell Miss de Mansur I have a talisman which will keep 
 me safe for a while. Beyond that I cannot say, but 
 one road or another is much the same. Perhaps, if I 
 chance upon Jasmina's people, they may remember to 
 exact vendetta. It is all one. But I have cared for 
 you, believe me. 
 
 "STEPHEN PENROSE."
 
 THE METROPOLITANS 267 
 
 Rexford crumpled this in his hand. " I think I had 
 counted on him assuredly in my life," he said slowly ; 
 then went to the window and looked abstractedly far 
 over the waters of the bay. He saw in thought, a lit 
 tle white mound at the foot of a distant snow-cliff in 
 the remote northern waste ; and it was pure fancy that 
 from the twisted note a scent of sandalwood breathed 
 in his face. 
 
 " I wonder what talisman he carries," Katherine said 
 softly. But her lover did not answer ; so she went and 
 laid her head on his shoulder.
 
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